july. part 1.

 my apologies for the lengthy absence.

july was packed to the brim

with preparations

for baby evelyn's arrival.

and with plenty of art making

and shipping.

i'll catch you up with two posts

on what i've been up to.

 

first, a walk through

evie's new digs.

turns out the nesting instinct

is no joke.

lamb pelt from tibet code on etsy & refinished vintage dresser

art i created inspired by some wonderful etsy artists

lovely doll hand made by my good friend ramona

babies love contrast!

"born free" - nightlight i made inspired by a gap onesie design

shel silverstein collection + the book that inspired the room's theme

little red mobile i blatantly copied from one found at acorn toy shop

all washed and ready to be taken on great adventures

stay tuned for an update

of what i've been up to

in the studio

in the next post.

out of hibernation

 hello, world!

i'm alive and well once again. 

"everything is blooming most recklessly"

and i'm inhaling the miracle of it all

in big gulps.

loads of life are blowing up all around me,

deep within,

my days are overflowing with loads of life.

isn't spring simply wonderful?

in this season when so much needs to be done,

i've been reflecting

on how to make the non-art work

meaningful, artful, poetic...

how to infuze every living moment

and every bit of work

with joy, creativity, beauty.

"you are worried and upset about many things"

jesus says to martha

"but few things are needed -

and indeed only one.

your sister has chosen

what is better

and it will not be taken away from her."

in reaching for the one thing,

i breathe through my work.

i take out the trash gratefully,

i do the dishes lovingly,

i grocery shop creatively,

i hold on to the joy of the studio

 as i go about the million little errands

that make up life.

back at my workbench,

i let go of what i think should be,

and play with textures,

keeping it light.

here is a glimpse at details

of a new work in progress.

"but listen to me for one moment.

quit being sad.

hear blessings

dropping their blossoms

around you."

-rumi

 

getting to know crystal neubauer

power and fragility inhabit their shared space

harmoniously 

in crystal neubauer's work. i discovered her collages,

mixed media paintings and encaustic pieces on etsy

a couple of years ago and i have been enraptured

with the visual feast and sheer poetry of her work

ever since.

equal parts the nature of the material 

and the sensitivity of the artist,

her work tucks unutterable prayers

between delicate layers

of vintage ephemera.

i know you will enjoy getting to know the woman

behind the breathtaking work

as much as i did.

some things you love: 

old books falling apart and slightly musty with ragged torn covers.
my cat curled up on my lap, or following me from room to room begging for milk. hanging out with my family over a meal. spending long quiet hours alone in the studio. walking out the front door and bumping into a friend. comfy clothes. long hot baths. perusing the magazine aisle at the book store and then lingering with a stack of them over a cup of coffee.

some things you love about yourself (go ahead, brag a little): 

i see things a little differently then others and i believe this is evident in my art. i am learning to use my voice after having lived most of my life believing i didn’t have one. i tend to be a defender of the voiceless minority, a rooter of the under-dog. i don’t believe in going against the status-quo just to be different, but i have a hard time remaining silent when i see an injustice. i am learning to stand in the uncomfortableness of that moment and i think that is pretty cool.

what you're working on at the moment:

i have been experimenting with encaustic painting in combination with drawing on the surface of the wax. recently i’ve begun “sculpting” on a 2-d collaged surface by drawing on top of a layer of wax and scraping, adding ink or chalk or graphite and scraping some more. the process begins to resemble a sculpture being chiseled from a hard surface.

 

where do you draw inspiration from?

i am inspired by texture and line. i will squint at a landscape and see the color blocked look of the scenery or notice the way a few random objects are lying in a drawer. i love to decorate from the items i collect and i carry this inspiration into the studio. and of course, the internet has a plethora of inspiration, almost to the point of overkill.

what is your creativity nemesis?

over scheduling my time to the point of not making it into the studio for days, sometimes weeks at a stretch.

and our most effective weapon against it?

remembering that I am the keeper of my schedule and prioritizing the studio time. allowing myself to work in my pajamas, early in the morning before the tasks of the day begin to press in.

something you've learned the hard way:

everything does not depend on me.

would you please recommend a book?

i am a huge anne lamott fan. 'bird-by-bird' is excellent for the creative process, it is geared toward writers, but i read it with my art goals in mind.

favorite natural food to snack on:

tender white buttered popcorn with sea salt. frozen dark chocolate peanut butter cups from trader joe's. i think they qualify as natural? i love pears and freshly cut pineapple too, but those frozen peanut butter cups are hard to resist.

