"Thin Red Line"

"Thin Red Line" 20x16" oil
There's a tale to be told here. The expression "Thin Red Line" refers back to a battle where a few hundred men defeated a Calvary of thousands. 'Little defeats big' makes for such a good story.

This painting stands for holding firm despite limited resources. How do you think the story ends? A)Continuing to struggle heroically or B) Kicking Butt or C) Wah?!! You lost me.

It's the first oil I finished once I got used to working with the paints and they have completely changed my process. I've been able to relax, let things dry, pick them up again later, stop stressing about "mistakes", smear, rub and even 'draw' on my canvas directly from the tube.

Health wise things are better than before, but will still improve. I was touched to receive this gorgeous piece of jewelry today from Tracy of Pink Purl in a gesture of love and healing. We're both crazy about pink and I'd shared with Tracy that I love it because I think it represents health, energy and healing. She made this piece with those very wishes for me. What a sweetheart!

Something you can't tell from the internet is how good the weight of these stones feel. The quality too, just doesn't show up in a photo. Some things are just better in person.

More about pink. It's starting to work in my creations. I'm putting it in and getting that 'glow' I was hoping for instead of a saccharine look I was fearing. "Thin Red Line" has a layer of pinks under the golds that affect the lighting of the finished piece.

Invitation

Here is the invitation for our show in November (clickable). My mentor, Jeanne Leblanc Mullin's painting on top is called, "A New Perspective" and my painting below "Life and Breath" was featured in the last post.

Jeanne and I only see each other's art at our art openings as a general rule. Our meetings are mostly about marketing and the local market. What's funny? eerie? cool? is that our art has a fair bit in common. Neither of us saw the work of the other and both have been working on a similar compostion, sometimes similar colors, similar themes and feelings. Perhaps it was from choosing the title of the show last spring that we ended up thinking and feeling similar thoughts. Our personal lives have things in common too, that are being revealed through the art.

There are many ways to keep the well of creativity full and some of them are a bit mysterious.

How To Banish Internet Guilt with "Creativity Immersion"

During my blog break I found one of the benefits of daily blog reading as opposed to weekly blog reading to be that the inspiration will permeate. Speed reading blogs once a week is much like wolfing down fast food in the car on your way to somewhere else. Will you remember either in an hour let alone a week? I know now from experience, it's just not as good.

Productivity guilt likes to plague me and I don't think I'm the only one. I've found a way that soothes my guilt from time spent on the internet. Why not think of it in terms of "creativity immersion?" One of the best ways to learn or maintain a language is to immerse yourself in the culture and speak it every day. It's rare that someone would become bilingual if they didn't have outside help. The same can be said for creativity. Regularly reading blogs by creatives talking about their process gives the info a chance to simmer. The flavors take on depth, become greater than the separate ingredients and end up bringing richness to your own work and process.

Voila! Goofing off, uh I mean, gathering inspiration from blogs is productive. I enjoyed my break, like the trip to the ocean shown here, but am looking forward to getting back to my favorite blogs and savoring them properly.

Painting "Sound"

You know when a tune gets stuck in your head and you can't get it out? This series is based on a song, or more like 2 bars of music, that I haven't identified yet. It could be Stereolab.

In June many are exploring sound with Creative Every Day. I like how these prompts simmer on my back burner for a month. By the third or fourth week I find they've somehow inspired my work.

My other sound project was more intentional. Have you ever heard a good movie soundtrack and stopped to wonder what your life soundtrack would be? Do you have a personal soundtrack or one song that is you? I put together a playlist for my current body of work. It went hand in hand with my artist's statement.
This exercise was beneficial for keeping my focus and loving it. It's also great to surround myself with outstanding artists and savour how they expressed it. Some of the songs I chose for the words and some for the mood and feelings they evoke.

Feeling Good- Nina Simone

Everything Is Never Quite Enough- Wasis Diop

Three-Massive Attack

Silver Stallion-Cat Powers

Heart of Gold- Neil Young

Sinnerman- Nina Simone

Now dish, what's your personal anthem?

