Triple Lotus is Not a Figure Skating Term

The lotus is a symbol of purification.

Triple Lotus~by Carol Wiebe

Global Oneness states:

The root of the Lotus sunk in the mud represents material life, the stalk passing up through the water typifies existence in the astral world, and the flower floating on the water and opening to the sky is emblematic of spiritual being.

I tripled it for good measure. Trinities have proven to be quite effective alliances, especially in spiritual arenas.

Perhaps I will land a quad next . . . or is that simply hubris?

The Fantastical Quilted Narratives of Izabella Baikova

Bonnie McCaffery has been conducting  interviews with a wide variety of art quilters on her site for years. Some of the artists she “chats with” are well known to me, others are a wonderful surprise.

Izabella Baikova, or Bella, belongs to the second category. She first entered the Festival of  Quilts in 2006, and in 2008 The Tower, based on a personal dream, was one of the top 8 finalists in the festival, extending Baikova’s reputation well beyond her Russian homeland. Her work is now in private collections in Russia, Hungary, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, and the USA.

The Tower~by Izabella Baikova

Bella appears to possess a highly romantic sensibility. Her quilts are based on fantasy narratives, several of which she expounds upon in the McCaffery interview. Bonnie responds: “Your work is very deep: there is so much thought in them, and detail. And stories!”

The Russian website describes Baikova’s process as a game played between her and the unknown:

Months pass from the moment of origination of the concept to its full implementation. This “romance with the material” lasts up to two years. The idea gains shape, is gradually filled and saturated with details, hues, gets colouring. And it is only after the artist takes grasp of the image that deprives her of sleep, that bursts outwards without giving her a minute of peaceful existence, that she takes a textile in her hands, to give birth in a short time to a composition that will result in your insomnia, the same way it once made Izabella Baikova sleepless.

View Baikova’s wondrous gallery of quilts, keeping her credo in mind (translated from the Russian):

For me it is important to maintain the freedom of a creative life. It means being able to release a life occurring on the level of concepts, to let it flow freely, to bring everything to it, without subjecting anything initially to censorship. To react to everything that occurs around, to choose from hundreds of possible thoughts, dreams, feelings and reactions, and to unite them in the single expression reflecting the moment, passion, content. When it is possible to work wholeheartedly, on an intuitive edge, the work has a psychological force.

Her work can also be seen here. I was quite taken by the conception, composition, and humor of Little night serenade 13. Allegro (named after Serenade No.13 in G major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart).

Little night serenade 13. Allegro

A visit to her website will be rewarded by the fact that every section of this quilt, or any other quilt in her gallery for that matter, is clickable for a larger, more detailed view.

Izabella Baikova’s dedication to expressing the stories that flow from her very vivid imagination is made even more eloquent by her meticulous, elaborately detailed work.

Summoning the Courage to Create

I have been thinking about the subject of original work, and accessing one’s own ideas. In A high calling, I spoke of  Jenny Bowker’s delight when she helps an artist who wants to do original work, but is somehow unable to access her own ideas.

I went on a little web rampage to see how other artists speak about “originality.”

Kate Franzman, who is a New Media Project Administrator at Indianapolis Museum of Art, writes that originality is overrated and she is not afraid to admit that she rarely has an original idea. What she does is tweak.

Giff Constable starts his essay Art & Originality with the acknowledgment that “the debate of whether original thoughts still exist has gone on for centuries.” But he puts himself  firmly into the camp that considers originality to be attainable:

I believe very strongly that originality still exists in art and painting, although it is getting tougher. Originality exists in something as simple as your signature. Too often we close off our creativity by over-thinking and seeking approval. Yes, we are social creatures, we need approval, we need community. But to those of us who are hard-wired to seek our own path, you have to remember to put aside the comments of fashion and the criticism of the establishment. Believe in yourself, pursue your individuality, and the journey will be worth the trouble.

Martin Roemer says he is unique, like everyone else:

The difference between artists and the rest of humanity is not that they have unique feelings and thoughts but that they can bring them out and make them tangible. When people are particularly moved by a piece of art it is because it gives form to the same thing that is inside of them. When you read an engaging novel that ‘speaks’ to you for example, you are really reading about yourself. When you are lost in a movie, it is yourself that you see. One of the best things about art is that it allows us to see something of ourselves that we didn’t have the means to see otherwise.

