My Authentic Self

I've been very busy lately doing the mundane but oftentimes necessary work needed to garner some wages. Add to that spring time activities, i.e. gardening, cleaning and refreshing the interior spaces, and clearly my neverending search for my authentic self has been put on the back burner yet again.

Enter Robyn, author of one of my favourite blogs Art Propelled, and her latest inspiring posts. I don't know where she finds the time to research/find the numerous creative spaces that she so selflessly shares on her blog but I sure am grateful she does. Her latest posts are about a free on-line mini course, Deepening Creativity-Reclaiming your authenticity with creativity, given by Shelley Klammer,Intuitive Artist. As I read about Robyn's foray into the 10-minute collage exercises I immediately felt this could be of some benefit to me. And so, here is my first attempt.

I am a true control freak so this will be a challenge, one that I hope will help me abandon the need to always plan outcomes. Nothing just happens with me...I have even managed to put Order in Chaos.

Chaos Acrylic on canvas (2006)

Order Acrylic on canvas (2006)

Chaos & Order start out the same, one layer at a time. Yet at some point, as each layer is applied, things start to get out of control. It is only by extracting each layer, one step at a time, that order is restored. And in the end, even in Chaos there is Order.

I'm hoping the daily collages are going to help me find my authentic self. Maybe that is a pretty tall order, but I'm up for the creativity and I know I'm in here somewhere!

Spring Springing...

I feel like it's taken forever but spring has finally arrived. Apparently it was here March 20th , it just didn't look like it at the time!

Spring usually means I'm outdoors prepping flower and vegetable gardens, clearing away the dead vegetation, stirring the compost and planting trees (42 of them this year). I woke up yesterday to find that 18 of the small sapplings I had planted were all carefully dug up to get at the eggshells and bone meal I had put around the roots.

As we have a pretty short growing season, I usually start my vegetable seeds indoors. It's a lot of work but oh the rewards! There is nothing as thrilling as seeing the little sprouts breaking through reaching for the light.

Another sign of spring is our annual fiddlehead picking outing, aka the Ostrich Fern. There are no words to describe how incredible it feels to be out there, communing with nature and just seeing the resilience of each species of vegetation from the tiniest seedlings, to moss covered trunks to the tallest trees. Once there, I just never want to leave. Of course that might have something to do with the fact that all those fiddleheads have to be cleaned and blanched and packed up and frozen. The rewards of this tedious work will be most enjoyed next winter, when thoughts of spring are once again a vague memory.

Still the biggest sign of spring is the lack of time to spend in my studio. Perhaps if the house renovations were done it would be different. I'm hoping to find this out next year once the renovation of both house and studio is complete.

In the meantime, I'll continue to use my blog to ramble on and record past works, even though my head is bursting with new ideas and a desire to create that won't be held down much longer.

City in Darkness

City in Darkness

Mixed media
Inspired while on a trip to Toronto, this painting combines various mediums applied on a stretched canvas. The buildings were painted in acrylic which I then detailed with oil pastels and conté crayons. The angel on the left upper corner(many people can't seem to spot her) is decoupaged using a picture I had of a stone angel and touched up with the same mediums.

This was and is one of my favorite paintings. It was bought soon after it was created and I was fortunate to find a picture of it on a CD I had made as I lost many of my images when my computer was stolen two years ago.

Toronto, Ontario is in central Canada and went through some tough times a few years back but it managed to bounce back, hence the angel watching over the city.

Centrifuge

Centrifuge

Acrylic on canvas

One of the things about being an artist without a regular routine is that so many things take over your time...family, friends, gardening, spring chores. For my husband and me, this year it is the renovation of the interior of our house. Last year it was the outside, ie. roof, siding & windows. We are fortunate that we have enough skills to tackle most of these jobs ourselves. Our main floor is mostly complete with just a few finishing touches. Next is the lower level which is being gutted and redesigned completly. And my studio will also be getting new windows and siding.

Sometimes you feel like you are in the middle of a huge wave that is carrying you wherever it wants. The best approach seems to be to go with the flow even if it sometimes gets a little intense.

