School is Back in Session

Well isn't it always, we are learning all the time. The kids learn art just by seeing colors in the sunset or seeing the way the light makes shadows on the wall. The way water in your paint water bowl reflects a wiggly pattern of light on the ceiling. I am a true believer in getting messy too. Give the kids paint, give the kids glue, give them space with no words or comments while they create. Learning can come from all the experiences we have, even when we are not in school or reading, just being, taking it all in. What colors can you notice today that you have never seen before?

In the Messy Moment

My students left class today with tissue paper stuck to their toes, a shirt full of paint, and 3 new projects. We made tissue paper landscapes with layers of sticky blue, green, sand, and yellow colored tissue paper. We rolled out slabs of clay with a rolling pin and then pressed sea shells, burlap and stamps into the clay. Before we did all of that, this first class deserved a portfolio. This is a large folding book where we can put all of their creations throughout the class to bring home. I helped them learn a little about book binding by using book binding glue (VERY sticky) and burlap. I was engaged in the messes, the pouring of the paint, the desire to roll every color offered into a wonderful thick layer of brown. Often, I held back my explanation to the five year old "how exciting it will be to put all the art they make" in this class portfolio. Holding back, because the porfolio IS the art they are making IN this class IN this moment. The kids don't care as much about what it is they are making at that age, just as long as they are squishing, pulling, rolling, dripping, and brushing the art materials into a wonderful multi-colored memory. I am blessed to be a part of it.

Art Adventure Begins

Art Life is starting it's real true first Art Adventure class for 5-7 year olds on June 20th this summer. I held the spring classes as sort of a quiet grand opening and they were a lot of fun. Now, after launching the website the students have signed up and the real grand opening is here. There will be a nice group of 6-7 kids meeting and learning every week. Creating fine art, and fun art while exploring how art materials and recycled materials can transform into art.

I have hats, mobiles, trays, prints, sculptures, books, and more than many clay projects planned. I have ideas and ideas, and I can't wait to share them with the kids. I am thrilled to be in the teaching seat again, in my own studio, fanning the flame of these kids already highly developed creative eye.

Principles Create an Ideal

Space is used by artists to create harmony in their work. Harmony is a unified feeling throughout the piece that is achieved through the use of all the design principles. A few of these design principles are harmony, variety and rhythm. Harmony pulls similar elements together. Variety finds beauty in opposites. Rhythm creates movement in a work by finding direction and a pattern, even if it's hard to see.

I love the way these artistic guidelines can be interpreted differently by different artists, but they all generally create the same result- attractive art. Principles are just that, they are guiding thoughts or "rules" (the term is used loosely) commonly agreed upon to create order. This order represents an ideal. This could be a community ideal. An artistic ideal. A family ideal. Whatever human relational ideal is needed - the investigation of the harmony, the variety, and even the rhythm can shed appreciation on a sometimes chaotic situation.

There are people that bring something that clashes with the group. There are people that are the glue and the unifier in the group. There are people that lead and bring direction to groups. This is why ART imitates LIFE. Art simply takes the reality of what works in the world. Even if what works is opposing the group or the crowd and shows us the beauty in that. We need the entire picture for wholeness. We need the feeling of hunger as well as fullness. We need the emptiness as well as the abundance. We need the longing for others as well as content companionship. Sometimes I need to be reminded of that.

Roots

I have heard in several contexts today the word - root, it's uses varied but similar in some ways. I have heard it talked about in terms of wholeness. In terms of problems and their causes. In terms of solutions. I love the idea of the root as a metaphor for the wholeness of our human beginnings. Where it all started, whether a problem or the very essence of who we are. Maybe early messages we were given as childrent. We shouldn't just look at the twigs, branches, leaves, and fruit - but if we understand where the main context started, just as a seed, we can understand the mighty redwood tree. Ideas are roots. Ideas, whether true or untrue, can stay with us for so long they are part of our DNA. Unchallenged and lingering within our artist selves. Speaking to us, good or bad, they are the voices that influence our work.

