sketchbook

“Making art is like giving a gift: evidence of your spirit and that you are here.”

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So when life hands you opportunities which push your art aside for a bit, what do you do to get yourself immersed in your work again?  I have talked about that before, a lot, on this blog, however I often wonder how other artist get themselves back on track.  Are you a person who craves routine, or are you like me and balk at a rote life?  Sometimes I think I would find some of this easier if I truly needed routine to move me through my days, however I find that kind of living to be unsettling.  Mainly, I think I need to give myself an art project! I am the queen of slow, you know.

At any rate, I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on the subject of re-immersion into work.  What is your wise advice?  I do have a few bits of excitement up my sleeve I will be sharing with you as 2011 unfolds.  I hope you have some wonderful plans, too.

Thanks to all of you who wrote me regarding my parent’s health issues.  They are both doing much better and hopefully they will both be back home and returning to their own lives soon.  All of your thoughts and blessings were greatly appreciated by all of my family.

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So I tried to call my muse back to me by staying with my sketchbook.  She began to talk back with the words.  Muse kept prodding.  I think she really wanted to return, but she also wanted to make sure I was not going to abandon her again, so she kept testing me.  I found myself getting mired in the black and white, so she pulled back again a little bit, but she only wanted me to know this was the real thing and she wasn’t to be played with.  I had to do some harder work to get her back.  So I began to read (more about this in another post) and try to understand the hard work was to show up each day, as Elizabeth Gilbert says, and stay focused.  I had to not be so hard on myself and be open to the subtle messages wonderful people around me provided.  There are messengers in the least suspecting places.  In other words, I began to pay attention more and Muse started to come back again, giving me ideas and inspiration.  The color started to come back, too.  See…

I was overjoyed to see the colors again.  I did not want to loose them.  Muse reminded me all of this happens for a purpose and I had to evaluate what I learn along the way.  I had to really live what I knew.  I had to slow down, I had to show up, I had to meet my own needs, too.  Well, this is all fine and good, but how do I do this effectively?  Muse says there is a way which is just right for me, and I just had to figure it out.  I read more, began meditating more, did more yoga and one day an explosion happened.  I needed to do something which returned me to a child’s mind, so I began a left-handed sketchbook/journal (my non-dominant hand).  I really had to focus on each and every mark.  It has made a huge difference.  See, here are the first pages:

Yes, these are rough and they are weird (they are not abstract!), but the focus and concentration is like meditation and it connected me deeper with my right brain which is very important and very relaxing.  After I do these, I slip right into other art work.  It is right for me, for now.  Muse really likes it.  You know, it is just like when I begin to work with my left hand it is a signal to Muse that it is time to work and she comes around for a visit.  Here is one more page further on:

Now this one looks a bit abstract, but it was not at all the intention.  No, I am not going to begin to show you these silly drawings, but I did want to say how important it is to show up to work – just like anyone else.  Just because Muse takes a vacation, it doesn’t mean she will stay away.  Not like others, however, we have to be slow and methodical with our work and with our lives.  That is a great challenge in our world.  Muse doesn’t like speed, she will walk away from it every time.  Slow Living and Slow Art can be a truly Full Life.  Sometimes you have to bring Muse back gently and other times you have to send her away (if she starts playing with your head), but the key is knowing the right time to do each.  The Muse can be elusive, but if you treat her right, she is one of your best friends.  You have to treat her right, though.  She is human in that way!

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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?

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I recently had another beautiful email from my glass artist friend, Lesley McIver, in Golden Bay, New Zealand. We were talking about our work and how grateful we were each day we step into our studios when she wondered if I was still doing my intuitive art.  The truth is, I can’t stop doing intuitive work.  It is a part of me and a part of my wholeness.  Lesley was just confirming I was still on my personal path.  We have been following the work of the other for many, many years now.  She knows I need this work for me, but she also knows I need growth in my work for me, too.  Good friends are like that aren’t they?  No matter what, we encourage each other to take a hard look at the place from where we have come as well as the place we are headed while keeping the focus on the present.  They allow you to fall only to be there to pick you up again.  They are true gifts.

