Drawing With Both Hands
I was looking through a book of Dale Chihuly’s glass art, which includes his drawings. As always, I am attracted to sketches and writing– even when I am in a museum or gallery. If there is a sketch next to a painting or sculpture, that is where I go. I love seeing the process that leads us to our "final project"– whether it is glass or paint or sculpture or weaving. It is often more alive and transparent than the final project. To have this quality of transparency not be lost in my paintings is something I strive for. It requires the willingness to play all the way through– having no designated outcome.
King Minos and the Minotaur
When I was nineteen I had the opportunity to take a break from my studies and travel to the Greek Islands. I arrived by boat on a misty full moon night in March. Off the coast of Santorini they were digging for the “Lost Atlantis”. My studies of mythology, and how it is mixed with history, came alive– and I felt myself to be in a story (that was then and the feeling hasn’t left).
The Taste of the Apple
The taste of the apple does not reside in the mouth of the eater– neither is it in the apple itself. It requires the exchange between them.
–Jorge Luis Borges quoting Bishop Berkeley
This quote captures the essence of the creative pattern.
The muse, as creative inspiration, enters. She is not in us alone, or in our work– but in the mingling between the two. This adds a third aspect, the other, and the creativity of the number three– as indicated in the painting you see.
Acting As If
Sometimes when we are faced with a difficult task (or person), even one that seems impossible, it helps to change what we call it, or how we think about it.
I was listening to Ellen Langer, a psychologist and writer from Harvard, who has done many studies on the power of how we name, or think about something. For example, she did a famous study on people in their mid to late 80’s (back when 80 was 80, not the new 60). In this experiment all the people involved went on a retreat together where the entire atmosphere was created as if it were 20 years earlier. The participants were asked to fully enter into this world in the “present”, as if they too, were 20 years younger. At the end of the study, their hearing and eyesight had improved, they had renewed energy, they had essentially become younger! Another study was with chamber maids who spent the whole day on their feet, but worried about having time to exercise, and could not lose weight. In this study they were told to change their thinking about their work and name it exercise, and lo and behold, they lost weight! (This also relates to the difference between doing something mindlessly, and doing it mindfully– just noticing what is happening).
Dream Drumming
I heard Paul McCartney being interviewed on the radio about his new album. The interviewer asked him: How did you come up with this title for your song On My Way to Work? Oh, said Paul, once you have a title, you have somewhere to begin. You can start filling in the novel, or adding words and melody to your song. His title, based on the name of one of Damien Hirst’s paintings, flooded him with memories of the time before the Beatles, when he rode a two decker bus to work.
Being a Novice
Each time I begin a painting, or prepare to teach a class, I become a novice again. What am I doing? How do I start? I am going through this process now as I step into a new painting series for an exhibit in 2015 and prepare for my classes in Canada, Colorado and Italy. There is the paradox of being an experienced artist and teacher, but apparently needing the discomfort of feeling lost, of starting over. This sense of beginning from scratch keeps my work alive.