Lucky Find

This is approximately number 550 out of 800 drawings that I hope to finish by the end of next month. I try not to pay too close attention to the names of the people on the cards, since portraiture is not the point here, but every now and then I can't help but wonder who these people are. I'm finding some of the addresses, though a quarter of a century old, might be accurate, so I've decided I'd better do some label photoshopping before putting them on this blog. As always, clicking on the image gets you a better view of what's what. These images are always read from left to right, a symbolic story of a life well lived.

The Wisdom of Youthful Hope

"Facing It" is approximately 4"x4" and reminds me of the little girl behind so many women that I know these days. It is so curious that strength of character develops so early in life and for the wisest, can support one through a lifetime of hardship. I am so grateful to have known well a few women with this strength. They have taught me, through example, how to shine the flashlight on my own inner strength... and thusly is created this drawing.

(Sold)

The Walnut

"Treasure Within"

Art making is a very selfish act explored while living in a world full of criticism, and the best art comes from minds that are open and aware.

Think of the art maker as being a walnut, a rich and active little brain with a hard but porous shell surrounding for protection. Imbedded within that shell are thousands of tiny little telescoping cell windows looking out into the world... the little brain inside switching from one viewing hole to another in search of wisdom. Meanwhile, overhead hangs a hammer, threatening to tap, tap... or to smash down at any moment. Does the walnut ignore the hammer? It's clearly seen. Or does the walnut adjust it's shell so that if the hammer does happen to come down too hard, the little brain inside will remain whole and intact as the shell cracks into a perfect half, not crushed to pieces at all.

Quick Fixes and Escape Hatches

I've been experimenting with escape hatches. Here's a mini version. This is a 3"x5" card. Why is it that even in my escape scenes there's some powerful danger lurking? Or is that just a beautiful wave and I'm safe on this side of a lake? So many ways to look at it all.

(Darn it all, where'd I put the hammer?) "Quick Fix Prepares for a Rescue" seems appropriate for the times right now, but tsk, tsk, I really mustn't put off solid repairs until tomorrow....

Open Studio at the art complex is this weekend... Two days away. I am not prepared but the art has been flowing so there will be many papers floating about, distracting some viewers, confusing others, and disturbing a few.

Symbols that Lead the Way

It is always my intention to learn from my art experience. A direct hit occurred yesterday. I'd finished up these drawings from "10,000 Lives" earlier in the day. That evening my husband and I were discussing a huge shadow of uncertainty that loomed in our immediate past and future. We've been trying to put a healthy spin on what has the potential for being a black monster of suppression. Then I remembered the middle drawing, above. I brought it out, marveling that this drawing, reading from left to right, representing the idea of a life, had a solution: Build from what is put before you, no matter how formless the chunk of clay might be.

Thank you, David Hays, whoever you are... 30 years after this card was last used as a contact vehicle.

Blissful Unawareness

"Lovers and Leavers"

Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to clean up someone else's mess? Stephanie said it was her gift to the street to clean up the debris while she walked to work. I did not realize the major impact of her efforts until she moved away.

This was drawn around Earth Day, but of course, on my calendar that whittles it down to any one day out of 365. (The image you see right now is about the same size as the original. If you click on it you'll see what I see when I wear magnifying glasses to draw it.)

(Sold)

"10,000 Lives" Project

Every day I spend time with at least ten people through a communication system that is at least 30 years out of service.

What if the Sea Dries Up?

"Generosity Goes Fishing"

Drawing on the Imagination for Salvation

Floating along on a wave of change that we have no control over is a daunting experience. My life support system has always included a sense of humor and a thorough examination of the perils ~ real or imagined. What becomes difficult is when ones own life support might be dangerous for others of different philosophies floating alongside in the same storm. "Change As A Bouquet" emerged out of experiencing this entanglement.

Meditation with Pink Fish

Just a bit of quiet time after all the chatter.

