I have finished my new Great Blue Heron--maybe I should say Rob's Heron because he was my source.
I don't usually do such a direct copy; I'm more likely to put him someplace he doesn't quite belong, like a living room, but this was fun and you never know, I could cut him out and put him in a collage. As I worked I listened to Elizabeth Gilbert read her book on creativity titled Big Magic. She's quite inspiring in the way she describes our creativity as an actual being who urges us to just keep at it for the joy of doing.
I'm finding joy in the show that Fran Beallor and I are curating at First Presbyterian Church. We named it The Seed, inspired by this quote from Camus;
“One’s work is nothing but the long journey through life to recover, through
the detours of art, the one or two great and simple images that first gained
access to one’s heart.”
We asked artists, "what was that image for you? What first gained access to your heart and made you decide to make art your life's work?" Artists submitted their work along with their great image and a short statement which will be on the wall label. Fran and I had a great time reviewing the submissions, which we found fascinating and moving. We finished the hanging today--thank you, Barbara Hermor, Ryan Bauer-Walsh, David Richardson, Diane Fairbank and the staff at the church.
And thank you to all the artists who shared your work and your deep feelings about the joys of making art.
Here we are with our gallery assistant, appropriately dressed in black.
The opening will be Sunday, September 24 from noon to 4 and the show will run through Sunday, November 19. I hope you'll come see it.
Here's my great image--not particularly simple but it's stuck with me all my life;
"The Land of Make Believe", by Jaro Hess. It hung in my room when I was very little and I sat in front of it for hours. I think it inspired my drive to cram as much detail as I can into every drawing. I put one of my Great Garden pieces in the show and I'm thinking about doing another pagoda.
I did a lot of coughing last July, (I'm not really digressing here) maybe thanks to the Canadian wild fires, and so ate a lot of cough drops. I keep looking at this wrapper;
Cherry and Honey; I just love those colors. You never know where you're going to get an idea--when the muse will say to you, "You know what might be fun?"
You know what else was fun? We, that is, Jessie, Molly, Theo and I, went on a Whale Watch, right here in New York City. Yes! Thanks to the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act there are whales swimming in our waters! we saw them! I didn't take any pictures because I just wasn't quick enough and I would have missed seeing them. I had to choose between preserving the moment and actually living it. Now I'm thinking about a drawing with a humpback whale flicking his tail at Lady Liberty.
September 14, 2023
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