Tornado Laundry, acrylic on canvas, 22 X 28" |
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| Imagine With Art Newsletter |
Issue No.24
| November, 2011 |
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I welcome your comments!
susan@imaginewithart.com
707-824-8163
Table of Contents:
Image Streaming
Art Play
Workshop news
Art on the Web
Workshops | |
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Contact Us
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2550 Lewis Dr. Sebastopol, California 95472 707-824-8163
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Thanks to all of you who made it to ARTrails last month and my "Studio in the Orchard". There were so many stimulating conversations about art and life, people who made direct and very emotional connections with my paintings. Several original paintings and prints made their way home with people, an important aspect of art shows which creates open spaces for new paintings to be birthed!
And thanks to the people who came back after previous years' visits and brought someone they wanted to share the art with. Some people wanted to report how their own art had taken a new direction after seeing my sketchbooks or paintings.
And then there were the soon-to-be-new students who seemed so hungry to open up a treasure of art expression in their own lives. All of these kinds of interaction are essential for the survival of us artists. So thank you.
This month I invite you to visit the Sebastopol Center for the Arts "Shoe" themed show where my painting "Tree Spirit" is hanging until December 3. This shoe, I mean show, is splashy and fun, big on whimsy and out-of-the-box art!
And once again the folks at Citrasolv Art are honoring me for my use of citrasolved papers for collage by naming me November Artist of the month. If you've caught the citrasolv art bug (it's quite contagious) you might want to enter the "Falling into Art Contest". There's prize money involved and good internet exposure.
In this issue I offer some thoughts about art and image streaming, a sketch play suggestion and student sketch art, some workshops in the new year, and artists whose work you may want to check out.
Cheers,
Susan
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Plunging Into the Image Stream
Lately I've been having conversations with friends about the recent discoveries about the plasticity of the brain. Good news for some of us whose memories are fading. And there's more to it than learning a new language and doing crossword puzzles to stay "with it".
Years ago when I was just trying to give myself a break from my worries by doing art, what I found was a rich stream of information I could tap into with increasing ease by letting my mind go "blank" as I dipped into my paints and played. Writing about the painted imagery made it even more fruitful. And the practice became like an oracle for me.
Sharing this playful approach to art making with others in Muse Groups, we apply color and image to paper and then write about and verbally share what we see there. The experience is one of plunging into a roaring image stream and getting carried along in it to new destinations which wake us out of our habitual mind slumber. At times it's exhilarating, at times uncomfortable as the habit of controlling the art wars with the irrepressible desire to express originality!
Often the images in this kind of art making are surprising, as if not our own. So where do they come from? Certainly not just the conscious verbal 2% of our minds. What would a modern brain scanner show of this process? No doubt an interesting pattern of communication across the corpus collasum between little used portions of the left and right hemispheres!
In this practice we find a sublimely elegant imagery which implies a greater intelligence. At first we doubt its value because we aren't used to receiving information in this way. "Oh it's just my flaky imagination", we think. But after a time we come to expect that the art will offer suggestions for new ways of perceiving old challenges. It will offer new stores of emotional sustenance and an easeful connection with reservoirs of wisdom and vitality. Does this sound like a tonic for youthfulness? Well maybe.
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Art Play: Sketch 'n Eat
Are you missing out on opportunities to squeeze art making into your busy life or on your busy vacation trips? Here's a formula for combining sitting, resting, and eating with drawing and painting. Sound like a modern multi tasker's dream? Throw in talking on your cell phone at the same time (along with all the other diners or coffee drinkers around you) and you're all set!
Start out by painting some watercolor onto a page in your sketchbook so you don't have to fill every bit of white paper with your drawing. This piece was begun by pressing bubble wrap into wet watercolor and stamping more color on with a wine cork. Cut out shapes from maps and glue them on. And then when you get to the eating destination, glue the business card on.
I like to sketch people and whatever is on the table in front of them. Just a quick outline with an ear or an eye thrown in is enough. This I do discreetly, on my lap beneath the table top while waiting for the food to come, smiling blankly into space should my model look up at me. They rarely do though. The worst that will happen is that they will leave just after you start your drawing. So don't pick the ones taking their last bite of dessert.
Mix up a quick flesh color, "negative paint" a background, write the date on and maybe what you ate, and you're done before the check comes or your cell phone conversation is over. Oh, I'm sorry, was there someone with you at the table who wanted your attention, a friend or husband perhaps?
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Sketching in Pleasanton with the Art League!
