Submitted

I have officially finished my newest piece and submitted it. There is an extra sense of accomplishment to finishing a piece for a submission and display. I suppose in some ways a piece is never really completed until it has been seen by an audience.

"Sacred Work"

20" x 36"

Oil on reclaimed panel with found glass fragments

 

This piece “Sacred Work” came about in response to the challenge issued to "visualize women's experience of prayer, their work of prayer, their prayers", issued by the Episcopal Church and Visual Arts group. As I was contemplating how to visualize a woman at prayer, I decided that my mother would be my inspiration and model for this piece. I chose to portray her busy sewing as she has taken the ordinary, mundane task of production sewing as an opportunity to create a regular, distinct, extended prayer time in her life. Now, each day as she sits down at her sewing machine to begin working, her task is transformed into sacred work as she begins to pray. Many people and many situations get covered in prayer regularly during this time.

So far

And so it has begun, my new art centric phase of life. Have I been totally focussed on my art? Nope. But, to be fair, I have spent a considerable amount of time on it. Much more than I have been able to in the past months, and it feels good. Our living room is looking more like a studio than a living room, but well, what do you expect? So far, I have managed to start and make good progress on a new painting. The intention is to submit it to an online exhibition, which means it needs to be finished and photographed by the 27th. I think I should be able to make it (as long as I don't ruin it along the way!)
Oh and coming up, this Monday night, January 20th, is our first Art Night of 2014!

New Beginning

This last week as work came to a close, my January Opus newsletter arrived in the mail. Ironically, the front cover had a banner encouraging everyone to 'Make making a priority this year'. That's exactly what I'm doing, and I took rather drastic measures to ensure there would be space for making in my life.
New Phase: Step One in the creativity process is housecleaning. Always before sitting down to really focus on something (like writing a paper) I feel the need to houseclean. I think it is a way to make space mentally and physically to be able to focus on creating.

Happy New Year!

Sorry that New Year's greeting are a bit late, but the year is still fresh and I'm still trying to get used to typing 2014. A fresh year = a fresh start. This year one of my goals (a better term than resolution for its longevity and relevance throughout the year, I think) is to dedicate a good chunk of time to creating my art as well as showing it in various settings. As a step (kindof a leap off a cliff really) towards this goal, I have quit my good, full-time, secure job and will begin looking for other employment this month.With that comes the opportunity to find something that will allow me more time and energy to pursue my creative endeavors, and that is good.
On that note, here are some photos from a picnic on the beach last weekend that I took with our amazing new camera.