I am a woman of many projects, ask anyone who knows me. Idle does not agree with me.
Last summer I decided to take out the old fashion T-post laundry line that stood in the center of my yard. Every time I would walk across the yard, I would have to bend down to avoid the line. It amuses me to think of the expression "clothes lined", and I have been. I decided to remove one pole and repurpose the other pole, paint it and put bird houses along the top. Immediately I saw an opportunity. So I called my daughter Tiffany and asked if the boys, (my three grandsons who live in Loveland) could come spend the afternoon and help. Of course she said yes, like every mother of small children, she welcomed the break. They pulled into the driveway, the van door opened like a can of sardines with a Bowes speaker system inside. Loud voices of excitement and Eveready bunny energy emerged, primed for the adventure.
I think that is the charismatic draw that children have. They are fully and totally in the moment.
We went straight to the back yard. They were excited to see this project; Grammy had invited them over for.
I showed them the paint, and brushes, gave them a brief tutorial in art supply care and then told them they could use whatever color they wanted and paint whatever design they wanted. No Rules.
Caleb was at the time 6 yrs old and has been diagnosed high functioning autistic, Zayne 5yrs old and boy as boy can be, Davey, 4yrs old and has another set of challenges but sweet and always smiling. They were very serious and I could tell they were listening intently while I gave them their charge. Then they picked up their brushes and chose their paint and began painting.
What I saw was nothing short of "the essence of life" pure unencumbered joy.
Caleb began to hum and dance. The energy was contagious, Davey followed in the celebration, though Zayne was intense and meticulous, soon his joy erupted in a chorus of lalalalas.
That was an afternoon I will never forget. I could fully relate to their joy.
The pole is bursting with color and as with all original art carries a spirit, a life of its own. I love remembering that day. It was transformative.
I cannot remember when I started drawing. I have to rely on the family folklore. I know, Art, drawing, painting, creating was the first thing that I was sure I loved. Like my grandchildren, dancing and humming around the clothesline pole with brush and paint in hand, I feel that joy still, when painting.
There is a joy present in the works of Frida Kahlo among the honest illustration of her ongoing physical limitations and chronic pain. You will find it in the paint. You will find it in the masterful images, color, and content. Frida was in the moment, Frida was that moment. It has been said " It is in the journey we find happiness" When I look at the works of Frida I see someone who did not give up what she loved, but found love in what she did. She made herself absolutely vulnerable, as a child.
Frida's paint dances on the canvas for all to enjoy.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Color your way through
In researching Frida, of course I had to watch the movie "Frida" staring Selma Hayck. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. It is a work of art in itself. Artfully and thoughtfully done. I also read "The Brush of Anguish" by Martha Zamore, my daughter picked up for me at the Frida Kahlo exibition at Philidelphia Museum of Art.
I just can't get tired of looking at her work. There is meaning in everything she did, down to the last detail. I have no wish to interpret her work, people with much more knowledge than I, have already done that.
I started drawing when I could pick up a pencil or a crayon, so I am told. I remember sitting for hours and just drawing. My childhood had alot of tramma and I remember drawing my way through it. I could go somewhere else.
Last summer I had the priviledge of being chosen to participate in the Loveland Transformation Project. About thirteen artist were chosen to paint electical tranformer boxes and my transformer is next to the Loveland Museum. WOW, sometimes, I have to pinch myself, what a source of joy that was, and it came at a time in my life that was especially difficult. Karl had just died in February and I was in deep grief. I thought I would never come to the other side and then I received this honor. For the first time in a long time I felt true joy. Painting that transformer brought me back to life, when I thought there was none to be had.
What I am learning right now from reading about Frida and looking at her art, may turn out to be a valuable lesson in art and in life. I imagine that she colored her way through much pain and anguish,I don't see self pity in anything she did, but that does not mean denying the nature of your true circumestances, create beauty from whatever you are given.
I just can't get tired of looking at her work. There is meaning in everything she did, down to the last detail. I have no wish to interpret her work, people with much more knowledge than I, have already done that.
I started drawing when I could pick up a pencil or a crayon, so I am told. I remember sitting for hours and just drawing. My childhood had alot of tramma and I remember drawing my way through it. I could go somewhere else.
