Monday, January 26, 2009

Monday never felt so good!...

I’m so glad it is Monday…for some reason, when I first woke up this morning, I thought today was Tuesday…and I wondered where Monday had gone…I was so convinced of this, that I feel like I have gained a day! I certainly can’t afford to lose any!!!

I still haven’t made it out to photograph my paintings…it was too cold this weekend and this morning it is snowing…I do have a few progress shots though…

First of all...here is another of my helpers...he is shown here being very busy holding down my younger daughter's laundry pile...it can take him hours to do this...and he loves to be noticed at this most important job...slob-cat Maddy is brother to needy Pimkey...















Here is the start of Flow X...colours are a bit wonkey and there is glare on most of these shots...but such is life!...














Flow X progress...just waiting to figure out how to do the flow line...what style and colours...I usually have to sit with them for a while at this stage...again...colours are not right and there is glare...


















Sitting Under Mandara's tree of Wonder is finished!...this is my elder daughter's (late) Christmas present...but she has said that I can hang it in my show...she will get it someday...


















I have decided to paint another Ice Road to Tuk...with the addition of an Inukshuk...the first one is hanging in the boutique at OSA...I debated just having the others in that series (so far...Land of the Midnight Sun and Northern Lights Over the Tundra) but I have a thing about odd numbers...three feels so much better than two...here are a couple progress pictures of it...



































Colourful easel...


















Need more room to put paintings!...

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Secret 3 in the 12 Secrets…”Following Your Fascinations”…

This chapter is about listening to your intuitions, being courageous and following those intuitions and dreams, taking risks to do so, learning from your mistakes and overcoming your inner critic.

The book talks about ‘your inner patriarch’, which is an inner voice that tells us – women - to put our creativity and self expression aside and think firstly of the men in our lives. I don’t agree with this...I mean, I don't agree that all of us have this inner patriarch…maybe I am lucky and was raised in a house where I was encouraged and supported and that is where my foundation comes from. Now, this isn’t to say that I don’t have that inner critic that can be very negative…but it has nothing to do with cow-towing to men! My inner critic whispers in my ears nasty thing like ‘who are you trying to kid’, ‘you aren’t really an artist’, ‘anyone could have done that’…and it also tells me I’m wasting my time and money and that I should clean the house, make a nice place for all of us to live in and to go out and do some ‘real’ work…that is where my guilt comes from…but, again, it has nothing to do with the male superiority that this part of the book refers to. I am lucky, also, that my Cariño is so very supportive and encourages me in this creative endeavour!

I do take risks in my life…I don’t think I would be where I am now if I didn’t. I moved to Ottawa with three young kids, not knowing anyone, so we could start a fresh life. It was scary, but it was also very, very exciting! If I hadn’t moved here, I would never have met Cariño!

This move into painting more seriously is also a risk; a risk and a challenge. I haven’t quit my day job though…so it is a calculated risk as opposed to an impulsive one. I have always loved art and spend a lot of my spare time looking at it and reading about different artists. One of the things I love about my job is that it brings me into people’s homes and I get to look at their art too!

The decision to begin painting was not a sudden one…a seed was planted by an elderly woman I met…fixing her computer…she and her husband were watercolour artists. She was a fascinating woman and took an interest when I asked about her paintings and told her about my love of art …she said…”if you want to paint …just paint…just do it!”

Well, that advise sank in…I had originally thought that if I actually wanted to paint (which I did want to do…I was feeling the need to do something creative), that I would have to take some classes…learn how to use the mediums, learn how to paint…but this woman told me that I didn’t need to do that…I could just go ahead and paint!

It must have taken a year or so after she told me that before I finally went out and bought some paints and canvases. And she was right…just do it…I learn as I go…I ask questions…I continue to look at art and read about how people do what they do…

At the beginning of this chapter, in a quote from Betsy Morscher and Barbara Schindler Jones, authors of “Risk Taking for Women”, it says that the original meaning of risk is from the Greek “to sail around a cliff.” I like that…because once you do sail around that cliff…you have a whole new view…and that is how this creative journey seems for me…the more I do, the more I spend time painting…the more ideas I seem to have…the more I move forward into new territories…

There is another quote in this chapter by a person that fascinated me when I was young…I remember reading a book about her and I was amazed and awed by how she overcame the tremendous obstacles that life had placed before her…

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” ~ Helen Keller

Friday, January 23, 2009

Humidity Helps…

The last couple of days I have been working on putting together one of my Pieces of Colour paintings…it has been sitting waiting for the pieces to be stuck on for ages now…I just hadn’t got around to it…usually it is one of the steps that, while not my favorite, I can get into...with the repetitive, slow and meditative aspect of it…but not so on this one! The pieces of colour are smaller than in my other ones of this series and that makes them less cooperative to be put flat…they all have a bit of a curl to them…on the bigger pieces once I brushed on the gel medium, they kind of relaxed and didn’t resist being stuck flat…but these little guys are feisty! I was on the phone with Oma when we both came up with the idea of raising the humidity…well, Oma used the word humidity…I said something about putting them on wet paper towel…however you want to say it…it works!...so after fighting with almost half of them…the latter pieces have been much easier to work with…45 little squares…it has taken a while!

