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Nuance

August 30, 2010 by Janice · 2 Comments 

Nuance is an important part of a sketch. Gentle whispers are as important as a roar. And nuance in notes made, and thoughts captured, are things that series and stories ride upon.

This is a simple sheet in a small pad, but the lines and words are touchstones that hold me in thrall.

These are the origins in original art.

And for the life of me, I am absolutely goose bumped and giddy when I see this kind of  ”ephemera” if it is ever exhibited with the formal works of art made by an artist. It’s a primary document. And primal in its nature.

Because this is the art at its heart.

The minute an idea about what could be is given space.

There’s an elemental elegance to it.

The fineness of pure…

spirit unfettered.

What follows then,

Is effort.

Imperfect human effort

To make it not only take flight, but to soar.

Or swim,

Or just come to life.

To give it form.

I spent some time reviewing some of these  yesterday instead of sketching new ones.

I stopped myself in my own tracks.

That’s the thing about knowing your why.

Knowing your why you do what you do…

Finding those whispers that fairly shout that this is the beauty you want to share

this is that moment of sheer breathlessness that holds you when you see it..

Knowing the why

Is what sustains you in those clumsy human efforts

At flight…

Or swimming..

Or even writing.

There’s a thing at the heart of it.

The rest..

Is  best efforts to get to it.

That good thing that we all are after.

It’s Organizing Monday and I am after remembering the origins in original art and why I do it. I am thinking, it will make my efforts, if not less clumsy, at least a little more sure. And that makes me smile and think upon the beauty of it all.

How’s your Monday going?

Color Canvas

August 25, 2010 by Janice · Leave a Comment 

Layers. These are the earliest  tints of color that will go under several more. Like weathered clapboard walls  and one doorway  on St. Mary and Sophie Wright Place, across from the Half Moon Bar. I’ve never wanted that building painted. It is a work of art.

I seem to want patinated, tempered paint, as much as I want brand new. I want the paint to become, not just arrive ready made.

And I am keeping those raw edges.

This is cotton, not the usual fine linen that I prefer. So the surface is a little rougher. The gesso is light so the paint catches, and clings. Not smooth at all, unless the brush is totally saturated. I prefer gliding with brush and buttery paint. But this, this is presenting itself, insisting. And my hands are saying, okay. We’ll do it that way..

for now.

Let’s just see what you have to show me.

What lesson you want me to learn.

Before I have my way.

Hm…coarseness to refined?

Like an idea, finely honed…

We’ll just let you lead,

for now.

In all your roughness and your  heavy weave.

But look out

I have some tickles and some buttery strokes that are appearing in my mind

and I will have them before we’re done.

Not sure who’s the boss today,

But who cares?

Choosing form, or form choosing you?

Either way, it’s a possible win.

How’s your Wednesday going?

Making Room

May 17, 2010 by Janice · 5 Comments 

I need a new icon. See these little red  symbols? I need another one for some 3-D projects I am adding into the mix. It could be a simple cube perhaps. Or a sphere. Or even a pyramid. It really doesn’t matter. But it needs to describe another action. A 3-D action. Still working on it . Picking the tool or tools that I could draw  simply and make the pathway to those forms.

All these symbols have project boxes.

Since I changed the organizing factor in studio work to action instead of theme, I am able to process more and more. These simple little icons represent space made and actions taken. In that they are no small thing.

Among the drawings and paintings and collage, all the studies and sketches, it is becoming increasingly apparent that I have to make room for some proposals for 3-D works. There’s a story or two there, but for now let’s just say I”ve decided to throw my hat back into a ring I walked away from. I will be a true true underdog there and it seems silly to even mention it. But it could be fun. For sure it will be a huge lot of work. But it could be fun.

And I beat them once.

It was a very satisfying feeling.

So I am making some room. Sifting through my notebook on that particular successful project and looking for a little icon for the new proposals…I am either going to enjoy this , or look back and say..what was I thinking ?

