brainstorming

The beauty of brainstorming is that you get to say and write things down that are so absurd and wild and it is all good. Most of our lives we are trying to do something right, but brainstorms are like mind doodling . You just say and write down whatever pops into your head. What is really great is to do it in a group. If someone else says something it might spark another thing in you.

Even the most wacky can have something useable in it. All great ideas start with fragments of ideas. Nobody gets the whole thing at once. those pieces are important so you should write them down and look at them over and over. When I paint I like to look at the same magazines over and over for new fragments. I also look at old paintings and try and see what it was that gave it a special quality that made it sell.

Your clients can tell you something about what to look for if you can identify why they actually bought a painting.

What common thing do they all have.

Nels Borg

Trying new things are scary. You dont know what will happen. I like Seth Godins idea of doing the thing that makes you nervous.

What makes you nervous and scared is what you should do. You are nervous because you will have a lot of pain if you don't succeed.

You have the most to lose and that is why you are nervous. The ironic thing is staying put is no less painful. doing nothing is doing something. It is killing time that you could be doing something you are afraid of doing. doing. Nothing is the worst thing you can do. Not changing is like being a sitting duck for somebody to pick you off.

Its better to try, try, try and do what you love than postpone trying till you have an easier time of it. You will NEVER have a better time than now, because now is all you really have.

I know a man who lost his job that he had for 20 years in lumber at 50 went back to school to be an xray tech and bought a fixer house at the same time. He was just going to tough it out. Then he had a heart attack and that set him back a bit with the surgery and recovery.

Now he has a job he loves and a house he totally redid and he is good to go in the body department. He is happy too. Really happy.

Nels Borg did all that and lived to tell us about it.

If you think about being scared think of Nels. At least you don't have a heart attack and if you do get one then still do it.

getting rid of something

Cleaning out things in your life that just sit there and are never used is like losing weight. You dont know how good it feels till you get rid of it. Things that people have given you over your life seem very hard to send on to a new place. Old habits are hard to give up as well as old ways of thinking.

It is a always easier to not grow than to grow.

Growing needs space and pain and support to happen.

I just got back from a four day juice fast at Soap Lake with my friend. I could not have done it without her doing it too. Company makes pain and will power all the easier.

It is also easier to have courage if you are not alone,

Sometimes it takes courage to throw old things out because we think something bad will happen. We think what if the person who gave this to me comes over someday and it is not here and you will be embarrassed.

This is actually extremely funny because people usually forget what they gave you and if they do remember giving someone something they should feel worse if you were keeping it just to please them.

If somebody does care about it then they need to learn to give with no strings attached. You are helping them learn that .

Get rid of anything that is not bringing you to a better place.

1974

There are lots of ways to find artists work, You can look in the usual places Galleries ,studio tours, artist banks, and referral.

I think the most fun way is to happen upon work in unusual places. Sometimes artists have shows in unusual places like restaurants coffee and tea houses even hardware stores.

Artist that are just starting out are unfettered with the knowledge of what will sell and what will not.

I remember I once had a show in San Francisco at a coffee shop. They let me put these 4 by 8 foot pieces of masonite on the walls that I had put charcoal drawings on. I hardly had money to eat must less buy canvas and I think I salvaged the masonite from a dumpster.

NO matter I was an artist and I had to work so that is what I did. I put varnish on the whole thing to keep the charcoal from coming off.

And I think I put the grand price of 50 bucks on the works. Did I sell them?? Yes I did. When I did that I bought some canvas and started making big paintings.

I wonder if those charcoal drawings still exist.

It doesn't matter really, what does matter is they were the step that led to the next step.

The moral of this story is "Don't despise small beginnings"

Knowing what you are doing

There is a reason that you do not need to know what you are doing when you set forth on any creative project. The reason is you are not the sole source of creativity. You do not need to rely on what you already know. Just stepping out and walking toward the desired end is all you need. I did not know how to do a mural but I learned along the way of doing it. The people that payed me to do the mural did not know that I did not know what I was doing. I just started and figured it out.

If you realize that everything you need is right there and it will show up when you need it.

I dont know anything about painting except that I am a painter. I instinctively knew that art school would wreck me and I still believe that. I do not paint like anyone else and that is why. I was free to do what only I can do.

You only have to trust that the next step will present itself when you need it and not before. It is just like Faith in God. You cant see Him but He is there.

