Over the weekend we celebrated the 92nd Birthday of our dear Friend, and art sister. Maxine never fails to bring to us her inspiration, and creative energy. How she does it, I do not no, but I want to be just like her when I grow up!
Zebra Designs & Destinations is a great place to get inspiration from, take a peek!
I’ve been making an effort to sketch, and maybe paint each day. It isn’t easy when it seems everyone want’s a piece of my time. If I can take it early in the morning, I’m in luck. I’m an early morning person. As the day wears on, I lose all my energy, rendering me Toast! Burnt toast at that.
This week I did this little sketch, and had to add watercolor just because…I could! Simple, imperfect in its imperfection, and that’s what I like most. As you can see, I was playing with mixing greens. I love mixing my greens, and rarely used premixed greens any more.
Check out Time out for art on Zebra Design & Destination.
This afternoon as I was thinking about writing a post, and most definitely struggling with content. As I reread some of my old posts, I was stunned to realize that I had actually written them. The content was familiar, and I could feel the words, but I couldn’t believe I wrote them.
On one post, I wrote about our trip to the Island of Kauai, and on another the day we picked up my son, Dennis from the airport after he made his first CD.
So whats your point?
I sitting here wondering if my writing is getting better, or worse? Just like the paintings I create. If you go back and revisit old works of art, often it is unbelievable to think you had created them in the first place. They aren’t all great, some of them I can actually believe it was me who painted them. That’s painful to admit!
Who did those, it couldn’t have been me!
But in fact it was me, in both cases. When I write I pour my heart out just like when I paint! It may be good at the time, or a struggle at that time, it depends. Sometimes we don’t even realize how much of an effort it is until it unfolds.
Art is different for me because when I struggle, I always know it! It’s great when it flows, but that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I struggle painfully with something, a concept, a start, or maybe even more than that!
The Abstract Dancer has already taken two or three sharp left turns. I have ideas, and who knows if they will work, but it’s better to try something than nothing! Right? By posting this online, maybe it will shake me loose, and drive me to work on it! I’m trying to avoid doing the Jackson Pollock thing to it.
At least that is my hope. So someday when I look back on prior posts, I can look at this one and remember how I was struggling to pull it all together, and make Abstract Dancer a real painting! Someday maybe I can read this post, and say to myself, I did pull it together, and that Abstract Dancer is exactly what I had envisioned!
Cow
A A
week or so ago I posted a little about myself. I reminisced, I laughed, I shared, and then I’d had enough, it was over! Today I’m going to tell you a little more…
Well…
By now, you’ve probably guessed that I like to do a little of everything – being a Mixed Media artist and all. You would be absolutely right! I can get sidetracked so fast it makes even my head spin! My head spins a lot, not just from Mixed Media, but all the thoughts and ideas that run through at all hours of the day and night. There aren’t any of my art friends that sleep well, we all wake up with ideas, and all night “the process” runs through our heads, along with solutions to anything we’ve been working on. Sometimes I get up in the morning exhausted from working things out all night long. Sound familiar?
Here it goes…..
Simple Journal
I have boxes of old jewelry, bolts, washers, cardboard, metal, and more just sitting around (boxes neatly stacked) waiting for me to get inspiration. When I do, maybe I’ll glue things down, or maybe I’ll sew it all together – who knows? It’s all good, and that comes under the “Mixed Media” heading.
A friend of mine once said to me, “Karen, if you don’t call yourself a Mixed Media artist, you wouldn’t have to save all that stuff. Then you wouldn’t have all those boxes!” How true that is, but don’t we have to create what our heart is happiest creating? I know my friend is happiest painting watercolors, and many of my friends do work in that medium. At one time in my life, I did too. But many of us have moved to something else we can learn to express ourselves with. It’s all good as long as it makes us happy! In the name of Mixed Media, I’ve created some amazing things.
Everything here is Mixed Media, and for me, it’s pretty interesting. I have many journals with decorated covers. All because I can’t seem to leave a surface bare even if it’s on a journal. Maybe its just a great excuse to create one more little piece of the Karen puzzle! Maybe I’m just trying to use up the über amounts of art supplies I have bought over the years, making myself feel like it has been money well spent. Who knows, but it makes me happy! Isn’t that all that counts?
Has anyone told you not to create like you do, and to do something else? Do you follow their suggestions? Do you think constructive criticism is constructive, or just plain criticism?
Your thoughts are important, please share them.
Old as Dirt and Proud of it! 
You must be logged in to post a comment.