Work of Art

I have to admit I’m hooked on reality shows like Project Runway and So You Think You Can Dance because the people competing against each other are usually skilled at what they do. So when I read about Bravo’s Work of Art on Lennie’s blog, I knew I had to start watching it. After all: how could I resist a show about artists?
But it’s harder to make judgments about art. Somehow knowing what constitutes a good meal, a great dress or a fine singing voice seems much easier. What does make a work of art though? You could list all sorts of requirements like harmony, rhythm, balance, use of color, development of ideas, and so on, but in the end, it’s usually how you spontaneously react to a piece that convinces you whether or not it’s art—for you.
China Chow, the host of the show, says it best: “Art is one of the most authentic ways for a person to express themselves. Clothing has to be functional, food has to taste good – but art is the purest form of expression, existing without set boundaries.”
That lack of boundaries is what makes Work of Art so interesting. At first I was baffled by how the artists on the show struggle with the process of implimenting their creative ideas. Then I realized that what I was watching was normal. Most artists find art-making a challenge at times, and focus is often a problem. The advantage to being on this show is that you are pushed to produce art in a short period of time, so you can’t help but benefit from the creative stretch even if the work you produce isn’t that good. And a lot of it isn’t. As a viewer, I personally don’t think this matters because it’s fascinating to watch how artists really work.
On the other hand, a couple of the judges seem to have their own boundaries (read “prejudices”) firmly in place. Listening to them critique the artists makes me uncomfortable. They have a tendency to promote the slick, the sophisticated and the manipulative. In other words, if you’re cool, anything you do is basically cool. But if you happen to be odd in an unfunky way, well, you might as well just forget it.
To me, this cult of personality has created an emptiness at the heart of the mainstream fine art world, and I’m just happy we have blogs and the Internet to expose us to all sorts of amazing and inspiring artists—artists we would be denied acess to if those pretentious, professional windbags had their way. (Moral to this story? Go forth and create anyway!)

Who do you write like?

After having a chunk of his writing analyzed at a site called I Write Like, John informed me that his style resembles Kurt Vonnegut’s. Not too shabby I’d say. Then he mentioned that my brother Robin’s writing style alternates between Edgar Allen Poe and the sci fi writer William Gibson. I was almost afraid to ask who I write like. But he told me that Stephen King kept popping up when he entered some of my blog posts. I once stayed up all night reading The Shining, so I was quite pleased about being compared to SK.
What about my book though? Apparently here my style resembles David Foster Wallace, a writer I’d never heard of. But I wikipedia-ed him and plan to read some of his work. All I can say is that I’m glad I didn’t know my style resembled Wallace’s while I was writing Creating from the Inside Out. It probably would have intimidated me.
Now when it comes to my fiction, two names came up: Stephen King again—and James Joyce. I think that’s absolutely hilarious; my split writing personality might just be the reason why I’ve never managed to have a novel published.
If you want to find out which famous writer you write like, get some of your writing together (a few paragraphs at least) and visit this site.

P.S. Just analyzed this blog post and got H.P. Lovecraft. Hmmm. I may have to revise the split personality thing to include multiples.

Mind Implements

Last time I posted here I wrote about my favorite art implements. Since then I’ve been thinking quite a lot about implements of the mind. In other words, you can have all the nifty art supplies in the universe, but unless you’re actually using them, they won’t fulfill their potential. Or you either.
Why is it so difficult for some of us to use our stuff? A few weeks ago a friend told me the reason she doesn’t do much art is because she’s lazy. But I don’t buy that for a minute. Lazy is one of those judgmental words that’s just guaranteed to make you feel worse. I know when I think of myself as lazy, I tend to act that way which is always counterproductive.
From what I can see, there are plenty of reasons why people procrastinate. This can be anything from just needing to take a break to feeling you have to do things perfectly or you shouldn’t be doing them at all And of course, let’s face it: making art isn’t always easy—and sometimes we just need things to be undemanding.
I read somewhere that the pleasure of writing is never equal to the pleasure of reading, so that’s why it’s easy to suffer from writer’s block. It’s the same thing with art. When you look at a fabulous mixed media piece, you can be inspired to do something of your own. But then when you actually get down to work things are usually more complicated than you think they will be. So what to do about this?
Sometimes I feel that art is more about problem solving than anything else. It doesn’t really help to think about it as a problem though. I find that looking on it as a project is the most helpful to me. A project implies things like brainstorming, planning, playing, tinkering around, fine tuning, taking detours and so on. In short: if you look on your art as an on-going project there’s more room for fun.

