A Hole in My Fence

We moved everything out of the garage under our big spruce trees thinking the fence provided enough protection… not that anyone would want the stuff. Now we have a huge hole instead of a garage. This is my new studio. The cement pad will get a facelift with the addition of a couple of inches. It is raining today so it won’t happen right away. Once the new surface is dry the framing begins. Can you see how beautiful it will be? I love my new space already! In the meantime things are bustling as usual. I am preparing and delivering three paintings to Harcourt House for the upcoming member show. As well a small commission awaits completion so I can send it off by email for approval then off to the printers for some copies… Life drawing this afternoon, my granddaughter’s presentation this morning and a visit to the grandkids tonight… Life is good.

Contour Drawing

Recently I submitted five drawings to show in the upcoming Naked Show “Stark” at Harcourt House. Two were selected, one of which you see above. I have a tendency to minimalist mark making; I prefer a clean edge. It is not always possible to achieve a one-line visual of the form before me. Some days I should just stay home! On this particular day the model happened to position himself in ways that were conducive to a group image. As I added each image I felt myself tense knowing the next one might ruin the whole project. Deep breathing helps. Letting go of perfection also aids in maintaining the necessary connection between the eye and the hand, to stay in the flow. Drawing is at its best when I no longer need to think about the how. Often, in order to enter into that sacred space where the seeing and the feeling move together, I stop and stare for a while. There is not a lot of time as my best connection happens in the two to five minute poses. As soon as I feel I have entered that timeless zone I put pen to paper. In this case I put several pens to paper with a little pencil added in. The different colours pull the figures forward or push them back. Fascinating! I love what I do. Life is good.

Serious Questions

It is time to reevaluate. Just the other day I took the time to listen to a discussion about how art is viewed in today’s world and how that has changed over the centuries. In our visual saturated environment we artists seem to garner respect from a diminishing few. So why do we keep painting? How do we connect to a wider audience? There was a general consensus about the why. It seems to be in our DNA; wired into our very fabric as human beings. I cannot NOT paint. I have even tried not to paint. I have ignored, denied and resisted to no avail. My soul desire rests in the creative delight. I am happiest when I am painting and there is no amount of hiding that can change that. So how do I pay for my passion? Lori Wolfson suggests a spiritual dimension in our creativity is the basis for connection. My work does have that dimension. Many people connect and remain with the images I create. Perhaps they are too disturbing. After all I am calling people to an awareness of the possibility of changing our world into a paradise through taking on responsibility in the project. Perhaps all they want in a nice place to hide for a while. So do I paint pretty pictures and abandon my mission? Do I starve my soul to feed my stomach? Does that sit with my sense of integrity? Since I am not starving (thanks to my husband) I am in a fortuitous position to continue the quest. Perhaps in my exploration I will discover the precise balance. If I listen well… I await my muse. Life is good.

Commitment

Yesterday, blog day, was the date of my parents’ wedding anniversary. I am not sure why it came to mind. They had celebrated fifty years together just before my dad died. I also bumped into an eighty-eight year old at the pool who said she and her husband who is eighty-nine will be celebrating their sixtieth in October. Over the weekend I shared a little about our thirty years of togetherness, Martin and I, with a young man who was just married last September. It all comes down to commitment.  Every once in a while my commitment to writing my blog gets displaced. I was about to plunge into the exercise when I discovered my computer was trying to connect to the internet in order to send a submission I thought had been sent on Thursday last week. I left it overnight next to our router hoping it would be done by morning… Technology.  I checked it this morning and kept poking at it over breakfast. Finally completed the missive is only four days late… with the correct date on it. Who knows? My commitment to my studio is waylaid at present as well. Life gets in the way. I do plan on getting in the doors tomorrow. Today bookwork, another commitment, is taking precedent. I priorize my commitments according to need and my life seems to work best on the wave principal. Studio time comes in clumps, bookkeeping comes in clumps. I have always loved the sea. Life is good.