Rolling in the Deep

STRATA, hand painted collage papers, scroll

There is a popular song out now by Adele titled ROLLING IN THE DEEP. I like those words.

My last blog post was about searching for meaning in our art by becoming more aware of our likes and interests, and making lists. Rolling in the Deep is about delving further into our depths. I believe that as artists go deeper into their inner self, these self discoveries will lead to more personal expression as their create their art works.

INNER EXCAVATION: Explore Your Self Through Photography, Poetry, and Mixed Media by Liz Lamereux. This wonderful book is filled with exercises, activities, and inspirational writing to help the artist discover more about themselves. You can find this book and others here at Amazon.com.
"You have to find where you are, in order to figure out where you want to go." - Liz Lamereux

In the book, there are a number of artist contributors. Judy Wise is one of them. She reveals what inspires her, what nurtures her, how she finds her creative voice. The above piece is limestone clay on braced panel with stones. You can find her creative website here and her wonderful blog here.

SPILLING OPEN: The Art of Becoming Yourself by Sabrina Ward Harrison. This is a visual journal of the artist when she was young, as she embarked on her journey of self-discovery.

One task we can do is ask our self the question: Who or What inspires us? This can be artists, authors, poets, music, songs, books or movies. I remember years ago, exactly when I discovered poetry and my favorite poet. I saw the foreign film IL POSTINO (The Postman), about a postman in Italy who wanted to write poetry and show his poems to Pablo Neruda. At the end of the movie is the poem POETRY. A strong feeling of emotion, appreciation, and connection washed over me.

POETRY

And it was at that age__Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from the street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.
---- Pablo Neruda

There are 2 artists who I connect to in a powerful way. Their work affects me in ways that I can't express in words. When I see their work, I feel their emotional personal expression reaching out to me, enveloping me and drawing me in.

Anselm Kiefer's art is influenced by his German heritage of World War II and the history of war and the Holocaust and is rich with references to writers and poets. I am also attracted to his use of raw textures.

For Hannelore Baron (1926-1987), making art was a meditative form of experience and communication. She escaped Hitler's Germany and the Holocaust as a young child. Her life was framed by tragedy. She sought to create 'the message' in her art: an imagery of suffering and human hope.

Sweet Darkness
--- Give up all other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.
---- David White

And on a lighter note, my favorite movie character is from the movie THE BIG LEBOWSKI --
the Dude. I love whacky movies and quirky characters and the Dude is certainly an odd ball...

"Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not 'Mr. Lebowski'. You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing." ---The Dude

A New Day

This is a collage I made last year. I titled it NEW DAY.

I have been working on a new series and struggling a bit. I work in my studio during the day and often end the day frustrated and even feeling lost. The next day, in the early morning, I lie in bed thinking about the new day and what promise or hope I have for the new day in my studio.
Every morning is like a haiku filled with new artists' impressions. I get up and get ready to tackle another day in my studio.

Jo-Ann Van Reeuwyk is a fiber artist. Her work is about vessel making and containment. She explores relationships, embodiment and containment which are important aspects of the personal. You can find much more of her wonderful fiber creations here.

The following is a poem by David Whyte titled What to Remember When Waking. It is about what an artist (or poet in his case) thinks about when first awakening in the morning.

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.

Carole Kunstadt is a collage artist who combines objects like stones, shells and twigs with hand made papers. Layers of memory and a sense of intimacy pervade her work. You can find more of her wonderful work at her website here.

What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.

A detail from the above piece

You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.

Tracy Spadafora is an encaustic artist who investigates the connection between our man-made and natural environments, illustrating the endurance of nature. These two are her works on paper and you can find more of her wonderful work at her website here.

Now look through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white pages on the writing desk?
---David Whyte

When I saw this collage by artist Leslie Avon Miller (you can find her wonderful blog here), I thought of early dawn when the sky is still dark but hints of color - orange, red, or yellow begin to burst through at the edge of the darkness - hinting at the new day.. a new day in the studio.

awakening light
promises of a new day
streaks across the sky
---Russ Baleson