Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Max as Art

I am almost finished with my Exquisite Corpse pieces, good thing, too, as I have to drop them off to the Bloomingdale District Park Museum on Saturday.

For those who don't know what the Exquisite Corpse display is, it started as a parlor game where artists would fold a piece of paper into thirds, the first artist would draw the head, fold it over and hand it to the second artist to draw a torso, the second artist would fold it over and hand it to the last artist to draw the legs. Then they would unfold the paper to discover the "exquisite corpse".

Our Midwest Collage Society decided to use this theme for our upcoming show. Initially I was just going to do a head, but then I got into the "spirit" and ended up with 3 heads, 2 torsos and 2 sets of legs. Over all I am really pleased with my "creations". I will be posting pictures soon.

In the meantime, I offer you the latest picture of our dog, Max. My husband took this picture with his new iphone. Doesn't he look like a piece of art?

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Poem


As I was taking my dog, Max, for a walk this morning, I thought that Mother Nature didn't get the message that it's supposed to be Spring! I could have used a pair of mittens. I saw fathers, (yes, dads) standing on the streets, waiting for the school bus to pick up their precious offspring, arms crossed with sweat shirts on and the kids were hopping up and down, trying to keep warm. So, in keeping with the weather, I wanted to share this poem, which I wrote for my mother in March, 2006, for her birthday:

Breathing the starched crisp morning air,
a bird's song sings me up into the face of the aurora blue sky,
and I see the beginning of another season is here.

Minature buds shyly show themselves
safely captured on the limbsof winter's strip tease bare trees,
calling out the end of this bitter birth cycle.

Rejoice,
they seem to say,
soon the sun will warm us into life, again.
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The piece above I call OZ, and when you look closely in the upper right window, you can see my dog, Max. Just like Toto, wanting to find a way home.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

What is art?

Had dinner with a good friend last night and the subject of art took up much of our conversation. He has represented some well known Chicago artists and one thing he said , " true art tries to create a new visual language". I thought that was very profound. I went to bed thinking about it, and woke up with it.

I keep a journal and try to write in it every day. This morning I wrote:
- As a form of my inner dialogue, I want my art to be stimulating. Really, i have no clear vision as to where my art is taking me, but i am loving the journey. Free to be free, that's the hardest thing - something is in me and i'm trying to help it come out. I feel it's there - i feel its presence- it's not the Ego, the Ego stops and judges the creative process - it makes the hand stutter-once the Ego is silenced, then i believe, true creativity emerges, that's where i want to be-silence the Ego and let my creative energy take over-that's the struggle. The Ego removes the playful fun-it calculates, therefore, it stifles spontaneity. I want my art to cast a spell on the viewer-captured-entraced-enthralled. Being in a community of artists, I see many of us struggle with making art & a lot of that struggle seems to be around our inability to simply enjoy and relish in the ability to create. We worry too much that our art is not "good enough" which I believe is the Ego, getting in the way and limiting our access to that nebula of creativity we all possess.