Either way, how will I know if I don’t make room?

You guessed it, It’s Organizing Monday and I would love to think you’re out there making a little bit of kick butt room in what you’re doing too. It kind of adds a little spice to the mix I do believe.

The artist smiles…might need a trainer …for sure I won’t be able to do this kind of work alone… I’ll let you know how it progresses.

How about you? How’s your Monday going?

The Tension of Opposites

April 30, 2010 by Janice · 5 Comments 

Color blocks and black and white. Orderly. Distinctly placed. Randomly filled. Containment and flow.

I’m looking these over again this morning, sorting and suddenly I see opposites. I see little chips of power quietly contained.  Effervescent essentials in their elemental form.

Both serene and potentially kinetic.

I like that.

I have a fondness for using complementary colors in my work. When used together they can neutralize and intensify at the same time. If you look at most of my greys up close, they will be violet and yellow, red and green, orange and blue.

Opposites maximize potential.

Playing with them will sometimes yield a sweet spot that is more tender and more powerful than had you used a single hue.

So these squares, the boxes…there’s something there for me. And then ( insert  forehead slap) I see that it’s that tension of opposites, that contained yet not. A sense of quiet, but not. Waiting to be explored. I ‘ve always done that opposites thing with color, not so much with form…aha…now how? Ahhh the eternal question…

Yep..another moment… origins…in private studio..giving in to process is a very good thing..

Good, but thirsty work.. LOL…see you later? Julips though, this is the weekend for Mint Julips doncha know.

Subtle Shifts

April 12, 2010 by Janice · 3 Comments 

I like this piece. A lot.

Funny thing, it doesn’t exist…well not really. Not in this exact form. Not yet.

But it could.

This morning I was looking through the pictures of  this drawing. It’s rendered in very delicate hues and tints in its present form. Soft grades of greys, whispers of colors. Bits of juicy ink.

Hm… “I really like this composition”, I thought, “but  I wonder what if…

It had a bit more color?”

And  then I pushed the color levels in the photo.

Just moved the left bracket a little to the right and ooched the right one in to the left just a tad…

And pow…

Suddenly more color,

suddenly more depth,

Suddenly I could see this in a different light.

On a larger canvas,

printed,

assembled.

Constructed even.

Made on any scale.

Hm.

Now that’s exciting.

It goes into the “green light” project box…

The artist smiles.

Sometimes it’s subtle shifts that lead to new ideas and pull all the zone work forward.

And those seem to be abundant on this Organizing Monday. It’s one of those  sorting, reviewing,  hm, how about this kind of days .

Subtle shifts in my thinking…and doing…

No big to do, no parade, no super aha..just lots of little shifts that are pretty wonderful in themselves.

How about you? Monday going to be good for you?

Steps

April 9, 2010 by Janice · 1 Comment 

Becoming happens every moment. Every moment in the studio. And every moment when  we are artists. Even when it looks like maybe nothing is happening. When we  pose a question to ourselves every moment after becomes a promotion towards its answer whether we know it or not.

Several weeks ago, I hauled out some newspapers and my ink, and set about making spontaneous marks in response to whatever was on that newsprint page. I also chose to deliberately ignore whatever was on a page if that seemed to suit. I later pulled out watercolor and color pencil. Responded to my responses. Then I set them aside.

Until this week…

When I set them all out  and took a few pictures to see what I had “captured”.

Something?

Or  nothing?

Seeking form…we follow steps…until one day we take a look…

And pow…

There it is.

Staring us in the face.

Or at least a hint of it…

Now the artist smiles…

“So that’s what I needed to know, needed to do…Needed to see for myself..”, she thinks.

Process is a magical thing with sometimes very mundane steps within it, but when you  see an opening, an expanding, an ah ha…

Well…that’s something.

So those steps, whatever they are, become very very much not nothing.

The important thing is to take them.

