Taurus, Starry Nights and Painting Animals

Taurus
encaustic and paper on birch 16 x 16

There are 19 of them in the night's sky.  19 animals play in the stars.  Of course we all know Taurus and Leo and Cancer and Scorpio - but did you know there are dogs and bears and fish and birds?  A lion, a dragon and a whale? -  and Pegasus too.  Which means there really are more than 19 - but the point being - there are enough animals to keep me busy painting for a while.  I'm liking the thought of painting them all and using these amazing celestial creatures as inspiration.  I got this great book to teach me about the Zoo in the Sky. 

My Taurus is a Brahma Bull, not really a fierce Bull terrorizing the Twins in the night sky.  He looks a bit tame actually.  He's on a recycled panel, one that has held many paintings that are now within the layers.  I also used one of the charts that I found this time last year.  Knew they would come in handy at some point.  I think Cancer will look pretty at home on a chart as well as Volans, Cetus and Dorado.  Seems that all of the sea animals live in the Southern Hemisphere - so my friends in OZ might be familiar with them. 

So, the next starry night you have - look up and see the animals dancing about in the sky.  I know I'll need to have a chart of some kind to identify them.  But, it will be fun to see how many I can find.    Happy Friday! 

Pandora, Brain Breaks, and Racoons

Into the Night
encaustic on birch 10x22

As an artist, I have noticed that I seem "in tune" with all kinds of external stimuli.  My senses seem to be on task all day long.  It sometimes feels a bit like dodge ball - being bombarded by incoming at all times.  A dance to the left, a dance to the right... by the end of the day my brain can feel a little overwhelmed. 
So I wanted to share some things today that I have recently found that allow my brain to quiet down and take a break from the whirl of stuff that flies about all day.

I have found two radio "stations" on Pandora that offer really great studio/art music.  I tried to listen while driving and it really didn't do anything for me.  I tend to like modern music that I can sing along to when driving.   But, for studio time, this kind of electronica music seems to help me find that art zone.  One is Plej  and the other is Zero 7.  Similar kinds of music, but something about the beat that works for me.  You can search on Pandora in the new station option and find them there.  For more studio music, I've discovered Kyrstyn Pixton - I stream off her website.  I also love Mumford & Sons.  Their new album Babel is on my wish list.  What do you listen to during your creative time?

Also, Deepak Chopra is offering another free 21 Day Meditation challenge, starting Nov 5.  I did this a few months ago and really loved it.  Just 15 minutes in duration and it comes in your email each day.  This is a new theme from the one I did before, so I am looking forward to it. 

Also, for you budding writers out there..  National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts on Nov. 1.  Its a challenge to write a book/novel of 50,000 words in the month of November.  There are 1000's of participants nation/world wide.  I'm actually going to take a run at it.  You can follow my word count on the right bar of my blog.  I am MarjiT, so if you sign up - be sure to send me a NaNo mail so we can urge each other on.  50K words is a lot, not sure I'll be a winner - but I'll try.  I figure its my chance to get writing an e-course or maybe that storyline that has been circling my brain for a while.  This seems a little anti-brain quieting - but I see it as a opportunity to brain dump all those thoughts and words that need to get out.  I'm going to have to find a way to balance it with painting time - but the two seem to compliment each other for me. 

Thanks to all that visit here and those that leave comments.  The inspiration that you provide to me is beyond words.  It's Friday and you know what that means....  it's Party Time.

Muscle Cars, Confidence and Creativity

Reach
encaustic 13x24
For some reason the animals show up in my intuitive paintings.  Here is another one - and to think I have never been to Africa.  Maybe they just need a voice.

My Grandma drove a muscle car.  It was a '69 Mercury Cougar - green with black interior that would burn your legs on a hot day.  It had a push button AM radio.  She wore big rings that rattled on the steering wheel as she rumbled through town.  She was fiercely independent and well before her time.  She had red hair, wore high waisted bell bottoms and read Prevention magazine way before the health food craze.  She ground up egg shells for calcium, she could recite poetry from memory, she wore a beret.  She always looked her best, dressed smart, and wouldn't be caught dead without lipstick.  She was one amazing lady.

She was also very creative.  In the early 70's, she self published a book by using a paper cutter, a xerox machine and a stapler.  It was a huge research undertaking of the Indian Place Names and their meanings for the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington.  My Dad did the cover artwork for her and sold the book in his gallery for $1 a copy.  It sold out, many times over.

She taught me to knit, tat and crochet.  She sewed her own clothes and she crocheted beautiful afghans which she donated.  She did almost all of her home handiwork.

But, if you asked her, she would never have called herself creative and never thought of herself as an artist.  Why is someone who is so full of creative fire so afraid of saying I am creative?  Why so often do creative people lack confidence in their talent, their art?  Its a good question i think.  One that is deeply personal to each of us.

