Talking Nonstop Over Lunch

One of the ways long-time friend and fellow artist Sylvia and I try to close the 1000-mile gap between our homes is through books. One of us orders a book to give the other on a birthday or holiday and purchases a second copy for herself so as to have a shared reading experience. To have a book we could talk about at work over lunch if we still worked at the same place and still had lunch together every day, a luxury we have sorely missed for 37 years now.

I ordered us copies of Brené Brown's newest book, Dare to Lead, to honor Sylvia's birthday this month. Because her birthday will take place a couple of weeks before the book will be released, I wanted to also send something that would arrive at birthday time.

A bookmark, you suggest? Handpainted?

Awesome idea!

The challenge: painting a bookmark to pair up visually with the book, with only online images from which to work for color matching.

A Kind of Knowledge Beyond Any Way of Knowing 1.5x6"; acrylic, ink, collage, and oil pastel on watercolor paper abstract bookmark 2018 [gift]

Memoir Monday

I'm jumping into time travel today to share a story from Memorial Day weekend 2014 via a piece written at the time, which appeared on the blog of artist/mentor Ann Hart Marquis (be sure to follow the link to Ann's magnificent art).

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What’s in a Name?   

Dotty Seiter

“What are you going to name it?” Ann said.

“Oh.” I paused. “I don’t know. I haven’t even thought about that.”

I looked at my painting. A title bubbled up, and I started laughing so hard I couldn’t speak. Every time I tried to tell Ann and Sylvia my thought, a fresh wave of hysteria swept over me in paroxysms—I hadn’t had that cathartic a laugh in a good while!

I’d never named a painting before. In fact, I’d never painted a painting before. I was coming to the end of a total immersion weekend with painter/teacher Ann and long-time close friend Sylvia.

As it turns out, I took the title idea that suffused me with hilarity—Tree at the Edge of the World—and discovered its deeper truth. My revised title became Leaning into Lessons at the Edge of the World.  

Leaning into Lessons at the Edge of the World
11x14"; acrylic on canvas board
landscape
2014

The title captures elements reflected visually on my canvas—a tree listing to one side, true to the one outdoors that inspired me, and the seeming absence of much in the way of background, which is what sparked my gasping for air and sent tears of hilarity streaming down my face.  

What the title identifies further, however, is the internal essence of my adventure. Over the course of an all-in weekend of painting, I had put myself at an edge of my experiential world; I’d picked up a paintbrush for the first time and let myself lean into mixing colors and putting acrylics on canvas to see what I might learn—about painting and about myself. 

I liked the lessons!