Feeling Good!

It is always fun to see your painting hanging in another home...or any place other than your house or studio. It kind of gives you a good feeling. This is one of the paintings I did when we lived in England. It is titled Looking into France. The neat thing is this room's opposite wall has an impressionistic painting done looking into the English Channel from Normandy, France. So geographically, they are correct. The painting on the wall was done by a previous owner of this Victorian house and the present owner doesn't have the heart to paint over it!

I felt quite honored to have such a place of honor in this house...above the fireplace mantle in the main sitting room of the house.

Does it make you feel good to see your work hanging in different places?

Now, tomorrow you can read my conversation with the very fine artist, Suki, on this blog. You don't want to miss this very exciting artist's views and insights.

One other thing I wanted to mention was if you are interested in having your blog listed on a Blog Art List visit Alex who has started a new list.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Different Monday!

My apologies for not getting to you today, but my day did not go as planned. I will be posting tomorrow.

One thing I want you to know is I will be having a Conversation this week with Suki. So please return for that...it is looking like an event you will not want to miss!

I will talk with you tomorrow!

Have a Beautiful Evening!

So Many Gifts!

Each day I come to this blog wondering what I will talk about. This week not only has mother nature given me some ideas as gifts, but also blog friends have given me gifts of ideas.

In response to my post on Slow Art, Andrea sent me this book which had been introduced to her by her brother who is also a creative person. I had never heard of The Discovery of Slowness by Sten Nadolny. It is a work of historical fiction about the life of Sir John Franklin who was a 19th century Arctic explorer. I have just started this book, but already it is proving to be a very good read. Thank you so much Andrea! I am going to very much enjoy this very thoughtful gift.

This morning I wake up to two emails which are also very worthy of mention here. The first one is from Robert Genn who writes The Painter's Keys newsletter. He is talking about clones of paintings being made. He has experienced this happening with his own works. He speaks of the importance of mastering your own technique which cannot be cloned because it is not YOU. I can't find this online anywhere, but if you will email me in the next day or so, I will forward this newsletter to you. If you are willing to wait until next week, it will be on Robert's site.

The other email I received is from our dear friend San Meredith. San sent me the link to a short video of a Finnish rock band known as The Leningrad Cowboys who are in concert with The Red Army Choir. They are performing an American Southern Rock song, Sweet Home Alabama. Now while this video is great fun to watch (you really need to see this), it also made me think how important ART is in bringing people together. It truly is a common language.

Thank you to all of these people who have given me so much not only for this blog, but also just for me. You are all an inspiration!

I hope these send you into the weekend with lots to think about.

Quite An Experience

Just 3 hours after I had taken the photographs of the deer in our yard yesterday, we had a series of severe storms which came through the area. On the first wind gust of the first storm, look what happened:


This is a red oak tree from our next door neighbor's back yard. This is a photo of our front yard. My son saw this tree fall from his bedroom window. Needless to say, he was a bit shaken by seeing this fall past his window. We had just come in the house, but at that point we gathered ourselves and went to the basement to weather out the storm.
This is where the tree fell across the fences and landscaping into the front yard.
I took this photo from our front porch, so you can see this tree in the yard. It barely missed our house.
The fire department came by for a visit and to tell me there was extensive damage throughout our large county. Our electricity was out (for a total of 14 hours) and they turned off the gas service to our neighbors house as there had been a great ground shift there when the tree fell.
This is our neighbor's house. Thankfully, this is the garage, so they can still reside there.
Isn't this interesting?
Look at where it is...

When my son and I were in the basement, this is what it looked like out the window there. It was raining very hard, so this downed tree looked quite strange out the window.

This morning when I went out, I found out this is really minor damage in our area. There are streets closed off because there are still trees across electrical lines and unstable buildings. We are lucky to have our electricity back on, because others in the area are not so lucky. The weather forecast calls for more storms today. Since it is to be close to 90 degrees F, I hope we can keep our electricity.

Today, I am feeling very grateful.

A Simple Turn

I just looked up this morning and saw this deer in our back yard. I did not want to spook her, so I took these photos through the window (literally 2 minutes ago) and about 10' (3.5 meters or so) from her. This is the reason for some of the reflection you see here.

Here is a shot to show you how close she was to the house. This is the edge of the deck area which is just about 6' (2 meters or so) from the house.

The strength of so many animals to live in our suburban environment just a very few miles from a very urban environment never ceases to amaze me.

What amazes you today?

Mentors

Among the books I recently ordered was this one Ian Jackman edited. The Artist's Mentor is interesting and thought provoking. Jackman admits at the beginning he is not a visual artist but a writer. However that is one reason I decided to purchase this book. I felt it was to my advantage to understand a non-visual artist's take on visual art.

The book is set up in two parts. The first part is more about defining art, making a living at art and working in the field. The second part is about creating art and what it means to be an artist. Most of the book looks at quotes from famous artists and puts them in relationship to the various topics covered and reminds us to consider them in context of time and place.