That is why life is so wonderful and spectacular and joyful/ You are never never never alone. You never have to rely on what you already know.

something you can use

The reason I am writing today is to give anyone who wants it something you can use. In creative group we work on thinking in new ways and developing our capacity to be aware of a good idea when we get it.

Thousands of thoughts pass through our minds all day long. Thousands upon thousands. If there is an idea that comes back again and again then that is something we need to work on or act on . There are only two things to do with every idea. Ignore it or do it. Every idea is either a door or a window.

If it is a window you can be objective and consider what else you know. It is safe to look out a window.

The door is another matter. It is terrifying to go through a door because you dont know what is on the other side and we are all scared of pain.

When dealing with creativity doors are all over the place waiting to be opened.

One trick that you can use to go through doors that you are afraid to go through, is to do one small step to opening the door. One actual gentle shove . That will strengthen you to go a little further. Like a chick pecking out of its shell. each little peck makes him stronger and stronger and develops his muscles to go on and push some more.

Momentum will be working for you if you just start a little bit.

Working through a painting

When I start painting I have no idea where it will end up. Sure I have a plan in mind, but when I going it always takes me somewhere else. It is like riding a horse that does not know you yet. The horse has not grown acclimated to your touch and does not respond. I say lets go here and the horse says no we are going somewhere else. I have to go where it tells me to,

I would even go so far to say that being an artist is always being led around by someone else.

You just have to go where they say. And I dont know what is leading me. My past experiences, my skill, my emotion, or something else

That is the joy of it all too. I don't know where we are going so it is always new and an adventure.

The circus

Can you imagine having the idea to start a circus. What a bizarre thing to come up with. Animals and acrobats and clowns and a tent. The first time a new idea comes up it seems foreign and unreasonable and crazy even.

But so many things that we are now used to were once a weird idea that someone had the guts to actually do.

Brent Blake who lives at Soap Lake, had one such idea. He wanted to install a three story lava lamp in the downtown area to bring tourists to soap Lake where he has his gallery. Talk about Pr stunts.

The town agreed and they found one such lamp in New York and bought it and now are waiting to install it. It works. The blob inside goes up and down like the ones in the 70's we all thought were so great.

He also want to create a stonehenge type of structure made of Lava Soap Bars. only real big. They are three stories too.

What a blessing he is to the town to make all those wild and wonderful and joyful ideas come true.

That is why you do your wild ideas, they might make everyone else feel the exhilaration of pure joy for a few minutes and they might be inspired to come up with their own wild ideas that might benefit everyone.

Follow those ideas . Even if you try 10 wild ideas and only one actually works- it will have been more than worth the effort.

Just ask Brent Blake

A gallery Idea

My Husband and I are opening an art gallery in our home that is very different from the usual experience/ We both think that art buying is such an important decision that you should be in an place that promotes good choices that will give back a lifetime of enrichment. We have an old 1914 house that would lend itself to this venture.

Creatively speaking we would make it a place where you want to be stimulated with as much beauty as possible and feel as comfortable as possible so you would be receptive to hearing what your true self is speaking. The most important thing is not to see too much art to get overloaded. You need to have different senses heightened to appreciate the art voice that is in you.

For that reason we would only show 10 paintings at a time.

The other thing we are going to do is serve food appropriate to the art that is being shown. Your taste buds can open up your art buds too.

That is why people say "I like your taste in ..."

The last thing is we will have only small showings. That way you are free to be with the work and listen to see if it is speaking to you.

And we have a wonderful name for it. "A Beautiful Line."

soap lake show

When you take a chance and do something a little different. sometimes it pays off. Having a show in a very small town has two big advantages. People are not expecting to see you and they are glad to.

That is what seemed to happen is soap lake.

which just goes to show you what you think about something will make it true. Does that sound new age , far out kind of thought. It is not it is just true.

I wish I had known this when I was 20.

WE acted like this was the biggest event of the century and it was. loads of people came and enjoyed themselves.

Brent Blake hired a band. Most openings do not have bands they have soft music and awful wine if you are lucky. Not soap lake. We had lovely spaces with fantastic music and equally fantastic beer and wine. No skimping on the libations here.

Brent was the graphic designer for the spokane worlds fair. He thinks big.

