Autumn Suite....Recollections of the Season

Autumn Suite: Recollection no.1

Now in early September, I can feel the change of seasons. I find myself reenergized, ready to be back in the studio in order to capture the feeling of fall. As much as I enjoy the bounty and rich color of summer, my color palette is that of autumn, with the subtle tones shifting in the fading light. I'm now returning to work I did more frequently some time ago...spare pieces that I think of as meditation drawings, with the intent of capturing the essence of the thing...whatever it is.

detail

As longtime readers of this blog know well, while I love the natural world, I am not one to draw or paint directly from life. I prefer to let the beauty of nature come onto the page not from direct observation, but filtered through lived experience. The memory of fleeting views comes through my hand onto the page in a way that surprises and delights me.

detail

As always, there are those tiny marks and those dots....for me they are a language I use to express the ineffable. Time moves on....summer gives way to fall...once again. Hope you are enjoying the change of seasons wherever you are!

Spring Meditation

Mid-March greetings! We had a nice getaway to the Twin Cities over the spring break, but as everyone knows, taking a break from the routine often creates more work once you try to get back to it. But things are unpacked, laundry is done and I got to spend enough time in the studio yesterday to make two new drawings!

I've always loved white-on-white, but I fell in love with it all over again when I started adding white ink to the daily drawings I had been making of late. So, to extend it, I've made these two new pieces that start with pencil and white ink on Japanese paper. These are two different types of Japanese paper, one of which is much warmer than the other. The finished drawings are backed with a warm toned drawing paper, so they don't appear actually as white paper anymore, actually.

Spring Meditation in White

Finding Home

The white ink actually looks fairly inconsequential when I'm making the drawing...in fact, on the top one, it is barely visible....until the finished drawing hits the beeswax and then the richness and the contrast comes out. A bit like magic!

Speaking of meditation....last week I had a brief conversation with the gentleman that was taking care of a few "handyman" tasks around the house. He actually has an engineering background and seemed genuinely interested in the work that my husband and I do in our studios, which comprise the entire downstairs of the house.  As most of my readers know by now, I am the opposite of an engineer in temperament and in the intuitive way I work, so I was momentarily speechless as to how to answer him when he asked, "So where do you get your ideas?" He was working on changing the ballasts on some of the lights in my studio (so I could actually see again!) and I was working on a drawing. I relayed my usual response about thinking through my hands and the intuitive nature of how I work and thought, even as the words escaped my lips, how very strange that must sound to someone who works in a left-brain precision based world. It's quite a leap and hard to describe what it actually means to me when I say I think through my hands. I don't have "ideas" when I start....the work flows through me. I sound like some sort of nut! This brief moment made me question my assumptions about how I communicate just what it is I do...the how and the why of it. So, I've been thinking...

But maybe it makes more sense if I make an analogy that more people can relate to. What if I say...it's like taking a walk. How do you get the idea of how you are going to take your walk? You just put one foot in front of the other and keep moving....if you don't have a destination in mind, you saunter along....or even walk at a brisk pace, but you really aren't thinking so distinctly about the activity. You just take a walk....it's hard to describe that too, but it's something most of us do. Does that even make sense as an analogy? When I make a drawing, it's kind of like taking a walk and I don't know where I'll end up....I just put one foot in front of the other, so to speak It's one thingto be talking to another artist and say, "I think through my hands" and quite another to speak to someone for whom that will sound like a foreign language. 

Communication is important and how we relate to one another is so embedded in the communication between people. One of the many things that has stuck with me from my recent class in Intercultural Communication is that we cannot not communicate. Everything we do....our gestures, facial expressions, the spaces we inhabit and the words we use.....everything is communication. One simple conversation with a near stranger asking some genuine questions about my work is an opportunity for creating new insights and clearing new pathways as a result of the communication that unfolds. A reminder to be mindful!

I do hope you have a fine week. Love hearing from you and welcome your comments and insights!

Cheers....Patti

New Works and Shop Update

Hello, everyone....it's the start of yet another week and almost another month. They do just keep rolling along, don't they? I have been busy in the studio, making some adjustments to the Etsy shop and squeezing in a bit of reading as well. Last week the weather was so much warmer, we were sure spring was on the way. I was able to get in a daily walk most days, but now we are back to gray and cold and damp. But...the good news is that it's quite temporary, as we will have upper 50's by the end of the week! Surely spring is just around the corner.

Below are a few of the new pieces recently posted in my Etsy shop.