Now, “How do I want to run with what I found out ?”, the artist asks, poised …

Next steps?

Or maybe let it rest a moment, give it room to grow…

One is as important as the other.

Discovery.

Becoming happens every moment even when it maybe looks like nothing…It actually looks like becoming, and that’s an exciting thing to me.

That’s how it is in Private Studio.

Phew..it’s Friday…yay for that.. Naughty Beverages at five? See you there?

Folding Unfolding

April 5, 2010 by Janice · 2 Comments 

It seems I am assembling parts in the studio. Parts that will go into something else.  I am only getting snippits of what that is at the moment. It’s disconcerting to be so uncertain.

At this point I usually know pretty much what something is going to look like.  But two of the series I have going are entirely experimental. What seems to be more sure is that I want to fold, cut, and assemble.  With a vacant mind. Now I want to draw a window view in strips the way a window blind actually divides it. But I want to do it on torn paper strips and assemble them later …ragged edges and all.

I am more definite about the how of it than the what of it.

And the vacant mind?

No problem.

This week it feels like I want to paint another one of these hand made paper pieces like the one in the second photo, just so I can fold or cut it. I seem to keep seeing some of these color as texture Moleskine pieces in formations like kite tails, floating on another ground, paper…maybe canvas..

I really have  only inklings of what they want to  be. And  this morning this work feels out of sorts, rough, chaotic and unplanned. Kind of itchy.

Uncomfortable.

Very uncomfortable.

I have plenty of “normal ” series work  to do. “Why don’t I just do that?,” I am thinking.

This point, this one right here is the one that keeps something new, something different, something innovative for ourselves from coming into being…if we listen to that second voice. The one that says…do what you know, it would be so much smoother.

Smooth sounds good.

But that is not what I ‘ll be doing on this Organizing Monday, as  appealing as smooth is. And believe me it is very very appealing. But I think this week needs to unfold  as I fold things…become as I cut away…assemble some sort of meaning as I glue .

Yes, we’ll just intuitively show up in the zone.

See? Vacant mind….not a problem.

How about you? Do you get those moments of “what  am I doing?” right in the middle of  a really cool project when things look so unfamiliar?

Lost and Found

March 22, 2010 by Janice · Leave a Comment 

If these two photos seem to glow a little bit, then I did my job well. It’s probably the blue of the background pulling the blue out of the studies and making the warms jump a bit too.

That’s a good thing because…

I got lost this weekend for a few hours.

So I could find…

Color as texture.

Shape as shape.

Line  as only line.

Form for all of those.

In a small set of studies I had pulled to work on.

But all of those things anyone can find, what I wanted, what I was  specifically after…

Were MINE.

One choice after another.

One division of space,

One overlay of hue,

One squiggle after another.

Choices.

Responses.

Small sets of me saying yes to this and at the same time no to that.

Those no’s are as important as the yes’s.

We all know that, don’t we?

No’s get us into the zone…one big yes to going there, lots of no’s to many other things.

Because time moves differently in private studio, when decision after decision is made.

Demands and clocks, and everything else have to be left outside…

It’s in the losing, getting lost for a while,

that we find.

Time works along with a rhythm of holding a red and putting it down to pick up a blue or a green..or wait,  no color here, just a mark, or a pattern, or a gentle shade…

There is no tick tock ..

except

That indefinable thing that says stop.. step away for a minute.. see what you  have done…make some tea, go for a walk… look at silly TV..then come back…

Is it done?

Hm…not quite yet,

but its beginning is coming along nicely..

Time to give it a rest and come back with fresh eyes.

No clock, no tick tock, just  demands of another kind…is it working or no, do I stop here or go further?

It’s like that in private studio.

Building the “lost” time into the week, or month or whatever project module we use, is essential. Accessing that zone takes discipline and quieting the pull of everything else in my world…so I can feel the pull of that red, that ochre, that fine graphite line scruffing across the tooth of the page…

It’s Organizing Monday, and I am building in lost time..to get back to those studies..where color IS texture, and one edge is played against the other, until what I am after is evident.