The Blue Snake Seduces

At times I take trips from paint and line and create in other mediums. Food, with its intriguing color, shapes, and flavors, grabs at my attention many evenings. The backyard garden canvas with its seasonally shifting textures, forms, and colors has also attracted me and taken up years of my concentrating time.

I can see that this visual blog idea, which I avoided doing for years, has now taken hold of me. Who can resist this enticing light, the velvet darks, and the saturated colors? Writing one's story and seeing instant publication is so satisfying.

Yet, even as I burst with posting ideas I feel an uneasiness settling in. I am an image maker. It is time to crawl out of this silky virtual space and get back to the often cold and harsh reality of concrete image work.

This is the blue side of things. Not sad, but serious enough to cause pause. We must continue to check and recheck the path that we are on. Are we even on a "path"? Of late I've been thinking of it more as a jungle ~ where we climb through the tree-like vines and pause to check out the beauty, gasp at the oddities, and peer into enough scary shadows to find soul satisfying insight.

Bon voyage!

Windy World

The creation of art, if approached with a sense of adventure, is a great tool for learning.

Direction Comes Drifting Through the Air

I was listening to earth beat music while working on this piece. It was fine going until I reached the sky/cloud-like area. Here I felt stuck. I had no idea where I was.

A few days later I heard sweet choral music drifting from across the art complex. Intrigued, I left my earthy, deep-drummed painting scene, went across the patio, and settled myself outside the door of the wafting music, which turned out to be a collection of Bach cantatas.

I could feel my sensibilities drift upward with the music and relished the lightness of being the music infused into me. Returning to my studio light years later I saw where the painting wanted to go immediately. My neighboring artist let me borrow his music and with its spiritual-like accompaniment I was able to complete the piece.

This 3' x5' painting is meant to do a push/pull on the audience. The shapes shift in and out of abstraction/representation. This piece encompasses such a magnitude of complexities it was difficult to name. I did not want to lead the viewer in too straight of a thematic direction. I finally settled on the both practical and abstract "Confronting Brown."

Out with the Old, In with the New

About Me (...the old)

I apparently can look through you, am too short, need to correct my voice, talk too fast, don't talk enough, am judgmental, do not have an opinion, am chatty, am a dud, fascinate, am silly, should gain weight, don't read books, read too many books, know too much about you, don't know enough about you, don't look like anyone who you'd imagine creates art like I do, try too hard, am not ambitious enough, am relevant, am nobody, don't pay enough attention, over think, used to be a lot of things that are no more, and am too used to doing it my own way to listen well to others. In other words, I'm uniquely indefinable, just like you.

Looking Close Can Bring More than Clarity

As anyone who reads this blog backwards (which is really forwards) knows by now, I am exploring ideas about perspective. Here is a graphic that I've set up to explain the process. The original inked part of the drawing is about 3 inches tall. If you were to see this rendering from across the room it is a small, odd shaped nothing. Getting closer it begins to take on some sense of being. From two feet away it resembles two very different things to my mind. And then I think about those things and realize they are actually connected! A-hah! Click on the lower image for a microscopic view.

The wonder of rendering is that drawn & painted images can be more than depictions of visual reality. They can represent a more physically obscure but very present emotional reality.

I have often heard poets describe living with human awareness as being a fight. Depicting our feelings is all part of the big fight. Acknowledgement of distress is the first step to healing. As a visual artist I draw to plant seeds of hope, in myself as well as in others.

(I am thinking of the airline emergency instructions to put an oxygen mask on oneself before we put it on our children. HA! I'd be a pile of healthy earthworms by now if I didn't pay attention to that warning!)

Abstraction to Realization in Bird Songs

Our brains are constantly shifting between abstract thought and cognitive thought. I enjoy making art about this phenomenon, and I enjoy even more finding great art out there that represents this atmospheric sensibility. Think Michelangelo's emerging slaves as a very early example.

