VOYAGE - Rita Series # 8

CURSE YOU, WALT DISNEY!

I grew up with Walt Disney. Visions of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and the handsome Prince that rode in and swept the girl off her feet and away into Happily Ever After. Then at 13, I discovered Harlequin Romances, and god knows those were reality based...(that was sarcasm). So when I admit to having a very warped idea of what 'love' is, you can understand.

I've been really unlucky in love. (I have no idea if the old saying holds true about my chances with cards as I never played card games when young and as such, am a complete ignoramus...) And the timid dips into the whole Internet Dating realm garnered me idiots who sent me pics of their "parts" with socks on or a 2 hr phone call where I talked for maybe 10 mins to some guy who REALLY had a great opinion of himself ; well, you can see my point. Anyway, the thing is, after 3 failed marriages and a hugely incorrect way of choosing partners, apparently, I've decided to just forget the whole relationship thing.

And it makes me sad in a way.

Because I am a real sucker for romance and would love to have LOVE in my life.

But I'm totally clueless in this dept.

And after all the above experiences, I just bloody well don't trust men anymore.

Yeah. Pathetic.

I don't know how to deal with this either.

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

...and that would be sung in a high squeaky voice, ya?
OK. Have been tapping into other Women Artist Blogs lately and for some reason they've been, for the most part, watercolorists. I'm intrigued by that. I used to paint in watercolor for many years (if I can locate an old pic of one I'll post it) Loved the medium a lot EXCEPT when it came to matting and framing which proved to be 1: expensive and 2: time consumingly lots of work. (Cut the matt, assemble the mat, assemble the mat and painting; cut the frame, assemble the frame, paint the frame; cut the glass, clean the glass, clean the glass, clean the glass ; put it all together; take it apart because there is a smut in the corner; repeat....you get it right?) And I did my own. (I was a picture framer for @ 15 years - a skill I believe EVERY artist needs to know!) When I started into acrylic, I remember thinking how wonderful it was to not have to fiddle with the finished painting AFTER to make it presentable. Also, in the pretentious world of Art, watercolors are NEVER considered as "good" as the more, oh shall we say, 'thick' mediums of oil or acrylic. Certainly oils and acrylics can be priced higher...no, not a lick of sense in this at all. Watercolor is very much an incredibly difficult medium to master. You make a mistake -well, you make a MISTAKE. I remember being turned down at a Gallery in Whistler because, as the curator said" No one is interested in watercolors". (Lift your nose higher!)
In any case, what makes me wonder, is how it's the medium of 'beginner' painters as well as how many women choose it. No wonder beginner painters choose to stop with the difficulty it presents. And why are so many watercolorists women - not that there aren't men but they seem to have some sort of magic carpet ride into the Art Heavens that is a longer slog for women...but I digress. Certainly in any watercolor workshop I've ever been to, the class is exclusively or predominately, women.
Well, more power to us, I say.
But I AM really glad I changed to painting in acrylic !!

"Ey Vaunt To Be Alone"

Ah, those famous words......or 'infamous' as the case may be. Would you want to be remembered for telling everyone to just 'fleep' off?
Anyway, why I titled my post with those words has to do with wanting to be left alone. Now, mostly I am alone, being that art does get created in an insular environment, except I love my friends; I do I do I do; but I live in a place everyone wants to come to. It's pretty spectacular out here - 15 miles of unreal beach, rugged, wave crashing, eagle in sky, bear/cougar/wolf walking around kind of way, so lots of folks want to come up and being that I do love them and do want to see them, I generally say "Stay here!"
And then I regret those words.
Because I need to have my space as my space to create in....and right now I'm into a big creative wave with this new direction. And I KNOW if my friends come up, we are going to carouse and eat and generally carry on like friends do and all the time I will be aching to get back to the easel.
So, what do I say to the good people I've just said "Yes!" to? Without crushed or misunderstood feelings happening? Pony up and say the truth? Always a good move, in my book.
But the thing that all this does make me realize is that if I don't set real boundaries for myself and my friends, no one will accept just how seriously I take being an Artist. And, unfortunately, in most people's books, there is nothing serious about being an artist.
Louche louts that we are.
And it is our fault that we are perceived as such, with most creative folk buying into the mythology of acting idiotically.
So, I shall endeavor to act with respect to myself and my life's profession.
And tell my friend that our mutual acquaintance says "Stay here!"
All good.
PS...the friend just emailed saying they couldn't come....