My Favorite Art Implements

Brenda sent me and some of her other art homies a nifty little booklet called the Implements of Art Creation. A couple of her favorites? Tear by Hand Scotch Tape and a Pigma Micron Pen. Of course as soon as anything approaching a list appears in my mail or inbox, I have to sit down and make one up too …although I’ll admit that most of the time, the list stays inside my head (mind you, adding to it there is a great way to fall asleep, if you’re having trouble drifting off).
My list turned out to be a lengthy one: Golden Crackle Paste, and Titan Buff fluid acrylic; Liquitex Matte Medium and Black Lava; Pitt artist pens; a black Versafine dye ink pad; baby wipes; Zip Glue; E6000 glue; a miniature screwdriver kit; an X-acto knife, and cutting mat; a set square; Prismacolor pencils; and my two supply totes (not precisely implements but handy all the same).
The first time I ever taught a workshop at a stamp store, one of my “students” brought along her massive just-in-case supply tote that included every pencil, ink pad, paint, paper, marker, pen, pencil, punch etc. known to woman (or man). It was like being invited into an art circus. Because this contraption seemed to take up about 10 square feet of space, I vowed then that I would never ever have a tote.
But words are meant to be eaten, aren’t they? Eventually I fell in love with a mini journaling tote and a larger one that keeps most of my supplies handy. Not that I’ve been using them much these last few months. But truly—sometimes I think the satisfaction of keeping everything organized is almost on a par with making something.
Now where was I? Oh yes, what I realized when I started my list is that there’s one implement I absolutely couldn’t live without, and that’s Photoshop. Over the last eight years, Photoshop has gradually unlocked a whole world of creativity I always suspected existed and now I know actually does. Sure there’s a big learning curve, but that’s fine with me. Art mirrors life after all, and what is life but one long learning curve? Just when you think you’ve got something figured out, you realize you haven’t. C’est la vie.

Shadow Box Stamping

I’ve been stamping for about twelve years now and never lost interest in the medium. Unlike most of my art buddies, I prefer to stamp in my journal, so I’m not much of a card maker.
But I’ve always thought stamping is underutilized when it comes to doing creative projects, and since my turn to do a workshop for the Stampers of Southern Ontario is this Saturday, I decided I wanted to try something different. Instead of my usual approach (doing something stamp-ish with an origami book form), I came up with the idea of incorporating stamping into a shadow box. I guess I’ll find out on Saturday whether or not the members signed up for my workshop enjoy this approach.

Home is where the heart is...

Our ATC theme for May was home, and I was tempted to let it slide because I’m still playing catch up with everything that’s been going on in my life recently. But since I’ve been angling for this particular theme for a couple of years now, I decided I just better get down to business and produce some cards. Besides, it would give me a chance to use these Teesha Moore stamps I love, along with some colored pencil—plus home is a wonderful subject to contemplate visually, isn’t it? Rather than an actual place, I think of home as a state of heart and mind. Ideally you carry it around with you and some situations, groups of people and activities can be more home-like than the so-called real place. That said, I do feel happy in my own little nest tonight. I have my flashing Las Vegas sign on, the angel is hovering over my computer and Lily is recovering from the indignity of having her nails clipped by snoring triumphantly away at my side.

Hubbalicious!

I’ve always been drawn to outer space images …everything from the planets in our own solar system to galaxies that may not still even exist. That’s why I was excited to discover that you can actually download a selection of l-a-r-g-e images taken by the Hubble telescope’s camera in space. You can print them up, or import them into Photoshop and go to town—although what I found when I downloaded this 16 x 20” photo of the Carina Nebula was that I was too awed to alter it.
The Hubble website describes this image as a “turbulent cosmic pinnacle” that lies within “a tempestuous stellar nursery” so I guess I’m not the only one who goes gaga over things like planets and nebulae.

Victorian Photocollage

There’s a show on right now at The Met in New York City called The Art of Victorian Photocollage I’d love to see. Apparently upper class Victorian women during the 1860s and 1870s were experimenting with collage by combining photos and watercolors like the two examples shown here. What is fascinating about this is that avant-garde artists like Braque and Kurt Schwitters who are considered to be the originators of collage—and the Surrealists—hadn’t even been born yet.
Obviously these women were well in advance of their time and it makes me wonder what those of us experimenting away in Photoshop will end up inspiring sixty years on down the line. Of course by then all art may be taking place inside our heads. But in the meantime, I thought I’d pretend to be an aristocratic Victorian photocollage artist—with a little help from Photoshop. (Wouldn’t those women have loved using it!)

