saturday musings

Saturday’s Muses sharing . . .

Our art journal creations

We started out with sensory drawings with eyes closed, using both hands, and added inks and collage and later words to end in these phantasmagorical creations!  Darker than usual, certainly because of the use of black ink, but also because this is the dark time of year and those darker aspects deserve our attention as we enter the time of hibernation, of more “inside” time.

by Susan

Edge of the jungle where the wild things are.

Explorers go there.  I go there.

On the edge of mountains where life is precarious

and therefore so precious

There are bridges over chasms there

walked daily by those who strive to live. . .on the edge.

I was thinking here of Greg Mortenson, that generous and intrepid spirit and author of Three Cups of Tea, who I will be hearing speak next Saturday here in Santa Rosa.  His story about his successful efforts to address poverty, educate girls, and overcome cultural divides in the high mountains of Pakistan is inspirational in the truest sense.

I will be starting up two more Muse groups in January, a weekly Tuesday evening group and a monthly Sunday group.  These groups are a great way to re-charge your creative spirit while learning new art techniques each session.  Hope you can join me!

dreamtime lion

Sharpee pen, inks on Lama Li paper

In my dream I encountered a mountain lion/cougar in a corn field.  Terrified I tried to hide, very quietly, hoping he wouldn’t discover me.  Kind of like pulling the covers up over your head and trying to pretend you are closing out the danger.  However as I lay there trembling (in the dream) I felt a pressure against my back and realized the big cat had curled up with me!  Day 3 of my sketch challenge, so I sketched my memory and then looked up the spirit powers of the lion (cougar) – among others, decisiveness in the use of personal power - definitely something I can use! [Animal Speak by Ted Andrews]

Later in the day I went to the Winter Dance Showcase at my son’s school (upper left).  I was wondering why I put these two events on the same page, other than that they happened the same day.  Just now I realized that the mascot of El Molino High School is the Lion!!!

everyday sketching

Gray sharpee pen, acrylic on Lama Li sketch paper

I like to drink my morning coffee in the living room.  Instead of reading the paper I sketched what I see from the couch – what an improvement over the (bad) news!  The moon was not sitting in my dining room, not until later anyway.

pencil

I don’t actually like to sit and give a movie my total attention in the evening.  But often I don’t sit down and rest unless I have the excuse of watching something.  The perfect solution is to sketch while watching.  It takes a load off the feet, relaxing the back while still accommodating the restless urge to “do art”.  For this I opened a art history book and copied.

the month for simplicity

Sumi ink, Interference acrylics, pen on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

As the seasonal shrinking (of my ego) occurs,

remember this tiny wizard with his VAST DOMINION.

Simplicity and a loving heart thrive in December.

Remember to shrink.

On Thanksgiving day, while my husband Bob was preparing the meal, I invited my mom and friend Laura out to the studio for some art play.  They dove right in with the Sumi ink and paints, and I did this piece, minus the words, which I just added today.  Golden had sent me some Interference Oxide Red and Violet and Blue and we played with mixing them in with the black Sumi ink.  I was thinking cornucopia, and then a shape appeared inside, and I easily made it into this figure of the little wizard with a couple minor strokes of the brush through the wet ink.  He seemed to be spinning out this cosmic spiral!

When I did the free write I remembered that each December I go through this uncomfortable transition where I feel myself growing very small and insignificant, like the autumn leaves which are falling to the ground and slowly being absorbed back into the earth.  A part of me notes this with alarm, while another part feels a lightening of the load I carry.  So the little wizard here gave me the advice to remember to shrink, to be simple and have a loving heart and all will be well.  The best advice is always the simplest.  Thank you wizard!

I’m also rereading Danny Gregory’s book The Creative License and will be sketching and journaling a bit every day this month.  So if you want to join me in the challenge, I welcome your company!  I’m remembering that last year I did a sketch a day during the busiest part of the holiday and it was such a breakthrough.  Since I got the book off to the printer’s yesterday I decided to treat myself to a trip out to the beach today, even including a lunch of fish n chips!

