Mother's Day- Artist as Mom

(In a nod to Mother's Day, this is a repost of a previous writing. To bring you up to date, my daughter is now going to be 23 in a couple of weeks and preparing to go off to Thailand with her boyfriend for a summer of teaching English and adventure. I'm so proud of her and her fearless spirit and miss her terribly at the same time....)


My life is never seperated from my work and I have created a plethora of paintings around mothering as I journey along in one of the greatest adventures of my life.  I thought I would continue with this subject in this month when mothers are celebrated. 

Most of my paintings come from a very personal place. Even some of my cow paintings tell stories about what's going on in my life, such as in "Eat Your Broccoli" which depicts a momma cow and her  calf in a surreal field of raining broccoli. (A nod to Magritte) This painting was inspired by my Kayla who wouldn't eat broccoli as a little girl.

Before I even knew I was pregnant, I painted "My neighborhood", which depicts myself, my husband (in between the two houses) and our neighbors on their respective porches. There I am talking on the porch, very preggers, while my husband looks on.

 When I was actually pregnant, I painted this one, "Pregnant Artist." I have to laugh when I recall my pre-teen girl begging me to take it off the wall so her friends wouldn't see it. So much for being sophistcated about a little artistic nudity even though I tried to not actually show much :0) Note the Van Gogh calendar in the background and the rooster in the window. Van Gogh is my favorite and the rooster is symbolic of my husband whose last name in German means "rooster".

Sometimes I run into women who tell me that they were artists until their kids were born and then they stopped. I would just as much have stopped breathing. I don't know how they could do that, maybe they were less driven than me, but I never stopped. It helped that she was such a good, easy baby. I used to get up around 4:30 in the morning before she woke so I could paint a little, or sometimes she would sit and watch me in her little bouncy chair. At 19 months, she had her own plastic easel, paint and tam. She too created very colorful works, though she was an abstract expressionist at that time :0)..

As wonderful a baby as she was, just the shock of becoming parents can be overwhelming. The shift that takes place in your life from self centered to other-centered, and the responsibility of it all is all encompassing. I have depicted these feelings in the painting "New Baby", where the beautiful little diapered one is a giant in the space, overtaking the picture and the lives of the Mommy whom she holds in the palm of her hand and her Daddy by a string.

Having a child also was bringing up a lot of stuff for me as she grew. It was like she was holding up a mirror that reflected my life, causing me to worry and wonder about if I could make her life bettter than my upbringing had been. In this painting "Toddler" she is a hybrid of herself and me. She stands, again overwhelming the picture, but she is standing off the curb in a street between two houses, representative of the New Jersey street where I grew up. (Boy, did I have fun painting that bunny)

I painted her many more times as she has grown up, less as she approached her pre- teen and teen years when I could barely get her to be near me or smile, until this one (Flying through Life) which I painted last year, when she was leaving to go to college. It was so hard to let her go and I couldn't believe that that she was leaving already.

She and I are depicted flying through the air in our matching Mommy-Daughter dresses that I had made, through a world of things that I had taught her about or that we had discovered together.

 As I write this I am tearing up again......I know there are plenty more paintings to paint and the journey with her is not over. I just miss my baby.

The action packed first few weeks of a New Year

 My family and I went to New Orleans for a family vacation Jan 2-9. It was fun. Not a place on my "go back to" list, but a great family adventure which was the whole point.

For my artistic curiosities in New Orleans, I looked up and visited a few pottery joints and the Ogden Museum of Southern Artists and the Scuplture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art. I went into quite a few galleries and an artists co-op in the French Quarter and perused a lot of art on the street. I found  a very talented young man and bought a print of his charcoal drawing of a parade on Royal Street.

We walked 30 miles around the city that week so we were pretty tuckered out when we got back to Pa. so we came home, layed on the couch and watched almost every previous episode of Downton Abbey with my daughter each night, drank a lot of wine and lamented that she would be going back to school within days.

My awesome niece Suzi came to visit and she and I and my daughter visited Isaiah's Magic Garden in Philadelphia. (ok, they call it Philadelphia's Magic Garden now because it became a non profit to save it from the bulldozer, but the city didn't build it, Isaiah did, so I'm still going to call it that!)

I bought clay while I was in Philly and a new glaze at The Ceramic Shop that I have never used  called "Magic Glaze" (how fitting) and that allegedly produces different results with almost every firing. Hmmm, can't wait to use it. I bought a gallon. $49 bucks! Hope I like it!

