Where is Spring?

Are you ready? I am.
Starting to do more work in the painting studio. Line studies to start with.I hope to post more paintings here as well as crafts but I've been thinking of making a painting blog someplace else.
Pondering.....

little wonderings

I've been getting ready for a little art show at our local library and haven't made time to share any crafts lately. Here are some of the images and the "statement" I wrote to go with them.

Artist Statement:

“My kid could've painted that.”

Children create art without judgment. They play, they experiment with materials, everything is new and they completely involve themselves in the process of discovery. They have joy in the process. It's only as children get older that judgment sets in:

“It's not good enough.”

“It doesn't look like so-and-so's”

“I can't make it look right”

After a career of teaching, making sculpture, and creating crafts professionally I started painting last year and, as difficult as it has been, I've tried to suspend judgment. I found it freeing to make things that weren't supposed to look like anything, to grab a hold of a color and press it onto the paper. And if it didn't look “good” or “right”--so what! I was just “playing.”  Gradually, I’ve refined my focus to creating paintings that imply layers – like looking down into a frozen pond - while still maintaining a sense of joyful exploration.

These studies are the “residue” of my experimentation.  They’re pieces that have come out of the process of looking and wondering “what would happen if: I put a line here? I make a shape just barely touch there? How can I connect the shapes? These are my “little wonderings.”

It is a new path for me and I’m excited to share it with you.

Little Wonders

….and now for something completely different. I've starting “painting” a little bit here and there. I really enjoy the feeling that mark making on paper gives me; so much of my work life is about making things to please other people. These investigations are completely for fun.

It’s so freeing to go to a place where there are no rules (there are still rules but not someone else's) and I don’t know what I’m doing or how it will look when I’m done. When am I done?

I don’t know but it’s really fun to do. I’m interested in exploring layers: of mark making, paints, paper and ink; layers of meaning and memory. These are a few of my little wonderings, explored on paper.