Artwala Road

In drawing class this week I had everyone work from photographs of flowers again. The class is most comfortable drawing nature and this gives us the chance to work on skills and to think about how we might like to use color in a strong expressive way. We looked at art in a book of prints and studied how other artists approached using both color and line. We experimented with making our drawing in a pale line then going back into it with color and deepening the lines if we wanted to do that.

At the end of the morning one woman said the class had changed her life. She’s a brilliant colorist but had never drawn before. The distance she’s come in a few months is amazing but more amazing is the way we are all coming forward together. It’s not just mutual support for what we’re doing but joining together to play and explore in the spirit that everyone has something brilliant to bring forward.

I’m taking that brilliance seriously. I’m intending we grow our art to the point that we can bring forward whatever we want to express. We’re studying boldness. There are so many ways we’ve all been shut down, so many ways our spirits have been tamed, especially we women. We’re all about being wild again. We’re moving beyond any need for approval or permisssion and letting it rip. We’re giving weight to nothing but the spirit that moves us. Hooray.
The image here was made first in pastel in class, then scanned and posterized in Photoshop. Just to make it bolder and brighter. We’ll explore digital printing as we go on.

February 26th, 2007 | Category: Drawing Life | Comments (2)

On Saturday I asked the ladies in our art class to draw in an abstract way for fifteen minutes while we listened to Sting. Some of us find it harder to draw nothing than to draw something specific even though when we were five we had no difficulty scribbling. Marks on paper are drawings and so much presents itself when we don’t have anything specific in mind. We’re getting back to being five again, to just playing and discovering and being and receiving. We tried drawing with fine lines and smudges—just those two elements.

Later we tried to draw from a photograph—a flower in a vase. Each was different. One of the ladies brought in the fine lines and smudges in the most brilliant way. There was beautiful delicacy and contrast between the two elements. That’s what it’s about—learning to play and to think in a creative way, learning to simplify, to break things down into the elements of line and tone, space, shape. Learning not to be literal but to be interpretive or expressive.  It gets easier with practice.
Next week we carry on but will add the element of color and consider the different ways that color could be used to create the image we want to create. And again, first, we will play and see what emerges for each of us. Then we’ll use both intention and inspiration to carry on.

February 20th, 2007 | Category: Dear Reader | Leave a comment

My friend Kathy Todd has a new website where you can catch a glimpse of some of her magical paintings. Kathy lived for many years on a small island called Tresco, part of the Scilly Isles off the southwest coast of England. The island itself is magical. There are no cars or pollution and visitors are soon swept up into the island’s peaceful energy. It’s quite extraordinary to experience a place so filled with bliss.
Kathy now lives in Penzance like the pirates once did but her paintings are still filled with the energy she discovered on Tresco. Many are infused with light and filled with peaceful energy. To me it’s one of the high purposes of art—to lift us up and remind us of peace and bliss. In this world they can be all too easy to forget. But through Kathy’s art you can bring that energy into your space and make your home a real sanctuary. It’s no wonder that many of Kathy’s paintings have found their way into healing environments like hospitals and acupuncture clinics.
So check it out. You can contact the artist directly for information about purchasing available art and commissioning new work. She also has giclee prints for sale. I promise this art will brighten your life!

http://www.kathytodd.co.uk/

February 15th, 2007 | Category: Dear Reader | Comments (2)

Yesterday Oprah had a traditional medical doctor on her show to answer questions. His name is Dr. Oz. There were the usual questions about cellulite and botox but also a segment where Oprah had her first acupuncture treatment. Dr. Oz became suddenly agitated and made an amazing pronouncement for a western doctor on mainstream television.

He said the present state of global communication allows us to learn about medicine from all over the world and what we synthesize is going back out around the world almost instantly. He said that the future of medicine is energy medicine. He said it is not surgery and not pharmaceutical drugs that try to change body chemistry but energy. And he a western doctor.

Many of us know this and now more people will open their minds. Oprah sat right up and said that no doctor would have said that on her show ten years ago. Western medicine has resolutely refused to acknowledge any form of energy medicine, even homeopathy. In the midst of that refusal a whole world of devoted explorers and pratitioners has brought knowledge and change to the world of healing.

I’m very grateful to Dr. Oz for spreading the word. He’s not the first but it does matter that he said this. So many people will now be encouraged to explore alternative healing. It’s a paradigm shift of major proportions.

Which brings me back to art. Real healing is finding our way back to a state of peace and contentment and truth. Art too can create good vibrations and is another form of energy medicine. I believe that’s art’s true purpose now. We should all have some.

February 14th, 2007 | Category: Dear Reader | Comments (2)