Finding Grace in Life
from my sketchbook
A Gate Is Like A Door
from my sketchbook
When I was in France, earlier this year, I took a photograph of a perfectly French gate at Giverny. I came home and gave it my own twist! I think a gate is a door of sorts. Do you? Are any gates/doors opening or closing for you this summer?
DC Door
- Sweet Little Door in Washington, DC
A little door found while walking through a DC neighborhood. I couldn’t resist doing this little doodle. I continue with some sketching through these hot summer days and consider the goodness of slow art. I hope you are staying cool.
New Landscapes
12"x6" acrylic on hardboard
The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust
…I will add, new landscapes never hurt, however 
24x20 inches acrylic on canvas
Warm is not the word to describe the temperatures in the US northeastern cities this week -over 100 F(37 C +) and humid! This painting describes perfectly what it feels like outdoors here. I hope it is cooler where you are! I am trying to remain calm and meditative at the moment. The air conditioning can’t keep up and I am sticking to just about everything. Is your art influenced by the weather? I clearly am experiencing a new form of Slow Art! A glass of iced tea anyone?
Excuses, Excuses
I must have been more tired than I thought last night when I wrote the previous post, but I failed to include the links to Andrea’s blog and web site. She so graciously agreed to allowing me the use of her photograph, then I messed it up. My apologies, Andrea. Please visit her and see the Shangri-La piece even larger on her blog. I have also repaired the previous post.
What Does A Painting Mean To You?
As you know from my previous post, I am enjoying Peter Clothier’s book, Persist. There is so much packed in this tiny book, I wonder if I will ever stop contemplating it all. One of the subjects he brings up is how visual artist have it hard because this is one area where often the work which took hours, days, months or years to complete will be brushed away with a glance. If you look at other art forms, this is often not the case. Consider writing, by nature it takes time to read or with performance art you are often captivated by the story being told and asked to remain in your seat for a film, play or dance. When Clothier observed people in Museums, he found if they stopped they stopped to read the little bit of information by the work, then moved on. He thinks visual artist need more time given to the work they are sharing. I couldn’t agree with him more. Let’s look at some art:
First, let’s look at Shangri-La by Andrea Hupke de Palacio:
used with permission from Andrea Hupke de Palacio
Now take a long look at this painting or go to Andrea’s blog to view it larger. I mean really get into it. Think about the face…look at those eyes and stare deeply into them, consider the head covering, too. I don’t know about you, but I can get lost in there. The colors she has chosen to use are magnificent. I want to swim in the colors. Can you imagine what it took to just paint the colors in the right place? I can imagine she was lost in her own place while doing this. When I really look at this piece, I seem to be able to feel the grit of the dirt beneath my feet, the crunch of the dry grasses and a cold winter wind. It takes me back to a more simple time in my own mind. The countryside is cold and I am looking forward to a warm stew and roaring fire when I bring the goats back to the village for the night. I look forward to the taste of wine and tangy taste of goat cheese. I can feel all of these things and more. Goodness knows, I am not thinking this is what Andrea was thinking when she painted this piece, but it is where it transported me. She started me thinking with the painting and few, well chosen words. I was easily transported from there. The thing is you have to spend time to get yourself into the place of your imagination. The key, by the way, is the title of this piece – Shangri-La. Where does it take you?
Unfurling
You have seen this one from me before. I call it Unfurling. I would like for you to try again with something very different to really spend time with this piece. Allow it to consume you just like with Andrea’s painting. When I created it, I felt one thing, but now I sometimes feel something different when I see it. With paintings like this you often hear things like…”I like it” or “I could have done that” or “My five year old has done something very similar.” I have answers for all of those kinds of questions, but what I ultimately know is that the viewer is not allowing themselves the opportunity to feel this painting. I know there are a lot of feelings in there, because I put them there. Artists do that! What someone else feels is not what I probably felt as they have their own life experiences to draw on.
The point is that it seems viewers want to be told what a painting means to them, if they even take the time to stop and have a longer look. Is it fair to the artist who probably just wants to have an opportunity to bring a bit more humanity to the viewer? They probably just want to help them touch their own shangri-la, right? Clothier suggests an hour meditation sitting in front of a painting to try to get to know it and to understand what it means to you, the viewer. The artists is done with it, now it is the viewers turn to have it touch their heart, speak to them, to bring their own humanity to the surface. If you have ever had a painting move you to tears, you know just what I mean. This can happen with many paintings. Once you learn the technique, you can slip into the world of that particular painting with ease.
