Category: Happenings

Anita, a friend of mine recently handed me a page torn from a magazine with an intriguing short article about a woman who decorates envelopes and sends them to people….perfect uptick in my spirit! The author of the article offered to send an envelope to anyone who contacted her. I couldn’t make it to my tablet quick enough to send out an email to Mary. I told her just a bit about myself, pointed her to my website and respectfully requested one of her envelopes. Her email response was quick stating that she wasn’t really an artist, she mainly used other people’s art but her main creative expression, if she had one, was in writing stories. She promised to send me an envelope! I was delighted by the idea but within a few days of preoccupation with my own envelopes in the studio, Mary’s envelopes slipped into the background of my mind swirling around with dozens maybe hundreds, maybe thousands of other ideas. Within a few more days they vanished into one of the deep holes up there where I think and dream and obsess. TODAY MARY’S ENVELOPE ARRIVED!! I did a little happy dance down the driveway from the mailbox to my front door with the envelope turning over and over in my hands. Mary made the back side of the envelope with the flap become the address side. It has an Ellsworth Kelly stamp cancelled in the upper right corner, and her address in the upper left. What a creative idea? That left the front side, where one usually writes the name and address, for her artistic expression, a smooth surface with no flap to interfere with her lovely miniature painting I’m a book lover and a bird lover and somewhat of a bird brain…..so the imagery is perfect for me….well surely the colorful birds symbolize “fights of fancy.” I clain that characteristic for myself also. If it is based on someone else’s artwork, I don’t recognize it as such. Inside she tucked one of her stories, a one-and-one/third page-long single-spaced sentence! Faulkneresque? She is indeed a writer. I treasure the envelope. Thank you Mary! I’m attaching a picture below.

Tomorrow many will celebrate the one-hundredth birthday of Lawrence Ferlinghetti who, along with Allen Ginsberg, was a leading spokesman of the Beat Poets, of the 1950’s. There was little I appreciated about the Beat Poets whose foul imagery spewed out into the culture, or maybe I just didn’t understand or couldn’t relate to their cause. The undisciplined and often drug-induced vocabulary was frequently incoherent, not only to me, but to many others also. There are however, a couple of ideas from Ferlinghetti that I am willing to single out and celebrate! One is that he said he thought art had the power to change the world and the other is that art needs to be delivered out of the precious world of academia and museums “back to the streets.” His idea of the “power to change the world” is probably nothing like the power that I envision since it seems to me the beat generation did cause many changes for the worse of the world. Did “back to the streets” take the art world not to the streets but to the gutters (but I digress).

There is a nascent movement in the artworld today mainly led by Christian artist Matt Tommey that may indeed change the world. He speaks of a deep spiritual call to “raise up an army of artists,” of mainly Christian artists committed to the precepts and ideals of the Bible. Surprisingly he is himself a basketmaker!! He works in a medium known as a craft of common people, a medium which produces a functional object useful in daily life. He has, however, lifted the medium to the pinnacle of artistic expression. So my thought is, not only are baskets a lovely street-craft but also “from the streets lifted to glorify God.” He is a superb encourager of artists with a huge Facebook following, beckoning artists to thrive, pursue their skills, and express from the inspiration that will reliably rise within any artist who is open to it. He also offers a Mentoring Program that is replete with information, exercises, ideas, assignments and abundant encouragement. It appears that the army of artists is indeed being raised and that the world will not only be changed but will be improved, enriched, and glorify its Creator. If you are interested in this fertile movement: https://www.matttommey.com or check out the facebook pages “Created To Thrive” or “Thriving Christian Artists”

Revitalization!! There’s a newness here, at least it’s a newness for me. I’m making a valiant attempt to step up my awareness of today’s ways with websites. I’ve had this website for a long time but I haven’t kept current by updating to the ways it can be used so more people will find it, and also be intrigued by my works of art. Sharing my inspirations, my thoughts about the creative work I do, and showing the products which become paintings, collages, assemblages and clay works is an important aspect of what I do. Today I’m excited to extend a renewed invitation to you to come into my world of art by showing you what I have created. I welcome a response from you. We can develop a dialog, even possibly a friendship, involving my ideas about creativity and yours too!

The days have been blustery which causes our most-welcome pecans to fall to the roof of the house, to the yard, to the river. They are welcome wherever they fall so long as it is not on my head. This year they are plentiful and tasty! These windy days make the refuge in the studio or in the art room at the Artist Gallery inviting.

Since I taught an Innovative Watermedia/Collage workshop in October the students have wanted to continue to meet together to paint or work on their creative projects. It’s an encouraging endeavor and while the enthusiasm is lively the students will make an effort to work together every week for several weeks to get the process started and eventually  establish a monthly gathering for a studio day.

I’m wishing the best for this group and plan to participate. I know that the camaraderie that can develop will offer much encouragement to the  artists. I have my personal responses in that I love the camaraderie but I also find it a challenge to gather some materials together and go out of my amply stocked studio where everything I might need is close by, and I’m so entrenched in the solitude of working alone that I get distracted and am challenged to concentrate. Many artists thrive and are inspired by the interactions and I am too sometimes. I know one well established, mature artist who rarely paints in her studio. She produces most of her work while she is teaching and when she is painting with other artists. I’m thankful for the many ways we work and I  appreciate the unique ways of individuality.  I’m especially thrilled that my students want to continue to work together, hone their skills and encourage each other.

THE ARTIST GALLERY’S ELEVENTH ANNUAL ARTWALK: FELIZ NAVIDAD
This year the team at the Artist Gallery decided on 6 venues for our historic artwalk in downtown Carlsbad. The Participants were The Carlsbad Museum, Bella, Candlewood, Art Uncorked and Bennie’s Western Store along with us. At our gallery, Dylan Taylor accompanied the many attendees viewing the art at the Artist Gallery with his acoustic guitar and occasional vocal renditions of regional music. Opening the Christmas Season with this traditional artwalk fills Carlsbad art-enthusiasts with a festive spirit. Attendance was brisk, filled with holiday greetings and many chatty conversations. The Artists filled the gallery with their latest works; the selections are outstanding. This year I was eager to show my new figure paintings:

“All Joy Counted”         “It’s Been Awhile”

These two are representative of 5 I had on exhibit along with some new clay pieces and a couple of new landscape collages. I always look forward with great pleasure to the artwalk. It is the baby of Loretta Forbes, a painter and member of The Artist Gallery,  who first encountered an artwalk among some Northern New Mexico galleries and thought we could adapt such an event to our own locale. It has been a phenomenal success over the years. She continues to do much of the work to make it the joyfully anticipated event it has become.
Each year we send a beautiful direct mail invitation to our clients. This year the invitation bore this remarkable image, “LUV RST” painted by Sonja Bedinger, also an artist member of The Artist Gallery.