Some days it seems like I spend a lot of time in my studio but have little to show for it…not that I have been having trouble coming up with ideas of what to do…it isn’t that…it has to do with how some pieces take a very long time to make and others seem to jump, splat right out of the paint tubes! Part of this is also because some of my pieces take a number of steps to do, with drying times in between. This also means that there are some days when it feels like I am on fire, finishing a number of pieces all in one day! Today feels like that. It’s an exciting feeling…

I had a couple computer jobs in the morning and early afternoon and then headed up to paint around 5pm…

I finally put a ‘flow line’ on my big Flow painting…I have been sitting with it for quite a while now deciding whether or not I was going to put one on and today I decided that I would…and I like it…so that’s good!

I started a Flow triptych…three 12x12 canvases…I have been thinking about doing this for a while…today was the day to start…

I finished the Pieces of Colour (I only had ten more squares to stick on!) and started a 20x20 canvas for another of the Flow series…

I still haven’t had a chance or cooperative weather to take everything outside to photograph…hopefully tomorrow…except I think it is supposed to be like -20 plus really windy and snowy…so maybe not!

Meanwhile…here are some progress pictures…
























Thursday, January 22, 2009

Secret 2 in the 12 Secrets…”Honoring Your Inspirations”…

This chapter is about paying attention and taking the time to allow your creative self to come out and play…it’s about listening to your thoughts, keeping a journal, creating a place for yourself - a sanctuary - and then taking the time to be there with your thoughts and inspirations – paying attention to where your inspirations come from…

I like what Alice Aspen March says: “Time is absolutely vital to the creative process. We have to figure out how to take it and how to give it to ourselves. Only when we realize the kind of attention we need to be creative, do we realize the value of our own time.” – this is something that I have struggled with…it goes back to that feeling guilty about taking time for myself…I’m getting better though – it is something that I have been consciously working on.

I have a sanctuary, or the beginnings of one…I have a whole room – in what used to be the kitchen in the upstairs apartment of the duplex we bought. I even have a sink and running water (something I didn’t have at our last place). I admit that it is a work in progress.

I am able to work amid chaos – which is a good thing, for my life seems to be full of it! It can also be a bad thing, though, because I tend to tune it out and just work away in my little bubble! I think that one of my ‘challenges’ this year should be to lessen some of that chaos. I am a horrible housekeeper and probably always will be…and it isn’t that which I want to change about myself…but to be a bit more organized and lessen the chaos of household mess would be a good thing for all of us who live here (not that it is all MY mess! – we still have elder daughter and her beau’s ‘stuff’ throughout the house and I am only one of three who live here). I guess the main problem is, that this place is much smaller than where we were before and I have trouble shedding myself of things…something to work on…

Another thing that this chapter talks about is creative rituals…as well as being a terrible housekeeper, I am not is a very regulated person…I never know, from one day to the next, exactly what I will be doing…I may know a day or two in advance of upcoming computer jobs, and I do schedule doctor and dentist appointments, but as for getting up at the same time every day and meditating or writing in a journal…no…I can’t seem to manage that! When Cariño and I were doing “The Artist’s Way” a few years ago, I did make a real effort to do the ‘Morning Papers’ – writing every morning…and it was good, but it didn’t seem to be something that I could fit into my life as a daily ritual…

Every so often I will clear my art table…but inevitably, as I work away, it fills up again…and soon I am back down to my little space of work area, surrounded by my creative tools and materials…it is a constant ebb and flow…that seems to be how I work…so I’ll just go with that…I seem to be on a creative high right now…more ideas popping into my head than I have time to record…so something must be working…I think the most important thing, for me, is the taking of time…the allowing myself to come up to my studio and spend time creating…and maybe that involves having some faith in myself…

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Accepted!!!...

I hadn’t heard from the boutique at Ottawa School of Art…so I stopped by today on my way home from a job…and there were my paintings hanging in the window!!!...it was a really neat feeling seeing them there!

I finished Land of the Midnight Sun today, will finish another 1 or 2 tomorrow...I will try to get some better shots outside tomorrow...

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Randomness…

I have a hard time with ‘random’…I have to really work at it…which, when you think of it, kind of defeats the purpose of it! I first found this out about myself back when I was a picture framer…I was framing this card and I was painting the mat…just ‘random’ little lines of different colours…I think it was my co-workers who pointed out how hard I was working at laying down ‘random’ lines…I think they even teased me (in a nice way, of course)!

