In the Name of Art

Journal Entry, December Cometh

And the calendar begins to fill, and over-fill. The month's October through January are busy with shows, decorating and all things related to exhibits. Once the collage show goes up in January, watch out, I'll be on the streets and into trouble just because I'll have some time. I might even read.

Right now I'm just anxious about my interview with Dot Shinn (the art critic here). People rarely talk about art (the ins, the outs, the where-with-alls of it) until a day like today. And then all that passion and love and blood, sweat, tears has to come out in 30 minutes. Good grief. Up to now, the only time I take to "talk" about my art is in my journal and on this blog. Wish me luck, the article comes out Sunday. As far as that goes, wish the show luck too.

 

Kaleidoscope 2009!

When my brother found out I won first prize in Kaleidoscope this year he asked how we were going to celebrate......and this page is how I did that! We'll have to figure out a little more inclusive plan for the family. But right now, I'm just happy about the first place and about making this page!

When Good Journal Intentions Go Awry

It's been an up and down week emotionally and so it is with this entry, which started out OK but ended up kind of funny. Sometimes I'm more careful with my pages and sometimes I just let it rip. In this case, letting it rip was problematic, visually anyway.

Producing the occasional clunker is only a problem if it stops me from producing art. Well thats not going to happen. 

So here it is in all it's glory, a good page gone, if not exactly bad, at least mediocre. In this case, it started turning early and most of what you see is an attempt to pull it back into the light. What can I say, there was a disturbance in the Force.

The Art Ed in Me Comes Out

It's not very profound, but that may come from the fact that my mind was wandering as I looked through a pile of scraps and found pages that Terry Garrett  sent me from an art education textbook. God bless them, my professors imparted passion to me, along with a cantankerous impulse to pick apart everything written in those texts. Perhaps they didn't impart that part to me......it could just have been me.

I didn't write about what I'm very sad about. I sent a package with a collage in it to the NCS show and it never arrived. It's been 20 days. And I liked that collage! Writing the journal entry helped me to forget it awhile. Not a bad thing.

Aesthetics, But is it Art?

My favorite shopping experience is the local Friends of the Library book sale held in Nov. and May and I picked up another bird book (see the next entry down) and a hardcover about looking at art titled GETTING CLOSER. It's just OK but the ideas in it set me to thinking about how I look at art. And rather than write down my random thoughts in my journal, I think I'll spend some time reflecting on that with whatever passage in the book sets the cogs turning. This first is about the allure of art, which is stronger for me than any learning (even though that is fascinating). The appeal of learning about art is never exhausted because, aesthetics be damned, I'm in love. I tried to marry it on Facebook (apologies to PeeWee) but it wouldn't let me do it!

And before looking at my "bird entreaty" entry you should also know my advocacy for them springs from deep feelings of love for my father. He wasn't very good at expressing his love, but when he shared his love of birds, I knew what he felt for me. So I owe these little critters. 

Another thing about the next entry, when I feel strongly about an issue, formal concerns are somehow lost and the resulting art is less than satisfactory. I'm working on that one and see it as a challenge, but the next entry isn't what I'd call a success...... 

When the Birds Disappear

I freely admit to having strong opinions that normally do not make it into this blog. But this one, recurs each time I use the image of a bird. I can't think about using birds in my work without thinking about the danger common consumption habits pose to their well-being. One of those common consumption behaviors is coffee drinking. The journal entry pretty much says it all, that cheap cup of coffee carries a price that has nothing to do with money a consumer spends.

 Have you ever seen a scarlett tanager? They are the 1950s red Buick version of a bird, brighter than a cardinal, they can be found in tree-tops. At least for now, with the loss of their habitat here and in their migration destinations it may not be for much longer. Please do a little something for them and buy some organic coffee, if not for yourself, for gifts. 

November Color, Journal

The adjustment back to a winter palette is abrupt at the end of October, just a bit of color clings to the trees and browns, grays, and olives predominate. The hills that were aflame suddenly are flickering, spent matches with just a sputtering glow to remind me of October's fire storm. Bones seem to fit in this landscape, brown leaves, and the geometry that attempts to explain all our needs, but never really covers the end of summer and the first flakes of snow. 

When I cover the days with a journal entry I'm happy just to note the mundane and then add the poetry with color and collage.

Looks like November, But it's really October (Scroll down for wedding pics)

It was a November-like day when I did this. We had a bunch of gray days but the trees were shining like matches so it wasn't all that bad. I've spent the last 5 days speechifying at the Ohio Collage Society opening (in addition to other sundry tasks related to that) and church, going to a wedding and a blow-out reception, a Brown's party (if you're from Cleveland, through your tears, you know what that's like), a close shave with working at the polls on election day (they didn't call and I'm counting my blessings) and decoration committee work at the church for Christmas. Now there's a sentence! There's more this week but without poll-working I have some time to get a handle on it and actually make some art!

This journal entry is junk-mail collage, watercolor, stamping and color pencil. Oh, and some marker.

Journal Entry, Around Halloween

Looking for wedding photos for Lauren and Mike? Scroll down. Otherwise enjoy the only art I've been doing for the past week and maybe this week too as the decoration committee gets into high gear. I can't help remembering with this entry that I was in Mexico this time last year....

Some Days Ago, Journal

I'm coping with a head cold and a bunch of art/family/decorating obligations so I'll just leave it at the visual tonight.