Seeing, Feeling, Expressing

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens. --Carl Jung

After enjoying hundreds of visitors who came to my studio last night for First Friday, I realize just how much of an equation there is between making art and sharing it. That exchange feels magical when what we make is well received by others. We encounter that energy in concerts, in live performances and sporting events. Athletes, actors, dancers, musicians all perform to audiences and whether small or large, our creativity comes full circle when shared. 

For many of us who are makers, our creative selves are always reaching. I’m feeling an internal desire now to focus on emotional content in new work.  What is it that makes some pieces evoke a deep emotional response?

Colors, shapes, lines and textures can communicate feeling, either what the artist feels internally or their responses to the world around them. The Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s believed the best way to express pure emotion was to create nonobjective or totally abstract artworks. They saw the use of colors, shapes, lines and textures as vital to expressing deep emotional states.

What feelings or emotions do you wish to express through your works? How do you choose color, shape, line and textures to communicate those? 

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen. ~Leonardo da Vinci

Exploration: Sculptural Forms

 

Three-dimensional forms are my current focus – O.K, more like a fixation.  I’m working on a new series to combine wire armatures and handmade paper – using either freshly couched, wet sheets  or dipping armatures into paper pulp. The high shrinkage of 4-hour beaten abaca pulp from Carriage House Papers  lends itself to this process. The results are incredibly durable, even though they look very fragile.

 

. Jeanne Beck, Layers, 6” x9”, wire and paper sculpture mounted on hardwood covered with handmade paper, tea bag papers, gesso. I’m researching sources for a thin drop-in frame for these. Any suggestions for sources? My husband hopes you will please share them to get him off the hook for more R&D assignments!

Freshly dipped wire forms, drying on a wooden rack in my studio. The drying process takes three to four days. The moisture rusts the ungalvanized wire I use. Some pieces may be dipped, partially dried and dipped again several times to accumulate layers.

 

My resident R&D department has been helping to design stands to provide another presentation option for these small works.

 

My vision for this series – much like my current fluttering pages pieces – is to work with repetition. I visualize rows and rows of them hanging together.

I’ll  work this week to complete 11 more pieces. That will allow me to see how they look as multiples. If successful, then I’ll create 24 in this first series to hang 6 across and 6 down. If not successful, then back to the drawing board. Ideally, working with multiples will allow galleries and collectors flexibility for purchasing and presentation. More ideas for combining and hanging these together are evolving.

Special thanks to two excellent workshop teachers, Mo Kelman and Melissa Jay Craig, for providing so much excellent information and assistance in starting down this trail. Melissa is teaching 3-D papermaking again at Women’s Studio Workshop this summer, if you are interested.

A Shiny Winter Tonic

 

Main Street Art Gallery, located in a picturesque two-story building in Clifton Springs, NY, decided to counteract winter’s chill by inviting an eclectic mix of artists (my absolute favorite type of show) to participate in Solid Gold, a celebration of glowing 2 and 3-D works featuring ceramics, sculpture, painting and mixed media. All works incorporate metallic paint or gold leaf on their surfaces.

The opening was great fun, one of the best ones I’ve been to, friendly and down to earth and the perfect tonic for a cold, dark January day. 

Main Street Art Gallery also invited me to contribute a post to their Inside the Artist Studio series and I hope you will click the link and take a look.

Confession. I haven’t blogged in over a year. I was questioning so many things about being an artist including what place art has in our culture. Then I realized my job is to be true to my own inner inspirations and share that with anyone who is interested. I can’t control or often understand what’s happening in the rest of the world but I can choose to live my own life each day connected to my spirit of adventure and creativity.

So creating – the research, experiments, failures, explorations and victories that all go into turning ideas into form – are where we’ll go this year on these pages. Comment, share, join in the dance – those who love creating are a tribe and I’m eager to meet more of mine.

Mindful Marketing Practices, Step One

 AUDIENCE 

       This image is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicagogeek/4333114156/

 Since I’m endlessly curious, clearing my mind to practice mindfulness is important to me. So are setting intentions. I started this year with a personal vision quest – eight full days -- through snowstorms and subzero temps (in Chicago, I’m told, the zookeepers even brought the polar bears indoors!). 

 My retreat unfolded this way. First I happened onto a self-inventory called "The Gifts of 2013" from Susannah Conway. I spent New Year’s Day writing until I had filled it all out.  When I reviewed what I had written about the pluses and minuses of 2013, I savored the confident, positive woman I saw reflected back to me.

 A few days later I met with two fellow artists with long corporate careers and much expertise to discuss our desires and directions for 2014. I acknowledged that I am very savvy about marketing for others but not on my own behalf.  Could I change that mindset and still be true to my own values? Indeed I can.

As I take steps this year to make my work more visible, then my audience -- those people who will invest in my works -- will find me. How can people purchase my work if they don’t know it exists?

Just who is my desired audience? As I visualize them, here's what I see:

• You appreciate contemporary art. It ignites your interest and delights you. You surround yourself with original art in your home and office.

• You have confidence in your taste. You trust your instincts.

• You're informed. You learn about the artists who interest you.  If possible, you visit their studios and connect with them personally.
• 
  
•  You're comfortable with contemporary art. You make it a point to visit museum exhibitions and gallery shows because you enjoy learning.  You spend time with a work to really see and appreciate it.

