craft show update

reporting back from Craft Happy, Fremont...the show was FUN! a smaller venue and less foot traffic, but a success nonetheless. My magnets were a hit and I received several compliments on the journals I hand embroidered. Our table was fun to design and we also received many kind words on the cuteness of it all. Sylvia had these incredible handmade birds and eggs, which got the attention they deserved with all the awwwwe's and squeals of delight. She had this ingenious idea to make covers for kitchen mixers too and I hope to one day have one of my own.

We also had a last minute art show on our wall. Sylvia came up with the project --we used 3 of each others photographs to make a minimum of 3 pieces of artwork in 24 hours. We titled the show "Limits" to emphasize the limitations we set using these photos as departure points/inspiration. Sylvia is full of great ideas like this and I had to thank her for lighting a spark back into my creative being...This is the first real series of art that I have made since graduation! (that's 2 years and waaaay too long) It was interesting to see how my body tensed up and then loosened as I got further into art making process. It was also interesting to see my color pallet and use of animal imagery were alive and well as they came right back into the creations I made without hesitation.

I am exhausted but elated. I plan to regroup and use the fact that I have plenty of left over stock to set aside craft time for art time.

off to Sonoma tomorrow to celebrate 2 years of happy marriage.

until soon!

x

long live the king

a combination of things, both deeply personal and mundane, has helped me embrace the fact that i rely on my intuition far more than i do my education. being raised with education at the highest level of human accomplishment, i struggled between what comes naturally to me and what i must work rather hard to achieve.

recently this matter has been weighing on my mind because of how absolutely academic art has become. granted, it has been considered academic for over one hundred years, since the turn of the twentieth century, but it has grown into what i now see as a massive machine that encourages concepts over aesthetics. as an artist i really struggle with this because i respect both sides of this. there is nothing wrong with bringing a deep philosophy or profound concept to the creative process. i do however see how so many people, myself included, get roped into the idea that we have to prove ourselves intellectually to survive in the academic art world.

now i have a theory as to how this all came to be...
after years of the bohemian stereotype of the artist, the artist had a desire to prove to the world that making art is not something that happens when you are on a shit load of meth or in some sort of ecstatic trance or better yet that somehow art is more important than food and therefore we become the "starving artist"...no the artist had something to say beyond the poetry of their craft and was going to change the stereotype, prove their educated minds, study critical art theory, write about how physics, philosophy, mathematics, engineering, science and literature are all related to art and the artistic process, because it in fact does, and somehow prove to the world that we are not idiot savants with paintbrushes, but rather we are educated people who happen to make art.

and i really resonate with that rant because it came from my mind, yes, but it also came from my experience and the witnessing of others. artist does not equal idiot. okay we get it. but let us not let art become equal to crap. use your heart, your intuition, your skills, and yes, your education to create. create whatever it is you feel in the moment. let it evolve. let it sit and stare at you until you get it. until you feel it in a way that drives you to make more. just refrain from trying too hard to prove yourself to someone else. an certainly try to avoid thinking too much-so much that you lose the balance between your creative energy and your intellect. in short, trust your instincts without over thinking them.

for my own process i have come to understand that everything i do, i do best when i use my intuition. draw, paint, sing, dance, cook, learn, love. and in the process i become more educated. imagine that.

here's to not letting others determine your self worth or the worth of your creations. here's to making art that matters to you. here's to making art an integral part of life. here's to the art of living. long live art.