Years and years later, after college and graduate school and numerous friendships, heartbreak, challenges, and living life -- it was only after growing up, that I could understand the language of jazz. In a way, I had to learn its language through piecing together its alphabet.
Read MoreGoing, going...
I sold Autumn. Of all the paintings I've created, this is one that's nearest and dearest to my heart. I painted this in the fall of 2009, after I'd been living in Seattle for a few years. Although I'd acclimated quickly to the quirks of the weather in the PNW, I still missed the typical Northeast seasons that I was accustomed to. Autumn is my favorite season...
Read MoreChoose your words.
I'm not sure if this is a common theme amongst artists, but the majority of the time, I can firmly state that I vacillate on a scale of "I hate it" to "I don't hate it".
Read MoreFocus
I'm usually a good listener. I like to give my companion my full attention and be attuned to their mood and needs during the conversation. Recently, though, I've found myself drifting away during discussions -- this tends to happen more during group gatherings where it's easier for me to fade in and out. I think part of the reason I've been doing this (conjecture, here) is that I haven't painted in a while. With the holidays and my husband being on his equivalent of winter break, we've had so many activities planned the last couple of weeks that I haven't found time to create (other than the kitschy homemade wrapping paper I made this year). Part of me feels unfocused.
Or else I've just turned into a grandiose asshole. Could be that, too.
Part of the problem with not doing art for a while is that there are so many ideas and half-formed shapes in my mind that it's hard for me to decide where to start. I've been day dreaming of sweeping brush strokes and these layers of soft pastel colours, but distracted by the paucity of canvas. I thought a while back that I would try painting on different surfaces, and thus have kept pieces of cardboard, styrofoam, and card stock. Focus, in this form, needs to be directed towards more specific goals...
I just need to get there.
Music as Muse
... I had subconsciously been painting in nostalgic hues and melancholy tones, and didn't notice until I stopped and stepped back.
With my love affair with this genre neverending, I thought it might be interesting to layer in text of snippets of actual lyrics which influenced this painting.
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The predominant manner in which I coped with all of these emotions was immersion in art...
... I sketched and painted, and this is the period when I first fell in love with van Gogh, de Kooning, and Pollock. Abstract art was a way for me to place my rawness front and center, without words, without fear of retribution. I didn't need to explain anything; the canvas did it for me. I didn't have to use reason or rational thought, because in creating I found a solution to my doubts.