Thursday, September 18, 2014

When it Rains......



Two shows in one week!  Tomorrow opens the Northumberland County Council for the Arts and Humanities Gallery show in Shamokin AND the North Mountain Art League exhibit in the Arts and Crafts building at the Bloomsburg Fair.  If you are in town for either, check them out!

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Delight



My most recently completed painting pretty much sums up how I have been feeling that last few weeks.  I have been lucky enough to do some traveling and sightseeing both around my home, and a bit around the country, and have gotten to see some old friends in the process.  There is also the prospect of some collaborative creative work with a treasured mentor from another part of my life (who, IMHO, happens to be quite the creative genius), and that has me nearly squealing with delight.  What a way to finally start a late-to-arrive spring!

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

A good day

Yesterday was a good day.  I got not one, but two, one-woman shows scheduled (fall 2014 and summer 2015 – details to follow).  In my book, that’s an exciting start to a morning. Though, in my usual style, that excitement was quickly followed by a mixture of self-doubt and self-deprecation.  Would I be ready?  Would by paintings be ‘good enough’?  Why has this taken me so long?    Blah, blah, blah.  However, in a concerted effort to challenge these automatic, and negative, thoughts, I followed them up with a big, red, screaming “STOP.”  Yes, I’ve been back in the Coal region for 5 ½ years, and yes, these are the first one-artist showings I’ve secured in that time, and no, Northumberland County isn’t NYC, or DC or even Philly.   But this is ‘home,’ and I’m creating, and my work is getting out there, and people like it.  And, most importantly, I’m happy.

And, in addition to scheduling those two shows yesterday, I also successfully bench-pressed 100lbs (my current goal in training for an upcoming lifting/running event), got an email via USFencing requesting my participation in a research study as an “emerging/elite athlete,” (What?  Who?  Me? – insert sheepish grin), I worked a little bit on a research project of my own in the hospital, and was sincerely thanked by a parent for helping with their kid.   In fact, looking back on them, the last few weeks have been pretty darn good.  I helped a teen lose 20 pounds, was told I was important in the life of another, won a local epee competition, and traveled to see good friends. 

Now there are qualifiers on all those ‘victories’ – there always are:  I need to be able to lift more weight by the end of February, their definition of ‘emerging/elite athlete’ was fairly loose and several hundred people got that email, my research project is moving at a snail’s pace compared to what I’d be doing in a major university, the competition only had 9 people, and another teen I work with is still struggling with symptoms a year into treatment. 

And so quickly the half-full glass becomes half-empty.  There is always work that can be done faster, projects that could be done better, people who are “succeeding” more than I am.   And maybe if I gave up any one of the things I am doing, I could probably do those other things, faster, better, more ‘successfully’ (whatever that means).   Sure, for every bout I win against someone half my age, there’s another I lose to someone twice my age, sometimes my run turns into a walk (okay, a hobble) when one of the joints in my falling-apart-faster-than-it-should-for-my-age body is screaming, there will be another family who storms out of my office because they don’t like what I’ve said, and I’ll likely bring home more paintings than I sell at whatever the next exhibit it.  But I am doing all of that.  All of it.  And that’s pretty darn amazing. Because someday, I will not be able to do this.  But today is not that day.


So I’m going to resolve to practice gratitude for all my little victories this year.  Notice them, speak them, and, sometimes, share them.  After all, isn’t that what creating art is about – noticing and sharing tiny pieces of beauty and meaning that otherwise go unnoticed and buried under daily labors and defeats.  

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Inspired

It's been too long between my last new painting and this one.  This time of year it's hard for me to find inspiration since I am most moved by intense color, and light/shadow contrasts, and the world around me is so drained of color in the winter, replaced with shades of white and muted neutrals.  Nothing against the winter, it's just doesn't move me, creatively.  That combined with holiday tasks and 'day job' flares that take so much more of me, and I haven't wandered into my studio in weeks.  This painting was actually done before the holidays, but didn't get my seal of approval until just this week.  I got inspired around Veteran's Day and started working on this.  I'm thinking it might launch a series of intense, close-up portraits, but time will tell.


\:-| (honor)    oil on canvas   20x20