Return of the Artist's Statement

I'm sharing with you the artist statement that set off the last perfectionism crisis. That sounds like a negative, but it was a powerful and positive experience.The first time it started to come together I was so excited I was shaking, and when I got close to the end, I cried. Seemingly random elements all had a reason. It validated my work for me and clarified where where I want my art to go. It was my lack of patience, wanting to be at my vision right now that was the real problem.

"My paintings tell the story of our journey through an internal landscape with the human as the subject and the landscape as metaphor.

Trees offer sanctuary. They have a complex system of roots that keep them nourished and grounded. Set as the destination, they illustrate moving toward our intentions and looking for a haven.

This takes effort, even struggle and that is why three is chosen. Three is at once tension and resolution.

The square is a symbol for stability and mortality. I've used it to show what we count on for guidance during our journey and as a reminder to search out the extraordinary."

I may end the last sentence with something simpler, like "live with purpose" so there may still be some tweaking, but that's one thing I like about the statement. Alyson Stanfield said in I'd Rather Be in the Studio that the statement should be "organic." That means it doesn't have to be perfect, or set in stone and that it's good to change it. I like that. Both the statement and art are a work in progress.

The above painting was fun. It's my 'make a mess, do what I want, this isn't going in the show' painting. A big help with the perfectionism roller coaster was to figure out what my bad habits are. The top worst habit is finishing a piece up to 95% done, then leaving it. Just knowing that I do that has been a big help and I'm enjoying my work again. Two more of my favorite posts that I've read that have practical help with perfectionism are Art Propelled's post on Anahata Katkin's "Five Stages of Creative Expansion" and Creative Every Day's post "Do Art Not Dishes-How to Stop Avoiding Your Art Supplies in Four Steps."

"Extreme Perfectionist Tendencies"

I have a dirty secret. Painting is not fun right now. It feels like any job where the frustration levels are building. I wasn't supposed to admit that was I?

Do you ever get a crippling case of perfectionism? I still haven't beat this beast. This is the first oil I've finished and not wiped out. The way the paint seems to melt under my palette knife is both fascinating and infuriating. All my usual techniques don't work. Plus with acrylics there is a shorter dry time. Quick dry time means less over thinking and working fast can loosen one up.

One artist I know said, "As artists we are so privileged. How many people can say that they cry tears of joy because of their work?" I have mixed feelings about that statement. Ok, yes, I may at times "cry tears of joy" when I hit that high and it's going well, but right now I'm shedding blood, sweat and tears.

Here are a few links I've been studying this month in the hopes of overcoming perfectionism perfectly, 'ahem', ok perhaps not perfectly but at least long enough to let a couple of paintings dry.

*How to give up Perfectionism in 7 steps by Dan Goodwin (written out and taped to my studio wall)

*Phew! Traits of an Artistic Personality on Empty Easel lists " extreme perfectionist tendencies" as an artistic trait.

*Tips for overcoming Artist's Block lists perfectionism as a major cause of artist's block. I've been thinking of switching to paper, marker and pencil crayons for a bit like suggested in tip number two.

Lastly, a quote. "There is such a thing as perfection... and our purpose for living is to find that perfection and show it forth... Each of us is in truth an unlimited idea of freedom. Everything that limits us we have to put aside. (Richard Bach) *Sigh* That relates to the cause of my latest case of perfectionism. I've found out my art is in part about perfection. Now that I've written my artist's statement, it feels like a bit much to live up to.

A month of Inspiration from Nature

Good lines. I was running out of good lines. My trees are symbols so I keep them simple, not realistic looking. That's why I don't observe a tree as a general rule when I paint, but instead let my body gestures and arm movements dance out a tree. They're more like stick figures. The Creative Everyday theme on nature got me thinking. They were starting to all look like three pronged forks, so for a little variety I went back to the source to observe. I took about 20 photos of trees that to me expressed triumphant lines- no weeping willows in this shoot.

I did a series of gesture drawings with conte crayon and taped them to my studio wall. These were very messy and loose. I practiced refining favorite trees in my journal and wrote some words from my artist statement underneath to guide me.

Then I came upon the perfect tree shape in a romaine lettuce leaf. Triumphant looking, yes? When I showed Jason I demonstrated it's perfection by singing my version of this. "Yes, the leaf is singing opera, Shayla." He didn't even lift an eyebrow. A benefit of living with another creative is they understand instead of having you put in a straight jacket like a non creative might be tempted to do.

