Interior

  If you ask them, about 98% of children will say they are artists and approach art making with joy and self assurance.   Sadly, by the time they become young adults, that number is about 2%.   Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, the gift of playfulness is too often traded for self criticism.   The large and free flowing paintings proudly displayed in childhood become small tight drawnings hidden under hands and turned face down.   

  There are many theories as to why this happens.  I believe that without nurturing it, we lose the ability to access that playful, creative part of our selves.    What do you think?

  Play is a means of discovery.    This is how I typically approach a theme: intuitively and with open possibilities, playing with immediate response, moving and removing images, arranging and rearranging.  I rarely know ahead of time what the end result will be until it is "discovered."
  The theme for this month's art exchange was "interior."  
  Starting with bare walls and floor, I filled the room with unexpected images rather than furniture.   Working intuitively up to this point,  the quote by Claude Debussy came to mind and the child's hand was added reaching into the space.
   "I wish to sing of my interior visions with the naive candor of a child."  
    Honor your creative spirit and make time to play and discover something new every day.
  
  
 

Become Who You Are

Thoughts about diversity and uniqueness were the prompts for these journal pages.
It takes courage to become who you really are.

Journal Play

Remember to play often.

A visual journal is the perfect place to play with ideas, color, materials, words, whatever you want. You are not obligated to make a masterpiece. You might even paint over the whole page if you don't like it.

Here are some recent 'play pages' in my journal. None of them are really noteworthy, but they each represent a moment in time and document what I was thinking about.

Compare this to the concept of writing down your thoughts in a diary...... it's very related to that, only more visual.

The prompt for the above pages: A co-worker's birthday celebration and remembering the importance of celebrating life each day.

The prompt: A friend gave me a piece of vintage ephemera and said "here's something for your journal." I had also recently listed all of the daily expectations of teaching in a large public school. The two items merged on these pages very spontaneously.

The prompt: Recalling a time in my childhood when I wanted to become invisible. Not a happy time, but something that later helped me grow. Making these pages allowed me to revisit and remember a significant event in my life.

There is power in putting images and words on paper. If you have not tried visual journalling, it might be a new adventure for the new year! There are so many resources online to inspire and get you started.

What would you like to journal about? Silence your inner critic and have fun.

Time

With the old year drawing to a close and 2010 approaching, I chose the prompt for this visual journal entry: time.

Again, the composition expands from an existing image, in this case the photograph of a colorful bird's head.

Henry David Thoreau's words are at the top: "The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it."

A quote from Omar Khayyam seemed to be the appropriate text: "The bird of time has but a little way to fly.... and the bird is on the wing!"

Choose Carefully.....

Don't we all have a 'Door Number Two' somewhere in our past?

Perhaps Howard wishes he had taken the free spin........

Samuel was Answered

For me it always starts with one item. In this case it was the photograph of a young man. I only imagine his name was Samuel... there was no inscription on the back.

The rest took on a life of it's own as I tried to work intuitively on the piece.

A recent class at Valley Ridge Art Studio in Wisconsin with artist Michael deMeng inspired me to try some new approaches in assemblage. He taught us many things about using non-traditional materials and painting techniques to create various effects. Apparently that creative energy followed me home. I do hope it sticks around awhile.

My brother-in-law and husband recently gifted me with an old typewriter, knowing that I would disassemble it for my artwork. The old Underwood was rusted and damaged beyond use and I was told that the auctioneer actually paid them $1 to take it away. What luck!
As I was cutting strips of old newspaper clippings to adhere to the surface, the name 'Samuel' and the words 'was answered' seemed to jump out at me. When you allow yourself to work from pure intuition, little 'gifts' are often presented. In this case, it was the title of the work.



The back ends of the old Underwood keys have such interesting hook shapes!

I must say that during the 2 days it took me to completely disassemble the old typewriter, I gained profound respect for the complex mechanics of the thing.

A work of art in itself.

Playing With Fire

Last summer we made our annual trip to the big flea market and antique show in Oronoco, Minnesota. There I found a wonderful old catalog full of images of men's and women's clothing, household items and, yes, heating stoves. Somehow the menswear models and the stoves got together and before I could stop the inevitable, they were playing with fire. Fortunately no one was hurt.

Fresh Fish

... or alternately "When Fish Go Bad."
This collage features images from an old field guide on fish and a nice Dover reproduction Victorian engraving of a damsel in distress. She apparently didn't order fish. The background is a pirate map picture from the paper store.