Sweet Summer Reading

I’ve loved books and been an avid reader from a young age – I inherited that trait from my father.

He was a keen reader, too, and many Saturday afternoons I would accompany my dad to the library where we would go our separate ways – him to the adult fiction, me to the young readers section. He liked books featuring metaphysical phenomenon and I liked books about animals. When our arms were full he would come find me, or I would go find him, and together we’d check out the materials that would occupy our attention over the next two weeks. My dad passed away when I was 17. It makes me smile to be fondly remembering our shared library practice so close to Father’s Day.
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Hamster Wheels and Buddhist Nuns

I often write, or share on social media, about how another artist’s work or practice inspires me. Sometimes, though, inspiration comes from unexpected places.

A few weeks ago I was slapped with an a-ha! moment while watching a food documentary series. I love escapist visual media (ooh, Netflix, you are the perfect accomplice to my obsessive binge watching tendencies). Even when I’m watching so-called empty calorie TV I’m tuned in to catch sparks that might set flame to an epiphany.

Let me set the stage, or shall I say table, for you…
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Unfair Art Fair Appraisal?

Oh, Armory Week Art Fairs (sigh).

Maybe I was particularly discerning this season. Maybe the art presented wasn’t as good as other years. Or maybe, just maybe, living in New York has turned me into an big ol’ Art Snob.
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The “C” Word

More and more often my work has been eliciting the response, “Cute!”

This is bizarre to me because I feel like the art has become sharper and more political than it ever has been with lots of weapons, penises, and some rather overt violence.
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My Mutty Valentine

A true and timely tale about love, socks, and fate.

From the time I was a wee bairn I loved to create. A box of assorted odds and ends and glue or tape was absolute heaven to me. I knew even then that the purest version of myself emerged when I was in the act of making.

When I was around seven years old I made a puppet out of an old, navy sock that had been my father’s. Using scraps of felt, buttons and glue I transformed a utilitarian accessory into a wily dragon, capable of expressing itself with a myriad of emotions.
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The Making Of…Tourist Attraction, Kahlo, Little Deer

This particular piece is at the forefront of my mind as I’ve just submitted it to an Art From Art call where the criteria is artwork that has been inspired by existing works of art created by other artists. I thought it would be fun to share the back story on this older but seminal piece of mine.

Tourist Attraction, Kahlo, Little Deer (1946) is the result of a mental mash-up of a vintage family vacation photo and one of my all time favourite Frida Kahlo paintings, Little Deer, painted in 1946.

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When Molehills Are Actually Mountains

This month I have been considering small things that have had a big impact.

We’ve all had them – those seemingly unimportant encounters that ended up making such an impression that they influence the way we move in the world.

For me, there is one particular encounter that vastly shaped the way I work and create art – a molehill that was mountainous in its effect.
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Clown Parade: A Summer Studio Break

The past few months have been dominated by back-end tasks that ate away at my studio time in a big way. So big, in fact, they even squeezed my monthly blog post out of the schedule!

I know, I know – it’s all part of my practice. The admin counts as much as the creating.

Unfortunately, the admin doesn’t feel as good as the creating. Making art energizes me. After a good, solid day in the studio I feel inspired. Completing admin tasks, on the other hand, has quite the opposite affect.

Although I feel a satisfying sense of accomplishment when I check those essential admin tasks off my list (I love having an updated website that features ALL of my finished work to date and I’m excited to have an online store that I’m on the brink of launching), a schedule heavy on admininstration leaves me feeling depleted, uninspired, and more than a little grumpy.

The remedy, of course, is to immerse myself in some intensive studio play.
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Armory Week Debrief

I have a pathological hatred for winter but I always look forward to the first weekend in March – Armory Week.

While the goal of the galleries might be to sell as much work as possible, the fairs are a useful resource for artists. The shows are an efficient way to information gather on pricing, display tactics, and the subtle sussing out of potential galleries that one might want to approach later regarding representation.

The fairs are also useful for pure inspiration’s sake.
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“It Takes Forever If You Go By Inertia”

I am the type of person who picks a theme word in January to help keep focused and on task for the year.

Most years the theme is obvious to me and the word comes easy. Not this year. This year I struggled. I think it’s because I’m anticipating a milestone year ahead and I assigned a great weight to the outcome of my word choice. I was feeling so much pressure to choose the “right” word that I paralyzed myself – I couldn’t’ choose any theme at all.

I convinced myself to stop trying to force it, and, in the paradoxical way of the universe, once I stopped looking for it my theme word came to find me.
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Get Out of Goal, Free

I’m a Virgo and in typical Virgo nature I LOVE structure.

To-do lists, goals, annual plans, quarterly reviews – any kind of system or tool that takes all the stuff swirling around my brain and puts it in an efficient holding place is super sexy to me.

This level of organization might come off as a bit incongruent for an artist type person but it’s key to my success.
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Sponge vs. Knife

Addendum: I found the unpublished draft of this post in a folder on my laptop.  I wrote it in April and then squirreled it away to use in the not-too-distant future. Then, like many a squirrel, I forgot where I buried the nut (truthfully, I forgot I even had the nut at all).

Much has evolved since I first penned this, both in my personal life and the world at large. I publish it now, as it seems that a reminder to keep an open and expansive mindset might be welcome at this time.

