The great thing about being an artist

I have this wonderful book called "Work as a Spiritual Practice," by Lewis Richmond.  I have read it through at least once - I have also bought it once, lost it, and had to buy it again - it's that good.  Mostly I keep it around and pick it up, and read a page, and put it down, and pick it up again later.

He writes:

An eminent artist once said, "The great thing about being an artist is that for your whole life you know what your work is."

Which is true.  I guess.  Once I am working, I am focused, engaged, absorbed.  There is also the decision to be an artist - which, at least in my case, wasn't exactly a decision as much as a fact, like breathing or eating.  I don't feel like it was a choice, as much as a recognition that I am not happy or as involved in anything else I do with as much completion as when I am making art.  It just "is".  That mountain is over there, the sky is blue, and I am an artist.

But there still is a lot of uncertainty, especially when I'm not in the act of creating, but when I'm thinking about creating.  What shall I make?  Can I make it?  Will it come out okay?  What will other people think?

The most recurring question is "What if I do this?"  So many this-es to try!

But all that (ok, most of it) fades away when the hands start moving and the mind connects with the object in front of me.

I wish I knew who that "eminent artist" is - even google doesn't seem to know.


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Paperclips, SuperGlue, and spit!

This is what I've been working on...

I was fortunate enough to take a workshop with Jeffrey Lloyd Dever last autumn.  It was a great deal of fun, and he taught us all the wonderful things you can do with paperclips, spit, SuperGlue, and polymer clay!  This is a piece I started in that class, and I was determined that I would finish it.  Here it is, in progress, fresh out of the oven.  I have about 1, 2, ... at least two more layers to put on, maybe more, and then there are two elements to be made to go on the top and bottom....

I'm a little bit in love with this technique I developed - at least I've never seen it before.  I was very unhappy with the uneven shape that existed after I wirewrapped the original structure.  I was trying to get fancy, and make something different than a point.  Silly me.  Instead of getting something organic and elegant, I got something kind of amateurish and lumpy.  And, I ran out of the black wire we were using.

So, I decided to EMBRACE the lumps!  I closed off the top with a layer of SuperSculpey, and then made a bunch of little balls and glued/baked those onto the layer, and then put another layer, the purple layer on top, and got this delightful bumps and lumps (inTENtional lumps!) which looked exactly as I had imagined they would, like seeds in a pod, waiting to burst.  These will be covered with yet another layer, and I'll have a design in the final, nice, smooth layer, so that this lovely purple I mixed will peek through.

I have been working in polymer clay, mainly because of this class, and also because I just can't afford to work in silver at the moment - as of this writing it's $29.01 an ounce, up from $16 an ounce a year or so ago.  I can't work in bulk at that price.  It's not just the silver, but the casting, the molds, all that has to be paid for on top of cost of the silver.  So I'm enjoying polymer clay - the color, and the ease of being able to do everything myself.  I miss silver though, and metal.  I'm going to be working on things that I can set in copper with silver bezels.  I see this polymer clay work as a precursor to working in enamel, someday.

Here's a view of the structure that Jeffrey taught us how to make in that workshop (seriously - SuperGlue and paperclips!)  I highly highly recommend him as a teacher - he's a wonderful fellow, his wife is delightful too, and he's very generous with advice and suggestions.  Look him up on facebook!  He is scheduled to teach in France, but anywhere you can find him, it is money and time wellspent, very enjoyable.

I also am glad that I am starting work with polymer clay with a project that is rather large!  I am not proficient in the clay, but this one project is teaching me a lot about the possibilities of the clay, and how to work with it.  So far I've learned about baking, color mixing, how to glue bits together, and yesterday I took my pasta machine apart, cleaned it, and put it back together.


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tiny houses

I really like the idea of tiny houses, and if you haven't heard, there's a movement to downsize our living spaces.  I can understand doing that - for everything except the art studio, which does seem to be ever-expanding.

I mean, I just upgraded from the small bedroom to the big bedroom last May.  How could I possibly need more work surfaces already?!  But I do.

At any rate, here is a nice blog I came across, and I really like this entry.  There is something idyllic and comforting about not having a lot of stuff, and about being able to roam freely yet still be at home.

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Recipe for Success - so simple, even I can cook it!

I was stumbling around the internet on Saturday, and I came across this idea and illustration, which is such a simple and elegant expression of what one needs to bee and dew...  I always overthink so much!  This is really clear.

