The Language of Intuition

The Sound of Rain
by Leslie Avon Miller

What informs the compositional choices one makes? Whether or not you have a sense of self-discovery before or after the fact of “creation” it is helpful to be more conscious in your personal world of art making.

~ Margot Voorhies Thompson

10 years ago I stepped into a classroom on the wild Oregon coast and spent a week with fellow artists and Margot.

She didn’t instruct so much as she helped us discover what was ours. She asked us questions, stimulated our thought process as artists, and helped us to see.

Margot Voorhies Thompson


I invite you to visit Margot's website

What feelings do your brush marks, scrapings, scratchings, drawing, calligraphy, type and other marks lend to your idea?

~ Margot Voorhies Thompson

Winter

by Leslie Avon Miller

I’ve just spent time looking at some of my work from that workshop, and found my entire art language was present in my work even in its infancy. Soft, subdued palette of cream, sienna, white and black – and a touch of orange. Ink, graphite, collage and paint. Calligraphic marks, drips, finger painting, open space, grids, rectangles, abstracted figures.

What invitation are you extending to the viewer through your work?

~ Margot Voorhies Thompson

My work from that time has always been just within my awareness, but until today when I got it out again, I hadn’t realized how complete my language was even then.

Why am I revisiting that time? For one, I know I had an outstanding learning experience. For another, that was my first art workshop. At this time I am in an archeological mode, looking for the essential, the authentic, the elemental components of my work.

I’m clearing my personal airwaves so I can hear myself. I am clearing, so I can create authentically.

Visuals = the language of intuition.

~ Eileen M. Clegg

The works I have posted here are recent works. My works from the workshop are not imaged.

So, what do you know about your personal visual language of intuition?

Seeking My Authentic Voice

I have a new appreciation for winter, after the holidays and the rush have subsided.

It’s a personal time. It’s easy to slip home after work and live simply. I find time for reflection, time for solitude, and studio time.

I think of my thought process as mental composting in a way. I don’t have to actively reflect, just see what comes up. I have no intention of any thing like a resolution. I am experiencing more “being” now, and eschewing goal setting and time frames. I am experiencing myself a la natural. It’s exciting really. What will come of it?

From this richness of space and time (and plenty of luxurious sleep), I have been working a lot in the studio. I’m going in new directions. Ideas tumble in my mind, one after the other, waiting to be acted upon. I’m having fun!

I’m not ready to share the “new” work yet, but I can tell you I have been playing with inks, bees wax, charcoal and egg shells. Even those ingredients sound a bit like a compost pile!

I have also developed a new coaching group – Seeking Your Creative Voice. This topic is so very dear to my heart.

On January 14th you can participate in a non cost teleclass exploring the topic if you like. You can find out more here. You will also find particulars about the group there.

As this idea was developing I started down a few mental dead ends; all a part of the process I suppose. Not unlike making art, for me anyway. Then this popped up from my compost pile:

When I tap into my authentic voice that’s when the doors open, the work flows and my heart knows, just knows “this is right.” Time melts. It feels good. The struggle is replaced with a sense of work; right work, good work, the work, my work.

Voice isn’t style, voice isn’t principals and elements of design, voice isn’t content, but the language we use to express our authentic voice includes all of these. Authentic voice is something more elementary than this, it’s something closer to primal, closer to the earth, and it is uniquely yours.

The authentic voice isn’t found so much as it is invited, finally recognized and accepted for what it is and celebrated.

We don’t choose it, it claims us. What we choose is to listen and dance to the sound. You may even find yourself weeping for the joy of connection with your own creative voice.

Happy January! What is coming up from your mental compost pile?

Art Is My Teacher

My work is loving the world.

~Mary Oliver

Paying some attention to what my art has been teaching me, I have noted a few thoughts. Like all lists, and all awareness, it is in flux, incomplete and evolving. I'll share my observations with you here.


Go with what is happening. Art will teach me what it needs.

It is good to ask "I wonder what will happen if I..."

Swooning is allowed when seeing another artist's work, but feel my feet firmly planted on my own art path.

