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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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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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If you are ever in Paris, it is well worth your time to head out there.  The public transportation makes it very easy, but go early as the crowds soon make it a challenge just to move around the palace and grounds. Do make the effort to go out to the Le Grand Trianon and Le Petite Trianon as the bumpy train ride will be so worth it.  I actually liked Le Petite Trianon better than the palace and the gardens are amazing.

I am currently working on some new things in my studio, so I need the time to head in there and to get some photographing done.  I hope all of you who are heading into a holiday weekend enjoy the time with friends and family.

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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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Helen Keller

Open and closed doors happen all around us.  Do you immediately begin to search for the open doors when a door in your life closes?

Today and tomorrow we are having a new roof put on our house, so I can barely think here much less write some comprehensible post!

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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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Indeed it is Claude Monet, and we thought you might like a few more views of his gardens in Giverny.  Today is so beautiful and there are lots of visitors.

This beautiful cherry tree stands in the flower gardens directly connected to the house.  There are Juliet balconies on the second floor (first floor, European) of the house which look out over these gardens and a beautiful flower covered porch off the first floor (ground floor, European).  If you go to the end of this garden, which is a series of beds, and continue along the footpath, down some stairs and through a tunnel (going under the road), you end up in the Japanese gardens Monet made very famous in his paintings.

In this photograph, you can see a window and the roof of the house in the distance and the wonderful pond he was so fond of painting.

Here is a closer look at the pond.  I thought the day was wonderful to give us this reflection gift.  I am sure you can understand the famous painters obsession, too.

Would anyone like some lunch?  Elizabeth and I actually treated ourselves to lunch in this setting and it was truly a feast for the tongue as well as the imagination.  Can’t you just get the feeling of Claude and Alice (Camille died before Claude moved to Giverny) having lunch in the garden between his painting sessions?

I hope you have enjoyed this little adventure through my imaginary Parisian door.  You just never know what you might find when you step through a door, anywhere, anytime!  Do you have a special adventure a door presented to you?

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