the journey continues

I keep looking at and into this piece I’m working on. So many layers of texture and color.

Here is the latest incarnation of the piece I call “this is the journey”:

but is it finished?

I’m not sure. I think I have to give it some time. I’m not used to the bright colors and I’m trying to get the four squares in one square look to go away.

The labyrinth was taken from a photo of a clay piece of mine and reduced to a kind of line drawing in photoshop. I printed it on photo paper and then used soft gel medium to get the ink to transfer to the painting.

I’ll leave it alone for awhile and then have another look and decide if it’s finished.

doing the work

As usual I’m trying to do too many things. You can see the results here. There are hardly any posts.

Have I been risking?  yup

A quick overview:

- new issue of Toward the Light journal coming out this week > I interviewed Nick Bantock, agonized over how to write the interview which finally came out as a collage of sorts thanks to the amazing photographic work of Vincent L. Chan of  invisionation.com

- taking a mixed media class and finding the joys of plaster> I love texture!

- became a “director at large” with Sooke Community Arts Council and started a website for them (still under construction) but here it is sookecommunityarts.com

- the studio is almost completed> now it’s time to purge and organize all my stuff 

For those of you who wonder about what the plaster is about – have a look:

This is plaster on board. Thick and thin, scraped, pushed, prodded etc. Let is cure for a day and then paint.

I wasn’t sure what this was going to be. At one point I thought I would be attaching an object in the lower left corner.

Then I changed my mind….

So I started painting, adding color over color, sanding some away and adding more later…

… loving the texture…

more color

some thinking

overthinking

time to leave it alone for a while

then I noticed some text I had torn off some work of mine and added it to the piece “this is the journey”

I’m letting it incubate now.

more later …

in development

I’m still dragging my feet. I supposed to be developing my new website, this blog and more to the point – my art.  I want to do it all – sculpt clay, bend and shape metal, layer collage, make journals, write a story. I’ve got ideas and ideas and ideas. I do nothing. It’s supposed to be about “no risk, no art”.

Obviously I’m not risking.

I say I’m in development.

It’s time to show up for the work.

of order and chaos

 

I created this collage on my Spain trip and have dubbed it “map of Spain”. I think of it as an exploratory piece, a jumping off point for further collage explorations and as a springboard for writing.

 

The task was to create a piece showing movement from chaos to order. The whole time I was creating it I was thinking “I can always cover it up”. This gave me a freedom to push through my resistance since collage is not the usual medium I work in.

 

My original post was going to talk about the fact that I can’t work in just one medium. After a day in the studio, cleaning and unpacking some of my older work I realized I CAN’T DO JUST ONE THING. I love the variety of being able to pick and choose whether to paint, collage, sculpt, write etc

 

Words are another medium for me.  I revisited some of my work tonight (not being able to do just one thing)  and found this poem, never finished that seems to speak to this collage. It is untitled.

 

 

these hands have been empty too long and too dark it is to find out what I can pick up

 too black and no white and no color

how could there be no paper dream white ready to empty my soul onto

how could there be no color to capture what I am saying

perhaps it is up to my hands to surround the black hold it coax it into shapes that sing

these hands would not be empty would be full of shape black and long piercing

calling out the red flow the red life blood

then there would be color

 

creative practice

I can’t do just one thing. I love working with different materials because they push and pull me in different directions and stimulate my creativity and growth. Each different medium provides me with a new language, a different way of telling a story and another connection to the people around me.

 

Besides working in clay, metal, paper etc. I write story and poetry. I also co-edit and design a magazine/journal. Though the words and images are not mine, I find it an exciting and energetic creative practice. Along with my co-editor, Fenna Schaapman, Toward the Light: Journal of Reflective Word & Image is published twice a year in summer and winter. The summer 2008 issue is now going out into the  world and I’m very proud of it. It’s full of wonderful images and words including an interview with poet Susan Musgrave and prize winning poetry and photography. We spent the extra money to make it be as beautiful as possible with glossy paper and a high end print process to better show the black and white photography and feel good in the hands.

 

Though it is a magazine/journal it has the appearance of a small book since it is perfect bound and has a spine.

 

Curious?  Please check out Toward the Light to see what it’s all about. Comments and Questions? Please email me via the comments panel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

duende

This past spring I had the experience of attending a collage workshop with Nick Bantock called “Delivered by accident in twilight”. The bonus is that it occured in Spain. We “used” the workshop as a reason to travel and it was well worth the jet lag.

Some of the concepts I learned with Nick:

• the idea of accident in collage, the layers of meaning
• how to work small > collage in a four inch space!
• collage first, story second >story can evolve out of the visual if you let it
• art is an attempt at truth
• ask for what you want
• my art goes where my words can’t
• picture = story > images and objects within = nouns
• duende

Duende is a big one. The Spanish poet Lorca spoke of it.  Nick described it as the spirit of the earth + your passion and creativity, awful in its magnificence.

While in Sevilla, we “found” Duende right outside our hotel.

We laughed and laughed.

Duende found us.

It’s a dead end alley with bars on the windows

which just goes to show

there’s more going on on the inside that the outside.

Goethe said duende is “A mysterious power that all may feel and no philosophy can explain.”

It’s a concept I’m going to research more and maybe search for.

One more thing Nick said: “Art should be a combination of the bordello and the temple.”

More duende? 

 

no risk, no art

I learned the concept of “no risk no art” last summer in a painting workshop and held onto the thought as I wrestled with the idea of what it means for me to be an artist.

If I don’t risk in the creative process, if I don’t push past the barriers of negative thoughts, limitations (perceived or real) or the various materials I am using, then I can’t grow.

I’m here to grow.

I risk, I create.

That is what this tiny watercolor is about: the seed of an idea planted.

Tomorrow, or perhaps the day after: creative practice and moving toward “series”