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sketchbook

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

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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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As I was looking through some of my paintings and sketches the other day I noticed something.  I have had a thing for finding my way through the forest or at least I seem to be making that analogy from time to time.  First I noticed this one which reminds me of a bamboo forest and someone (a woman) is trying to find her way with that darn flashlight (torch).

Then I found this in my sketchbook which is also about finding my way through the forest…

It is interesting to go back and look at some of these things from time to time.  I often just draw or just paint without thinking about it, but sometimes there are links.  I suppose I am just trying to find my way at the moment.  With all of this forest talk and door talk, I seem to be looking looking for something, waiting for something or just down right procrastinating.  If truth be told so far this year it has felt as though there has been change in the air.  I still have not been able to put my finger on it, but I feel as though maybe I haven’t been listening closely enough.  So I am working on that, too.  It is a slow process, but slow art is a good thing…slow living is a good thing.

It is all really quite exciting, really.  I am eager to get going with some serious work and looking forward to the snap in the air autumn brings.  I began a new project yesterday which I will be sharing with you as I get it settled in.  I also will be bringing out some more color around here.  It is about time…but I am not abandoning my sketchbook, either!

With that said, I leave you with this small gift of appreciation for bearing with me.  It has been a challenge and I appreciate your loyalty.

Please feel free to print this and use it as a bookmark or whatever you wish.  I hope you find simplicity and gratitude in your life each day.

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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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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.

Have a Beautiful Day in your part of the world.

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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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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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Monet House and Gardens, Giverny, Normandy, France

Just a short train ride from the center of Paris is the home of artist, Claude Monet.  On a beautiful day, Elizabeth and I went to Giverny in Normandy France to visit these gardens which inspired Monet.  Indeed they are inspirational and every way you turn, there is an exceptional photograph to be taken.

boats surrounded by bamboo and water

You may recognize these little boats from some of Monet’s paintings.  I am sure they are not the same ones, however the idea is there.  This setting is incredibly inspirational and if I were an impressionistic painter, I would be spending my time in this spot painting all day long.

I was inspired in a different way with this trip, however.  I was looking for something when I was in Paris.  When I went, I wasn’t sure what it was, but I intended to find out.  The colors are interesting as it is a rather gray city where other colors truly “pop”, and the buildings are  not too tall (there are a lot of tunnels under Paris).  The people are wonderful and friendly and that is always nice to find when you travel.  There was something else, though.  I knew my art was turning a corner  (I learned that when I was traveling back and forth between the US southwest and the US east coast over the last year), and I intended to find out in Paris!

One day when I was walking around the city with Elizabeth, Andrea and a new friend Sabrina, it hit me!  I am looking for doors!  Yes, you heard me, I am looking for doors – as in architectural features.  Paris has some amazing doors and amazing doors open to reveal new things.  I am looking for new horizons behind doors and a new way to merge all of these delightful expressions I have hiding inside of me.  Wow!  Who would have known?  So I sat down and had myself a good long talk with Andrea about this realization.  She talked me through some things, pointed out some things she thought warranted consideration and viola, I here by dub Kim and Andrea The Door Queens!  I will be exploring the metaphors for the door and how that all plays into the work I hope to move forward with now.  This feels so right, do you know that feeling when it is so right to proceed?

One of the things I realized is that architectural features are comfortable for me, so the door makes sense (I also love windows, but hey, you can’t do everything all the time)!  With Andrea’s encouragement I have also began allowing myself some sketching time without drafting tools!  This is the hardest part for me to allow myself to quickly, freely sketch something which resembles something else and not draft it!  So here you go…

Along the Rue Royale

These doors are really a beautiful red, however this sketch is done on paper board which does not take wet media very well.  I haven’t taken the time to use colored pencil or marker on it, so here you have it as an ink sketch done with a nib pen.  You just might see these doors again, as I seem to be making other sketches of them!

Now you know doors are my current obsession.  I am still highly drawn to my abstract work, but realized how important it is for me to explore these things in every detail.  I also need art I can practice when I am not able to get into my studio.  This gives me greater opportunity to explore a lot of ideas and still do the abstract work I so adore!

Tell me about the times when something hit you over the head as you were just going along minding your own business.

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