Tea Trots, Hemingway and Paris
June 29, 2009 by Janice · 6 Comments
A Movable Feast has been reedited by Sean Hemingway, Papa’s grandson, and is soon to be released. He says it will be more in line with the order and intent of his grandfather’s wishes. Sean is an associate curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has edited other works by his legendary grandfather. He wants this to reflect less bias, more this is the way it really was in his grandfather’s mind.
I can’t wait to read this one.
Because you see, I have always wondered about the particular perfumed air of Paris that seduced so many of the Moderns. That time between the wars. A world in flux. And I have been thinking about pivot points. Times turning from one thing to another. There is a moment, a becoming moment that stretches for awhile . Until that thing it becomes is released.
Pivot points. And movable feasts. And storms.
Those are on my mind. But the picture from the paper that stayed with me, more than all the others was the one in the photo of all those parasols, and the colorful dresses.The kind of party Brooke Astor would have loved. They took a free five minute ferry ride over to Governor’s Island to a tea, to stroll, to have some fun, and look we have blocks and blocks of color, each one a summer’s dance. Look at all the parasols turning in the sun….a summer moment stretched…suspended in the air…
Summer moments. I think I need some of those.
I took a walk yesterday to snap some photos for a brand new piece…passion blooms, the flowers are round, turning in the Texas sun..like parasols suspended on a summer hedge…yes, they might work, they made me smile…think of moveable feasts… not so much of storms….
So, on this Organizing Monday, I am thinking I am organizing some time in July to just be with these blooms and the paint, not so much with words. I think I need a break. To take the time it takes to be upon an island. To breathe some perfumed air right here. To see what this one brings while it is becoming. And to maybe read some more about Hemingway’s Paris. Do some private writing.
So not right now, but real soon. In about a week. I think I’ll take a posting hiatus until maybe August.
How about you? Do you need some summer moments?
Almost Time For Colour
June 26, 2009 by Janice · 10 Comments
“I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.”~ Joan Miro
Are we there yet? I have just a few postcards left to draw of that 45 or so. And as I drew them yesterday, while I was enjoying just pencil line. Other questions asked themselves. Like is it nearly time? Nearly time for cutting and some pasting on. Or is it time for color yet. Huh, is it time ?
Like an an adolescent dog wanting to go out, color nipped its nose under my hand and wagged it’s eager tail.
As I was enjoying just the line yesterday, and noting all the shapes, texture waved it’s hand at me and said, “What are you going to do about me? Figured out this surface yet? How much are you going to play?”
And as I was enjoying just flat forms and simple contour line, value poked its 3 D head up and said,”Hey I have to be in there too! At least the hint of me.”
Yes, It got a little noisy. A little ” me too, me too.”
I simply logged each request and continued on. Simple lines, simple shapes calling out for rhythms, calling out for rhymes, calling out for color…
…and yes it is almost time.
I have to say, our ad hoc mail art group had an interesting behind the scenes discussion this week. It’s a diverse group, artists and “non-artists”. All incredibly clever and brilliant in their own fields. And I am so very proud to say, it couldn’t be a more generous group, helping each other over roadblocks, cheering each other on. And frankly, talking about color, each person is a crayon with a gorgeous color all their own. This artist is smiling because that is a lovely sight to see.
So It’s Friday. And yes, I just called my friends crayons. LOL So it may be almost time for color, but it is definitely time for that Naughty Margarita. Phew! What a week!
How about you? Did you have a good one? And should we ask, if you WERE going to be a crayon, what color would it be? Oh yes, we have to ask that don’t you think?
Keep It Simple Silly
June 24, 2009 by Janice · 2 Comments
Imagination is a double edged sword. It can bring us so many delightful possibilities… and yes… it can bring us SO MANY delightful possibilities.
With 45 or so postcards to hand make, SO MANY needs to be not so many possibilities at this point. These are to be mailed out in July. Yes. If the calendar was not enough to remind me, some of the ones to me from other artists have already started to arrive. Tick Tock.
I need to keep it simple.