A series of lettuce leaf "trees" followed. Lastly, inspiration from my new stretch video (major help energy wise). The setting is in the Canadian Rockies and the pines there are taller and thinner as opposed to our wind whipped, squatter trees. The wind whipped trees felt like isolation and trials to me. These tall trees look regal. In my last sketch, I've combined the Romaine "trees" with the pines from the Rockies and I'm pleased with these lines.

May was a tough month, health wise but I'm starting to recover. The stretching is a wellness practice I'm going to continue with. I can't believe what a difference it makes. The other wellness tip I learned, the hard way, was to be sure to cook fiddleheads very well. Have you ever tried them? Apparently if the spring is very dry they give off a toxin that gives a wicked case of food poisoning. Thought I'd send out the warning, since all my fiddlehead eating Maritime friends have never heard that and it's not too fun to find out the hard way ;)

Art and Wellness

I made this card yesterday. Three squares may not seem like a lot of work, but I've been experimenting with card design for about two years and have come up with all kinds of awful stuff. Sometimes it's what you don't put in that makes the piece work. I was considering using a cool tree stamp I made and am itching to use, and was brainstorming how to use all the elements together when I realized I needed a brain break. The end result was a simpler piece. I'm learning to respect those limits, but the artistic payoff still surprises me. Who knew? We really don't have to suffer for our art ;) The squares are also made from my stash of "batik" papers that I made up last year. I tried a glue stick- which believe it or not- seemed perfumed. Why put perfume in glue? Liberty of Moving Beyond MCS recommended this better non toxic glue, which I have to try.

At the beginning of April, I started juicing- mostly veggies- and saw a big difference in energy. I had to share a photo of this smoothie. Isn't it pretty?

Discovering Color with Master Artists

Hello! Sharing a couple links to a free mini-workshop in color since it's the theme at Creative Every Day this month.

Explaining "How to Choose Colors", Roy H. Williams shows some of the practical applications of using color palettes used by the great Masters. If you want to jump right in, or go down the rabbit hole as he would say, click on "Associative Color". Every time you click on a painting you'll find a new painting, set of colors and eventually the mini-workshop using photoshop to analyse the Master's paintings. Even if you don't have photoshop you can do the exercise. Just eye it.

Leah has shared what's she's learned in a more in depth color workshop. Doesn't this adventure sound yummy? Create a color based on the scent of spices, pine or vanilla... Or color inspired by poetry . They are a more intuitive, playful approach to color.

While I've always rebelled against the color palettes of the masters, thought they were too dull and boring (I preferred something more whimsical and bright) my latest color adventures are to limit my palette (Oh, and explore my mixed emotions with pink, like in the piece above. Love it? Hate it? Can I make pink strong?). After reading more about the Byzantium era, and the use of colors to represent the sacred, I started to get really excited. My next show is going to be all about the golds. There were a lot of ochres in my last show, so I'm already going in the gold direction, and that was intuitive. Now that I know why will make for greater focus. There's plenty of gold inspiration in the works of the Masters. Doesn't this Klimt painting just blow your mind? (warning: some nudity) That's the color palette I want to study.

An MCS Artist Egg-speriments with Tumeric

For the past few weeks I've been researching new materials and supplies that are safer and environmentally friendly. I'm going to share some of the fun, easy stuff I come across because no matter how good our intentions, if it's fussy or annoying then it's not really do-able.

In the photos are my experiments with tumeric and egg yolk. The egg won't rot and is more runny than buttery paint, but has a thick, tactile feel just the same. The tumeric has a warm, spicy smell making it very pleasant to work with. Mix some of the spice into the yolk until satisfied with color and texture.

On paper (above) it has a nice, organic appearance. You can see the grains and they look something like sand. Not sand when mixed with paint, but what it looks like when you're outside.That post card on the left is by artist Hu Bing and I met her when she was visiting from China last year. The gold in the woman's coat has had me enamoured ever since and the turmeric is as close as I've come- still a tad green though.


