Oh. Gosh.
So.
I was reading through my feeds this morning. 74 at a pop. Totally getting outta hand. But I digress!

And over on SwissMiss (please go give her some luvin cuz y’know she just rocks!) she had this quote:

For every subject, there are really only two things you really need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important.

Whaaaa??? Geez. Okaaaay. I will stop my reading and flit over to see what this is all about. Which led me to Economist Glen Whitman’s context of what exactly these Two Things might be. Read through that giant list of people’s views of what their Two Things mean within their context. Some were funny (read the porn one. heh.). Some were insightful. (read the one on Art Criticism. hmmmm.) and some were so related to their context, I couldn’t figure’em out. (International Relations. okay?)

Of course this got me thinking about Art. Or the making there of. A quick two came to mind …

1. The idea.
2. The execution.

But really that’s pretty trite. Right? Because sometimes the execution forms the idea. Though I guess that is still within the Two Thing limit. Still. How many times have you … have I… started playing without any idea and/or no execution intent. In that case it’s about the process. And truly, for me, the creation of art IS about the process. Everything else comes second.

The idea can change. Based on the process.
The execution can change. Based on the process.

So maybe. Just maybe Two Things is one thing too many!

Oh. And as an interesting aside? I had a bitch of a time trying to find a piece where I have but Two Things. Many multiple things …5s and 7s seem to be a recurring theme. Some one ofs. But rarely a pair. I guess this non-use of Two Things plays out in my art as well. Who knew?!

If you have any thoughts on what your Two Things …or One Thing as the case may be… might be, please chime in. I’d love to hear!

… it’s the latest rage dontcha know. Type it into pinterest. Or tumblr. Or google images. Or etsy. Or flickr. You’ll be inundated. Some of the ideas? Not so great. Their intent is Good. Not unlike crafting. With Phentex. (ugh!) Handmade is almost always better. The execution? Sometimes lacking.

But I digress.

I thrifted* a handmade sweater. Wool. Christmas red. The front, I love. The sleeves? Were reedonkulous. Giant, gargantuan things at the shoulder. Tight at the wrist. I knew based solely on this I’d never wear the sweater but I couldn’t let it go.

*thrifted might be right up there on my Words That Make Me Nauseous. Along with “blogged”.

So. I got it home and picked off the arms. I still have to refashion my now, sweater vest but it’s soooo much better without those sleeves. Which laid around looking sorry for themselves. In all their knitty wooly goodness. Until I put the wide end on my head. Like a Courier de Bois toque. Too big for me. Yes. But perfect for Tom!

Initially I was going to go with a different yarn altogether but I couldn’t quite match the look&feel  so I unraveled one sleeve for the matching wool. I frigged around to find the starting row at the shoulder and added a ribbed band as close as I could to the wrist band. Closed the wrist, crocheted a cord for the pompom. And because it was unraveled wool, the pompom is all curly. Sweet!

Tell me. What do you think? What have you upcycled?

Maybe because I’ve been contemplating style.

Maybe because I’ve overloaded my visual senses with so much eye candy.

Maybe with the turn of season I’ve become nostalgic.

Whatever the reason. However the brain works. As I was sitting this morning, coffee in hand, waiting for my email to load, a name flashed across my brain, “Carl Beam”. WTF? I haven’t thought about that name in years. In fact, I had to wait once it had registered in my consciousness to contemplate exactly where I’d heard the name before.

As any good citizen of the 21st century, and because I was already connected anyway, I simply plugged the name into Google. Ah. Yes. Mixed media artist. First Nations artist. Ponder. Ponder. Brain bumble. Brain fart. Ah! YES! as I looked at the images that started to pop up from my search. And it was as if I literally turned back time. My arm hairs rose. My brain jumped on the HighTrain.

 Oh Artists! YOU know what I’m talking about don’t you? You see something that hits a nerve. Maybe musicians hear things? It sends giant wafts of pure inspirational adrenaline coursing into your artistic nerve center. Snippets of colour cross your vision path. Fingers twitch with the sensory textural overload. You envision your creation. The process. The concentration. The satisfaction of creating. The. High. Train!

It was the mid-80s … 1985 or 1986… I had secured a day to myself to drive to The McMichael Collection in Kleinburg, ON. An entire day for myself, to wander the gallery unencumbered by my littles. Unbeknownst to me, one of the exhibits was “Carl Beam: Altered Egos [Multimedia Works]“. And I remember how I felt when I first saw his works. I was stunned. It hit me on such a gut level. Here I was just starting out in the world of watercolours and what was this?!? Dripping paint. Stencils. Photographs. Pieces of paper and feathers and other…stuff! Graffiti-esque in some ways. They were SO personal. Handwritten portions. Charcoal/graphite sketches. And …angry. So very angry. The passion, the emotion was palpable. His work left me breathless. I had never seen anything like it. And I wanted to create like that!