So with Lesley (and other good friends, too) in mind, I am sharing one of the pieces I have worked on recently in the studio.  This is small for me, 18″ x 12″ on hardboard done with acrylics (mainly inks).  It is funny with some of this intuitive work.  I sometimes find it difficult to share here on the blog.  It is as though I am opening myself up to the world – showing you the part of myself I hold so private.  From an intellectual standpoint I know you don’t see the same things I see or feel, but emotionally I want to protect that part of me.  Maybe this is also why it is a challenge to title this work, but eventually I am able to get to that aspect.  Do you feel this way about any parts of your work?

I would love to hear from you on this or any other art subject.  Have a wonderful weekend.

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Here is the thing, if you ever have the chance to purchase this paper, don’t do as I did and make the purchase of a small bit, but a larger one and even sheets of the stuff!  It takes liquid color like magic!  I love it.

This is the very first sketch I did in this little book.  I am drawing a lot of doors as Andrea and I have the Door Queen’s Project going and it is getting very exciting as we consider the impact of doors.  It is also great fun.  Andrea has also started some door painting (not just a doodle, mind you) which looks wonderful.  We will see where this project leads each of us, but for now, we are having a great time.

I also came home with a sketchbook which I am loving made by Hahnemuhle (which I think is German).  It is not for wet media, but I am enjoying the pen and ink drawings in this one.

I used the Copic pen seen in the photo to try another, looser rendition of the first Paris doors, on Rue Royale, I shared with you.

You may see these doors again, as I am working to get the sketching loose yet clear.  You can see the shakiness of the line as I still struggle to let go of drawing with tools.  You would think I could do this, but those nasty old brain tapes keep playing in my head!  Do you have these issues?  Professors chatter continuing to come back to you?  In some ways, it is comfortable for me to use these architectural features and in other ways it is a major challenge.  I love the psychology behind the architectural elements, so I move forward with that.  I can absolutely see the challenges and the rewards of this Door Queens Project!

Now this afternoon I head into my studio, crank up the music and cut loose with some serious, free-flowing abstract work.  I have lots to show you there, too!  How about you?  Are you finding lots of projects to keep you busy with your art?  Do you consider the psychology behind the work you are doing?  What are you doing which helps you feel as though you are so much more yourself when you work on it?

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for a friend to see again

I have been very busy lately.  2009 proved to be a unique year for our family, and since I am typically a very private person I have not shared what was going on with very many people.  Now, I will let you know I have been living a dual life!  It is true, I have been running from the east coast to the southwestern part of the US with amazing regularity.  I have had a studio in both locations and have observed how these different locations has not only caused me to produce vastly different paintings but also how the different studios have encouraged me to work very differently.  It has been an exhausting and fascinating process.  While I have lived and worked in a variety of locations and have done my fair share of traveling, this experience was so different because I was living in both places.  Now that the experience has come to an end, I am spending more time reflecting, and once I can receive shipment of my work to one location I will be trying to decide what was good and what did not turn out so good with these works side-by-side.

Just because the physical experience has ended (and I am not sad for that, because it has been exhausting), I feel I can now relax more and see what I need to take away from it.  This clearly does NOT mean my travel and or moving days are over…far from it!  I will give you the heads up to watch this site for some photos of and reflections on an exciting trip I have planned for early spring.

Do you find it a challenge to work in a variety of places?  Do you think your work changes when you move studios or work in different locations?  I have noted before how vastly different my work is here in the US compared to the work I did when we lived in England.  I can also tell you the work I did in the southwestern US and the work I did in the mid-Atlantic US was very different, although I tried to use the same mediums and supports!  There is a lot of psychology I need to explore here, however I think some very good insights will arise.  Now I am beginning to wonder what Asia might do for my painting!

In the coming weeks, look for some posts on this recent experience.  Do let me know if and how your physical environment affects your work.  I will be eager to hear from you.

