THE SPLENDOR

I had someone ask me to do a piece for her sister and her home - which includes her husband.  Or...for her sister and brother in law.  It may be just for her sister, but it will be for their home, which means the hubs will be in visual obligation of this Splendor.  She told me a little about who they were and gave me free reign.  Daunting to say the least.  Enthralling to a degree.  And Ultimately a blessing.  I wanted a duality to this, and to connect the two sources that filled the floors, walls and air of their occupied space.  A splendor in their home to bring light and remembrance of the finer things in life.

So.  The Splendor.  This is actually the second name I came to on this one.  Originally, it was Electric Youth.  That name stuck somewhere early in this, and didn't go away; until today.  Once I said the name out loud, explained it and had an external dialog, my youthful subconscious would not stop tapping.  Debbie Gibson, oh how I love you, but I also can't help but giggle and sense the smell of your perfume from Dillard's.  Nothing wrong in that, it was all good, I'd have the 80's happen no other way; however, this was about something else.  And today in Austin's awesome Fall, to some still summer, weather - Splendor took over my Electric Youth.  Like a splendor in the grass.  And good..now that we have moved on from Debbie Gibson to Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty, I can continue.  sheesh.

Splendor.  Think about it.  A great impressive beauty.  Something with great brightness or luster.  What is the splendor in your life?  What are the things that make you feel the beauty and luster?  That splendor may fade.   But no matter what, that remembrance is always there. Splendor.  As I looked at this intersect of color variation here, I saw it as the splendor in the grass.  That thing that is always there, the same as the others yet different.  Just as intergral as the other stories and parts, but the thing that makes it what it is.  A LITTLE DIFFERENT than the others.

And that my friends, is worth notice.  Eternal notice.  We can't forget those things that make something just a little different that makes it exactly what it is.  We all have a splendor in our soul, mind, heart, laughter, and words.  Don't forget to use our splendors, and to see the splendor in others.  Forever and always.  For we are here to leave a mark with the things we are given.  Let's make it splendiferous!  

EMBERS

Visual embers as a product of theoretical embers - embers of change.  I assume that you are assuming I was in love, it ended, it hurt, and I grew.  Well, I'm sure it was a part of it.  I love to fall in love - with anything; people, places, music, food, books, weather, conversations...you get my drift.  Sometimes I get to keep loving those things, and sometimes I don't.  Circumstantially ending due to a varying list of things that just happen.  Just as that love happened.  Two things come together grow by what the other gave them, and the story goes on in so many ways.  In this page's story, the union stopped, and the embers of those moments float their little energies into the sky.  Love has no end, just a resting place.  (Go listen to White Buffalo, The Getaway if you like that last sentence).  I look at the blue lines in this and wonder what they were/are to me.  I think Highway.  I think a vein where our life flows through us.  I think the cool bits that sooth the tender fiery bits from a bit of love burn.  The rest of all that open space is the quietness.  Think what you may in the quiet.  Think nothing.  Remember.  Wish you could forget (or remember).  Cry if you must.  Laugh.  Feel your pulse raise then calm.  And with all the hope in my heart, I wish for us to appreciate our tenderness and those moments.  When my Dad saw the beginning of this (with just the 'heart' coming apart) his face changed and he gave me a hug.  I laughed and said, "Dad, I'm fine.  It's not what you think."  Or was it...?  

11" x 14"

SQUEEZE ME

It's just one of those moments that feels so good that you feel this bright, bursting with energy and adding a little spice to everything you pass. Squeezing a bit of that energy into everything you touch. Squeeze me so I know it's real. 

7" x 11"

BREATHFULL ENCOUNTER

Having started this a while back, I can question the motivation behind its beginnings, however, revel in picking it up in the space that is currently occupied.  When I look at the core of this drawing, I see something I have seen in countless images of waves crashing and whirling in their intended current paths.  Internally, I feel a moment in myself where I have taken a deep breath, leaned back, and prepared myself that may which come.  A close encounter with countless things intended is so common in life.  Obviously.  

Imagine what you do when water is coming your way.  You take a deep breath, close your mouth, and prepare for...the water, the wave, the dive, the jump, the splash.  You prepare for whatever is coming at you.  I like the idea of leaving the core here open.  Which later to me represented air.  Air with in a moment of preparation, which in finding that air taken, creates a gentleness with in the journey.  Obviously it is easier to feel comfortable under water with your lungs full of air.  It is easier to lift a heavy load off the ground with lungs full of air.  It is easier to sing the high notes and long verses with lungs full of air.  You get the theme here.  

Often, when looking to take on an encounter, simple or not, taking that breath and being AWARE of that breath, simply helps those things happen with beauty, ease, and fluidity.  Take a breath and keep moving.  Take realization of the power of your own strengths in dealing with the rips and waves you encounter.  Take on the beauty of your strength with a simple breath full of YOU.  The freedom you will feel.  The beauty you will find.  Breathe on, think on, be on.  

11" x 17"  

Time Lapse fun

This past WEST Austin Studio Tour, the crew I was showing my work with thought it would be fun if I took a stab at drawing on the wall during the tour.  So I went along with it.  Rookie.  Had fun.  Watch and enjoy.  :) 

A CERTAIN SPACE

For the life of me, I can't think of where this came from. Hence the name. So it must have been for therapeutic purposes that I put the time in. Lines of straight and lines of curve, dense and less dense, with some bright lines setting it in motion.

11" X 14"  

Art. Spring. Busy.

It feels as though the holidays just ended - but wait, it is the middle of April.  I'm in Texas, still wearing a jacket on some mornings.  I've enjoyed the long winter, the actual Spring, and just about everything else going on.  The busy season is on, with a show a month in the next three months.  I've got lots to create and looking forward to each line.   Music and poetry are the inspiring these days.  I can't seem to get enough ee cummings in, for I love the lack of conformity structure in his phrases.  Seems to be helpful in my ink-full linear whims.

Last week I had a great time showing my work with 5 other local artists, with great talent.  I met some wonderful people and sold one of my older pieces, MODERN SUN.  Selling something is always sort of strange, to some degree.  It's letting go of whatever it was that inspired the piece, and sending it off to another home in hopes that it will be cared for as you cared for it.  Funny; perhaps.  It was great meeting all of the people that attended and the conversations had.  Liana Mauro hosted the event, a painter herself with great work and a similar process we share, enjoying writing out where each piece came from.  Image of Liana's work below.  

I'm off this coming weekend for a show in my hometown, back in Austin for WEST Studio tour second and third weekends in May, then a show in Midland - date to be determined.

Here's to burning the midnight oil (more like ten o'clock oil if I know myself).  And a little song because I'm jonesing for a two step night. Robert Ellis - Photographs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klHlro2t3Wg

ACQUIESCE

We either hold onto another, or we hold onto ourselves.  This is that moment of acquiescence, of letting go of what can be difficult to let go of.  It can be a simple daily task, or a challenge faced for years on end. In the moment of letting go, one floats from the other and this rush of newness comes in.  Still surrounded by the segmented days and times of our normalcy, in which are able to bend with the moment of giving in.

Learning to let go
Learning to see these things with a new eye
Learning to breath in a new experience with comfort

Acquiescing to your heart or souls request.
I'm still learning.

11" X 14"