A Wild Ride

Ink, Acrylics and collage on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

Ready for a wild ride? well, where are we going? out to the brink, up on the edge, onto the roller coaster or maybe the stage – anywhere wings and sure feet are needed, with nets and fire hoses below?

Is there any reason not to jump, not to dance the wild dance until the girl turns herself into a prancing deer with wild senses tuned?

Not for me the usual parade of days with clock ticking relentlessly in static watch time.  Put me in the tumbler and shake and watch what comes out the other side, with perked ears and sharpened horns.

Last month I got to see Kneehigh’s production of The Wild Bride Berkeley Repertory Theatre and was totally transported to some wildly wonderful and gruesome and hilarious and romantic and etc etc places which only the very best theatre experience can do!  So, cutting up the playbill, and adding an assortment of loosely associated images, I got to dive back into that experience.  Of course I’m not normally one to voluntarily go on wild rides, but isn’t that what imagination is for?

Self Portrait

mostly magazine type collage with some acrylic on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

I’ve been wanting to do a Muse Group lesson with a self portrait theme, so I tried this approach to see what would happen.  Using my Photo Booth application on my Mac computer I took pictures of myself using the “comic book” effect, printed one out (in black and white) and glued it onto my art journal size paper.  Then I just started cutting and gluing.  Three absorbing hours later I lifted my head up, stretched, painted some acrylic on and declared it done.

And by cracky!  It does look like me (so says my husband, who ought to know).  So now, Muse students, tell me if you think you could or would even want to do this in a session.  You’d have to work faster than me for sure.  Maybe it’s a two week lesson.

Usually students cringe when you say they’re going to do self portraits, so I’ve stayed away from this, not wanting to traumatize anyone. But there are many approaches and I plan to try out some of them.  There are artists whose self portraits have contributed to their fame – Myrna Wacknov for one.  Oh and of course Van Gogh and Picasso and so on.

More Horse Power

Horsepower 3, acrylic on w/c paper, 10 X 10″

Such a coy lady, this one.

Horse Power

“Horsepower 1″, acrylic on w/c paper, 10 X 10″

I don’t especially like to think of myself as a “romantic” painter, but somehow horses inspire the romance in me.  Must be an adolescent girl holdover.

I really tried, but nothing could save me from romanticizing this one.  Maybe I just need to accept this. Even the edginess with color can’t disguise my anthropomorphizing tendencies.  I remember the girl who lived down the street from me when I was 10.  Her room was filled with pictures of horses and when she wasn’t at the stables she was sketching pictures of horses.  I thought it quite excessive and strange, but truly, aren’t they the most extraordinary of creatures?!

I looked up Horse in my Animal Speak book by Ted Andrews. And here’s a part that peaked my interest: “If a horse has shown up in your life, it may be time to examine aspects of travel and freedom within  your life.  Are you feeling constricted?  Do you need to move on or allow others to move on?  Is it time to assert your freedom and your power in new areas?”

If you are reading this blog posting, then this applies to you!  Personally, since I’ve just sent both my boys back to college this month (“allowing others to move on”) I certainly qualify for the “aspect of freedom within my life” part.  Now I just have to figure out where travel fits in!

January Issue of the Imagine With Art Newsletter

“Arpeggio”, acrylic and collage on canvas, 12 X 12″

Get your free copy of my just published Imagine With Art Newsletter here, with some notes about this recent painting “Arpeggio”, art play technique, fun resources on the web and more.  And if you want to access any of the 25 previous newsletters just click on the newsletter archive button on the right hand column here.

Hallucinations with Inks and Gesso

inks and gesso on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

Last Saturday 20 people showed up in the little art room at Rileystreet Art Supply (in Santa Rosa, CA) to watch my Painting With Inks and Gesso demo.  So while talking about materials and techniques and trying to answer the steady stream of great questions, I put ink and gesso to paper.  Here’s one that happened.

