Month: September 2016

Everything you can imagine is real. 

Pablo Picasso

I can say I image all kind of things throughout the day. I wonder how the small animals survive the violence of a thunderstorm. Do the birds hang onto a branch with all their might as the wind and rain whip them about? Do the racoons hunker down in their nests waiting for the storm to pass? 

Or does what ones real experience become mixed with what is imagined? I was on a camping trip once with the Girl Scouts. Nice day back packing into the woods. Broke to make camp for the night setting up our tent’s. Dinner, then tired as heck so all of us made it to our beds. 

Just as I fall asleep, a bang of thunder and the rushing slap of torrential rain. Drip, drip on my head, dang a drip from above. As I fervently move to avoid getting wet I hear noises outside. Everyone else has woken from the thunder. Yet when your imagination is involved it doesn’t know what is real or unreal.

Everthing has an opposite. Whatever is unreal can become real. It all depends on what your vision is at the time. If you focus on what is wrong or frighting and can’t see the beauty of the moment then you can only see fear. Be grateful for what you have in the moment so you can appreciate what is real. 

I can remember as a very young artist I was so grateful for a box of 64 Crayons with a sharpener included in the box. Life evolves but that was a very pure feeling. No matter what I can use to execute the image in my head now, I want it to be real. I want the viewer to see what I have imagined. To perhaps feel what I am amazed by with my art. 

Last night after a stormy and cold day I was witness to an amazingly wonderful sunset. It took my breath away with the glowing colors against the dark silhouette of trees. Taking pictures as fast as I could I just could not get enough of this beauty.  This is a favorite subject for me with one art quilt already done. I do think I should make this subject a series now. It will be fun to do another but challenging to capture the pure feeling of bliss I had taking these pictures. What do you think? 

In any line of work to be done, it is good to see the reward. The prize or accomplishment from that hard and steady push forward. I have been creating art full time for a year now and am happy to see the fruits of the seeds sown this year.

I have had a crazy quilt piece accepted for publication in the 2017 Crazy Quilt Calendar published by Pam Kellogg of Kitty & Me Designs. The art was submitted thru a themed contest for the calendar. The theme was “My Secret Garden” which makes me think of a brick wall covered in ivy and a iron gate just open enough to see a small view of a lush flowering garden.

After chatting with a friend about this she mentioned that most people would see just that scene. This contest would select a block for each month of the year. My friend suggested that I consider a autumn or winter garden instead. Well that turned out to be a good idea my friend!

Happy to say here is the November page for the 2017 calendar.

If you want to purchase a calendar for yourself go to http://www.magcloud.com/user/kitty-and-me

I also have been accepted in another local juried show, State of the Arts 2016 in Prairie Village, Kansas at the R.G. Endres Gallery.  The show will run through the month of October with an artist reception on October 14th.

Here is the art that was accepted, one of my underwater seascapes. 

 

As I have done quite a few of these seascapes I have toyed with moving on to a whole different subject. Yet that shows that I am tied to the idea of always looking for something new. This can be the bane of the new world, we want instant gratification and new and shinny things each moment of the day. However with one seascape sold in June and now one in a show I do believe I will continue to work on this series. They are so different from my landscape work but I am still happy with the results.

As I celebrate my continued success I do see that I need to produce more work on a regular basis. Just as the farmer pauses with the glory of a good crop while also knowing that soon new seeds will need to be planted. I too need to get back to work so I will continue to see the fruits of my labor.