What Do You Want Your Art to Look Like?

Who knew that taking a depth year would mean in-depth time at home, in-depth conversations about health and viruses, in-depth time alone?

The first week of February I went to NYC for a wholesale gift show.  I also viewed art at The Met and MOMA.  Sadly I got the flu while there, so at home I spent the rest of the month inside. . . healing, pondering my life, saying goodbye to an old friendship that no longer suits.  It was quiet and contemplative.

I got so used to staying in, that when Massachusetts issued a stay-at-home order in March, it wasn't a big change to my life, or so I thought.  What didn't register were the weekly things I just did as a matter of course:  Sunday lunch at a local Mexican restaurant with my husband after church -- they may not know our names but they know our favorite table and drinks order;  lunch at the local sandwich place where we do know each others names, where they're fine that I bring my own to-go cup; occasional trips to Michael's to be inspired.   I miss those people & interactions.

With all this time at home, and the freedom from deadlines or things I need to do, I decided to tackle the year-long online art workshop I'd signed up for.  I recently got the prompt for week 12 and since I was only half done with week 1, I thought I'd jump back in.  I sort of liked what I'd done before, but when I followed the rest of the instructions I absolutely hated my overall piece.  The more I tried to fix it the worse it got.  Finally I tore the pages out, walked into the room where my husband was selling on eBay and announced I was having an existential crisis.  I can be so dramatic at times!

Bits of the page I did like

My husband was great.  He closed the lid of his laptop and said, "I assume you want my thoughts on this?"  I did.   He asked me if I was taking the course because the teachers & students were all so enthusiastic and it would be fun to be part of the group?  And yes, I replied sheepishly, that was a strong reason.

And then he asked "Do you know what you want your art to look like?"

I'm not sure anyone has ever asked me that question.  And I was ready.  I do know what kind of art I want to make.  I know what I want my art to look like.  I know I can take inspiration from others, but in the end I want my art to look like mine.

I felt so free with that realization, took the ideas I liked out of what I'd done, and made something completely different.

stencils, paint, stamps, embossing powder, ink & collage

close up

This morning as I sat at my work table I wanted to write about my experience.  It felt like a new step in my artist's life, it deserved a journal with nothing from the past in it.  So I went upstairs to find something to write in, found a book with blank lined pages, then proceeded to decorate the first pages.  While I was waiting for the glitter glue to dry, I wrote this post (and may I say I have way too many bottles of Stickles). 

Stencil, gel prints, glitter glue

The start of a new journal of art musings

Art Show at the Library

For the month of March there has been an art show at Brewster Ladies Library.
The show ends this Saturday.  These are my two pieces on display.

Four Seasons

16"x20"

I made the four panels on French ledger paper from the 1890's.

I wet the paper and added color ink to get backgrounds for each season.

I stenciled the tree trunks onto cream colored cardstock, cut them out and pasted them to the ledger paper.

  I used a coordinating stencil (both from Stencil Girl) to add leaves.

Then I added paint & paste embellishments.

Winter has texture paste thru a small dot stencil  for snow.

Photo a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea.

Winter was easy, Summer was easy, Spring took two tries to get the background and Autumn was a bear.  I actually made that panel three times before it looked right with the other ones!

I covered the edges of a canvas with more French ledger paper, painted the inside a tan color and glued my panels in to give it the look of a shadow box.

Birdsong

This collage was made on a book, whose pages were torn out.

Due to the way the Arts Council requires art to be hung  I couldn't add a hanger to the book.  So,  I glued the finished book to the front of a 20"x16" canvas, covered in more French ledger paper.

Here are a few close-ups of the piece:

My funny little steampunk birds

I was in the midst of Zero Procrastination, an online course taught by Karen Kingston, when these pieces were due.  And yes, I did wait til the last week and a half to start them.  What I didn't know is that the course would provide me the space to have a life-changing "ah-ha" moment, where I remembered when my procrastination began.  It's not something touted in the class info, I didn't expect it.  But having that realization allowed me to work on these pieces steadily and easily and get them delivered on time (in fact I was the first artist there!).

My usual refrain is, "I wish I had more time to ... (fill in the blank re project due yesterday)"  This time I was only sorry I didn't have more time because I was having so much fun creating!