The Pattern of Her Thought

I haven’t been keeping up with my blog for a while now and there are a lot of reasons why not—reasons I know most of you could relate to. Instead of cataloguing them though, I thought I’d mention the post on Copyblogger that convinced me I needed to get back on the horse again. Well, not that I fell off exactly. I’d describe it more like taking a long voyage into the interior and staying much longer than I probably needed to.
Anyway, according to the writer on Copyblogger, the five warning signs you might be a “Blograstinator” include: (1) You keep postponing (2) You push so hard it hurts (3) You are easily distracted (4) You’re constantly generating ideas (5) You’re a chatter, not a writer.
There didn’t seem to be a category for I’m-too-busy-watching-TV-and-reading-at-the-same-time, but I could see from the list it was obvious I was postponing things—and the longer I kept putting things off, the easier it was to continue doing this. So enough is enough. I’ve done a spring-cleaning mentally and decided I have to get with the program and start blogging regularly again. Wish me luck.

Identity

I wanted to do something different for our ATC meeting this month. The theme was whatever we wanted it to be, so I chose “Identity.” I think I know who I am, but identity seemed to give me lots of scope to ponder its meaning in Photoshop—and I decided to use a booklet created by Brenda Shackleford for Artfest last year as a guideline.

If you want to try it yourself, just double click on the image above and download it to your desktop. To print it out, set your paper orientation to “landscape.” The area to cut out measures 10” x 7” …just trim along the outside edge.

To make up the ATC booklet, fold in half, quarters and then eighths as shown below. Open out and cut a slit between the four center panels. Then fold in half horizontally and pop out along the center fold so that the front cover “Identity” is on top.

Sound complicated? If you’re like me, you’ll do better with a demo. Just follow this link for video instructions, but you don’t need a staple as they suggest.

Lynne Perrella’s Latest Book

What would your ideal studio space look like? And on a more practical level: how would it all work?
You’ll probably find yourself asking questions like these while you’re perusing Art Making & Studio Spaces (An Intimate Llook at 31 Creative Work Spaces) by Lynne Perrella because I know I certainly did.
Even though I loved looking at this incredible profusion of eye candy—many of the artists featured have huge collections of fascinating stuff—I found myself drawn to the more streamlined and utilitarian studios like Michael deMeng’s. I personally find that having all my stuff out is overwhelming and distracting. If I have too much choice, I can’t make any decisions. That said, I’d jump at the opportunity to visit any of the artists Perrella interviewed for this book!
Some of the studios featured are quite small, but most are on the large side and several are self-contained spaces like Bee Shay’s and Sas Colby’s. I remember seeing a photo of Edward Hopper’s Cape Cod studio years ago and it looked just like a boathouse. I’d love something like that.
But one of the featured artists, jeweler Nancy Anderson, says she’s learned from experience that you don’t need a perfect space. “Give up that thought now. The perfect space only exists in your dreams. I say: Just create. Let it happen in your basement …on your kitchen table. Just do it.”

My Mum: 1919 to 2010

After two months in North York General Hospital, my mother Dorothy Fulford passed away in palliative care there last week. Anyone who has lost a loved one to cancer knows what an excruciating and heart-wrenching process it is to watch them go downhill. But mixed in with the sadness is a feeling of relief that they no longer have to suffer.

Up until last fall, Mum was still driving, making fabulous desserts, hosting dinner parties, attending her book club, volunteering and shopping for new outfits. Even though she was in her 91st year, she still had lots of life left in her and was aware of us all up until her final moments.

Mum deserved a quick, uncomplicated passing after celebrating with everyone who loved her at a gigantic party. She didn’t get that of course, but at least we were all able to say goodbye to her before she went and to hold her close.

John took this picture of Mum enjoying herself in September of 2008 and I think it captures her perpetually sunny nature and love of life perfectly.

