Friday, January 20, 2012

Get Busy with It!

Sometimes things have to come out, there are no holding back. Is it wise to let it pour without restrain? Why not. It only gets things wide open and ready to be sorted. Maybe.Sometimes it adds more confusion, sometimes it takes you where you are scared of going. Anyway when it comes to drawing there is very risk involved only chances that some of the things that is born on paper will enlighten, intrigue and even delight the maker. The making process is the most fun, with no planning on my part. Just let the ink flow, the marks begin and the imagination takes the lead. Looking back afterword I can see the thread, the road, the path. That subconscious revealing deep feelings and concerns.  Can I say too much in those and feel too unprotected. Can it make sense to the viewer? It is really not the point but I am always interested in knowing where it takes the passerby. I am reading the book by Wassily Kandinsky "Concerning the Spiritual in Art". An interesting look at how the observation of this artist changed the way artists looked at themselves after him. How they were freed from following tradition in making art and accepted that skill was not the only measure to create art with. Guts and firsthand experience with life, emotion and color. Thank you Mr Kandinsky. It has allowed for Artists to come out of their shell. To experiment without restrain and be themselves however good or bad they are and be allowed to call themselves "Artists". Still not done with the book but looking forward to the chapter on colors. I have not been a great fan of Kandinsky but appreciating some of his work nevertheless, intrigued by it and never bored by it. I just don't connect as much with his art as with other painters'. Chagall, Picasso, Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edna St Vincent Millay, Vincent Van Gogh, Louise Bourgeois, Romare Bearden, those make my heart and breath stop.

Anyway I have had some fun last few days stranded in my house without a car and not wanting to face the outside. What is there to do but read, eat, and make art?



So here are a bit of a mix and match of late stuff including some quick sketches from the Life Drawing sessions that I go to for good measure.


















I am still very slow to get back to my fabrics. I have made attempts but it is slowwwwww. So I am trying to be understanding and dabble with other things right now.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Last Reflections of the Year!

What could I say about 2011 but that it has been a good year! A Year filled with Joy and Life gifts. A full year in our new house with many celebrations, many joys, a very quiet and peaceful year with very little drama compared to previous years of high stress and high movements. This year was a slow motion year, a year to move into one's new world with inquiry, a year to remember as a community, family and friendship year. A year of connection with new soil, new beauty, new simplicity, a frugality of sort, a brake and a break. My mind has encountered new experiences and some knowledge, emotions and images have emerged from those. What more to ask but a slow pace, a good strong internal glow that sustained my needs of the moment. I got to be more present. More available to listen to myself to get to befriend this person that is me and that I have to live with non stop. Not easy all the time to be oneself. I could deal to take a little vacation sometimes and get to be someone else. Never mind that is complicated enough to be me. Well reading is there for getting in other people's skin and mind and lives in a safe way. To experience all that you are not or to recognise what you are. Reading this year was as sparse as the rest. I did manage to be captivated by some, like:  "The Sister Brothers"by Patrick deWitt, "Cold Earth" by Sarah Moss, Jamrach's Menagerie: A Novel by Carol Birch, The Empty Family Stories by Colm Toibin, The Adventuress by  Audrey Niffenegger , Kafka's Soup by Mark Krick,  Great House by Nicole Krass, Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer, 1Q84 by Huraki Murakami, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere by Anna Gavalda, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. I am sure that I am forgetting some. I got to go to lectures and see Billy Collins in person and Peter Sis and Jacqueline Winspear and Colm Toibin... I have enjoyed good poetry and short stories, very few movies: Midnight in Paris and Hugo being my favorite. The last of the Harry Potter's series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo were notable, but most of the others didn't make a big indentation. Yoga has become more important and that might attribute to the special slowing down of things around me and my ability to be aware of the moment.

The biggest even of the year was Emily and Travis Wedding. A beautiful celebration of love and friendship in an amazing peaceful setting. The happiness to have seen my Sister, my Mother, Paul and my friends throughout the year. They all made huge efforts to be present in my life, especially this year and I felt their love.

 I am thankful for a great year and I am looking forward to 
another adventure on the road of my life
that 2012 is going to be.