One person even drove over from Seattle for the event a mere three and a half hour drive. hum does that tell you something. If you build it and promote it they will come.

interview

I was interviewed by the Columbia Basin Herald yesterday. I should have seen these questions coming and had something prepared but I thought how hard can it be to answer questions about my work.

I found myself stammering and going on and on about all sorts of things.

This is a good learning experience. Talking and writing are left brain activities and you cant just rest on what you say off the top of your head.

Next time I will prepare with answers that are more to the point.

the poor interviewer was just trying to find out my motive for painting.

Sigh, I will have something better to say.

One of the ways to get better at thinking is blogging.

So this is just another way to get better/

the road from your brain to your mouth is a big one apparently.

A beautiful line

I am going to start commenting on worthwhile art that I find. The importance of art critics are only that they tell you what is out there. They usually do in in an extremely erudite manner to seem like they must know what they are talking about. I do not believe that you need to major in art theory to talk about art.

Most people do not have the time or inclination to study on the side/ But I do so I will share what I see with you.

I know a beautiful line when I see it and that is what I am searching for in my work and others.

great ideas

Ideas are meaningless unless you try them out, You dont know how to fight a war till you fight a war. You dont know if anything is true unless you try it out in reality.

All night long I get ideas and many times they slip away by morning. I have to write them down. I have to try them. It is a great feeling never running out of ideas for any problem. Each problem has more than one way to solve it.

The greatest hinderance to finding the best idea is to just take another one that has worked in the past and use it. We all do that constantly. Way less work that way. But it might not be the best way.

I have a problem. What does a different kind of gallery look like?? has everything been done. no only a few things have been done. What if there are fifty ways to run a gallery and have it be profitable. There are more than that.

This blows my mind when I think that I always stop at one or two ways.

why buy art

One of my creative group member said that the need I fulfill in painting is something to hang on the wall.

I was thinking about that and disagree. The art that you pick out and pay for and hang on your wall is a total reflection of you. Everyone who looks at it, will have the honor of seeing you in a way that is profound. It reflects to everyone your home soul.

Art is always made to be in home not a museum.

It is personal and intimate and life giving.

Galleries exist to just move them to the right home.

Sometimes paintings sit for quite a while in the gallery. There is nothing wrong with it, it just hasn't found its owner yet.

Art that you save for and buy will be the most important thing in your house because you will think long and hard about a piece before paying hard earned cash for it.

My gallerist says that when people struggle to pay for a painting and then actually get it, it changes them forever.

You will get joy and nourishment from your artwork for years and years. Nothing else you can buy will give back to much.

That is why you buy art.

time

I have a theory about time. We are infinite . The life we experience is very unrelated to the ticking clock. Time passes but we do not feel it. You can be married 40 years and it seems like 5 minutes. Or you can spend two weeks in France and it seems like a lifetime.

You have to get things done to survive but another thing is happening on a real experience level. A clock ticking away is going round and round again and again but it is not actually doing anything real. We are infinite so it is really meaningless.

When I was younger I tried to think of infinity in terms of clock time. Well you go a billion years and then add a billion more and so on forever. It would make my head hurt just thinking about it. It makes me tired to think like that.

But it does not make me tired to think of real infinity. We are. that is all

It is much more relaxing to just be than try and fit it in an artificial box.

We get older and older and we learn more and more.

I love how Matisse was just so simple when he was at the end of his life. His spark was simple.

Infinity is simple. God is simple . ultimately.

A different kind of Paradise

Soap Lake is a remote small village really in central washington. It is similar to the small villages in France we stayed in.

Not much activity in the way of stores and people running around.

That is why we love it. The extreme quiet.No cars hardly/ You know most of the town in about a month of staying there, An amazing lake that is never the same two minutes in a row. Birds and wildlife that you don't usually see. Sun glorious sun sun sun.

Dry and Hot and healing. The air smells like sage when it does rain and is totally intoxicating.

wind that blows and beats the restless out of you.

There is no tv in the house there. We have books. You will want to read and look out the window for hours.

We hike and play golf on the most fun golf course in the world. it is rustic. We hit the balls into sagebrush off rocks instead of a manicured chemical laden lawn.

We find snakes and giant beetles and sometimes scorpions. We love to look at them basking in the sun.

The sky at night is full of stars animal cries in the dark.

The lake shimmers and glimmers and tosses and is glassy all in the same day.