Imagining the Past

Remember When was the theme for our ATC group last month, and I couldn’t decide what to do for the exchange, probably because there are so many choices available. I’m at the age now where my own past is full of all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies (to me at least.) I actually remember wearing white eye shadow, ironing my hair and meeting Manfred Mann in an Eskimo art shop at Yorkdale Plaza.
So what to choose?
I debated doing an ATC of The Beatles concert I went to with my friend Barb on September 7th, 1964. I saw The Stones, James Brown, The Dave Clark Five and The Mamas and Papas in the 60s too, and lots of bands like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Supertramp, and Genesis in the 70s. One balmy night I even experienced Yoko Ono wailing from inside a burlap bag.
But the problem with being a 60s and 70s girl is that while the years may be piling up, you’re still not copyright free. So this led me to imagining a past for the threesome shown above.
I like this carte d’viste because the little girl is being hugged by her dad, which is an unusual thing to see in pictures from this era. And I’m guessing he must have been especially fond of her because you usually see the young ones grouped around the mother. Then again, maybe the woman shown is her stepmother. Or perhaps the man is the little girl’s grandfather, and the woman he’s seated with is his much younger second wife who is not that that happy being photographed with the grandchild he adores.
There are really lots of scenarios available to anyone with an active imagination here. But it occurred to me that it might be more interesting to rewrite your own personal history instead. I think I'm going to add dating Mike Smith of The Dave Clarke Five to mine.

Identity

As I was getting into the car the other day, a perfect snowflake landed on the sleeve of my coat. But this tiny ice mandala only lasted for a moment before vanishing. I remembered reading that no two snowflakes are identical (just like each one of us) and I wished I’d had a camera handy to make a record of it like Wilson Bentley, the Vermont farmer who made photographing individual snowflakes his mission in life.

Bentley’s obsession with snowflakes began when he received a microscope for his fifteenth birthday in 1880. He tried drawing them but since they melted too quickly for sketching, he eventually turned to photography (see below) and took thousands of pictures of snowflakes until his death in the 1930s.

Today I discovered that Bentley was the one who came up with the no two snowflakes are alike theory, which is now generally accepted as a scientific fact. “Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated,” he told a reporter in 1925. “When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind.”

I really like the idea that the universe in general is teeming with abundant individuality …everything from an atom to a star, although I don’t think I could reproduce the snowflake I saw. One thing I do know is that it was different from anything else I’ve ever seen and has enhanced my life in its own small, sweet way.

Believe in your plant

Hazel—one of my plants—has had more lives than a family of contented cats. She has been completely dead (apparently), sort of dead, on the verge of passing on, semi pathetic, extremely pathetic, depressed, deflated, so-so and so on. Well, I’m sure you get the picture. But as you can see, Hazel is flourishing in her present incarnation. One blossom is in full bloom and another couple are just waiting to unfurl. Given Hazel’s history, I’m ashamed to admit I considered tossing her into the compost many times. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it because David gave me Hazel for my birthday a few years ago, and it just seemed plain wrong to abandon her. And I’m glad I didn’t.
Hazel has convinced me that you shouldn’t give up on anything that’s important to you—no matter what the evidence seems to suggest. Even though it appeared she was a goner, John put her in a new pot and I watered her anyway. Everything else Hazel has done on her own, and it’s very gratifying to know she’s got a new lease on life.

The Color for 2010

“Turquoise Transports Us to an Exciting, Tropical Paradise While Offering a Sense of Protection and Healing in Stressful Times,” says Pantone the company that provides professional color standards for the design industries (and obviously loves to capitalize Just In Case We Miss Anything).
This year the company has chosen Pantone 15-5519 Turquoise, “an inviting, luminous hue,” as the color of the year. “Combining the serene qualities of blue and the invigorating aspects of green, Turquoise evokes thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a languorous, effective escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of well being.”
Whew! But wait, there’s more…
“In many cultures, Turquoise occupies a very special position in the world of color. It is believed to be a protective talisman, a color of deep compassion and healing, and a color of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky. Through years of color word-association studies, we also find that Turquoise represents an escape to many – taking them to a tropical paradise that is pleasant and inviting, even if only a fantasy.”
Personally, I love the color turquoise, but I can’t help wondering—would Pantone ever pick Beige as the color of the year? Could a copywriter wax poetic over Beige? Having been one myself, I’d say if I had to, I could. But I think I’ll just settle for wishing all of you a Happy, Healthy, Creative and Colorful 2010.

