An Artist's Mind

I'm writing about this today in a new edition of Spark*Letter, my occasional email news-/love-letter on creativity: "Here's a snapshot of a tool I use in my studio—it helps me track my goals and priorities, in every area of my life. Each card represents a project (each project might have a folder of paperwork or its own To Do list, but the actual tasks are not listed here). I revisit the board weekly, remove, add, rearrange—the items closest to the top are the highest priority at the moment. So many visitors have expressed interest in this system, I thought I'd better share!

Portraits

My daily art project, 270 days in, has evolved yet again. I started making portraits of dogs, then a cat, and most recently, this human. I didn't expect, when I decided to try my hand at drawing a human face, that I'd land on this one. But this face has gripped my attention for the last two years, a face no more or less human than any other, though it's easy to lose track of that fact when emotions run high.

Jane Fonda got skewered in the media for her statements about having radical empathy for Donald Trump. No wonder. She's asking us to do a very difficult thing— extend compassion to a person who wields power in a dangerous, destructive way. She isn't asking us to condone or support his behaviors, she's asking us to see his humanity. "This is a man who was traumatized as a child by his father, who had a mother that didn’t protect him,” she said. “And the behavior is the language of the wounded.”

246 Days Later...

I'm on a roll, folks, making and posting art every day (on Facebook and Instagram, go see for yourself). Though I started on January first without any clear plan, at this point I intend to keep it up, at least until the end of the year.

It feels good to apply myself to this creative task—to explore color and texture and composition, and to use up my hoard of art supplies (while sticking to a resolution to—for now anyway—avoid buying anything new).

But to keep this up day after day and still find the process engaging, I need to be digging into something meaningful. There has to be personal inquiry. I need to be strengthening my voice, sharing my vision, honing in on something I want to say—about life, about nature, about beauty, about engagement in the world.

Partway into this project, I stumbled into making fashion collages while exploring my thoughts and feelings about female bodies, female beauty, and female strength. I still plan to do more in that vein.

In the meantime, I'm making drawings with Sharpie markers, landscapes that range from pure abstraction to almost-realism. I can feel a part of my mind struggling as I make these, in the same way a writer might struggle for the right word to signify meaning.

There's something I'm trying to articulate in these new drawings, something about the magic of the natural world, about the vibrancy and potential in every living thing, every living moment. Every life.

I want to be entirely present in every moment. And I want you with me.

That's all I've figured out so far.

The Paper Doll Fashion Show Continues

Oprah Winfrey is an eternal inspiration, so this cashmere knit dress is in her honor. (Plus: ankle-strap pumps, box purse, silver bangle, turquoise earrings and multi-strand seed-bead bracelet)

This paper doll fashion show, which has taken over my daily art project lately, was a completely unexpected development. I'm far from a fashionista. I'm uncomfortable in heels, don't wear makeup or strapless anything. I live in sweatpants. Hell, I had a mastectomy and I don't even wear a fake boob! Also, I have a major problem with "fast fashion" - the overproduction of cheap clothing, the waste and pollution and exploitation generated. But I get it—clothes can be fun, empowering, beautiful, inspiring. I guess this is my answer to all that. All the creativity, none of the practical implications.

Celebrating Women

My Daily Art collection has become a paper fashion show — here's today's addition.
Daily updates on my Facebook album and Instagram feed.

In childhood I got the message that the hair thickening on my brothers' legs was fine, while mine was disgusting, an embarrassment, something I needed to make sure no one saw. Shaving, putting on makeup, wearing "dressy" (aka uncomfortable) shoes and constrictive clothing, was not a pleasure for me, but a punishment, an insidious, subtle message that I was not okay as is.

But at the same time, I read the beauty magazines and longed to feel pretty, to feel worthy of all of the pretty things...

Whether it shows on us or not, we women feel pressure every day over our appearance, a sense that we need to be attractive in order to be worthy of attention. Some women go to great effort to meet this challenge, but for me, this effort feels humiliating. I hate for it to show that I am in any way "trying" to look good.

I remember coming downstairs one morning at about 14 years old in the slightly tight t-shirt I'd slept in. My father stared and smiled at me like I was something delicious to eat. I felt good and bad in that moment—aware of the power of my developing body to attract male attention, glad that my father was smiling at me, but also uneasy. Instead of getting the loving and respectful attention I so desperately wanted from him, I felt like as if I might be devoured.