UGLY MONKEY Rita Series # 7

Collage of a Day in the Life

Well, it's been one little strange thing after another today...made me think that all these moments make a collage of what a day for me can be like; if you see.

First off, I hung up my great present of the Joni Mitchell Poster "Turbulent Indigo" (GREAT album by the way!) in the studio and was greatly pleased by this gift. That's the pic that is attached to this post. Joni calls herself "A painter that also sings" which I really like. Altho' I do wish I could sing and play music as good as she does!

Then I kind of had a very odd feeling about me...I'm out of canvases; which I had ordered but with the holiday etc. the delivery has been delayed, leaving me feeling rather like a 'junkie' without the proverbial. I spent today in rather aimless pursuits, hungering every odd moment for a canvas to start a new painting......wow. I suppose if you have to have a 'monkey', a canvas addiction is pretty much acceptable. Hopefully tomorrow will bring relief! Anyway, to sort of combat this weird 'jonesing', I read my Christmas book "Lost Symbol", which is Dan Brown's newest Robert Langdon novel. A CRACKING good read! Although ever since seeing the movie 'Da Vinci Code', Tom Hank's face is firmly implanted in my brain. Not so sure about that. This took up quite a chunk of the day until I watched "Inkheart" - I'm a sucker for imagination it seems. I'd also love the ability to 'make things come alive'...yeah! Then I decided to 'finish touch-up' my latest painting "Ugly Monkey". This activity can make or break you - you can push the painting over the edge by fiddling around too much with it. I remember someone once blathering on about some Robert Bateman documentary and how he was putting on a 'wash'...that's a very thin, watery coat of color over parts or the whole of your painting. It CAN be very tricky if you misjudge the amount or the depth of color - acrylic has the odd thing of darker colors drying lighter and visa versa. Anyway, Robert was saying such about this being the tricky thing that it is and he might ruin his painting; and the person viewing this was outraged at what they percieved as nonsense, being that Mr. Bateman was a pretty accomplished painter and so KNEW what he was doing. I was kind of bemused by the reaction as I understood what Bob was getting at. That always makes me think about how folks seem to be more amazed if your painting takes a lo-o-o-ong time as opposed to winging it off in a few days.

Huh.

Anyway, while in the studio, I misplaced Jams. Really! I saw her wandering up on the table and heard her walking over some tissue paper, then she just...disapeared. And, no, I wasn't actually watching her do a 'Cheshire Cat' thing, it's just when I turned around to see where she got to, poof! I couldn't find her. About 15 mins later, she strolled out of the bedroom.

Totally Schroedeger's cat!

Then I was Internetting and some weird 'Content Application' box popped up and I inadvertently checked it and the next thing I know EVERY flipping page I pulled up was asking for a password and not allowing me to view the content. GAH! THAT got attended to pretty darn quick!

There you go. Pretty mundane stuff, really but it's my life!

And, by golly, I'm thankful for it!

Listen

Woke this morning to the sound of rain outside my bedroom window and that has me thinking about sounds. Evocative sounds, like for me one of my earliest memories is the sound of an old push mower - does anyone remember them, I wonder. The "Chuka-chuka" kind of noise they made while whirring over grass. Brings me right back to my childhood; mainly how I hated having to go to bed when it was still light out and I could hear kid's happy shouts far off. Then there's clapping. What is it about clapping that is so pleasing? I always like hearing live concerts on the radio just for the audience clapping afterwards. I was listening to a CBC program about a Museum of Sound which is gathering together sounds that are disappearing from our world; such as Train whistles.....not a sound we heard much out here on the coast but I remember them from a stay in rural Alberta when young. There's nothing to compare to that mournful call rolling across a night sky. I like the early spring bird sounds too. And the late night call of a kingfisher. The unearthly croak of a heron flying home to roost. Of course there's the ebb and sway of the ocean that is immensely meditative. And my grandparents old chiming clock .....wish I had it around still although I have the old pendulum clock of my Dad that he found in the attic of his drugstore in downtown Vancouver in 1956, I think but I don't wind it up because it makes my over-night guests crazy.
Anyway, sounds are kind of an aural painting, if you will.
Is there such a thing as total silence? There's quiet, of course, but an absolute cessation of noise of any sort?
Listen.......