We canoe across the lake and drip out arms in the warm water and drift off into dream land. No jet ski or speed boats. Sail boats and canoes. Quiet still . Having friends over is wonderful as you can really talk to them and be with them.

We hate to leave every time. We hate to leave and come home.

one thing

One of the exercises in our creative club is to write down one thing, that if you started doing it now, would change your life. I hate that question because I know what it is. work out every day.

I used to teach aerobics. I was the best I ever was when I did that. Not only was I a single parent and ran a gallery and was an art broker, and painted a lot and had another part time job but I managed to teach a class one hour a day 5 days a week. It was not a beginners class either. I pushed my class to their limits every day. They picked my class because they would get major results. of Course my body was in incredible shape but it was not only that. I Knew no fear. As far as I pushed my body, my mind followed. I called it the Kill factor. I killed laziness in my life. I was aggressive in selling art and painting and my work showed it. then I got married and became a sloth. Well sloth compared to when I was not married. Things were easier and my kill factor went away. I became mushy.

I remember that during my class I would find the strongest person in the class and focus on pushing them. I was yelled at a lot because usually you are supposed to take care not to hurt anyone.

Once the strongest person was this 65 year old woman. I could not do anything she could not do. She looked at my eyes when we were going through the drill and focused . She knew what I was doing and she pushed back. It was the most fun I ever had. When we were done she said it was the best class she ever took. I never saw her again. It was this amazing experience because nobody knew her. She only came once. I think she was an angel.

the soap lake nudes

I am working on a series of nudes for a show in soap lake. A tiny town with an art museum that has ambition to turn the town into an artist haven. The owner is an architect who moved from Seattle to live and work in a very small town. I love the fact that he bought a building and started the Soap Lake Art Museum. I think if you are going to open a gallery give it a big name.

Brent Blake(owner) has had amazing shows in this very small town with some very interesting people who live there.

They had a film festival too and have a paid for beautiful theatre where they hold regular plays.

Very small town with big ideas. The city bought a 30 foot lava lamp to install in a prominent area of town. They bought it from a store in New York.

I love the guts of soap lake so I am honored to have a show there.

The nudes reflect the freedom to be yourself and be totally loved in Soap Lake.

The importance of Failure

Failure is just the step before success, even though it feels like light years away from where you want to go. How many times have I rolled in the dross of my painting failures that are just gobs of goo sliding off the canvas only to find a spark a few days later and have it almost break my heart with beauty.

I should learn to embrace the step not as a monument to how inept I am but a door to the next level of seeing. You cannot always recognize new things right off the bat. Your eyes have to grow accustomed to the new light.

You have to get away from it and ponder something else for awhile then come back and look again.

A painting I was going to destroy(read paint over) became a beautiful thing when I started painting over it. I did not have white handy so I used some flesh color and started smearing away. You could still see the painting under it as the flesh was semi transparent. I put it aside to let it dry. People came into the studio and started exclaiming how they loved the painting that way. So dreamy. So it sat a bit more then someone offered to buy it like that. Then I saw it. As soon as they said those words I saw what it could become and I finished the work. Now it is going to live in a house in Seattle where it will be loved for years.

restless agony

I have redone my nudes four times now and am going to do another change. They are eluding me and I am looking all over for them. I need something because I am at a loss. I often think "did Matisse look at a blank canvas and shudder.

I remember what Edward Hopper said about painting. How he loathed it.

How can you hate something that feeds you.

Well I need to be stung to life and have to find something new and fresh and inspiring today. I do not know where to start looking. I have found inspiration in the past from weird places. someone passes me and I see it. I am walking up a hill or driving to nowhere and I see it.

It must be in the air and I just have to get my body to the place where it is so it will rain down on me. Its not in me. It is outside of my mind but I will recognize it when I see it.

the beautiful line

What is it about a line that makes it beautiful?? I was pondering what it is that makes you stop and say "This is a beautiful line on which to build a whole painting."

Is it that it reminds you of something you love? Or is it something deeper and a part of our essence that is longing to be released. Is that line reflecting infinity.

It is hard to put into words a diaphanous dream. You can see it and feel it but it is hard to define in hard edge words.

A beautiful line is what I am painting all day to find. Without one beautiful line the entire painting feels dead.

So the beautiful line is life, it is breath, it is depth. It is the reason all painters paint and all writers write and all musicians compose. Everyone is looking for that certain something that transcends time.

