Happy wishes to you...

this holiday season.

Isn't this a neat idea? I think it's so clever. We don't usually buy soda but this makes me want to. We spotted it at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art gift store.

A vintage photograph for you...

to use in your art. I meant to have this CDV (cart-de-visite) up for a wee Valentine's Day giftie but I've been a bit behind these days. Her name is Emily and she's been restored and is now ready for you to download (right click on image should do it, if not go to Flickr site), print and use in your art. Have fun! And if you do use her, I'd love to see what you've made.

Blessings,

fun with tar gel and more than a bit of serendipity

I love the way the word skips off the tongue. serenDIPity. It's a word that's been coming up a lot lately, in my conversations, in overheard conversations and in song, making me smile every single time.

The above image was made with two inks, two stamps, onto tissue paper. Often, between projects, I will spend a few hours or even days preparing new papers to have at the ready. (The super-talented Laura Lein-Svencner has some excellent tutorials on her site.) Sometimes the papers end up in a collage, sometimes on a journal page. I like having access to a lot of different colors and patterns when I am on a roll at my art table. I don't know about you, but I don't want to stop the creative flow to paint the "perfect" paper. Working spontaneously (another fun word) and intuitively seem to best suit my Muse. Grabbing a paper scrap, trying it out on piece, seeing if it works, discarding it and moving on to another if needed, are all a part of being in the flow. I'm discovering though that this way of working leads to enormous messes. Please tell me I'm not the only one! My artroom can fall into such incredible states of disaster at times that even I am mortified and it forever surprises me at what a fast rate this can occur. It's the subject matter of much teasing in our home. But I truly don't mind the straightening up of the art room as it seems that ideas come freely and fast in that time. A paper scrap will land on the floor or table next to another paper scrap I would never have paired it with but the combination works and again there is that word...Serendipity.

Another word that I like to say a lot, especially when it is related to art, is "play." I think often of the quote by Picasso: "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." It's a good thing to remember. In fact, it couldn't hurt to print that out and paste it somewhere near where I work or better yet, on the door, so that I must read it before I enter my art space. I do try and approach my time at the art table as playtime; I'm not always successful but most times. It's getting easier the more I do it. Music helps. Letting go of end results help. Red shoes help as do deep breaths and iced tea with a swirly straw.

A workshop with Suzanna Fields at Hollins University over the weekend turned out to be a glorious afternoon of play. Adding to the already perfect loveliness of hanging out with two of my favorite souls, artists Gina Louthian-Stanley and Dreama Kattenbraker, there was the bonus of meeting new folks if only briefly, Tif Robinette and Eric Fitzpatrick, local artists also taking the class. And then there was the great class itself during which we were all encouraged to channel our inner child and experiment. Play! Good stuff! Suzanna was super-sweet, fun, high-energy and passionate about acrylic paints and mediums.

Suzanna's work is amazing and if you are local I encourage you to see her work at Hollins before it comes down. Here is Suzanna generously demonstrating some fun you can have with tar gel and ink:



Julia Cameron in her book, "The Artist's Way," encourages artist's dates and I took myself on one yesterday. My dear friend and fellow artist, Sonia Hancock, was sweet enough to join me. Our destination was the Olin Gallery at another nearby school, Roanoke College. I had been going crazy wanting to check out Kurt Steger's work ever since hearing other friends talk about one of the pieces called the Burden Boat. It's a breathtaking piece. You can read about it below. Just click on the image if you need to enlarge.



I wrote a burden and placed it inside. (if you would like to mail in a burden to be placed in the boat, the address is there on the paper in the photo.) The entire exhibit had this special magical and mythical feel. I am thinking now of the walk through the Pearl Gate and the rustle of the paper as it touched my sleeve.

There was also work in the adjoining room. Right away, both Sonia and I really connected with the amazing work of Billy Bob Beamer. And in the way of serendipitous things, Billy Bob happened to be there in the gallery. We got to talk with him a bit about his work, about meditation and music, about the fibromyalgia he lives with and the workshops in which he helps others use drawing as a way to enter into a trance-like state to manage pain. He was such a nice man. You can get a glimpse of his work and read about him here and here. Or better yet, make it out to the gallery before the exhibit closes on the 20th of this month. I hope to gather a group together for a workshop led by Mr. Beamer. If you are local and interested, please comment or email me.