Creative thought has roots deep within us, sometimes connected by nonsense and illogical fragmented ideas. I love those brainstorm sessions where there is a pulse of ideas with images and colors. There is an excitement with the belief that somehow all these ideas could make great art. That they could express what I want to say. The ultimate goal of an artist. That is why keeping all your sketchbooks and clippings, and images that inspire you is so important. You never know when you might need them in your process.

Creative thought is sometimes born out of problems. We need to understand the beginnings of ourselves. I know that pain or discomfort has brought great painting and writing sessions forth for me. It is the basis of many many songs. Sometimes songs or being in live music settings sends my mind reeling. I embrace pain today for the gifts it can give. Some of the most pained artists; Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickenson, Vincent VanGogh, Kurt Cobain have used this to create the brilliant brilliant madness.

The root of today is that just when you think life is all tucked in a neat little box, you may only be seeing the surface. The tree you see in the back yard with it's green leaves, swaying healthy branches, and ripe fruit just might be artificial under the dirt, or worse yet, hollow.

I painted this painting in 2002.

Oil on Canvas 48"x60"

"Enough"

Painting with Glitter and Pom Poms

My experience with creating an art project with my 4 1/2 year old neice was just wonderful today. I have 2 boys and they can sit sill for a maximum of like 5 minutes right now. They like the idea of doing art and doing a project together, but like a pinball - they gotta go! So, when I sat down with my neice today to decorate a treasure box I was refreshed with her ever so girly and every so glittery choices. She wanted pink and purple and pom poms and feathers. I was totally into each choice as we moved around the outside of this box tranforming it from a stiff kraft paper surface to one that is shiny and fluffy. Thank you my little niece. You have just placed the feminine back into my very puffed up, pirate, bad-guy, buggy, race car, milk- spitting little boy world! I love you.

A sunny kitchen and the reciprocity of art

I was sitting in the kitchen with my kids and I was listening to my friend Christy Field's song "If Anyone" (written for the kids in her life) this morning and thinking about the reciprocity of the art I give and others give to me. Christy gave me 3 CD's of songs and I have given her a painting. I read her message to me that thanked me for the painting while I just happened to be listening to that song. This was not a coincidence. My kids were eating their cereal in the sunny morning kitchen and I thought, all is well in this very moment. A gift to her, to me, and my kids (which I proceeded to tell them that Christy "wrote this song for all kids") It was beautiful and I felt an earnest yearing for purity and in the song. The message she sent expressed how the painting has brought her so much light and love in her home. I have traded paintings in the past too. The one pictured here was traded for another painting almost 6 years ago. I don't even remember the name of the girl I traded with. We showed at the same place in Nashville, liked each others work, and we traded paintings. I have bartered with art for services like photography and hair cuts. I think bartering is one of the most harmonious forms of commerce. The giving of things with personal value can only be measured by the receiver. I hope to be giving and getting the gold in this life. We all deserve that. Check out Christy Fields song called "If Anyone" at http://www.myspace.com/christydawnfields

www.artlifeartstudio.com is almost done!

I am just a couple weeks away from launching the website for Art Life. I am thrilled at the pictures my photographer friend Ned, www.nedsphotography.com took for the site. We are going to have a lot of great things going on at the studio.

Art Heals

My day today will be better because of all the things I get to give people. There are things to give that I made that I am going to give, and things that others (including kids) have made in my classes. I am especially moved by a handmade clay bead that I fired for a friend last night. She made it this week to send out of town for a memorial. The family was asking that everyone either make, buy, or find a bead to string as a collective memorial for this child's passing. As terribly inconceivable as the death of a child, something like this gets the family and friends together and doing something. I know my friend felt like she was able to "do something-anything" to help her friends in pain. She left saying "this was therapeautic for me" Art has a way of doing that for people. In the moment we are making it, we are out of the pain, the concentration on the problem, or the feeling of helplessness.

