I mentioned before in a couple of posts that my three miniature pieces from a traveling exhibit called Tripletta were sold, and that I was working on pieces to replace them. You would think that making something 2.5 by 3.5 inches would be easy, but apparently it is not, at least for me. I'm having a hard time getting inspired to make more pieces on the Seed Story theme, which my original pieces were based on. I suppose it's not strictly necessary that I continue that theme, so I made some pieces that I call Prayer Flags (here, here, and here), which I may send to the show. But I'm also trying out some Seed Story pieces, just to see which I like best.
So here are a couple of new Seed Story pieces. See what you think:
Seed Story V
Seed Story VI
All of these pieces are monotypes with mixed media, by the way. So, what do you think? Do you like these better than the Prayer Flags? Thanks in advance for your opinion/help!
I don't know about all of you, but this frigid gray weather is beginning to drag me down a bit. I found this inspiring video about artist Kal Barteski, and thought I'd share it here. Her determination to follow her dream has sustained her through grerat adversity, and I felt a keen sense of kinship with her. In her story, I have found encouragement; I hope you will, too.
I've also been greatly inspired by artist/blogger Sophie Munns' work with seed biodiversity. Like Kal, she uses her work to promote a cause she feels deeply about.
Kal and Sophie are superlative examples of how it's possible to put art to work in service to the greater good, and to remain true to ourselves while making art.
I hope this post won't offend you or bore you, but it might. I wrote it, mainly, as a reminder to myself, and for anyone else out there who may need it.
Can't see the forest for the trees
Sometimes things just don't go the way they should, or, rather, I should say, the way we think they should. This winter has been one of those times. My closest friend struggles to come to terms with the senseless death of someone very close to her. Another friend has a severely disabled husband to care for, without the financial means to do so. My problems are small compared to theirs; I continue to add to a collection of health problems brought on by a job that becomes more and more stressful each day, and can't seem to find a way to resolve the situation. Yesterday I learned that someone from whom I should be able to expect support had made some very negative comments on my yearly evaluation. At first I was hurt and angry, but I've been through enough in my life to know that these feelings won't do anyone any good- to say the least. I recalled the Buddha's famous quote:
"Your greatest enemy is your greatest teacher."
Seems a bit confusing, right? To illustrate, Pema Chodron tells the story of the great Buddhist teacher, Atisha, who brings a very unpleasant servant with him to Tibet, because he fears the Tibetan people may be too nice! Read more about it here. Or, to hear another explanation in Chodron's own voice, watch the video below.
I'm trying to internalize this idea and put it into practice. In the meantime, the immediate challenges remain, and I'm no closer to figuring them out than before. But just when I think it's time to give up, someone puts inspiration right in front of my face, quite by accident. In this case, for instance, I had not looked at my notices from facebook, (which go to their own inbox apart from my regular email), in a very long time. I've just been too busy, too overwhelmed to even think about it. So, on this snow day, I was getting ready to delete all or most of the 854 facebook emails, when I thought, wait- maybe I should check first to see if there's anything important in there. The first thing I noticed was that I had missed a blog post by my dear friend Donna Iona Drozda. As I read it, I was so moved and inspired by the story of one woman's courage in the face of terrible odds, and by the beautiful art she made as a result, that I wanted to share it with you.
I saw a video of this little boy on the news the other night, and was amazed by his energy and positive attitude. You may have heard of him; his name is Robby Novak, but he calls himself the "kid president." His PEP TALK cracks me up and makes me feel better, no matter what.
According to the CBS Evening News, Robby loves to dance, but for him, dancing can be a problem. "Robby has osteogenesis imperfecta, a disease that makes his bones
brittle. He has had more than 70 broken bones and 13 surgeries. He has
steel rods in both legs.
But Robby says he doesn't worry about breaking things.
"I
don't worry about -- like, that's my point!" he exclaims. "I'm trying
not to worry about it. Like, I want everybody to know ... I'm not that
kid who breaks a lot. Like, I'm just -- I'm just a kid who wants to have
fun."
The Buddha said, “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”
It's all about how you think, what you choose to see, and the attitude you choose to have each day. I have to try to remember that.
Oh, and I have to share one more Buddha quote, which may be my ultimate favorite: “You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is
more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and
that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as
anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.”
Try not to forget that.
Well, that's it- the end of the preachy post. I hope it inspired you, but if not, next time I'll be back to the regular art stuff, I promise.
First of all, I want to thank my new followers; I always feel it's a great compliment when someone follows my blog. I'm grateful to have you along for the ride.