Fast forward 25 years and I’d all but forgotten about that visit. But it makes me wonder whether deep down in my subconscious Carl Beam’s influence remained …embers burning… after all this time, guiding my hand toward the time when I was ready to create with that same passion, with that same emotion …and freedom… that affected me in such a visceral way oh! so long ago!

I was reading Steph’s latest post on “lessons learned” this morning. I nodded through much of it. Not because I knew the specifics of what she was talking about because I’ve had my own Summer of Epiphanies and I could relate to her realizations that we need to put our own needs ahead of others or perish.

It has taken me almost 51 years to get me to this point.

How much time has been wasted reacting to, and dealing with, people’s expectations of us? Rather than creating our own goals and rising to those? More than I care to log, I’m afraid.

But I’m getting better at it. After all, anything worth learning takes effort.

I was reminded of this effort yesterday when I sat down to work on my newly started canvas. Well. Actually wood panel but it is new. And started. I had applied heavy molding paste to 3 5×7″ panels many moons ago. So far back, in fact, I can’t remember what my original intent was for them.

So with a clean slate I started layering text pages on top …my reverse gel transfer technique… added some collage items and got a feel for where I wanted to go with it.

I decided I wanted to add another gel transfer over top and chose a rather large (full page 8 1/2×11″)  figure that I prepped and strategically placed over the work in progress.

Maybe you already know where I’m going with this.

Or maybe you haven’t had the joy that is Epic Fail as your initial vision goes  south when you remember (D’Oh!) that you CAN’T add gel transfers over paper. Well. Not the way I do them anyway. As I went ahead and started peeling the top gelcoat off the transfer, a little bell began dinging in my head, progressively getting louder as the ink wasn’t staying on the paper layers. And what’s more was lifting the paper along with the gel AND inked image. The inner voice saying, softly then more insistent, as I attempted to stop the carnage:  “You’ve done this before. It won’t work!”  And yet. I kept hoping that what I was experiencing would change. What’s that saying? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing while expecting different results? Yah. Insanity personified. Right there in front of me.

What I find infinitely interesting however, as I surveyed the damage, I was not intimidated. I did not think of myself as a “failure”. I did not berate myself for “fucking up yet again”. I could step outside myself and understood that yes, I had fallen down “that hole” once more. But there was no reason to throw in the towel. To stop doing what I knew would eventually lead me to success. I would just. move. forward.

And it dawned on me. These lessons learned from art … not listening to the inner critic, relying on experience, wiping the slate clean after a fall… all things I have learned about ME this year.

And so.

I will wipe the slate clean.

I will rely on past experience.

I will … just. move. forward.

And? I WILL be rewarded with success.

I’m gettin’ my art mojo back.
I know. I’m kind of in awe too!

This week I am still in recovery from The Stomach Flu From Hell so I’ve hauled out a bunch of old zines that I haven’t looked at in YEARS.  Like Art & Life and Artitudezine.

I’d actually forgotten that a Round Robin my sister Caryl hosted, “The Muses” was featured in #12 Artitude Zine above.

Reading these is so …erm… nostalgic and INNOCENT somehow. We were “altered” artists gathering in the ether and SO excited to have found each other. Collaborations and swaps and mail art were the order of the day. We were young and dewy-eyed and unjaded. We participated EAGERLY because it was fresh and new and well, because we COULD.

Today’s mixed media/alternative art scene seems so business-like and cold by comparison. The majority of blogs are mere shills for selling, promoting, “marketing” of artworks. Even challenges or collabs are but a means to an end. To gain eye candy for an upcoming publication. Or gain a 3 point move upward on google’s search engines.

I want to bring back those days.
I want to feel that heady ‘anything is possible’, ‘we are all in this together’, LET’S SHARE enthusiasm.

I have ideas.
But I need to hear if YOU are interested in playing.

So. Are you?
And if you are … will you spread the word?

Can we return to our dewy-eyed past?
Let me know.
I’m aquiver with possibility!

… with a girl. With a sweater. With a lifestyle.