• You share your enthusiasm for the arts and artists with your friends, family and co-workers. You may be low-key about it but you are definitely an advocate for artists. 

• You think for yourself. You enjoy purchasing art that will increase in value but you don’t make your purchases based on profits. Today’s stars come and go in contemporary art as in music and movies; you choose to buy art that captivates you rather than follow trends and passing fads.

• You are a genuine, compassionate and interesting person. You probably wouldn’t find visual art appealing if you weren’t!

My audience is out there – and since I  have a clearer idea of who they are, it will be easier to develop ideas for how to reach them.

 

 

New Explorations: Chapter 1

So many of you have expressed interest in what my new directions will be. The core of my ideas and concepts are not changing, I’m just not using dyes and silk as my materials.

I am still deeply committed to considering the effects of time and aging on memory and personal identities through my “fluttering pages” series.

But yes, a new series of pieces using paper pulp is now underway. Raphaela McCormack, a talented artist and friend, is teaching me about working with it. Do go to her website and look at her work; I love her sailing vessels and canoes.

            First, Raphaela showed me how to form basic sheets of paper.

             Then we set up the wet room to dive into testing out a few of my specific ideas. On the right is a sample threadwork memory map dipped into and layered with pulp.

My first “paper and threadwork” sculptural sample hangs on my design wall. So much potential!

Like every first try, my eye sees issues to resolve for the next ones, but it’s an exciting beginning.

Hungerford Artists: Thaw 3 Delivers Diversity

For the third year, artists from the Hungerford Building combined forces March 1 –8 to show their work in “Thaw 3”. “Thaw” exhibits have taken place all over Rochester and surrounding areas, a collaboration of Regional Gallery Directors’ Forum at Roberts Wesleyan College.

The diversity of mediums and subject matter in the Hungerford “Thaw” shows are always inspiring, but more so are the commitment and focus evident in the artists’ works.

 

Even with over 20 artists displaying multiple works, this huge studio space in the building could have held more! Here is a small selection of the works in this years THAW 3:

Robert Rogaliski’s (studio #222) wonderful imagination comes to life in this mixed media work, titled “Falling Leaf”.

Detail, “Falling Leaf”, mixed media, Robert Rogalski

Cody Kroll’s “Chadogu – Tea Utensils”, an installation featuring vessels using 16th century and modern American shino glazes.  Cody writes in his artist statement at his website, “In the last few years I have become fascinated conceptually by the "living" nature of clay and themes of impermanence.” See a full view in the image at the top of this page.  Cody’s studio is #228.

 Larry Moss and Kelly Cheatle, “Light Snack”, Airigami, studio #234, silver halide print, young girl with balloon sculpture.

Hungerford is home base for Airigami, where Larry Moss and Kelly Cheatle design balloon installations for venues all over the country. They’re currently awaiting publication of two children’s books they’ve written and illustrated with – of course -- their innovative balloon works.

One of my favorite artists in the building is Michael Pigett, who paints cloud paintings that are gentle, sensitive contemplations of light and movement. I left some the background surrounding this painting in because the two interact in such an interesting way. 

Michael Pigett, “Clouds”, oil on canvas

Olivia Kim, “Walking Woman”, studio #335, hydrocal and encaustics. Olivia’s love of the figure and her supreme attention to realistic detail inform her body of work.

Many thanks to Constance Mauro and Jennifer Buckley for coordinating the Hungerford Thaw 3 exhibit.

 If you live in the Rochester area, please visit the Hungerford Building, 1115 East Main St., Rochester, NY,  on First Friday Gallery Nights (go to this page for a listing of the studios open each month) and enjoy offerings of art and craft in every conceivable medium.

Visiting First Friday at Hungerford combines adventure, inspiration – and good exercise! – all in one convenient indoor location.

Parking is crazy on First Fridays, but here’s the way to avoid the crowds: Just park across the road in the bank parking lot or half a block down on the same side of East Main at the Greenovations building. Plenty of room in both! And do make sure to come visit me in studio #366!

 

2013 Niche Award and JGK Galleries’ Art ROC Showcase Winner

 

This excellent week started with discovering that Book of the Ancients 8: Bethel Park Elementary, won a 2013 Niche Award in decorative fiber. My piece, among 40 professional and 19 student winners, will be featured in the spring issue of Niche Magazine. This was the first time I entered Niche, so I was doubly pleased, first to be selected as a finalist and then to receive this prestigious award for my work.

My Book of the Ancients pieces consider the effects of time on memory and personal histories.

But that’s not all the delightful surprises this week brought.  Last night Bob and I attended the closing reception for JGK Galleries’ Art ROC Showcase, which features 12 regional artists. This juried exhibition offered a first prize of gallery representation and a solo show for one of the artists. Last night when the winning name was announced, it was – mine!

JGK’s space is warm and inviting with brick walls, gleaming hardwood floors and generous wall space, as well as ample room for 3-D works.

Out of twelve artists, Renee Simone-Lee and I were the two women selected to exhibit in the JGK Galleries Art ROC 2013 Showcase. Of course we rock!

Tonight will be the last night to see JGK Galleries Art ROC Showcase 2013, which will be open for First Friday gallery night in Rochester. Check out JGK’s Facebook page and you can see work by all 12 artists in the exhibition.

If good things come in threes, that means I can look forward to one more bit of good news arriving. It is fun to imagine all the good things that might be!