Our entire career hangs in the balance of finding a beautiful line, the beautiful line, the true beautiful line.

Year in Provence

I just saw the movie "Year in Provence". Ohh it is awful. I wanted to see a recreation of my trip but instead it is this story about these English people who are basically making fun the of the French. They are concerned because they dont understand everything that the French are saying. Maybe you should learn French before you to live there. Maybe you should buy a house that is already fixed up if you cant fix anything yourself.

They portrait the people as fools that can cook/

I can say from experience that the people there are wonderful and highly creative. We should be so lucky to be like them. If you have even one drop of french blood in you I envy you.

speed painting

A friend of mine said I was a speed painter. It seems to her that I just whip those paintings out easy as that.

It might appear effortless, but in reality it is an intense struggle. I draw lines over hundreds of times to fine on that feels right. The look on a face can go from angry to beautiful in a fraction of a line change. When I find the perfect line it is also hard to keep it because of my technique, which involves washing away underpaintings. Many times I have found a gorgeous line , only to lose it a moment later with the wash out. I never can get the exact same line back either. Even if I trace it. It is emotionally exhausting to look for hours for a perfect shape of a lip or eye lid. So glorious the is the human face and body that it is tremendously interesting and at the very same time tremendously elusive.

I paint 6 to eight hours a day and when I am not painting I am looking at material to use to paint later. I never stop working.

No artist does if they are professional. You can not stop, nor do you want to and it is the very best life any human being can ever ever have.

a week after getting home

Travel for me is earth shattering.

It is hard to come back from the brink of euphoria. It is hard to drive down the streets of Tacoma and look at what we live with. I know this will sound awful but I an ashamed of what America looks like. In Paris and the south of France everything is clean and well cared for. Art is everywhere you turn. Little sweet nothings to walk by. How can they keep everything so clean???? 12 million people live in France. 12 million. New York has only eight million.

The astounding attention to detail in everything. Food, clothes, window boxes. Lettering. So life honoring.

that is the overwhelming presence there. Life honoring. It is unbelievable how few believer are there when if you think about it, I would expect such reverence for life to be coming from another source.

We who are given so much to work with, live in a disrespectful way from all appearances.

Why is there so much garbage on the roads here that they need people to clean it up all the time and fill garbage bags full, then a day later it is all back. Are people just throwing stuff out the window of their cars non stop.

How can the roads be pristine all over France. You would be hard pressed to even find anything along side the road.

I saw something else that was amazing to me. At night there was a van that was dropping off mattresses for the street people. It had some sort of Christian symbol on the van. They droop them off and pick them up in the morning. Can you imagine.

Paris

We just got back from Paris and the south of France. I was going to blog while there but no internet available and also and more important no time. Every second was filled with looking the most beautiful city in the world. I dont know if they make it mandatory to be beautiful in Paris or not but I have never seen more gorgeous people just walking around in cafes and on the beautiful streets than Paris. You also must not be the slightest bit overweight to get to live there. You must also be beautifully dressed.

That is the full on effect on your life if you are so surrounded with magnificent loveliness that you become like what you see.

This must be it. You feel like standing straighter and and speaking softer. You are in Paris and that deserves a new dress and a hat and lipstick.

Doing what you can't not do

I am going to Paris in two days. All my life people have told me that my paintings look like France. I have only been there one week and now I am going to Paris. It feels like I am going home.

When I was ten years old I knew I would be a painter and I Knew in my bones that nothing would prevent it from happening.

I know that this trip will be fantastic because something will happen that was meant to happen right now. I know I will sell paintings soon in Paris.

It took a long time to get here but this is it.

People ask me all the time how do you do these things when you are just a middle class gal from Tacoma.

If you can't not do it it is easy. The only hard part of that is letting go of security. Security is only perceived. It is not true. A plane could come crashing down on you right now while you are sitting in your house being secure. Security is an illusion.

My secret is have the courage to do what you can't not do.

This true for everyone. Everyone is unique and wonderful if they have the courage to do what you can't not do.

I am writing this blog because I want everyone reading it to know this. I love potential realized. And you do too.

Monday morning plan

I am going to make a nice notebook of my paintings to show galleries in Paris. I had a friend that did this and it is a much less invasive way to meet new gallery owners. The gallery has to see who you are and feel you out before they need to see if your work is good for them. It is an intense relationship. You are totally trusting that they will promote your work and give you a check when it sells. Sometimes galleries are out of business and you never get your work back. So you both have to investigate each other.