The American contemporary composer/songwriter Andrew Bird plays with this idea. He often uses the sounds of words, rather than their meaning, to inform the exquisite musicality of his work. In his song "Souverian" he relishes the French sounds of that word (sue-ver-ee-yoh(n)), repeating them again and again... and we English speakers are mesmerized into tripping on the sounds which mean little but music to us. Then at the last minute he makes almost invisible sound switches and all of a sudden we have English word clarity: "So very young."

Sure, we can concentrate on catching the words... and even occasionally go to our dictionaries and figure out the possible exact meaning behind so many of his obscure references, but the essence of Bird's musical genius is found in drifting with the musicality of his sounds, in the lilting ride from focused to unfocused thought. Life is full of abstract atmosphere. I think Bird revels in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40s7vgpPRi4

Another Bird song I can't resist, but doesn't feel as abstract, word-wise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZBoZ0sUT3k&feature=related

Feeding the Artist

When I painted "Diet Pizza" I knew it had problems. And why, if I know this, am I posting it here? It must be that I want to learn from this failure.

Compositionally it has major issues, so I cringe when I look at it, and even want to chop it up and throw it away. But then I think of why I painted it and I tuck it aside, facing the wall.

This piece has thematic meaning to one person. Me. Is it ethical for an artist to create art that only the creator understands? Can a mystery piece, if well done, be a piece of art if no viewer understands its true meaning?

A critic said, "Put more color into it." I would have preferred that she had instead asked, "Why is the color so dead and empty?" I think the failing of this piece is that she didn't ask that question.

Maybe someday I'll paint over it in a way that she'd understand, if she saw it again, that the lack of color is the point. In other words, I guess I didn't make the painting feel empty enough.

We the Critics are Gathered Here...

We are all critics. We all have opinions and a desire to be right. We (humans) are also very complex organisms.

Today I listened to a documentary about the jazz musician Dave Brubeck. Early on jazz folks thought his creativity was totally out of place. Jazz was about swing back then. He didn't have any swing. "You don't speak our language, you don't belong!" is the gist of what they told him over and over again. He probably thought these people were amazingly close minded because he continued on his way, connecting with the sounds of music he heard in the most honest part of his soul, and connecting with anyone who would listen. History tells that a lot of people did listen!

Brubeck is a very successful artist. We are not all in that very public boat (flower, seed pod?) but we are all leaders in our own tiny little art gardens. When we look around at the art of others, do we look to see originality, insight, some element of truth? Or do we look with an attitude of "You don't speak my language."

When we look at our own artistic practices, do we think "I must follow the rules laid down by those in the know." Or do we know in our hearts that we are speaking a language coming from so honest a place that no regional philosophy can deny it.

Design is attractive. Truth is not always so. But truth resonates and makes one's life worth living, whether we are seeing it in the work of others, or in the art we create ourselves.

Beauty is in the Eye of the Lover

I'm reading a book describing an artist who surrounds herself with beautiful people (sculpted cheek bones, smooth skin, elegant lines, etc., etc.), because of course, she is an Artiste! She wants to be surrounded by beauty at all times.

Sometimes I play a game about beauty and perception: I look at a stranger, someone who is considered homely, plain, non-descript by the media standards. I concentrate, zone in, and immerse myself with a fantasy of being in complete and utter love with this individual. It takes about 3 seconds for me, and then reality shifts. The result? This "nobody" becomes the most beautiful person in the world.

I appreciate elegant and symmetrical beauty as much as anyone else, but I have a suspicion the Artiste, above, misses out on quite a bit of earthy magnificence.

Rembrant was not a handsome man, yet how we do love his self portraits. Alice Neel was a master at finding beauty in shadowed humanity.

Perhaps the trick is to fall in love.

Caught Unawares

I woke up last night feeling like this. Go away, I yelled. The monster didn't listen. I used his tail to wipe out the story. It must have worked because I didn't remember this until now.