So I’ve started with simple bones. Quick pencil gestures on the bumpity bump 300 pound watercolor paper based on the post photo still lifes here. These are “post cards”. I’ve done half of those so far. Time to finish the rest.
And it is funny to do them, to see what appears on the page as structure. The lines, the shapes, the rhythms. The repetition and its variations. A friend viewed all the photos rapidly and made this remark, “It was like looking at a book. I don’t know exactly what the theme was, but the images kept me intrigued. I kept looking.”
Well, that made me smile.
So as I draw and look myself, I am curious about that intrigue. The larger works can have more time, they can be more complex. Right now simple bones, pencil lines are the only clues I have . What holds me to these forms enough to want to play, to search, to make? What is it that I MUST say, what keeps calling out to me?
Dunno exactly.
But then that’s my job. To ask just those kinds of questions. To open up some space. To imagine, and scribble, add some color, maybe some collage… to make ideas real, something you can touch.
Besides, I have always enjoyed a good mystery.
So I am off to make more lines. Simple ones, bare bones. They’re saying something to me. But I am going to have to lean in a bit, right now, it’s just a whisper.
How about you? Do you love to play with intrigue? Do you go after captivation?
Whatever You’re After
June 22, 2009 by Janice · 9 Comments
“It doesn’t do you any good to be good if nobody knows about you.”~Bill Gross
Bill Gross is the world’s most successful bond fund trader. The President may ask him to co-invest in some rescue plans to haul the banks out of the boggy ground they got themselves into. He stands to profit, and so do we all. He’s very good at what he does. That’s his face in the center of the photo with those other go after it guys.
What’s interesting to me is his story, because it includes post grad (Duke) freight hopping to Vegas with 200 dollars sewn into his pants and some math from an MIT professor on beating the odds. He turned that into 10,000 dollars to finance his MBA at UCLA. He thought he could apply his blackjack lessons to the stock market. But nobody on Wall Street wanted him after he got that hard won MBA. His mom showed him an ad for a junior credit analyst in the bond department at a company in Newport Beach called Pacific Investment Management Company, Pimco. Yes, the one he now heads. He thought he would use this starter job as a stepping stone to stock picking. They put him in a sleepy corner to analyze bonds. Not sexy. Not adventurous at the time. Just tell us which companies are most likely to go belly up and we’ll steer clear of them.
He went to work. He got really good at it. Used his own ideas. Spotted the pitfalls before the falls and made his clients nice stacks of money. He built the bond fund into billions. Steered them clear of the disasters and made them winners, all by using what he developed. His ideas. Taking chances where the chance would pay off and walking away from non starters. His niche? Mortgage bonds. Yep, he steered clear of the house of cards that tumbled everyone else down. This kid from Duke who hitchhiked to Vegas with 200 dollars sewn into his pants.
Fast forward, Warren Buffet listens to him and Alan Greenspan consults for him. And Tim Geithner ( the current treasury secretary ) phones him regularly. Not bad for a freight hopping black jack playing kid who delights in possibilities. And he could help get those banks back into lending city. And Wall street, Wall Street is applying at his door these days. Kind of nice little story , isn’t it?
What does this have to do with art?
It has to do with all the tiny incremental steps it takes to BE an artist. It is a tough profession. No one hands out tickets to Gagosian or Castelli stardom just because you decide art’s your calling. Just because you’re wired this way. You may find sometimes that you have to hop a freight, or take 200 dollars and magically turn it into 10,000, or work diligently behind the scenes, or pay to do your job.
It has to do with being good and being convinced every day that showing up is worth it no matter what the pay, no matter what the task, no matter who is listening, or seeing or buying or not, or who is praising, appreciating, or not.
It has to do with being good and going after whatever it is you’re after. And letting people know it.
It has to do with being able to see things that others may not be seeing and making them become real. Taking chances. Showing up, getting it done, and more…making it transcend in spite of all the rest. Seeing an opening, a stepping stone and stepping up. Working. Keeping that vision alive.