And I will wrap up this lengthy post with a quote. Perhaps another I should post in daily view.

"The position of the artist is humble. Essentially he is a channel."~ Piet Mondrian

Around Richmond

The last week of 2010 was overflowing with inspiration and fun. We spent a special few days wandering about Richmond (about a three hour drive from where we are in Roanoke), visiting the museums and some of the historic spots. I took hundreds of photos and so did Olivia. It never fails to make me smile to see her excited about getting that "perfect" shot and so often on this trip it seemed we were looking to capture the same image, several times even bumping heads in our excitement. (My husband Kelly needs a camera of his own so he can photograph our silliness.) I downloaded one of the image cards tonight and wanted to share a few photos here in the hope that you will be inspired as I was.

These first few were taken taken at the St. John's Episcopal Church where Patrick Henry gave his "Liberty or Death" speech in 1775. Olivia got her Segway "license" at the Science Museum of Virginia on Broad Street.

I loved this stapled pole on the street behind Xtreme Pizza. If you're ever in Richmond and find yourself at Xtreme Pizza I highly recommend the veggie pizza with artichoke hearts and fresh basil. (It was called "Drag it Through the Garden" or something like that.) Yum.  I was most excited to see the Sally Mann exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts and it did not disappoint. Sally Mann has been a favorite of mine since discovering her in 1993 in a photography class. Her self-portraits were haunting and beautiful, the body farm corpse images disturbing, yet somehow beautiful too. Photo taking wasn't allowed in that part of the museum but if you are interested can see some images here.

The photos below are from the museum's breathtaking permanent collection. There's Mucha, Degas, Warhol, Rauschenburg, Picasso, Julie Heffernan, and others. We were giddy being in the same room with such genius.

I've tried now for over an hour to add artist captions to each image without luck. If you want to know a particular artist let me know and I will get it to you. The wonderful assemblage pieces spotted in the gift shop were made by Pete Tansill.

Wishing you a new year that is filled to overflowing with joy, and beauty, and boundless creativity! Here's to 2011!

serendipity

Serendipity: discovery of something fortunate: the accidental discovery of something pleasant, valuable, or useful

It was a day this summer when I was feeling blue, unsure of myself, my inner critic being more of a chatterbox than ever. I was at a local coffeeshop, Olivia was at dance camp. This particular coffeeshop is my favorite place to write outside my home. (No, wait, I take that back, it ties with Mill Mtn. Coffee downtown. That place has good mojo too.) Words flow easy there so I was surprised to run up against such a different experience from the usual. At first I tried to ignore this loud-mouthed, nasty beastie and kept writing though after two hours the pencil wasn't much more than dead weight in my hand. I was working on a scene in TPS (a fiction novel I've been playing with for a while now), the scene where my MC (main character) hears the love interest play the fiddle for the first time. It's at a funeral, it's an important scene, and I wasn't capturing even a fraction of the feeling I needed. I told myself to keep going, cause you can fix bad, but you can't fix blank, right? But the more I wrote, the more discouraged I became. Now, that's not a typical reaction for me, I tend to stay fairly upbeat, but in that moment it was all there was. "Wow, this scene really stinks" snowballed into "wow, this entire project really stinks." Packing up my pencil and legal pad, I wondered if perhaps I shouldn't put the writing away for a while, a long while.

I was in the parking lot, beside my car, fumbling for the keys when I happened to look down and spot something shiny at my feet. Being the magpie that I am, I investigated. A necklace. And not just any necklace. A silver fiddle and bow. I went numb, my entire body frozen into one big goosebump, no more surprised than if a chunk of sky had fallen at my feet. Like the double rainbow guy, I wanted to shout, "What does this mean?"

Could it be coincidence? I really haven't tried to explain it to myself. That would take the magic away and I like this magic; this feeling of being watched over, guided. I read the serendipitous finding of the necklace as a sign to keep writing and since then, I've been writing every chance I can, which explains the long blog absenses.

Has something like this happened to you? I'd love to hear about it.

Blessings,

tessa-out walking

If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking.
Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.
-   Raymond Inmon