Tabor Arts

My First Painting…

admin — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:49:43 +0000

So I have been thinking a lot about death lately. Mainly because the older you get the more people you know start dying. It is a simple fact. I have felt the pain of a few losses lately, for both myself and others. In trying to understand, or maybe just not jump off a tall building, I have some thoughts.

Life is short. Life is fragile. Life is a gift and a strange gift in that we have no idea of the duration of our gift. I could fall asleep on the sofa and never wake up again. This can lead to very morbid thoughts and in the last few months I have had plenty of those, I won’t share, they aren’t of any use to anyone. My useful (I hope) thoughts are…given that life ends at a random moment for each of us, it’s a darn good idea to use each of those moments fully…no really.

I remember the first time I created an abstract painting. It was awful, but I stood in the rain and wept. It touched something deep, very deep. I was moved to tears by the emotion of it and I have not looked back since. I work at a bank during the day, but I paint as much as I can, and have had art shows and sold work and am generally having a blast doing it.

What moves you? If you love to dance…I am not saying that you should quit your job as a stock broker and run off to join a dance troupe…unless that is what you want. If it is and you don’t have a clue how to dance, you might want to start with lessons. Maybe buy a video to dance to alone somewhere, wherever you can have the space. If you want to sing…start singing. If your friends don’t like it, do it in the shower. Basically what I am saying is that doing what makes your heart feel more open will also make you happier in your job at the bank…or wherever you are. If you want to paint, that’s easy, get paints and something to paint on and have at it.

My point is that you can do these things just to make your heart dance. Over time you can sort out if they are things you want to share with others or whether you want to use them to get to know yourself better. Either way, you can start doing them right now, and get the benefit of feeling more relaxed and in touch with your own heart.

Tree Hill and Bugsy Face Time (literally) recharge break from painting…

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:56:38 +0000

So we went and wandered around Tree Hill, an educational natural space and I got some nice photos.

Then we went to our favorite local coffee shop, and hung out with the mascot, Bugsy. He’s a friendly fellow as you can see.
It was a good day, and I feel ready to paint some more now.

Scoping out Art Walk

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:01:29 +0000

I have been accepted for the Art Walk in downtown Jacksonville. Tonight we went as spectators to get a feel for the venue with the anticipation of participation next month. It’s really neat what is being done in downtown Jacksonville. They are renting out space to artists, to use as studio/gallery space at a reduced cost so that the owners basically have non stop open house and someone occupying the space and the artists get a low cost studio in a well trafficked venue.

Painting, painting and more painting…

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:27:18 +0000

I never know what to write when I come here. So often I don’t write anything. It’s a time of works in progress at the moment, of solving problems and discovering. I am working on some small canvases and some larger ones and I am finding that the way I paint on the smaller ones differs slightly from the way I paint on the larger ones. I like to paint with alot of energy, and the smaller canvases make that a bit more difficult, though not impossible.

We’ll see what comes out of all of it. I will post pics when I get some completed.

Another day at grranimal grove

admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:29:25 +0000

The home that I live in is affectionately referred to as Grranimal Grove by it’s human inhabitants. It really lived up to it’s name this morning.

First thing, I found a lizard in the bathroom that was so cold she could barely move. Once she figured out that lizard wasn’t on my breakfast menu, she was quite happy to sit in my hand and warm up. Once she was warm enough to function in a more lizard like manner I relocated her to a patch of sun outside.

Also, we had about 50 or so robins flitting and chirping in the trees out back ( we have ALOT of trees out back) we also have cars and they are now covered in used berries, thanks to the robins, lol. It was still neat to see all them flying around and carrying on.

I am making bread and knitting today…I learned to knit last week! It is teh coolness! Anyways I feel so domestic…not a bad feeling actually.

I have to go photograph some finished paintings now…hope everyone is enjoying their day. I am enjoying mine very much

Why do I paint?

admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:26:17 +0000

I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything in three months. I will fill in the gap at some point but right now I want to post somthing that I have been working on and struggling with somewhat. Defining myself as an artist. Why do I *need* to paint, why do I paint what I paint? With abstract art I think it is an even more slippery issue…here is some of what I have come up with so far. I’m pretty sure it will be an ongoing process (like most of them are).

Okay, so it’s time to “dig deeper”. Why do I paint? Why do I paint what I paint? I am answering these questions in the wrong order but here goes anyway. Well…I love geometric forms when used in an artistic contrast…quilts for example, knitting patterns that include cabling and geometrics. I love pies and cakes…I mean homemade ones that are culinary art, recipes passed down with love from gramma’s and great aunts that make your taste buds do the happy dance from the symphony of flavors and textures. I love raindrops leaving Doppler patterns and leaves with their tiny intricate vein systems that seem random at a glance but aren’t. I love moody, dark clouds that dance over the fluffy, light ones; like a dark curtain that when lifted, show their light all the more.

I love nature. I love the swirl of the nautilus and the mottled, deep grooved strength of hard wood tree bark. The precious gems from the earth (talking about all rocks not just the ones people typically think of) all their vibrant colors and translucency that glows in the light of the sun. I could go on and on but I think we both get the idea here.