I admire women who are unapologetically fierce while conforming to these difficult standards— the hair and makeup and shoes and manicures etc. I admire women who don't feel like they're conforming but do all these things in the name of personal expression, or in celebration of their inherent beauty—regardless of age or body size or curves or lack thereof. I also admire women who, like me, have hair in their armpits and dirt under their nails and holes in their jeans and not a single high heel in their closet. AND I admire women who struggle with the pressure, who try things and try other things and sometimes give up trying altogether, eat too much (or too little), have closets full of clothes they never touch or can't bear to shop. We're all up against brutal, irrational pressure. I celebrate all of us!

Daily Art Continues

I'm a month and a half into my daily art experiment. At the moment, my greatest joy is using up art supplies. I've been on a roll with Sharpie drawings—as the markers dry up and my sketchbooks empty out, I'm forced to alter my color palettes and make creative use of pages with marker bleed through and abandoned scribbles. See the whole series here.

Daily Art

I've completed something every day so far in 2018 — I'm determined to continue for as long as it's fun. Maybe longer (sometimes the most interesting stuff happens when you get bored or careless and start taking risks).

One of the most interesting aspects of this challenge is economy. I don't have a lot of space in my life to devote to this right now. When there isn't much time, my creativity, and creative confidence, are stretched.

It's always good to stretch!

I'm archiving these in a facebook album.

Blast Off

I'm on fire with this new "Snapsketch" series (as I'm now calling it)—making drawings with the Snapchat's unsophisticated, strictly limited tool for drawing and writing over photographs with one finger on a smartphone screen.

With just a few colors and a single font (writ huge or tiny and without many options as to placement) my creativity is truly challenged. (if I need black or white in the drawing, for instance, I must find them in the underlying photo.) Mostly I choose blank or close-to blank backgrounds, at least so far.

My favorite limitations with this tool is time - if I start a drawing, I have to finish it promptly or else Snapchat discards it. So I make a drawing in a single sitting, place a bit of not-too-premeditated text over it, and send it out into the world.

I'm archiving these, for now anyway, in an album on Facebook.

Running Scales

Anyone who ever took piano or voice lessons or did sports competitively knows about warming up. On the piano, you play scales, do re mi. In the pool, you swim a few slow laps to get the blood moving. You limber up, you shake yourself out and hone your focus.

Lately, art projects are on my mind. I may be gearing up for something big, but for now, I'm running scales, stretching. To do this, I'm exploring the perimeters of a strictly limited tool—using simple Snapchat tools and my fingertip on the screen of my phone to draw and write over photographs. Only, for the most part, I start with photographs of almost pure darkness, to create a blank, mostly black canvas.

With no eraser, no way to alter the thickness of a line, and very limited colors (no black or white, no options for tints and shades, just a short slider of bright rainbow colors) I'm making little compositions. Then I tag them with simple messages, and put them out into the world.

Find me on Snapchat (Amy K / amyKstudio) to see these as I post them, or check out the growing collection on Facebook.

Five Things

The creative juices are flowing, and I expect I'll be posting more here soon. In the meantime, here are five things I've made during my long absence from this blog:

1. Spark*Letter, my email love letter to the world. I write one when the ideas are ripe and I have time, which works out to be about four times per year. You can see the spring issue here (and subscribe so you won't miss the next one).

"The Web"

2. Leggings for Society6. I call my line "Happy Legs." I've got four designs so far, and plan to make more.

3. Podcasts— I'm recording one-on-one conversations on Hello Climate Change, as a tool to help me (and hopefully others) think about this overwhelming topic in a less overwhelming way. My goal is a hundred conversations. I'm about a third of the way in, learning and gaining insight every time. (Subscribe on iTunes or wherever you like to get your podcasts.)

4. Kaleidos— Using Quartz Composer, I made a tool that uses my computer's camera, sin waves, ASCII text, and a glitch triggered by sound in the environment to make these kaleidoscopic artworks.

   

5. Photo collections, four ongoing visual journals on Facebook: Walking Shots, Things on Top of Things (AKA Surfaces), Millie, and Sinks.

In Praise of Swimming

Masters
6 x 6" collage on wood

I grew up swimming. I was on swim teams from age 8 to 18. I had a pond in my backyard and spent much of my summer diving into its cool and murky depths. One of my first jobs was teaching swimming. Then I was a lifeguard for many years. When I spent too much time away from the water, I swam laps in my dreams. When I felt lost and depressed as a young adult, the pool is where I found myself.

I've been swimming three days a week, like clockwork, for a decade. I swam through breast cancer. During chemotherapy, it was the one thing that suppressed the nausea. I had to take a break for my mastectomy, but as soon as I was healed enough, I was back at it. It was the best thing for me, so they told me—the lymph nodes removed from under my arm put me at risk of lymphedema, or chronic swelling in my arm.