Last summer I had the priviledge of being chosen to participate in the Loveland Transformation Project. About thirteen artist were chosen to paint electical tranformer boxes and my transformer is next to the Loveland Museum. WOW, sometimes, I have to pinch myself, what a source of joy that was, and it came at a time in my life that was especially difficult. Karl had just died in February and I was in deep grief. I thought I would never come to the other side and then I received this honor. For the first time in a long time I felt true joy. Painting that transformer brought me back to life, when I thought there was none to be had.
What I am learning right now from reading about Frida and looking at her art, may turn out to be a valuable lesson in art and in life. I imagine that she colored her way through much pain and anguish,I don't see self pity in anything she did, but that does not mean denying the nature of your true circumestances, create beauty from whatever you are given.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
hand in hand with Frida
In choosing a painting from Frida's work as my jumping off point, I thought about her life and you cannot think about Frida Kahlo's life without considering her intense chronic pain as a result of the trolly accident she was in as a youth and the many surgeries that left her at times worse than before the surgery and how in the midst of this pain she was able to create such beautiful art.
One cannot compare pain, it is impossible. I think when one compares one's pain with someone else’s it devalues either yours or theirs, yet we all have it. It is one of the things that make us human. Some are unable to get past it, some get through it, and some, the pain is the color on the canvas and it is beautifully brilliant.
My grandmother Dodge had polio as a child. She spent a number of years in bed. Her legs became a challenge not her excuse. My father told a story of his youth when she took him shopping for school clothes. They were downtown Canon City, Colorado. They were walking past a store front and she looked at her reflection in the window and said, "Who's that cripple". She never saw herself as handicapped. She was vibrant, energetic, creative and hard working. She raised four boys alone and had a successful career. She endured alot of pain and it made her magnificent.
The work of Frida Kahlo is not only poetically painful but also strikingly beautiful.
This leads me to my own pain and what I do with it. It is there. I don't know about anyone else, but I am on a journey through it, with it and in it and color is my companion.
What about you?
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.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The Color of Cooking
Recently I saw the movie called Julie & Julia. Meryl Streep was fantastic in her portrayal of Julia Childes. After watching the movie I went out and bought a new cookbook. No not Julia Childes cookbook on french cooking but another one that caught my interest. I meticulously followed the recipes and created the most delicious dinner. If walls could talk, or even the cats, they would tell you that mmmms were endless and ongoing. I haven't cooked like that in years.
About 3 weeks ago, I went to a public meeting called ArtSpaces. Our community was gathering to support the arts in forming an alliance with the non profit organization that supports the arts in affordable housing and work places. It turns out that it is a common practice for artists to move into an area and through their creativity, actually revive otherwise undesirable areas of cities. Investors then come in and buy up the property (recently revived by the artists and their art) and raise the rent so high they are forced to move out and move on and not always up. ArtSpaces comes in and creates, builds, renovates, and or converts spaces for artists to live and work afford ably.
When I started this blog, it was at the urging of my daughter Sheena, an artist in her own right. She told me I needed to do this and like a good mother, I do what my daughters tell me is good for me, sort of like eating my vegetables. I have spent little time reading blogs, my hands are usually in paint or dirt or something. She has a blog, and it is quite good and with her creative talents has made it wonderful and interesting. So I started typing my questions.
So, the day before yesterday, I went over to my studio, downtown Loveland and for those who are still not aware, Loveland is the art capital of Colorado and hosts the 2nd largest sculpture fair in the world every August, slipped under my door was a notice that my space rent had gone up 30%. WOW!!!!!!!!, that was a shock and immediately followed a river of tears, fears and frustration. The expression starving artist, I am well acquainted with. so after the tear momentarily subsided I started thinking about my options which, at the time, seemed few. That night I cried myself to sleep only to awaken the next day with a firm resolution that everything would work out, I will just move my business and my studio home. But there were so many obstacles. Anger ebbed and flowed over me and anyone within a 10 block radius. Under it all was the fear of not being able to keep painting, something my mother says I have been doing since 18 months old.
The economy, now that is a can of worms, I imagine cans of worms, top opened, laying on there sides, with worms crawling slowly out on every street corner and everyone standing around pointing their fingers at everyone else.
Last night I cried myself to sleep again, my vivid imagination full steam ahead, I couldn't stop imagining my 2 cats forced to go to the humane society due to my living space, turning into my business space in full consideration of other peoples allergies to cats.
