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
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
Pod is delightful! The design and colors make my heart sing.
Love the largness of the pod painting. It is rich.
That is one beautiful painting! Since you are inviting interpretations, here is mine:
There is a touch of melancholy in this painting…the pod part. It is as though the inhabitants are in a deep, long sleep. On the other hand, they look safe and protected.
It looks like they are traveling through the universe. The red gives it a sense of being a happening, alive place, but still a little unpredictable.
It could also be that boat traveling into the otherworld.
Anyway, it is beautiful!
Flora
Flora, that is so thoughtful. I love the term quiescent, and it fits here.
You are quite perceptive, there IS a sense of melancholy, but also a sense of life (the red blood of life) and promises to come.
The boat to the otherworld (so much more positive than underworld) is so appropriate as well.
I just found this site. Wonderful! I also joined Cracked Paper Quilts.
This piece is beautiful. I love how each pea rests in a nest of scratched lines.
oooh, I knew that was a pod even before I saw the whole picture – just from the tippy top of it. Awesome that the whole is contained in the parts. =] I can see and feel the strong emotional content of this one…I LOVE it! I have such a hard time with (seemingly) simple pieces. I have a great tendancy to overwork. I shall contemplate this and see if I can remember how not to do that.
Coming from you, Leslie, I feel richly encouraged.
That makes me very happy, Dayna. And I felt the same way, so what a win win!
Tammy, I think that’s why I am going more and more over to painting. It helps me to simplify.
Carol,
I purposely didn’t want to read the comments of the others so that there would be no outside influence.
When I saw this collage painting I wouldn’t have guessed it was yours. The spectrum of your art is dynamically vast in your ability to create with diversity using paint and collage.
My favorite part of this article is your description of process and your love affair with this. The relationship to the work is the “meat and potatoes” of the work. I would like to hear what you have deciphered from this piece.
It is very symbolic to me. The three pods(?)reflecting back really drew me in. The different translucent greys are beautiful and the wire around. I wonder what the red means?
Chris
Chris, I deeply appreciate your response. I feel uncharacteristically unable to discuss the meaning of this piece at present, which means I will have to do some writing (especially in poetry form) around it. When I have done that, my friend, I will certainly contact you.
I also love the simplicity of the pod and was wondering at them being so protected by a ‘barbed’ edge. You have a way of discussing things that is not often found and you make me think!
Thanks.
That’s interesting that you would see it as a barbed edge. I was thinking more of tendrils and nests.
On the other hand, some nests do contain barbs, don’t they. We describe such homes and families as dysfunctional. But that is far too sweeping a term: in a sense anyone can feel “trapped” in their home at a certain stage of their life, and they long for freedom.
Thank you so much for the question, Mags. You have definitely made me think!