Referrals are good for both artist and gallery owner. Having been on both sides of the fence, I know how important it is to have your artists get new work to you on a timely basis and cooperate when necessary(ie price) It is a symbiotic relationship.

Trying to get representation in a foreign country is even more dicey but the pay off is great. I am grateful now for the time when I was a gallery owner myself and an art broker. I loved it when the artists were cooperative and had good personalities incase they had to interface with the clients. I had one experience with a great artist but his personality was so abrasive it didn't matter how fantastic his work was.

How to be a Famous Artist

I have decided to document my striving to be a famous artist. If this helps anyone out there then it was worth it.

I have been a painter since I was 10 but I have only realized some accomplishment now. several decades later.

My gallery "Artforte" made me what I am today. The gallery owner took me on when I sent slides to her in hopes of finding a gallery about 10 years ago.

Well ten years is 10 years and I have done reasonably well with her. She is the only one that reps me in this metropolitan area.

My goal is to be in a gallery in Paris, New York, Chicago, Amsterdam, and Los Angeles. My goal is to be in the Berkeley Art Museum, The Met in New York and also in the Seattle Art Museum. I do not want to be a local artist. My work is all over the world just from being in Artforte and that says to me that it should be in galleries all over the world.

Why I am doing this when I am pretty comfortable now is to bless those that bought my paintings when I was nobody. To all those people that said "I am going to lay down money because I believe in her. " For them I want my paintings to increase in value ten fold.

I am doing it because I only have one life and I must strive with all my might.

I know this required total discipline and focus and action. Passion I already have but it is not lazer beam focused

I do creativity groups to sharpen the blade and get encouraged. Not enough I need to live and breath this dream.

I am a Christian so I am not starting today Sunday. but I am going to write about every step of the way to said goals and tell you all about it. You should follow this and respond if you know something I do not. Then we will write a book and make a movie etc etc etc.

why I like France

When I went to France the first time, I could feel the air was different. I had been to Germany and Italy and Prague but  the air was different in France. It was dream like. It felt so different from here that it was like floating. HOw can you not love a place that makes you float.

Now everything I brought back from there is my favorite thing, I love the necklace and earrings I bought in the tiny village where the leather work was so unusual. It was the tiniest village but they also had a high end British Clothing store where each dress was different and hand made. the clothes were remarkable in their simplicity. And femininity . and grace. they all were flowing.

The weather was not real hot but enough were you felt like you were in a warm bath.

 I am going back in six weeks and I can barely stand it. 

The french cooking classes I am hosting are just making me more and more crazy to get back there. The smell of the bread and pastries baking. and the strong coffee and the amuse bouche . well they are all calling me. I am floating just writing this. ahhhh

the city

When I was in my 20s, I live in San Francisco. I came from a mid size town and thought the city would be a better place for an artist to live. More things going on. As if a lot of people around me doing things would make me do a lot of things. Interesting things great things.

But , I found that the biggest creative things I have done we done in silence. If I cannot hear the quiet mutterings of my soul then I cannot paint them.  The noise of the city shouted out the beat of everyones  drum. The collective drum beat is thrilling but you cannot process it till you get into silence and hear your own. 

I wonder if I had moved to the country if I would have been a different artist.

rooms and roses

As spring is beginning, all I can do is wait patiently for the first all danger of frost has passed day. It is so late this year. 

Then the pruning of the roses and the hope for rooms filled with their perfume all summer and fall. Rooms and roses filled with life and excitement and beauty. 

The cold dark winter is over finally. Warm sun coming.

I adore redecorating my rooms in this old house. I like to change a lot every year. New curtains and new color on the wall. I crave the sun so I am painting it all over the furniture too. And pink lots of pink this year. and roses to match. roses roses flowing over the arbors and fences and vases all over the house. rooms with roses YES.

Beautiful Line

All these blogs out there. Blogs are like emails that go out into the whole computer world. But somebody has to read them. Why Does anybody read anyones blog at all. 

I read them for ideas and inspiration. It is like looking at pictures in magazines. Ideas flood into your brain and lots of time they are useable. 

There is a firehose of ideas  written all over the net and in books. 

What I am looking for is a beautiful line.

