Audacity of Hope

These are two small mixed medium paintings on paper. I actually made these last year, 2009. I have been thinking about working daily on paper, thinking how it was a beginning for me and is always a touch stone.

Kintsugi

I showed a friend my silver leafed cracked cement pieces, and she informed me of a tradition (Kintsugi) of fixing broken pottery in Japan. When a tea cup breaks, they glue the piece back adding silver or gold to the crack, they appreciate the fragile and unique beauty in the imperfect thus highlighting it. This serendipitous connection feels similar to my experience with my installation Free Now and the Mongolian Oovoo. I am amazed by our innate and intuitive senses to heal, transform and acknowledge beauty in life. The impulse is seemingly in all of us despite our culture, location or time.

Kintsugi (金継ぎ) (Japanese: golden joinery) is the art of fixing Japanese broken pottery with a laquered resin sprinkled with powdered gold or silver.

“Outsiders may indeed wonder at this seeming much ado about nothing,“ historian Kakuzo Okakura wrote of the tea ceremony in his 1906 work The Book of Tea. “But when we consider how small after all the cup of human enjoyment is, how soon overflowed with tears, how easily drained to the dregs in our quenchless thirst for infinity; we shall not blame ourselves for making so much of the tea cup. Mankind has done worse.”

New Work

Balance (For Now)
60" x 72"
Acrylic Latex Paint, Wax Pencil, Golden Charm with Safety Pin

(detail)
I finished this painting the other day. I have been hesitating to post this piece and the one below, which was completed 2 months ago. I have been hesitating because I am curious myself about the direction of my work, and quite afraid of critical reception. My own voice being the loudest. I feel a bit uncomfortable, the space in these paintings is new to me. However, I am choosing to breath into this discomfort without doing more because that is precisely what I am working with inside myself, taking the moment to pause before reacting to vulnerability in groundless space.


Shell 1.
Gesso, T-shirt, Dirt,
24" x 30"

Autumns Rush

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These are three mixed medium paintings done this week. Each one is 9" x 12". I couldn't help but sketch some of whats enveloping me! The colors and textures that surround me here in Columbia County NY, are beyond beautiful. I have not been able to drive a straight line this past week. My head is being pulled in every direction trying to absorb every particle of gorgeous life...I am happy to be here:)

Far away, Happy Joy Joy

Far Away, Happy Joy Joy
44" x 50"
Mixed Medium on Canvas, 2009


This painting has lots of metallic and iridescent paint, yummy decadence:)!!!!

Raining on my spring flowers

Raining on my spring flowers
44" x 44"
Mixed Medium on Canvas

Long Distance

Long Distance
48" x 50"
Mixed Medium on Canvas


Whats really great is seeing this large painting in this small thumbnail size!!! Because when its so big that your physically inside while painting, you can't always see the composition. Since I don't plan my paintings, or even know where I want them to finish...when I end I'm somewhat nervous, but then seeing them small in one eye blink on the computer, I see that there is balance!!! Yah:)

Finding Joy

Finding Joy
44" x 50"
Mixed Medium on Canvas

(I havn't stretched the canvas yet, so pardon the shadow's in the top corners)

Spring Beginnings

March
4' x 5'
Mixed Medium on Canvas

This painting I finished today, and have been working on it for a long time, it changed so many times; I almost cut it up, threw it out, etc. and then I put it away for a couple weeks-out of sight, out of mind. Today I decided to revisit it being freshly inspired with an attitude of freedom. I am happy that I touched it once more, and happier still that it found its final form...well for now, Raushenburg was known to continue to "improve" his finished works:)

Spring Is Here!!!!

Yellow Spring
5' x 4'
Mixed Medium on Canvas

Untitled Drawing
12" x 16"
Mixed Medium on paper

Untitled Drawing/Painting 2
12" x 16"

Untitled Drawing/Painting 3
12" x 16"

Spring Green Triptec
3pcs 11 x 14 each
Mixed Medium on Canvas Board


The drawings were done in transition between winter and spring, the large yellow canvas I have been working on, ( Its done now!) for the last month or so..and the last piece was a "daily" painting completed today......I am still working and working on how to work more!!!

New Works

Godspeed
58" x 38"
Mixed Medium on Canvas, (Oil, acrylic, graphite, gold leaf, crayon)

It Keeps Snowing
58" x 38"
Mixed medium on Canvas, (oil, acrylic, graphite, gold leaf, crayon)

New Studio

Winter Hues

A photograph of snow and asphalt, while walking home the other day.....

In China's Tang Dynasty ( about 627 AD-) Someone wrote..."We see only what we look for; we look for only what we know" ( I just found this quote from a friend and fellow artist, Harris Browns, essay about "what is art" for 4th graders..and it is very apropos for me this week)

Below are four paintings I completed about a week ago. I was terribly dissatisfied at first and almost embarrassed by them, despite that I greatly enjoyed the process of creating them. I felt so uncomfortable with them, because I thought, "What are these? Their so trite and about nothing...why am I inspired to make marks about nothing?" I showed my husband and he encouraged me that they were nice as was..even without a known figure, symbol, intention or purpose.