It was another boot camp for sketchbookers earlier this month, the workshop I taught for the Pleasanton Art League. The lunchtime drill was: order, sketch eat, paint, pay, bundle up and sketch on Main Street in the chill fall air, etc. I put together a slide show of student sketches. Enjoy!
Not only did we have fun together, but I hear that some of the students got the sketchbooking bug.
"A wonderful workshop, I learned loads about how to sketchbook on location and use ultra-fine point waterproof sharpies (no erasing gasp), watercolor, collage elements and work quickly. I also loved the idea of adding the text of overheard conversations, thoughts I'm thinking, things I'm smelling to add to the memories of the sketch. A convivial group and a charming, organized, lots of great tips Instructor! Thanks!" -S.H. "I think that the workshop was great. New ideas, new techniques and a lot of fun. It was well run and informative. Who knew I could actually draw out in public! -C.N. ". . .what I gained from the class was an indispensable tool to capture the structure, essence, atmosphere and mood of my surroundings in a quick manner, without the dread of trying to create a masterpiece. Each page in my journal is it's own experience, story, thumbnail sketch, soulful writing or new art technique that I can either just enjoy or take to my studio and expand on it through pastel painting. I've finished my first journal and have already started on another. I've been taking it everywhere and even if I don't have time to pull out the paints, I at least get the sketch down and paint it when I get home. I'm having so much fun sketching (which is something I used to dread)." -L.B.
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Bad Art and Dream Art
One of the visitors at ARTrails exposed me to a new art movement call Bad Art Night and I was immediately intrigued -people getting together around the dining room table to do social art making without needing for it to be "good art". Very freeing. According to one of the founders " Bad Art is all about conscious, dedicated badness - in community - as a tool of liberation." Sound like fun? At the Sausalito Art Festival I met an artist whose work you might enjoy. Liz Collins is a mixed media painter who uses oil pastels, acrylic, maps, music and writing in her crazy quilt of off kilter images. Her paintings are zany and wonderful. And for art that explores the human-divine relationship through mother archetypes, animals, and otherworldly beings, inspiring awe and wonder, check out Meinrad Craighead. Her paintings give me goosebumps! For an amazing journey into dream time watch Angela Bacon-Kidwell's video of her Traveling Dream photographs. Then ask yourself if you don't feel more awake! after watching her dream art.
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Come paint with me!
Whether you're a beginner or advanced painter, Imagine With Art workshops inspire and connect you with your playful expressive art self.
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Art Journaling in the Muse Groups
New Series Starting in 2012
The Muse Groups are laboratories to spark creative expression, mini-workshops to explore new painting techniques and learn a practice which captures your thoughts, feelings and intuitions in a playful visual format.
Each session features a different mixed media painting technique to add to your repertoire, from textured collage to painting with inks and acrylics. Meditation and writing are added to the mix to evoke that powerful Muse energy!
Tuesday Muses (meets weekly for 8 weeks) When: January 17, 24, 31, February 7, 14, 21, 28, March 6, 2012 Time: 1:30-4:30pm Cost: $240 Saturday Muses (meets monthly) When: Dec 3, 2011, Jan 7, Feb 4, Mar 3, 2012 Time: 10am-2:30pm Cost: $45 for a drop in session (ask if there is space) Sunday Muses (meets monthly) When: Dec 4, 2011, Jan 8, Feb 5, Mar 4, 2012 Time: 10am-2:30pm Cost: $45 for a drop in session (ask if there is space) Paint + Collage+Word Integrate your personal vision combining painting, collage and written word. When: February 25, 2012 Time: 10am-4:30pm Cost: $80 Image Transfer with Nature's Patterns Incorporate the exquisite patterns of nature in your mixed media paintings with digital image and copy transfers. When: March 17, 2012 Time: 10am-4:30pm Cost: $80
Location for the workshops: The Studio in the Orchard, North Sebastopol
To register for the above workshops contact Susan. Free Demo! Painting with Inks and Gesso RileyStreet Art Supply, Santa Rosa Sat, Jan 14, 2012 10-11:30am Free but reservations are required due to limited space. To save your spot, contact Rileystreet at (707)526-2416 or info@rileystreet.com |
"As artists, we belong to an ancient and holy tribe. We are the carriers of the truth that spirit moves through us all. When we deal with one another, we are dealing not merely with our own human personalities but also with the unseen but ever-present throng of the collective, ideas, visions, stories, poems, songs, sculptures, art-as-facts that crowd the temple of consciousness waiting their turn to be born." -Julia Cameron
Carry that art spirit through this season and share its bounty! And have a happy thanksgiving.
Cheers,
Susan Cornelis
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