Sharpee pen, watercolor on Lama Li paper

Cricket love

acrylic, collage on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

The Loves of a Cricket. . .A Buddhist prayer. . .If I were a cricket, what would I love?  I would love to chirp, like the cricket that came into my house (invisibly) last week on the Mexican Sage I’d picked for its beautiful purple velvet flowers.  This cricket started up his chorus in our living room.  Each time I entered and moved across the room he stopped singing.  It gave me the feeling he was an intelligent being, who sensed my presence, perhaps in a Buddhist, in-the-moment sort of way.  I am asking to be delivered, I read.  The cricket can deliver me with his stopping and starting. . .becoming a Buddhist prayer for me.

This piece began as a demo for the acrylic textures workshop a couple weekends ago – flowing acrylics painted over a tissue paper collage with bits of text in it.  The text in this one was from a book of poetry, randomly selected and glued on with little or nothing in mind except to add to the visual excitement of the painting.  The words above came in a 5-minute free write which I did afterwards .  The words in blue are from the collage pieces, and they became the prompts for the writing.  The metaphoric mind is always ready to synthesize unrelated details into a meaningful and satisfying whole.  That little cricket who lived in my living room for a few days gained a kind of precious importance and this painting, now in my art journal, will be a reminder of that.

Of course it started out as a painting of a lady with big egg shaped boobs!  And I could have had fun with that as well, but since I’m forever finding egg shapes in my paintings, I’ll let this one ride.

My book, Conversations with the Muse is set to go off to the printers tomorrow and I’m so excited!  It’s chock full of colorful art, writings on the practice of art journaling, personal accounts of transformation- both my own and Muse group members, and even some instructions for the fun mixed media techniques you’ve seen here.  It should be available for purchase here by the end of December, so stay tuned.

terra firma

ink, acrylic, collage, gel pen on w/c paper, 10″ X 11″

I am a unique expression of Life, she (the girl) says.

Yeah, so am I, he (the bird) says, but you won’t see me piercing and tattooing myself.  Look at all those people down there depending on you.  You stand on terra firma – a good place to start – NOW WALK!

Terra Firma – Latin for solid ground/earth.    I love this picture of the tattooed, pink haired, stocking torn, combat booted, chained girl.  Such great lengths she’s gone to, to make a statement of originality or belonging or a bit of each.  I long to dress in some outrageous way, to live some edgy bohemian lifestyle.  But – get this – “bohemian” – how old fashioned can you get?  I would have to bring along my reading glasses on a chain around my neck or I’d be lost.  My varicose veins would show through the holes in my tights in an unseemly way and I would probably scream if you tried to needle me for a tattoo.

But that’s what’s so amazing about art!  It’s painless to do all this alter ego stuff on paper.  I love it when the characters I’ve found through collage and painting have a conversation and end up giving ME advise, like terra firma being a good place to start walking.  Feet on the ground, noticing what’s under foot and who’s out there depending on you.  Those bird characters are so smart!  And this reminds me of a quote I particularly like, especially when I’m feeling stuck.

“It is difficult to steer a parked car, so get moving.” – Henrietta Mears

HDR – high dynamic range

photo of my studio work/play table by Bob Cornelis

Today my husband Bob said he felt like a “book widower”, meaning I’m always out in my studio glued to the computer working on this upcoming book Conversations with the Muse.  I guess that’s why I haven’t been “feeding” my blog as regularly lately as well.  I’ve kept him busy enough with doing all the imaging for the book too.  This one I particularly love because of all the texture.  Even my white wall has texture!  It is this new photographic technology called HDR, which I think lends a storybook quality to the scene.  I won’t show you what it does to human skin, at least not mine!  We’re talking prehistoric dinosaur.

