Forming inspirations

I'm a firm believer in giving the past equal consideration when exploring new avenues for work. In my life, the Christmas season is always a time for merging the three aspects of time- past, present and future. I thought I'd share how I get some of my inspirations for new bodies of work.


Trees have always been in my life. From my earliest days when I could venture from my yard to the woods behind our house, I knew I had a secret place to walk, hide, and play. I loved the smell of damp earth, the moss covered rocks and the rough bark tickling my hands as I moved furtively from tree to tree playing childish games.

Some trees beckoned more than others...

with their tangled roots creeping along the ground,

their low hanging canopy of branches making an inviting cave,

their hanging lichen beards,

their perfectly spaced limbs for climbing,

I even loved the old, bare, ghostly one long past its prime.

There are new trees in my life too, ones that have been around for hundreds of years, those windswept relics that refuse to give up the survival battle.

I know that my love of texture comes from my early contact with the natural world. I crawled into, over or on so many rocks, lichens, branches and pebbles that the memory of their touch stayed with me. When I look at photos of my past haunts I still get tingling in my hands and the exact smell and feel of the place is conjured up immediately. The sensory memories are so strong that I am grabbed and thrust back in time.

Sometime in the future I know there is a body of work to be discovered in these experiences. What it will look like and how it will be executed remains a mere thread in my mind, unformed but tugging gently.

Attachments

Hinge (2008) 14 x 7 in. acrylic on board

Toggle (2008) 14 x 7 in. acrylic on board

An attachment can be simple or complicated, a feeling, or an object /device. Considering just the root word it can be an action. Often what we choose as content in art is based on attachments- things we are attracted or attached to, things that add to our life in some way. Attachments also serve as a vehicle for moving images of our work and ideas to interested parties. What a useful word!



One of the most prevalent attachments in our lives are locks. They provide a sense of safety by keeping undesirable "elements" out. Locks also work in the reverse and have a captivity role.

Through the centuries the development of locks has moved through many phases ranging from rope ties through wooden locks, metal locks, to the keyless locks of today. I was struck by the changes in how we protect our homes the other day when I brought my three year old grandchild home. I was getting ready to ring the bell when she lifted a flap on their new lock and poked her finger in to open it. It was like a science fiction action to me but to her it was how you opened a door. It was so removed from what I knew of locks in my childhood. We didn't even lock our doors at night. We had locks but the keys were lost!

In my wanderings I've found sheds and their modes of protection interesting. In small communities there doesn't seem to be too much thought to keeping others out. You won't find any hi- tech solutions here. In the community where my summer house is located usually a movable latch or a bent nail through a hook seems to do the trick.


This is really a timeline of security. I bet the lock is the most recent addition to this door but is seems almost useless. It makes me wonder when it was opened last. The paintings above were created from source material I found among the remains of my Grandfather's old fishing shed.



This collection of items brought me back to a time when things were simpler and personal attachments were probably more important than what would be found behind any locked door.

What the next day brings

My friend Marlene's table - simplicity at its best

It's already the next day. Our Christmas Day is always a flurry of family activity which sees us visiting both sides of the family and eating much too much turkey. Now that the busiest day of the Christmas season is behind me, I've begun to think about where I want to go with my art in the next year.

This fall it seems I did more thinking and talking about art than actually creating it. This is not really a bad thing because I feel I've gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from the blogs I follow and I've considered topics I would never have thought about otherwise. posts have led me to books which have expanded my horizons. Writing posts ov my own blog has been a learning experience. The responses to posts are often just as informative as the posts themselves.

I go through these periods where I am not productive but I always swing back. I feel the interest in creating slowing rising to the surface again. Kathy wrote about "showing up" on her blog, but I have been accepting the ebb and flow of my creative instincts for several years, but this coming year I'm going to try out "showing up" in the studio for a block of time each day. I also want to dig more deeply into marketing my art. This is an area that I really need to contemplate because I have too much work stockpiled. Currently The Leyton Gallery of Fine Art in St. John's carries my work and the relationship has worked well for me. The gallery provides opportunities through the year for participation in group shows and I had a solo show there last year. This year I answered a call for a themed group show in Ottawa at Cube Gallery and participated in Pix and Paint which was an exciting milestone for me. I'm ashamed to relate that is all I've done this year to bring my work to new audiences.

