Welcome to MissouriBendStudio!

This is an online journal of my artistic investigations and a way to communicate about my work, ideas, quandries and queries! I welcome comments and conversation and do hope you enjoy these musings. My artwork is available in my shop MissouriBendStudio on Etsy.com or on my website.

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Monday, August 22, 2011

Keeping the Flow

Greetings everyone...hard to believe it's the beginning of the last full week of August!  I'm establishing my new rhythms and the structure of my day seems to suit me just right.  Mornings in the studio, beginning with 10 meditation drawings and a short writing practice.  I started doing these meditation drawings as an opening exercise each day at Brush Creek...10 sheets of copier paper and one pencil or pen....just letting my hand make marks on the page and turning it over when it felt right, going on to the next. I love these small rituals and this practice allows me to get out of my own way so that I can see the kind of marks I make at any given time. I am working at keeping the flow going, aware that I am not at Brush Creek any longer, and as much as I want to hold on tightly to that experience, I have to realize that each moment is a new moment and I must be present in the here and now.  A simple thought, but really a tangled web, full of emotions, desires and other things deeper that can't quite be named.  So, I continue on, trying to be open to the ongoing flow, and present to what wants to be revealed in my work and in my being.

I'm trying to shoot the new work and do it downstairs in the studio, so I don't have to be dependent on the fickle natural light.  We have this fancy digital camera that I just barely know how to use and that's if it's set on automatic.  I saw how the shots Johntimothy took of his recent work turned out and I was blown away when I realized he did it downstairs under the fluorescent lights....but using manual settings.  My first attempt at doing this was not very successful, so we're going to have another session tonight and hopefully I can get the hang of it.  In the meantime, here are a few of the new pieces....more to come, I promise!!


so far, untitled

so far, untitled

The top drawing was one of the first....these are all on Johntimothy's handmade paper.  I was in love with the landscape, but I'm not one to work directly from life and so the elements of the landscape began to appear. After the second piece, I understood that it was really the rocks that were the key for me and for the rest of the time the pieces were all about the rocks...like this third one.  I have to reshoot that one, along with the rest of the finished ones in the series, but I'll show them to you as soon as I can.  I am still working on a number of these "floating rocks" and it looks like this series will keep me busy for a little while!



7 comments:

  1. I love your morning ritual Patti - it sounds like something that would be good for me to get in the habit of as well. The rocs look like they are fascinating and have lots of stories to tell - looking forward to seeing what they say, and how the new photos work as well! So many things to learn hey!?! Good to see you back, go well.

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  2. I actually kinda like "so far, untitled..." as an actual title! It really does sound that as much as you miss Brush Creek, its effects have followed you home and can now become incorporated into your daily routine and way of seeing your work, which is a great gift, otherwise your time there would have just been a happy holiday and an isolated memory. I like your new morning ritual - how we start the day is so important! I agree with what you said in yr previous post about the risks of letting morning time online take over the whole day!

    Good luck with your continued adventures with the fancy camera! Anyone who masters the manual settings on those beasts has my awed respect!

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  3. Love, love the new work, Patti, especially the the layered translucent quality of the last 2.
    Isn't it wonderful to be a participant with energy rather than a manipulator of it? What wonderful surprises come of it. Meditation drawings: sounds freeing.

    I am as at odds with our fancy camera as you are with yours. Wally invariably takes my shots into Adobe photoshop to adjust colour, composition, even focus (which can be sharpened. Apparently it's not that hard once you get your sequence for format for the net straight.

    Finding one's way into the land of the subconscious mind is the only true travel. Thank you for sharing this aspect of such a personal journey.

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  4. Hi Fiona....my new rituals are definitely keeping me balanced. I recommend the 10 little morning meditation drawings as way to start the day.....they don't have to take long....it just making the marks on a page that want to be made, that feel good to make before going on to the next page. They become like little mirrors into your soul. The rocks have millions of years of stories to tell....and can they talk!!! Cheers...it is good to be back!

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  6. Gabriella/TT: ....you are such an insightful one and possess such a way of articulating things so precisely right....it could have been just a happy holiday and isolated memory, but my time at Brush Creek opened up a lot of doors for me (mostly interior doors) and that's exactly what I hoped would happen....the fact that I did not return straight into the old life is a clear sign that I've moved forward...priorities have definitely shifted and new patterns are emerging, along with the new work. We still haven't had time to deal with that camera and I may just go back to my old way of doing things....remember we have the EXACT same camera (one of our many parallels!)....cheers!

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  7. Lorraine....thank you...so glad to have the feedback! There is a grand world of travel into the interior, that's for sure....so much more to explore. Much more interesting to me than trying to learn the technology of that fancy camera....which hasn't happened yet. I'm just going to take my shots the old fashioned way (on automatic) and do a little basic doctoring in Photoshop Elements, which I can barely manage! Oh well...it's about making the work. Thanks so much for your support!

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I'm happy to hear from you...comments and questions are welcome!