Intensity
Acrylic on canvas

That being said, I think about blogging daily, but only get as far as checking out a few of my favorites. Topping my list is Beyond Words and Art Propelled. Just those two blogs are enough to give me energy and the hope that one day I'll get back to it myself. So Karin and Robyn, if you read this, Thank You both for being there! Your efforts bring joy to so many.

Anyway, gotta get back to it. I am actually writing this in the middle of a construction zone and I'm starting to think I should put on a hard hat.

Worm - A Story about the Environment

Worm, The Story©

The precarious state of the earth soon became evident to the worm as it tried repeatedly to tunnel through an unrecognized dark mass which had been buried just below the surface.

Unable to break through, it turned its attention upwards.

Soon it found itself in the hot, glaring sun. As it felt the drying effects of the sun's rays it struggled to reach a small puddle that gleamed in the bright light.

The worm had to overcome what must have seemed like an insurmountable number of obstacles.

There were twigs and stones and many objects the worm had never seen before. There was a large rock and the trunk of a tree that was recently felled. There was even an anthill which the worm was determined to avoid.

It never occurred to the worm to give up the journey.

And when at last the destination was reached, the worm, slightering with the satisfaction of a job well done, soon suffered no more as the black oil which had dripped onto the driveway envelopped it and sealed its fate.

The End

©AtelierCurioStudio

I chose the royalty-free music for this video at: PacDv Free Sound Effects ( http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/index.html )

This is the latest storybox book. I began with a trinket box that I picked up for 25 cents at a second hand shop. I painted it burnt sienna, then added crackle finish and a raw umber contrast. The storybox books are helping me recycle lithographs and photo etchings I did while a student in a four year visual arts program. These prints, of which there are many, are going to supply my backgrounds for many projects to come. All my work generally has some form of social or environmental statement, be it in the subject or in recycling the materials used to create.

Endless chaos of the cluttered mind

The past few years have been really all-around crazy for me in every sense of the word. At times I feel that my head is akin to that drawer so many of us have that is just jam-packed with all types of junk imaginable, tossed in there because you just don't know where to put it.

If at least there was room in there for thoughts to ferment long enough to reach maturation, then to be released leaving space for the next thought or idea to develop...Alas, creative ideas just get thrown in with worries, useless thoughts, memories (both good and bad), plans and projects, lists of things I want to do, I could do, I should do...Every day the drawer gets harder and harder to close.

Ever the optimist, I keep trying to put order. The first thing I need to do is to take stalk of what is in there and focus on one area at a time:

3 Hearts

An assortment of Carniverous plants:

Five Heads:

This is just at first glance...Clearly, the time has come for some serious spring cleaning!

Curio Studio is where my creative side can really come out to play. It is where the interesting, the unusual and the creative come together. Nothing has to conform and nothing is judged. Sadly, it has been enduring a serious drought as the mundane has pushed it to the back of the drawer. The struggle for a drawer of it's own is evident...Hence this blog, hence yesterday's post and today's inventory of what you can find there. (Some, to my dismay, covered in cobwebs!)

You may be wondering who is keeping Curio at the back of the drawer...I know exactly who she is. Her name is Sonia, Curio's alter ego...No wait a minute, Curio is Sonia's alter ego...No wait, they're so different they can't possibly be occupying the same head-space! One thing I do know, Sonia is getting stronger and now she wants a blog of her own. We'll see who gets the upper hand!

A Few Glimpses of Curio Studio

Thought I might get back into blogging and the creative process by taking a few shots of my studio. It is nestled among 40 foot spruce trees and features a screened in porch and all the amenities I could possibly need to create in a comfortable, warm environment. It is located about 200 feet from my home (although when 6 foot snowdrifts separate house and studio, it might as well be miles away! Lucky for me it is crusty snow time and I can just scoot over the drifts.) I digress...

In 2007, my studio was broken into and it has taken me quite some time to feel creative in that environment again, but it is coming about. Although they did little damage, they stole one of my most treasured tools - my computer. Don't get me wrong, a computer is just a possession that can easily be replaced but what the computer contained was a good deal of my creative memory and the images I created are gone forever. And of course, it just takes awhile to get over somebody invading your personal space. I think I am there now.

