Kicking Back – acrylic on canvas 20″ X 24″ $350

I am learning about accepting creations that are not quite done, did not turn out as I expected and those that need more work.  I am trying to learn creative patience:  it might not be looking right but it might later or I might later see what needs to be done to make the piece better.   At the moment, I am vacillating between creating another painting or reworking the one that I had already done. I realize that I sometimes hang on to a piece for emotional reasons.  Having put this down in writing, I am struck that this realization is completely irrational.s I have learned that as I continue to create, my work improves and I could create an even better rendition of this very same image.  I have often found that writing works similarly:  I frantically write, read it silently, re-read silently again and it sounds fine.  However, when I read the work aloud I am able to note needed corrections and changes.

It is wonderful to be a part of all of these lessons.  My creative journey continues to move, flow and change.  I am delighted to apply all that I am learning.

I have been blessed to be a person who can look at something and be able to recreate it pretty easily.  When I create something and it usually turns out well.  I am able to draw a selected genre of images well and am adept at brush stroking many lettering fonts.  I am not bragging, I am stating a simple fact.  Living this paradigm has left me a bit surprised as my art grows in the direction of two dimensional works. I find myself surprised by the amount of work that I have to put in to most of the two dimensional art pieces.  I have to graph the image, graph the painting surface and then finally draw the image out so that I can paint it.  I am still working on “seeing” the image so I study the image from time to time.  All of this preparation threatens to derail my interest, I have a medically short attention span that I constantly work to manage through behavioral modification tools that I have in my tool box. I have worked, over the last several years, to develop sketching skills, skills that would allow me to quickly capture an image, a scene, a mood.  As I said earlier, I can draw however sketching continues to challenge me.  I have developed a habit of sketching when I travel and during my grandson’s weekly guitar lessons. Recently I was preparing for a coming art class.  I had selected some images to use for reference and decided to experiment with different mediums that I had not worked with.

To my utter amazement, the quick sketch captured the essence of the image that I was looking at.  With much gladness, I realized that my increased practicing was paying off.  I will hold this near and dear as I continue on this wonderful, creative journey that I am on.

My “favorist” sister-in-love recently commented on the art series that I have been working on.  I initially thought that odd until I processed it a bit more.  The series that I was working on were for an art show.  While searching for a particular image, for a painting that I had pre-titled “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not”, I found several other images that would challenge me in my current painting method.  As a result of that accidental find I painted a “series” of macro flowers.  It reminded me that I had painted several piles of rocks that I found from the shores of Lake Superior all the way to Northern Maine and that those paintings would be considered to be a series.  I must simply conclude that, much to my surprise, my art truly resembles my life.  My life has been a series of series, relationships, the colors that I wear, my interests . . . Some people recall events in relatiohsnhip to timeI am looking forward to the next series

Ahh, I am now working on creating a bridge, a path, a relationship with my past art and the work that I am creating today.

I had abandoned my past art work as my life changed.  I had made a geographical change, the main gallery in which I sold my work had closed, I was engrossed in building a cord wood house (with our own hands and with help from my son and various other friends and family – no general or sub contractors for my daughter and I) and I craved color in my art.  I did not want to introduce artificial colors in to my baskets as I was a bit of a purist about the origin of materials, their natural state and the hand methods with which I created my baskets.

Now I find myself in another pivotal stage in my life and I realize that I have gone 492° – from creating baskets out of pine needles, porcupine quills and tree roots that I had painstakingly harvested by hand to brandishing cans of spray paint while suitably masked, ventilated and clothed.  Let’s see where this goes . . .