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Thought for Thursday

“It is now common knowledge that the average American gains 7 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.” Marilu Henner

Lovely, enjoy the day!

Recently, I visited the Guggenheim Museum in New York City to see the Vasily Kandinsky exhibition. It’s on 5th Avenue in the 80’s on Museum Row where there are other museums and galleries. The Guggenheim is a cool place to visit in itself and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Outside and inside, the walls of the building twist around and around, floor to floor, as you view the paintings. It’s visually stunning. From the inside lobby you can see the ceiling and each floor circumscribes the space going all the way up. People can be seen moving around and up as they step back to view the art, some lean on the wall or hang over. Cool, weird and scary all at once.

This was my latest and longest Artist’s Date. The point of it is to go alone and be in the moment without distraction from a side-kick. As soon as you invite a friend along, the magic spell is broken. It’s no longer a play date with your inner child artist. You know how the other person always wants to go this way and you want to go the other?

Going alone insures you do what you want, when you want, and how. Since I’m the type that likes “alone” it’s perfect! I took mass transit to get there, which was wonderful and clean. I wish I had taken photos of the subway stations because each stop has it’s own flavor of mosaic tile designs on the walls. Next time. The weather was comfortably cool so I wasn’t dragging a winter coat around the museum.

With the $18 price of admission, I had the opportunity to use the headset with taped information on Kandinsky’s life and each painting in the show. The massive exhibit was very extensive with work from Kandinsky’s early years to his very last painting.

The symbolism he used told the story of life in Russia and other places he lived, his spirituality and connection of color to classical music. Very intense, bright color ruled most of his work in which he liked to abstract forms.

As he progressed in life his work became slightly more minimal, but color, form and symbolism reigned none-the-less. It was all so interesting I took notes, and I’m out of school a long time. Overall, this was a great Artist’s Date. I can’t wait for the next museum trip!

Is Mom Nutty? No, Just an Artist

Plugging along in The Artist’s Way course. I’ve finally moved myself on to Week 11- Recovering a Sense of Autonomy. It’s interesting, to say the least. The author discusses things that I know I do and don’t do. Cameron talks about calling one’s self an artist and how it feels to say the word.

Let’s be frank, full time, stay-at-home parent becomes the title, not artist. First I was a fine artist, then I became a commercial artist and wife, then a mother and homemaker. Where did the title of fine artist fit in anywhere? Over the years since graduating college armed with my BFA, I’ve painted and sketched, but not full time, 24/7 artist.

As a mom the home and family really do come first. Forget about being first or second on the list, try getting in the top ten! Not happening. I remember my professor once told me women don’t stay artists because of family obligations. Talk about artist blocks from the get-go!

Kids grow up. What do they really need from me? Laundry, food? Oh yeah, money. Some day maybe babysitting? Right now that’s it, but I’ve been doing this job for so long it’s become my block to art. I’ve realized this from working in the course. I know who I am inside my brain. I might be a little nutty, in a good way, of course! Okay, a wacky, artist mom, but responsible when I need to be. Fine.

Finally I have the freedom to leave the laundry and go to the easel. It’s been my habit to think of all the things I want to do, but can’t. All the things I want to do, but don’t. Doing this course helped me to carve out more time to play at being an artist again. I even said the word a couple days ago when asked my profession! I used to say homemaker because that’s what I thought I was. Not any more.

If what I paint isn’t great, so what? Making bad art is better than not making any art at all. Bad art could point the way to a different idea or style I might not have tried had I not played. Again, it all comes down to the “doing”, the process not the outcome. Just having the chance to make bad art is a step in the right direction.

So, yes, I’m an artist, however wacky. Sorry guys!

It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Day

The best part of my day is in the early morning. And a Sunday morning is best of all. Sunday morning is the quietest time of any day of the week. I wake up early every day by habit anyway, even on Sundays. First things first-coffee making. The smell alone is inviting.

Next, get the newspaper from the porch. After breakfast, with the kitchen made neat and whoever is out doing their thing, I get to have another coffee, read, do the crossword puzzle, and write the Morning Pages. Outside no cars are passing by, no people yapping, no kids running around screaming, no gardener idiots, no television on, just peace and quiet. Heaven.