I think that often the creative spirit in us gets wounded deeply along the journey.  There is an incident or a person that tripped things up along the way.  Somewhere, somehow the creative spirit got wounded and shrunk away deep into the soul where it is afraid to come out for fear of being wounded again.  Sometimes, all it takes is one negative comment to shut down the creative spirit.  Its easier to hide than to face fear.

Yet, I believe that the creative inside really can't hide.  It just isn't capable of hiding.  Take the case of my Grandma.  It must find an outlet of some kind even if we don't care or want to acknowledge it as creativity.  "A rose by any other name, is still a rose".
Its time to come out and recognize the things we do on a daily basis, as simple as they seem, are creative and are a creative outlet.   So no more hiding out - call yourself creative.  Recognize your art in all the things you do.  Call yourself an artist, because you are.

Wrapping up with Flora Bowley, Hare Brained and Ira Glass

 

Vegetable Dreams
encaustic 20x30
 

Before
And.. actually before this - it was a portrait.  It was a face with long flowing hair that was to be a mermaid with a underwater background.  It was one of those panels in my studio that lost its way.  It has become one more layer and makes a richer deeper painting to think that a mermaid lives under Vegetable Dreams :)

I seem to be hare brained at the moment - in a good way. 

I've spent the past 5 weeks Blooming True with Flora Bowley.  Its been an amazing journey for me and I have shared some thoughts and some of my intuitive paintings over this time.  After this process, I am not sure if I can go back to the way I was painting - at least not for a while.   For me, the journey has been fun and full of unexpected twists and turns that have helped me discover or uncover new desires in my artwork.  I'm finding color - real awesome color.  I'm finding BIG - painting BIG is fun.  I'm finding a joy in painting animals.

 

I do have to say that it saddens me a little to understand that some of my classmates are not experiencing the joy that I am finding in this process.  There is frustration and disappointment with results.  Art is so very personal and so very easy to self critique and compare - especially in classroom situations.  The intuitive painting process is not easy.  Its not.  It requires an open mind, open heart, the ability to really let go of everything you've been taught about structure, planning, and rules.  It is much harder than it sounds because our inner critic makes it so.  Its a little easier for me because I have had no formal training to undo.

I feel they are a little too hard on themselves, especially at this point in the game.  We are all learning and in the early stages of getting this process which is so very different than I know I have ever tried.  It takes time, patience, practice and kindness.  This prompted me to pull out one of my favorite quotes that I felt was a fitting reminder to all of us who do creative work.

 

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”  Ira Glass



Fight On! - and remember to be kind to yourself.  Use kind words when thinking about and making your creative work.  Thoughts become things - really.  Realize that not every single thing you make is gallery quality.   But that's OK - because we make art for ourselves.  I have 6 other panels that are in various stages in my studio right now.  Some of them are the ugliest ducklings ever  - but I have faith they will grow into beautiful swans.

U2, Bravery, and Hares

Trixster
encaustic 30x30

I'm ready for shuffle
I'm ready for the deal
I'm ready to let go of the steering wheel.
I'm ready
 - Bono (U2-Zoo Station) - you can listen here

We're talking about Bravery in week 4 of my painting class.  This is a favorite song of mine from the Achtung Baby album.  It seemed to work here.  When you are brave, its OK to let go of the steering wheel and face the unknown.  I'm ready, ready for what's next.

I have written about bravery in the past.  Yet, I think being brave is one of those topics that can be revisited often.  Its one that if we allow ourselves to be comfortable in how things are going, it gets harder and harder to be brave.  The farther we get away from the edge where it takes a brave act to cross over, the farther we get from our authentic selves.  Being brave is not backing away from fears, but moving into them and beyond.  When you actually do move through the fear and break out the other side, the opportunity comes for your authentic self to shine.  Being brave opens the door to an aliveness inside.  It stirs things up, gets the juices flowing, ignites a fire.  Being brave is about moving outside of the comfort zone.  It means, trying something new, doing that thing that I don't really want to do or I'm afraid to do, or facing conflict or going into the studio without a plan.  I believe being brave puts you in a position to find how far you can push yourself and then reveals how strong you really are. Its surprising and uplifting to realize the power that we hold inside.  

Its a brave act to paint intuitively.  It is starting with nothing and embracing mystery.  Its trusting the process and just knowing that in the end, a painting will emerge out of the layers.  Its a brave act to keep going, keep layering even if the painting isn't cooperating at all.  Its brave to "just know" and believe.  Its a brave act to paint BIG, especially from where I started.