Ryan Mulligan believes in idea swaps, concurring with a teacher of his who advised, “Don’t worry about someone stealing your ideas. You will have more.”

“Ouch,” is my response to John Kenneth Galbraith, who quipped:

Originality is something that is easily exaggerated, especially by authors [or artists?] contemplating their own work.

He adds insult to injury with:

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.

Lynne Hull, an environmental artist, quoted another artist to preface her own thoughts on the subject:

A wise potter I once knew said: “Originality depends on the obscurity of your sources” but I’ve come to believe that originality depends on knowing your sources well and taking the ideas of those sources on to a new level. This is why we visual artists need to know art history–so we can build and expand on the ideas which came before and not just repeat them endlessly.

Seth Godin has devoted many words to encouraging originality, including directives like “Find your voice, don’t copy someone else’s.”

College art teacher Marvin Bartel assumes originality as a possibility when he poses this query:

Grades without rationale give no useful information that helps a person be creative.  When we give reasons, do our criteria include credit for the originality as much as for following prescribed requirements?

Read the essay Ten Classroom Creativity Killers for more “confessions” from Bartel, all designed to assist your ability to boost student creativity.

World Reflected~by Carol Wiebe

I could easily spend the next decade weighing the pros and cons of where, and even whether, originality exists. However, like most rhetorical questions, the answers arise from the arena of belief. If I deem a work of art to be original, in my mind it is. If I believe I am creating an original work of art, for all intents and purposes, I am. A person with greater education or more extensive exposure to fine art, might disagree. S/he may be supported by experts who have set forth criteria by which to judge the originality or quality of art. But for the person wiping tears as they behold a painting that has moved them deeply, the worth/worthiness flows from another place. For art as an investment, art criticism is crucial. For art of the heart, one’s own, individual aesthetic is paramount.

Rollo May brings our discussion to an entirely different level, one of moral obligation:

If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself. Also, you will have betrayed your community in failing to make your contribution (The Courage to Create, p. 12).

You can  read extensive quotes from one of May’s books, The Courage to Create, on Google books.

That is where I am going to leave this discussion, at the point of exhorting you to summon your courage to create, or keep creating, what only you can. Whether or not your creations are original may be a subject for debate, but if you are striving to “listen to your own being,” you are making a substantial contribution towards furthering creativity. Your work becomes ours~it delights us, moves us, teaches and challenges us.

And I, for one, salute your purple heart.

A High Calling

I was happily engaged, clicking the next button from quilt to quilt on Jenny Bowker’s site, and imagining questions I would ask her if I ever was in a position to enjoy a face to face conversation.

For instance:

1) Could you name a few persons you might choose as role models (of desirable values) for your daughter, since Barbie obviously does not meet the standard.
2)  What did the water taste like from the water fountains in Damascus? Was it as good as the coffee?
3) You mentioned that the pictures on the walls in your house give you places to go to when you are dreaming. Could you describe some of those travels? Are they as vivid as the physical travels you embark on?
4) Why did you reveal the text on your Hearthstones quilt after stating that it was not really meant to be read? Do you expect that your curiosity must always be satisfied?
5) If you tallied your reactions, which would win: looking forward, or looking back?

Ammonite Fault, Fern Fronds with Chalcedony, and Radiolarian Drift had me in their thrall.

Ammonite Fault~by Jenny Bowker

But then I entered Twisted Thread and was confronted by two stunning images of quilts “based on portraits of tradesmen in Egypt.” They were frustratingly small, so I went hunting. Luckily, her blog, Postcards From Cairo, revealed the pair I sought, and a few other gems that would rival any found in a Sultan’s palace. (Also see her Flickr Photostream.)

Untitled~by Jenny Bowker

Untitled~by Jenny Bowker

Twisted Thread contains the following quote:

[Bowker] believes that because we spend most of our lives wrapped in cloth, people respond to textiles in ways that they do not respond to paint on canvas and this is indicated by the way people want to reach out and touch the work. It gives quilters a specific language that relates especially to women.

I think I will have to adjust my previous list of questions to add a sixth:

6) What led you to choose male tradesmen as a subject for a traditionally female art form? Did the irony appeal to you?

I happen to be one of those persons who does reach out to touch paintings, especially when there is mixed media involved. Also, my paper quilts end up being quite hard surfaced (much like leather). No-one would want to, or be able to, sleep under one of them. Nevertheless, I did not take umbrage with these remarks as I continued to explore the Bowker universe. Her bio included a science background, and a husband who is a diplomat. Wide travel has imbued Bowker’s work with a flavor and flare that truly arouses the senses.