I'm hoping you, my readers, will respond with at least one idea that relates how you have marketed your art work.

Take time

Symphony, 5 x 7, mixed media

It's important to take time for yourself and your family. Luckily Christmas seems to be a natural break at the end of the year when we are given time to do things and see people we might have neglected over the year. I'm taking that time starting today. I'll still be reading but not writing.

Have a happy holiday everyone.

Venetian Red

I'm continuing with my December theme of Pattern and Decoration with a blog recommendation. It seems appropriate to be recommending Venetian Red near Christmas. I first came across this blog on Robyn's Art Propelled. The name intrigued me at first because of the Venice reference, but it's the content of the blog that hooked me and keeps me returning.

The duo of Christine Cariati and Liz Hager started the blog as a vehicle to share their " individual and collaborative perspective on the collective creative endeavor". Their posts dig more deeply into their influences and the ideas that spring from their examinations. There are many posts that focus on design, textiles, ornament etc. It is a treasure trove for the artist interested in pattern and decoration. Since I found it I've been making quick visits and reading posts here and there. I've decided to take a more structured approach and start at the beginning. This is going to be my Christmas holiday treat.

Christine's intimate paintings include birds, insects and flora presented in a "stylized theatrical format". Her background as a textile designer is evident in her use of pattern, line work and exquisite detail . She explores "the ways in which we re-imagine nature, finding beauty in chaos and wildness".

The intimate scale, subject matter and use of pattern parallels my own interests. Christine notes that her work can be "held and read like a book". I appreciate this about her work because it reinforces my need to keep the size of my work to dimensions that allow me to physically hold the work as I paint it. I wonder if Christine uses an easel or does she also need to physically hold her work as she created it.

Liz Hager's work is diverse in material usage - paint, wood, fabric, metal and paper. Like many artists who work in different media she feels that certain concepts require specific materials. See her Botanica series where she prints on various metals with the choice of metals dictated by the image. Her gouache Imaginary Textiles ,which I love for their colour and energy, connect me to a time in my life where my spare time activity was doodling textile designs. This summary just brushes the surface of her work.

Back to Venetian Red.... I've never used this colour in my work but I'm happy to report I have another connection to it. I 've seen the murals of Pompeii. Venetian red is everywhere.

What remains of these murals create spontaneous abstract works that are achingly beautiful.

Endurance

My love of pattern usually causes me to trip, lag behind my travel mates and sometimes get downright lost. Because my head is often down, I've bumped, tripped and fallen. My friends see this behaviour as a natural part of travelling with me. When we get home I have few photos to share with the group because I rarely document people or anything in the distance. I'm attracted to texture, pattern and flowers.

My "art pictures" as my friends call them are precious to me and I draw great inspiration from them. They relate to my subject matter and they allow me to move beyond my present work to a place where I am free to sort and re-sort and develop new ideas. Some of them I will never use but considered together they have changed how I look at things. While these pieces from modern and ancient Italian towns are beautifully patterned they also represent endurance and the cycles of time.

Ruskin's Rose

Venice casts a spell on most of its visitors, me included. After spending a week there four years ago I sought to recapture my feelings by reading many books related to Venice . That's how I came across Ruskin's Rose. Not only was this book about Venice, it was also about esteemed art historian John Ruskin, author of and Modern Painters and The Stones of Venice.

To say that Ruskin's life was colourful is an understatement. He had a string of misfortunes including his scandalously annulled marriage, his loss of faith , a greatly diminished fortune and the death of his much loved Rose La Touche. He continues to be a figure of great interest to writers who conjecture about the state of his mental health and sexual preferences. If this little introduction piques your curiosity and you research further, you'll reach your own conclusions.

Rose La Touche
John Ruskin, 1861

After Rose's death Ruskin went to Venice to heal. Ruskin's Rose uses materials from their letters and Ruskin's autobiography and other writings. It is beautifully illustrated with letters, maps, flowers, lockets and other artifacts. I'm a romantic at heart and quite liked this little book for its sentimentality in words and illustrations.

Although Ruskin fled to Venice to escape his pain, the city cast its usual spell on him and his time there actually intensified his emotions. He moved through the days without focus until he stumbled across the painting of Vittore Carpaccio, a 15th century artist and found his Rose again in the fairy-tale portraits.

