I tell you, we are here on earth to fart around...

Gaia's Pond

mixed media by Leslie Avon Miller

This post is a reblog from November 12, 2010. Seth Apter at The Altered Page has an annual event in which he invites bloggers to share a post from the past.

This is what Seth has to say about Buried Treasure:

So many blogs...so little time. With so many wonderful art blogs to follow, it is difficult to always find the time to keep up with every new post -- let alone have the time to visit the posts that were put up before you discovered each blog.

So...three years ago I started an annual treasure hunt. Buried Treasure is about digging deep to uncover some hidden gems. The premise is simple. On Wednesday, July 11th all participating bloggers will re-post one (or more) of their favorite posts that ever appeared on their blog.

So without further ado – here is one of my favorite posts. I also enjoyed the resulting conversations. You can find the original comments here.

 

Today.

I want to make art. I have time.

Walk and take photographs.

Paint.

Flat efforts.

Tidy working space.

Look at my art.

Tidy living space.

Look at other people’s art.

Read about other people’s art.

That’s what that’s about?

Look up the word oeuvre.

That’s a big word.

Not in size. In meaning.

Read poetry.

Read more poetry.

Organize poetry collection.

Stumble upon rich quote.

Laughter and gaiety.

Thinking, thinking.

Feed the cats, and find comfort in the

familiar.

See the daylight begin to fade.

Realize what it’s about for me.

Make a list of words.

A map for my work.

It’s all ok.

I kind of know what I am saying.

I am exploring, seeking, finding.

Choosing. Integrating. Releasing.

Look up the word imbue.

That one will work.

I’ve found the door to get

back in

my art.

The poem:

On Becoming the Poet You Were Meant to Become

(note to self)

Many poets are not poets
for the same reason that
many religious men are not saints:
they never succeed in being themselves.

They never get around to being the particular poet
or the particular monk they are intended to be by God.
They never become the man or the artist who is called
for by all the circumstances of their individual lives.

They waste their years in vain efforts
to be some other poet, some other saint…

They wear out their minds and bodies in a hopeless endeavor
to have somebody else's experiences or write somebody else's poems.

There is intense egoism in following everybody else.
People are in a hurry to magnify themselves
by imitating what is popular—
too lazy to think of anything better.

~Thomas Merton

The quote:

I tell you, we are here on Earth

to fart around, and don't let

anyone tell you any differently.

~Kurt Vonneget

They mean the same thing.

Creating in Our Own Authentic Voice - Buried Treasure

One day not so long ago I was walking back to the house from the studio, a walk of about only 80 feet. It had been a pretty good day in the studio. I had been making collage, painting papers, tearing edges, arranging shapes, and gluing pieces down.


What was appearing on the paper was something I had never seen before, and it looked good, really good. And it was unique. And I knew that through my work I was speaking about breathing room, and calmness, and the state of being. The work I did that day was fresh, clean and strong. I was feeling very satisfied.


As I walked back to the house I was carrying my bucket of dirty brushes in one hand and my tea mug in the other, as the studio is unfinished and has no running water yet. I suddenly stopped and had an epiphany. I was truly speaking in my own authentic creative voice! Gosh, I thought, this feels so good, why would anyone try and speak in someone else’s voice?


That was when I decide to really zero in on the process of becoming an artist and creative person with a unique and very authentic expression.


My curiosity about the whole process of becoming someone who can and does express herself uniquely, and from her own truth was piqued. Hence my current focus is on authenticity in the creative process.


How do we get there? What is the process, and how can we enhance that uniqueness, that authenticity in our expression? What is the value of authentic expression?


What ever it is we are currently doing it is a step on the path. What ever it is you and I are creating today, it is the way we deepen own unique creative voice. Michelangelo said David was already in the marble, the artist just chipped away the excess to reveal the statue.


As well our voices and our authenticity are with us right now, we just have to tune in more clearly, and allow the flow.


This post was originally posted on my coaching blog, Create Your Best Life Coaching. It is my contribution to Buried Treasure, "an online, collaborative project that invites art bloggers to go into the depths of their blogs and dig for buried treasure. Each participant was asked to repost one (or more) or their favorite posts from their own blog. There are so many brilliant artists out there but so little time to explore all their work fully. This gives us all an opportunity to see highlights from posts we may have missed from so many of our favorite bloggers!" Buried Treasures is hosted by Seth Apter, the creative voice of The Altered Page.


If you read my blog from time to time, you might wonder about the reference to working in my studio. In 2009 when I wrote this post I was working in the studio on a temporary basis. I had a piece of plywood set across two saw horses which actually worked out very well.

Today's update on the studio construction is that the walls are all done! They look sharp in the new coat of fresh white paint. Next, Kurt will hang the ceiling fan.

This weekend we plan to paint the floor and then I will possibly be able to move back in. The trim and a few other details will still need to be done, but I can work in there while that is completed. I'm containing my excitement in the event something else needs to be done that will delay the process, but I also have my fingers crossed!

This collage is one I recently made. Thanks for visiting!

Buried Treasure No. 2 - It’s About Time and Answers to the Fourth Question

It’s About Time and Answers to the Fourth Question

The author of Art Revolution, Lisa L. Cyr, the new art book I recently reviewed stopped by the blog and left a comment about her book. I have placed it in the side bar of my blog. She said writing the book was a real labor of love.

This is another round of Buried Treasure – a blogging event sponsored by Seth at The Altered Page. It has been a lot of fun to meet more bloggers by participating in this event! I notice Robyn of Art Propelled has reposted one of my all time favorite posts of her’s – about the Elephants in Africa.

