It’s 2014, a new year and I’m still working fervently on my personal ambitions, long after the resolution keeping should be fading. I’m determined. So that’s made me take a good look at this website and I have decided to make some changes. One is bringing the blog front and center once again. I’m also in the process of getting my workshops scheduled and the pages that talk about them dialed in. No small task I confess! This is the tip of the iceberg. For now…
THIS WEBSITE IS ABOUT ART, IT’S ABOUT PEOPLE, IT’S ABOUT LIFE, LOVE, ARTISTRY AND COMMUNITY. IT’S ABOUT WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE DO AND WHAT WE BRING. NO MATTER WHAT WE DO OR HOW WE DO IT WE LEAVE SOMETHING OF OURSELVES BEHIND, THAT’S OUR LEGACY. IT’S ABOUT CREATING AND THINKING AND IMAGINING AND INSPIRING AND EXPRESSING.
I remember the first time I thought about art. I mean REALLY even considered art. I may have been about seven years old. I was drawing grapes and coloring them with crayons. My mother came to see what I was doing and got very excited. My grapes weren’t just purple she exclaimed. They were purple and blue and all the possible shades between. I had expressed their color in a hyper reality and was coloring them with all their true beauty, all their amazing colors represented in varying shades of blues and purples. By the way she got so excited I knew I had done something good. That was my awakening to the love affair with art I would continue to enjoy from that day forward.
There have been many ways I’ve enjoyed art. From drawing and painting to pen and ink and batik. Fashion design, quilting, fabric design, silk painting, metal sculpture, wood sculpture, jewelry making including the lost wax process and glass bead making. I’ve made clothes, pillows, scarves, greeting cards, clocks, wall art in the realm of photography, conceptual art, watercolor and all sizes possible. I’ve written songs, melody and lyrics, written articles, poetry and haiku. I can’t even remember what all else because it just never seems to stop. I’m a constant doodler and I even capture everything imaginable– texture or event– with my phone as so many in our culture do now.
I think we are all artists. I’m always shocked when someone tells me they’re not artistic when I can so clearly see artistry in all things, everywhere! Just dig in to them a bit and all manner of artistry tumbles forth. and that smile is such a beautiful thing to see when they realize yes, they are indeed an artist. Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art. Andy Warhol Andy Warhol got it right.
Warhol’s quote is good but certainly not the story I was actually getting to. He made the Campbell Soup Can iconic because he saw art in it. As I interpret this I see how artistry is everywhere. There is art in the design of a light bulb, design in the ball point pen, a t-shirt, a napkin holder, there is artistry in window blinds and architecture. There is as much design and artistry in a iron skillet as there is in the most beautiful Faberge egg.
So that’s the new premise of my life. Art is everywhere, we are all artists and we are all beautiful beyond measure.