Show Time

So here I am again, third year running, The Toronto Artist Project. If only I could explain how grueling these shows are on my body and soul. Yes, I love meeting new people and engaging in conversations about art and life but I hate the long hours of standing on cement under harsh lighting in front of my paintings as people walk by and peer at me, sometimes I feel like a wild animal trapped in a zoo.

This year I purchased a smaller booth and brought smaller pieces to minimize expenses and energy.  I have fabulous artists as neighbors which is always a bonus as we all help to keep each other bolstered through the long hours. It is a tremendously different energy to be alone in ones studio in front of the canvas as you wrestle and play with the emerging colors and shapes, then to be standing in front of the finished paintings watching people observing the work.

Sometimes I feel like screaming and pulling my hair out, sometimes I feel like protecting my vulnerable new works from the critical stares and indifference of the public. And then, sometimes, a beautiful soul connects to a piece and I remember why I do this.

 

Alder Ego

David Paul Bayles is a photographer who explores the tree + the human connection.

He also writes a tree/art blog called Alder Ego which is dedicated to the visual exploration of being human and living with trees. Created from and for the tree within.

"This blog’s mission is to share artworks by a variety of artists, working in a variety of media."

I am honored to have some of my paintings featured there this month:

From the Forest

The Artist Project 2013 Preview

A link to preview the paintings that will be at the Toronto Artist Project next week-end:

Preview of Paintings

Showing Up to Paint

I have been over flowing with paintings in the last couple months. In spite of a hectic schedule, many unexpected events and emotional clouts, I managed to carve out time to paint. Sometimes this had to be done with a very sharp sword.  I usually look forward to January and February as a time to hunker down in the studio and paint. The cold and the snow blowing outside the window as I turn inwards and draw from the images that emerge.

This year, there seemed to be all sorts of reasons to keep me out of the studio but somehow I managed to find a way back to those beloved brushes that help me to make sense out of this mad, crazy life.

There were times when I really felt that I couldn't cope with everything that was coming at me...here is the painting that resulted from a particularly emotional day.

Persephone's Ladder / 60" x 40" / acrylic on canvas

It was one of those days where a million emotions collided with a million thoughts and I felt briefly paralyzed, confused and unable to act.  I showed up at the studio anyway and through a blur of tears, literally threw paint at the canvas and clawed at the paint. You can read more about it here.

The next piece to emerge was this fierce warrior canoe, which actually began as a vertical tree but got carved into a canoe when I turned the canvas horizontally.  This piece contains the same strong emotions as Persephone's Ladder but now there is a safe harbor from the turbulence within the "canoe" and of course the moon is rising and guiding the way through a clear night.

Having navigated the rough seas of my own turbulent emotions, I now return to my landscapes with a new found energy and love of the earth, ever deepening as I come to terms with my own inner shades of darkness and claim them as part of myself.

As I conclude writing this post which began almost a week ago, I am happy to say that two of the most magnificent women just purchased this piece for their home. I am thrilled that the work reached out across the internet, drew them to my studio and into my life, for now I not only have the perfect home for this very charged and intimate painting but two inspiring new friends, who like the canoe, have helped to bolster me through rough emotional seas.

Interiority Icons

I find the winter evenings so quiet and still.  After a day of studio work I like to come home, stream CBC radio, which plays the most eclectic music into the wee hours, drink tea and paint these wee icons.  I call them interiority icons because they are exactly that...images that arise from inside the night, dream images and the imaginal realm. For me they are reflective and contemplative.

Now that I have a fair size collection of these small works building around me I have decided to make them available for an affordable price on my blog. If you sign up to follow you will regularly receive a new icon in your mailbox.

Take a look and let one choose you as you breath and let go into the imaginal realm.

Interiority Icons

The Art Barn

I just found this video on youtube put together by India Littler of Cloudberry Studio. Lots of great memories from this vibrantly alive collaborative studio that I was part of for four glorious summers in Mont-Tremblant, QC