We spent the rest of the weekend binge watching more Downton Abbey with my daughter and niece drinking a lot of wine (did I say that already?) in our pajamas and  only surfaced into the world to take my neice to the movies for her first Dine-in Theatre experience, where we ate food and drank martini's and wine.

You may be wondering, since this is a blog about my artistic life, where does the art part come into this post?  Well, sadly for me, my daughter went back to school, my niece went back home to North Carolina, my husband went back to work after his long vacation and I have been at home again alone just  starting to rekindle the momentum of producing art and letting ya all know what I'm up to through the cyber world.

Now that all is quiet and I have returned into the studio, I have:

 *begun work on a new painting for that show in March which  I mentioned in my previous post.

Cat at Cafe du Monde in progress

 *spent a couple of afternoons making some cute little miniature houses which I intend to add to my wholesale catalog

These are not fired yet. I will post next week with the WIP

*Designed and printed postcards for upcoming March show

*Designed and printed new business cards.

* I've also begun a new relationship with Mala Galleria in Kennett Square where my pottery will be available for sale.

 
We got snowed in for a day during the great northeast Snowmageddon, so I did some baking and cleaning and purging of some closets and rooms.

My studio after round one still looking like springtime

My burnt pumpkin cheesecake. It still tasted good.

So there. See. It was action packed and I did do a lot despite the languishing around in pajamas watching television. (Sometimes a body just has to take time to rejuvenate) !

Today, as I work around the studio on my current painting , I am going to start another one as soon as I figure out what it will be.

Next week, I will post some works in progress in painting or clay or both. Gotta keep it going!

8 Days in France- Caen,Stinky Cheese,Calvados and New Friends

After leaving the lovely town of Rouen, we started driving toward Caen. On the way we stopped at a Cheese Factory. It was kind of funny because I kept thinking that this was the French equivalent of the Herr's Potato Chip factory near my home which gives tours and samples.  Inside it was much the same with the welcome area explaining in the process, the introductory videos, the long hallways with windows into the different making and curing rooms with the gift shop and tasting room at the end.

We got there in the afternoon, so unfortunately we didn't get to see any live workers because they milk the cows and start making the cheese while it is fresh very early in the morning and then go home, so that made the tour a bit dull until we got to the gift room. This was filled not only with your typical tourist cha cha's but with all kind of tasty delights which I had never seen or heard of. This is where my first encounter with Calvados, Cidre, and the very stinky cheeses that the Normandy region is known for occurred.

Calvados is a drinkable brandy created, believe it or not, from apples.It is very tasty and one of my new favorite drinks. Our tour guide said that when she was a little girl,her mother would cook a 13 course dinner on Sundays. They would spend hours at the table and in the middle of the meal, every one would take a shot of Calvados, because they say it puts a hole in your stomach so you can eat more! It is aged and priced like whiskies according to age and Calvados Boulard is one of the most famous brands.  

Normandy boasts the famous villages of Camembert, Pont-l'Evêque and Livarot and makes cheeses bearing their names. They also make a Neufchatel that is nothing like what we buy in the grocery store.

Cider  In an area so well known for growing apples it should come as no surprise that there is also a large cider industry.  The main production centres around the Pays d’Auge between Caen and Lisieux. We bought a bottle of the cider which happens to be alcoholic (about 5.6%) and I have to say that this was NOT my favorite. Nor was the  Pont-l'Evêque that we bought to eat with it.

 Once we left the cheese factory and headed to our hotel, I went upstairs to our room. The hotel seemed like the freakiest place because you walked into dark hallways and had to feel along the wall to find a light. Oh, those energy conscious Europeans! I don't think this would ever play in the US! Our hotel was in a quaint residential area and when I entered our modest hotel room, dumped my gear and looked out our window, I saw that it overlooked a back yard that seemed to be peppered with art and sculpture. I opened the window (you can actually do that in a European hotel) and stood taking inventory of the scene. In addition to the art and sculpture, there were people sitting in chairs and listening to someone read under a canopy and a table with wine glasses and lots of bottles of wine on it. All of these items put together in my head = art opening!

I grabbed Dyana and we headed around the corner to investigate. We found the opening to the yard and we slinked in timidly at first in case we were intruding on some private affair, but it became clear very quickly that this was indeed a show and sale of local artists. The home we later learned had been owned by a prominent French artist who had no heirs and had left it as an art center when she recently died.