Since 2002 I've had adrenal fatigue, off and on sensitivities and a weakened immune system. Just before my last solo show in 2007 it hit really hard once again and this past fall the chemical sensitivities came back. Only recently has it ever been a problem with art supplies- which I've been able to ignore for awhile. Not now. My first response was to panic, but supportive artist friends helped me see that this was another chance to be creative. Below are the results on canvass.



Gotta share this quote from Twyla Tharp:

"Whom the gods wish to destroy, they give unlimited resources."

Isn't that a good one? I don't know any artists who aren't limited in some way, be it time, money, whatever. Those limitations can make for greater focus.

Dream Journal Page

Do you ever dream about work? Leah at Creative Every Day has a prompt to get the creative juices flowing that centers on your dreams. She offers a variety of ways to approach it. Coincidentally, Bridgette of Contemplating the Moon was talking about her 'burnt umber' dreams. With all that talk of dreaming, I guess its no surprise that I had another art dream.

It was gold, warm, and glowing. It was a row of lace paper dolls. I remember thinking, "Yes! Paper dolls. That is genius!!" Then I woke up, and all I could think was, "Paper dolls? What the heck?!"

Oh well. While listening to a seminar I had the itch to scribble in my journal. No amazing ideas were forthcoming so I took a page I'd already prepared with blue, and pink doggie stamps (hand carved, inspired by the paper cutting M.Kate sent), then made my chain of lace paper dolls.

A Day of Sharing Song

"Who couldn't use a few new songs in their hearts?" says L.K. Ludwig from The Poetic Eye.

Today I invite you to slide around the house in your stocking feet dancing to Feist.

I've been working on a Mozart experiment. I love Mozart and I wanted to see how he would influence my artwork. The Brahms experiment worked really well, but as I was getting into this painting I realized that I was ready to throttle something after listening to those perky sixteenth notes. I kind of did throttle something... here's a corner of the painting in progress... poor thing.

Ahh! Silence. That felt better, but now I was decidedly cranky. Feist's sassy tune was a great mood modifier. In the quest for inspirational studio music, I'm going to check out what other bloggers have posted for their day of song sharing. Care to join me?

Psychology and Photography

Ken Doody does figurative photography. He's always on the lookout for models, so I said 'yes' and we did the shoot last winter. What's interesting is the way his work as a psychologist informs his art. He has a great interest in people and how they perceive themselves.

This is me venting my frustrations on trying to find parking in St. John. Just joking :D A little acting was required to get a range of emotions.

These were taken at Ken's studio in St. John. So very cool, they have a studio co-op. That's six artists sharing the same space so rent is ridiculously low. *Sigh* Dreaming of cheap studio space in Moncton...

If you'd be interested in modeling, you will probably run into him at an opening at Buckland's gallery, like I did or he wouldn't mind if you sent him an email (realfilmfotos@hotmail.com).

Raymond Martin, child psychologist/artist did a presentation for our club, Café des Artistes, last Thursday. He has a joyous, distinct style and he told us a bit how the way his work informs his art.

For artists who have a day job, it can be frustrating to find the time to create (or artists without a day job for that matter!). It's a relief to realize that time spent at work, on mundane activities, or taking care of our families informs our artwork and makes it richer. What do you think. Is it even possible, or desirable to create in a vacuum?

An Artist's Date that will make you overflow with creativity

Creatives need refueling. I found after watching the video Chihuly, River of Glass that I went into a heightened state of observation. Everything around me was sharper, more intense and informing my work. Parts of the film brought tears to my eyes, and other parts had me cheering out loud. You have got to make a date to see it!!!

What I love about painting or literature is being able to create or view another world. The painting or book becomes a portal to a fantasy place of escape. Dale Chihuly's glass brings that world here and that would be the first reason to check it out.

But then there's the collaboration on the project itself. The film somehow bottles the enthusiasm, passion and creative high of the artists for you to drink in. Chihuly as conductor, has them pushing the limits of their medium like never before and making history in the process. He also gets "some of the most extraordinary masters in the history of glass, not just the 20th century" working on the making these glass chandeliers that will hang outside over the canals of Venice.