I am meeting another artist/songwriter friend who was just diagnosed last fall with MS at 33 years old today for lunch. She is so positive and focused on eating right and keeping her spirits up. I know a new painting would bring that to her each day. My hope is that as she looks at the colors I painted and she feels lifted. Because it is a gift, I know my friend will see the painting and always know that she is cared for and she is not alone. I can't take away this harsh truth in her life, but I can give her art that reminds her that she is loved. I painted her two (one is pictured above) and placed a quote by Ashliegh Brilliant www.ashleighbrilliant.com on it; "I am just moving clouds today, tomorrow I'll try mountains"

Art does heal, it's up there with laughter, good food, and friends. I am grateful to give these pieces of healing love today in the form of clay, paint, and canvas. I am grateful others do the same in the world. The world needs art.

Rocket Ship Spring Blast Off

The first day of spring, and the end of a spring break week left us all very fufilled and exhausted. We ended the week with my last of 6 classes with my first session at Art Life Studio. It was great to see the kids show their parents their portfolios - we made so many things and they learned about several mediums. We had hanging fish, mobiles, color wheels, paintings and drawings. The clay pieces are being fired this week. Afterwards, Milo (my 3 1/2 year old) and I painted this appliance box together. It was our project one-on-one, spontaneous and free. We first cut 2 doors and 2 peep holes. Then the color, wonderful color, all over the place. This simple box showed me that all the toys in the world can never add up to the imagination within us all - with no money and no car needed we created another world. I also got some dryer vent tubing from the garage and that served as the way we "fueled up" before blast off. The sun danced off this silver flexible tubing- and I loved the way it looked next to the kid painted sides and hard angles of the box. A sculpture, a rocket ship, a one-on-one moment with one of my kids, a perfect 65 degree day. Totally free, totally us, totally back to basics.

Thursday is a studio day

I am plotting and planning for my studio day in 2 days. A full day for me, no kids, no husband, no phone, no plans- but to make things. I am going to start with some painting and then travel over to the printmaking studio at Watkins. I am working on a series of moon/rocket images with robots and astronauts. I would love tp re-do my 3 year old's room into something that inspires his little male mind. I appreciate the need for that even at 3 because he is growing out of what is there now. I did a series of oil paintings for his nursery - 4 vegetables. Corn, radish, tomato, and snap peas adorned his gender neutral baby room. Now, we are all boy and I think robots and space images would fit the bill. I asked him what he wanted and he said "robot rockstars" I will try to incorporate the rockstar aspect somehow (not sure yet). I am thrilled to be able to be inspired by the people I love. I have the plans for art peices that come out of the blue, but mostly it comes from the people I love or someone that needs a little gift of art. I love to give people paintings and prints that I have made. Giving is a great source of inspiration to me. I would say that I have given away as much art as I have sold. That is one of my greatest sources of pleasure.

Making Room

I am working on making room in my closet for new things. Not that I am going to go out and buy a bunch of new clothes right now, but there just might be something around the corner, and I don't want a bunch of old clothes hanging around. I seem to be able to think better when I have room around me. Room in my schedule, room on my kitchen counter, room in my closet, and room in my thinking for shades of grey. I know that I don't know everything and if I allow myself teachable time to fail a little, crumple up that new sketch or idea, try again and again, I will eventually come out smarter. I watch my boys do that effortestly, they don't complain that they don't know how to do something. They ask, they might yell, they concentrate hard, but they don't give up. I can learn from that. I will make room in my life today for things I know nothing about.

the time is near

The Art Life idea has been in me since I became an artist when I was young. I don't know how I actually "became" an artist. I think others actually started calling me one before I called myself an artist. I think that is why teaching is so important to me, because we as teachers show and guide our students into their strengths before they even know what they are. Even peers, adults, and friends do the labeling before we know what or who we are as artists. That labeling can also be negative - "I can't draw" "My daughter takes after her dad, he's the athletic type" "I don't know what I like to do-I am not an artist" That is why I want to bring Art Life to everyone -to every budding or seasoned artist. Just in case you are sick of the labels or need a new one.