It has to do with all that. You see Bill Gross is kind of an artist at heart.
Yes, It is Organizing Monday and I am glad to know about Bill Gross and his story. I like to think that each one of us has that kind of potential inside of us. I am even thinking of reading that little book about Beating the Odds just to see what clicked for him.
So how about you? Do you hop a freight, take a chance, bet on yourself and your idea of whatever it is you’re after? Do you get up everyday playing the long game and getting it done each small step of the way? And isn’t it funny what some of those small steps are? Are you good at it?
Grace Notes
June 19, 2009 by Janice · 5 Comments
“The only kind of grace you can have is the grace you can imagine.”~ Ben Zander
I am borrowing from Ben Zander again today. I think because I spent a large portion of yesterday going through materials and working through those project sheets I mentioned on Monday. That meant processing ideas and maybes, into the next steps in different media. Cutting canvas to size, pre-washing raw silks, sorting through collage odds and ends, considering papers to use for the next drawings and assemblages. And pulling out some pre-painting sketches. Some photographs. The kind of work that leads up to the performance part of a finished piece.
But in all of that, I keep going back to drawing. I seem to have an unquenchable desire to draw right now. To feel ink or pencil pulled across paper. To make marks and more marks. To feel them as they glide, or scoot or scumble into form.
I love to draw.
And I want to make some things that are not only close to my heart and the genesis of this series, but create a new offering for my collectors. Some intimate pieces that are dear to me, but not so dear in price as the full opera of the large works.
And yes I did a third of the base drawings for the postcards yesterday too. And I loved that. I even love sharpening my pencils. Cutting or tearing paper to size. Clipping notes to this project origin or that one. And I rediscovered some good ones yesterday, some ones to do in a different way. Ideas that tumbled into being another step closer to an ooh and ahh painting. Large ones from an earlier plan, but with a difference now. I’ll do some studies there.
I love this kind of work too. It’s that place where pencil gives structure, pen makes notes, and the possibilities take on shape and direction. Where I imagine and in some cases envision the pieces fully done.
And I am excited.
There’s this feeling that comes at this point. It’s very hard to put into words, but it is a kind of itchiness, an edgy tension, anticipation, eagerness. And a solidness too. And then there’s the smile part. The part that comes from finding a sweet spot that I’ll nudge into being. And that I truly love. It feels like order, but order that just sets context for play. There’s this bump in my pulse, a pick up in my heart rate, when I see what can come from scooting that pencil and pen across that paper.
So yesterday, yesterday was full of hard work, and dreaming, and doing one thing and then the next and then another. Yes, just being creative. Imagining the grace of the next few pieces.
Now all I have to do is do them.
That’s how it is in Private Studio.
And it is Friday. See you for Naughty Margaritas later? I have some drawing to do and I am fairly wriggly with joy to do it.
How about you? Been a good week?
In The Universe of Possibility
June 17, 2009 by Janice · 2 Comments
“In the measurement world, you set a goal and strive for it. In the universe of possibility, you set the context and let life unfold.”~ Ben Zander
Hm. I am very eager to step into the universe of possibility. I like unfolding. Like some lovely invitation isn’t it? One we look forward to like a fabulous party given by a wonderful host, or a great adventure ripe with mystery and intrigue, or just some time in a special place, alone or with special someones. And that makes flutters in the tummy. An increase in heart rate. Tickles of anticipation. Smiles and oohs and ahhs. Delicious in all its unknowns, in its possible maybes.
Today though, my brain of measurement tells me I have 45 or so mail art postcards to start in order to get there. 33 for the original artists group and an even 12 for our own diverse group. The first one from the artists group to me arrived on Monday. Hm. These are supposed to be mailed out by July. Tick Tock.
My measuring brain says, what have I got myself into? 45 or so?
Yep.
Fantasy interrupted?
Or just the truth behind art and any enterprise?
That there is some work involved.
It’s just a number, right?
With time attached to each one.
How much time attached becomes part of the design at this point. And time is what you make of it. We want the lovely world of possibility, right?