You can get a peek of the film on his website, and many other stimulating projects. There are plenty of interviews, collaborations, and exhibitions for you to use to inform your art. If you're not an artist, watch of course for the joy of it, and to refresh your creativity and problem solving skills.

Design and Chaos

8x8" mixed media

The leaves on this piece are made of mica sheets. You can find these online at Stampington. After cutting out the leaf shape with scissors, I stamped holes all around the edge of the sheet by tapping a sewing needle with a hammer. Then I wrapped gold thread through the holes and sewed the paper and rock layers together.

I made the paper using a similar process to batik. When the paper was cured, I drew bramble branches and sharp little leaves into the chaos. They're very subtle and won't be noticed by most. Still, they were very satisfying to do. I love putting a bit of design into chaos. Art reflects life, hah, hah.
This tiny piece took ages to do. I wanted to take it in a direction where the brambles were more noticeable, but it wasn't working. When I was finally ready to let go (after letting the piece sit for months), I was able to move ahead.

Of Inspiration and Rebellion

30x30" This one's a substantial size.

This new painting changes depending on the time of day and the lighting. In the morning the golds really pop. It feels energized. At night the black gets richer. It feels cosy. I tried to give you an idea of the changes by taking a photo in shadow and a photo in sunlight, but it won't be quite as noticeable.



The piece has about fifteen layers of paint, maybe more. I lost count after a bit. It started out white and gold and very light. While poking around Jeane's blog I found this post showing all the layers that she put on, rubbed off, sprayed and all the amazing patinas she came up with. At one point she covered over her painting completely with a layer of black. Wow. Now to me that was brave. As soon as I thought of doing it myself, my heart went up into my throat in excitement. It would be breaking one of the 'rules' of this routine I've made for myself. A little thing, just choosing a different value pattern, but breaking the rules is so exciting.

My heart was still throbbing up in my throat while I worked. I broke into a worried sweat thinking, "should I have done this?" and then it started to pull together and I felt like I was riding the wind.

The Woman's Retreat

Nomad, 15x30" finished September 6, 2006

This is an old painting, but I thought it appropriate because of the nomadic theme. For the month of September, I was on a 'forced retreat.' I think that may be a dream come true for a number of us. The Woman's Retreat Book was one of the books I had with me. It describes itself as a "comfort" book. Sometimes we don't want scads of advice, so much as comfort. So I didn't get to read all of it- but that's ok the book says. It encourages choosing what you want from it like a buffet. Perhaps you don't have time to retreat. It offers retreat suggestions that take 15 minutes. Can't afford a retreat? It has great ideas on making your home feel 'retreatable' so you're taking the time you need for you and not sneaking in a load of laundry. There's even a special section called "Feeding the Artist" to boost creativity. My big issue (issue? could be even more like a phobia, lol) was the "what if I get bored?" As claimed the book offered comfort so when the boredom hit I just rode it out like a wave. I found out boredom is not so scary or inefficient. In three weeks, I had about 2 minutes of uncomfortable boredom. The resulting peace helped me to get needed rest and relaxation.

This photo was taken when I was playing around with my spouse guy's mac. I thought I'd be able to photograph some of my sketches in the photobooth but they looked awful. That lead to playing around in photoshop for the first time and noticing the interesting lines in the tent. Luck would have it that the sun came out for a moment and I got a composition that I liked. I'm pretending to be enlightened, heh, heh and really that's the whole point of a retreat. Umm, enlightenment that is. Not pretending to be. Ah well...

1.An excercise in "artistic individuality" 2.Meeting new people

When Johnny Comes Marching Home, mixed media, 8x11"

What inspires you? Externally focused art is born from what the artist sees around them. When an artist draws inspiration from their thoughts and feelings you could call it internally focused. Then there's a whole range where an artist can fit between the two.

After learning how to draw, I lost interest in making external art. What goes on inside myself, or what I imagine is going on inside someone else as opposed to painting the outside world around me is what stimulates my creativity.

I've increasingly felt the need to do projects outside of my regular style. Even small discoveries can fuel and refine artwork, so I'm working through the projects in Finding Your Visual Voice. It's been liberating.The piece above was an exercise based on a dream I had a couple months ago about the aftermath of war. Since the immediacy of the dream was long gone when I went to finish this, I listened to a Roger Waters recording that would invoke some of the same feelings. It's not a place I like to be.

