Seeking the Sublime in the Everyday

  Good Morning on this first day of the new year and may it be a great year for all of us.  I am taking this moment to make a new declaration of intention for myself and my work. On Thursday, the day before yesterday, I had lunch with a friend and the conversation took a turn that made me squirm in my seat. She  asked me about selling my work.  Well, yeah, I'd like to sell my work--that's the idea, but I feel like I shouldn't t really talk about that.  I promised her and myself that I'd think about it. I woke up feeling remorseful and reluctant. Brian Leher's guest this morning was Julia Cameron, the Author of    The Artist's Way; A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity.   She published it in 1992.  I heard about her  shortly after I left my teaching job to concentrate more fully on my art. I still have the book, and it's full of notes. Cameron has three rules, or tools for opening or nurturing creativity. 1.  Write three pages as soon as you wake up in the m

Wayne Thibaud died on Christmas Day and Bishop Tutu died the day after. How sad are we really when a nonagenarian and a centenarian go to their reward? We rejoice in lives well lived, give thanks that they were with us, that they spoke to us and shared their gifts.  I wrote this last year about Wayne Thibaud.  "This is a good time to Celebrate Wayne Thiebaud, American painter, born in 1920; that makes him one hundred years old; at least he will be on November 15.  And he's still painting! This was my first Thiebaud; I found it in the postcard rack at the Whitney gift shop.  I couldn't believe it was a painting and I couldn't stop staring at it.  Those patterns, the lush paint, those creamy pies.  It was delicious. I loved that something so fun, so pretty, was thought of as SERIOUS ART.   Stephen Kinzer wrote in the NY Times,  "In other hands, these objects could easily become Pop Art or Kitsch.  Mr.Thiebaud, however, paints them respectfully, without a hint of iro

So I walked into the Post Office to buy some pretty stamps.  I picked out these beauties: If you can't read this it says LOVE.  The woman behind the counter said, "I think we're out of those," and turned to her colleague.  "Are we out of LOVE?" and the other woman replied, "Oh, Honey, I'm never out of Love."  Let's raise a glass to the United States Postal Service. I've been worrying that I haven't bought enough Christmas presents for my family; it's hard to find something Arthur really wants, Molly doesn't like to get clothes for gifts because, she says,  "I have my own style." Jessie doesn't like "stuff."  I love wrapping presents, I love finding the perfect gift, but that doesn't always happen at Christmas and buying something just to do it feels futile and a little like over-eating.   This week's New Yorker has a cartoon with two kids looking at the pile of presents under the tree.  One sa

I found this quote from Paul Klee in my email this week: "Colour has taken hold of me; no longer do I have to chase after it.  I know that it has hold of me forever." I've been thinking quite a lot about color this week because of the drawing I'm working on. Its title used to be Frame for the Map because I intended it to be a frame for my Map of the World.  I thought blue and gray would be go well and not overpower the map's colors so I started the outline with Ecoline cold gray light ink.  Then I thought I'd add my favorite, go-to-color, Winsor-Newton yellow ochre. And for the background, or wall paper, Daler Rowney Turquoise and Process Cyan.  Then to make the browns richer and deeper, Winsor Newton Indian Red. And then I thought, this is getting to be a lot of blue and brown.  It that ok? Meanwhile, and now I'm getting a little circuitous, in my talk last Monday on Artists Talk on Art with Eileen Hoffman about Saint Barbara and Rapunzel I showed this im

Thank you to everyone who came to our Artists Talk on Art  presentation titled  Lightning and Inspiration  on Monday evening.   Eileen Hoffman and I talked about our work and what inspires us. It is now posted on ATOA's YouTube account, https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=SD7TMuE4-bY I also introduced the Barbara's who responded to my Saint Barbara questionnaire and promised to show them and their work in fuller detail so...Here's the first Barbara of the Day, my neighbor and friend, Barbara Rachko, master pastellist, blogger at "Barbara Rachko's Colored Dust" and author of an ebook, "From Pilot to Painter."    Barbara Rachko is an American contemporary artist and author who divides her time between residences in New York City and Alexandria, VA. She is best known for her pastel-on-sandpaper paintings, her eBook, “From Pilot to Painter,” and her popular blog, “Barbara Rachko’s Colored Dust,” which currently has 77,700 subscribers.  She is represented

Here's the link for this evening's Zoom event https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84198882925   We look forward to seeing you !  

Yes, the great day is coming.  I hope you will join me at a Zoom presentation on Artists Talk on Art Every Monday Virtual Open Studios 6pm-7:30pm 2021 Zoom Link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84198882925   The title of the talk is Lightning and Inspiration  I will show the work I've done so far as a tribute to Saint Barbara, patron and protector of architects, engineers, armorers and anyone about to be struck by lightning. Her dramatic story and the art she has inspired have given me so many ideas that it'll be a long time before I'm done.  I will be joined in the talk by my friend, Eileen Hoffman.  Here's a glimpse at our work that just happened to get hung together in a show at Atlantic Gallery. I find that prophetic. How did Eileen and I get together?  I was talking about Saint Barbara at a small Zoom meeting and Eileen reminded me that the tale of Rapunzel stems directly from Saint Barbara's story--a maiden locked in a tower. Does that sound familiar? Where have we b