Dreaming You a Happy New Year!

On this New Year's Eve I am thankful to live in a free county where a diversity of opinion is allowed, for family and friends that I love and who love me, for a roof over my head and some food in my belly.  I'm thankful for paint and paintbrushes, although I know I would figure out a way to create without them,  and for a studio where I can put dreams to paper.  I'm thankful for a laptop and an internet connection, for fingers and eyes, and for a brain and legs and arms.  I am thankful for life.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year full of love and life and dreaming.

Seated Nude
Richard Diebenkorn
1966

My freedom consists in my moving about within the narrow frame that I have assigned myself for each one of my undertakings. 

 Richard Diebenkorn

Light

American Dream

11"x14"

(Collection of Pete and Linda Stoner)

This painting is the first in series of approximately 15 paintings that I began around January of 2009.  As this year comes to a close it's time to reflect back on what has taken place during the past twelve months.  Recently Linda Stoner, who bought this painting along with her husband, Pete, told me that she thinks of the structure in this painting as a tower of radiating light. Given that it was painted during some of the darkest days of the year, following the beginning of one of the worst economic downturns since the 30s, it now seems clear where my subconscious was going at the time.  Sharing this painting with you today is my way of sending a little light your way in the coming year.

Trust Your Gut

Art can only be truly art by presenting an adequate outwards symbol of some fact in the interior life.

Margaret Fuller


But how does that happen?  For the artist I believe that it comes from rooting around for honesty, beyond ego, not an easy place to find.  For the viewer maybe it comes from openness to seeing whether a work of art contains that "outward symbol" of authenticity.

Does it follow that if you can spot an authentic person, then you can spot an authentic work of art? Getting to really know a person requires you to spend a little time with her or him.  The same is true of a work of art.  Sometimes you get further into the relationship and find that it doesn't hold up, and yet other times you find a true friend.  With a work of art maybe it has to be something that you can come back to over and over again and still feel satisfied and/or challenged.  In both cases a deep relationship can be formed.

I suspect that at the gut level we all know honesty when we see it, before our thoughts get in the way.  Maybe understanding art is just as much about trusting our gut as understanding it's context.  In a relationship, when you get to know someone you want to know about their family, where they grew up, where they work, etc.  Although you may not judge whether you like someone based upon whether they grew up in New York or Minneapolis, that context is relatable. Getting to know a work of art can also involve similar social and/or historical context.  It's all a part of the story.   Gut and context.  It's all a part of life and art.

Happy Holidays!

I Must Confess

I cannot stop looking at the paintings of Kristine Moran.

Annie Dillard on Reading

"She read books as one would read air, to fill up and live.  She read books as one would breathe ether, to sink in and die."

Annie Dillard, The Living

Here are a couple of books that I read this year and enjoyed, but I've yet to read one lately that sucked me in and filled me until I was finished.  Pitty that!

Mary Heilman: To Be Someone by Elizabeth Armstrong (Inspiring story, in the vein of never giving up your dream, of an artist who worked for years without recognition, but finally got it.  There's a related story here about yet another artist whose currently a hot ticket, finally, at 94 (yay) here).

Pride and Prejudice and Zomies (Named at the risk of offending all the Jane Heads out there but, what can I say, it was pure fun to read).

Have You Recently had a Close Encounter?

Holiday distractions abound.  That means less time spent in the studio or at the computer blogging.  The trade off is time spent with family and friends, and tipping back some eggnog.  In honor of the holidays I'm sharing a family portrait.  Some explanation might be in order says my significant other.  People might wonder what the heck kind of family this is!

Lately I've been able to relate only too well to the characters in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, building the same shape over and over, compelled to do it without understanding why.  My artist training has taught me not to question but to just build.  Having said that, if I disappear, you’d better look to the sky for the mother ship. 

This strange shape surfaced about 18 months ago during a workshop where we were instructed to select our own shapes and compositions, but the process for generating them was completely new to me.  Since then this shape has repeatedly shown up in my paintings.  While I have yet to resort to mashed potatoes it has now been born into three dimensions and is becoming a sweet little family.  More members are on the way because this shape is not done with me yet.  Maybe it's time to put some water on the stove to boil and peel potatoes.

Impossible Things

From Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: 

"There is no use trying," said Alice.  "One can't believe impossible things."

"I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

The name for WD-40 came about because it's inventor, chemist Norm Larsen, finally achieved his goal of creating a water displacement fluid that would prevent corrosion on the 40th attempt.  Seems he believed in the impossible too.

I've decided put the Carroll quote on my studio wall so I can read it first thing each morning when I arrive.  It is, after all, good to be queen for a day.

Simple Pleasures?

Everyone wants to understand painting. Why don't they try to understand the singing of birds? People love the night, a flower, everything that surrounds them without trying to understand them. But painting - that they must understand. 

Pablo Picasso

Amazing!!

The art walk at Building C Studios yesterday and last night was amazing! The studios of 20 artists and halls were filled with art lovers, friends and family.  The music provided by Brad and Todd of Jazz in the Corner was a perfect accompaniment to the event.  I'm sending out a huge thank you to everyone who stopped by!  It was great to see you and catch up and, in numerous cases, to meet you for the first time.  Hope to see you all again soon.