Why do I paint? When I was younger (and angrier) I would have said “So that I don’t kill people”. Now, I would say that it is a meditation, the way I touch the infinite, the way I commune with the spiritual inside me. It is also so that I don’t kill people, still, but only in the most distant sense. It brings me peace and reminds me that if I can be a jerk and still make beautiful things, then that beauty lives in all of us jerks, somewhere. It helps combat my cynicism. It gives my inner child permission to play and still love the world and see the beauty, as opposed to watching the news and wanting to shoot myself and other people, not necessarily in that order.

As you can read I am a smart aleck, not truly a homicidal maniac. But the reasons still stand really. Sometimes I lose faith, sometimes life makes so little sense to me that I feel like I don’t want to be here another moment. Then I paint and painting connects me to the things that are inside me that matter. It reminds me that life is worth living and that there is still beauty. I am not saying my paintings are necessarily beautiful, but painting reminds me of the things that I do think are beautiful And that is why I must paint…

Amazing Book for Artists!

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:36:58 +0000

Jackie Battenfield and her husband are both artists who are putting two sons through college, have set up pension plans and 401k’s, take vacations and buy health insurance for themselves, all through their careers as artists.

In her book, The Artist’s Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love she covers goal setting, self promotion and all the other practical, not-so-artistic tasks that will guide your career on a path to success. She writes about these things with compassion and down-to-earth practicality that makes it easy for an artist to follow and hone the skills necessary to be successful.

These links are my affiliate links with Amazon.com, I want to be up front about that, I will receive a little money if you click here to purchase this book. However, I am very serious when I say that this is the BEST $12 you will spend on marketing yourself and your work, it is truly a must-have in my opinion. I purchased this book and am working through it now and if you are an emerging or mid career artist who wants to take your work to the next level, buy this book! You will be very glad that you did.

MPD? Nah, just me….fun with art!

admin — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 04:18:04 +0000

So imagine if you will a room. There are two people in this room, both of them are me. One of me, the one-that-is-connected-to-everything and knows everything is watching the other me. The other me is writhing around, suffering, unsure of what comes next and whether or not I can make it as an artist.

The other me is drawing trees and flowers and painting abstracts and wondering why suddenly all the larger pieces I have been working on look like crap. The other me is at an artistic crossroads and the me-that-is-connected is laughing, she is laughing because she knows everything will work out and that I am in the perfect place.

She throws out “why don’t you dye your hair black and wear some of that really pasty make-up, you’ve got the angst for it, I really think you should go for it”. The me that is writhing glares at her from the floor.

I wonder if I should post this, it isn’t pretty, it isn’t nice. I am really at a crossroads with my self and my work. Will I move past it and learn what I need to? Of course I will, I haven’t stopped creating during this process and I won’t.

Are the dogs of doubt nipping at my heels with sharp, pointy teeth? Yep, they sure are. I don’t know if this is true for all artists, but for this one, the self doubt gets pretty loud sometimes. So it is time to regroup.

It is also (apparently) time to take a really hard look at myself as an artist and make some discoveries. One of the things I am looking at is what do I really want to paint? I can paint anything I want to with enough study and work.

What do I love? What do I really want to communicate? Who am I? What do I bring to the table that is unique enough to separate my work from the pazillions of painters out there….news at 11.

I decided to write this and post it because the suffering and the doubts are as much a part of my journey as the successes and the finished paintings. After all, I am an unfinished work of art and will be until I draw my last breath. As I approach the end of my 45th year on this orb, it seems appropriate somehow to engage in this inquiry and work through where I want to go as an artist and therefore will be going from here.

Painters Who Blog…

admin — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:59:52 +0000

Don’t we paint because we aren’t good with words?

Or maybe that isn’t true…

I am blogging for reasons unknown to me really. I paint for similar reasons. I read somewhere that people are interested in painters and their processes. Seriously? Of course I also read somewhere that I should just be myself and find the things that make my art unique. How can I do that if I don’t know what those are?

I’m a smart ass, is that something?

As far as processes go, some days I fling paint at the canvas and some days I work less than an inch from it for hours at a time. Until my eyes won’t focus anymore. Some days I fling other things at the canvas…

Social Networking for Artists

admin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:51:34 +0000

Networking for Artists and Art Collectors. Check this blog out, if you like art, you will like Nicholas Forrest.

My favs from this list are:

http://www.myartspace.com

myartspace is an online community with more than 50,000 artists, collectors, students, teachers, gallerists, curators, critics and art appreciators across the world. myartspace is free and open to all. Members can create a profile of themselves and upload an unlimited quantity of their work including images, music, audio narration and video.

http://www.artslant.com

ArtSlant.com, the #1 contemporary art network, launched in Los Angeles in February, 2007. It is a sophisticated website that brings a local and in-depth focus to the contemporary art scene. ArtSlant’s profiles put the spotlight on everyone in the art community. Artists, art professionals, art orgs, and art lovers can have their own showcase to exhibit their work, expose their business or talk about their involvement in the scene. In our community you will also find picks and reviews, jobs and opportunities, schools, blogs, and groups.

http://www.artlog.com

Artlog is the place for you to connect with folks, share your work and discover innovative new art & design. Artlog is for art makers, insiders, organizations and art lovers. This global community of art lovers, artists and industry insiders is only as vibrant as you make it. So follow interesting artists, make professional connections, post your work and let your voice be heard – “If you see something, say something!

http://www.artbistro.com

ArtBistro brings members of the visual art community together to network, advance careers, and to foster a community with exclusive benefits where information about artists and designers is provided by artists and designers.