I have reposted here the story about Time Management for Artists. Along with that I am sharing with you a collage I did – for fun – from vintage photos I collected. I did it with scissors and arranged these folks on an old Telegram. I use the image when I want to send a card to someone from a group.

In this re-post are blog reader’s answers to one of the questions I asked about art making. These answers are to the question #4 What are your biggest hopes and dreams for your creativity?


I woke up early this morning, and began to think of all the things I want to do, need to do, and feel I have to do. I got out of bed, even before my coffee was delivered, and instead of noticing the very first wisps of day light arriving through the trees, and hearing the early morning bird song, I came downstairs and announced to Kurt that “I just have so much to get done, and I don’t feel like I can give all the time I want to for each thing I need to do.” And so my day started; already off to a stressed outlook. In his wisdom, Kurt pointed out a shift in my thinking might be helpful. Perhaps I could choose not to do something today. His point? Make a choice. Today, I can make a list, make choices, and let go of the stress. I can say “no”, so I can say “yes”.

When I feel overwhelmed like this I am reminded of the following story about time management. It has been around a long while. I present it here, slightly altered for creative folks, as a reminder for me, and perhaps for you as well.

One day an artist who was also an expert on time management was speaking with a group of artists and, to drive home a point, used an illustration. As this woman stood in front of the group of creative artists she said, “Okay, time for a demonstration.” Artists love demonstrations!

She pulled out a very large, wide-mouthed vintage blue glass jar and set it on a table in front of her. Then she produced about a dozen fist-sized speckled rocks, each picked up on a lovely beach, and chosen for their beauty, and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.
When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks could fit inside, she asked, “is this jar full?” and everyone in the gathering said yes.

She said, “Really?” . . . then reached under the table and pulled out a small bucket of white gravel. She dumped some gravel in and shook the jar, causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.

Then she smiled and asked the group once more, “is the jar full?”
By this time the clever artists were on to her. “Probably not,” was the answer.
“Good!” she replied. And she reached under the table and brought out a bucket of shining black sand. She started dumping the sand in and it went into the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Again she asked, “Is the jar full?”

“No!” the artists said, smiling to themselves.
Again she said, “Good!” Then she took a hand blown multi-colored glass pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim.
Again she asked, “Is the jar full?”

Many in the group said yes. Others weren’t so sure, and they smiled as she took a hand carved wooden salt shaker and emptied it into the jar, as well.
Then—the artist and time management expert looked up at the artists and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One delighted artist said, “The point is, no matter how full your life is, if you try really hard, you can always fit something more into it.”

“No,” the artist replied. “That lesson could be drawn from this illustration, but that’s not the point I wish to make. The truth this illustration teaches us is: “if you don’t put the big rocks in first, you won’t get them in.

How we spend our days of course is how we spend our lives. – Annie Dillard

Answers to the Fourth Question: What are your biggest hopes and dreams for your creativity?

I can tell you I want to be a better artist. I want to work much bigger, and I want to be as authentic as I can be. I want my art to say something. I want my art to generate some income so I can have more time to generate art, and because art has real value. I am developing a work shop. I am very excited about that. And someday, I’ll tell you the really big dream, the one that takes my breath away and makes me levitate. The one that is a little fuzzy around the edges because I don’t have a clear vision yet. Sometimes it makes me giggle.


Blog Readers Answers:

I hope to continue to have the physical stamina and health to create
I would like to have a publication about my work, a record of my journey
To show or exhibit in larger areas
I really hope my work keeps going
I want to create something very large
I want to share with people the healing power of creating
A suitable studio space
A better balance
Enough money from my work to be earning a living
I want to be published
To make and sell my art
To have my family enjoy my art
I hope that I improve as an artist
I want to keep learning
I want the guts to stay the course
I want to keep experimenting
I want to encourage others
I want to inspire others
To experience the process wholly
To communicate my expression as honestly as possible
For my art to tell my story
I want to self publish
Good health, strong mind and heart to continue
To stay open to new ways and journeys
To encourage others by example
To express my own individualism
To continue to find new relationships between existing concepts
Joy, clarity and fulfillment
I want to enjoy watching my inner vision emerge onto a blank piece of paper
I love to write for magazines
I want to travel to teach all over the world
I want to publish books
I want to invent a new art technique or new art material
I want to dialog with other artists
I would like to have my own art center

Buried Treasure

Today is Buried Treasure Day. Seth at the Altered Page has proposed that bloggers re-post something from the past. I started blogging in December. Looking through my past posts, this one was a nice reminder to let go of some uses of our time, so we can focus on the things that really matter to us.

This image is a collage from the 2008 International Collage Exchange. I’ve begun exploring the use of the color brown again. This collage is inspiration for me to strive for good rich browns, a color of the earth, in my current work.

For a complete list of Buried Treasure participants I have placed a link on my side bar. Enjoy!

Saying Yes, Saying No

A quiet satisfaction, a sense of anticipation.
Sorting, choosing, releasing.
Listening to myself.
Simplification.

Letting go of old ideas, paths once explored,
but now I turn back. Saying no, so I can say yes.
There is clarity in this action.
I feel the power.

Contemporary collage paintings.
Minimal softness,
textures, shapes and marks.
Non-objective mark of the artist.

Line and space.
Neutral colors of the earth
and of the rocks, of the elements.
Weather, time and thought my subject.

Deepening my voice with knowing and
the mystery of future discovery.

Yes.

My possibility is exquisite expansive
breathing room – to create.
Saying no, I have said yes, and now I find myself
standing inside the room with space, my studio.

My perspective has become more certain.