 

when i say feminine you say... 

beauty wrapped in many packages.

i don’t have to be girly to be feminine and i don’t have to be masculine to be equal.

something you need to do less of:

worry

 

something you need to do more of:

pray

your perfect day:

my idea of the perfect day changes with my mood and circumstances, but today it is having a good friend who lives far away come hang out with me in the studio and then unwinding with my favorite gluten free pizza and a glass of wine in front of the fireplace. and ice cream. the perfect day always ends with ice cream.

 

 

thank you, crystal for giving us a glimpse 

into your beautiful world!

for more of crystal's work, studio,

process & inspiration, please stop by her website

and blog. 

stashes and stashes...

as per, jennifer's invitation,

here is a glimpse of the

stacks and stashes around my studio. 

 and then there are the stashes

in my head.

and this giant pile

of everything beautiful

on the internets.

playing with textures

out of work at my part time job

(painting/remodeling/construction)

(yep, when i'm not painting, 

i'm painting)

which means no money

and plenty of studio time.

large scale abstract textured work

beckons me.

a 4'x8' piece for grand rapids' art prize

is in the making.

i have been saving egg shells

for months for this one.

working on a couple of other pieces

to add to my as-of-late-neglected etsy shop

as well.

it has been fun experimenting

playing with acrylic, latex,

coffee, tissue paper, egg shells,

pulling paper off wet paint

to discover wondrous patterns,

embedding random objects,

dipping, stretching, dripping...

it has also been

a bumpy ride.

dabbling in doubt

and feelings of inadequacy.

stuck, staring at the canvas

for eternities.

for this too, i am grateful

for i have the privilege

of being an artist.

what excites you

and haunts you 

in your work today?

 

monday morning at play

 

 

breathe.  sip your tea.

notice.

 play

 before work.

keep playing

perhaps

until long after

the work is done. 

getting to know suzie chaney

there simply isn't any more appropriate way to introduce suzie than through the thought-provoking, delicate, raw beauty of her work. a photographer, book maker, mixed media artist, and sculptor,as well as a world traveler and mother, suzie chaney inspires me with her thoughtful work and exuberant appetite for life.  her plaster and burnt paper sculptures hunt my dreams. 

i hope you relish discovering her work and lovely being as much as i did interviewing her for my friday series of interviews with strong creative inspiring women.

some things you love:
In a former life I think I was a dolphin; I love water. Then again, I'd hate to eat fish. I'm with Linda McCartney and the never-eat-something-with-a-

face way of thinking. I'm so happy snorkeling round the little rocky coves on the Costa Brava in Spain, bodyboarding the Atlantic breakers or simply lying on my back in the nearby lake on warm summer evenings.
I love coming home, and that glimpse of the mountains that lets me know I'm almost there. Catching my breath when I see a deer, a boar, a hare, an eagle and feeling enthralled by their wildness, but equally loving my dogs and recognizing their inner wolf-like spirits.
Having no map or timetable. I stubbornly refuse to have GPS or a watch. With my trusty flask of rooibos tea and ancient Lion King blanket in my car, I'm always prepared for a picnic and I love being a Baudelaire flâneur which brings me round to...
...my Pentax Spotmatic loaded with film.
Live music; impromptu get togethers, street entertainment or an amazing concert. The best ever was Radiohead in Nîmes at the stunning roman arena in 2009. {I've got my ticket for this July too, yay!}
Stumbling across surprising, thoughtful work in an unexpected or tiny, out of the way venue.
Playing cards with the kids in my bed.