Dyana is fluent in French and began speaking with one of the artists who was perched at a table under a tree, leaning back, smoking french cigarettes with some others. I stood around in amazement at what luck had brought us. Was it not enough to be in France and treading the ground of my artistic heroes, but now to be visiting with modern, living french artists? I was absolutely giddy inside! They were all so friendly and nice. Jeanne Francois spoke some English and took us to see his paintings in one of the co-op spaces where his show was hung. We conversed awkwardly about being artists (he said he had bagged the corporate life to be an artist) but the smiles and friendly laughter transcended the language.

We had to leave for dinner but when I went to close the window in my room, Karin, a friend of the other artists, saw me and insisted that we come back over and drink some wine with them. Dyana and I went back over and sat in the yard with JF, Karin, David and a lovely gentle man named Emmanuel. Dyana did most of the talking and I listened to them all converse in French but it's amazing how much can be picked up and communicated  through, laughter, smiles, hand gestures and nods. It was such a wonderful night. One I will never forget. Jeanne Francois is my friend on Facebook and you should check out his art and say hello. (Facebook translates comments). This is undoubtedly one of the best nights I had in France.

Jeanne Francois Pientre Peslot

David, JF, Karin, Emmanuel (L to R)

Dyana

Body and Soul- Art for health

Reprinted from CreativityinHealthcare.com

Now, onto integrating Creativity in Healthcare…

Effects of Art in Lowering Pain Levels

The power of art to heal emotional, spiritual and psychic wounds is well known, but could looking at art considered beautiful or magnificent have the same effect on physical pain? Researchers at the University of Bari in Italy also wondered this and decided to investigate.

Research was coordinated by the neurological and psychiatric sciences department at the University of Bari, Italy. Principle investigator, Dr Marinade Tommaso, concludes that looking at paintings identified as ‘beautiful’ may lower pain levels in hospital patients, than those looking at bare walls or plain pictures in disrepair. (crystallized testosterone & estrogen, Marti Hand)

Lead researcher and neurologist, Dr Marina de Tommaso and assistants asked 24 healthy adults (12 women & 12 men) to select 20 paintings they considered most ugly, and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso and Botticelli from an online art website.

They were then asked to contemplate either the beautiful paintings, ugly paintings, or a blank panel while the team administered short laser pulses on their hands causing a pricking sensation. Below are the conclusions made by the researchers of the study:

• The subjects rated the pain as being 1/3 less intense while viewing the ‘beautiful’ paintings compared with the pain levels experienced while viewing paintings they considered ugly or the blank panel.
• Brain wave activity showed a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at positive or beautiful paintings, such as Starry Night by Van Gogh and The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. Artwork considered ugly or plain included art by Pablo Picasso, Fernando Botero and Antonio Bueno. Remember, the subjects selected the art they considered beautiful, ugly or uncomely at the beginning of the study.
• Dr. Tommaso states, “Beauty obviously offers a distraction that ugly things do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse.” By viewing aesthetically pleasing artwork, pain levels maybe reduced or changed at the cortical level in the brain.
• *Brain scans showed “a clear inhibition of the P2 wave amplitude, localised in the anterior cingulate cortex”. (The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a role in regulating blood pressure and heart rate, cognitive functions such as anticipating reward, decision-making, empathy and emotion).

Sources: 1)de Tommaso M, Sardaro M, Livrea P. Aesthetic value of paintings affects pain thresholds. Consciousness and Cognition Dec 2008; 17(4): 1152-1162. 2) University World News, 3) New Scientist

ACTIVATE THE BODY’S SELF-HEALING PROPERTIES BY EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ART MAKING AND SELF-CARE WITH

Creative Interventions in Healthcare:

• Art-making
• Writing
• Music
• Dance
• Humor
• Laughter clubs
• Art exhibits with artwork created by patients, families, professional staff
• Indoor and outdoor gardens
• Art at the bedside
• Creative interventions for healthcare professionals
• Integrative medicine modalities
• Limitless possibilities

Below are 2 paintings created by 2 participants in a Creativity Workshop for People with Cancer & Families. What’s more interesting than the fact of it being their first time painting are their stories behind the paintings.

Nature Inspires Art

At the Lascaux caves in France, paintings more than 17,000 years old depict horses, deer, bulls and other animals that once roamed the land.

Two paintings from the Ming Dynasty show the important role nature has played in Chinese art. Mountains in particular were revered as the manifestation of “qi”—nature’s power.

French post-impressionist painter Henri Rousseau, known for his exotic landscapes, once said: “Nothing makes me so happy as to observe nature and to paint what I see.”

Often described as the “Father of Modern Art,” Paul Cezanne was moved to paint the image of Mont Sainte-Victoire in southern France more than 60 times.

