Art Saves

This week I have the privilege of being a guest curator on Jenny Doh's new website, Crescendoh. I love this website Jenny has started. Every week she features 4 artists and their stories and each artist shares their personal favorite posts and new links to inspiring websites and blogs each day.

This week you can read the story of how Art was a tool that saved me, along with the stories of 3 other guest curators and 3 guest readers. In addition to sharing my story and a link to one of my favorite posts from my own blog, I get to direct readers to two of my favorite blogs or websites each day, so be sure to check these out daily for a glimpse of what inspires and moves me.

Everything and Anything

 

Growing up in the 60s and 70s messages for girls were mixed. Most of my friends moms were stay-at-home moms. I remember mine taking night classes when I was in grade school, but during the day she babysat a little boy whose mom went to work in stylish office clothes. She seemed exotic and intelligent and foreign to me. And maybe just a little "bad" like those women who got divorced.

We girls were told we could be Anything we wanted to be when we grew up. But somehow "Be Anything" translated in my mind to "Be Everything for Everybody". 

Maybe it was those early mixed messages. I remember seeing a plaque somewhere in my grandmothers house: "A man will work from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done." and grandpa and dad and all the uncles being served their dinner on TV trays by the wives as we kids lined up to help ourselves at family gatherings. That message seemed clear. Serve the husbands first, let the kids eat and then clean up after everyone. 

What a relief to finally realize not only can I be anything, but I really don't have to do everything. And I can explore and take my time and make a mess and even ask somebody else to help me clean it up.

Everything and Anything is an assemblage framed collage that explores the idea of femininity, beauty, and the role women play in the home, society, the arts, and religion.

A Long Time Coming

The focal point of this assemblage, the collage, has been in the process of being "done" for well over 6 months now. I reworked it several times before feeling somewhat satisfied, but even in this state felt it wasn't quite done and it languished on the work table (among a few dozen other collage works in similar states of undoneness).

I really don't remember why I entered the studio yesterday or how I came to be sawing these pieces of wood. It was one of those "Aha!" moments as I stood in front of my display of finished pieces, some already framed with reclaimed wood. My eyes fell on this collage and suddenly I could see it in my mind and there was this force that could not be contained. I worked in a frenzied adrenaline state until it was finished. All thought of my "to do" list out the window.

It was finished in less then an hour. But it had been a long time coming.

In the satisfaction of seeing it completed, I reflected on the many stages I've seen it in. Honestly, at one point I threw it into my redo pile to scrape clean at a later date. It didn't seem possible to salvage and better to accept that I needed to let it go.

Many times it takes coming to this point of surrender, letting go of control, to see something you've worked for and wanted for so long come together. Change can't be forced. Sometimes the harder you try to "make" something happen the more elusive or impossible it becomes. To admit that you are powerless over another person, a relationship, even your own character flaws can seem like giving up, but it gives change the freedom to do what it needs to do, unhindered by our finite vision and limited views.

A seed languishes under the soil. It seems dead. There is no outward sign of the change that is taking place. And suddenly a flower bursts forth, overnight. But it has been a long time coming.


There have been times that I thought I couldn't last for long
but now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come. ~ Sam Cooke

Voices of the Sky

"Our sky is never the same – from day to day or even hour to hour. It holds the brightest and darkest things we will ever see, and in addition is capable of displaying every imaginable color and mood."~ Samuel Hazo

What if I....

There is so much inspiration online it is amazing that I get anything else done at times, other then look and drool. One blog I like to visit on a regular basis is Mary Buek's. Each post begins with the question "What if I". Recently she posted one title "What if I...Had No Time"

Time has been short for me recently, as explained in my previous post. This week finds me in the midst of (should be) studying for mid-terms. On top of which I've been exploring a new (to me) technique and my head is exploding with ideas. Tough to concentrate on studying when I keep walking past my work table and stopping to fuss and play with these new materials.
In the next week I'll try to post a few pictures of my recent collage work whether I have time to write or not. There are times, I've come to believe, the quieter the artist is the stronger the work speaks.