Essence and a Book Signing

self portrait by Donna Watson, collage

(this is not my self portrait in the book)

BOOK SIGNING!!

The Pulse of Mixed Media:

Secrets and Passions of 100 Artists Revealed 

by Seth Apter

local artists Leslie Avon Miller and myself

will also be there doing demos

Bellevue Art and Frame, Bellevue WA

May 5th, 12-2

20% off of all books purchased during signing and DOOR PRIZES

 Seth Apter invited 31 artists to create self -portraits for his book.  Below are 5 artists who submitted their self-portraits.   "We are not free when we are doing just what we like.  We are only free when we are doing what the deepest self likes.  And there is getting down to the deepest self!  It takes some diving."  D.H. Lawrence

Alicia Caudel lives in the Pacific NW.  She says her inspiration for her self-portrait is simply all that she treasures.  "I am a quirky girl with many loves and adoration, and as such I wished to represent as many of these affinities as possible."  website here and blog here

Your handwriting.  The way you walk.  Which china pattern you choose.  It's all giving you away.  Everything you do is a self-portrait.  Everything is a diary.  --Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

Jen Crossley lives in Australia.  "Reflections" shows the many layers of mica over the image which represents the many layers of Jen's life as a mother, wife, best friend and artist.  blog here.  

Art is not making a beautiful surface, or drawing a realistic apple.  Art is getting to an essence, reaching the senses.  -- Shoichi Ida

Robyn Gordon lives in South Africa.  Her wood carving has become a form of meditation.  "I decided to portray one of the most important facets of my life, and that is the serenity that I feel while creating art."  her blog ArtPropelled here  

What we make, why it is made,  how we draw a dog, who it is we are drawn to, why we cannot forget.  Everything is a collage,  even genetics.  There is the hidden presence of others in us,  even those we have known briefly.  We contain them for the rest of our lives,  at every border we cross.

Michael Ondaatje

  

Bridgette Guerzon Mills is a mixed media artist who currently has two young children.  Her self portrait is a female figure who conveys motherhood and fertility but also a gatherer, and nurturer.
website here  and blog here

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find ways in which you yourself have altered.   --- Nelson Mandela

Don Madden works with clay.  He was not an artist all his life.. coming from the corporate world so he is now busy working with new techniques and creating unique wonderful pieces.  He also has a very funny sense of humor which you will find at his blog here.  

A person is never as quiet or unrestrained as they seem,

or as bad or good, 

as vulnerable or as strong, 

as sweet or as feisty;

we are thickly layered, 

page upon page, 

behind simple covers.

-- Deb Caletti

Grace and a Show

Up Coming Gallery show announcement: Lucia Douglas Gallery, Bellingham, WA. Feb. 3-25th. A three person show with Cass Nevada, 2-D artist, and Brian O'neill, potter.
Opening reception: Thursday, Feb. 2. gallery website here.

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.--Emerson

This is how I try to begin each new year. A new start... with a look forward, not behind. I usually start with making lists for the year.. because I am a list maker. But this year I decided to give in to this word that has been at the edge of the shadows in my brain for awhile now-- GRACE... because I want more of it in my personal and art life. I found this quote some time ago: how you climb up the mountain is just as important as how you get down the mountain. and so it is with life, which for many of us becomes one big gigantic test followed by one big gigantic lesson.
in the end it all comes down to one word, grace. it's how you accept winning and losing, good luck and bad luck, the darkness and light. You can not separate your life from your art.

self portrait, collage

"You can have other words-chance, luck coincidence, serendipity. I"ll take grace. I don't know what it is exactly, but I'll take it." --- Mary Oliver.

"My belief is that it is most important for an artist to develop an approach and philosophy about life---if he has developed this philosophy, he does not put paint on canvas, he puts himself on canvas." -- Jacob Lawrence

I asked several friends to send me their description of the word GRACE. Some of these friends I know in my personal life and art, and some of them have connected with me online in the blog world.

Janna Gougeon, encaustic and collage, blog here.
"Two meanings come to mind: a gift of spirit.. always there..not always recognized; the second: with gentleness, sensitivity, respect, understanding."

Robyn Gordon, detail, wood carving. Blog here.
"Grace is the thread of goodness that meanders through my life...from the wild calls of Loeries at dawn, or the answer to a prayer. I find that we need to slow down to appreciate those moments of grace or we tend to miss many of them.

Ruth Armitage, acrylic, yupo paper. Blog and website here.
"Grace is when one exhibits apparently effortless kindness and acceptance. It is the most beautiful of the personal qualities because it is motivated by love for the world and mankind."

Tangie Belmore, acrylic and collage, website here.
Tangie believes Grace to be this: "an elegant sensibility of focus and passion with authentic composure. Serene, warmth, beauty, refinement, sensitive, calm, wisdom."

Leslie Avon Miller, collage, blog here.
"Tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who I am. That is grace."

India Flint, eco (natural) print dyes on fabric. blog here.
"It is a word that I associate with my (late) maternal grandmother--who I never saw responding to any situation, no matter how stressful, with anything other than grace (even to me when I was a vile teenager). It is something I aspire to, not only as a person but also in my work, to have it appear as such, seemingly effortlessly formed, despite the turmoil that lies behind.

Nancy Neva Gagliano, her 'rapt' rocks series, blog here.

Grace surrounds me, and you,
Meshing us together.
Its that vibration blanketing our souls,
Protecting and nuturing.
And, Grace comforts me as it eases into awareness
In a moment of contemplation, during a pause,
Or during a time of appreciation,
Washing away worries when a slow breath is exhaled.
Grace is always there.
I am the one that is occasionally absent.
--- Nancy Neva Gagliano, January 21, 2012.