So for me, this is where I borrow from my experience doing quick gesture nudes. 1 and 2 minute large complete drawings of the whole human figure. Usually in 3 hour sessions. A few breaks scattered in. Do the math. Easily, that’s translating over 100 unique poses to drawings over a morning session. And yes, drawing naked people for 3 hours is work, lovely work, but quite draining like anything you bring your whole self to. Lovely draining exquisite work with gorgeous line and beautiful form. We’ll borrow from that.
So that means 45 or so structure drawings based on photo still lifes from my posts… that’s… just a sec…. Yep, just a bit over an hour, maybe half a morning’s session. And the compositions of these will all be done. Pencil scooting across that 300 pound D’arches paper drawing the bones of these pieces for an hour, maybe more. Can you see me smiling? Yes. That will be fun.
What do I do with them then? Ahh the possibility part. We’ll set up some context and let life and art unfold. But right now, in this moment, all we have to do is move through the gestures and structures. Let the pencil lead.
So if you are part of this group, or just looking on here’s the breakdown:
Stamps
Cards
The what you are going to do.
The how you are going to do it.
The beginning to do it part.
That’s where we are now.
The one thing in all this that is most important to remember, is not so much can I make a brilliant piece of art to send, but can I make something that is definitely me, in my own way that plays with something I’d really like to play with.
For me I am happy as lark playing with pencil drawings for a start. You may have a garden catalog to cut to size, or some photo booth pics, or a menu from takeout, or words scribbled down to create texture and enhanced in some way, or your own drawings to begin. Anything that can go through the post is fair game. We have a diverse group. No telling what they’ll choose. The most important thing is that you get to play.
So are you playing? Are you heading toward that lovely universe of possibility?
Have questions? Need a nudge? A sounding board? I’m here. Playing with my puzzles and riddles myself . You have an artist in residence if you need one. So use the comments below, tweet me @jancartier, or send an email.
How is it going for you?
Elegant Enigma
June 15, 2009 by Janice · 5 Comments
Bicycling through Provence or sorting through the work load here? Hm…. Since I’ve also pulled in the mountains of that exclusive Yellowstone Club out west for the photo, you can probably guess that my wishes may not exactly lie in the office or the studio this morning.
Over the weekend I did my usual offline work with MY infrastructure at my desk. My notebooks have a lot of to do in them, and now there are new project sheets in about 4 areas just in the active studio notebook alone, all in different media. I promised myself I would use the materials on hand until they run out. Convert everything around me to use before I take on anything else. So I have the project sheets for most everything done.
Lots of tickles pulling me. Like riddles begging to be explored.
It’s no wonder I am fantasizing about riding through Provence. Sigh. Or hiking out somewhere. But I have a body of work to restore. I have ideas galore. A multitude of sketches and notes. Themes that recur. All calling to me. It’s the how to get them all done now. I am eager to do that. But it’s a lot to do. A whole lot of a lot. And there is only one of me.
The how to use things a little bit differently though that is the puzzle. How to work this new thing that is working in me and still honor what’s already there. Hm. Just felt that little tingle of excitement just in the thinking about that. I only have an inkling of a glimmer of that how. But those inklings… well they tend to grow when you get to the doing part of the to do.
So when I took a break from the notebooks this weekend and dipped into twitter for a sec and saw this tweet for me, it stayed with me a bit:
“ellenfweber @jancartier Great ideas [that] acquire feet and wings often come with mind-bending change tactics.”
Ideas with feet and wings…. mind-bending change tactics…hm… from a brainy kind of doctor. I like the picture that ideas have both feet and wings. I like that a lot. It’s kind of what art is to me… ideas that have enough substance to stand on their own, to become tangible… and enough spirit to take flight, to resonate with another heartbeat. Now about that mind bending change though, is it me or does that sound like it could take some agility to do that? Some willingness to take that on?
Of all the things she could have said to me, this person I do not know, this is thing thing she said out of the blue…ahhh, the blue of possibilities….yes, I am smiling.
