ArtFestII

Busy getting ready for ArtFest April 9 & 10.  There are so many details to take care of - finishing work, getting things framed, matting pieces that are smaller, and packaging them in sleeves, making labels, e-mailing, getting flyers ready, etc, etc.  I think it will be great fun and I look forward to spending two days with other artists.  Usually when I do an open studio, I am home and people come in and out but it is not a shared experience.  I am also attending a Jane Davies workshop on Wednesday and am so looking forward to seeing her.  I am beginning an online workshop with her in a few weeks and know that will certainly be inspiring.  The other thing I am beginning to delve into is Zentangle.  I have heard of this process but never tried it.  Quite interesting and not as easy as I would like.  It is about drawing intricate patterns and designs and requires patience.  Drawing is not my forte so this will be a something I will have to spend time with.  I've done a few designs but see that I have a lot to learn.  Here is the information about ArtFestII:

Create for Yourself

I'm in production mode this week getting ready for ArtFest2 to be held April 9 & 10 in West Acton.  Please take a look at the Facebook page.  There are wonderful artists in the area who will be displaying their work.  There is also a new brew pub in the building so you can get a beer and a bite to eat afterwards.  I will post more as we get closer to that weekend.  I'm not usually as consumed with art making as I have been of late.  I know a number of artists who create full-time.  They go into their studios and work an eight hour day.  They teach and have gallery shows and are fully immersed in their work and I admire that spirit that drives them.  For me, a three hour journey into my work is a great accomplishment and if I get into my studio more than twice a week, I am thrilled.  I recently had a conversation with a fellow artist who talked about reading everything she could about art and observing everything around her for inspiration.   This is the world inside her head and I very much respect this.  I might have felt intimidated or that I wasn't doing enough in my own art practice yet I realized that for her, art is her primary focus.  For me, art is my outlet, my grounding place and what I do to fulfill a creative yearning.  It is an important part of my life, not my focus.  I mention this because I also speak with artists who feel guilty because they don't get work done for weeks at a time, or don't feel they are committed enough to the process.  Often my husband will come home in the evening and ask if I've done any artwork that day.  I finally asked him to stop asking because if I say "no" then I feel guilty, as if I've failed in some way and should be doing more.  The time I devote to my work fulfills a need for me.  Sometimes, I need a lot of time in my studio, other times I am caught up in other activities that are equally as important to me.  I have to remind myself that I am creating for myself and that I need to let go of the "shoulds".

  Here is a new piece that feels very different for me.

Kickstarting

What a busy few weeks this has been.  My intent is to blog weekly, however,  I had no opportunity last week.  I am getting ready for ArtFest in April and will write more about this next time.  This past weekend I attended a workshop given by Adria Arch, an artist I wrote about in an earlier post.  The topic was about how to move forward when you are stuck.  It was an intense and useful workshop. What I came away with (yet again) is that I need to relax more into my work and be present with it instead of trying to produce a finished product.  I don't know that I will ever be totally free from that inner voice that prompts me to be the best, do the best, etc. but I certainly was able to do this by the end of the weekend.  One of the exercises was to do a series and make up rules about the series.  So, my rules were: 1) Use black in each piece because I rarely use black 2) Each piece had to have a circle and a curved line 3) As the work evolved, a new rule was to add a turquoise line 4) Each piece would have red dot in a bottom corner.  Simple.  And it was!  I produced six pieces in two and a half hours and did not feel stuck at all.  In fact, it freed me and I found this very counter intuitive.  I moved quickly from piece to piece, then would go back into a piece and add something, a color, a line that felt right.  It was great fun.  Although I am an intuitive painter, I also like structure and this provided both for me.  What is most important, and the theme for the workshop, is that I shut down the critic in my head.  It was a very interesting exercise.