And now for some of the less romantic facts which I discovered after reading the book. I admit the information deflated the fairy tale I had created while reading the book.

Ruskin fell in love with a deeply religious and high - spirited Rose when she was eleven and proposed marriage when she was 17 and he was 40. He met her while working at a girls' school. Rose's parents refused his request because of his coloured past and his atheism and Rose herself refused marriage when she came of age because of religious differences. Unfortunately Rose died in 1875 in a Dublin nursing home. Her death is credited with causing the onset of bouts of mental illness in Ruskin from 1877. He convinced himself that the Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio had included portraits of Rose in his paintings of the life of St. Ursula. Ruskin also took to Spiritualism trying to contact Rose's spirit.

All this information is needed to get to this artwork....

Ruskin's Rose (2009) mixed media on canvas (16 x 16)

Venice still flows through my veins after four years. I've compared every European city I visited since to it and none have matched the pull of Venice. The old section of Venice is small with all these little rabbit warren streets that go hither and yon. Every day was a new adventure where little things caused me to celebrate being there and being alive- textures on a wall, colouful window baskets, glimpses of ornate fabrics and house details, snatches of songs, the lyrical cadence of spoken Italian, children in a square, birds chirping, the water taxis moving their cargo, glimpses of water from the many bridges etc. I noticed the small things in Venice and every new day brought anticipation. I was never disappointed.

Venice is in my blood. Ruskin's Rose (my painting) celebrates my feelings about Venice and how the memories still flow through in the same way the canals flow through the city. You can't spend time in Venice without being attracted to the ways gold is used especially in churches and in fabrics. Venice is where Ruskin found his Rose again. I think Venice itself was also Ruskin's rose. I chose a red rose to symbolize Venice because of the history of red roses. Red roses mean "I love you", they also represent courage, respect and unconscious beauty.

Making connections

White Amaryllis(2004) oil, acrylic, palladium leaf, glitter on Japanese Doors
DC Moore Gallery

My last post provided a short summary of the productive practice of Robert Kushner, one of the founders of The Pattern and Decoration Movement in the US in the 1970's. This follow- up digs more deeply into his working process and influences and I hope to shed light on my interest in pattern and decoration and how it has influenced my work.

Kushner's recognizable large blocks of colour, lavish applications of paint, delicate drawings, and decorative elements of gold and silver leaf are found to varying degrees in his work from the late 1980's onward.

One of his more recent series was created on Japanese screens, a process inspired by his first trip to Japan where he saw ancient gilded doors that still remained vital after 400 years. He was also influenced by Asian brushwork and exaggerated horizontal formats. He comments that his use of used screens and doors as a background helps him "relish the history of use, damage and restoration that ultimately became incorporated into the image". Kushner’s travels instilled in him the conviction, he says, that his work is “a slight update of a vast conservative tradition” that doesn’t have borders.

Gathering (2004) oil , acrylic, gold and silver leaf on Japanese Screen
Bellas Artes Gallery

While I did not know Kushner's work until much later in life, the route to appreciation of it began with Matisse, Klimt and O' Keeffe. I saw my first Matisse pieces at 19 , a year before I began to paint. I was particularly attracted to the patterned pieces and came home from New York with the initial book that was the start of an extensive art library. Klimt came later in a second- hand book store and I pored over the various designs which were lavishly adorned with opulent golds and intricate designs. O' Keeffe showed me the essence of flowers by filling the picture plane through adjustments in scale. I loved her pull of the viewer's gaze, that in your face, don't ignore me attitude. These three artists caused me to think about content and techniques that interested me. Their works built on my immersion in the "female arts" that were an important part of my formative years.

One of the aspects of Kushner's work I study carefully is his use of colour. Sometimes it is controlled to the point of being almost monochromatic. This colour use can produce a piece that is delicate and calm or....

Iris Garden (2003) oil, metallic leaf on Japanese screen
Bellas Artes

the piece can be dark and somewhat ominous.