From the beginning of human history, nature has played a vital role in our creative expression. The lands and waters we rely on for daily survival shape how we view and interpret the world around us. And in turn, the art we create from nature’s inspiration becomes part of our personal and cultural identity.

In the United States, many people have rafted down the Mississippi River with Huck Finn or proudly sang of America’s “purple mountain majesties” – a reference to Pike’s Peak in Colorado.

In China, since the earliest dynasties, artists have glorified mountains as being the manifestation of nature’s vital power “qi,” attracting rain clouds that water crops and providing medicinal herbs that cure the sick. And in France, cave paintings have been found of horses, deer and bulls dating back more than 17,000 years.

Nature’s beauty and power is ingrained in our lives, our history and our culture. By conserving nature, we are helping nurture our artistic spirit and ensuring that future generations will continue to find inspiration in the natural world around us.

(-Reprinted from The Nature Conservancy)

Ansel Adams looked to nature as his muse. This photo of Grand Teton National Park, WY, is from a series of photos commissioned in 1941 by the Interior Department.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” in Pennsylvania exemplifies the influence nature played in the architect’s designs. “I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day's work,” Wright said.

Claude Monet’s famous “water lilies” series was based on his garden at his home in Giverny, France.

Down 'n Dirty with Clay

A friend reminded me today of where my head was at around last September. It wasn't a good place. I had had a very bad time with doing outdoor festivals. Much of it attributable to painful problems with my right foot. But also a general burnout of the show scene, coupled with a slow economy and a feeling that I was stuck in a rut with my work. While complaining to said friend, I mentioned that I felt that I had to change things up, that I was bored, that I felt pigeon holed into what I was doing. (My cow paintings) CREATIVE CRISIS had struck! Thank goodness I had a Christmas commission for a couch painting which allowed me some leeway and a break from painting cows. Don't get me wrong, I love my wild cowies, but I just wasn't feelin' it.

Come around December when my daughter began painting lessons with a friend of mine, I wandered into the clay studio to kill some time and fool around with throwing on the wheel, something I had never done. I think I got hooked the first time I got my hands and pants all dirty trying to center the clay on the wheel and do my first pulls. I had found that new challenge, that new outlet that I was yearning for. I had forgotten about my angry rants in September. I was telling my friend how I seem to run to the clay studio every free chance I get now and that's when she reminded me of the dreadful headspace i was in just a short time ago. Now, I am having so much fun learning so many new techniques and ways of making things. The coolest thing about clay is that it teaches a control freak like me to let go. Being a newbie, when I throw the clay on the wheel it often dictates to me what it will be. Sometimes it will bend to my will but often not. It teaches me to go with the flow. When I apply glazes, I can put colors together with my painters eye, but again have to accept what the clay and the glaze and the heat determine as the outcome, not me. So every Thursday, when the kiln gets opened, it's like Christmas or giving birth to something. Complete surprise. If you look through my archives, you will see the progression of where I started and where I am today. So much fun! In a few weeks, I will be having my Annual Holiday Open Studio. I have somehow managed to make pieces in the short time that I have been making pottery, that other people might like to own. (I know because I have sold a few already) Above is a sampling of some of my recent pieces that will be for sale at my Open Studio. Unfortunately, I haven't offered them for sale online due to shipping concerns. I can honestly say that each piece is one of a kind because I am just learning and wouldn't be able to replicate a piece if I tried. If you are in the area, I hope you will stop by my sale to see my awesome new pottery and my paintings and everything else I have to offer (including some great wine and snacks). I am sure I will continue painting. I rejoice in the knowledge that as a creative person, my life doesn't have to be just one thing. An artists life is a ongoing work of art, a creative process in itself which knows no boundaries. If you are thinking about trying something new yourself, I highly recommend it. Even if you don't think you are a creative person, spread your wings, try on something different and see what shakes out.

New Medium

Having been a painter for so many years I am having a blast exploring the new medium of clay. I had taught art for a few years but my ability with clay was always limited to hand building. A few months ago, my daughter began taking painting lessons with a friend of mine at the Art Studio in New Castle, De. I knew that another friend of mine taught clay there but since it is about 1/2 hour away, I didn't have the to motivation to go over there until I started taking my daughter. Now I am learning to throw pots on the wheel, some of which I have posted here-my humble first attempts. I so enjoy the getting out to be with other artists and the warmth and camaraderie of the studio. Everyone is so helpful and friendly and I am really enjoying the challenge of learning something new. I think I might be becoming addicted :0) These are just a few pictures to introduce you to the studio.