March 4, 2022 Weekly Musings.
Posted on March 04 2022
Announcements:
Watercolor Art Society - Houston
I was recently invited to become a signature member of the Watercolor Art Society - Houston. To become a signature member you must have had 3 works of art accepted into their National Exhibitions in which many are by invitation only.
Arches of Triumph, Northern Lights and Nest VI were the works submitted for jury. I'm honored to now be a signature member of 16 national watercolor societies.
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Marble Game Accepted into 2022 Rockies West Show
"The Choir" Accepted into Online Exhibition
I'm honored that my work, "The Choir," has been accepted into Cultural Center of Cape Cod's Online Exhibition, "Winter Magic."
"Winter Magic" opens March 3, 2022 by noon EST.
It can be viewed at www.cultural-center.org.
"Mask" Receives Award
I'm honored that my work, "Mask" received a second place award in the Rhode Island Watercolor Society's online open juried show "Vision '22." There were 220 pieces that entered.
The show can be viewed at the below link.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=riwatercolor&set=a.10161443316924392
Mask and Just Walk Away accepted into Vision'22
I'm honored that my works, "Mask" and "Just Walk Away," have been accepted into the Rhode Island Watercolor Society's online open juried show "Vision '22." There were 220 pieces that entered. Mask and Just Walk Away were two of 95 that were accepted.
The show can be viewed at the below link.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=riwatercolor&set=a.10161443316924392
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Blog:
Christine Alfery's Artist Statement
Featured image: Gypsy
Christine Alfery's Artist Statement
February 2022
My work changes as I change, as my experiences in life change, and how I react to them change. Recently I have been working with figures. They just happened one day as I was turning a piece that I had just finished putting watercolor washes on. A figure emerged and shouted at me, "I want to come alive! Make me come alive! And I did and she did. Since then, I have been creating figures that speak to me and shout, "I want to live, I want to live!" This act of creating for the past year has been gloriously wonderful as I watch these figures speak to others besides myself. This change has been wonderful!
I still am creating my nonobjective pieces, but they too have changed. There is a conceptual meaning to them like in my figures. Giving these works a conceptual meaning brings them to life like it does for my figures. And it brings my visual voice to life.
Change happens, it is good. Life is good. Life is wonderful no matter what the circumstances. We learn from all things, our histories, but mainly from allowing ourselves to think. We also learn from really thinking for ourselves and then sharing who we are with others.
Ms Pileated
Featured image: Ms Pileated
I don’t know what it is about a pileated woodpecker that fascinates me. Is it the rhythmic drumbeat of their sound when looking for something to eat in a dead standing tree? Is it their largeness compared to other birds? Is it their wingspan as they dip down between the trees? Is it their coloring, such stark black, white and red? Is it their energy and their edginess? Is it that they mate for life, showing loyalty? Is it their shyness, and aloofness?
For me, the fascination of the pileated woodpecker can be any one of these things or all of them. I feel so blessed when they come to my feeders and peck away at the suet that I put out for them. There are four of them in our woods, male, female, and a couple of young ones. It was so much fun watching the four of them pecking at the ground for worms like a robin does.
Online, the feeder.com states the histories, stories and traditions of cultures across the world regarding birds. It states that the Pileated Woodpecker represents power, creativity and productivity. No wonder they are so fascinating for me.
It was fun to paint this one and all the tangles emerging from her head. I imagined that these tangles represented her loyalty, determination, her creativity and productivity.
Abstraction
Featured image: Crossroads
I can’t tell you how many times that I've heard the comment, “I don’t understand abstract art.” Why is that?
Well, sometimes there is nothing in the work. By that I mean that there's NO MEANING and no good design. People need content and the work needs to relate to something that they can relate to. Today, color seems to be the dominate element that people relate to. They choose a work of art because there are colors in it that match something in the room they want to put it in. But, does a bunch of colors placed on an abject make it art? No. Just like giving a child a dish full of sugar doesn’t make it cereal. Today abstract art, for the most part, is simply a lot of color placed on an object. Popular colors are usually chosen. Works with just color for content, are called abstract art today. But, there is no content. And it isn’t art. For example: One of my favorite abstract artists is Elaine deKooning. She painted this work called, Bacchus #3.
This is probably a work that many would walk by and make the statement; “I don’t understand abstract work.” For me, I instantly see figures all inter-tangled. There is wonderful content here. Why do I understand this work and others don’t? The answer is obvious. I have been educated in the arts. So, is that all it takes for people to stop saying, “I don’t understand abstract art work?” Put simply, the answer is, "Yes." Does that mean that they have to be over educated in the arts to be able to understand this? No. They just need to want to, and many don’t want to take the time, don’t even want to begin thinking about it. The thing is that many people don’t want to think about it. It is just easier to match colors, which is not too many steps beyond coloring within the lines in a coloring book. I think of what I call the McDonalds happy meals culture where folks want instant gratification and a prize in their happy meal box. Some things do take a little effort – and learning how to look, how to read visual works is one of those things that take a little effort. An abstract work takes a little effort to be able to read and understand.
Without the abstract, there can be no discovery and exploration and there is no unique one-of-a-kind artist creating from the abstract to discover and present a fresh way to understand and look at art and the environment. So, if the works that are filled with just color really aren't art but rather wall paper with a frame around the paper. Artists who don’t begin with the abstract cannot make unique, original and one-of-a-kind works. Just like scientists that follow a formula and don’t work with an abstract first aren’t really discovering and progressing ideas forward, they are merely copying and repeating what has already been done.
Both artists and scientists begin with the abstract. They take all the elements that have no meaning presented to them, I can only speak for the artist here, and begin to organize them, and look for some conceptual element in the work which they wish to emphasize. This process makes the work unique and one-of-a-kind. So, when someone says that they don’t like abstraction, they really mean that they don’t understand abstraction, and that makes sense because there is nothing there to understand. Art needs a conceptual element that emerges from the abstract to make it “art.” Science is the same way.
The thing with work that has no meaning, is that it can be anything and everything. Being anything and everything isn’t art. Abstract art needs to be defined just like everything else.
Recently I created this work I called, “Cross Roads.”
It would be easy to take the easy road to understanding this work and just say that I like red and black together. But what makes this work “art” is the idea and the concept within this work. It is the uniqueness of putting these abstract elements together and giving them conceptual meaning. It is part of the artist and it becomes art, unique and one-of-a-kind.