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 continue to sketch away at these doors, and they continue to look like Alice found them down the rabbit hole.  The thing is I am working with color a bit and I find as hard as I try, my brain will not allow me to color them as they appear in the photographs!  It seems my imagination takes over and I go along wondering what in the world this would be like when you consider the door as a metaphor for something else.  Does this happen to you?  Color seems to be the cross-over element for me.  Do you have an element of art which carries you further…where you really take artistic liberties?

I had never considered how a particular element or principal of art might be a catalyst for something else, but for now this seems to be true.  It is an interesting observation for me.  When I take out the color, the work becomes a exercise in line drawing.  When the color comes into play, everything changes. This should not surprise me because color has always been what I love to work with.  I always want to get to the smallest detail of color.  Like this painting…

Stay tuned, because I am adding color to some of these doors now!

I hope everyone has had a lovely Mother’s Day!

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I thought you might be tired of seeing photos of record breaking snowfalls for the Mid-Atlantic region of the US, so I have not posted any here.  We had 30 inches at our house on top of about 8 from earlier in the week.  We are told it is very possible to expect 10 to 20 inches tomorrow, too.  I love the snow!

I recently came across this quote from Maya Angelou:

“You can’t use up creativity.  The more you use, the more you have.”

When I thought about that, I knew I had heard a similar thought expressed about love.  It went something like this: the more you give love away, the more love you have to give.  It made me think about how using one’s creativity is very much an expression of love.  We are putting our heart and soul in the work we do. 

Recently, I was sharing with a friend about how I sometimes paint in response to disaster, but I wasn’t sure why I did it as it never helped anyone.  She responded back to me that I did not know it did not help anyone even if the painting still sat in my studio.  Her thought was the production of a painting was like a prayer and we never know where or how that energy makes a difference in the world.  I am so grateful for having this very wise friend.  She not only made me feel so much better about painting what came out of me, but she encouraged me to move forward with just that kind of work.

When I think about these ideas of generating creativity by creating, having more love the more you give it away and my paintings being like a prayer when I produce them, it absolutely let’s me know I am so on the right path here.

Do you have these kinds of things which bring to light a true knowing you are doing what you are supposed to be doing with your work?  Can you share some examples of what makes it so right for you?

Have a Beautiful Week, Keep Creating those Prayers and Sharing Love!

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Can you see some of the parallels here?  Sometimes my work helps me to understand what the inside part of me is searching for and sometimes I am never aware enough to catch on.  One of the things which has caused discussions lately with some creative friends is how we have to live our lives and often have other creative outlets in order to continue to work.  I have learned with this particular insight how important a particular type of travel is for me and taking lots of detailed photos, too.  I also know if I do not journal the painting becomes very difficult.  I think my family would also tell you that without my journaling, travels and painting, I would become very difficult!  So being an artist is much more than the actual work I do in the studio.  Is this true for you, too?  What other creative endeavors do you need in order to stay on track?  Is your work actually more than meets the eye?

Have a Beautiful Day!

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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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Unfolding (working title) 36 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas

This is the final product of the WIP in the previous post.  While it is not the main series I am working on at the present, it clearly informs that work and allows me the opportunity to keep questioning as I move the main series forward.  Do you work on multiple challenges in parallel?

I wanted to share this article with you from the Wall Street Journal. Terry Teachout talks about how many artists go through periods when their creativity wanes.  Of course, we are all familiar with the term “writer’s block”, and I dare say many of us have experienced it.  I am not talking about not having the time to be creative but about not having the inclination to be creative.  In this article, however, Mr. Teachout does say visual artist do not experience this as much as other creative types.  He attributes it to being encouraged to work in series until a particular subject is exhausted (which might be years or a lifetime).

The thing is, I also found this quote from Maya Angelou: “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”  As you probably know, Ms. Angelou is a writer, so there is a conflict of opinion between her and Mr. Teachout on this subject.

This all has me thinking here.  If working in a series works well for the person who is visually creative why would it not work for someone who is creative in another way?  I know the more I journal, the more I am able to write blog posts.  Are visual artists the only ones who create in a variety of ways in order to influence their ongoing work shown to the public?  I doubt that!