The Power of an object

When I was decorating the tree before Christmas, I heard a crackling sound. At first I didn't know what it was. Then I looked down at the remaining ornaments still carefully laid out on the coffee table, and I could see that one of my favorites—a lilac and silver heart—had cracked all over.
When I showed my “broken” heart to John, he said the reason why it had cracked was to let out more love. Hmm. I had a feeling there was a lesson in all this ...or maybe even a poem. But I forgot about it until Christmas Day when my sister-in-law Wendy presented me with a replacement: a beautiful silver heart. (Wendy and I both love hearts, so she could relate to me losing mine).
Yesterday I decided I'd photograph the two of them together to send to Wendy. Unfortunately the lilac and silver heart disintegrated when I touched it. The funny thing is: when I looked at the photo afterwards, I could see myself taking the picture of it reflected in several of the fragments. I’m not sure what the lesson is here (or if there even has to be one), but I do know I've let go of my attachment to the heart and ended up with a visual poem.

Poetry says something...

While I was printing up some pictures for Christmas presents last night, I realized that I’ve said goodbye to a lot of my art in 2009—like this mixed media piece: Poetry says something nothing else can. I worked on it on and off for at least five years, and with the deadline of my show approaching in October, I said to myself: This is something you must finish. Suddenly, it all came together. Then Poetry spoke to someone and now has a new home.
Thinking about the whole process in retrospect, I can see I was so enamored with the central image (it’s a painting by the 17th century Italian artist Carlo Dolci called Poetry) that I couldn’t make a any kind of decision I felt was visually worthy of her. Once I made her less personal and focused on the act of writing poetry, I was able to finish.
The interesting thing is that Carlo Dolci was a notoriously slow painter himself. “[S]ometimes he would take weeks over a single foot,” wrote his biographer Baldinucci. By all accounts, Dolci was a very sensitive man. He suffered from depression and went into a decline triggered by Luca Giordano’s 1682 visit to Florence. Luca joked that his own rapid style had brought him a fortune, but Dolci would starve if he kept taking so long. Dolci also had a daughter called Agnese who made copies of his work and was a painter in her own right.
The image I used of Poetry seems to be the one around that's available to scan. I got her from a book my godmother gave me years ago …a 1908 bio of Carlo Dolci by George Hay. The reproductions are all hand-tinted because there was no color photography in those days. If you want to check out the book, you can read it online here.And by a curious coincidence, a miniature portrait painted of Dolci painted in the 18th century by Nardelli is available on Ebay right now for $1795.00 U.S (see below). I'm thinking it's time to buy myself a lottery ticket pronto.

Emma and Bryan

It was Jean Luc Picard who frequently said Engage on Star Trek, and he might as well have been advising my children because Emma is now engaged to her boyfriend Byran …or I guess I should say: fiancé. We really like Bryan who is a salt of the earth kind of guy and perfect for Emma. But Emma says she lacks the wedding gene and thinks heading to Vegas might be a good idea after figuring out that she wanted to invite at least 300 people to her wedding and will need about twenty bridesmaids.
Is it my imagination, or are weddings much more complicated today? Having been a bridesmaid, a maid of honor and a bride I’m almost certain that they are. But just to get Emma inspired about the bridesmaid’s dresses, here is a picture of my cousin Ann’s 1970s wedding party. (I’m on the left).

Almost Midnight

I haven’t been doing any assemblage lately because I’ve been focusing on Photoshop. But I really like this one I did a few weeks ago called After Midnight which includes the rusted back of a nametag and a china doll missing a leg that I ordered from Jennifer Pearson Vanier.
Jennifer has all sorts of nifty stuff for collage and assemblage at The Milkhouse Gallery in Prescott, Ontario and CTV did a feature on Jennifer and her husband Marty a few months back I really enjoyed watching.
Now where was I? Oh yes, Photoshop and assemblage. I’ve been busy creating, printing and framing some new pictures and as usual, framing makes me gnarly. Fed up with dust motes and fingerprints trapped under glass, I sat down to play in Photoshop and became completely absorbed. When I finally came up for air, I shifted to get more comfortable and, well, there was the musical sound of glass shattering under my rear end.
How could I have possibly spent all that time framing and then sat down on a finished piece without realizing it? No point in being annoyed though. I think things like this happen for a reason …i.e. stay focused on the task at hand (or wherever). It also made me realize how much I’ve missed doing assemblage. I have some great ideas that involve an oil tin and a chemistry beaker (also from Jennifer), but time will only tell if I follow through.
P.S. If you live in the Toronto area and can make it, our annual Extra-Ordinary Jolly Christmas Sale is happening this Saturday December 5th 2009 from 10 am till 4 pm at the Swansea Town Hall, 95 Lavinia Avenue, Toronto Ontario M6S 3H9. Hope to see you there! I’ll be flogging my wares, or more precisely wearing my flogs …whatever that means.