Gathering of Stones

Present Moments

Notes From The Ancestors no. 18

It felt good to be working on the more layered Notes From the Ancestors piece. I have loved that series and missed working on them. It is hard to see all the detail here (more views on Etsy), but there are bits of text fragments glued to the backing sheet that are visible floating above the chairs through the beeswaxed paper. On the left panel, I layered the letters of the alphabet to create a dense field. Once again, this is all a reference to the buried text, the forgotten history, and the wisdom lost to the ages.

I have a new scroll piece underway as well. Some of you may remember that these scrolls began some years ago with an homage to the alphabet...Scroll for the Letter A and Scroll for the Letter B. Each was done differently, but focused on a particular letter. I am working now on Scroll for the Letter C, which will be filled with a series of words from the dictionary (unknown words, at least to me) that begin with the letter C. Should be done in a day or so and then I'll be happy to share it with you.

A couple of other updates to share. As I may have indicated, I did close my 2nd Etsy shop, Missouri Bend Musings, which was dedicated to featuring daily drawings on teabags from several years ago. I've selected my favorites from that series and am slowly adding them to Missouri Bend Studio, so browse the Daily Drawing section where you will find a number of them. 

I also added a 10% coupon code to show my appreciation for those who purchase my work from MissouriBendStudio on Etsy. It is set up so that the coupon code is sent automatically to anyone who makes a minimum $20 purchase and gives the buyer 10% off a future purchase. Just a way to show my appreciation and let you know I'm always happy to see you back in my shop!

Well, time to get back to my reading of Hamilton by Ron Chernow (it's a hefty one, but wonderfully engaging), with a glass of wine and a bit of cheese! See you soon.

Edges of Knowing....Liminal Spaces

I can't remember where it was, but I came across the word liminal as I was reading the other day. Because I love that word and find it so evocative, it usually stops me in my tracks, so to speak. It was the same the other day....I paused and kind of savored it in an almost sensory way. The taste of that word and everything it summons up came back to me just a little while ago as I made this daily drawing. 

I've said this before in the virtual space of this blog, but the meditation drawings (which includes the practice of the daily drawings like this) are a way for me to learn what it is I'm thinking....I think through my hands and as I made those little branching forms clinging to the edges, I understood they were about liminal spaces. 

That's where I am right now....on the edges on knowing and not knowing, leaving one identity and claiming a new one. I'm drawn to the edge of the page these days....the spareness of this drawing reminds me of the sense of frailty I feel. Clinging to limits of the page, but about to break free, there is a tension in the spareness of the drawing, that I find compelling. And the nice thing is, it's a good thing to step outside of ourselves once in awhile to see things from another place and point of view.

Liminal....it's a lovely word and I am learning to appreciate the wide open possibilities of my life right now. Edges and boundaries are interesting places for exploration!

Liminal:

1. of or relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.

2. occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.

See  you soon!

Time As A River

Book of Lost Time

The Secret of Winter

My musings this week have led me to some new insights, which may seem fairly to you, which they no doubt are, but which have provided an important subtle shift in the way I move through the day. It sounds almost cliche to say that "time is like a river" and yet, I realized that living through that understanding was not what I had been doing. I spent a very relaxing, nicely paced day on New Year's....it was a lovely balance of work in the studio, reading, reflecting, and simple joy in the good things my husband and I have in our lives. The day flowed....yes, like the river outside my window, without hitting a snag. I felt as if I was moving with time, immersed in it and not struggling or fighting against the current. There was a moment during that day when I understood that the difference in the way I was feeling had to do with the fact that I'd been thinking and behaving as if time was a commodity....a thing to be clutched close to the heart, lest it be frittered away or taken from me without my permission and spent often like a miser. So much effort required to keep time from flowing as it will....somehow on New Year's Day I had gotten into the river and was at one with the flow. Such a relief!

Now that I've posted a couple of the newer pieces shown above, I see that the title of that top piece, Book of Lost Time, which was done at the end of 2013, certainly echoes my earlier view. This piece is about more than that however...buried history, the loss of ancient knowlege and the limits of our collective memory. The second piece is a simple book page reflecting the quiet of a winter landscape.

Any new insights in the first few days of January? I do hope you are having a nice start to the year. While it's colder than I'd like, the winter landscape is beautiful here in South Dakota, and I am plenty warm inside....about to head back into the studio. Best wishes!