I think it is another nudge, a good one. Because I am already thinking a bit differently about the how to go about it all. And I am liking what I see. It’s not in the what, the what has been chomping to get out. It’s in the how, definitely. And the how just got a nudge. A tweak not in specifics, just in pushing it a wee bit further in another place, letting go and stepping into that blue of possibilities again…and I love that.
So on this Organizing Monday, my elegant enigma is to play with possibilities of how. To take several complexities to simple. To take what seems to be diversity, disruption, and chaos ( ooh, juicy spots there) and give them feet and wings…And maybe, just maybe, that will feel like bicycling across France…and hiking on those Yellowstone trails…it’s an exploration after all.
Ooh, those tickles just turned to tingles and that inkling just started to grow.
How about you? How’s it going for you this Monday morning?
Trying On Texture
June 12, 2009 by Janice · 6 Comments
Two beautiful full sheets of 300 pound D’arches watercolor paper have now been cut up into 50- 4″ x 6″ postcards for our mail art project. See, they are stacked up over on the left in the photo. Cutting up, shifting plans… seems to be part of the process these days. I have some smooth pre-made cards in ivory that I wanted to use. I like smooth. And I love the feeling the pencils are making on the velvet smooth Somerset paper in the drawings I have been doing lately. But I only have 20 of the pre-cut cards. I need 45 or so….
So we go into the stock of luxurious french papers and get the scissors out.
These are going through the mail. They have to be a bit sturdy. Ocean crossings, mountain climbing, and sorting bins will all get a nip at them…so we’ll send the luxe paper out.
Of course there goes the smooth I was planning on.
Hm… Well I have been using printmaking paper for watercolor… surely I can use watercolor paper for drawing. Those nooks and crannies that soak up rich washes and hug them tight, what will they do to a bit of color pencil and graphite?
Time to try some texture on, see what happens… And will I need to use some wash to deepen color.. and if I do… what happens if our dear postal persons get it wet?
Ahhh, then someone will get a bit of wabi sabi, a perfect imperfection.
Well, I did have those leftover strips of the D’Arches from the cutting apart I did yesterday. Long narrow bits I could play with.Test things out, see what comes of it. So that’s what I did. Just played a bit. Pencil does fine on watercolor paper really, but you’re usually just mapping contours out, not going for light and shade, or nuance. It’s just map making, guidelines, like that. Hm, will it work for playing with greys? Give me what I want ?
Not smooth, but I think we can work out some nuance there with a bit of coaxing.
Now what about the color I was going to use? I have been playing with color pencil in the drawings I have been doing. And the photo still lifes these cards are based on, well those are smooth, pixel smooth..Let’s see….hm…rough.. bumpity, bumpity, bump, bump…but the color shows well enough….
Bumpity bump to the appearance of smooth, a little more coaxing needed there.
Now what about those washes, am I going to play with splashes here and there? Or use collage ? Well, dunno yet, but it looks like it could be fun..I have a little sponge, I could drip color on, or wipe it smoothly across the paper, tint it where I wanted, or of course use my sable brush…is that blue dying to jump out of the pan and onto that card?
These are little spaces.. but they are lovely places to breathe.. and dream and try things on…Yes, we’ll go with this fine French paper, bumps and all. It has the muscle and the fineness to play with possibilities. And playing with possibilities is what we’re after after all.
I have chosen the what of what I am doing. It’s the how I am working on now. And it is all kinds of fun. Just as much don’t know, as ooh ooh got it!…I like that.
How about you? Got your what to do in mind yet? We can bounce ideas off in the comments if you like. Or tell us if you’ve got it, your what to do.
As for cutting apart and shifting plans….I’ll be cutting apart some limes later, but I doubt I’ll shift my plans for Naughty Margaritas this afternoon, hope you grab one for yourself. It’s Friday and that’s one texture that will feel just fine and very, very smooth.
Have a great weekend.
