An Artist’s Journal
I invite you to join me on my journey creating each art piece, my painting ‘process’ and the insights I’ve learned along the way.
Are You Finding Yourself Connecting To Nature?
Autumnal Equinox
On September 22nd we experienced the transition from summer to the fall season. This is measured by the sun crossing the equator, where the day and night are at equal distance. The days will now become shorter with daylight savings time changing on November 1 to compensate for the shorter days of light. The sun crosses the equator two times within a year the next time we will anticipate the equinox will be in the spring called the Vernal Equinox. Also, interesting to the sun is the solstice which we will look forward to on December 21. This is when the sun realigns the limits of its path of declination, “sun stands still”, before changing direction to the north.
Observation in a Painting
As the summers have become hotter all over the planet. We find this also to be exaggerated in the Florida Keys. During the days experiencing high temperatures along with high levels of humidity. EXCEPT on this evening the sun was very bright and the first time all summer season we felt the evening breeze. Trying to capture the clouds as they were being blown across the sky as if to pass by the sun in celebration to fall. So I grabbed a few clouds passing by and held them for the moment of painting this scene. As the sun continued its brightness the breeze handed us a bit of relief.
In this type of painting, one has to anticipate the movements of the clouds, the sun along with the light and shadows. It is one of the most challenging of paintings as the sun drops like a coin the closer it becomes to the horizon. Like taking a snapshot in your mind and applying the paint quickly for that moment. The light after the sun sets starts to diminish leaving the momentary imprint to work from in the memory with light fading into the night.
The authentic way to survive the sunsets is not to desire the masterpiece painting but to put it in the collection of experiences, some good, some hit the recycle bin. When you experience these paintings, I hope you can take away that moment that was connected to nature.
Nature Is Conspiring To Connect Us To Reality
Dr Robert Svoboda
During These Strange Times
We all can search for those items of inspiration and joy. Nature unveils this in “her”, magical way. The colors, clouds, reflection in the water and the moment of being there. Maybe this image can bring that moment back to life, in a frame and hanging in the right place to receive a glance once in a while.
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Can You Shift The Response?
I picked up a painting from the “Mango Madness Exhibit”, sponsored by, The Studios of Key West. The painting is called, “Mango in the Moon’s Shadow”, which was dropped off in July for the 2020 first time virtual exhibit. This painting is completed in oil on a wood panel 14” X18”.
In arriving home with the painting you can see a scratch in the middle of the painting on the right. With a momentary, “OH NO”, no longer the painting for an exhibition but a damaged art piece.
STOP
shift the thinking from sadness to opportunity in exploring the options to rework the, “Mango in the Moon’s Shadow” painting. Easy to move into the misery state,
Every year, The Studios Of Key West, features an exhibit called, “Mango Madness” inviting artist to present their own art work. One evening I was observing the full moon on the Florida Bay and decided that madness and the moon have a close relationship as in luna, lunacy, or lunatic. The concept was put into the painting you see on the left. All was good until the transport home.
Or make a shift in the way we see, How we respond, How we can renew?
A Happy Solution.
Out comes the paint and with another chance, like the moon and all the phases so shall this painting show a different phase. These lessons show up regularly the outcome is our choice to see and respond. This painting is not hanging in the virtual show but can be seen here on the website.
The nature of the moon is calm and peaceful, shows intelligence and imagination. This painting fits those with creative style full of imagination who is looking for the peace and calm to be added to a room.
Is Art Conveyed Through Consciousness or Training?
Continuation of this post
Taking a workshop is good in many ways. Being pushed out of one’s comfort zone is one of the significant reasons for participating in this type of group. Michele Byrne has a way of challenging her students with kindness in her demeanor.
We were set up on Eaton St along the street in front of the Tropic Cinema, and Michele gave us instructions to paint any building on the sunny side of the street. Any time one paints on the streets of Key West, the biggest decision is commonly selecting one choice out of so many. The point of this subject is to isolate the moments in which we are using our training and when we are using our creativity.
So we are taught - trained - to place a wash on the panel board. Then block in the subject; this is an appropriate time to check proportions, angles, lines, etc. Next, after the final review, the mixing of paints, distinguishing lights and darks, and, finally, painting. This is the moment one searches for their own truth in seeing and transferring the sight view onto a panel. Do we try to follow exactly the assignment or does one have confidence in one’s own ability?
Creative liberties begin at any point by what becomes an inspiration and connect within us.
Ahah! A moment of consciousness or awareness awakens. Some have called this “the zone.” When being in “the zone” one goes into an empty space and continues to paint, losing all that surrounds oneself except for the subject, along with a time-lapse. Painting on autopilot.
Silence The Mind
We all desire to go to this place during painting where we can focus on every detail in front of us. There are those days when the mind captures our attention and won’t let one paint freely. With such a distraction to the mind, the outcome is obvious but not always recognized until being faced with frustration. When this happens, we reach for excuses. “I couldn’t paint because……” The true answer lies within us not understanding this simple quandary.
This is what happened on Eaton St the day we were to paint. The harder I tried, you know the rest. Each palette knife stroke was painful, not finding the space or rhythm that can glide one through the process. The mind cluttered with chatter to paint the perfect image. For those who paint know very well, pack up, and move on for the next time.
In the practice of Yoga, if one holds on too tightly to the asana or the postures, or even desires to seize the asana, the mind prevents the process. The same is true in painting if we want the paintings to be the best, the mind jumps in the way. Give up the mind games and surrender to the process.