A new line  to draw and then change it into a woman and a story. 

A great line has three qualities. Surprise, Relationship, and Infinity. 

Surprise because it is not expected. You could not have just made it up. It is a surprise to the artist as well as to the observer.

Relationship because something inside you has to say "Oh yes I know this from somewhere."

Infinity because it never gets old. It is always new a beautiful no matter how many times you have looked at it or read it. It resonates every time. That is a beautiful line!

WONDERFUL

WEHN A PAINTING FLOWS OUT EFFORTLESSLY, USUALLY IT IS ONE THOUSAND PERCENT BETTER THAN THE ONES YOU STRUGGLE ONE. TODAY, I HAD THAT EXPERIENCE ON A BIG PAINTING. IT LITERALLY PAINTED ITSELF WHILE I WATCHED. THIS PHENOMENA IS RARE AND MYSTERIOUS. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TALENT OR EVEN BRAINS. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE HAPPEN BUT WHEN IT DOES IT IS AMAZING. IF I COULD FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN I WOULD BE RICH. 

BUT ALAS, IT IS JUST A MYSTERY OR GODS GIFT. WHY HE GIVES IT SOMETIMES AND NOT OTHERS IS BEYOND ME. BUT I KNOW WHEN IT HAPPENS , IT IS GLORIOUS AND NOTHING IN THIS WORLD IS LIKE IT. NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING. MARCH 17TH

creative group

The reason you have creative groups is usually to use the synergy of the group to boost your confidence in being creative and also to learn new techniques to tap into the right brain. 

There can be a deeper purpose than that that makes creative group into living with all your might. 

To do that you need a directional attitude at the deepest core of your life. 

Without that you are living a meaningless life. 

This is too horrible and wonderful to really comprehend but it is the truth. 

the hardest thing to do

I have found that the door to the best work you have in you is the hardest door to open.It is the door that is so slammed shut that you have to want to open it more than anything to get it to budge. To do your best work you have to change and change is the same thing as pain. Nobody likes to change, everyone likes the path that they are used to and that is the path to the same old same old and it is never never great. great is only through the door marked pain and suffering. This is true on every level of thinking known to man.

Sunday the First of March

I know someone is reading this so I am writing this to you. This is the first day of Silence for the week. As a creativity exercise there is no tv radio or computer watching  for a week. This exercise will be what my group will do next week but I wanted to do it first. I have a goal of getting three good paintings done during this time and writing a few good pages for the group.

I was just thinking how our lives are constantly bombarded with self inflicted noise all day that sometimes you cannot hear yourself think.  This week of silence should be a revelation. I will tell you how it goes

color

I am dying to get into some more pink colors. My favorite painting I ever did is three french hens. . First it is mostly pink. second it is french and has high heels. third it has a window and it looks out onto a small village in France. Yes this is my favorite painting. It also has roses.  /all my favorite things. 

Creative thought for today is pink. color says something about you, no it says everything about you. 

I am pink on my insides. I used to be different. 

Is it because I had a grandbaby or is it because I am happy. Or is it something else. But right now I am pink. 

Find your color and have lots of it. I know this will sound weird but I think you are drawn to a color for a deeper reason than you just like it. Color has mood altering capabilities. It is deeper than just pleasure. 

another way to get out of the blahhs

Painting can become a bore if you do the same thing over and over. Success breeds contempt. One way to get out of a bad space is to do just what you want to do. Paint what you feel like with no thought to selling it to anyone. Just paint exactly what you want.

If there was nobody but you that was going to see it. 

I call these diary paintings. just for you alone. I will post my diary painting tomorrow. 

creative thought for the day

why does anybody read blogs about what other people are thinking?? I read them to find new ideas for creative group. I am running a creative group and am writing a book about it and am making it up as I go. The funny thing is everyone else that does creativity classes does the same thing. Why do another one. Well I have found that each person has something to offer and so pulling all the ideas together with come up with a brand new form of being creative. 

I am going to try and write a note a day about this topic. Todays note is one about getting rid of creative blocks. 

