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| Postcards made from unsuccessful abstract painting exercises |
Hello there!
Where the hell have I been, you ask? Well, I've kind of retreated from society for a while, because I had unwisely chosen to be informed of what's going on in the world every waking minute of my days. Take that generally unpleasant baggage and add to it an aging parent with declining mobility, a child whose launch into the world has been indefinitely stalled, and acquaintances who have jumped whole-heartedly into the wellness-to-nutjob pipeline, and you may understand why my coping mechanisms have been stretched to the breaking point. I am part of the "Sandwich generation" I suppose... though I feel more like a panini.
I know in the world of daily social media posting that very few people are going to read this blog. It's just the way it is, and I'm ok with that. I think I use this more as a way document the evolution of my work as opposed to some kind of marketing tool anyway. I like to write, and while I try to keep my (almost) weekly emails short and sweet, usually showing off my latest painting, I think this format can be longer and a bit more in depth for people who have the attention span to read longer form writing. I've been posting here since 2012 and my initial foray into the art world, and a LOT has happened since then. I am truly a different person. Ignoring this outlet has been to my detriment, I think... I no longer have a record of the
why of my work, and the pandemic and world events have changed my thinking. I've become more opinionated... less tolerant to a degree. I will tell you what I think, and I no longer care about what other people think of me. That has rubbed some people the wrong way. C'est la vie. Not everyone has to like me. I think that has helped my work though, since now my entire focus is on what I need to get out of painting, not what will sell.
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| I had a lot of failed experiments to use... |
So... back to art stuff. I've really got into plants and botanical stuff lately, mainly since I started walking my neighbourhood on a daily basis. The walking itself is good for a lot of reasons... it got me outside when there was really nowhere else to go and nothing to do, and was good to get moving after sitting in front of a computer all day. On the weekends my husband would join me, but during the week, being outside on my own acted like meditation. I could think through the problems I was trying to solve, and started to really notice my environment. I started taking photos of the plants that caught my attention. I have a nearby park (that I didn't know was there until 2020. I've lived in this area for 8 YEARS... how did I miss it?) that is a wonder in spring... there are rhododendrons and azalea bushes that seem to be in continual bloom for months (different varieties that bloom in succession. It's quite a sight to behold). One of my neighbours has a trillium tree (I didn't even know such a thing existed), and there's a black locust tree along a pathway I often take that smells amazing when it blooms. And of course, there are magnolias lining the local streets, that when they are in flower make it worth the effort to put on real pants.
Of course this interest has creeped into my sketchbook, but only in the last few months have I attempted to add this element into my work. It took a lot of time to figure out how it was going to work, and while I was mucking about I developed in interest in collage, so that because one more thing to use. I feel like this work is so much more me... I know that may be kind of a weird thing to say, but it encompasses so many more of my interests than my previous series. I use old book pages (I'm an avid reader), I create interesting collage papers from patterns I've collected over years of museum visits looking at ancient cultures, I'm using my handmade stamps, I've got my plant drawings in there, and I'm using the techniques I figured out while working through my musician series, along with all I've learned through the abstract painting I've done over the years. This is definitely not something I could have done a decade ago... I hadn't yet collected all the pieces.
So these little images are postcards, made from a pile of unsuccessful exercises I've done over the last year. The ones that worked have been glued into a sketchbook with my notes, and the ones that didn't got tossed into a pile until I figured out what to do with them. I plan to send them off in the mail to people in my life who may need a little boost. I'm sure I'm not the only panini out there.
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I like the orange/green combo that shows up here.
Going to use that one again. |