And then I found the pearl, a statement that so resonated with my purpose that it caused my being to reverberate to its clarion call:

I teach and really enjoy it. There is no greater delight than to offer tools to a quilter who wants to make original work but doesn’t know how to access her own ideas.

It’s such a simple, precise statement; so matter-of-fact. Yet, it expresses a very high calling~one which I also aspire to. How fitting that Jenny Bowker is a tradesperson herself, employing her tools to facilitate others in the construction of their own, original work.

Bivium: Where Your Path Meets That of Jylian Gustlin

I am licking my lips over these luscious figurative paintings, and the way they are set into their abstract backgrounds. I was totally captivated by artist  Jylian Gustlin’s arrangement of these pieces into sets, and the evocative names she assigned them:

Bivium: {A Place Where Two Paths Meet}

Kyros: {Timelessness}

Quidam: {A solitary figure lingering, One who cries out, sings and dreams within us all}

Terrigenus: {Born From The Earth}

Bivum 18~by Jylian Gustlin (used with permission)

As her bio states:

Figures have always been an important part of Gustlin’s repertoire. Her characters are frequently set in an alien-like landscape, moody and brooding, yet at the same time, depicting a sense of future. Jylian has been influenced by a lifelong love of the Bay Area Figurative artists.

She divulges more of her thinking around this on her blog, in a rather poetic way:

My subjects evolve as my interests change, the figure has always been mainstay in my art as I have always been fascinated with the human condition:

A nameless passer-by. A solitary figure lingering on a street corner.

A person rushing past. Someone coming, going, living in our anonymous society.

A member of the crowd, one of the silent majority.

Anyone who screams, dreams and sings inside us.

A person who lives lost amidst the crowd.

A monument stands the moment in music when all instruments are in harmony.

An old self to the left, the new to the right.

A vividly surreal world. The view of wider, longer roads and pathways fades with the mist invading ones mind.

This is a very rich site, well worth an investment of your time. Particularly fascinating, for me, was the concept section, where Gustlin creates digital sketches to inform new paintings. She applies a similar approach in her photo section: photographs morph into paintings, or sketches for paintings.

Gustlin is also fascinated with exploring how science and mathematics intersect with the arts, particularly Fibonacci mathematical theories.

Fibonacci 147~by Jylian Gustlin (used with permission)

She is in exalted company, because mathematics and art “have a long historical relationship.”

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dalí, Mondrian, Albrecht Dürer, and M.C. Escher all spring to mind, as does Fractal Art.

Studying Jylian’s work may well elicit the same reaction in you that it did in me, and it will  “sing within us.”

Stilled Life

As women, we can nurture life within us. That life is of us but does not belong to us. We can anticipate it, but there are no guarantees. Life is a mystery and birth is a privilege.

Stilled Life

Learning is Finding Out What You Already Know

I JUST received a new Robert Genn Twice Weekly Letter. He has provided constant artistic encouragement since I subscribed to The Painter’s Keys a number of years ago. His letters are also rife with excellent tips, techniques, history and quotes. Today’s is entitled Just a Reminder, and here is a slice:

I’ve always had the same idea as the motivational writer Richard Bach: “Learning is finding out what you already know.” Time and again people write, “I knew that–thanks for reminding me.”

Indeed, recent studies show that regular reminders, particularly by email, can change lives. According to a study published in the June issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine, simple reminders to eat more healthfully or increase physical activity had a significant effect on recipients’ behavior.

For those of us sitting at our computers and blogging away, that is a significant incentive: we can change lives! Providing examples of creative individuals, sharing my own art journey, discussing and (hopefully) dialoguing with readers about ways to spark new ideas and overcome obstacles~have certainly changed at least one life significantly. My own!

This next piece had the effect of showing me something I already knew. The pieces that speak to me most deeply always do that. A strong emotion accompanies both the creating and later viewings of such pieces. I have to sit with them for some time  and wait for the emotion to subside in order to begin to decipher what they are telling me.

I also appreciate the insights or even just impressions that others share with me about my art:  it is another enlightening factor in the translation process.