This hare painting is a brave act for me.  Its not like any other painting I have done.  Yet, it is so much me.   Where do the ideas come from?  When does it seem right to paint a hare and an upside down hare?  I can't explain it.  Did I see the hare within the layers and build from there?  No, not from an image within the painting, but in my mind's eye, yes.  I just knew I wanted to paint a hare in the lower left of the painting in just this way.  I followed the thread and this is where this painting wanted to go.  So, I'm not necessarily looking for an image to emerge from the layers of the painting, rather it is just a feeling as to which direction to go.  As I do the layers, and let go of the steering wheel, its allowing the door to open to something I would never have considered before.  Its then taking that something and running with it and following its lead.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing what the next painting brings.  It is a beautiful way to paint by just playing and letting things go without thinking.  Its a way to let myself just dream up something without worrying about it.  If it doesn't work out, its just one more layer.   I can say, that I was not expecting the deer or the hares to show up, I wasn't expecting to paint animals, I wasn't expecting how joyful bright colors are to paint with or how wonderful it is to paint BIG... so mystery is kinda fun.  And... painting animals goes all the way back to my roots as a kid.  Its where I started and now I'm returning home.  At least for now.

Friday.. you know what that means - Party Time!!

PS - If you are interested... This is what the Hare Totem means:

Hares are connected to both the earth element and to the lunar energies of the moon. The gestation period of a hare is 28 days, the same time as the moon. Hares are quick with the ability to twist and turn. As a totem or power animal the hare teaches us to aim for our dreams and not let anything get in our path.  The hare is an independent, solitary animal that often lives alone. In modern society the loners of the world are often frowned upon, but history has proved these types of people to be invaluable and they should feel a sense of pride within themselves.

Unlike rabbits, hares cannot be tamed (although there is a domesticated rabbit which has the name hare, but is in fact a rabbit). They have a wild nature to them. They are the totem of people who like to run free.

Hares have been associated with magic and the ability to walk between worlds and connect to the other world. The hare is a totem of mystery and misunderstanding.

The hare is often seen as a trickster and to many people the trickster is seen as a negative trait. The trickster though may simply do things different to the norm. They may be the individual who stands out from the crowd and does things their way. The trickster is the one who will break rules and rebel; they are the sort of people that can create great changes within society. As with all attitude, the clue is how you use your power – the trickster archetypal can be cunning or foolish. They can be a power for good or a symbol of disruption. Tricksters often have two spirits that they present to the world. [They] can also be the hero. . . .

- Samantha Grayson

Inspiration, Vade Mecum and Intuitive Art

Vade Mecum
encaustic 30x30

Inspiration in our lives.  This is what we are visiting this week in my intuitive painting class.  So what inspires me? 

1. laughter
2. sunrise
3. nature
4. the color orange
5. my Mom
6. older people out enjoying life
7. beauty in words
8. creating something from the heart
9. magic moments
10. so many more...

Number 8 and number 9 need a little more explination.

#8
For me, number 8 is not necessarily creating art.  There is so much more to creating from the heart, at least I believe so.  For me, its things like:
Making my husband's lunch in the morning.  Sending a "thinking of you " text to a friend.  Writing thoughtful words.  Sharing a smile.
 
#9
You've seen it - the way the light shines in just the right way, there is a certain radience to it that lights up an object in a delightful way.  My Dad called these magic moments. He had honed his senses to see these things in life - the magic moments.  He would stop and pause, and watch that split second when the light on an object was perfection.  He would stand and stare, taking it in and remembering the detail of it.  He logged hunderds of magic moments into his mind where they would stay until needed for inspiration.

I also find inspiration in collecting things that catch my eye.  I have little piles that have come from pockets, stashes of colorful things, cards. pages torn from magazines, 1000s of photos in Picasa.  I have the need to touch fabrics and objects.  I take artist dates to Anthropolgie and I think I touch just about everything in that store.  I have to.. its in my wiring, the curiosity and the need to connect with things that inspire me.  I often pick up things, touch things, thumb through books and pause to look at something without thinking - it just happens. When we draw inspiration from our lives.. its not just the tangible things that we can lay hand to. Sometimes its the words of friends, its the steam curling from a bowl of hot soup, a smile, the way the flavor of dark chocolate dances on your tounge. The thing about finding inspriation in our everyday life is to notice it.   It's the ability to feel that little flutter of the heart when something inspiring lights up the moment and we learn to recognize it and take a mental or physical note of it. There is no telling when that glimmer of inspiration might circle back and be the thread that leads to something new. 

The deer painting above is my first intuitive piece.  He just showed up during my last painting session.  I had kept a photo of a deer - one of my things I collected somewhere along the way.  His image kept dancing across my mind.  So, here he is.  Several layers of playful color introduced over the past couple of weeks in Flora Bowley's class resulted in this painting.  He was painted with no thought, no sketch.. freehand with only a notion that he was what needed to be on this panel.  When I started to paint him, I kept telling myself - don't think, just paint.   I did spiral out to clean up a few mistakes - like an oversized ear, but really, he is pretty much how he came to be.  There was a point that I just knew, I was finished - no more.   I have a feeling he is here to guide me on my way to new destinations of colorful art - thus his name Vade Mecum.
It's Party Time - YAY!