If I could put this time in a bottle and open it whenever I wanted this feeling I’d do it in a minute. The only thing that would make this time better would be if I was near the beach. That’d be perfection. But I’ll take it this way any time.

Since I’m writing these three Morning Pages, my brain is quiet, too. Beautiful. No brain chatter. And I’m all alone. Great. I love being by myself. Is that normal? The Artist Way says it’s normal for creatives to like and need alone time. I’ve always felt like that, but I thought maybe it’s just weird me. So I guess it’s fine.

Not many people want or need to be alone. In fact some people crave company constantly. There’s no way I could do that. I enjoy company, just not all the time. Later in my day I like some activity going on. Mostly, though, I don’t need all that extra noisy stuff. My brain can’t take it. No thanks.

With the approaching Christmas holidays come the activities and people and inviting and shopping and doing and coming and going. I’m already tired thinking about it. Just give me a little quiet time in a cozy, colorful kitchen with a newspaper and coffee in a pretty cup and I’m good.

Photos Friday

This is a series of pastel drawings of the bas reliefs which were pilfered from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece during the time of Lord Elgin. The original sculptures are housed in the British Museum from which Greece has been trying to get these, and other sculptures, returned to their rightful country.

I am fascinated by the movement of the figures and the play of dark and light shadows on the forms. Using pastels offers an energy I enjoy feeling from the direct contact to the surface as I hold the medium. It’s exciting and I move to the different colors automatically. When I’m finished, I’m not really sure what I’ve come up with! But I get like that with most of my work. Drawing is just so much more intense for me.

In the book of photos I used for this series I always see something new. It’s almost as good as live models, but not quite the same. And models don’t bring horses.

Elgin Marbles Series #1-5 18 x 24 #1 8×10 Pastel on toned pastel paper ©Dora Sislian Themelis

Thought for Thursday

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”

Henry Ward Beecher

Skeins on a Plane

I’ve been AWOL from the blog lately due to a family emergency which took me out of town. Travel is something I like to dream about, but don’t really like to do when it gets down to it. I love to watch an airplane in the sky and imagine the exotic place it’s going. Sometimes I wish I was on that airplane flying away somewhere. Then I think of how it all works and I start to get nervous. Planes fly in the sky, right? A big heavy apparatus with real people inside, flying over oceans, mountains, and all that entails. Then there’s the planning which I am really bad at.

This trip was different in that I had no time to think or plan because there was nothing to do but get to the destination. No time to pack, just throw essentials in a bag. When I have an emergency my fears fly out the window. I had an objective and worked to meet it. What I did think about was taking my Artist’s Way morning pages to write in and a couple of skeins of sock yarn. At least these two things would keep me calm and be productive in down time.

I took care to bring bamboo needles for the sock knitting instead of my favorite steel double-points. In this post 9/11 time, flying is tough enough that I didn’t want to risk fighting with security over knitting needles and looking like a wacko flight risk. Hey, remember people, this is New York! Bamboo needles sailed through the check points.

Settled in my seat near a window, I took out the knitting and got to it. The “flight professional”, as they are now called, asked me for my drink and snack preferences and added that she’s seen knitting with two needles, but never with four. So I tell her, “It’s for socks.” She starts laughing and hitting her head while I’m thinking, ok, what’s her problem? Looking at me between the blue chips and the cashews, over the heads of my seat-mates she says, “You did say socks, right?”

Photos Friday

Enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Thursday Thought

“Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things” –Edgar Degas

It’s Play Time

I’m so happy I had my little tantrum yesterday. I told myself I was just going to do the things that needed doing and get over it! Whatever time it took to clear the table, so to speak, I was going to set aside one hour to play. One hour to just fool around at my desk.

The other day I had taken a few more photographs in my garden. I decided to just upload them from the camera and see what I had. Some photos looked good enough to paint from. I prefer painting from life, but it was okay for now.

I chose a photo and took it to my drawing table, squeezed out the colors I was going to use and just got to it. Without any rhyme or reason I sketched with color on the paper. No objective other than playing with the brush and the paint.

Can you guess that I ended up spending two and a half hours painting? By the time I looked up from the watercolor paper, it was already dark outside and I had no idea what time it was. I was amazed. Yesterday I was having a hissy fit about not painting and today I was painting! Talk about a creative u-turn!

Fall Marigold 14×20″ Watercolor on 140lb coldpress paper