Tiny Talisman.

I have been unwell for the past month with a flu that wiped me off my feet. I am well on the road to recovery now and grateful to be back in the studio.
I managed to paint some days but missed my daily practice enormously. I couldn't move up and down with out full vertigo due to my sinuses being affected. This meant it was too painful to work on my larger canvases.
Out of necessity to express, I got some Artist Trading Cards (canvas paper) and began to play at the table with creating Tiny Talisman. They are 2.5" x 3.5" and in my opinion, pack a punch in energetic terms! 
It is interesting when changing canvas size. It requires a different way of working, small movements, different brushes and tools and as I generally work on the floor or at an easel, working at a table was new to me too.
I chose to mono print layers so each piece is unique, and continued the theme of multiples in these smaller works. I like the way they read together and yet can stand alone.
All in all, I think these Tiny Talisman's serve as a reminder that every cloud has a silver lining, if one is prepared to think outside of the box!
I am going to continue with various sized works on Canvas Card and see where it leads. I am also heading back to the studio to finish off some of my larger works, as I do miss the wider, gestural more physical engagement of those but these have been fun to explore. I hope you like them.
 

It's all peachy....

July is over, which brings an audible "sigh" from me.

It was a big 'push and pull' you month. Lots of unexpected events that took time and time itself seemed to operate on and off, warping at light speed and then feelingl fluid and dense..

My paintings have reflected it back to me. I've moved between thick and sculptural to fine and delicate layering all month., some happening quickly others very slowly.
Various series have popped up for a new work to be made, which resulted in nearly one painting in every series being created at the same time. Insanity!

That is how it goes sometimes.

I paint daily and family life is not 'disrupted' per se by my nightly hours. My husband has similar requirements for his creative work. we enjoy that of each other, but painting for long periods in succession isn't a regular possibility right now. There are too many other things that I do in the daylight hours, to support the evening's creative output, to be done. So it is exciting and unusual.

I'm fortunate this time has been coinciding with the renewal of an exploration in the Ab/Ex field - 'NYSchool painters' in our MoMA Alumni Group. It's inspiring and motivating to share such beauty and discuss techniques. I love exchange, good exchange and I love great art!

I worked hard in the studio and in my personal sphere. Frankly, I have been looking forward to painting without other commitments for some time!
So, here's to experimenting over the next few days before I get ready to have photographs taken of 2015's work update.  I'll post those mid August. Thanks Terry Schmidbauer!

ART- Vibration with intent.

Today I read an inspiring quote from Kandinsky.

I shared it on social media and had some interesting response. I started thinking about the different ways people respond to art and how it makes them feel. Why do some people feel it and others only respond to what they are told about it, or suggestions on how they are expected to respond to it?

I have always been a feeler, but i do like a good back story on the artistic process. 
Sometimes it helps me to view the work with a fresh pair of eyes but isn't necessary in terms of how I feel about a work, that's usually instant.

The quote was in reference to spirituality in art, not spiritual art but the spirit 'in' art and how it fine tunes our being when exposed to it.
I believe this to be true. I am often deeply moved and sometimes changed by a work of art.

Most of the Abstract Expressionists from the New York School effect me profoundly.

Rothko has had me in tears on a number of occasions when I've sat in front of his work in a Museum. At the NGV ('Untitled Red') , MoMA ('No 10'), SAM (Orange on Red), DMA , and the Guggenheim., mostly his latter work. (Although, I do like his early abstracts, the earlier figurative's don't hook me in.)  

Barnett Newman's Zip Painting 'Onement I' had me spell bound at MoMA. I had seen reproductions in books and felt only admiration he was so sure of his path but in person, I felt attracted to it in a very powerful way.

I've felt a deep waves run through my being from the proximity and engagement with such work.

I feel blessed to be able to receive a resonance like that. It changes your chemistry, which in turn changes your reality in some way.

Some people don't feel much at all when sitting in front of an artwork and that's ok too, I guess it is all about how you're geared but I do think the vibration affects us all in some way, whether we are aware of the effect of not.

Color is pure vibration and art is vibration with intent.
Spiritually that is a powerful combination..in my eyes anyway and Kandinsky's.

The quote from Kandinsky: [In great art] the spectator does feel a corresponding thrill in himself. Such harmony or even contrast of emotion cannot be superficial or worthless; indeed the Stimmung of a picture can deepen and purify that of the spectator. Such works of art at least preserve the soul from coarseness; they “key it up,” so to speak, to a certain height, as a tuning-key the strings of a musical instrument.