I’m mainly focused on getting surprises to happen on the paper with minimal use of brushes.  As soon as we get a brush in our hands (unless it’s a big juicy one) we get into control and predictable things start happening.  There’s nothing at all wrong with that, and I employ brushes in many ways to fine tune things.  But honestly, I could never do a painting like this one or the next on purpose.

Paintings like these encourage the kind of “hallucinations” that are both shared and at times idiosyncratic.  What is always fun in a group that has gathered round the table is that people see different things/creatures/figures depending on their viewpoint.  here (above) the bird or insect is flying. . .

while here, perhaps a woodpecker on a tree trunk?  But please don’t let me interfere with your very own image stream!  Oh, and just one more, from the Tuesday Muse Group demo this week, a Rohrshach. . .

Don’t think I’d want to meet these unicorn-y guys in a dark alley. . .

I’ll be doing another demo like this at the Rileystreet store in San Rafael, CA on Feb. 11 if you’d like to join me.  It’s free, but you sign up by contacting the store.

From Students in the Muse Groups

I’ve started snapping pictures of the art journal pieces the Muse students do in class, as much for my own inspiration as to keep a record of the lessons and share the visual poetry created with others. This slide show incorporates much of the work (although we prefer to use the word “play”) done in lessons focusing on incorporating words/text into the painted/collaged imagery, and in subsequent lessons making and using acrylic “skins” or poured acrylic patterns.  Enjoy! I hope you’ll also enjoy the music of my recent most favorite song, “20 Years” by the Civil Wars.

Sister Power

poured acrylics, “skins” and other collage on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

Sisters standing in a gaggle gossiping. But what they really want to talk about is how wet the ice is this winter, and have you heard the polar bears are stuck on their mini ice floes with no where to go.

Let’s come up with a plan, says Hilda.  We’re not stuck here after all, says Helen.  We have wings and can see where the wind takes us.  We will stick together and survive by our wits, paying attention to the signs, in the air, the clouds, the sun, the breath of the wind.

That’s what happens when you team up with the right people (or swans) – you don’t need to stay stuck.  You’ve got help to figure it out. And that’s how it felt yesterday in the Muse Group with all that collective art power.  We dribbled and poured acrylics, mixing them with acrylic medium to make them flowy and maintain the plasticity.

I’ll be putting together another video of the spectacular student work to post here.

Muse Marilyn shared a really fun word designing website with us.  Have you tried Wordle?  It plays around with text and spits it out in intriguing designs you can print out, cut up, glue on, or whatever.

And there’s one space left in the Tuesday Muse Group which starts next week, if you think you’d like to join in.

Illusio

collage, acrylic, skins on w/c paper

Illusio, the illusion of a meaning, a reason to be, a passion to do. The music in the wind in the sails blown by the breath of the mystic, who seems to know what route to take, what color to paint, what song to sing or dance to. 

Life if like that, all smoke and mirrors and Voila! There it is, as plain as the nose on your face, and then Voila! It is gone.  You’re bereft and wandering around, mistaking your thoughts for something real and not even noticing the plant growing up through the pavement, the child hiding behind your shoulder seeking protection.  Was she there all along, wondering where you might take her next?

We’re playing with acrylic “skins” in the Muse Groups this weekend.  Can you see them catch the shine in this piece?

The word “illusio” comes of course from Latin, but the concept is a sociological one which refers to the investment people make in the activities that give meaning to their lives – from rock climbing to stamp collecting to growing orchids. It’s my new favorite word.

We need our “illusio” to thrive. All the articles on living a long life say so. The paradox is that as we get caught up in our “illusio” we forget that it is transitory, illusory. So is it possible to live with passion while simultaneously being OK with the knowledge that your enjoyment is transitory?

Imagine With Art Workshops for Winter and into Spring

There are lots of opportunities to join me for workshops in my Sebastopol, California studio this winter.  Click here for the latest workshop newsletter.