Run With the Horses, acrylic on w/c paper, 10 X 10" |
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| Imagine With Art Newsletter |
Issue No.25
| December, 2011 |
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I welcome your comments!
susan@imaginewithart.com
707-824-8163
Table of Contents:
Am I creative?
Art Play
News
Student Gallery
Workshops | |
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Contact Us
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2550 Lewis Dr. Sebastopol, California 95472 707-824-8163
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My hens are taking a break from laying these days - the cold temperatures or the molting season. I decided to take a bit of a break from painting them too. Picture wild horses snorting up clouds of steam in the icy air. I'll run with the wild horses for a while and get some energy for a new painting series on the way.
"If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you I am here to live out loud."
-Emile Zola
What does it mean to you to live out loud? Hopefully you will find something in this issue to help you answer this question. I'm still working on it myself.
Cheers,
Susan
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Art Play: Start With Words
Can you allow yourself to be as playful with words on your art pieces as with paints and collage? Words are symbols that are as eye catching as human figures when found in art pieces, and for that reason they are highly entertaining to the eye and grab immediate attention. . .unless they are introduced with subtlety and then they are more like a fine spice augmenting the taste of the finished piece.
Try this. Choose a word, a poem, or whatever words come to mind. Mix some black India ink with water to dilute it. Write with an ink dropper, favorite pen nib, or Japanese brush on your pristine white paper. Use your alphabet stamps or stencils to add more word or number symbols to the page. Let the ink dry or place a paper towel gently on the surface to blot it.
Now cover the piece with a transparent layer of water media paints so the word beginnings show through in places. You have an exciting new start to a painting which you can develop from there.
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Am I a creative person? Who's asking?
I hear this so much. "I'm just not a creative person (like other people)". I even hear this from myself! So who's talking like this? And is she/he right? (Note: For the rest of this article I'm going to use "she", only because I'm one.)
Well actually she's partly right! The part of you making this statement is not the creative part. It's the part that looks at what you've done and evaluates it, categorizes it, puts is in historical context, not the part that creates it. That's the job of the ineffible Muse, the (inner) one who connects us with the untamed, raw, non-rule following, infinite source of all possibilities, the imaginal mind.
So when something shows up "out of nowhere" we're hosting this Muse, and we might just want to get out of the way and see what she'll do. Our left brainy self doesn't dream up new stuff. She can google a word and read what's there, but she doesn't know what to do with it without her creative Muse, who doesn't need the Internet to generate originality.
The second reason we convince ourselves that we're not creative is that we don't take the step of getting some distance from our work before we make this pronouncement. Or we look at it next to someone elses and compare. And yes, there will always be someone "better" because, frankly it's motivating. But in my groups I have so often seen that "better" artist get new ideas from the one who has pronounced them so!
In some ways being creative boils down to learning to suspend the part the of the mind that thinks you're not. Imagine putting it in hand cuffs and taping its mouth shut. What does it know anyway, except what it reads on the Internet!
I took a writing class with Suzanne Murray, a writer who believes as I do that you can build the creativity muscle by exercising it regularly through any creative endeavor. She wrote: "The word Muse has its origins in being initiated into the mysteries. And it's important to understand that this connection is available to everyone, not just a select few who are somehow born with this special gift. It is also not restricted to the arts. The gift of creativity is woven deep into our being. Every time we solve a problem we didn't "think" we could solve we are drawing on this invisible resource. We experience it in cooking, gardening, decorating our homes, raising our children, healing, teaching and business, when we get the inspiration to do something in a new and expanded way. When we tap into this ability it feels great, it feels divine. . . .It's like a muscle that gets stronger with use."
And of course we're also literally making new connections on a cellular level, recruiting more and more neurons in the brain as we move outside of our predictable box of thinking and acting. Imagine hands reaching across the corpus collasum to engage with those in the other hemisphere and have a new conversation about what to plant, paint, dance or write!
So next time you hear that voice of "But I'm not creative like so and so. . ." remember to say "Yes, but I know who is, and she's at my beck and call."
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Wanderings on the Internet and Local Scenes
My painting "Yoga Bird" is in good company this month, December 9-31 at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts annual member show. There's a bonanza of art to be seen there, 239 pieces on display!
We have updated my gallery website with a new section for the "Party Chicks" series and new landscapes as well.
The Citrasolv Artists website continues to run art contests and display innovative new art. My piece "Precipice" won second prize in the professional category in the Falling into Art contest this month.
Here's an idea for a birthday party! Bring your group (up to 8 people) to my studio for an art play party. You bring the cake, I supply the materials and direction and music! Sound like fun? Contact me for more info. |
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Student Gallery
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Acrylic and collage paintings
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This video is a sample of the pieces done by Imagine With Art students in the month of November, both in the Muse Groups and in the Acrylics and Collage workshop. Many of these pieces are not just visual poetry, but also gave birth to word poetry of great beauty and power as well.
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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 |
So many of you are friends of mine on Facebook! Please join me on my Imagine With Art Facebook page which is where I post all my latest paintings, videos, workshops, shows, blog postings, discounts on art supplies, and other news of relevance to art lovers. Help me get the word out by signing in to "Like" me on my Imagine With Art Facebook page  . In this month of holiday celebrations and winter solstice, as we gather in and gather round, let's "live out loud", sharing our creations with each other and bringing them into the new year. Happy Holidays! -Susan Cornelis To share this formatted newsletter with friends, use the Forward email button below. |
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