Trudy's Garden (2006) oil, acrylic, gold leaf, copper leaf on Canvas (3 panels)
DC Moore Gallery

His frequent use of black in work has different effects. In Trudy's Garden above I find it produces a denseness and fence like structure that keeps me out and I focus on the rhythm of it (as I should in patterning). Even his trademark gold foil doesn't help me enter. The black rhythmic pattern does work effectively to support the delicate pink blossoms that appear so fragile. In response to a question about the direction of his work in the 21 century Kushner states:

My work with a few exceptions has been in a very somber phase since 9/11. A lot of dark, sober colors, and a seriousness of intention. I try to make many of my paintings look like ancient survivors from a vanished unknown era.

I certainly feel this when I look at Trudy's Garden.

But you will still find works since 200o that are vibrant and beckoning, creating an almost chaotic dance across the work. This effect is certainly evident in his screen works. His trademark use of gold foil and the gridded application of it is a supporting structure which although visually obvious, produces a certain repetitious calmness.

Red Flower Scatters (2006) acrylic, glitter, gold leaf on canvas

Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery

His brighter palettes of pinks, vermilion and chartreuse more evident in his earlier paintings, interest me the most because they are exciting visually and rejoice in the colours of nature. There is always an obvious use of colour to move the eye through the composition.

Kushner sometimes used chance to determine his compositional structure. I recently found out on Kathy's site that Jan Arp was the first artist to propose this approach to composition when designing collage. To determine the exact placement of flowers in his large screen works, Kushner made a set of small paper squares each with an arrow drawn on it. Then he one particular flower and decides how many times he wants it to appear in the painting and then stands on a ladder, drops the squares on the screen and marks the spot with an arrow showing the direction the flower will face. The process is then repeated for each additional flower. I think I would find it very difficult to let go of compositional control in this way but it certainly works for Kushner creating great energy and movement in his screen works.

When asked in an interview for EuroArt if he considered his work erotic or if it was labelled such by other, Kushner responded:

I only know that I am creating to the best of my ability what I want to look at. I want each painting to sustain my own demands of visual scrutiny. I want them to be a refuge, a place to travel mentally to escape the burdens of everyday life. Escapist? perhaps. Necessary? for me, very much so.

I have always thought that my flowers were extremely erotic, a reflection in some ways of my personality. But not all people seem to notice the eros. Beyond our cultural associations, say with red roses for a lover or striped tulips as a signifier for tulip mania, in reality, the flower is the only reproductive, sexual moment for the entire plant. And that sexual moment is extremely brief, perhaps a few days. Thinking of this, I always show the "body parts" of the flowers, the stamens, the pistils as I find them always interesting.


In 2005 Kushner created “Spring Scatter Summation”, in the Great Room at Wystariahurse Museum in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The catalogue essay written by Peter Eleey notes that: “Maybe decorative painting can be an instrument through which we can harmonize the energies within and around us? Almost in spite of the horrors of the world, there remains a place to go, there is a refuge. There is, certainly, this room.”

I see Kushner's work as a visual respite from what goes on around me. They pull me in to the rhythms of nature and hold me in that world where I move around and around . Even the more vibrant and chaotic ones have this calming effect on me the more I look at them. As I stated before pattern of every type eventually calms me. That is one of its greatest appeals. Applied pattern more evident in his newest work, where he uses cultural patterns with the pattern created by flower constructions added a new dimension to his work that really calls to me. This connection between the nature and culture is something that I have consistently examined in my work for the last several years.

12 Red Emperors (2008) oil, acrylic gold, silver and copper leaf on canvas.

DC Moore Gallery

I will finish as I began with one of his stunning work focusing on a single flower. I don't want you to think all his work is intricate, his simple compositions presenting one flower are commanding in their beauty and simplicity.

Lavender Iris (2001) oil, acrylic, glitter, gold leaf on Kakishibi Paper

Bellas Artes

Does my work look like Kushner's? The answer is no, but he has certainly influenced and supported my interests in pattern and the natural world. I have learned much about composition especially from his single flower compositions.

To see more of Kushner's work check him out on Artnet.

There is so much more to say about this artist's work. I am interested in hearing from my readers in response to what I have posted. That is where real learning occurs for me.

One man: Pattern and decoration -1

While the Pattern and Decoration Movement of the 60's and 70's was female dominated there were several male presences. In particular, I am attracted to the work and beliefs of Robert Kushner . His connection to the movement was not the result of any strong beliefs that he held about feminism. He was very interested in the universality of decoration and thought its marginalization wasn't useful . Unfortunately , his decision to treat a traditionally female and non-Western art with the same respect given to male Western art at times saw Kushner perceived as a less serious artist who was playing a dangerous "game".

