Blind Leading Blind

Emmy returned home midweek but, ever generous, she left sparks of creative energy, spirit, and just-do-it behind for me. 

And a good thing, too. 

I had to turn a blind eye to multiple tasks pushing themselves right up in my face competing with art for my attention. Turn a blind eye I did, though, in order to make space and time for a blind contour still-life drawing. 

I made a start!

detail, blind contour drawing

Composed

I don't always feel composed.

But a post by Jane Davies grabs my attention, lights me up, and gives me new fodder with which to think about composition.

“Throughout my process of painting, I am engaged in the act of composing. The visual elements and their relationships to one another change many times during the course of creating a painting. The composition is in constant flux until it isn’t. The composition of the finished painting (if it finishes, which not all my paintings do), is an unknown until it reveals itself through the process of composing.”

Life makes a mark; I respond. Throughout the process of living each day I am engaged in the act of composing, engaged in call-and-response, always in flux.

I don't always feel composed.

I am always composing. 

Yes.

The Friend Who Asks to Paint with You and
Drags You into Your Studio
4 x 5.25" postcard; acrylic, ink, oil pastel, and collage on card stock
abstract 2021

Blast from the Past

During my junior year in high school when the Beatles and Stones were rocking the pop music world, I simultaneously held a soft spot for the three-part harmony of the Letterman as they sang sentimental tunes such as Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing.

That tune surfaced today as I reflected on the history of my recent painting below. I found myself singing the following in full voice, with the imagined swell of several violins in accompaniment: art is a many-layered thing!

Once on a High and Windy Hill
7 x 9"; acrylic, pencil, color sticks, collage, and oil pastel on a book page
abstract floral
2020

History of a many-layered thing:

  

 

Dialing In

At first, I fight and resist and strike out and punch and rant and thrash and gain no ground. I think I'm up against an immutable law of physics.

Then, exhausted to the point of stillness, I see that I have created my own uproar, am up against my own mind.

Again.

I let self-compassion wrap its arms around me.

Also again!

I dial into being present to simple pleasures:

• managing the intricacies of using a rewards card and my credit card successfully at a gas pump on the way home from the gym on an unexpectedly balmy predawn December morning;

• collecting from our mailbox a bank statement, a payment, a magazine, and a postcard featuring a first-day-of-issue postage stamp;

• building layers and layers and stories and stories into a veritable skyscraper of a new painting!

Reading the Braille of Bark and Lichen
6 x 6"; acrylic, latex, ink, and oil pastel on canvas board
abstract landscape
2019
sold

art history (backstories can be read at links):

In the Wake, Long Lake, a study
9/19/15
first layer/one story

In the Wake, Thinking about Watters, a study
9/20/15
another layer/another story

In the Wake, Emmy!
another layer/another story

layers painted over In the Wake, Emmy!

painters' tape on top of layers

Reading the Braille …

Art History

I took at least one art history course in college: American art, I think.

Do I remember anything from that class that I could tell you? Nothing comes to mind.

Maybe I'd recognize a few correct details if presented with a multiple-choice format?

Hard to say.

But I digress. The art history that has me captivated at the moment is that of this little painting. It has brought me such satisfaction in the past few days. Inspired by a here-today-gone-tomorrow mini-tutorial offered by Amanda Evanston, it offered me the perfect balance of messy-intuitive and intentional-but-largely-uncontrollable.

Soooo much joy!

The Many Grays of This Winter Morning
6 x 6"; acrylic, latex, and pastel on canvas board
abstract landscape
2019
sold

the art history:

Camp Root System
9/4/2015

layers painted over Camp Root System

painters' tape on top of layers

The Many Grays …