Pod~by Carol Wiebe

The sacred trinity is so rich: (1) body, mind, spirit (2) past, present, future (3) thought, word, deed (4) maiden, mother, crone (5) me, myself, I (6) father, son, holy ghost (7) mother, daughter, holy spirit.

A pod is a vessel, a receptacle of precious seed. Seeds signify possibilities. Every time we dare to hope or dream, another seed is planted. Note that the pod is broken open. How else can we plant seeds, other than by having the courage to reveal our inner selves ~ the rich, dark ground from which those seeds may sprout and blossom?

Collage Painting (acrylic paint, collage, and stamping, scratching, flinging, finger brushing, rubbing, layering, laughing)
16″x 20″ wrapped canvas

Words are Sometimes Superfluous

A Nimbus Surrounds Susan’s Studio Garden

Susan Cornelis has done it again~presented us with a completely endearing vignette of one of her painting sessions. I previously wrote about her Symbolic Language of the Soul, and Sketchcrawling. Is it becoming obvious that I love Susan’s work?

Sketching the Spring Garden: Pen and Watercolor with Susan Cornelis, allows us the opportunity to:

[j]oin Susan in her studio garden and watch over her shoulder as she demonstrates a quick capture method of sketching irises and a chicken with pen and watercolor.

She didn’t achieve this alone:  her team includes director/editor Andy Cornelis, and an original soundtrack by Todd Pickering. These two  should hire out . . .  Andy is brilliant at making us feel totally involved in the scene, and Todd’s music fits the “story” in a delicately nuanced way. Susan says she will will be lost when Andy goes off to college, but it seems they have a full length feature in mind before that happens. I would gladly pay a full feature price to see such a movie . . . their work so far has been entirely captivating. Of course, they have an excellent subject to work with.

Nimbus, in case you are wondering, is one of Susan’s Silkie hens. But creating a nimbus (halo, aura, radiance) is a specialty of Susan’s. Many of her works have them:

Sunburst~by Susan Cornelis

The Final Heronry~by Susan Cornelis

Susan’s magnificent images are available at her Etsy store, ImagineWithArt. See more at h20 colors, where I especially enjoy paging through her sketchbooks.

You can also watch her ongoing creative endeavors evolve at Susan’s Art and Sketchbook Blog. But don your sunglasses, my friends: Susan’s art is radiant!

Changing How You See the World

Mary Ennes-Davis admits publicly that she doesn’t know how to measure. There is a gentle irony to the fact that many of her works of art feature rulers.

Though she grew up in a family of artists, Ennes-Davis pursued a marketing career, and had “little time to create with [her] hands.”  But a sailing trip to the Soviet Union revised her course of direction:

I saw a country lacking in many of the things that we take for granted. This changed how I saw the world, and rather than throw away used objects, I began to incorporate the forgotten pieces into jewelry designs. Whether a copper washer, an old key or a poker chip, I used the recycled pieces and invested them with a new life in the design process. As my art began to sell I realized I wanted to return to my creative roots and work as an artist.

And return she did! Ennes-Davis created jewelry, collage and sculpture, all utilizing recycled as well as varied cultural elements.

The themes in my work are universal: family, nature, play, celebration, making connections with others. My art work is a vehicle to share laughter, grief, self awareness, our differences and our common threads.

Her remarkable Guardian sculptures “rose out at the ashes of September 11th.” Mary fashions these beings from cast off items~used brushes, rulers, game pieces, casters, fishing reels, chopsticks~and manages to imbue them with the spirit of  “hope and laughter, honor and friendship, protection and love.”

Memorial Guardian~by Mary Ennes-Davis (used with permission)

The Guardians brought her work to another level:

Selling guardians was very different than putting earrings on somebody. They have a different connection to people. There’s a heart-string emotion with the guardians that’s different from other art.      (Art’s Alive! by Bev Crichfield in The Skagit Valley Herald)

Arts Alive Guardian~by Mary Ennes-Davis (used with permission)

As she testifies in her instructor bio for an Art and Soul Retreat:

I believe that there are common threads that connect us; emotions, experiences, what we do for fun, how and where we live. I try to share those threads in my art. I want to help people pause and consider how we are all connected. I believe that if we find those connections then there is a hope for peace.

I am so pleased to have found this  fervent recyclist, who incorporates the used, cast-off, and forgotten to create something new and unforgettable. Mary Ennes-Davis doesn’t just tell others to walk gently on the earth; she shows amazing ways to achieve this through art.