Artwala Road

Just got off the phone with my dear friend, Marie, whom I’ve known now for years and years. She told me she reads my blog every week. Well, here’s to you, Marie! She and her husband Dave are two of the finest people on the planet and we consider them most excellent friends. Which you’d have to be to wade through this blog if you’re not an artist!!!

Tomorrow is the first day of the new session of art class, in which a wondrous group of artist friends get together to push the limits. Stay tuned.

September 29th, 2007 | Category: Dear Reader | Leave a comment

My new art site is www.deepdishart.com. Both the name and the site will change in time. It’s a very basic site. I was able to work from a template and put the stuff up myself. This has given me the freedom to think through what I want on the site, gather the work together and arrange it in an order that makes sense to me.

It was an interesting process because I found I have a lot of art that just didn’t need to go up. I want to focus on new work and that is evolving—more rapidly than I expected. So, this is a work in progress, like so many these days it seems, but something that has given me a lot of pleasure to compose. Hope you enjoy it too. I will be posting new art there regularly.

September 24th, 2007 | Category: Dear Reader | Comments (7)

Grrrrrr. Getting pissed off is a good thing….sometimes. What a week. Spent four days organizing old art stuff to make promotional foray into an area I’d left behind already and with much gratitude—both for what it had once given me and for the fact that I could now leave it behind. It took me a while to get it. Grrrr. Just couldn’t do it. It’s over. No going back and that’s a good thing. Had to feel that impatience. Then, presto—done! I cannot go back to an old life—there’s no room for it with all the new things happening.  So that was interesting.

Then an old friend called to say that her marriage had broken up. It didn’t come as a surprise. Still it’s always sad. So we felt sad and concerned. We know the path ahead has its own trials and its own brilliance, if you pay attention and do it right. So we wish them both well.

Then, yesterday, a wedding. One of Dear A’s students, a lovely young woman and her sweet chap, head over heels in love and just twenty-two. His parents were not pleased. They just could not flow with this and the hostility burned bright. But we wish this sweet young couple the best. We wish that they have the courage to stand up against the disapproval lobbed their way and that they can simply be themselves and nourish the love they’ve found. Stay true to themselves.

Today, a lovely invitation—to be in two art shows.  I have to marvel at that because I make no effort in the direction of art. Right now I make paintings for pleasure and to explore. But I did, in fact, turn away from the old this week. And stay true to myself. And here, already, like a miracle, are new possibilities. More than interesting.

September 24th, 2007 | Category: Dear Reader | Comments (4)

This painting emerged from a spontaneous urge. It was Sunday morning and I walked into my studio with a cup of tea. I did not intend to do a painting. I intended to sit down and write. I’m nearing the end of a long project and I have a fairly clear idea of what needs to happen now but I know too that things need to sit at this point and gel. At any rate I sat down at my art table and saw that my gouache paints were right there. Without thinking much I took a sip of tea and prepared a piece of paper. The act of preparation and the fact that I had no pressure to do anything at all allowed me to think of continuing on from the painting I’d done a couple of days before, posted below.

This one didn’t take long. It flowed because I was able to get out of my own way. And that’s not always true. So I’m thinking of the ways I get in my way—the things I tell myself. It’s usually that. I tell myself that it must be like this, or it must be done by Tuesday, or that it’s hard, or I haven’t any idea what to do next. All that mind chatter is a road block to creativity.

Yoga has been so useful in learning to observe the mind and body. Where am I in the moment I sit down? Can I just be present? Can I let go of the judgments and petty anxieties? Can I just sit down and empty the trash?

Not always easy. But I know enough now that it’s worth the effort to pay attention to the state of mind and buff it up before beginning. I also know that it helps a lot to have a clear idea of where you’re headed before beginning. Sometimes I have to wait for that. And while I’m waiting it doesn’t hurt to make a small painting that has a beautiful energy all its own and tells me to now sit down and get on with it.

September 18th, 2007 | Category: Dear Reader | Comments (4)