If you haven’t seen Kat’s amazing technicolour clothing … LIFE … go check her out. I’ll wait …. *drums fingers* … pretty awesome huh? Did you check out her house? No? Go.(you might have to friend her on FB for these to show) Incredible, no? Kat kind of epitomizes what I see in my mind’s eye of “artist”. She exudes it out of every pore. I’ve been thinking I need a little more of that in my life.

Specifically, I’ve been contemplating … just pondering for the moment … clothing in particular. I dress kind of the same as I did when I was 16. Clothes have never been important to me. I hang onto things forEVER. Like my dad that way. I’m more likely to buy clothing for my dog than myself.  Sad. But true. Key thing for me is comfort. And I’ve never met an article of clothing that’s MORE comfortable than jeans and a t-shirt. If I do find something that is comfy, I wear it until it begs me to throw it away. Maybe. Maybe I just haven’t been looking in the right places. hmmmm…

Bobbi posted a photo from Secret Lentil … another new love! … and a whole host of possibilities sprung to mind.

Are you sensing a trend? So I’ve been looking … searching … for new-to-me recycled/upcycled/repurposed clothing artists on etsy. (there are metric buttloads but as with most things not all are created equal!) And I’m googling for how-to’s … here … and here … and here. Now to break out the old machine and lube her up. Things might get crazy around here!

So there have been earthquakes in Ottawa, tornadoes in Midland and Jen is in the studio. Yes dear readers, the end IS nigh!!

Some of the unsold work that has been at The Flying Pig was returned to me, so I’m adding them to etsy. I figured, Why Not?!? But if you see something you like and for whatever reason don’t want to go through etsy but want that piece, lemme know and we can work out a deal!

Long-timers may recognize some of the mixed media pieces from artsomofo way  back when – 2007? 2008? Ack! Can’t remember. A favourite of mine, if for no other reason than its title makes me smile “Sometimes A Frog Prince Is Just A Frog”, with the central metal piece dating back to when I did Stephanie Lee’s book project by project.

And. AND! I finished Cynjon … Judah mea culpa Mr. Man! …’s assemblage challenge (hide your eyes if you want to stay surprised). I know. I can’t quite believe it either. Here’s the finished piece … a rather HORRIBLE photo but ’twill have to suffice for the time being.

Teri, your “parts” are being pondered on the table … can you BELIEVE it?!? I know. Me either!!

ETA: A MUCH better photo of Cynjon/Judah’s finished piece:

I know. I know. It took me forEVER to finish this. But it has been sent off and I’m now playing with Cynjon’s contributions. Here are some photos of Fin’s finished piece (click to enlarge):

And here’s the finished piece:

Now on to work on Cynjon’s:

After a big push yesterday … thanks Tom for puppy-wrangling! … the necklace is DONE! I’m glad to have it finished. I hate deadlines hanging over my head and frankly, there were a few times there that I despaired whether I would ever get past the clasp and hinge!

Here it is laying and on a black background.

Light background and hanging. Clearly if I go into jewelry making I have to resolve my pitiful photo taking skills! For what it’s worth, the beads in the dangle are actually silver metal that have been tarnished so aren’t quite as black in real life. They look like magnetic beads. But they aren’t! The drop bead is vintage.

Detail of the handmade clasp, chain and added washer/bead combo (there’s got to be a name for this, yes?)

Blurry dangle detail. You can see the more silvery colour of the beads in this one.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the result of this experiment. Would I do it again? Likely I wouldn’t. Not this way at any rate. I have some other ideas for containment lockets but they don’t involve hearts! I think the shape is too ubiquitous to do poorly. (read: we all know what a heart locket is supposed to look like!) Perhaps reshaping the heart would work better? I don’t know. But I loved creating something small, something wearable, pushing my own limits and all the problem solving that needed to take place. A success in anyone’s estimation, I would think!

Thanks for visiting. Thanks for the comments and Good Luck to all those of you in the draw!

Check back on Monday for the randomly drawn winning name!

I have entered the embellishment stage of the necklace. The locket and surrounding “cage” being done. I still may age parts of this but the construction? DONE!

Initially I was going to do the entire thing in metal but after going through some options, I think a bit of red is in order. After all, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner!

Onward…

I can’t believe I posted the wrong address to Nourish & Sustain. What a doof! Anyway, you can still check out the works and even bid on them online, if you’re so inclined. The correct address is: marylouzeekgallery.com and here’s the  direct link while the show is on.

Below is a shot of some of the works. And if you direct your view to just above the word “comfort” you’ll see my piece “Teach a Man to Fish” (which is still available, I might add!).