The Principles of Uncertainty
June 10, 2009 by Janice · 4 Comments
Not knowing. Not knowing and choosing to do it anyway. Going forward with uncertainty. That creates two things. Excitement and fascination. Well, it can create panic and fear too, but we are going with the excitement and fascination parts at the moment. Because those are the good parts. And don’t we love to be fascinated and excited?
I mean we kind of like those designs that barrista’s make in our lattes, don’t we? Who knew? But someone had the guts to play with cream and voila. Fun.
Uncertainty though, that’s the topic. I read somewhere at sometime if you pick up a stick, to remember you get both ends of it. With courage some fear, with beauty not so beautiful, with not knowing some knowing too. Here’s the thing though. Do you pick up the stick or no? Engage or no? Grow or no? Play with cream or no? ( think I need some coffee?)
If you stay inside that uncertainty, hang with it a little while and go forward anyway, you get to experience all of those ends of the metaphorical stick. And each one has its place. In fact, those not so good parts actually tell you something really good. Listen to them.
They tickle a very alive part of you that is eager to get out.
Especially when we are talking about doing something creative. Maybe something that is a little different than our usual, comfortable, lovely way of doing things. Nothing wrong at all with usual, and comfortable, and lovely. Nothing wrong at all. That’s what we want from ourselves, some kind of mastery after all. But those mastery muscles actually increase in strength if you go toward what you don’t know.
Yep. Just like working out. Pushing toward the edges.
Which brings me to that pitiful blossom you see in the photo. I was kind of excited and fascinated yesterday because when I set out on my mile in the sun walk, my workout (pushing my lungs toward strength ) something caught my eye. “It couldn’t be”.. I thought…but I walked over to the hedge and investigated, my heart beating just a bit faster. Yes, it could, there on a backyard hedge, the alley view, thank you very much, were perfect little blossoms of passion flower.
Passion flowers. I laughed and smiled at the sheer perfection of finding those right then. Wasn’t looking, was just warming up and working over in my head about what I might say to you today And I had just had another surprising message from someone special in my life. AND I had just read of all the excitement about our mail art project. I was smiling already.
But Passion flowers. Right there.
Right there in all the uncertainty and excitement and what to do…wait for it … I can see you smiling. I can practically feel your eyes sparkling…because what can happen when you least expect it?
Passion blooms. In your work, in your thrill of trying something different, or even some something from an unexpected direction. But how can it bloom if you never pick up that stick and play with it a bit?
After all if those barrista’s can do it so can we. We’re just using tiny little postcards…little bits of space to breathe upon…
Yep. Uncertainty… can you feel how lovely it can be? Roll in it, let it tickle you all it wants…it can be your friend.
You all are amazing. I couldn’t be more excited about what mischief we are up to.
All mischief sharing is totally welcome in the comments below BTW or shoot me an email if you like, or tweet if you want to be like a bird.
Let’s see stamps, cards… what to do…WHAT TO DO?!!! Yep. Stay with that for a little while, enjoy it. And listen to it.
Bucking the Tide
June 8, 2009 by Janice · 10 Comments
Reading the paper yesterday was not the giggles it usually is for me. Apparently civilization is going to hell in a hand basket and we’re all gonna die.
Yep.
I won’t go into the details. Just prepare yourselves as best you can…
or…..
You could take another approach.
You could say.. hm.. this is the hunkering down part, the capture your resources and survive part. And you could then say… might have to change my course, might have to learn to float, or might have jump in in another direction.
Just might have to build a raft.
So build a raft. Then watch it float, and maybe then put a little sun shade on it, a nice little flag, catch a fish or two, share them with your friends, find a safe harbor and then jump back in.
But all of this fresh grads from law school at the big Wall Street firms having to twiddle their thumbs while earning 160 grand and trembling that they might lose their jobs…..Toss ‘em in the water… I bet they can swim.
Sheesh.
Now. Give me their addresses, I have a couple of books they might want to read.
So what are you up to on Organizing Monday? We are very excited here, just because there are lovely possibilities, everywhere. You just have to want to see them. We’re off to get busy making some of them real.
And hey, no more whining you people. Aren’t we ALL tired of that?