I love our Long Island City apartment.

Part of that fondness is a result of the fact that my husband and I are the first people to live in the unit; brand new floors, new walls, new sinks, and new appliances. Everything is shiny and perfect. Well…almost.
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Process Is A Road Trip

When you work at your vocation intensely, you develop a deep understanding of your process.

Recognizable habits start to surface and cycles become apparent. You begin to note things, like how you approach and actualize your ideas.

You begin to know what kind of creator you are and how you drive your creativity.
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Persistence Is Fertile

Today I arrived at the studio and felt like I’d hit a wall. I didn’t know how I was going to proceed with the new series.

I was brutally uninspired.

Which flabbergasted me because I’ve been having a crackin’ good time in the studio lately, highly motivated, productive and busting out work that I’m super happy with.

Not today. Today my flow hit a road bump.
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Possessed With Being Obsessed

Many creatives are fueled by obsession.

Obsession with a subject. Obsession with a material. Obsession with a colour. Obsession with all of the above and much, much more.

I am no exception.
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Open Studios 2016: Virtual Redux

April showers brought May flowers…and May, of course, brought the Long Island City Arts Open Festival.

Last year I went all in, participating as much as I could in all the ways that were available: silent auction, group exhibits, even volunteering a bit of my time as admin support.

This year I had to make the tough decision to scale back my involvement so that I could fulfill a commitment I made to myself in January – to debut a wall full of brand new work at the Open Studios weekend.

Work in progress - ready enough to be put into frames and viewed!

Work in progress – ready enough to be put into frames and viewed! Curious about the empties?  I worked on two pieces during the open studios and managed to fill one of the frames by the end of the weekend.

For those of you who were unable to make it to the festival itself (or ran out of time to see all the things!) I’ve curated some photos and put together a virtual open studio.
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Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien

Otherwise titled: “When Saying “No” to a Perfectly Good Opportunity is the Right Thing to Do”.

In the past month I have turned down what might seem, to the outsider, to be two perfectly good opportunities.

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The Best Worst Thing

In my February newsletter I revealed my latest passion – drawing and painting on Dura-lar. The week after the newsletter published I went into the studio and noticed this:
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New Year’s Revelation

Some folks like to start off the New Year with a big, shiny resolution.  Personally, I’m not keen on resolutions.  I’d rather spend my time doing some inwardly focused planning and uncover a New Year’s revelation.
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Know When To Hold ‘Em, Know When To Fold ‘Em

Or in this particular case, know when to fix it, know when to nix it.

I have a pretty tenacious “never say die” attitude and, thanks to my proud Scottish heritage, a fairly benevolent Level of Broken-ness Scale that I refer to when confronted with holey clothing, damaged tools and faulty electronics.
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Can It Be Wrong If It Feels So Write?

Lately I’ve been weighing options linked to the next stage of my practice.  I am circling ever closer to the notion of grad school – getting past the awkward shy stage of a first idea and taking steps that make the concept of acquiring my MFA more than, ahem, conceptual.

So far I’ve been to three info/tour sessions and I’ve registered for another three in the coming months.

I’m finding the sessions incredibly valuable – and not just for logistics gathering like cost and program structure. Tours are an opportunity to try on the vibe of a place and see if it’s my size.
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Confession From A Middle-aged Artist

I don’t enjoy networking.

There, I said it.

I have a tendency to avoid openings and gallery events (note to young artists – I don’t recommend this, it puts a big cramp in your ability to foster a sense of a community).
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How I Spent This Summer

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The temperature hasn’t cooled off much, but as we edge ever closer to Labor Day I know it’s almost over – soon summer will be a sweet, distant memory.

With the academic year just around the corner it seems fitting that I write a “How I Spent This Summer” post (the verb “spent” being apropos, as summer days are such precious currency).
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If You Go to a Gallery LOOK at the Art!

When I was thirty I had the good fortune to be in Paris, wandering starry-eyed through the Picasso Museum.

As I was standing in front of a piece, absorbed in the painting, I noticed a woman walking quickly through the gallery, a video camera aimed at the walls.  She breezed around the perimeter of the room and then moved on to the next room and did the same.
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Arty Books and Docs That Rock

I love reading biographies and watching documentaries – any narrative that gives the back-story on the experiences and processes that make a person, place, or thing is so fascinating to me.

My favorite subcategory within these genres, not surprisingly, is creative.
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Hot Town, Summer In The City

Solstice is just around the corner and there have already been a few steamy days in June, hinting at the sweltering New York summer to come.

I’m an August baby with very fond summer vacation memories but I’m also a typical ginger: extremely pale and sun-sensitive…crispy-fried-from-the-sunlight-vampire-skin-sensitive. UV exposure aside, I simply don’t function well above 84F.

Keeping that in mind, I’m starting to plan my Summer Studio Strategy.
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Force Majeure

A year ago I wrote about the perils of being too comfortable and how that can affect one’s motivation and growth.

Well, after 12 months of leaning into some terrific – and sometimes uncomfortable – growth, the universe must think I am still wa-a-a-y too comfortable in my current situation.  An extra dash of force majeure has been thrown into the mix.
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The Artist Is Open

From May 14-17th I participated in this:

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It.  Was.  AWESOME.

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