I was terrified of lymphedema. It got to the point where I was actually afraid to stop swimming. I ignored the pain in my shoulders. Of course the pain got worse and finally I had to fold. It's been almost two months now since I stopped swimming. My arm hasn't swollen. Even when I crashed my bicycle and scraped up my elbow last week, I've been okay.

Speaking of biking, without swimming I've had more time to ride. I've been sleeping more. My creative life is expanding. I no longer fear vacation (it's true, I feared not swimming).

But I do love swimming, and I do miss the meditation of it.

So here's a little piece of art in tribute to the sport. Thank you, swimming, for all the good you've brought into my life. All the amazing people. All the hours of lazy-brain daydreaming, losing count of the laps. All the moments I've floated in the middle of a lake on a summer morning thinking about how lucky I am.

Hopefully I'll be back with you soon.

The Joy of Framing

An art show in the making.

I helped hang my show at Silver Circle Gallery today. I'm tired but feeling good. Another artist wandered in as we were working out the arrangement, offering appreciative and thoughtful feedback. He kept referring to my work as "delicious." That's a new one for me, and a nice one.

But especially, I like seeing the work transformed. A piece in progress amidst the clutter of my studio comes alive when given a frame, and breathing room on a wall. Suddenly it has a voice, and, if it's good, something to say, and I am reminded that I'm making something that has meaning.

I'm also reminded that sharing my work with the world is the best way to get inspired to make more.

More images, and inside scoopery, on my other blog.

Show Coming Up

Silver Circle Gallery is at 75 Main Street Suite 3, Putnam, CT.

The Artist's Reception is Friday, September 7th, 6-8 pm. A bunch of new work in this show that I haven't shown anywhere yet. And then two days later I'm doing a half-ironman triathlon. I'm really enjoying the build-up to both. And I'm excited to answer the question on my mind: Then what? I will try not to jump ahead to an answer.

Spring Wind

Just got back from hanging the new show. Here's another sneak peak. I picked this one because it reminds me of today's weather. It's a perfect spring day, sun and clouds, warm but cool at the same time, a bright afternoon that promises winter is gone, summer is coming right up. Hallelujah.

Collage

These latests are 6" x 6" on wood-mounted panels. They'll be at the Willimantic Food Coop for the month of April, along with other works strictly made from salvaged materials.

Two New Releases

Two more note cards (blank-inside greeting cards). One is a reformatted familiar (part of a postcard collection here), one is brand new and based on a collage, a departure from my usual paintings. Available at my studio site for 2.95 each (or 12 for 16.95). Check out all the card designs, and order yours here.

Hope you like...

7 x 5" blank inside greeting card, comes with "brown bag" Kraft paper envelope.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I will meet you there. *Rumi

5 x 7" blank inside greeting card, comes with "brown bag" Kraft paper envelope.

In the end, only three things matter... how much we loved, how gently we lived, and how gracefully we let go of the things not meant for us. *Buddha

You Gotta Start Somewhere

I'm thinking that this card, the last release in my latest set, would be perfect to congratulate a loved one on any life transition, because it's all about embracing a challenge and life is full of those: Becoming a parent, going off to college, embarking on any new adventure, a new marriage (or new divorce), taking on a new job (or leaving an old one), or even simply resolving to replace an unhealthy habit with a new, healthy one. It's so nice to remember that wherever you are is exactly right. You gotta start somewhere.

5 x 7" blank inside greeting card, comes with "brown bag" Kraft paper envelope.

Express your appreciation!

1 card $2.95 USD12 card set $15.95 USD

Thinking of You

The third of my four latest greeting card designs. This one is about the embrace of love, empathy, sympathy, memory, and shared dreams. Or maybe it's just about me thinking of you...

5 x 7" blank inside greeting card, comes with "brown bag" Kraft paper envelope.

Thinking of you.

1 card $2.95 USD12 card set $15.95 USD

Einstein on Imagination

I love that Einstein said this: Imagination is more important than knowledge. Here's the second of my four new greeting cards. Buy one for $2.95 or a set of 12 for $15.95. Shipping in the U.S. is free.

5 x 7" blank inside greeting card, comes with "brown bag" Kraft paper envelope.

May all your dreams come true!

1 card $2.95 USD12 card set $15.95 USD

New Release: Birthday and Beyond

I've made four new greeting cards. Here's the first in the series, hope you like!

7 x 5" blank inside greeting card, comes with "brown bag" Kraft paper envelope.

May all your dreams come true!

1 card $2.95 USD12 card set $15.95 USD