Do I like this book...well, it is not a book which you sit down to read cover to cover and it isn't one you go to for suggestions, but it is a book I find myself picking up to poke me along sometimes. One of the things which I found interesting was how so many artists used to have tremendous self-doubt. Oh, believe me, I have my moments, but many artists used to completely obsess about it. Most likely we have them to thank for clearing that up for us all as well as having the technology to connect with each other instantly. Then there is the part that gets me riled up when there are the quotes indicating only men can paint (then I keep remembering I am supposed to be taking these quotes in reference to time and place, but it still gets me going). I know I will pick this book up from time to time as a reference and it is small so I an carry it around, too. I usually need more pokes to get going when I am away from home.

Now, I do have lots of people I consider mentors (you are most likely one of them), but these are artists of the past. Those we have studied and read about over the years and that makes a difference. I think having this small book with these bits of information spread out in a quick to read, quick to find fashion is helpful on a daily basis. I also think this is probably a good book to give as a gift, if you have that need. :)

So sometimes when you are working in the middle of the night, the person you wish to talk to about something is on the other side of the world, you just don't want to talk or if you just need to add a bit to the cart for that free shipping...this book might be a nice one to have on your shelf. Now, if you don't often have these needs, by all means don't spend your money on this particular book.

Another book I am patiently waiting for is Creative Authenticity however it is on back order and I am now waiting another month for it. Oh well...I have plenty to read these days.

So do you find it helpful to talk about your art concerns with other people? Do you like to know what some of your favorite artists had to say on a particular subject of art? Who or what is your mentor? Do you know if you are a mentor for anyone? What are you reading?

I hope you are filled with inspiration and pleasure today.

Slow Art

I am, by nature, generally a slow person. I like to savor life and the things it has to offer, and even the lessons it has to teach me. Sometimes I do not go through the latter with as much grace as I would like, but I often move through it slowly making sure I have learned as much as I needed to learn.

With this in mind, it would be no surprise I am also a fan of the Slow Movement and Slow Food. One of my favorite books is In Praise of Slow by Carl Honore. My family thought it was hilarious I would read a book which encouraged slowness in life, but I learned a lot.

So lately I have been enjoying time in my studio and really getting meditative with every little brush stroke (or card slap or finger poke - well, you get the idea) I place on the canvas. I even can't stop brushing clear glaze layers on...which really intensifies the colors, by-the-way. Since I took the time (slow, again) to recognize I was doing this, I thought I would explore the web presence and idea of Slow Art.

This is a work in progress I have been working on almost daily for several weeks. In my mind, there is still plenty to do.

I was able to find some information about Slow Art, but there isn't a great deal out there, yet. One of the most thought through sites I found was a blog called, Slow Making. The two writers of this blog, MS Maker and Ampersand Duck, actually have a manifesto which reads a lot like the ones for Slow Food and the Slow Movement, in general. They asked for links to artist which met their manifesto, but I did not meet all of the requirements. I lacked in areas of sustainability where my materials were produced locally and my use of acrylics isn't exactly the most environmentally friendly. I do re-use a lot, though and meet many of their other needs. There is not a lot produced in this area where I live....well, with the exception of political bull**** (yes, yes, of course I mean "crap").

Of course I had some ideas in my own mind, which were similar to Grayson Perry's article in the Times Online. I thought that Slow Art (in my case) was creating art which encourages people to slow down and contemplate what the work means to them. In order to create Slow Art, you probably have to have a Slow Muse. Slow Art is really about creation as opposed to assembly, in-other-words, Slow Art is not "make-it and take-it" creations. I am taking my time with each work and really getting into where the process leads me.

This is another work in progress I have been working on for a while. It is no where near complete, but I am having a good time with it.

All of this Slow Talk got me to thinking about the other things I take my time with or which you can't always successfully rush. Slow doesn't mean you always move slowly, it just means you savor the parts of your life which are important to you. I thought raising my children took time and was really great. Growing plants and creating a beautiful meal takes time. You know you have to spend some times with all of that aroma, taste, textures and blending. Painting a room an entirely different color takes lots of time and provides great rewards. Learning a new language is often a slow process...at least for me it is...but I meet wonderful people and laugh a lot in the process. And real observation is truly a slow process, but I usually find the good in the places we live and visit. All of these things are well worth the time they take for me. When I can slow down enough to savor all life has to offer, I learn so much more in the process. And that makes my life so rewarding.

Now I am having a good time talking to you here this morning about slowness, but you might not have a day where you can linger over a lot of words. I really need to end this slow talking now. I wanted you to know why it seems to take me a lot of time to get works posted on here. I always want to reach out and make a connection with you. But sometimes I am just slow, or I need more time to contemplate. But rest assured, I will probably re-visit this topic.

So how about you? Do you move through life savoring the moments or the blocks of time? Do you find yourself wanting to linger over your art? Do you like to linger over life? What have been rewarding times for you to be slow?

Have a nice, slow day...