Sounds of Inspiration

What is the soundtrack that inspires you?  Of course it can change from day to day but often i find myself turning on the music or podcast and listening to the birds outside, the leaves blowing...   when i had my "lost in the wilderness" solo show i played a swamp/bayou soundtrack of nature sounds.  I've never been one for ambient recordings but i do listen to it from time to time.  It conjures the scene of my installation pretty quickly.  Oddly there aren't a lot of links that i could find to the soundtrack online that would let you play the whole thing, but i found one--click here for Echoes of Nature 7 the Bayou.

then and now... the german printmaking thing persists

I started learning German in college after my first trip to Germany and because of my penpal in Hamburg...and my family heritage... and it just seemed to fit...  at the same time I was learning printmaking which too has ties to Germany...  I made the image on the left "Ich Habe So Oft Von Deutschland Geträumt" (translation: I so often dreamed of Germany) at that time and just have now finished my version of "Rotkäppchen" (Red Riding Hood) shown on the right.   Now German is such a normal part of my life I can't believe I didn't always speak it-not that I'm fluent but I can get by at a party if the opportunity presents itself and it helps that usually people are kind enough to overlook my limited vocabulary and dodgy grammar...   and printmaking likewise is integral to who I've become. 

For fun you can read Red Riding Hood in both English and German simultaneously with this side by side comparison of text and translation: http://germanstories.vcu.edu/grimm/rot_dual.html
Enjoy!

on time and ideas

 

when i travel i take this small sketchbook and doodle on the plane while listening to music. it lets me get away from the tiny space and close proximity to strangers around me and lets me avoid small talk.... but it also makes me a little self-conscious.  like a student hiding answers on their exam i sometimes try to cover my little sketches, sheltering them from eyes and judgement. they're just scribbles not intended to be seen but serve as a place holder for inspiration to come back to.  and then maybe months later i revisit them and i think i should have let them be out there it is nothing to hide.  time and distance let me see them like someone in the next seat might see them and i am curious about who made them but i am still afraid to strike up a conversation with her. i wouldn't know what to say.  meanwhile the person in the next seat is asleep anyway.

everything is temporary

don't get too hung up on the future or permanence
we make art for the moment, we live with it for as long as we can
sometimes it is ok to know it won't last
just enjoy it right now 'cause that is all we know for sure

now what?

so... after a week away from the studio i have to figure out where i left off and where to begin again...   it is like turning the water back on after leaving a house vacant for a long period of time... it stutters, pipes shake, there are spurts, and the first expelled stuff is kinda icky but then things clear out and you're good to go again.

get lucky

what is luck anyway?
a manifestation of our internal wish?
can we will that good thing to happen?
try it
get lucky

a mystical take on (folk) art

"...everything which reminds us of the times of amateurish handicraft will awaken primordial impulses in our reptilian brain.  This will virtually automatically liberate the magical power in this section of the brain or awaken it in the first place."  -- excerpt from "Practical Sigil Magic" by Frater U.D.

Upon reading this passage i thought about the appeal of my own art and of folk art in general and the energy conveyed by 'outsider' or 'untrained' artists and the response of viewers to such rustic, primitive images.  Is this the reason we are drawn to such work? Is there a link between the unconscious mind and the raw energy of creation? Certainly folk art conveys a directness that other more 'refined' works do not, in my humble opinion.  i wonder if people are even aware this is happening when they view artwork? do they even notice that surge of energy? they must, that is why we love art right? energy!

another excerpt from the same text:
"Place your trust in your feelings (i.e. your intuition) rather than in rules which other(s)... have set up according to their own subjective biases, disaffections and tempers".