a little art 411

So, I thought maybe I should tackle a little 411 on myself and share some art.

I have been painting all my life. Painting rocks as a child with my maternal grandmother in the maritimes will always be the sweetest of my sweet memories. Through high school I hung out in the art room, the photography darkroom and painted a mural in the school hallway for a serior year project. After high school I desperately wanted to get a BFA (bachelor of fine arts) in painting. While I passed the portfolio interview portion of the application process, my 78% average was not getting me into any of the coveted 30 spots in the 2 schools I applied to. I did not get in. While obviously disappointed, I kept those rejection letters. I have always been simply happy to receive positive feedback on my ability as an artist. From there, I proceeded to obtain my back-up choice, a BA in Art History & Anthropology, graduating in 1996.

Working in an art supply store throughout university was an invaluable experience for me as an artist. It is there I learned about all-things supplies, met working, living artists, and got a fantastic discount. My friends used to refer to my job as art-camp. Access to supplies and product demonstrations fueled my fires daily. I would suggest it to anyone looking to learn about any and all things art. Since then I have tended to work in multi-medium; watercolour, ink, acrylic, cheesecloth, canvas, masonite, pastels, grease-pencil, charcoal, lino printing. Anything I can drag up and into my studio is fair game in winter. I have to wait for the milder weather for all the furniture fun I like to tackle. I seem to like anything that I can layer together, create texture, create movement, and then elevate that seemingly messy nothingness into something is what I do. Yah. Like that. (i am laughing at myself trying to explain this here folks)

My love affair with art is a life long journey. Just like life itself, it is rife with unexpected twists and journeys, highs and lows, crippling lulls and huge leaps forward. It is a relationship all its own with a part of myself. I wonder if it is like that for others who refers to themselves as that all encompassing, yet completely ellusive term: artist. I wonder if being a human is the thing that makes us all artists. I wonder about being human and the act of making art. I wonder about a lot of things.

So lets get some creative sharing going here.

What have I been up to creative wise? Well, besides the rabbit holes and baking going on over here, there has been some action in the generic Art sense. When the new year rang in, I decided to start a new art journal. I started keeping Discovery Journals (again, a whole other post) in the 90s, and the art journals emerged from there when I discovered the idea on YouTube a few years ago. I even made a youtube video of my journal from 2008! One of 2009 is planned for a later date.

Back to the present.

I started a new Art Journal for this year. A little late, but thats ok. This journal is huge. It was free, delivered to me, and is the holy grail of upcycling to me. Any ideas? Guesses? Ok, fine. It;s The Yellow Pages! I covered the front, spine and backs covers with some podge and sweet paper I had been saving, so it just looks like a huge book now. The thin newsprint pages are perfect for gessoing on both sides; that thickens them up enough so they dont rip so easily, and still remain fairly thin when the book is closed. I am in love. Making something from nothing kids, that is the name of the game for me! I will be posting a few pictures of that later in the week :)

Here are a few of my paintings. I AM SHARING! I know, I can hardly believe it either. Let the fun begin!

drive, 16x20 mixed medium & acrylic on canvas

untitled 12x12 cheesecloth & acrylic on canvas

momma said 16x20 acrylic & wax on canvas

How might they see? 16x20 mixed medium & cheesecloth on canvas

On another front (read: rabbit hole) I stumbled upon this little art video gem on the TED website this morning. Tom Shannon: The painter and the pendulum. The video below blew me away.

I personally love using the paint itself as the tool and the non-deterministic approach he uses. I love the colours, circles, patterns, possibility of each piece with each layer. I love it all. I am blown away. I may have tweeted such a sentiment.

So there we have it, a post on art. anything you wanna talk about art wise? fire away! i love it!

♥ leel

p.s. I am behind a recipe post. I know. Stay tuned, because I have that perfectly scrumptious recipe for Sunburst Lemon Bars that might just brighten any gray snowy day.