Introspection

It's cold, out here in Portland, OR. This kind of weather really does a number on my hands. I should clarify; it does a number on the arthritis in my neck and THAT does a number on my hands.

It's funny, but our hands are something we take for granted. We look at them when we do our nails, or attend to cutting a broken nail, but we really don't pay attention to them.
We don't look at the way the skin moves over the fingers, the way the thumb and the fingers manipulate objects. The tendons that move my fingers as I type, and correct the many errors from fingers that have become clumsy, they move these fingers with ease, and the muscles give precision. The hand occupies a very large area in the motor cortex of the brain. The hand is a piece of magic, and one I'm happy to possess.

When we look at our hands we see faithful friends, for the most part. Friends who brush our hair, and our teeth. They zip zippers, button buttons, and snap snaps. They stir coffee and pick up things to examine.

It is a hard thing to deal with, the things that are happening to my hands, but the headaches make it a reality that I have to deal with, increasingly. There is no ignoring them. It has gotten bad enough that I now take amatriptylene at night for the pain, and Vicodin for when the pain flares are really bad. I used to be able to go for days without pain flares, but no longer.

These hands are used to paint, to create. To cut an onion, to deftly blanch peaches. To touch my face, my loved ones, my brush. They are marvels of design and efficiency, human hands. They are capable of bringing so much pleasure, and so much pain.

I hope to keep my hands; to still be able to peel an apple, to write down a name, to touch my husband's hair.

I never realized, until they started to not work, how wonderful these hands really are. I've really resisted training my computer for voice commands. As long as these work, I will work them.

I will paint with them, I will make love with them, I will do all of the things that I have always done, with one exception. I will no longer take them for granted. I will cherish what they do for me, I will cherish them. I will examine the fingers, and appreciate them for the wonderous things that they really are.

Art is part of who we are

As human beings, we are in possession of one of the greatest natural wonders there is, the human brain.
This magnificent piece of organic machinery, it has taken us from the African savannah to the skyscrapers of today.
It has also taken us from our earthbound existence to the moon, and we hope to go beyond.
All of this progress, the accomplishments of our species, are the direct result of this wonderful brain!
This brain allows us to see the creatures in the clouds, and to see the horse in the marble, the image in the canvas; to allow us to bring what we perceive in our heads from our minds to our chosen medium.
Each one of us may look at the same thing, but each one of us will see that object differently. As artists, it's part of our job description to try to express ourselves, in our chosen mediums. I believe that what makes an artist is not sales, it is not some sort of popular recognition; it is the need to create, no matter what!
It is the need to put that image down, to free the horse from the marble, to write that novel, or to compose that musical piece, all of that is part of the human condition. Part and parcel of being an artist is that overwhelming need to create.

Work In Progress, Red Nude

WIP, Red Nude, Encaustic on panel and paper, 12" x 24" .
The picture could be better, and will, but a WIP, this'll do. Ive got lots of work left on her, will post when done!

Christmas and the Holidays

I love this time of year, I really do. My Pagan self loves the Christmas tree. I love the way the ornaments sparkle, and the way the lights glimmer in the dark. I remember when my kids where small, and they used to like to sleep out in the living room with the tree, and truthfully, if I hadn't been a grown up authority figure with an image to maintain, Mom the Almighty, then I'da been out there with them!
It's not hard to remember that the Christmas tree is originally a Pagan symbol of everlasting life, when I look at the sparkling lights of the tree.
I LOVE this time of year!
What do we, as people, think of this time of year, and the next question I have is this; why can't we have a spirit of giving every day?
Why can't we, as people, look at our fellow human beings, and see them as human, for more than just this one day, for more than just this season?

WIP The Next Chair

This is the WIP of the third chair, Conditional Love. I've fallen in love with anthraquinone red... SUCH a beautiful color, it's transparent and deep, with the same undertone as blood.
I haven't taken a photo of that yet, but here's a picture before the lovely new red. I'll post new pics of it with that red, soon.

As an Artist, What is my Job Description?

In my mind, and the minds of many artists before me, to Goya and back further, we artists have pointed out things in our world that are not right, things that are not just.
As an artist, I believe that it is my duty to point out the wrongs that I see around me. It is part of my ability to celebrate the good, but it is important that I note, record and expose to the world, the things that bad people would not have exposed to the light.
If we artists were to forget this, to just paint pretty art, are we really artists? Or are we decorative painters? Isn't art about the human condition, and the expression of that condition? It is to me; to me, there is no more sacred a duty than that rooting out of hidden evils.
Some of us do that with a video camera, some of us with a still camera. Some of us write about it, in books, blogs, and articles. And there are those of us who express these things with art, using paint, pen, sculpture, wax or a myriad of media to get the point across.

New piece

Detail
This one is finished, and now it's on to the next chair, in that series.
The Queen of Heaven
12" x 24"
Encaustic on panel, found objects