It's necessary to express negative feelings. Some artists are able to shake things up- wake up people who are cocooned in apathy. That is one way to bring about change. For me though, the message has to stay positive. A completely negative message has a destructive effect on me and I think focusing on what's bad in the world and what's not working without seeing any good will destroy one's spirit. A broken spirit is not so helpful in bringing about positive changes. So I restrained myself a bit with this piece. I kept some detachment and I learned to respect that my art has to be about hope.

If you're in need of a good dose of positive messages on what's beautiful in life, stop in to visit Tracy of Pink Purl. She's the sweetest and I'm sure you'll feel 'at home' right away. I have a big thanks to Tracy for giving me this award. Thank you Tracy! What an unexpected gift!

I realize I've been a tad too introverted for a blogger. I've been happy to read my regulars and haven't been out meeting new people. My favs are so good I'd nominate them gladly again, but I'm going to break the 'rules' a bit here (I like how Tracy put the rules in quotation marks). I've been following The Pulse lately from The Altered Page to find some new and interesting reads and I'm going to nominate some of my favorites from that list. So most of these people don't know me yet, but I already love their blogs!

Here's the "rules":


1. Please put the logo on your blog.

2. Link the person from whom you received your award.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put the links of those blogs on to your blog.

5. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them!


1. Art Vein Vessel (an exception. I do know Kate!)

2. Ramblings

3. David Castle Art

4. Contemplating the Moon

5. Artistic Journeys

6. Into the Blystic Elis Cooke

7. Be...Dream...Play... and Listen

Studio fun!

Goofing around with crayons is fun. I love the smell of them (ahhh! first memories of art making smell) and they keep me from being too serious. They got me craving 'grown-up' crayons- pastels. They're so creamy! I love pushing, blending and scraping with this medium. It's so sensual! I'm letting pastels be a medium for "play art" not anything I plan to show. I find it freeing. In the end it feeds my work.

Here's some more fun from the early art days. In grade one our teacher squirted black paint from a dishsoap container onto our paper. She gave us a straw and had us blow the paint around to make a tree. You get some really great shapes with this! I don't know what kind of formula she used, because acrylic even watered down doesn't move very well. I think she may have used kid's tempura paints (more good smells). I figured I'd try it with ink, since that would move well. Fluid acrylics might work too.

There is a small issue with the ink. Each time I placed the straw full of ink down on the paper and blew, it made a great big bubble that burst leaving these funny, circular growths. Since cropping is always possible, that's not such a big deal.

Jace told me about a way cool site The Daily Monster.

It has videos where the artist, Stephan G Bucher, drops some ink onto his page, takes some compressed air (you know those cans that you use to clean out the computer keyboard? at office supply stores) and from the resulting shapes he makes a monster. It's fascinating and relaxing to watch. He also has a blog by the same name where you can share your ink monsters. I think I'll try the compressed air next time to save some puff.

Tree of Life

This painting is for a very special little one that Aurélie and Mathieu are expecting in two weeks. We played twenty questions about a month ago. They told me about their views on parenting, how their world view changed when they found out they would be parents, hopes, excitement and all the good things expectant parents go through. I took the interview, thought about their answers and set about to represent some of those thoughts in the painting above.

This is the first finished painting where I used the lapis lazuli gemstone paint. Mathieu and Aurélie are really down to earth and aren't impressed by a material show so this color wasn't chosen for it's rarity but more for its symbolism. In the past artists have used it for the sacred. There is something so inestimable, and even spiritual about the beginnings of a happy family unit that this just fits.

I found it to be a very emotional piece to work on and very satisfying. It's like I could feel the tenderness for my as yet unborn children. Hmm? How much to share? I think I'll leave it at that. Suffice it to say, it was a magical experience creating this piece.

The couple also had a piece done when they were married so it's been very special to witness their life's journey together. Would you like to meet Aurélie? She sang at my exhibit last December. The words of the song are especially significant. In case you don't understand French, they mean in essence: Why is life worth living with all the problems around us? Answer: Love.