I'm tracking my progress as an artist including insights, inspirations, U turns (getting stuck or blocked creatively), and my overall daily experiences painting.

Find Joe

| 05 January, 2012 15:05

 

The other day I went to see Find Joe, a movie about Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey.  In case you're not familiar with his works, Joseph Campbell did extensive research into the mythology of early civilizations and beyond, and he found a common story among all mythologies which he calls the The Hero's Journey.  The journey begins when a cataclysmic event forces the hero to leave his home. 

 

The event that propels the hero is life altering and causes the hero to leave the life he's known to find something new, the Truth that the hero feels he/she must find.  The second stage is the hero finding him/her self facing many challenges.  And, at the end, the hero returns home to share what he/she has found.

 

I so identified with the story.  I've always, since a very young age, felt like I lived my life straddling a fence.  On one side was the society I was born into which had rules and ways mapped out to succeed in finding happiness in life.  On the other side was the creative part of me that loved my imagination and got lost in my dreams and visions.  I managed to live both parts at the same time, one at a time.

 

During the last 20 years I've had my life turned upside down.  Because I was struggling monetarily for the first time in my life, I tried to "make do" without.  The loss of financial freedom sent me back to live the other side, the one in which I followed society's map of creating a life full of happiness.  It worked for awhile.  I was much better off financially, but I got more and more depressed with a job that was becoming more and more stressful.  I couldn't find the time or energy to paint. My creative outlet gone, I finally worked up the courage to jump into what Campbell calls The Hero's Journey.  I left my job and began to paint full time.

 

I had enough money in my 401K to get me through at least 6 months without a job.  My main focus was Trusting the Process of my journey, which got me through a lot of fear as I painted and marketed my art.  As I struggled remembering to Trust whenever the fear of the future came up, I finally got a job substitute teaching and I received some money from some property my brother sold.  It was in an estate my mother left to me, my brother and sister.  As I continue to face the daily challenges of my life, I keep remembering why I'm doing this.  There's no going back.  I love the  freedom I have now to use my energy to paint and write.

 

The reason I'm sharing this is because of the movie, Find Joe.  It's extraordinary and I fully recommend you see it if you're at all wanting to know more about your own journey.  In the coming blog entries, I'll be sharing more about my creative and financial challenges, and how the synchronicities and miracles always seem to come to help me on my journey. 

 


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On Seeing

| 29 December, 2011 12:10

 

I painted all day today.  I've been working on another in my series of painting my grandchildren.  The reason for choosing this particular idea stems from my attempts at painting a series of Mother and Child a few years ago.  When I took the first two paintings in that aborted series to the owner of a gallery in Ruidoso, N.M., he was disappointed. He'd seen some paintings I'd done of my family and those were the ones he was looking forward to hang in his gallery.  "You do so much better," he said, "when you work with intimate subjects."


He did sell one of those paintings I took to him, but his words kept lingering in my mind.  Over the next several years I took pictures of my grandchildren as they grew, and I had quite a collection by the time I decided on painting a new series.  I had grown tired of rendering landscapes, so I pulled all those pictures out.  I dove in and started with the one I'd wanted to paint the most.  It was a picture I'd taken while Delaney and I were playing by the river as her Dad and sister jogged on the trail.  She'd picked up a piece of dried up wood, holding it like it was her long-lost friend, wearing my daughter's jacket because it was colder than her Dad had anticipated, coming to Albuquerque from Phoenix, and it swam on her.  You can see that painting in my gallery. It's the one named Delaney.


I'm on the 6th painting in that series.  It's a close up of Delaney and her sister, Madison.  It's the largest painting I've done in this series, 30" X 40".  The heads  are twice the size of a normal head.  Although I did do a large head before, I've never done two large heads in a painting before.  As a result of having more space in which to paint the details, it does require more SEEing.  By that I mean, when I work on something smaller, I can get away with suggesting a detail such as the corner of the eye, but when working on something at closer range, it requires SEEing more. It requires the ability to Know exactly the curvature of a line of the eye that normally isn't SEEN.