That’s how time is spent,

Looking for form, and visual treasure

In private studio.

Getting lost, and finding.

Making time for just that.

How’s your Monday? Going after some good zone time this week?

Eine Kleine Design Work

March 19, 2010 by Janice · Leave a Comment 

Playing with chaos. Looking for form. Discovering textures and lines and shapes is like setting off on a sail. You might know the destination, an island or a port where you want to land, but the getting there….there’s the fun.

And here already, among these scraps of shiny wrappers, some Tazo tea discards, and a little ink on paper that I made myself…there’s  a hint of what I’m after… these “scraps” I am using are giving me already, the sense that I am after. A surprise wash “found” in a reflection in the  photos that I took.

See. Here it shifts to suggest almost oyster shell colors and more subtle  hues captured within that little arm of red… and the ink bits. Don’t they look like birds? or waves…

I am merely playing. With some possible maybes as I set sail toward small sanctuaries…but ones that hold surprises here and there..

And some mystery.

Playing with textures, proportions, direction.

And a certain quality of shimmer…

Within a restricted palette.

Because that’s ivory silk you see and I want the surface to suggest, watery shimmers, reflections, depths and lost and found. Edges sharp, then soft. And lines that scurry, pause and catch our eye, before they’re gone again.

Little bits to discover,

Washes to trails our fingers in.

I want us to almost hear the sound, and search for this and that,

Random,

A tickle, or a hint ,

Another edge  exposed.

Time suspended while we look.

So the process in the zone…

Becomes a bit  like that.

Now isn’t that fun?

And later..yes, oh yes…we get to head to port for a slightly Naughty beverage …saving a pitcher for you…we can catch up on our week. See  you there?

Playing With Chaos

March 15, 2010 by Janice · Leave a Comment 

You never know what a regular review and next actions routine will net you. Sifting over some notes this weekend, I was midway through scribbling a next action, “make a transfer graph”,  for my original “Scribble” sketch that  spawned a series, when I took a closer look at what I was trying to transfer, one grid  to another larger grid… Scribbles yes, but flowing, unfettered lines and shapes …and there they were on a graph paper grid, blocks of compositions…that would or could be painted on silk beautifully as squares equally as well as they are intended to go onto a  traditional canvas for  oil paintings.

And that tickled my fancy. I’ve had whole rooms designed around some silks of mine and some of my paintings, so it was really fun to see that kind of idea take hold again.

That one next action became two, “make transfer graph, price silk.”

And of course, that will turn into several next actions.

But the first is today, to put it out there as well. See if it tickles your fancy as well.

So when I pulled these two sketches this morning, I am actually looking to see what kind of other floaty, wetland world I could make that we could get lost in, get pulled into and drift, float, and become invigorated again…

And I see it…

So, another next action..

another project specific box…

We will be  making some silks that will be in matched squares, large enough to have cushions made from, or for framing….if you are even remotely interested in being on that offer list when they are done, please email me, and on that list you go. I have no set date at the moment, just the origin of the idea as yet, and I ‘ll be pricing the materials, getting the sketches and all that goes into producing these set up, but this will be your first heads up…in several, before I send out an email list only offering.

I’ll be posting about the project so you’ll see glimpses here and there of sketches, and french dyes, and  progress as we go and you can jump right in, but it will be  a limited edition and if you get in early , you just may have some input on colors…maybe…the artist smiles…and maybe some naming or some random something for me to work in. Dunno, not there yet, but it could be fun.

Next actions and reviewing spawned the idea of a silk project this weekend…now to organize it all…  well that’s what Organizing Mondays are for, aren’t they? Ideas to actions. Conversion.  I wanted to make some small sanctuaries…and this thought popped into my head..so let’s just see … it’s estuarine and I like that.

How is your Monday going so far?

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