Hmmm, I also really like the idea of putting up a video of work on youtube.

So, rolling up my sleeves now!  Thanks!


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Gather ye rosebuds

This silver flower was sent to me last Christmas.  I had a friend, and she was great - she was very kind to me at Christmas, and then she was great when I had to have surgery last spring.

This flower was on a series of presents; she sent me a big box, two Christmases ago.  I really liked this flower, and another ornament, Christmas bulbs, that she put on it.  I really appreciated the gesture.  It made me feel warm in a cold, dark season.

Then, one day, about six months later, poof.  Words were spoken, and she was gone.

This flower just sort of appeared at my feet as I was wandering around the house, getting ready for a New Year.  Cleaning, trying to clear up some clutter, putting away laundry, wiping away dust and grime that accumulated, and I was walking out of the art studio and there it was, lying on the floor.  I don't know where it came from - I must have shifted something and it fell out.

But there it was.

I really like this flower.  It's just a shiny thing, but its form is nice, it is soft and pliant.  And I think it was sent to me with the best intentions.

It reminds me, once again, nothing is permanent.  Friendships, most of them, are like flowers - they blossom with great beauty, and then they fade.

Be grateful, and cherish them while they grow.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying;

And this same flower that smiles today,

Tomorrow will be dying.

Poem by Robert Herrick.


2012.  Here we come :)


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New Year - goodbye to 2011, hello 2012

"Once I was beset by anxiety. I couldn't tell right from left or orient myself. I could have cried out with terror at being lost. But I pushed the fear away - by studying the sky, determining where the moon would come out, where the sun would appear in the morning. I saw myself in relationship to the stars. I began weeping, and I knew that I was all right.

"That is the way I make use of geometry today. The miracle is that I am able to do it, by geometry."

-Louise Bourgeois
New York, 1977
(her work)

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May we all find our geometry, our moon, our sun, and each other, and know we're all right in 2012.


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Not so fast...

Over on the bg site I frequent, they are already shouting "HNY!" Happy new year, in case you can't figure it out :)

But... It's December 27th. There are 4 days left. Inside my head, I am screaming, "Nooooooo, waaaaiiiitttttt! It's going too fast!"

2011 was a hard year. It was hard, financially. I'm just not very good with money, and the recession hasn't helped.

It was hard, personally, emotionally. I took some risks and they have paid off, my life is richer for them. But there were also some losses and disappointments, which I took very hard. I keep looking at my heart charm and seeing that little heart, ripped open (see Shambhala) and trying to remember that's how it is supposed to be.

It was hard, healthwise - but not really. I'm fine! A little anxiety as frosting on top of the already-overstuffed anxiety layer cake - but I'm fine! Except for the bills... Too low levels of thyroid medication, as it turns out, didn't help much either. But I'm fine now! Almost.

And it was hard, creatively. Or rather... it was very rich creatively, almost too rich. I have way more ideas than I have time, and this year it wasn't just my own natural procrastination that got in my way.

When I did make time for it, it was very fruitful. The Radical Jewelry Makeover was RAD, a tremendous blessing, a very healthy kick in the pants. I need to write my thoughts about it, for it changed my creativity and thinking profoundly, and I want to complete that writing before the year is out... 2011, SLOW DOWN!!!

Overall, my creativity was fruitful and fitful, lots of stops and starts.

2011 was just so full of clutter.

Here's hoping that 2012 is more fruit than fits!

But please, please - can we wait until Saturday before we begin?! I'd like to get through this year in one piece first...


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It is

It is perfect to exist...

It is Perfect to Exist...





Try to exist today. Somehow.



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Perfection

In class a week or so ago, the teacher said, "Nature is perfect."

That phrase stuck with me - is nature perfect? With storms and falling leaves and cycles and death?

Is that perfection?

A few nights ago playing backgammon with a group of friends, someone was shellshocked by a diagnosis she had heard about - a person back East who was vital and in "perfect health" who started experiencing a problem... which turned out to be Stage 4 cancer. My friend kept repeating, "How can the body betray you that way?"

I related the "nature is perfect" phrase, trying to bring her comfort. "Nature is perfect." Meaning, it's not a betrayal, it's how it is. Looking back, I'm not sure how very comforting that is...

In any case, my opponent, a nice and usually quiet man, pipes up,

"To exist is perfect."



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I am working on prayer wheels, beads, recycled jewelry, and myself.

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