Strings: Art and Writing

Good Reading: "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg. She has lots of good advice for writers and most of it can be applied to visual art as well.

Carolyn Turgeon

I recently read an article about a writer named Carolyn Turgeon. I haven't read any of her books, but in the article she summed up what I love most about writing and making art and compared it to one of my favorite books. "What I love," she says, "is absolute devastation mixed with absolute gorgeousness--like in Gabriel Marquez's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude."

New Works and Musings...

Narrative chronicles of childhood imagination, imagined fairy tales and how memories become little ghosts; translucent. These are all things that have been influencing my new work. I am just starting to sharpen my ideas, find my footing and shore up my confidence. It has been a long sabbatical.

One thing I discovered after that last post is that it doesn't matter whether I use mixed media or not. For me, it's not important to put constrictions on what I use as much as it is important to execute my ideas. The only thing that matters is that I am making art. There is no need to complicate things with too many preconceived notions. Actually, I think that's exactly what's been blocking me.

All of the intellectualizing is nothing if I am not making art. Techniques will be discovered and honed as I do what I love. I cannot deny that I love the freedom of messin' stuff up! That means laying down the paint, adding bits of paper or drawings or texture, sanding it off, ripping into it and then adding more STUFF and doing it all again until I have layers....layers that have a history, layers that have life.

The Bee Skep Girl

Detail: The Bee Skep Girl

Dress Sculpture: Lit

Cleaning: All talk and No action

Forgive me, _________, for it has been two months since my last confession. Every morning I get up, walk through the house tripping over toys and noticing dust on the stairs. I say to myself. "I think I'll clean the house today." After breakfast and seeing my DH (darling hubby) and the boys off to school I grab my coffee, make the bed and stare into my studio space. And every morning, I think "No. I wont clean today, I'm going to make art." So, it goes. My house remains a mess. The laundry and cooking usually get done and the kitchen and bathroom get cleaned occasionally. The dust bunnies are beginning to run the place tho. If only I could get them to clean the house.

Soon it will have been a year since I obtained some serious chunks of time to devote to thinking about and actually making art again. It started in a fury and the energy was great and large, ideas came in the waking hours and in my sleep. At times it seemed as if my body did not need rest. Then things settled a bit; became more calm. And now, I'm standing on the edge of something but I'm not sure what. Creative block or new direction? I can't tell. Just work through it. That's all I can do.

I fall in love with my new work every time. What a giddy experience. The honeymoon phase. I have to give it time to let the shine wear off so I can actually see it for what it is. And sometimes it is really good and sometimes it is shit. I have to give myself permission to make crap. It's the only thing that can undo that creative block. So, I'm off to make a bunch of crap that sucks! Maybe I'll post some pix.

Oh, and here's my confession: "I am wondering if I use mixed media as a crutch. Even tho I create my own images to appropriate into my paintings and I think mixed media is a valid approach, I am suspicious of this technique. I wonder if I use this because I lack confidence in my painting ability. Drawing certainly comes easier to me. So, for the next few weeks I'm going to try my hand at painting the images I would usually appropriate into my paintings. Perhaps even beyond that I will remove the representational images all together. Let my love of texture take over. Over intellectualizing it? But what else have I to do? Clean? That doesn't sound like much fun.