Framing Things
February 24, 2010 by Janice
Views From My Santa Fe Windows, thumbnails on graph paper, Janice Cartier, February 2010
Framing things…or maybe reframing things is a better choice of words as I work through some of these sketches. One of the 4 series I chose for this year is a windows series. It’s a recurring thing with me that I have only taken to a formal level a few times….maybe three that I can remember.
But I love windows and views.
There’s something of a barrier and an opening.
Something of exclusion and expansion.
Something of geometry and organics.
Paradox.
There is something of that.
And it depends a lot on where we put the frame.
What reaches into that space inside us…
And what we have a view to do…with what we are looking at.
What’s inside and out…
Time of day, light, terrain..
and what goes on inside we silly artists as we pause and contemplate.
As I ‘ve sketched these this week, the pieces in this “Peace Of An Island” folder,
It has afforded me, oddly, little peace at all..
Oh, the odd bits, of sheer ooh and ah when I ‘ve uncovered a juicy bit to paint ( no small thing that), or recover an idea I had only graced with a cursory glance before and dismissed as you don’t do that, or maybe someday just to play…and scurried onto paint what everybody wanted, expected…what I had created before…
But here..
In some of these windows..
I found moments, pure and fresh..
Contemplation yes,
And restlessness…
New geometry to hold some thoughts,
New shapes,
New ways of expression,
New breath,
And some very, very old holds on me..that I’ve never painted,
Some deeply rich and lingering.
Others..what if’s that seem… new…or maybe just dormant, and coming to life
Choosing form to fit them,
To engage and put them into process,
Well there’s little peace in that..
But there is excitement and sureness of being on the right path.
It feels odd, AND comforting to come back to this kind of knowing,
This knowing nothing,
But looking freshly,
Into this re-framing things,
And doing.
Complacency is not a path to mastery…
Apparently, discomfort is.
How about you? How do you carve new space for yourself?
Comments
2 Responses to “Framing Things”
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Hey Janice,
Beautiful imagery. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately too. The liberation of knowing nothing about everything and everything about nothing.
One of my favourite poets Patrick Kavanagh said in the poem Advent:
“We have tested and tasted too much lover, through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder”.
I think re-framing regularly is necessary to learn new perspectives, carve out a new sense of wonder and awe and stop taking all of this beauty for granted, the mysterious sublime of the everyday.
New experiences and really listening to the stories of others creates new windows for me, but I try and keep the curtains half-drawn, so as not to see everything at once
Conor
“the curtains half drawn, so as not to see everything at once”….
yes.
I have used color endlessly…and yet for this morning’s work I painted color washes yesterday so they could dry and I could layer color pencil on today..make marks in response, no objects, just pure color, some line…maybe texture, and perhaps see… naively, simply…what keeps me coming back.. essences…and perfumes..of color..and a vacant mind.
I will look your Patrick Kavanagh up. Lovely thoughts, Conor. Thank you.