Secondly, I'm happy and honored to have my photo featured today in Chapter 4 of Still Life, part The Pulse, an ongoing online collaborative project by Seth Apter of The Altered Page. Seth is an inspiration to me because he seems to get 10 times as much done as any other person, and still manages to be a genuinely nice guy. I'm pretty sure that if did all that, I'd be tired and cranky! If you haven't seen the earlier editions, please check them out as well; there have been a wonderful variety of still life photos by amazing artist-bloggers who you may not have met yet!
I've enjoyed perusing all the photos so far; it's interesting to see what they reveal about the artists. Sometimes the photo seems to "fit" them completely; others you would never guess in a million years. And you'll find many fascinating new blogs to explore.
Inspiration can mean many things to many people. According to Wiktionary, inspiration means:
The act of inspiring or breathing in.
breath
The drawing of air into the lungs, accomplished in mammals by elevation of the chest walls and flattening of the diaphragm.
The act or power of exercising an elevating or stimulating influence upon the intellect or emotions; the result of such influence which quickens or stimulates; as, the inspiration of occasion, of art, etc.
A supernatural divine influence on the prophets, apostles, or sacred writers, by which they were qualified to communicate moral or religious truth with authority; a supernatural influence which qualifies men to receive and communicate divine truth; also, the truth communicated.
I was inspired by a visit to the blog of my friend Lynne Hoppe, who, in a couple of recent posts, featured glorious photos of some wild flowers that grow near her home in northern California. Right now I'm referring to definition #4, though her posts are definitely also a breath of fresh air. The flowers she posted reminded me of the astonishing beauty of similar ones I had seen in Glacier National Park, in Montana. I live in Kentucky, so our wildflowers are completely different from those of the northwest. (If you want to see what Kentucky wildflowers look like, I posted some photos of them here, here, here, here and here.) Anyway, when I saw Lynne's photos, I was inspired to look at my wildflower photos from Glacier, and they made my eyes so happy, I thought, why not post them so people from all kinds of different places with all kinds of different wildflowers can see them too? So that's what I did. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do.
gentian
glacier lily
indian paintbrush
bear grass and ?
forget me not
columbine- these we do have in Kentucky
geranium
saxifrage?
indian paintbrush
bear grass- Can you tell it's my favorite?
bear grass, indian paintbrush, and ?
I apologize for not having identified most of the plants; I will hopefully look them up and make an addendum in the next day or so.
I've been doing some small collages lately, most of which I consider to be primarily "just" practice and experimentation. It took me a long time to figure it out, but I know this much is true: art comes from the making. My undergrad drawing instructor used to say this all the time. At first I thought it made no sense at all. Of course the art won't be there if someone doesn't make it! It's like the phrase so many people are saying now, "It is what it is". I mean, that goes without saying, doesn't it? Taken for its literal meaning, it actually denotes nothing at all, but the connotation is that you can't change the aforementioned "it" - you just have to accept it and move on; it's a given. There is an understood meaning associated with those words which amounts to much more than the sum of the words themselves.
OK, so what my instructor meant by that vague and seemingly meaningless phrase is that the only way to make better art is to keep making art. If you're uninspired, make something; if you're blocked, make something; if you feel like giving up, make something. Maybe it won't be great, or even any good, but if you keep going, it may, eventually, lead to something good (or even great). Eventually. In the meantime, you are honing your skills, and learning from each mistake, as well as from those things that, surprisingly, work out better than you ever dreamed they would. You'll take risks that you probably wouldn't take if you're thinking of it as a perfectly finished piece of art, and arrive at better ways of doing things.
I may have said all this before, but I think it bears repeating, mainly to remind myself of its fundamental truth. For most of us, there are no shortcuts; as Einstein said, "Genius is 10 percent inspiration and 90 perspiration." Don't sit around waiting for something to happen, for a bolt of creative lightning from the sky to enlighten you with some amazing idea. It takes profound perseverance, hard work, and practice to achieve success. So that's my little motivational speech to myself, and to any of you out there that may need one as well. Or, if you're tired of hearing it, you can just refer it to the Department of Redundancy Department.
OK, I feel much better now. So, here's my latest collage:
As often happens in Springtime, it has rained here all weekend. It started on Friday night, and rained all day Saturday. Then, when it was finally finished, another storm came in right behind it. If I look out the window right now... yep- still raining. Somehow the rhythm of the rain got inside me. All I could see, hear, think of, was rain. This is what it became.
Storm Front
Ingredients: monotype, Caran D'Ache crayons, watercolor pencils, acrylic ink, acetate, acrylic gel medium, PVA glue. 6" x 10"
Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby. ~Langston Hughes
Rain! whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains. ~Henry Ward Beecher