One way I have discovered is go to the library and get books that I never never would ever pick out. LIke Math books and science books and books about cars. All horrible subjects for me but I got them nonetheless. I spend one hour reading them and trying to find something I can use for my class. Talk about hard. It feels like crawling through nails.  But what it does is shock my mind into action. Then when I go back and try and do something I am good at it is like running. 

another blog about paintings on other blogs

There is an amazing blog that I follow and it is Paris breakfast. It is more than amazing. 

like that artist I also am in Love with All things French and because of that all my work has that french feel. What is a french feel in words. Old worn new adventurous bold simple sexy girly shiny matte. warm color like the sun and clay soil.

Once when I was in France out group got stuck in the vineyard fields in a rain storm and we had to push the van out of the mud. You never saw mud like this before. It stuck to our shoes and made them be like 2 foot platform shoes in one minute. That is the sold that french wine is grown in. clay clay clay. 

I am going to France in August for 13 days. I long for the experience. Going to France is like getting drunk. Your senses are totally altered and you feel like being in love with everybody. 

The lavender festival is like that too but it is not a whole country. This will be my first time in Paris too. 

I am dying to try my first madeline. 

New Show

My new show is all about Leopard. The good news is that Jet Coop is opening a new retail outlet and I will be selling cards and small paintings out of it. So if you cant afford a big painting then you can at least get a frameable card or a small new painting. As soon as I figure out how to put pics on this site I will. I have some of the studio space and also the gallery.This is a slow market so lots of artists have reduced prices on the work. 

February 11th a very beautiful day. 

The importance of your space

In the creativity group we are going to examine the importance of you space for being able to create. 

My husband built me a 10 by 20 foot studio with nice high ceilings. It had lots of windows and a good cement floor with a drain for painting( I use huge amounts of water when I paint and sometimes need to actually hose paintings off so a drain was what I needed. 

With this custom studio all done I tried to paint there. What I found out was(to my dismay) that I could not think in that space. I felt as though I was cramped and could not breathe much less paint. 

It turned out  the space was too narrow and the ceilings not high enough and there were too many windows. Too much light. The floor bugged me too as it sloped for the drain. 

Now I rent a space that is perfect. The ceiling height is 20 feet and I have a nice big wall. I can work there for 10 hours without stopping and feel fine.  It has the added plus of other people who come in and visit which I find energizing. 

I feel bad about the other studio we paid so much money for but what learned is that you have to have elbow room to work with your mind. 

Sunday the first

This is the first day of the week and the first day of the month and the end of painting my show. Another year to stock against the last ones. 

I have new resolve to make mind and body  go somewhere new. Sunday they day to get refreshed for new spiritual goals. 

the last bit of January

The right answer of any import to the question what would you do if you had all the money in the world is the same thing I am doing now. If you are not doing exactly the same thing then that is a sign that your life should go another direction. Money is not something that should hold anyone back. Ask any successful person when they were the happiest, they will invariably say"when I first started out on my quest for my dream. It is not the end. It is the dream. Dreams are soon reality when you walk toward them. And you are either walking toward them or away from them. 

what you can do

In light of my last blog and getting out of comfort zone, I had a revelation last night, Comfort zone is only a state of mind. Who cares if you never did something before. What are we afraid of failure. 

Failure is the flip side of success At least you are in the right place. The alternative of failure is doing nothing new ever and  and then you die. If you are failing at least you are trying and if you are trying some thing then you are alive. otherwise dead dead dead. 

I have a new question for my creative group. what would you do if you had all the money in the world?? there is only one answer that is good for this question. see you tomorrow

out of my comfort zone

Thursday morning. A fun way to get out of a rut it to move into an area that you are totally uncomfortable. I think this is why we get antsy. No challenge , so fun. What do I hate to do most(besides taxes) I hate drawing in front of someone. So today I am having a friend over to be with me in the studio while I work . Not only is this another artist but it is one that can draw really well and that is my weak point. I have to draw over and over to get it right and then it is still sort of distorted. Funny I chose art as a career. I think a lot of artists dont draw well. Just a hunch.  My husband can draw and he is not an artist. Go figure. 

creative group

January 25th. Creative group last friday was so interesting. I am going to start sharing what we are doing . If anyone outh there has been doing creative groups feel free to jump in. 

Our group is a small one just seven people with the desire to move out into the realm of reality the things we are thinking about in our heads. 

thought without action is useless.So here is the big idea. what if you could do anything what would you do?

 I mean pleasure only goes so far. The best part of life is making something new . We each have a unique thing to offer. What is it?? How important is it to do what only we can do the way only we can do it. Tres Important!