Unexpected, and as Expected

My day took an unexpected turn first thing this afternoon and I felt discombobulated, unfocused. I was off kilter internally and didn't feel sure I'd go to my studio.

Ha, ha!

Of course I went to my studio. What was I thinking? When did feeling sure ever have anything to do with studio time?

Pulled a third cut-up from my collection and ran with impulse and intuition.

Till tomorrow:

work in progress
4x5"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #3

The River of Not Knowing / Q&Q Cut-Up #2

Had no idea where this painting would go when I began, but I stepped into the river of not knowing and let myself move with the current.

Jay and Christine had no idea where their first date in December 2004 would go either, but they stepped into the river of not knowing … and on Saturday we celebrated their wedding. The best!

Helpers of Each Other in All the Chances and Changes in the World
4x5"; acrylic, ink, pencil, collage, and pastels on unstretched canvas,
mounted on painted wood
abstract
2017
[gift]

Christine read a passage by John Muir when she and Jay exchanged vows; I composed a haiku from those words and inscribed them on the back of the painting:

Every bird song,

wind song, storm song, water song

is ours, sings our love.

Instead Of, 10/21/2017

Someone curious about my life as an artist might ask, You haven't always painted and blogged every day, have you?

Dotty: Nope.

Curious: So, that must take considerable time. There must be a whole bunch of ways you used to fill your time that you now don't?

Dotty: Ya got that right. Let me count the ways!

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Holy mackerel. There are so many things I don't do that I might if I weren't painting.

Today (post written 10/21), for example, instead of vacuuming our lemon-drop-yellow room for guests, I fiddle around with a second q&q cut-up.

Instead of writing lesson plans, I rummage through accumulated paper to explore a collage idea.

Instead of loading the dishwasher, I get out matte medium and a brush.

Instead of rounding up supplies to make a photo display for Jay and Christine's wedding celebration, I now sit on my front porch in warm October afternoon sunlight writing this post, while a dozen wild turkeys walk from our neighbor's yard into ours.

Here's the cut-up I selected:

Here's a tease of my exploration with collage:

OK, off to the lemon-drop room.

Q&Q Cut-Up #1

On a deliciously warm sunny October day, I sneak a little studio time to bring my first quick & quixotic cut-up to completion.

When first extracted from the 16x20" whole, as a 4x5" part, it looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

Surface, Sky, Whirlpool, Wave
4x5", acrylic, ink, collage, and oil pastel on canvas,
mounted on manila card stock
abstract
2017
[gift]

Liar, Liar!

Confession: after I posted yesterday, I did pick up a brush and play for a short while after all.

Started fiddling around with one of my quick & quixotic cut-ups.

I see potential in two orientations.

work in progress
4x5"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #1

work in progress
4x5"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #1
opposite end up

Not only that, but also … you will recall all the horizontal surfaces that were cleared off yesterday. Today they're covered with everything entailed in my mounting photos on matte board for a display at J&C's wedding celebration on Saturday. Paper trimmer, matte board, backing paper, scissors, ruler, pens, pencil, matte medium, brushes, photos, scraps, boxes: you name it, it's taken up residence.

Did I?

You may remember my crying "Uncle!" a few weeks ago when I was feeling overwhelmed and knew I needed to adjust my painting practice. I needed to create some kind of workable fit with the abundance of competing demands clamoring stridently from every direction.

For several weeks now, I've painted in little snippets, grabbing a few minutes here and a few minutes there catch-as-catch-can.

Today I didn't paint.

Or did I …

I certainly 'painted' internally, by which I mean I participated nourishingly in facets of the creative process. Using a metaphorical backhoe, I cleared just enough space for two of my sisters and their husbands to sleep at our house on wedding weekend (we'll be in absentia ourselves, at a hotel in Boston!), a task that offered chances to interact with completed paintings, piles of collage paper, boxes of pastels, a bin of high-flow paints, a tissue-paper storage box, yogurt containers with water and brushes in them, and a pile of canvases I scored at a September neighborhood give-away. All part of painting, all part of my creative adventure, all feeding what will soon flow from my brush in one form or another.

Artist friend Jen said much the same thing back in the summer:

Organizing is … something I can do when I can't paint.  If I'm too tired, unmotivated, cranky or whatever to actually make art, I can still get things in tip-top shape for when I am ready once more.  Sometimes I will just gesso boards and leave them out to dry, where they will whisper to me on another day.  Other times I will purge old drawings and cut them into bits and pieces for collage materials.  On a really bad day, I'll scrape paint off the floor.  But to me, it all counts as part of the process.  It keeps me in the studio, putting in my time, waiting for the muse to stomp in and demand attention.  

And now I am off to paint.  Or maybe alphabetize my art books.

Here's what I 'painted' today, along with photos of earlier stages of these masterpieces:

work in progress, Green Room

completed diptych 'painting,'
Green Room Perks Up #1

completed 'painting,'
Green Room Perks Up #2

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work in progress, Lemon Drop Room

completed 'painting,'
Lemon Drop Room Brightens

Location, Location, Location Redux

Another of my paintings, this one originally painted on paper, then mounted on painted wood, and here displayed in a setting akin to its original underlayers which evoked the outdoors in autumn.

Haiku on back:

The world deposits

layers, makes hills, whispers clouds.

We steal sweet kisses.