I was raised on the poor side of poverty, and am well versed in frugal, so economic challenges are my forte. This morning I woke with a mission, either find a new space or create an action plan to turn my home into my business-studio-living space. I resolved that what ever will be will be. And with prayers dripping out of my mouth like alphabet soup, I went out looking for a new beginning. If unsuccessful, I would start the reinvention plan. After a number of disappointing space tours, my hopes were starting to wain. When a friend called for help with uploading her digital art images in to jpeg from her iphone, I went over and helped and we made great progress.
One of the things that impressed me in the story of Julie & Julia, was this young woman was cooking her way through Julia Childes french cooking book and had a blog about it with the hope that it would inspire others to cook, which is exactly how it effected me. And throughout her story she was confronted with many challenges, it was not a cake walk.
Right now I am in the middle of a challenge, that seems at times, insurmountable. but as the old saying goes, "Change is the only thing that we can count on and when we except that fact, it can be quite comforting".
So... my new hope is that if you do choose to follow this blog, you will be inspired to create, to be devoted to the creative and to walk in the image of the creator, through the challenges and the seemingly bad into the perfect timing that we sometime find ourselves actually noticing.
Happy Trails,
Robin Dodge
About 3 weeks ago, I went to a public meeting called ArtSpaces. Our community was gathering to support the arts in forming an alliance with the non profit organization that supports the arts in affordable housing and work places. It turns out that it is a common practice for artists to move into an area and through their creativity, actually revive otherwise undesirable areas of cities. Investors then come in and buy up the property (recently revived by the artists and their art) and raise the rent so high they are forced to move out and move on and not always up. ArtSpaces comes in and creates, builds, renovates, and or converts spaces for artists to live and work afford ably.
When I started this blog, it was at the urging of my daughter Sheena, an artist in her own right. She told me I needed to do this and like a good mother, I do what my daughters tell me is good for me, sort of like eating my vegetables. I have spent little time reading blogs, my hands are usually in paint or dirt or something. She has a blog, and it is quite good and with her creative talents has made it wonderful and interesting. So I started typing my questions.
So, the day before yesterday, I went over to my studio, downtown Loveland and for those who are still not aware, Loveland is the art capital of Colorado and hosts the 2nd largest sculpture fair in the world every August, slipped under my door was a notice that my space rent had gone up 30%. WOW!!!!!!!!, that was a shock and immediately followed a river of tears, fears and frustration. The expression starving artist, I am well acquainted with. so after the tear momentarily subsided I started thinking about my options which, at the time, seemed few. That night I cried myself to sleep only to awaken the next day with a firm resolution that everything would work out, I will just move my business and my studio home. But there were so many obstacles. Anger ebbed and flowed over me and anyone within a 10 block radius. Under it all was the fear of not being able to keep painting, something my mother says I have been doing since 18 months old.
The economy, now that is a can of worms, I imagine cans of worms, top opened, laying on there sides, with worms crawling slowly out on every street corner and everyone standing around pointing their fingers at everyone else.
Last night I cried myself to sleep again, my vivid imagination full steam ahead, I couldn't stop imagining my 2 cats forced to go to the humane society due to my living space, turning into my business space in full consideration of other peoples allergies to cats.
I was raised on the poor side of poverty, and am well versed in frugal, so economic challenges are my forte. This morning I woke with a mission, either find a new space or create an action plan to turn my home into my business-studio-living space. I resolved that what ever will be will be. And with prayers dripping out of my mouth like alphabet soup, I went out looking for a new beginning. If unsuccessful, I would start the reinvention plan. After a number of disappointing space tours, my hopes were starting to wain. When a friend called for help with uploading her digital art images in to jpeg from her iphone, I went over and helped and we made great progress.
One of the things that impressed me in the story of Julie & Julia, was this young woman was cooking her way through Julia Childes french cooking book and had a blog about it with the hope that it would inspire others to cook, which is exactly how it effected me. And throughout her story she was confronted with many challenges, it was not a cake walk.
Right now I am in the middle of a challenge, that seems at times, insurmountable. but as the old saying goes, "Change is the only thing that we can count on and when we except that fact, it can be quite comforting".
So... my new hope is that if you do choose to follow this blog, you will be inspired to create, to be devoted to the creative and to walk in the image of the creator, through the challenges and the seemingly bad into the perfect timing that we sometime find ourselves actually noticing.
Happy Trails,
Robin Dodge
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
