It’s been a rough start to a new year.
Looking outward from 2021, 2022 seemed to hold some kind of mystical renewal energy I was truly looking forward to, but it seems the ‘letting go’ energy of 2020 / 2021 still hangs in the air.
It is early days I know, and I remain optimistic that 2022 has many welcome moments in store but I have dragged my feet somewhat lacking motivation.
So, I started a studio clean up (believe me, it was long overdue) and sometimes that is the type of activity that can kick start creativity without the pressure to create.
As luck would have it, I came across a pile of 10” x 8" unfinished oil paintings, dry and waiting to be reborn.
I took one I particularly liked and started to play with it. I had nothing to lose, it was after all, in the waiting to be something else pile and the cleaning up is always a secondary priority to creating!
I have a pile of papers like this in the studio too, unfinished works that sing some kind of song for me but have not found their purpose yet. All kinds of materials used on different types of paper. I collect everything, packing paper from deliveries, foam inserts for making stamps, bits of material and miscellaneous thread all lie in wait for a moment of magic.
I got my moment with the oil painting on the table, a pair of scissors and a piece of unfinished acrylic and ink work to cut up.
I have been drawn to cutting up a simple human shape in the past year, so that is what I did, I cut out lots of little people. In the end I chose my favorite for size and fit and color palette complimentary to the oil painting.
I recently received an invitation to include a painting in Glenn Eure’s Ghost Fleet Gallery Self Portrait Exhibition.
It is one of the few shows I participate in every year, well, ever since a dear friend and fellow artist introduced me to Glenn, his work and his gallery. (Thank you Doug Brannon)
This year will be the Gallery’s 27th year holding the show and my 5th participating.
Glenn has since passed (may he rest in peace) but his wife Pat Eure and gallery manager Sharon continue the tradition every April. I am so pleased they do, the gallery is a long standing, central art hub for the Outer Banks, North Carolina.
I may not have got to cleaning the studio but I did complete my entry for the Ghost Fleet Gallery, Self Portrait Exhibition 2022.
This years’ theme: ‘I am…’
Here is my entry: ‘I am …a work in progress’
Aren’t we all? ;)
‘I am…a work in progress’
8” x 10”
oil and mixed media
2022