Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Seaside Imaginings

Lately I’ve been longing to go to any ocean shores where I can relax and listen to the waves. Some nights I hear the surf calling to me in my dreams…so for the next two pieces, I used some of my favorite ocean colors, and since they will appear side by side once I make them into a book, I tried to coordinate the paints and images.

believe

In a recent Belle Armoire magazine, there is an article with religious tones of Madonna art that are intriguing and lovely. I’m trying here to incorporate those images with ideas of my heart having wings and of the courage to believe in myself as an artist.

I love this quote from Pablo Picasso: “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” You can see it in the lower right hand corner.

On these pages I tried a paint technique that I read about. I used acrylic paints in ocean colors—just slapping them on quickly. Then I covered the wet paint with crinkled plastic wrap until the paint was completely dry.

wish

On this facing page, I want to think about all the wonderful possibilities in our lives and that we each have the ability to make our wishes and dreams come true.

This summer I was so privileged to work with an amazing sculptor, Gary Price. I attended his lecture and a couple of workshops and got to tour his foundry. In his lecture, he recounted the story of a beach strewn with hundreds of starfish. A young child walks along the shore picking up a starfish and throwing it into the ocean. Then a man walks by and tells him how foolish a task it is. “Look at all these stranded starfish. You’ll never make a difference at all.” The child bends over, picks up a starfish and tosses it into the sea….”I made a difference to THAT one!” the child exclaims.

I love my starfish in this piece. It’s actually a broken wheel (maybe from a Matchbook car) that I found on my morning walk. When I dipped it into the paint and stamped it on a paper, I was delighted to see how much it looked like a starfish.

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