Today's the Day!

Don't miss the fun from noon to 9 pm!  For more information and directions, please check out my website or the Building C website here.  Jazz duo, Jazz in the Corner, will perform live from 6-9 pm.

Mentors of Mine in No Particular Order: Norma Lee Labbe'

Norma Lee had a career as a nurse, raised a family and by the time I met her had been married to Bob for longer than I'd been alive.  We met at a non-profit where we volunteered and counseled people who were without homes or on the brink of losing their housing.  She handled these clients the same way I imagine she handled her patients; with compassion, but unafraid to ask tough questions.  I believe her lack of pretense caught people off guard, and her kindness made them feel safe enough to tell the truth when they were feeling particularly vulnerable.  Not an easy feat.

Norma Lee would most certainly reject the title of mentor, but to that I would respond “tough” (with a smile, of course).  We shared some core beliefs but there were subjects about which we strongly disagreed, resulting in some passionate discussions.  Beneath all our verbal banter was a foundation of deep mutual respect.

I miss those discussions and I miss Norma Lee.  She died almost five years ago after a short battle with cancer.  For a time after her death I imagined running challenging questions by her and trying to determine what her advice would have been. It took me a while to realize that her advice was less about giving her opinion and more about quickly assessing my true concerns and asking questions that lead me to find my own solution.  Those are characteristics that define a mentor and friend to me.  What, I wonder, would she have said about that.

Be Humble About It.

. . .  Paint the color tones as they come against each other, and make them sing, vibrate. Don't ask me to look at those self-satisfied, pretty things.

Charles Hawthorne

If You Believe in an Arts Education

 Untitled - acrylic on paper - 2008

Jay W. Ellis III, age 3

Micro lending for school room art projects is a brilliant idea.  Please visit this website, set up by Modern Art Notes, to learn how you can help to fund an art project for children who might otherwise not have access to an arts education.

New Jersey Bound

Home Symbols #1

Acrylic on paper, 2009

This morning I received a phone call notifying me that the above painting was awarded an honorable mention in the 24th Annual International Juried Show at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey.  What an amazing honor!

The juror is Susan Kismaric, Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY.  The show runs from January 15 - March 19, 2010 in Summit, New Jersey.

Eirik Johnson at the Henry Art Gallery

Maybe you’ve already read about Eirik Johnson’s exhibition of photographs at the Henry Art Gallery so you know that it’s received good reviews.

As someone who was born and raised in a Northwest mill town, these photographs are a powerful and evocative reminder of another time.  Back then we were taught, and believed without question, in the benign stewardship of Weyerhaueser, who provided mill jobs, meal tickets for a family of nine who would otherwise not have enjoyed dinner out at Brad’s Buffet on a Sunday night, and funded scholarships to local universities.  They cut down old growth trees and replanted them like a kindly uncle, all the while explaining that trees were a renewable resource.  My family camped near forests that had been clear-cut and rode Honda 90 dirt bikes on the roads left behind.  We visited Spada Lake, driving up the steep, narrow gravel road, skidding to the edge as logging trucks, fully loaded, came careening around the corner.  Our parents cussed under their breaths but continue up the road to the funnel spout at the reservoir, knowing that this was the risk, the cost of making a living.

Times have changed of course.  We now know that forests cannot be renewed in a healthy way without taking into account the entire ecosystem.  Clear-cuts lead to mud slides and flooding.  Eirik Johnson beautifully captures the impact of logging on the land and the communities that were supported by it.  He looks at its impact full-faced, capturing the poignancy of the people who were left behind picking up the pieces.  His photographs are honest, stunning and unflinching.  Don’t miss them.

Website Wackiness

There have been a few kinks with the newly designed website. In the virtual world, apparently the old website can slip back in while you are sleeping.  Maybe if I make enough sacrifices to the computer gods, the new will become new again and stay that way.  I'm now bowing down now.  Wish me luck!

If you look at the website and the front page has rotating images and orange lettering then the sacrifices worked!

Stress Be Gone

At the risk of sounding like I'm giving advice, because after all this is not an advice blog, I'm lobbing this idea into the blogosphere.  Need to reduce your stress?  Why not cultivate your curiosity.  I'm not just making this up as a self-serving artistic-type, although I do know from personal experience that it works.  According to research, cultivating your curiosity can actually reduce your stress level.  No more excusses!  Get out your crayons.  You can read the original article is here.

More on Dreams

What else are we gonna live by if not dreams?

Jill Robinson

Seems Right Vol. 2

After writing Seems Right Vol. 1 I came across this quote by artist Richard Diebenkorn who seems to be saying the same thing with fewer words:

If it doesn't sit right I'm not really saying it. Getting it to sit right is another thing – complicated, time, consuming, wasteful.  It comes around to what is contained in 'sitting right.' This is what the picture is about. 

E-mail Service Interuption

Due to technical difficulties there was a brief problem with my e-mail service during the past 24 hours.  If you sent me an e-mail and it bounced back with an error message, please give it another try.  The problem has now been resolved.

Thanks for your patience!

Ch-Ch-Changes

The old website format is history!  Please check out the new look here.  You can access this blog directly through the "news" tab on my website and see my current work in the galleries.  Now that the update is done I'll have more time to write blogs!