New Year Greetings

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Warm greetings on this first day of the year! For me, this is a day of reflection and hopeful anticipation of a more positive year ahead. We all have resolutions in one way or another and dreams for the future, some yet unacknowledged, still buried deep inside us only half formed and not yet ready to be given a voice. Rather than resolutions, though, I like to think of my hopes for the year as a continuation....as part of the ongoing efforts to balance love and life, work and play. Often we are eager in the new year to set things straight and we make resolutions that drop away one by one, so instead I am acknowledging here on day 1 that I will falter, there will be bad days and many aggravations, but these are all part of working through a mindful life and the efforts to maintain an overall balance. My husband and I share these sentiments and both want to find balance in our lives....maintaining a steadiness that sustains us in good times and bad. We want to balance our days of work with time to be in the studio, read, practice yoga, enjoy healthy food (and drink!) and cultivate positive relationships. I found a great book, Meditations from the Mat,  designed for yoga practitioners. It provides thoughtful daily meditations and reflections to help guide you through day-to-day life. We read the first entry at breakfast....all about balance....a perfect start to the year!!

I do hope to be more focused in the studio and get back to the relationships and friendships I've made online over the last few years. I've let many things get in the way of regular posts here and making new work for my Etsy shops. I have definitely been making new work, but the recent pieces have been posted on my website and not at MissouriBendStudio. But, in the spirit of getting back in balance, here are a couple quiet meditation drawings which are about to be listed on Etsy. 

Stillness no.1

Stillness no.2

These little drawings are made with pencil and a few touches of red earth acrylic ink on Japanese paper that was then dipped in beeswax. Tiny random stitches float across the bottom third on each one....these are quiet drawings, about stillness amid the turmoil of our days.

Hope you are enjoying a fine start to the year....I'll leave you with a chilly view of the icy Missouri River taken late this afternoon, the first day of 2014! Enjoy....

Where Did That Week Go?

Cloud Navigation

Hello! I have had a very busy week, which began with an extraordinary opportunity to see President Barack Obama when he was in Sioux City, IA last Saturday. Through one of my co-workers, we were able to get VIP tickets and were very close when he was there to give a short speech....very exciting! I happen to think he's a wonderful President and of course, his speech was an inspiration. Lots of evening activities lately, which is kind of unusual for us....out three evenings in a row this week. No wonder I'm feeling off kilter and behind in everything.

Johntimothy and I have begun a new way of eating based on The Abascal Way, which works to quiet inflammation in the body. It's a most interesting read and we are learning things about how the body actual works, how food is processed and the immune system functions. There is a three week phase where many foods that our western (especially American) diet has come to rely upon are eliminated so you can get the body realigned. Mostly we are eating whole foods, including vast amounts of fruits, vegetables and nuts, with some selective meat and fish. We were both already way too busy, but now we've added this turnaround in our eating habits, which necessitates actually spending more time in the kitchen preparing food and planning our meals to take to work so they are proportionally balanced. Wow....it's a lot. There are times when I am ready to give it all up so I can just go out on the deck with a glass of wine and forget it all....but alas, not for a while.

So, there is one thing in my life that remains on course and it is these little dailies that keep me balanced on days when I am overwhelmed. It's a good thing to get up early and go downstairs to the studio when it's still dark and all is quiet, inside and out. Sometimes I can tell you what was going on in my head when I made them, but sometimes I'm not sure at all and they just are what they are....it's a conversation in which the moment of making is given over to the history of everything that came before. Then the rest of the day unfolds and before I know it, the morning has come around again and I am at my table, stamping a new page with the date and beginning to let my hand move across the page.

Thanks for all the kind words about the Somerset Studio magazine....still awaiting my copy, so I haven't actually taken a close look. I do so appreciate hearing from you and apologize for the sometimes long lapses in my response time. It is hard to keep up! I haven't read the blogs I follow in ages and am way behind on that front. There seems to be no way to stay on top of everything....does anyone have any secrets? I don't want to give one thing up, but am also a bit weary of feeling behind....time to set some new priorities! Okay, that's quite enough rambling from me....here are the week's dailies! Do stop over at MissouriBendMusings to see more views and get more information.

September 1, 2012

September 2, 2012

September 3, 2012

September 4, 2012

September 5, 2012

September 6, 2012

September 7, 2012

2 Daily Drawings, 1 Meditation and a Book Page!

July 7, 2012

July 8, 2012

The dailies from the weekend are on teabags, which is the new rhythm....black paper drawings during the week (6x6") and teabag drawings for Saturday and Sunday (mounted on 12"x9" bristol)....I'm into the flow of it now. By the end of the week, I'm ready to meet those teabags again, as they lend themselves to different processes than the drawings on black paper. Of course, during the week, it's experimentation time and pushing the envelope with the black paper. It is somewhat limited, as the drawing paper is really not made to get wet, but I can get away with a little here and there for the water soluble crayons.

