tuesday morning. and cold outside warm inside

Yesterday I had a great day in the studio. After six hours of  pure agony, the painting finally revealed itself to me and it was a joy to finish. Getting through the goo to you. 

Being a painter is like being in kindergarden all the time.  I never get to be a grown up that knows what is going to happen next. It is a mystery to  me. You would think it would get easier after doing this all day every day for years and years now. You would think. But each new painting is just as hard as the first because it has to be better than the last one. Constantly upping the anti. It never stops. That is why it is never not scary. When I finish one I always think" I cannot come up with something different" Not only am I painting the same subject for years , I am also coming at it from the same place. It is hard. 

I love it. 

Friday morning

I find that the morning is the best time to think creatively. It is the best time to problem solve and think of new directions to explore. I am not afraid in the morning of what might happen. 

Its during the day that those thoughts creep in and start to weigh me down.

But the morning is the free time to fly into the realms of bliss that make it a delight to go to the studio and start anew.

In the process of painting the washing and scrubbing and repainting over and over is the most interesting place to find new roads and ideas. My initial idea might be ok but it is only by working on a piece for a long time that the painting starts painting itself. That is when it is perfect, I am gone and what I am painting tells me what to do. 

I suppose it is like that for any creative process you leave your awareness of yourself. 

September 12,2008

Saturday morning August 16th,2008

This week went well. I finished a painting I worked on for three weeks. That is a long time for me. Usually I can get a painting done in a week. 

Going to the studio is such a wonderful experience. You never know what will happen that day. It is just me and God working on these paintings. I feel so lucky to have this time in my life where I can do this all day. 

Sometimes it is like flying.My studio is perfect. Over the years I have had several studios and my husband also built me one. None of them was even close to this one. It is on the third floor of a hundred year old brick building on the University of Washington campus.  It has 20 foot high ceilings and huge space. The windows look right down on the glass art museum. 

It has all that but mostly it has air. I like the way it smells up there. It smells old and full of  history and time. It smells like life. As soon as I get the add picture thing figured out I will post pics of everything. 

morning musings

I am an artist . What is the most important thing that I can do in this world. Paint, Create beauty, Grow. 

I think that beauty is so important to our well being. There is something in our souls that cry out for order and beauty, 

My husband and I went to Soap Lake this past weekend. What a lovely drive through the huge fields all green with corn and wheat. What do farmers think when they wake up in the morning and have all this work to do and we just drive by it. 

My friends and I have started a creativity group. We meet every two weeks and try and stimulate creativity. We all have different kind of things we work on. Writers, seamstresses and painters. We each are trying to read and make up new ways to kick it into high gear. Of course the synergy is great. 

This is what we did already, We did a visualization exercise where we imagined our perfect house. In that house we thought of the perfect space to think creatively. It was really fun the hear each others house descriptions. We got elaborate in our descriptions as we could imagine anything we could . It was hard and exciting to work on building a house when there are no budget constrictions. 

Just that one exercise made me realize that I put constrictions on everything I do. I do this or that but not that.

Maybe we should try different mediums. I hate sewing . Maybe I should start sewing and working through that block. Why do I  hate it. Are my hands broken. No maybe my mind is. 

Better fix it. 

 I crave other artists input. look at my paintings and tell me what you think. 

If anybody out there writes back this will be the best day ever.