No matter how much has been mastered, remain a student of everything and of something - photography, on-line presence, or new technology. The world will always evolve and I must also.

We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.

~Lao Tzu

When in a growth phase, protect incubating ideas. They may be shy. Retreat from scrutiny, like a snake that is shedding its skin. Emerge fresh and ready to shine.

Attend to nature, the original muse.

I learn, yet again, to see, really see.

Share with other artists. They get it. Encourage others as I am encouraged.

Experience gratitude.

The answer is almost always "keep working."

Happy New Year!

What is your art teaching you?

The first image: Untitled, 12 inches by 12 inches, watermedia on birch panel. By Leslie Avon Miller

The second image: Untitled, 30 inches by 22 inches, watermedia and collage on watercolor paper. By Leslie Avon Miller

Readers are adding:

• patience
• resilience
• curiosity
• exploration
• discovery
• renewal
• the value of looking within
• to be more brave
• go to work!
• follow any leads
• always allow time to experiment
• the beginning
• letting go
• dare
• now it's good
• look carefully
• be brave
• have an open mind
• look closely
• be excited
• be open
• share

And more words from you:

• • nourish the spirit
  • be kind to myself
    
  • Play and explore
  • Celebrate life
  • Be present
  • Push
  • Feel
  • See the light within and in the world
  • Keep pushing the envelope
  • You can’t win if you don’t play
  • Allow
  • Accept
  • Sustain
  • Stillness/action/aloneness
  • Share
  • Acceptance
  • Reflection
  • Perseverance
  • Connection

What a rich and fabulous list. I'll keep adding to the list as you share your thoughts. Thank you all!

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

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.

Artists Books and Some Things To Like About Art

My intrigue with artist’s books goes back to the second grade, when I fell in love with my teacher’s grade book. It was a truly magical book with multiple interior pages of different widths.

All our names were entered down the left hand column. Each interior page flipped to show our grades for a variety of subjects, the column of names on the left remaining constant. The beautiful Miss Monroe entered marks in blue, red or black ink, creating a random pattern of visual interest. The weight of her entries made an impression that created depth to each page. I was truly enthralled.

No other book I experienced had any handmade marks –books were stored on shelves, pristine and sterile. It was sacrilege to make a mark in a book, except for the teacher’s grade book. When ever my BF and I would play “school” I would always start by making an elaborate grade book, with pages of differing widths, filled with columns and rows. Heaven!

I seldom make a model book – I may as well just make another book. But I knew a model would help to test the weights of different papers and how they interact with one another. I used tape to secure the papers since this was only a model. But now I like the model book, so I may add content and hope the photo quality permanent tape will hold for sometime.

To add interest I used some of the paper I do warm ups on when I am starting a studio session. My warm up papers are like a sketch book of ideas. I hang a large piece of light weight paper on the studio wall so I can work on ideas in larger format. I also practice making gestures and marks.

I like a lot of things about making art. I like to work with my hands. It’s something that occurs right here, right now somewhat within my control. I can’t have much of an effect on world peace, but I can make art.

Do you know what I mean? I work out thoughts and responses to being human, especially the parts for which I can’t find deep enough words.

I like to see what happens when I create. I’m just so curious about the whole process. I’m always finding new ways of doing things. One day I may make marks with a stick dipped in paint, and the next day I may use a razor blade to scratch out lines and marks. Curiosity is real fuel for studio time.

When it comes to art, I get to do it my way, and create my vision. No one else is making the decisions, or setting the course. It’s all mine. As said in Art and Fear – art is about “a rolling tangle of choices.” We have to make our choices. And then roll with it.

What are some things you enjoy about making your art?

Speaking of rolling tangles of choices, my new life coaching for artists web site is up and running. So I’m offering a new session of the popular course for artists called Re-Fresh Your Creative Practice. The dates are Tuesday, November 2^nd to Tuesday, December 7^th. If you like you can participate in a complementary call to find out more about it on Tuesday, October 6^th. Head over here and also sign up for my newsletter to find out more about it. The next time I offer this course will be June, 2011, or thereabouts.

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