So, I didn't touch them, ( or destroy them), and I went for a walk. While I was walking I noticed what I was looking at, I was looking at the marks in the snow, on the ground...the silhouettes, flat shapes, lines and textures... I SAW my paintings!!! I realized that I am painting what I see, feel and think, even when I don't consciously recognize it, and this helped me to know that I need to trust in the process. TRUST my painting process. That doesn't mean I have to love every outcome, but that I need to let go of the control even more, and just swim in the wonderful unknown waters of creativity, which is where my joy is....

Winter Hues I 11" x 11" Mixed Medium on Wood

Winter Hues II 11" x 11" Mixed Medium on Wood

Winter Hues III 11" x 11" Mixed Medium on Wood

Winter Hues IV 11" x 11" Mixed Medium on Wood

Days , 8, 9 & 10 & 11

Outside all the paintings (days 1-7) are buried, and the deer are walking on top!

Day 8 Front- This painting includes mixed paint mediums as well as fabric

Day 8- Back
Day 8- Outside


Day 9 Front

Day 9 Back ( I like the stuff on the table around this painting, so I left it for the photo)


Day 10


Day 11

The other "environmental" art piece of the day

Day 4

Day 4

I've decided that since I want as little control after I've finished the daily painting, I will throw the piece into the air letting it fall to the ground wherever and however chance allows. This is really fun!!! I was excited to see the other 3 days buried, looking like little jewels under the shimmer of ice glitter.

A New Beginning

3 Days

Day 3 Front/Back

Day 2 Front/Back

Day 1 Front/Back

I have started a new project, a daily painting along with a daily writing. It will be for 30 days. The project is about marking time. Its about intention but also about letting go, so after I've completed each piece I will put it outside for Nature to finish/co-create the piece. After 30 days I will gather the work and see what has happened, and then who knows.....I have yet to decide how to complete it, and that is also part of this process, allowing openness for emerging ideas.
This daily practice of painting and writing morning pages, is what really got me started painting regularly 3yrs ago. Now I need a new beginning that' s do-able and not going to send me running scared, so here we go.....PS. Each piece is 11" x 11" wood panel, painted on the front and on back...I'm trying to paint on the front and write on the back...but so far I havn't stuck to it!

Hudson River View 5/30/08

Hudson River View

26" x 32"
Mixed Medium on Paper

Hi Everyone,
I want to thank all who came to the Artscape Studio Tour! It was a wonderfully successful event. I loved meeting so many art lovers and sharing discussion about my artwork. The event has prompted me to keep my painting studio open to the public for the Summer, every Saturday from 12-5pm. Starting this weekend, anyone can come by to see the studio,(new works, works in progress as well as older pieces). And as always, I am open by appointment.
Dawn Breeze Painting Studio
722 Warren st.
Hudson NY 12534
#917-622-5141
www.dawnbreezestudio.com

Next couple things happening (click on blue for links)

1. Hudson Art Affair
An in depth personal interview of me, by Melissa Stafford, Curator and Editor of Hudson Art Affair.
www.hudsonartaffair.com

1. Exit Art, June 7th, 6:00pm
Please come to this free public event, where I will be presenting myself and work before a live audience, along with 11 other Hudson Valley Artists. This event is the culmination of a 6 month NYFA( New York Foundation For The Arts) MARK Artist Workshop. We will be speaking about our work, what influences us, how and why we create artwork. I think artist talks are fascinating, I highly recommend this event if your in NYC this weekend!
Exit Art
475 10th Ave # 1
New York, NY 10018
(212) 925-2928

2. Juried Landscape Show, June 7th, CCCA Hudson NY
Please come to the opening, (if your not at Exit Art, NYC) this Saturday, to see a wonderful variety of landscapes in different mediums, created by many local talented artists, including myself:)
CCCA GALLERY 209 Warren Street Hudson, NY 12534 Tel 518.671.6213 Fax 518.671.6857

CCCA Gallery Landscape Opening Sat June 7 5-7 PM

Painting by: Nick Nickerson Opening: Saturday, June 7th, 5-7 pm The Landscape Show opens on Saturday, June 7th, with a reception from 5-7 PM and runs through Sunday, July 6th, 2008. The show includes paintings, oils, acrylics, watercolors, and photography and features 29 CCCA member artists: Karen Arp Sandel, William Bond Walker, Dawn Breeze, Mike Bufi, Marie Cole,David Dew Bruner, Peter Donahoe, Tomm Eaton, Susan Elias, Jim Flosdorf, Jerry Freedner, Pat Goldstein, Patrick Harbron, Fran Heaney, Philip Heilman, Valerie Hoffmann, Karen Hummel, Robert Laurie, Sylvie Kantorovitz, Gretchen Kelly, Tim McFadden, Taylor Mickle, Victor Milin, Nick Nickerson, Holly Northrop, Molly Pomerance, Bill Sullivan, Robert Trachtman, Ella Yang

4. Carrie Haddad Gallery, Summer 08', Hudson NY
I am excited to announce a new gallery relationship with Carrie Haddad, Hudson NY. Carrie Haddad Gallery is one of the finest art galleries in Hudson, NY as well as the most established. She has been showing contemporary local and international artists for many years, and I am proud to be joining her roster of artists. New works will be hanging and available this summer, with a show scheduled for later this fall.
Carrie Haddad Gallery
622 Warren Street
Hudson, NY. 12534

5. The upcoming birth of my first child! Due June 24th!!!!

So, lots going on-all very exciting!!!

Joy and happiness,
xxDawn Breeze


--
" Let the beauty you love, be what you do"-Rumi