I was thinking about that again today as I was ‘randomly’ putting gold dots on some of my ‘wonder bubbles’…and again as I was ‘randomly’ sticking the bubbles down to the canvas…

I have had a wonderful day devoted, mostly, to creativity…got up early and painted for a couple hours before driving my younger daughter to work, Cariño to school and then do a few odd running about jobs…was back painting within a couple hours and have happily painted the rest of the day away…

I have been working mostly on finishing up 2 pieces, as well as getting a couple others started. None got finished today…but I am getting close! Some of my paintings take so much longer to paint than others...I have some progress shots…

Still working on "Land of the Midnight Sun"...acrylic on 16x20 canvas...


























The making of the 'wonder bubbles'...made on watercolour paper, using coloured pencils and watercolour pencils...then I swirl about on them with some water to blend the colours...then I spray them with fixative, cut them out and finally draw a pattern on with a metallic gold marker...they take a while to make!














Many wonder bubbles!


















A bare 'Mandara's Tree of Wonder'...


















Placing the wonder bubbles...this took a while...trying to get them placed 'randomly'...distributing the different colours...tring to figure out how many bubbles were actually needed and of what sizes...I had to go back and make some more...in the end I have 3 left over...


















Sticking them on (using gel medium) took even longer...deciding which ones went on top, which went under...which overlapped which...it was like doing a puzzle that had no real predetermined picture...good thing I love puzzles! Still not finished...but getting there...

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Show Poster...

There always seems to be some fun thing or another for me to do! I finally got around to working on my upcoming show postcard! This is going to be what I send out by email to people (very soon I guess!) and I would also like to get some printed…I would print them 5”x7”.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Messy Studio and Final Submissions…

Quick post with some pictures!

First…a couple shots of my messy studio…I am going to have to have a tidy-session…but this was after madly trying to get my paintings finished for submission to the Ottawa School of Art…

























I had hoped to submit 4 paintings…that was the maximum number allowed…but after painting until 2:30am on Wednesday night (Thursday morning) and then getting up at 9am Thursday to carry on, I realized that there was no way I was going to get “Land of the Midnight Sun” finished…I decided that was ok though…I didn’t beat myself up for not making the time…I had chosen to spend the time, earlier, doing other, just as important things…the trip down to Toronto and area…that was important to me and I enjoyed myself…spending time with my bro when he was here…that was important too…and I enjoyed our visit…so I wasn’t going to give myself a hard time for doing those things instead of painting…

So…I submitted 3 paintings and I should hear on Tuesday of next week if they are going to be accepted. I found myself to be nervous, but excited at the same time doing this…it is the first time I have submitted a painting for a juried process…

Here are the 3 finished pieces…I am going to have to put a hanging hook outside somewhere so I can get ‘straight’ pictures of my paintings!

Flow VII - 12x12 - acrylic...I ended up going back to this one after my last picture of it and adding more colour in the flow line...I found it too dull...am happy with the more vibrant colours there!...


















Flow VIII - 12x16 - acrylic...


















Ice Road to Tuk - 16x20 - acrylic...

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Some progress pictures...

I know people like to see a happy medium between pictures and writing on a blog...especially one dedicated to developing and exploring creativity! So here are some progress pictures of the paintings I have been working on with the theme of winter in mind…these are the ones I am working on to see if I can get them into the Ottawa School of Art Boutique…

This is another in my Flow series...Flow VII...as I was working on this, my younger walked by and asked why I often painted the same painting...I said that they weren't really all the same...but that they were similar because they were all part of a series...each one exploring different colour combinations...that kind of got my inner negative critic going though and I had to squash it down!


















Here is Flow VIII...this is the first Flow painting that isn't done on a square canvas...


















I think both the Flow paintings are finished...they will have to be if I am going to submit them tomorrow...otherwise the paint won't be dry!!!

Here is a progress picture of the Ice Road to Tuk...I had done a postcard of this and really liked it...the postcard was done in coloured pencil, though, and this one is being done in acrylics...the colours are off...ran out of daylight...it is a really nice light blue background with dark blue lines on the land and red on the sun...it looks kind of murky in this picture...

Online Book Group and CED (Creative Every Day)…

Back in December I signed up for an online book group led by a woman whose blog I wandered to through Leah’s Creative Everyday blog. It is called The Next Chapter book blogging group led by Jamie Ridler and we are reading the 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women. I have never participated in a blogging book group before!

I also signed up for Leah’s Creative Every Day project. I had participated in the Art Every Day Month and that was good for giving me that extra little push to make my way up to the studio to paint…but creativity in any form counts.