In a interview in EuroArt in 2008 he spoke at length about how he saw his practice fitting in to modernity. Rather than falling from grace because of his interests, he felt that

" there were few great artists who could ascend from modernity to the decorative. I truly feel that it is just as difficult to make convincing, intelligent, sustaining decoration as it is to make good art". ....... decoration can more easily delve into experiences of visual ecstasy and profound seriousness than many other art forms. By fully and openly accepting the decorative traditions of the world as a valid source book, I think that artists (not just me) can learn from the masters, both anonymous and known, and build an art that is original, modern, heart felt, intelligent and even edgy. And Modern."

Kushner's early work in the 70's blended his love of Islamic pattern, French modernism, and the art of the Far East. In the fall of 1974 he set off on a three-month trip to Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan with his friend and mentor, critic Amy Goldin. This trip was the first of many that proved to be extremely important to his development as an artist. He later travelled to India and Japan.

Aurora's Chador, 1976

Arcadia Dreaming, 1984

In the early 1980s, he moved away from using strict repeating patterns and began painting using live models. He was interested in exploring the "furthest fringes of what could be seen as decorative". While the figure remained in the province of "high art", Kushner decided to treat it ornamentally to the point where the figure became a decorative motif.

Daphne 11, 1985

In 1986 Kushner began painting on canvas developing an extended series of flower paintings that were inspired by his own garden. He discovered that flowers were multi-faceted as subject matter; they were erotic and they could evoke memento mori, an awareness of the brevity of life itself. He took a perverse pride in depicting flowers because they were generally considered debased subject matter and often relegated to the status of practice material for amateur painters. Kushner is careful in his choice of flowers and is attracted to ones for which he has a strong association either in terms of history or personal memories.

Night Garden 2000, Acrylic, oil, gold and silver leaf , 60 x 60

Spring Scatter Summation Panel (2005)

Donald Kuspit wrote that

"no American decorative works have the visual richness of Kushner's paintings Spring Scatter Summation, 2005, and Seattle Summer Meadow, 2006. Far from being simply adornments for an environment, these works are environments in themselves. If, as Greenberg thought, "traditional Western easel painting ... subordinates decorative to dramatic effect," Kushner convincingly integrates the dramatic and the decorative, revitalizing a treatment of surface that had become stale and routine--not to say shallow--in so-called pattern painting. Each quality--drama and decoration--is given its due without the other being compromised.

"I really believe the public deserves something beautiful" - Kushner

For further reading about the Pattern and Decoration Movement and Kushner's contemporaries check out this article in Aesthetica.

Welcome

When you love pattern and decoration as much as I do, the Christmas season leads to great temptation to consume. If I wasn't constantly telling myself you don't need that, I could drop hundreds of dollars every time I go shopping . It seems that even supermarkets have become places of temptation for me.

I try to make do with what I've gathered up over the years. I move things to a different place each year so it appears new. I've also begun to look around me and come up with new ways to use things for decoration. My back garden is a treasure trove of colours and textures for Christmas. Join me as I get my natural decorations ready.

Lots of spiky broom

Mugo pine, dried Goat's beard and branches of Spirea

Cotoneaster, boxwood and yellow cedar

One artificial Amaryllis never lets me down

Rhododendron leaves and Goat's beard stalks

Looks impressive. So many ways you can go. Cut, arrange, rearrange, stand back, arrange some more, look for the perfect spot in the house that needs to say welcome. Place it and look on with satisfaction.

Welcome to my home

First it was in the front porch but I decided the front step needed something, now it is covered in snow.

My white and gray kitchen definitely needs a shot of colour. My first Christmas card from our friends in Germany completes the composition.

My Ikea bowl makes a nice resting place and Carolyn Honey Harrison's painting provides the perfect backdrop. Needless to say the flowers are not from my garden this time of year. They're recycled year after year and might appear anywhere.


A few rose hips that were left on the bushes makes a nice accent with my white candles. I was one short as you can see. This will be rectified eventually.

This one makes a great addition to the lovely new birch tabletop my handyman husband Don just made me for Christmas.

You will have to imagine the music, apple cider and good cheer.