Please, share your experiences of really taking the time to look at paintings. I wonder if after the first time you might view them in a different way?
Which Comes First, the Process or the Product?
Some days just getting into the studio doesn’t happen, however that doesn’t mean I am not working on things. I think the time I spent traveling back and forth to Houston (last year) and my trip to Paris brought my work to the point of creating layers in the work process. The idea of the doors persists in my sketches and little watercolor doodles. I am finding these help me to contemplate the meaning of a lot of things, and that is good. Learning is a never ending process and I love it so much. I am also reading and journaling a great deal which I find helpful in moving the painting and life forward in a positive direction. Recently, I have found the work of Peter Clothier very inspirational and thought provoking. His book, Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad with Commerce, has particularly struck a chord with me.
image belonging to Peter Clothier
This is a series of essays Dr. Clothier wrote over a 30 year period for himself. I, for one, am so glad he found a way to bring them all together for publication as I can’t seem to get enough of his words. Before I found this book, I was consumed with the thoughts of what has gone wrong in our society that causes things like hideous amounts of oil to gush into our waters, the abuse of one’s profession to the point of causing economic collapses and the kind of thinking which make parents think it is a good thing to begin the higher education process with children before kindergarten. What are we doing wrong and why do we keep doing it? Now, I am no genius, but it seems to me we have forgotten the importance of the process of living. In today’s world, we are so focused on the product, we forget the process. Heck, so many even begin with the product and then consider how to get there only to keep focused on the product no matter what gets hurt in the process.
Consider this recent article in the New York Times which talks about teaching 5 year old children engineering so they will have a better chance of getting a job when they are 23! Probably, by that time, the world is going to be so saturated with engineers they are not going to get a job anyway. Why is it we can’t see that allowing children to become what they are meant to be will help the world balance out? Who are we to push children in one professional direction or another? It seems to me this is just teaching them to ignore their own instincts rather than encouraging them to be the best “person” they can be! Now this brings me back to Peter Clothier who describes himself as a “recovering academic”.
So much of what Peter talks about in this book resonates with me, so this is only a part of what you will probably hearing about him in the future. In his essay, “The Bandaged Place”, Peter says, “…it’s in our anger, in our pain, and in our grief – and our joy – that we find common ground. So I aim to write the most intimate, personal words I can, in which everyone can find a piece of him- or herself.” This is what artists do. We open up ourselves for all the world to see, we give a little part of ourselves each time we create, we often wear our heart and soul on the outside, leave a piece of it in each creation and hope something we have done will touch that place in someone else. This is a part of the creative process. Yes, it is slow, but we quickly learn that fast isn’t better. Yes, it makes us utilize a lot of “inspiration” to get to the place of maybe a single sketch (reading, writing, travel, blogging, etc.), but we also learn from each and every mark because each time we give. We come to understand keeping it for ourselves has no value. Just like love has no value unless you give it away. Maybe this emotion isn’t the same the creator had when they were laying bare their soul, but if it resonates in any way with the viewer or the reader, then it is successful. Now, consider how different the world might be if educators, parents, politicians, engineers, bankers and other business types all did this? What if they, even ever so slightly, stepped away from their industrial model (step one, step two, step three, etc. and don’t make a mis-step) and considered the importance of the process over the product? I wonder if that spill in the Gulf of Mexico would have happened or if those in the financial sector would have been partying with the retirement savings of others or if we would be trying to make 5 year old children be 30 year old adults? I wonder if our world would be a better, more thoughtful, more kind place? I wonder if we would consider more and push less? I wonder if we would be a happier society? Well, there is little limit in what I wonder.
So now you know where my head has been lately. I contribute this contemplation to giving myself permission to enjoy the process of living and creating, rather than pushing for the product. Do you think this makes a difference for you – in your life and in your work? If it makes a difference for the individual, do you think it would make a difference in the world if more individuals would be process rather than product oriented? I am eager to hear your thoughts.
