Artists I Find, I Love

Attention: This post is a bit lengthy, but worth it.

Rose III by Cy Twombly 2008

XIV

Summer: to be for a few days

the contemporary of roses;

to breathe what floats

around their souls in bloom.

To make of each dying rose

a confidant,

and to survive this sister,

absent in other roses.

from ‘Les Roses’ by Rainer Marie Rilke

Two great artists have moved into the next life in these past two years; Cy Twombly and Louise Bourgois. Both artists I love. I found Cy for the first time 3 yrs ago at the MOMA in NYC. They were showing his 'Four Seasons' and I just stared open mouthed at the beauty and also because I related so much in my own work-working literally with the seasons and beginning to loosen my line. I found him just after I finished 'Spring Flowers' and 'Spring Orchard' paintings. I was so excited because I felt a kinship, his work encouraged me by nudging my soul with "see, see...we share something...we share this life, we share a vision, we share what we see and feel..." At this point you may be wondering why I had not already known about Cy Twombly, simply because I did not go to art school and I did not begin my practice until 2007. I am quite the naive freshy! There is something so wonderful about not knowing...not knowing how I am going to make something, not knowing if its similar to something else, not even always knowing why or what I am making. Although I face many challenges this way; each time I set out on a new project or new canvas I am not distracted by what I know....I am not trying to be different....or be right...it's only me in my own way. Which is enough already.
What I really want to get at is that I believe that as much as I'm finding these artists by chance they are actually calling me and leading me...literally. Last month I had a beautiful and eerie experience with Louise Bourgoise. I had never heard of her before this May. I went to an artist presentation at Bard College. After it was over there was q&a, one of the students remarked that Louise B. had once said she "drew a circle and put all her fear in it, then she drew another and put all her fear in that" I wrote down Louise's name because it reminded me of a Mandela and I was studying Mandela's for a potential creative arts workshop. When I looked up Louise's work I did not see my work in hers, but again I felt a magnetic pull to her. I decided to splurge and order a bunch of books on her history and her work. One of the things I liked most about her was her moving between disciplines to execute her vision, also that she created what I consider "feminine" work. Weeks later I was browsing through my friends Art Forum, and an image grabbed my attention because it resembled what I working on with fabric and quilting and it just drew me to it. It turns out it was Louise's most recent work before she died-called the fabric works. Works that I had never seen before and wasn't like anything else she had previously done. These were fabric drawings she was doing made from her clothing. (Most of her notable works are gigantic marble sculptures and huge metal Spiders) The show was in NYC and Cheim & Read gallery. I went. When I stood in front of the piece that I saw in the magazine, (which was actually part of a larger piece) I felt such an emotional response that I welled up. I was like ; I get it, I get it, I get it..without knowing what I got. I even talked to Louise B, asking her what was she telling me? I know its totally crazy! But it gets crazier. After looking at the work, I asked for the title sheet because there were no titles on the wall. The piece that brought me to tears was titled, "Dawn". (and the cover that said Dawn had its back to the wall, so I hadn't seen it) After this happened I actually had to take a mental time out, because I thought I might be loosing my mind. But here I am again....finding clues and finding myself and finding answers to questions in a recent piece by Cy Twombly-The Rose III. Again, this piece grabbed my attention last night when I was looking through the internet, when I looked at it I saw my name painted in it 'Dawn' and scribbled below was 'Rilke'. This sent me in to a deep google investigation, which lead me to the poem Les Roses by Rilke,(as you know Rilke is one of my highest teachers along with Rumi) This poem inspired the last series of paintings by Cy Twombly. In this poem (see above) Rilke wrote about me and my sister Summer. He also painted this painting 2 months after Summer passed (the season and my sister).....I suppose anyone rationally minded would say its all just a name, a coincidence; but for me as Einstien said: “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” I want to go everywhere, as the sun graces this earth and reaches every open space each morning .....I am going to everywhere....and Summer, Cy and Louise and many others are lighting my path.

Spring Orchard by Dawn Breeze 2008

Spring Flowers, by Dawn Breeze 2008

Pages from Dawn by Louise Bourgois 2006 ( as seen in the June 2010 Art Forum)

Dawn by Louise Bourgeois 2006

Louise with a rose

Portrait of an Angel

Portrait Of An Angel
Mirror, Shoes, Oil Crayon, Poem by Summer Knight

I originally started working with this piece this spring, and actually it started brewing as far back as last year when I found the poem. I am finding that patience with an idea is amazing, because time is truly a benevolent friend. My first attempt to work this poem, did not feel right. The work was hauntingly beautiful, but it literally felt like being punched in my chest. The feeling wasn't right, it was too personal and painful. I didn't recognize the discomfort correctly at first, I thought it was fear and I wanted to push through fear, but a lucky accident occurred and I was given the chance to cool off and sit with the "finished" piece before showing anyone. The longer I sat with it the more I felt the truth of what wasn't working and in turn saw a clearer vision. Then I put the project on the shelf and haven't touched it in 4+ months.
Today, I decided to take it out.......
I started off with my "idea's" but in the process I let go of form and "saw" what I needed to literally see "You Like Me" and the piece emerged! But what shocks me is that it aligned itself in a way it couldn't possibly have any time sooner, and its meaning and significance to me in this moment is what it was whispering to me all along....ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

I am not certain what to call this work, is it an installation, a sculpture??? The audience is also an integral part of the piece, because it is the viewer reading the poem and looking at himself in the mirror that completes the piece.

I am continuously grateful to my beautiful sister Summer who endlessly inspires me with her beauty, honesty and courage. Everything I do from my heart is with love for her.

I want to share excerpts from another poem, which has been ringing in my soul.

If you put on shoes that are too tight
and walk out across an empty plain,
you will not feel the freedom of the place
unless you take off your shoes.

People at a distance see you walking there
and wish they were out in the open like you,
but as the saying goes, They are not in your shoes.

Your shoe-constriction has you confined.
At night before sleeping, you take off
the tight shoes, and your soul releases
into space it knows. Dream glide deeper.

.............

Normally when a horse gets the scent of a lion,
it keeps a distance. But there are exceptions.
Every now and then a horse comes
that will gallop into the blazing moat.

Do not hold back what you know to say
about your inmost self. Say everything,
no matter how much hypocrisy and hesitation
you sense is here. Don't guard the mystery.

Heat the horse so hot it rises off the track
into the emptiness of the soul.

(The Freedom Of Place by Rumi)


LOVE LOVE LOVE

Imagine

"She imagined being the one who kissed the grass in the morning leaving the sweet dew that swept the farmers field, she imagined her hair blanketing the earth, her tears watering each flower, her voice the echo of every love note. As she imagined loveliness so large it extended into galaxies beyond our world, she began to feel very far from her body.
She began to imagine herself as a bear, as a mermaid, as the sunshine, as a cupcake. She started laughing, thinking of her family eating her for lunch! Then she started crying thinking how her family may not recognize her without her body."