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the beginning of the fall

This morning we have the beginnings of the first snow of the season.  While it will not last long, it is lovely to have so early.

I tried to upload this video however it was not going to happen.  Use this link to watch.  I highly recommend it!

Elizabeth Gilbert on Nurturing Creativity on TED

Earlier this year, Elizabeth Gilbert author of Eat, Pray, Love, gave a talk on Ted.com which touched me in a profound way.  I have mentioned this talk before.  I revisit her talk with some regularity however, because it serves as a reminder of the importance of living up to my own expectations rather than the expectations of others.  When I first shared this video, it touched so many people and the email conversations went on about it for weeks and months. People found Elizabeth’s talk inspiring and a good reminder of what it means truly to live a creative life. I hope it spurs the same kind of conversation here.

As you may know, Miranda‘s comment in the last post reminded me of this talk and I thought it was a good follow up to what we were talking about as far as maintaining our creativity.  Elizabeth talks about how much strength it takes just to show up for creative work and how society really puts pressure on creative people to constantly perform at peak performance.  It hasn’t been like this forever and she contemplates if this kind of pressure is what gives creative people the reputations of being a little off in the head with those who choose not to live a creative life. You have to be fearless to be an artist.  The stories she shares sound so familiar to me.  I wonder if you find some idea of resonance in them?

If you have not seen this talk before, I think you are in for a real treat.  If you have seen it, I encourage you to watch it again (I hear new thoughts and ideas each time I watch it).  Do her thoughts help you see your work in a different way?  Are you turning your art around in your head and viewing it from different perspectives? Did you hear some ideas here which may help you manage all that happens in your creative life?  I am eager to hear what you have to share.

Have a Beautiful Weekend!

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I love the work of Marc Rothko, so when I found this series of videos done by the BBC and Simon Schama, I had to share them with you.  Schama does a whole series on The Power of Art which includes similar discussions on Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko. If you are willing to take these in bits and pieces, which may be a perfect way to view them, they are all on YouTube.  I love the way he weaves in art, the artist, culture, business and political history to help explain, indeed, The Power of Art!  One of the greatest examples of this, I think might come about in the Picasso series when he speaks of a painting which was covered up at the United Nations before a press conference! I will tell you no more here.  We have so much to be greatful for in these artists who went before us, not only in understanding what they went through and what they were trying to share, but also what their struggles mean to what we do today.

I would love to see more of these.  Of course, modern art is my personal preference, but we have a lot to learn from all artists – even each other.  I am grateful you are willing to share.

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A Work in Progress

I think about this art mirror a lot and wonder about the struggles people have not only when they create art, but also when they view art.  It has occurred to me how abstract work is possibly sometimes difficult for people because they struggle with what they see there.  It is easier to say things like, “my dog could have painted that” or “what a mess” or “what the hell is that?” when they don’t wish to take the time to figure out what it means to them.  Sometimes that is too painful and sometimes it may be down right impossible.  I spent many years creating drawings which were technically correct (literally drafted to the mm) for the dreams of other people.  Once I gave myself permission to do this for myself, I gained a greater respect for the part of themselves artists put into each of their works.  Maybe it is because of these artists who truly put themselves out there for all to see, I have the courage and the strength it takes to continue meeting myself in the studio.  I am not sure of the reasons I can do this without needing something else to boost me up.  It seems the greatest challenge comes when we have to hear the opinions (and face it everyone is a critic – especially those who do not practice art) of others and bolster our inner strength when their own fear makes it difficult to view something new.  I have always been someone who is who I am and cannot be who someone else wants me to be, so maybe that is it.  Then again, maybe it is my lifelong experiences of living inside my head which helps me along with this.  No matter what the reason, I can say without a doubt I am very grateful for these artists who have put themselves out there in front of the public eye and continued painting no matter what was said about them.  Every single day the knowledge of what they went through gives me the power to smile when someone just doesn’t get it! I hope you can smile through it, too.

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