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Weems International Artfest, 2011

The Weems International Artfest was superb, the art exhibited there gets better every year. Many of the top artists in the Southwest participate: Chris Morel, Kristin DeSantis, Dan Stouffer, B.C. Nowlin, Russ Ball, Sarah Blumenshein, Fermin Hernandez etc. etc. Some of us have been a part of Artfest for many years and it’s interesting to see the growth and maturation in our expressions. The recession in our national economy may be affecting sales somewhat but it is not making a difference in the quality of the works of art nor in the amount of works being produced.

“In human life, art may arise from almost any activity, and once it does so, it is launched on a long road of exploration, invention, freedom to the limits of extravagance, interference to the point of frustration, finally discipline, controlling constant change and growth.“: Susanne Langer (1895 – 1985)

Weems International Artfest

Twenty three years! It’s hard to believe but I’ve been showing my works of art at the Weems International Artfest for twenty three years! An amazing range of emotions and experiences fill that history. Frustration, exhilaration, joy, madness, delight, sadness, hope satisfaction, affirmation….you name it, it’s been part of Artfest. Jeni, my daughter has been my right-hand helper at the show for about 8-10 years, before that Allen, my husband, made it all work for me. These days, the division of labor goes like this: I create the works, document them, maintain the mailing list, file the photographs and do some of the framing. Allen photographs the work, packs it and loads it into the car. Jeni unloads, installs and makes sales (she’s an all-round friendly PR person). I help them with their jobs and they help me with mine except for creating the works. What a deal! I’m one fortunate artist to have such a devoted and loving “staff.” Truly I could not do it without them!
I will take my new pieces from The Window Series which I wrote about in the last blog. Here are a few. I have posted some of the others on the pages of my website. (Note: click on the pages along the bottom of the heading on the homepage of the site)

The Window Series: Finestra watermedia/collage, 15X15 inches. This one is “floating in a clear maple frame.The Window Series: Habemus ad Dominum
collage, 10X10 inches, matted and framed in clear maple.

The Window Series: Western Window
collage, 10X10 inches, matted and framed in clear maple

Looking In, Looking out

“One eye looks within, the other eye looks without.”
(Henri Cartier-Bresson)

Window in the Duomo in Orvieto, Italy.
The panes in this equisite window are very thin slices of alabaster. They allow a sacred glow into the sanctuary of the Duomo.

“The artist must train not only his eye, but also his soul.”
(Wassily Kandinsky)

Narni Window
My recent concentration in the studio has been a consideration of what I’m choosing to call “Looking in, Looking out.” Robert Genn recently wrote in one of his twice weekly “letters” that his life as an artist is something akin to the monastic life. He wrote: “Art reaffirms life and is in harmony with many universal principles. Perhaps the studio is even greater than the nunnery or the monastery….To be in touch with creativity on a daily, even hourly, basis may just happen to edge you closer to divinity. If our universe is indeed a creation, then perhaps we need to be on that wavelength. Pushing paint is a high calling. To do it well you need humility. You need to walk the walk. You need a well-regulated, simple life so that you might become both servant and student.”
Perugia Window
Being the introspective type, I’ve encountered much of that “monastic life:” solitude, soul searching, and simplicity in my cluttered studio, but lately I’m feeling the need to look out also. If the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is to love others (Mark 12:30-31), my question is, am I loving others when I work in the studio alone? Am I “looking out” enough? Creating images is a task I consider to be an act of love and worship. It is indeed a high calling. But the personal touching of “others” is calling me. I’m choosing windows and maybe doors as metaphors for “looking in and looking out.” As I physically and spiritually “look,” I’m also metaphorically attempting it with paint and paper and glue and a variety of other embellishments.
San Gemini Window

“Above all, be patient. One looks, looks long,
and the world comes in.”( Joseph Campbell)

Spoleto Duomo: Rose Window

I’m looking long, prayerfully and meditatively, both inwardly and outwardly and I’m seeing more.

Window Series: Three Graces
10″X10″ collage
New pieces from the Window Series may be seen on the PAINTINGS page and also on the COLLAGE page of this website.

Art For Soul

The dedicated painters in the Art For Soul Critique Group in Albuquerque meet monthly to share their works-in-progress, and discuss ways to make them better. They have a very special camaraderie. As I critiqued with them they wanted to hear all my comments about the works and they had no qualms about letting the rest of the group hear each critique. They create some outstanding varied work don’t they? Half of the painters have focused on watercolors, two of them wanted to explore acrylics while I was with them. One painter is so ready to take the watercolor medium and her expressions to the edge! She is somewhat in transition already for she has been pushing it for some time. It reminds me of a scenario which reports that the creative person was called to the edge, “No, no, I will fall.” Again and again she was beckoned to the edge, “No, no, I will fall/fail.” Finally she let loose and came to the edge, she was pushed……… and she flew! (Sorry I cannot find the exact expression of that scenario, or to whom it belongs, but it is a powerful thing to consider.) May we all move willingly to the edge and learn that we will soar!

Judi Foster

Sue Ann Mika www.NMArtists.com

Mabel Culpepper

My apologies to Sandra Quinlan, Susan Birdsong and Lynda Burch www.lyndaburch.com You are courageous and determined dedicated painters. Although I received images, or captured them off websites, I was unable to make them arrive here. I will be happy to insert them if they can be sent to me in jpg format.
When I teach or work with other artists, I also learn. This group taught me much. I hope to paint with them again. They are an inspiration!
In April of 2012, I will teach INNOVATIVE WATERMEDIA WITH COLLAGE, a 3 day workshop. It will be part of the Masterworks event in Albuquerque. In that class I will more thoroughly demonstrate my process of layering, collaging, embellishing and pushing my images to the “edge.” Some of them actuually get “airborne by the Spirit and fly.” Always, the process is a charge; it doesn’t fail to enrich my creative spirit.

