Materials: Their story

 (these are new paintings on handmade watercolor paper, using lilacs, dirt, acrylic paint)

I have been noticing a shift of process or conscious perception in the approach to my work lately.  We grow at such slow speeds that often we don't even get the chance to see it, but I am aware of a difference in how I see and my relationship to chosen materials.  

Right now I am very interested in the story, essence, or spirit of the materials used in creating something.  I am  interested in the space between the paper and the paint, the way the light moves it, the information it suggests.  I feel that the paper is deserving of its "importance" its not simply a convenient background for a picture, but rather in itself a precious object, created from living matter in a particular way, coming to its own resting place and all of this is of value and consideration to the viewing experience...its as if everything has at least 3 meanings, as certain phrases do...they are poems with many subtle whispers.  I also feel that I am almost seeing two dimensional things as three dimensional with another dimension of meaning...layers and layers.....

And lastly, I am curious about working within a boundary of 3, (until I don't want to do that anymore!) meaning to consider 3 elements-3 choices....

Materials: My love relationship

New Work in Progress, Paper, String, Acrylic Paint, both pieces are aprox 20" x 20"

I feel as if this blogging has disappeared in to the ethos or something?  I wonder why it is less important now or why it has been abandoned?  There is so much to choose from now as an artist...so many options for expression.  Blogging is an energy that requires the time, intention and care that other forms require.  I think I have been holding my breath a bit, keeping secrets in a way, as I walk along making new work.  Creating visual work is one thing and it is separate from the dialogue and text that surrounds it.  I have experienced discomfort with miscommunication and misunderstanding of our verbal language pertaining to my experience of creating my art....and if you are an artist I am sure you can relate.  I don't believe that's a reason to stop speaking about art or writing about art, but it does make me aware of the fact that we need to be sensitive to the amorphous quality of visual art...there simply is not a simple "right" way of seeing, feeling or understanding ones work.  Nor do I believe there needs to be.  We are such base beings, wanting concrete unmoving truths, HA!  The only truth is that everything changes and with it all understanding must continue to change....as does our understanding of ourselves.

All that said, I have revised my statement and it is here (below) for you to read.  At this sliver of a moment in eternity, I am finding that my relationship to the living spirit within materials and my love of beauty and god is what inspires my work.....and a little more elaboration below.

I am a process artist. My approach to the work is intuitive in nature; I collaborate with chance, accidents and impermanence. I include marks of time and wear, emphasizing beauty in imperfection. I work with a wide variety of materials including: organic and found objects, clothing, plastic, dirt, and paint. 

My work is inspired by transformation, how life is flux, that one thing is actually many things in a state of infinite change; examining the fragile yet powerful brevity of life and the innate connection between all that is.  I work with materials in a symbiotic nature, I do not force the materials in to submission instead I present them as they are, allowing them to reveal their potential transformation through the act of observation.  I see myself as co-creator with materials, myself also as a material and a tool.

My inspiration is unbound from category, thus flowing freely between artistic disciplines and forms. The thread of artistic inquiry and intention is what connects the work, whether it is performance, painting or installation.

If I feel love thats all I need to know

Last week I began painting, photographing and being with my neighboring environment, it feels like falling in love.  While I was working I kept hearing the inner dialogue of "What are you making?...What's it supposed to be/look like?...What is this art?  Is the painting the art, is the action the art, does it matter?"  I arrived in the same place as I did in Iceland, that the experience of "being" is the art.  The process or participation with creation, inspiration and the environment is what is the art.  When I paint with the environment the painting is the product or documentation of an experience.  I believe art is primarily sensual and nature is too, intellect secondary.....so, perhaps feelings trump thoughts and if I feel love that's all I need to know.

  

The wonderfully scary spider that jumped out of the dirt in the painting

 

 

    

"a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused, whose dwelling is the light of setting suns" -Wordsworth