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On Painting

August 4th, 2010

I’ve gotten used to writing blogs about whatever is on my mind- cats,      garden, chickens- but it struck me the other day that this is an artist’s  website and blog and perhaps people are surprised or disappointed to not    find discourses on art, or how-to instructions, or insights on my latest  work. I can only answer that perhaps it boils down to a lack of ego, a  disinterest in myself as a topic, and I confess I’m too disorganized to figure  out how-to instructions that some find so helpful on other blogs. It’s not  that I mind sharing or teaching, it’s just that I often don’t know how I got from point A to point B ( or C or L or Z) on a project, because I make things up as I go and am remiss about taking notes. I often start with one intention and at the end find myself in a very different direction. As you can see from the title of this blog, I intended to write about painting, and nearly found myself writing about the new scarves I’ve been creating. So writing how-to pieces is not practical for this butter-fly like mind.

I confess I don’t much like going into detailed discussions on a particular painting, I think it spoils the magic a bit. I don’t want to know how the magician’s trick was done, I don’t want to know how a firefly lights up, I don’t want to see the behind the scenes part on the DVD of my favorite movie. Art is one part magic, and I don’t like to dissect it. Making jewelry and textiles is a little different, I enjoy figuring out how these things are made.

But back to the subject of painting… People are often surprised that I do so many forms of art and ask what I enjoy doing the most. That’s a tough one to answer. Creating different types of art uses different parts of my mind, just as different activities do. So one might use different skills and insights to drive, than those used to swim. For me, making jewelry is a fun challenge of design and engineering combined- a necklace should be attractive, comfortable and lay around the neck properly. Textiles are a sensation for the fingertips and eyes, with texture and color; engineering plays a roll here too.

But painting is something else. Painting is where I lose myself and the world around me. There aren’t any rules. It is such a challenge, such a joy, that my mind can be completely intrigued with light and color. I find an image that connects to me for some reason, and I have to try to put it on canvas. I love to paint a piece for a specific person; I keep them in my thoughts as I paint and I think a part of them ends up in the finished piece. I listen to music while I paint, and I like to think that ends up in the picture too- the way the light dances or blades of grass bend. When a painting doesn’t turn out, the frustration can bring me to tears and cause a black cloud to hover over me for the rest of the day. On the flip side , a painting that pleases can cause my heart to swell like that of a proud parent whose child just got the lead in the school play. And I feel a bit like a mother of these paintings- like I had something to do with their initial existence, but they then went on and developed of their own volition into these works of art, something I never feel that I can take complete credit for. Like children, my paintings are hard to let go of, to send out into the world on their own. A few are still at home with mom for the time being.

I recently hung a body of my work in a show shared with another Brown County artist, Norene Mara. It was fun seeing so many of my paintings hanging together, a bit like a family reunion. I remembered painting each one and could see the family resemblance among them, though style and subject matter varied a bit. Not a bad looking group, I thought. Some vibrant and bold, some a little softer and nebulous, but all showing that same openness and honesty, that same love of color and light. Stop in and see the show if you’re in the Bloomington, Indiana area in August. The show is at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center, opening reception this Friday (Aug. 6th) evening, 5p.m. to 8p.m. Details on the Sleepy Cat Studio events page.

Now, back to those scarves I’m working on…

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