For me, the challenge is not finding the creativity but finding the time to create along side all of the other influences in my life!  I suppose I could be wrong – it has happened before, you know – however it seems as though I will never run out of inspiration to create.  I do know, though, if I don’t use all of the opportunities which present themselves to me as I move through each day then my creativity will not be as informed as it should be.

It seems to me we all have so much to learn from each other and one of the things we might learn here is life is what informs our art.  If we do not utilize other methods of creativity, then we are not going to inform our art and truly the creativity might dry up.  If we only work on a single series and only paint, then I think the creativity block will probably happen from sheer burnout.  If the writer doesn’t do other things to inform the words, then those words very well may dry up.

What do you think?  Have you ever experienced a creativity block? What do you do to avoid them?  You can find some of my techniques for avoiding creativity loss in the Pages Section of this blog.

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a study piece

It has been a while since I wrote about Slow Art.  You can read that posting here.  This subject is never far from my mind and you can find some slow blogs and web sites in the list on the right column of this page. Recently, I have been thinking about the relationship of taking time to make art and taking time to view art.  Does it make a difference in one’s life?  One thing viewing art slowly does is give you time to fine the subtleties of the work, the depth of the layers and the richness created over time.  These are things that a quick glance cannot accomplish.

What does it take to create art slowly?  Slow is different if you are working with watercolors than it is if you are working with oils, it is different if you are working with clay than it is if you are working with bronze.  The materials obviously make a difference, but I am talking about something more.  Mark Rothko apparently was once asked how long it took him to create one of his color field paintings.  His quick response was, “57 years!” which was his age at the time!  He used work and life experiences to reach his goals of a single painting.  I think this was the right response.  I know I pull from a lot of experiences to create and to live.  It takes a great deal of work to “unearth” these lessons and experiences, too.  I find, reflecting is often the best way, although it takes a lot of tools to bring those reflections to the surface.

In my last post, Suki reminded me of the importance of contemplation and not to worry about if anyone else thought you were working or not, because you know the truth.  I knew she was right and was grateful for her wise words.   It takes a great deal to get to our personal truths, create a piece of art and then to expose those truths to a public who may or may not understand the meaning or take the time to slowly view what you have so laboriously created over the expanse of your life.  It seems to me, though, that with the slowness of creation the artist probably also recognizes many people cannot or are unwilling to really see.

In the presentation about Mark Rothko done by Simon Schama, I learned Rothko was also asked how far away someone should stand from one of his color field paintings and in a single breath, Rothko said, “18 inches”!  If you have ever experienced one of these paintings and stood in front of them at that distance, you will understand why he did not hesitate!  Last weekend I had the opportunity to do just that and was completely overwhelmed by the experience.  Truly, it makes all the difference and drives home the truth that it took him 57 years to paint it!

Creating Slow Art and Viewing Art Slowly seem to go hand in hand to me.  As many of you know, it takes me a long time to bring a canvas into its fullness as it has an incredible number of layers.  Some of the reason for this is because I think I gain so much in this act!  I wonder if these paintings cause people to slow down and really see any better?  Do you life your life slowly when you can?

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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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cropped photograph

I often read articles online which are often inspirational such as this one in The Guardian.  These articles often inspire me to explore ideas presented in them by writing in my journal – what do I believe about what is presented? – which in turn often will bring to the surface some kind of visual which may or may not go into my sketchbook.  The thing is, I often do not realize these connections until after they have taken place and they might often take quite a long time.  It seems like so much of my inspiration is realized in hindsight.  Maybe that is another reason I feel the need to create this cache of inspiration.

sketchbook entry

As an artist are you interested in these pages I am creating?  Do you think this is helpful in understanding what kinds of processes artist use in order to create a piece of art?  It is true, I find inspiration throughout the day for my art, the challenge is often in documentation.  Creating these pages is really about documenting and recognizing just what needs to happen in order for me to realize a painting.  If you have trouble finding inspiration for your creative work, documenting layers of inspiration might be one way to recognize what is important for you.  It often does not seem to be particularly related to art to the untrained eye, but that is also part of the reason for doing this task!

I am eager to hear your thoughts on this subject.

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