some things you love about yourself (go ahead, brag a little):
My beautiful and creative three children; my sense of adventure; my compassion, patience and iron will.

what you're working on at the moment:
I have several things on the go right now. Preparing for an art event that takes place in my part of France in May, which is mostly going to be sculptural pieces and photography. As these are still evolving I can't really explain very much, but the work all relates to writing. One thing that tends to happens with my sculptures is they take on a life of their own, and almost dictate to me how they shape themselves. These sculptures will later be shown at an exhibition in a beautiful medieval town with an 8th century abbey, which is very exciting. I'm also creating a body of work for a local b&b, making linocuts which are based on imaginary or hybrid creatures derived from our local flora, fauna and landscape, and alternative photography methods like cyanotypes and pinholes of our environment. On top of all this I'm setting up a shop on my website, giving me a whole bunch of problems that are causing me sleepless nights but hey, that's where the patience and the iron will kick in. I definitely inherited that from my Dad. My siblings and I like to remind him he once said "give me an instruction book that tells me how to do it, and I'd happily remove your mother's spleen".

where do you draw inspiration from?
For years I used to make work about animals. Then I had a bad accident, and once I recovered enough to work again I was obsessed with the body and the mind; bone, anatomy, physiology and psychology. The animals are still often present though sometimes if only as an abstract idea of flesh, fur or feather. Also fragility, memory, a sense of transience, the idea of ghosts and the traces left behind.
Moodiness and melancholia; light, air and space; organic shape and muted colours; the art of storytelling.
The Japanese have a word for imperfection, asymmetry, emptiness and melancholia: wabi-sabi. It's my fundamental principle.

what is your creativity nemesis?
Looking too much at other peoples' work on the internet. It clouds my judgement, makes me worry I'm utter shit and distracts me from being in the studio.

and your most effective weapon against it?
Getting absorbed in my own work.

something you've learned the hard way:
Not to make work specifically to sell. When I opened shops on etsy and elsewhere a few years ago I made horrible clichéd illustrated digital prints, bookmarks etc. Oh yes, they sold OK but I felt lost. This work had nothing of me in it; my journey, my meaning, my soul. It also laid me wide open to plagiarism as that kind of work can be so derivative anyway and made me question whether I was guilty of it too.
So I kicked myself in the head, shut up shop and got back to creating work that came from within, that had something to say. Funnily enough my work now sells much better, not online however but in the real world.

would you please recommend a book?
'Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces' by Angela Carter. A collection of short stories that are dreamy, beautiful and disturbing.

favorite natural food to snack on:
homemade houmous. Mmm mmm.

when I say feminine you say...
intuitive, strong

something you need to do less of:
stressing about my rather chaotic house. It's been a 'project' for 7 years and seems to not move forward at all. I have to just accept the wobbly floorboards, crumbly stonework and leaky roof.

something you need to do more of:
Others would say housework! I say spending time in my garden. I love to grow veggies, roses, meditteranean herbs and fruit trees. I also crave more traveling.

your perfect day:
I think a day is only perfect while you are living it or reflecting on it, it's impossible to prescribe one.  But it would probably involve some of these; the sunshine, my family, a city with great art, music, tomatoes in some form or other, photography, a funfair, laughter, a swim in the sea, horse riding, a campfire, a beautiful sunset.

thank you, suzie for kindly sharing your life, energy and creativity with us!

for more of suzie's work and updates of her lovely blog, please visit her website at http://www.suziechaney.com


images via http://black-eyedangel.blogspot.com/ used with suzie's permission.

spring. space.

'everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.'

- rainer maria rilke

'it's spring fever. that is what the name of it is. and when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you *do* want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!'

- mark twain

 

 grateful.  for oh so many things.

sunshine pouring through wide open windows.

stolen apple blossoms on my table.

new beginnings. 

outpouring of life.

(even the snakes coming out to play)

most of all

this space.

to be

and to create from.

and you,

this crazy beautiful family

to share the journey with.

i propose a toast.

to yes!