It's not easy to post a work-in-progress, especially when I prefer to wait until something is finished before showing it to anyone. But aren't we all works-in-process in our blogs? This format allows, nay encourages, us to forge ahead with our wayward ideas and stray creativities. It all pulls together eventually. We are creating whole bodies of work here. In draft form, in finished form. So I post the progress of this little drawing, wondering myself where it's going. It's quite gaudy today, and much of my 'art' is about saving what are turning into messes, 'saving' it to the point of livability. When I can live with something, and perhaps I'm seeking bold and sensitive, polished and raw, confident and wavering, manifesting and disappearing, in whatever way that happens, then it's done. If I can 'look' at it without jumping up to 'fix' it, then it's done. There gets to be a point when you can almost look at your work as if you didn't do it. You remember the emotion of your life at the time you did it, where you were in your inner journey, but are no longer involved in the traceries of line or paint or design. It has become something in the world, and not part of your inner landscape where you are busy scribbling, drawing, painting, composing, revising and continually re-orienting your life into the work of ongoing art that it is.
Sounds a lot like living in and accepting that moment we are continually in. ("continnually," odd word to use here?) On the other hand, it's kind of like putting money in the bank and waiting for the interest to appreciate. Somedays the market adds to it, some days it takes it away. But one thing is for sure...we cannot control it.
ReplyDeleteI think your drawings are a great way to establish the moments. Isn't it exciting to look back and see how you have grown! Even if only a day later? I can especially see how your writing has become very "baroque" since I first encountered your blog. Of course I say that not only as a descriptive comment but as an appreciation for the way you embelish imagination in a form I can consume. For someone like me who tends toward austerity, it's nice to be exposed to a more florid presentation of the imagination. It's beautiful! Thanks!
lhombre, art very much is living in the moment, isn't it. I mean painting, which for me is always a continual discovery until I'm finished, and probably a jam session for a jazz player like you, and your art, though I suspect your paintings are perhaps conceived in idea first and then discovered in form... And I couldn't agree more that "we cannot control it."
ReplyDeleteThat's both what is liberating (accepting what's unfolding) and what is most difficult (being unable to control it).
After my recent 2 years of living in Vancouver, that rainforest on the West Coast, I've determined to let opulence, sensuality, colour into my work. If it's Baroque, so be it :grins: if you start telling me I'm becoming Rococco, I'll start to worry!
will, always nice to see a new fellow blogger, thank you for dropping by, and minimalist, hmnn.... perhaps, as I post this watercolour drawing in process on the way to- whatever -:)
Wow! Will Powers characterizes your work as "minimalistic beauty!" Have I got a lot to learn...or what? I wonder what he would think of mine? I'm jealous!
ReplyDeleteOh, lhombre -:)
ReplyDeleteBrenda, this is wonderful. I love watching people work, though most people seem to hate to be watched (myself included!), so this feels like an honor to be included in the stage-by-stage glimpses of your work-in-progress as it unfolds into who knows what next.
ReplyDeleteI suppose, at this stage, it does have a somewhat minimalistic beauty. But I think el Hombre's work takes the cake in that department. Brenda, I suspect yours is too sensuous to last long under that title, sorry. I mean, just look at those plum-red-gold-orange-blues emerging in the background. So rich, yummy, palpable. (Not that el Hombre's work doesn't have rich and subtle color, indeed, but it's delivered in a cooler, streamlined manner.)
MB, I more than tend to agree with you! Lhombre's work, while not Minimalist, is somewhat aligned with that movement, as he has discussed himself. I love his work for its luminescences. Stark, simple, pure, outstanding. And I find it has a spiritual presence that is as moving as Lawren Harris' work, but in a different way, of course. As for me, I'm not in that league, still learning my way into my art, and I love your description, "those plum-red-gold-orange-blues emerging in the background." Wow. Thank you. xo
ReplyDeleteBrenda,
ReplyDeleteI like how this drawing is growing... and I really find it amazing that each stage is, in itself, a work of art. I don't feel like they are incomplete, but each stage stands on it's own... and I just love, love the colors... they are so soft and warm...
Take care,
Rachel
It's so interesting to see a work in progress - how do you know when your work is entirely finished? Do you feel that analysing the process makes it easier or more difficult? It's a lovely painting too....
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