Which brings me to the point I want to make about my experience with painting.  Many years ago I took a workshop with Charles Reid.  We painted from a model each day.  I was used to short poses and longer ones, up to 3 hours long.  On this particular day, Charles had the model take up the same pose after lunch we'd been working on all morning.  He encouraged us to stay in the same location and continue working on the same painting I thought I'd finished. "How", I wondered, "am I going to see anything else to paint on the image I've been working on?"  I was sure I'd captured all I needed and wanted for the painting.


The experience turned out to be extraordinary and amazing.  I realized the more I looked, the more I SAW.  Looking is not SEEing.  SEEing is feeling more.  It is taking time to compare what looking is to SEEing below the surface.  It's what I'm experiencing now in this larger painting.  Each time I take a break, I come back with fresh eyes, and SEE what I was missing before.  It's always something that answers the question, "How do I resolve this area that I don't like?"  It's the magical answer to what's been troubling you about some part of the painting.  It's the miracle you've been looking for.  SEEing is Believing you're invincible. 


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On where I'm going with this blog, a new perspective

| 24 December, 2011 15:39

Wow!  I didn't realize it's been 3 months since I last posted on my blog.  I couldn't decide what to write next and kept waiting for the inspiration.  Finally, because all the ideas that seemed to come up were so cerebral, I felt overwhelmingly intimidated to go down that path.  That's best left up to art critics to express. 


Producing art is a spiritual experience and shifting to the intellect to share the experience gets in the way.  I certainly don't want to have to keep intellectually figuring out what I'm going to share.  That would add to all the blocks I already have to deal with.  If you're wondering what they could possibly be, I will be revealing these blocks as they come up. :-)  In the meantime I'll tell you what led me to this decision (besides not wanting to intellectualize my creativity).


I've always wanted to write a book.  Several months ago, I was reading Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland.  At some point in the book, they said the best writings on art for other artists are autobiographical.  When I read, "You could write such a book", I took that personally and thought to myself, "I can".  So these blogs are being written in a chronological order as a biographical account of my painting experiences during this next year.  All the postings will eventually be included in a book.


So, if I'm not going to be analytical, what will I be sharing?  I intend to include all the inspirations, insights, experiences, and blocks that come up to hinder my productivity, you know, those things I turn to when I'm fearful and anxious and not trusting my creativity.  I'm going to brutally honest with my readers.  I've been writing my morning pages since I joined a Sacred Circle inspired by The Artist's Way, and I'm feeling more and more brave about being truthful.  The Artist's Way helped me realize I'm not at all different from other creatives.

 

I hope you enjoy these postings and let me know how I'm doing.

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On Passion, Logic and Introspection

| 30 September, 2011 18:38

Welcome to my new Blog Page!

 

I tried to upload three new paintings to my website today, but the upload page was closed for maintenance.  Eager to share, I decided to begin this blog today instead.

 

I'll be sharing the processes of painting, the logic and introspection that goes on as I create, and the passion that propels the process.  By logic, I mean the cognitive thinking that works out the problems I encounter.  These can come from either what others would call a mistake, or from trying to convey a feeling that I don't know any technique to use for.  And, of course, I plan to share how I get to a solution.

 

By introspection, I mean digging deeper into my feelings, to be able to verbalize what I've only known as an impulse; where it's coming from and why I feel led to follow that need.  And we all know what passion is.  It's the driving force that makes art.  Why else would an artist put up with the struggles, the fears, the aloneness?

 

I'll probably be posting once a week, but if I have the time and I'm dying to share something new, I'll post more often than that.

 

Wishing you a Wonderful Day!

 

Doretta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





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Congratulations!

| 30 September, 2011 13:49

If you can read this post, it means that the registration process was successful and that you can start blogging

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