Chapter 1, or Secret 1, in the 12 Secrets book is about “Acknowledging Your Creative Self”…this is something that I have already started to do. It is a scary step…all those ‘who am I kidding’ and ‘you’re not really an artist’ negative critic voices. I find it scary in the same way that I felt scared when I first started putting my paintings ‘out there’ – out where people can see them. It is a big step to start doing that – just as it is a big step (for me, anyway) to start thinking of myself as ‘an artist’ and maybe even saying it out loud! I had held back for a long time…making most of my creations in my head…but then, once I started actually putting pencil to paper, paint to canvas…it was like something burst free and now it is getting easier and easier to claim some time for me to go and get lost in my painting without feeling so guilty…and it is so nourishing…I feel so good during and afterwards.

I especially like the quotes from this chapter – “Your creativity is waiting for you like a dancing partner.” ~ by Barbara Sher and “Creativity is like a great receptive womb.” ~ by Lynn V. Andrews.

In the Creative Every Day group, Leah is offering optional monthly themes. The theme for January is “Play”…like acknowledging my creative self, play is also something I do a lot in my art…in fact, I think it is mostly play what I am doing…playing with colour, playing with texture, playing with different series of paintings, shapes, ideas. What got me really loosened up and able to play have been the postcard and trading card projects through WetCanvas that I participate in…I have talked about these before and how they help me to grow – to push myself and try new things – without the fear of ‘wasting’ too much…just a little card…not too much investment in materials or time, really…and if I try something that doesn’t work…who cares…I have learned something anyway.

So this month I am playing…even with the deadlines, I am still playing! I am also reading about creative women…next week is about “Honoring Your Inspirations”…but I won’t get ahead of myself…I am going upstairs to play now! I do have some finished and almost finished pieces…will photograph them later and get them posted. Right now I am working on the 4 pieces that I am going to submit to the Ottawa School of Art Boutique…deadline tomorrow…hope the paint dries in time!!!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Happy New Year!!!…back to reality after the holidays!

Well…here it is January 11, 2009! Christmas visiting and holidays ended up spilling into the New Year by quite a bit! It has been a really fun time though…we had some Christmas time spent with family and friends in and around Ottawa; some of it was with just Cariño, me and the girls. Then, on New Years Day, after a wonderful New Years Eve feast at home with Cariño, the girls, elder’s beau and a couple of younger’s friends, we headed down to the Toronto area to visit and stay with friends and family there. We got back to Ottawa late on the 5th with my bro who came to visit for a few days…I just got back yesterday from taking him to our Dad’s to carry on with his visiting. I came back to rejoin my reality here! I have managed to do a bit of painting over the past holiday days, but not much...I have had fun with all the visiting though…so all is good! Cariño and I even managed a wee bit of quiet time just the two of us on New Years Eve when we brought in the New Year with some bubbly and oj – the kids having all moved on to parties of their own!

I am looking forward to concentrating on finding a balance between work and painting. I do enjoy the work I do, but it isn’t a passion, and it can get pretty stressful at times for a number of reasons. Due to the nature of my job as a computer technician, I usually only get calls in times of emergencies and sometimes those emergencies don’t end nicely and some people take this better than others. Being self employed in a 'break/fix' job, it always seems to be feast or famine and I have little control over my workload and that can be stressful at times. Painting, on the other hand, is pure therapy for me. I get totally lost in it and come out feeling refreshed and renewed. Unfortunately, so far, the computer work pays and the painting doesn’t, hence the need to find the balance!

I read on Leah’s Creative Everyday blog about choosing a word to be the theme for your year. This, instead of making New Years resolutions, which I never really did anyway, but I liked the idea of a theme word. So I have chosen ‘challenge’ as my theme word for 2009. Not only is my life seemingly full of challenges at times, I also want to challenge myself in a number of ways – most notably in my creative endeavors.

It seems that I had already started down this path last year…challenging myself more and more as the year progressed. So it happens that I start this year with a few deadlines and upcoming events already in place…and challenges they are! In February, as I have already talked about here, I have a solo show at Heartwood House in their gallery and in April another solo show at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa. Added to those shows I have three juried things that I am going to submit to: the Ottawa School of Art Boutique (deadline coming up very fast on January 14th and 15th), the Foyer Gallery Artists’ Association (deadline Jan 31st) and at the Cube Gallery I would like to get accepted into the Great Big Smalls V show for next December and the deadline for that is February 6th, there might be some other shows at the Cube Gallery that I will want to try to get in on as well…I haven’t had a really good read of the other ones yet. So I am starting out the year with lots of challenges! I am going to keep challenging myself to actively pursue getting into more shows, more galleries…work on getting my paintings ‘out there’.

It is a scary thing putting your work out there to be judged and looked at…that alone has been a big step for me this past year…maybe it gets easier? I guess I will find out! It would be great if some of my paintings sold (I have sold two so far)…I keep painting them and enjoying the process and the learning…