Now that I've had a full day in the studio, I've had time to finish up a couple of other pieces that have been in the works. There's been some beeswax action in the studio today as I dipped these pieces and another dozen small pieces very much like Wisdom of the Ancients. I have a "book work" in process, so if you like Wisdom of the Ancients (listed as a solo piece as MissouriBendStudio) stay tuned for a much fuller version. I guess I'd say that Wisdom of the Ancients was the prototype, and now I'm finishing up a spin off, yet to be named! It's been some time since I made one of the meditation drawings and that was fun....that aqua color takes me back to my Florida days and the Gulf of Mexico along the west coast. The summer meditation piece will be listed at MissouriBendStudio tomorrow or the next day.

Summer Meditation no.4 

Wisdom of the Ancients

My weekend is now over and I'll go back to work tomorrow....the days and weeks do fly by, don't they? Our heat wave is over and the temperatures are quite pleasant....we sure could use some rain though....mighty dry around these parts! Hope your week has started off on a positive foot! See you in a few days....

Migration!

The news around here is that the migration of geese is in full swing!  This is our third winter/spring here on the river and I don't quite remember the fall or spring migrations being anything quite so amazing.  The geese are here in huge numbers, including flocks of snow geese...at least that's what I think they are.  They make so much noise that they wake us up at night, even with all the window closed.  The like the river too and hang out in droves on the sandbars that form here and there.  Sunday morning, for some reason (the noisy geese?), we were up before the sun rose and took a lot of shots of the geese just as it was getting light. They were hanging out on the river, but would spent much of their time in flight...in strange sort of undulating circular formations.  I know there must be a structure to it, but I couldn't find the pattern.  Here are a few shots of our friends!

More new work to share here...a couple of meditation drawings and a piece that calls itself Spring Showers, all of which have been added to my shop.  The titles are linked and will take you to more view

and description.

Spring Meditation no.8

(this shot doesn't capture the lovely deckled edges of the paper like the one below)

Spring Meditation no.9

Spring Showers

Hope you've had a great weekend and are ready for the unfolding week.  I know we all have the folks in Japan weighing heavily in our thoughts and hearts.  See you fine folks tomorrow for A Walk Through The Universe....have a lovely evening.

Winter Meditation No.5

Winter Meditation No.5

A little time squeezed in downstairs in the studio for another quiet meditation on winter.  This must feel foreign to those of you in the southern hemisphere who are experiencing plenty of sunshine and warmth...at least in theory!

I'm glad to hear, from the comments on my last post, that I am not alone in being called to these late night meetings!  Surprisingly, the big meeting where all the final decisions will be made hasn't been called and I've had a few uninterrupted nights of sleep, with what I hope have been pleasant dreams!

I didn't mention to you the close alliance between The One Who Loves To Make Art and MissouriBendStudio The Blog, who sat quietly in the back at those last meetings.  They were both in agreement and of one mind that this blog is a creative act in and of itself and that The One Who Loves To Make Art, as the self with the most clout in the meetings, would speak on her behalf.  And of course, early on, there had been the tug-of-war between Missouri Bend Studio The Blog and The One Seeking Balance about the idea of five regular posts a week....it seemed, at first, that more work was being generated, rather than less, but everyone in group listened carefully to each other (for a change!) and it was agreed that it would be feasible to have five short and meaningful posts a week that actually left more time for The One To Who Loves To Make Art to get her momentum back.  She loves the blog and all her blogging friends as much as Missouri Bend Studio The Blog! 

And now, as I have my last push to tidy things up and get ready to take a week off for the holidays, I have begun to feel a bit of light at the end of the tunnel and look forward to spending a week with my wonderful husband and my family who will be gathered in Athens, Georgia.  I'll be posting A Walk Through The Universe tomorrow night before we leave and have a featured artist scheduled for the 27th, so you'll have that to look forward to!  Sending my warm wishes to all of you for a joyful and relaxing holiday season....with eyes toward a fine and prosperous year in 2011.  Thanks so much for your support and a hearty welcome to the newest followers!