There are a lot of odd bits at Atelier Curio Studio, ie. a latex mold of ears;


A medical tray with dental instruments and various odd bits and pieces used mostly in clay work;

a couple of kilns and kiln supplies;

glaze tests & characters waiting to be bisqued;

various odds and ends;

and copper and tin plates used to make prints.

Of course, there are a lot of other materials and work surfaces, but not everything is suitable to be photographed...even some of the shots I did take should'nt be shown, however I think I'm in an evaluation process. That being said, I'm just going with the flow - sometimes meandering, sometimes rushing!

Angels

A few years ago I came upon an angel and it has managed to find it's way into a variety of my art pieces. Although it remains consistently and conspicuously the same, the atmosphere in which it finds itself is ever-changing. The feeling of security of her steadfast presence does not escape me as, regardless of her environment, she reaches upwards for something better.

Etched in glass, she stands out against an earthy background, subtle yet present.

Most of the times Angel has appeared she was in a lithograph. She is photo-etched on a metal plate which can be used many times. Probably the time she appeared that has meant the most to me is in the image below. As she points towards the heavens, she draws your attention to a segment of a love letter my father wrote to my mother during their courtship over 70 years ago.

You can see more three more prints in my previous postings.

Time to go to my studio. Although it is -7 degrees celcius and there is 3 feet of snow on the ground, the sun is shining and I'm looking forward to finishing one of the paintings in my sunflower series. I think I'll call it my Departure Series because it is so far away from what I've been doing.

There Was a Time

The third and last in a very limited series of shadowbox story books. There Was a Time

is more fantasy than logic. The story is left to the observer who can imagine a scenario where flies have feathers and flowers burst out of seeds already in bloom.

The cover art for this particular book is designed using an etching and photo transfer I did while doing my visual arts degree. I often use bits and pieces of my student art projects in some of my work, a different interpretation for recycled art. If you'd like to view the 2nd book in the series, follow the link to my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22235679@N08/

True Art

'Nough said!

Incarcerated

A few years ago I did a series of three pastel and charcoal images representing incarceration, i.e. bars, chains and barbwire. I was really focused on the visual aspect and didn't put more thought into it until two years ago when I was preparing for a solo exhibit which I labelled Cognition. Reflecting on the images I realized that I too was incarcerated by bars and chains and barbwire, and yet I thought I was free. I recreated the three images exactly only this time I applied a little reality check.


When I look around me at all the ' stuff ' I've accumulated, at all the unnecessary waste and at all the ' Gotta haves ' I still want, I know it will take a mighty saw to cut through the bars I've created over the years. I don't even know if I want to break free because, truth be known, I like my ' stuff '!


And of course those bars, they come with a pretty impressive chain made up of an impressive number of links. Link by link, the banks, the credit cards, the loans, and even all the different point programs various corporations like to hook us with, are ensuring that chain grows longer and stronger. I could really use a heavy duty chain cutter!


That being said, when it comes right down to it, even if I had the right saw and the ideal chain cutter, as long as my thoughts keep me imprisoned I will never truly be free. I really believe that our thoughts are the most powerful tool we have with which we can change our lives. They can either keep us enclosed like barbwire or set us free. I'm sad to say that to date I haven't managed to remove all the barbs that prevent me from reaching my higher self. Still, I guess the most important thing is to remove them one at a time and eventually my mind will be a peaceful place where only creativity exists.

New Year, New Determination.

Last year I started my blog, this year I am determined to add to it on a weekly basis (I'd like to say daily, but I know myself well enough!). The art work and projects I will be posting will be from various periods in my creative development, which of course in a never-ending process. Because I fundamentaly believe that art is in every aspect of our lives, my post will seem rather eclectic, but in fact that is the very essence of who I am.

My latest creative endeavour wove it's way into the land of storytelling. I thoroughly enjoyed the creating a series of StoryBook Boxes with various bits of bric-a-brac that I found lying about.

Tarnish is the story of a queen who was so enamoured with the character in a book that she summoned him to appear before her. You can see additional photos and read more about it on my flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22235679@N08/