Work-In-Progress

During my time with the Art For Soul Critique group in Albuquerque, I selected a couple of my works-in-progress to work on. I remembered to take a few photos while I was working on the watermedia/collage piece which developed into an expression about geraniums and windows, which it seems are becoming symbols for my explorations of “Looking in-looking out:

This”start” has several layers of paint with collage papers glued to the surface. A cruciform composition is beginning to develop.

Decisions have been made about developing the upper white collage piece into a peaked shape, reds are shaped into geranium blooms and upper right is developing into geranium leaf shapes.

The white collage paper on the lower right inspired me to think in terms of three windows, balancing out the idea of three geraniums. Three of anything beautiful in a composition reminds me of the Holy Trinity. I accented the little reds in the lower windows, and suggested divisions within the window spaces. I like the whites; they suggest a glowing light inside, maybe also reflections. I think it is finished; what shall I name it?

Art and Soul Critique Group

I will be a guest artist for a two day session with the Art and Soul Critique Group in Albuquerque, next week on August 10, 11. This is a new experience for me and probably it is for them also. All of the members are advanced painters. I’ve been thinking about this delightful opportunity as I have painted in my studio over the past few weeks. What direction shall I go? They have asked for individual critiques and a demo. It will be a pleasure to see their recent works and talk to them about what I see. Looking at art is eye candy for me even when the images are disturbing or challenging.
I “go at” making art from a myriad of starting points so what shall I demonstrate? I can’t guarantee that I will reliably arrive at a finished work in the time we are together. Commonly, I have a selection of works-in-progress in my studio; oftentimes as many as 20 of them. I put one on my drafting table, work for awhile, set it aside and work on another, set it aside and work on another. I work with the hope that from time to time one lets me know it is finished. Historically that happens. This is a selection of “starts” I have in the studio:

The one below intrigues me, it has possibilities. It has several layers of paint and a layer of collage on it so far. I could easily add another layer of paint. A good cruciform design is developing. It has some good red which is making me think of the fabulous geraniums I have on my front porch. The text in some of the collage papers is too strong, it needs to be knocked down some, so I will plan to glaze some color over those papers, maybe even obliterate some of the text.

Often a work-in-progress “draws me in” during one of the sessions when I have worked on it, gripping me and not letting me quit until it reaches completion. It is exceedingly rare for me to start an image and progress in a linear/rational direction from the beginning to a finished painting.
The one below interests me also, maybe because of the red in the center, but this one is way too mushy for me. It needs a lot of work…..it will be a painting eventually. Sometimes I have to get tough when I’m coaxing the papers along: “You dirty rascal, you WILL give me a painting, I’m not letting up, I may have to let you rest but you’re a special work-in-progress, and later on we’ll continue to work! Count on it!” I’m reminded that Katherine Chang Liu says she sometimes wrestles her paintings to the ground!

I will probably gather up a stack of these works-in-progress to take with me and trust that one will make it to completion as I work on it in the presence of the critique group. Perhaps we will paint/collage together and a dialog will develop about what I’m doing on my image and why and what I hope to accomplish.
I plan to share with them one of my favorite quotations from Robert Rauschenberg: “I like to have the maximum lack of control so things can happen that I can’t think of.” It’s the thinking part that often obstructs the creative process. Accessing the non-rational, non-verbal, creative, intuitive, spiritual part of the brain feels like “the maximum lack of control,” but I have learned that it is a trustworthy process. It allows something powerful and creative to have control and extraordinary things happen.
I hope to encourage the painters in their individual approaches to painting. If they don’t paint the paintings they uniquely have in them, who will enrich the world with those paintings? Ingrid Bergman said, “Be yourself, the world loves an original.” She right! After all, “ART IS ART! and everything else is everything else!” (Ad Rhinehardt said that.)

COVER PAGE; NM Bar Bulletin

My watermedia painting “Taking Flight” is on the cover of the current New Mexico Bar Bulletin. A small blurb about me and the fact that I’m represented by the Weems Galleries in Albuquerque, New Mexico is just inside the issue. The painting lives in Albuquerque with its owner! “Taking Flight” was also published in the March, 2011 isssue of New Mexico Magazine.

Yesterday’s Traces

Yesterday’s Traces
watermedia/collage, 8×8 inches

Invitations into the wilderness, sift then lift the souls of recipients. Where shadows of relic life mimic fresher markings, the guest’s search for significance maps a challenging path. The resolute continue to delve through historic layers of rocky resistance. Rugged enduring TRUTH is surely there.

Western Ridge

Western Ridge
(watermedia/collage on a cradled panel, 10X8X2)

Hidden waters seep through crevices
and between stones,
whispering fertile messages to scrawny roots.
Channels of wet life
creep into trunks and branches
persuading tentative yellow/orange/green leaves
to flash and dance
across the stage of rough burned ridges.

Day’s End

Abiquiu Sunset
watermedia/collage, 8×8 inches

Often brooding hot azure skies reluctantly relinquish
their colors to dominant orange hues
overtaking the realm.
A dynamic argument on the horizon
gives way to restless evening darkness
ending the day’s cycle.
Prayers of holy invocation
summon peace.