July 30, 2021 Weekly Musings
Posted on July 30 2021
Blogs:
Gleefully Wonder
Posted July 24, 2021
Featured image: Fresh Strawberries
What do you see when you look at an abstract or semi-abstract work of art? Nothing or something? Do you find abstract work confusing like a pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces unsorted and walk away? Or do you look at an abstract work, like you look at that pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces and begin to sort the pieces out and try and figure it out?
An abstract artist takes the pile of jigsaw pieces and begins to sort them out. An abstract artist, painter, takes the many colors that they have placed on some media and knows there is something there, like they know there is something there in the jigsaw puzzle, and begins to solve the puzzle of the painting. The abstract artist perceives and sorts and creates something fresh, different and new by remixing the same colors that they've used in another work, but this time a fresh idea emerges from them.
This idea, this fresh concept is then identified. That is what happens to me every time I begin to paint. Every time – I have butterflies in my stomach – and I gleefully wonder what will emerge and what will its identification be.
Anti-Aesthetics
Posted July 25, 2021
Featured image: Green Apples Wire Basket
How do you think about things? Or better yet, how do you want to think about things? Why do you think that way? Would you like to think that we should all meet in the middle and that the middle is grey, which would make your thinking grey? Or would you like to think that we should all meet in the middle and that the middle is multicolored and all your thinking is multicolored?
If you think in multicolor, do you say to yourself when you don’t understand something, "Well, it is what it is? Things are what they are – let them be." If you do, then your version of multicolor isn't multicolored at all.
Is this the way that you think about art – it is multicolored, and it is what it is?
Then your art isn’t anything at all.
Is your thinking regarding aesthetic like that also?
Let me give you some examples. You are sitting peacefully on the porch with a glass of wine or coffee and watching quietly the sun rise or set. You take many deep breaths and wish that life could always be like this. Is how you are thinking about this peace that you feel, grey or multicolored? Is peace grey?
Or when two crows make a "caw caw caw" racket in the morning and the power of their voices drown out the small bird songs in the forest, and the sound of the hummingbird's wings flying over your head as he comes for his morning drink of water. What is the color of your aesthetic responses to these two aesthetic moments? Grey peace or multicolored possibilities?
The difference between the song of the smaller birds and the song of the crows and the sound of the hummingbird wings is huge. Differences don’t require compromise one over the other – a compromise that eases the conflict between the two aesthetics. But that is exactly what is happening in the arts and in our culture. I call it anti-aesthetics.
Anti-aesthetics happen when distinctions are extinguished, virtues are extinguished, where goals are extinguished, where character is extinguished, where there is no significance between the two. It is like saying there is no difference between the song of the crow and the song of the finches. Of course, there is a difference.
Anti-aesthetics exists. It does nothing and gets nowhere. It is definitely grey.
What Is An Artist?
Posted July 26, 2021
Featured image: Walker
A work of art and an artist are only authentic if they have the ability to use their own creativity, their own imagination, their own histories and their own identifiers for the concepts that they create in their work. A work of art is authentic if the viewer is able to experience and perceive all of these identifiers in the work and in the artist who created the work. Being an artist is all about independence and unique individualism. Being an artist is all about creativity and being able to think about possibilities and freshness.
Good Morning Sun
Posted July 27, 2021
The Light Is Always On
Posted July 28, 2021
Featured image: Jackson's Lucky Pink Rabbit's Foot
Everyone is not an artist. Making art takes years and years of dedication and that requires a way to support yourself as you are figuring things out and actually becoming an artist. The word artist is used like the word Kleenex. All of the tissues that were used to blow your nose on were called Kleenex for the longest time but there was only one Kleenex. The same thing has happened with the word artist. There are many who call themselves artists but really, they are only a pretend Kleenex.
For me, my means of support was teaching. It allowed me to put food on the table and buy art supplies. I kept practicing and practicing to be an artist. I didn't have a clue what an artist was, but knew that I loved to create. For me another means of support was working with interior designers. I spent over 20 years of my life learning how to be an artist, learning how to paint, learning how to freely paint while not worrying about the work but enjoying the process.
I worked hard, and I dedicated my life to it, along with raising a family and doing other things along the way. It was hard work and no one else could do it for me. I loved it and I learned every day from it. But make no mistake it was hard work and it did take dedication.
I am not In a place of learning to be an artist today because of a naive way of thinking that everything would just happen because I could draw. I am still learning to be an artist today because it where I am happy and want to be.
I am not ignorant and think that everything I create is a masterpiece. That's impossible.
I was not and am not privileged. I earned where I am today all by myself. Would I like to be different? I wouldn’t know how. I just keep plugging away, looking for the fresh, looking for a re-mixture of what is land looking for and trying to understand what is real while enjoying life along the way.
But there is one strange thing about me and my work. I don’t feel there is anything special about it. But it is authentic. Folks tell me, when I share that tid-bit with them that my work nourishes their soul and they like coming to my studio where the light is always on.
The Artist
Posted July 30, 2021
Featured image: Waltzing Sunflowers II
You as an artist, the total package of you consists of all of the choices that you have made over the years both good and bad. As an artist when you choose to create something, it must come from what honestly fascinates and stirs your spirit your soul. You will feel vulnerable when you do this. But always remember that everyone is unique, and one-of-a-kind, and you only feel vulnerable because you don’t match others – and that is ok. In fact that is good because no one is exactly like you.
Once you understand this as an artist you are able to know your soul, your individual unique self. You know what will tickle your fancy and what will not. You know what you want to believe and what you don't want to believe. You understand your life and that all life is to be treasured. All these things together, make up who you are and they need to be visible in your work. If you do not understand this, then you don’t understand your uniqueness yet.
There is always a part of you that remains childlike and wishful. It has always been there. It is your unique source of strength. This wonderful childlike remnant in you is where your "Art" comes from. It knows no limits, and when you tap into it you will realize that very very rich beautiful choices you have made. All your art need to come from this very sacred place.
It is a privilege being an artist.
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