Meanwhile I’m having so much fun writing and designing my first book.  I do sort of get glued to my chair.  The voice whispers “it’s time to make dinner Susan” but I don’t move.  An hour later I’m still there at my computer.  Does this make me a nerd?

palimpsest

acrylic, collage, pen, Sumi ink on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

voice booming out on the airwaves

fierce and strong

soft as a whisper

twirls in spiraling pearls

ricochets into the ionosphere

creates a web, an internet, a worldwide voice

step through that doorway, shyly up to the microphone

listen as the words come softly

blowing through the space between my ears

PAL – imp – sest – noun,  a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.

In the Tuesday evening Muse group last week we turned our usual sequence (painting, collaging and writing) around and started out by doing our free write directly onto the watercolor paper with pen.  We each picked our own theme of current interest to write about.  Then we spent the rest of the evening creating a palimpsest by covering most of the words with paint and collage while allowing some to show through.  This was both frustrating, as when the words seemed too “important” to cover, and liberating when the words were covered with metaphoric images capturing their essence. At the end of the evening we added yet another layer of meaning to our pieces by writing about them again, with further insights arising.

My original free write (underneath the painting) was about how there’s always a way to tune into the quiet inner voices if you can just silence those big booming repetitive voices that keep you stuck in the same old groove.

But when I did the art, the voice became an outer voice, a bigger one than I usually allow myself.  An invitation or exhortation to speak in a larger voice those words that come softly from within.

Demo at WASCO or how did those chickens get into my paint?!

acrylic, collage on illustration board, 15 X 11″ (unfinished)

Yesterday afternoon I did a demonstration of acrylic textural painting at the Watercolor Artists of Sonoma County (WASCO), a wonderful group of artists, many of whom I’ve painted with over the years.  My topic was a bit daunting.  How does one do a painting with layered textures in the one hour I had to present?  I picked a subject I know well, since I couldn’t imagine starting in my usual open-ended abstract way.  I brought a dry illustration board, textured with tissue paper collage, so that I wouldn’t have to wait for the surface to dry before I started putting the fluid acrylic on.

demo-ing the paper collage texture

When I started painting in the second half hour the strangest thing happened.  There was an overhead mirror so that people could watch me paint while sitting comfortably in chairs in front of me.  However there was a big enough crowd that the people way at the back couldn’t see what the heck I was painting, even though I told them it was a chicken.  So they started seeing chickens anyway, only not in my painting – on my palette!

Here’s what they were looking at (while I was doing this fabulous painting demonstration, ahem!)  Now I ask you.  Where’s the chickens?  I see a camel with a football helmet and another helmeted dog (must be on the other team) poking his head up behind a tree stump, but a chicken?

So afterwards people came up to see what my chicken painting looked like up close, not nearly as realistic as the paint blob ones I guess.  But all kidding aside, they were a great audience and very appreciative.

Tomorrow I get to teach a workshop in my studio on this technique, which I thoroughly enjoy. Note the Golden fluid acrylics bottles.  Golden paints are fabulous and I use all the fun gels and mediums and irridescents and interference pigments!  They have generously given me samples to share with students who come to workshops.  Also, please note my new apron, long enough to cover my knees (which always seem to get splattered with paint).  I just purchased it at ACE hardware for $20!  Such a deal.

Traveling Muse Journals

inks, collage, pen

Play a Little Muse Music

. . .and tap out the beat.

Set those girls a dancing and don’t take a seat.

The world’s going round and it won’t slow dound,

swirling and twirling and picking up the beat.

Trouble on the horizon, keep it there by dancing.  Put on a smile, even if you don’t feel it.  You’ll feel it when it’s been on a while. . .then the world will come lapping around your ankles and pulling more smiles from you.  Pretty soon you won’t be wearing those smiles and grins.  They’ll be wearing you!

The Saturday Muses shared their pages in the Traveling Muse Journals that are working their way around the group.  This was my entry from the past month, in Paula’s book whose theme was “Play a Little Muse Music”.  I can’t wait to share the pages done by the rest of the group, but have to wait for photoshop help from my husband Bob to put them in format.  I was just blown away by how artful they were, how totally out of the box creative they were.