As an encouragement from Michele, in her famous words, Do it again. So I am pleased to say that the second round of painting on the Eaton St house was in “the zone” during a peaceful mind.
This is when yoga practice and art melt into the ball of wax. (See here.)
In our next post, I will cover the preparation before a painting project.
As An Artist, How Does The Ball of Wax Affect Your Life?
In the previous post, we discussed the introduction to “the eccentric Gallery mistress known as Marion Stevens.” One of the statements she left us with is:
“Art is like a ball of wax, it follows you throughout your life.”
Let us break apart the sentence structure and pull out the key words:
Art
It
Follows
Throughout
Your
Life
noun, compared to “ball of wax”
nominative pronoun, reference to “art”
verb
preposition
personal pronoun
noun
What Is Art?
As defined in the dictionary:
Art:
(noun)
Skill acquired by experience, study, or observation
A branch of learning
An occupation requiring knowledge or skill
The conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects
In definition one, it tells us that the term skill of ar can be acquired externally from any place or anything that we have, experienced, studied, or observed.
A branch of learning, number two, if the branches are science, math, English, or others, then one could also access Art through formal educational designations or institutions.
Number three is where the meaning shifts as an occupation requiring knowledge or skill can be taken in two ways:
one who brings self knowledge or skill of art to the occupation.
being trained in Art is the reference back to meaning one and two where the noun Art can be acquired.
In my opinion, number four is where the true sense of art lies as the internal conscious person who uses their inner skills and creative imagination to convey one’s interpretation in “that moment” of being present to make a permanent or impermanent physical object. A sketch, painting, song, story, fabric, pottery, fashion, photography, interior spaces, and a culinary recipe, to name only a few short topics.
Back to the fourth definition of Art, consciousness here takes on the underlying term for Art:
Being
Being aware
Intuition of cognition
Observation
Knowing
Inspired by…… all of the above
Imagination, imaging, vision
The Art of Imperfection
On one of my trips to Japan, a term was used called “wabi sabi.” The word itself and the way the sounds are pronounced peaks the curiosity, as it should. Her one can see the Japanese culture has embraced this consciousness through the term wabi sabi.
In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.” (Wikipedia)
Bringing wabi-sabi into your life doesn’t require, money, training, or special skills. It takes a mind quiet enough to appreciate muted beauty, courage not to fear bareness, and a willingness to accept things as they are - without ornamentation.
I would encourage everyone to explore the Japanese tradition of “wabi sabi.” It can influence the way one thinks and lives.
The Term “Ball of Wax”
Also know as “the whole ball of wax” this means the whole thing, the entirety of something.
The paradox starts with Art being learned from external influences or an internal way of observing and being. In either case, one could argue that everyone has the ability to be creative referring to the entirety of the ball of wax. Whether one chooses to be creative or not is a selection in the direction of one’s life journey.
These words, having been spoken by Marion Stevens, can only be defined by her;
however impossible that is today. Breaking apart the elements in the sentence we can make the argument that her brilliance left us contemplating how art has affected all aspects of our lives and how we see art affecting our life in the future.
In our next post, I will discuss the frustrations of losing the concept of Art while on the streets of Key West.
How Does a Ball of Wax Affect Art?
As the first blog, I thought it appropriate to write about one experience and meeting that changed the direction of my life after leaving the world of business.
Landing in Key West, I encountered a woman, described by playwright Toby Armour as,
“The eccentric Gallery mistress known as Marion Stevens.”
Key West Locals called her crazy, bipolar, nuts, or just simply mad. When Marion loudly announced her arrival, people would run in opposite directions. The infamous story of her chasing a naked Paul Stevens, her then husband, down Duval Street in the middle of a quiet night with a knife wailing over her head still remains a part of her legacy.
She came from Germany as a dancer, where she studied with Mary Wigman whose students included Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan. Those animated, freestyle moves stayed with her during her life as one of the talented and outspoken Key West Characters. Her love for Key West and Haiti influenced her to open a Haitian Art Gallery at 217 Duval St.
And this is where the story begins.
We were looking for an investment property and to enjoy the Florida Keys full time. We have had a part time home in Key Largo for many years. Marion was looking to sell as she arrived back from a visit to Haiti where she’d been purchasing art. She had been mugged and was very shaken by the ordeal. Being free from the constraints of a business was foremost on her mind.
People who knew her claimed, “Marion will never sell that property.” There was something about our meeting that changed her mind. She set her parameters before she would sign the papers, but, to everyone’s surprise, we made it to the settlement table. Marion had a sense of relief, which caused her to momentarily be endearing and kind. Though she would begin screaming, ranting, and raving again when she forgot her medication as time passed.
As a highly intellectual woman, she gave me one line of advice,
“Art is like a ball of wax, it follows you throughout your life.”
That statement has been at times though provoking, observed, and contemplated. We hear or receive these messages at the most unexpected moments. In the next post, we will contemplate the meanings of this line.
That ball of wax continues in the memory of Marion Stevens by a fund that she set up.
Purpose of the Marion Stevens Fund:
To benefit children, particularly in the areas of health, education, and teenage pregnancy; to support the visual and performing arts; to sustain those persons and groups which strive to abolish discrimination in all of its forms; to advance the cause of those individuals and entities which seek to improve the quality of life for all of us, for humanity, and for our future generations.
The Marion Stevens Fund also supports The Studios of Key West, a center for the arts in Key West, an island community at the southern most tip of the Florida Keys. This is possible with other institutional partners such as the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys, Florida Keys Council of the Arts, and the noted Marion Stevens Fund.