Tag: ArtistsLife

Uncomfortable = Growth

Using uncomfortable situations for growth both artistically and personally.

Who would choose to be uncomfortable?

Making it Through the Tough Times | 12×9 | $420

I agree that it is usually the last place anyone would want or choose to go. However, with challenges we also open ourselves up to growth. It isn’t the easy kind where you simply try a new food and you like it or you don’t. It is more the really tough kind where you are out of your elements and every thing you try is new, hard and unsettling. NOT A FUN PLACE TO BE…RIGHT?!?!

Well, think about it this way…

…if you want to grow you should seek out to new things to try. Do you remember encouraging a small child that starting school would be fun? As adults we need to remember to encourage ourselves to jump out of our everyday routine and grow. Without it we are wasting a life that is meant to be lived to the fullest. I don’t think anyone on their dying bed said “Just why did I climb that mountain just to see the vast world beyond!”. Quite to the contrary I think we will wish we hadn’t spent so much time worrying about things that truly don’t matter or yearning for things that were simply materialistic and didn’t enrich our lives at all.

Looking for Direction | 12″x16″ |$560

Okay, enough of that as I am not a therapist, but an artist. The whole point of this is to tell you that I am deliberately putting myself in one of those uncomfortable situation…on purpose!

HOW EXCITING!

Doing Time on Whiskey River | 20″x10″ | $600

That’s right I said exciting as I am so looking forward to the growth both as an artist and simply as a person.  This time last year I was taking an abstract painting class taught by talented artist Rita Wobbe at the Burren College of Art, in Ballyvaughn, Ireland.  This was a very challenging class as my work has never been described as abstract. I found it both instructional and an incredible opportunity to grow my art.  To continue expanding my art I enrolled in another abstract painting class, this one with artist Gwen Fox.   Once the class had completed I knew I wanted more…I had grown and wanted to continue growing!   I decided that this was the perfect year, with being quarantined and longing for growth, to spend time really developing my voice as an artist so I signed up for art coaching with Gwen.

If you’d like to follow my progress and growth over this next year join me on my Instagram and Facebook pages.  Amazing new creations will derive from this time in an uncomfortable position!  I encourage you to use these unusual time to expand yourself as well.

What uncomfortable position are you going to put yourself in to grow?                                

Try a Little Mud for Creative Inspiration!

“Walking the Fields of the Prairie” | Oil on Board | 6″x12″ | $360

The land inspires much of what I paint through what it provides and the simplicity of living off the land. Growing-up in Iowa I spent a great deal of time on a farm with pigs, horses, crops and lots of things to get into for a kid (Not all of which were parental approved.) However, having four confidants in crime (brothers and sisters) we were able to find all kinds of adventures to pursue. We played in the mud, created pottery out of it and were lucky enough to have my Mom bake our creations in the oven. She even used on one of her prized cookie sheets. I do believe the turtle creations hung around for more than 10 years!

“Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication”.

Leonardo da Vinci
The Land I Played on in Iowa as Child and it still Inspires Me Today.

Our farm house sat beautifully in the middle of acres and acres of cornfields.  This was no ordinary old two story farmhouse, it’s claim to fame was a that it was a hide-out for the infamous Jesse James from time to time.  That’s right the outlaw!

Back to the cornfields and dirt:  If you were to wander through one of the cornfields you’d find a creek which was always calling our names.  After all what kid wouldn’t like to play in the water and mud of a creek??  This was after all considered an acceptable place to play by our parents…on the other hand we did manage to find a form of playing in the mud that wasn’t as welcome to our Mother. 

Here is where some of that “Creativity” comes in. One fine Summer day we discovered a very large tractor tire track in a field that was filled with the PERFECT amount of water to make it delightfully slippery. Our experimentation began with running and sliding while standing up. Our vertical sliding method “accidentally” morphed into sliding on our stomachs which proved to be absolutely OUTSTANDING! This event of “opportunity” happened probably 45 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. By the time my mother was made aware of our latest adventure we were covered in mud from head to toe. Even to this day it is puzzling to me as to why this was such a problem…give me a minute as I get up off the floor from laughing so hard!

I have always felt growing up on a farm was a real treat and a great way to learn to appreciate the hard work, determination and grit that it takes to live off the land. Oh yea and there is plenty of mud!

Simplicity is the final achievement…it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.

Frederic Chopin
Myself (Back Center) and My Confidants in Crime: Karla, Sarah, Andy and Mark…That’s right I’m naming names and I can’t imagine life without them!

Much of my creative inspiration comes from those years on the farm and a life lived quietly and simply in the country, even as a child. Children are always learning and discovering things that will carry them through their lives whether directly or indirectly. So when you see weathered fence posts, a creek or a ditch of wildflowers appear in my work they come from the simplicity of daily life and travels in the States and abroad.

So if you are looking for inspiration I highly suggest mud!

After all what’s simpler than mud?