Friday, April 30, 2010

The Challenge


Fall of 2009 I was invited to participate in the upcoming Salvador Dali exhibition. The artists who were invited were charged with creating a piece inspired by Dali's work. Needless to say I was thoroughly excited by the challenge. Looking through the resource materials I was struck by this man’s fearlessness. He was so brave and honest.
I selected the Salvador Dali piece that would be my inspiration and started on a hand in hand journey through Salvador to me.
The piece title "My impression of Africa" propelled me into my impression of surrealism's interpretation of my own life as I saw it then. Very exciting, not necessarily my life was especially exciting for the story on canvas, but I don't know how to describe the thrill of creating. It could be compared to the feelings you get when a person falls in love, and fall in love I did, with Salvador, surrealism, creativity, creating.
December 11Th the show opened and with much success. it was a wonderful experience.
As I mentioned in an earlier entry, at the urging of my daughter I started this blog. I had no idea what that was. I had heard references to blogs here and there, and being the leap before I look sort of girl I jumped right into it and then after a weak start, then a burst and then a cathartic memorial of my deceased husband, i found myself found myself clueless. but what the hell, there is very little left to my left brain so the logical steps someone else may take in preparing and starting a blog just do not exist in my world.
Yesterday I signed up for netflix. Everyone i know has it and so I am trying it out. While considering my movie options, I spotted “Julie, Julia”, which I have already seen, but anyone who knows me knows that if I like a movie i will watch it multiple times. i enjoyed it the second time as much as the first time. I was once again inspired by the author Julie. Her challenge was to cook all the recipes in Julia Childes French cooking cookbook in one year.
Which, leads me to my challenge, like a light bulb at moment of surge. I will create artwork inspired by the masters and write about it. Looking at the many great painters that have gone before me, I am not sure how to accomplish this challenge in one year, so my criteria may not align with what Julie did, but I thank her for the initial inspiration.
How will I decide what artists?...
I will start with Frida Kahlo. Wow, that will be cool. Ii wonder what Frida has to say to me. I will let you know.