Emerging

It's nice to know that everything i have done in the past,even in my ceramic work, has not been all for not. Recently, I have had several ideas evolve organically from past subject matter and techniques that finally seem to have found their place and purpose in what I am doing. I went with my urge to draw in black and white to see where it would take me. I really felt that i could pour my soul into these drawings more than i ever have before. Then cam the pastel idea. Just using the black and white and some different monochromatic color schemes to evoke a certain mood in the work. My obsession with the dark silhouettes of the bare tree branches against the ever changing colors of the pale yet vibrant winter skies. The dark figure...the lost girl. These have finally all culminated into one idea for a triptych of drawings using black, white, grey and subtle hints of color. The subject matter is one that i have had with me since early college. It's one of my babies and i love it and can't let it go. I can finally interpret it the way i've been needing to.

I love this evolution of ideas and techniques that has been happening to me lately. It seems so natural and organic. It almost seems like it was meant to be, meant happen in this particular way. First, i started sculpting these dark figures and i really got to know every inch of them. The way the figures interact with each other especially. Creating them in 3D has engrained them into my brain and i understand them physically and emotionally so much more than if i had not done that. But i felt they were missing an environment and now i have that. I know where they belong. It explains the obsession with the trees and the water. The solitude of the bare tree branches in the middle of the cold nothingness of winter. The evolving skies, the dark and cold water. Now it finally all makes sense. I had to get to know each of them before I could bring them all together in harmony with each other

I am thrilled about the new ideas and I can't wait to get them down on paper. I finally got some more pastel paper last night and am eager to work. Only if my kids weren't sick!! ;)

goals for 2011, a fresh start

I come into 2011 with a whole new perspective on my career in art. The thing i love about this year is that i feel comfortable, i feel like it will be a smooth transition. I have done a lot of meditating and quiet growth this past year. I have a new philosophy about things but it isn't forced or some irrational sudden decision. I feel like i have grown into my skin a little more.

I was really all over the board when it came to creating my art. Before my son was born, i was working on clay sculpture. In the dark zone. Although i really don't trust myself when i am pregnant, hormones make everything seem irrational, lol! But i have come to appreciate my dark thoughts and i even have a new goal to create a show with all my pieces from that zone of my mind. The show will be called Dark Matter and be a spin off of another one of my loves; astronomy. Of course after i had my son, i had no time for art. Then i suddenly had an urge to paint/draw and it is a lot easier to do that when having to tend to small children. MUCH more forgiving and patient than that temperamental clay. I worked on some pencil drawings intending to brush up on my observational skills for some paintings i had in mind. But then i really started pouring my heart and soul into these drawings. I started to feel that passion again, the delicate way the line of the pencil embodies the fragile nature of flesh and bone. I felt like i had grown in my skills as well. A rest time is always necessary, it gives your brain time to saturate everything you've been learning and thinking about. At least for me.

I've created a goals calendar of deadlines of a few art fairs and shows I'd like to apply to this year. I was shocked that i had been accepted into the first one i applied to! But it gave me a little push to keep going. I am also going to try and get out to some networking events this year. I would love to have a solo show, maybe rent out a space on my own. Just have everything i have always been picturing in my head for so long. That would be the ultimate culmination of my goals this year. I don't care about getting into this or that show or selling or whatever. I just want to put together my own personal show.

Lastly, I fell that i am really getting into my niche. I thought i would completely stray away from what i normally do, and create some social commentary type pieces, which i really am greatly passionate about. I did get some great interest and response to the unfinished piece i posted, however, it just didn't feel like me! I realized that my going inward, I can actually reach outward to people. By really being true to myself and my expression i can touch people in a way that evokes the same feelings in them. That is always my ultimate goal as an artist and i strive to maintain that as my unchanging philosophy. I want to appreciate my viewer more than anything and really connect to them.

Ok, this is really LASTLY! I have had some really dark personal matters occur this year (with people very close to me) and I have had this huge swell of ideas. This all will be part of my Dark Matter show. I am really excited to get on with this new body of work and really embrace it for what it is. I hope everyone will love it as much as i do. If i have learned one very important lesson in 2010 about creating it is this: If I truly pour my soul and passion into my work and am honest about it and true to myself, people will feel that energy in my work and will be drawn into it and experience it in their own way. Now i need to get to work!!