“Who told you that one paints with colours? One makes use of colours, but one paints with emotions.” — Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin I have been asking myself what an artist like Chardin would have to say about art created by emotionless artificial intelligence. I believe Chardin and I would agree, and that does not mean I’m saying I know it all, just that in our … Continue reading Chardin, DALL-E and the Art of Emotion
It was an all-ages event. And I liked it that way. Following the notion of Robert Henri, Art and Spirit, that “Exhibitions should be small,” the art show reception on Friday was just that. We didn’t plan it that way, but this is a small community, so the size of the crowd did not surprise any of us. And unlike some of the huge art … Continue reading You Don’t Have to Sing, You Don’t Have to Dance
Choices have been made and the event has been announced. I’m down to the last minute tasks for the show that goes up on Wednesday. Twenty paintings are now ready to grace the walls of the lovely gallery space in our City Hall. How they’ll be received is yet to be seen, and it’s not up to me. I’m doing the finishing touches on paintings … Continue reading The Paintings Are Ready and So Am I
Painting isn’t everything. And it’s certainly not the only thing. (Apologies to Vince Lombardi.) The other part of being a visual artist, at least an artist who wants to show her work, is the part that involves not paint, but a screwdriver, tape measure, possibly pliers, wirecutters and a certain level of patience. This is the “putting on the hardware” part – D-rings and hanging … Continue reading The “hardware part” of art
“Art, after all, rarely emerges from committees.” This bit of wisdom comes from the opening paragraph of the section, “Fears About Others” in Bayles & Orland’s always spot-on book for artists, Art & Fear. In a discussion about artists and “others” who include the critics, the public, family, friends, teachers, the lady down the street, and too often ourselves, Bayles & Orland go on to … Continue reading Art and Risk – the Dynamic Duo
“Art should be persistent; exhibitions should be small.”–Robert Henri, The Art Spirit I have been persistent and have been invited to mount a small exhibition of my “Colors of Jazz” in my new also small hometown in July. This is a happy piece of news for me after I lost opportunities when I left San Diego for Mexico back in 2018. And then moved again … Continue reading Choosing for a Small Exhibition Is a Labor of Love
There are few things in nature more beautiful to me than dessicated flowers. I know this may sound odd, but take my word for it – or take Irving Penn’s or Frederick Franck’s – if you prefer. Photographer Penn created a most wonderful book of flowers in which he included every phase of particular flowers from bud to dessication. Franck is the author of The … Continue reading Zen and the Art of Seeing
“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.” – Robert Burns, “To a Mouse” If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then. – Murphy’s Law “The violets in … Continue reading A Change in the Weather
“Summer was past and the day was past.Sombre clouds in the west were massed.” Robert Frost’s poignant poem, “Bereft” includes these lines, and they came to mind today, although in this case: “Winter was past and the cold was past. Fluffy clouds in the west were massed.” Spring has come, and with it the flowers of the season, the budding branches, the greening grass, the … Continue reading A Wild and Precious Life
Winter turns into spring or close enough now, and the impulse to get back to the studio grows stronger. An artist friend in Seattle was recently in touch and wrote me about the small collages he’s doing. I started thinking again about my own collages, the ones that got me going those years ago. The world situation right now is on my mind as well, … Continue reading Art, War, Poetry, and Spirit
Art and Tulips 