Winter Meditation No.3

Winter Meditation No.3

Winter is clearly upon us now, as a blizzard has brought several fresh inches of snow, drifted into bizarre formations from the 30 mile an hour winds!  These are busy times for every one, but still I find myself reflecting on plans for the coming year.  I am rethinking the blogs, including this one, MissouriBendStudio and MissouriBendPaperWorks, where I have a daily posting of a found text poem.  Keeping up with two blogs is getting to be too much to handle and I think I will combine them in some way, but things haven't quite settled into place yet...still in the pondering stage....the kind that occasionally wakes you up in the middle of the night with the nudge of an idea, then keeps you tossing and turning for hours on end!  I need the structure of a regular posting, but I just don't have the time I did when I started that first blog nearly a year ago.  My plan was to do the daily found text poem for at least a year and then reevaluate.  I love making those little poems, but don't know if I can still make it a daily ritual.  I had absolutely no idea that first week in January 2010 where my life would be at this point in time....does any of us really?  The blogs are important to me, so I'm still working out how to make sure the blog I end up with is as meaningful for you as it is for me...a place to learn and grow and share!  Once again, I'm here to thank you for your comments, your support and the thread you each represent in a the woven fabric that is my life.  I am looking forward with great cheer to see what happens next!  See you here tomorrow with a new posting for A Walk Through The Universe!  Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

The Language of Mark Making

I was walking up the gravel driveway the other day and chanced upon this charming stick!  I think it's quite charming anyway and have decided to take its portrait.  I'm quite jealous of the intuitive drawing ability of whatever creature made those marks on the stick, so reminiscent of counting and marking time.

My first thought was the squirrel, the same culprit who has not only foiled practically all our attempts to hang a bird feeder but who chews away at the recycled material in the posts on our back deck when he is especially peeved.  Perhaps he is doing some sort of counting there....is that the number of times he has chewed a big hole in the thistle bag, causing the contents to spill everywhere...or maybe that's the count of the number of times he has been able to yank the whole bird feeder contraption (feeder, sturdy pole and clamp) off the railing of the deck!  Oh, but doesn't the world just revolve around us?!  My husband thinks bugs or worms drew those lines...what could they possibly be counting, I ask you? 

I've had quite a week, just too busy, with a list of so many things to do and so many things to take care of, that any short window I had in the studio was nothing but frustration because, with so many things left on the list, I couldn't relax!  But, today I'm feeling better and spent a bit of the morning finishing up this little meditation drawing...random marks, entirely intutive, no pressure, no wrong moves...it is what it is.  I wish it could always be that way when I'm working and now, I'm heading back to the studio, before the spell is broken!

Winter Meditation no.1

Thank you so much to all the new followers who came this way, no doubt, through Bridgette via the interest in her Monday feature on The Walk Through The Universe!  Welcome to all and wishing each of you a fine weekend!

Meditation Drawings

When I was in my late twenties, I decided to go back to school to get a teaching certification in art.  At The University of South Florida, I had a number of wonderful professors, but one of them, Richard Loveless, taught me some particularly valuable lessons, many of which had to do with being an artist.  One of the exercises we did individually involved taking a stack of 50 sheets of blank paper, along with a favorite mark-making tool, and sitting in a quiet place, without interruption, begin making marks on those pages.  The rule was not to think about it...make marks, without judgement, without thinking, without planning and without editing.  Page after page, we weren't to make finished "drawings", but making marks that came from the inside out, turning the page and beginning the next when the moment felt right.  On a certain day, we all came together as a class and laid out our 50 drawings at the same time on the floor, filling the room entirely.  What was immediately clear, and this was obviously the point of the exercise, was that each person in that room had a very individual inner landscape of mark-making...a way of "drawing" that was unique to them.  It was a very powerful moment for me...to see my own marks, pure, having come from the place where my intuition resides.

So, even now, when I find that I'm overthinking my work or  I have a sense I'm trying to make art from a place that isn't my own in order to please an audience, I come back to making what I call meditation drawings.  I still have that original stack of 50 pages, which I cherish, but the drawing above is from another time, a decade or more later, when I came back to make those very intuitive meditation drawings.

And here I am again, yet another decade or so later, making mediation drawings, now more minimal, along with bits of text pieces collaged on during various stages of the layering of paint and drawing...but there it is, the recognition of my own voice...my own voice loud and clear.  As an artist, there is maybe nothing more important than discovering and rediscovering your voice.

By the way, I never did get that teaching certification...I found that really what I needed was to be back in school...and perhaps it was just in order to have that experience of finding my own voice.  It's an exercise I recommend to anyone that is willing to let go in order to find their own set of marks.