Arts vs Entertainment

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It is a difficult time to be an artist. It always has been, but even more so since the 20th century. Arts in general, and visual arts, have always played an important role in the cultural society. Writers and reporters often wrote articles extolling or denigrating the artists of their times. Even fictional stories based on real artists were written. One can only imagine the newspaper articles written in the days of the Salon des Arts in Paris.

But as society changes, so does focus. We have shifted away from the arts, to entertainment. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does change society and how it views the arts in general.

Entertainment, particularly the imported variety, are often to be enjoyed in the privacy of your own world, such as watching TV or DVD, or listening to your downloaded or purchased music on your personal stereo system. We watch TV series that are often based on a formula, that no matter the backdrop, it still follows a formula, and ties everything up neatly in 1 hour. Or we watch TV that has no formula at all, revelling in the lifes of people we do not know, never will know, and will never realize that who we see on TV may not even be anything remotely close to what they are actually like in real life. We are our own DJs, mixing and selecting music that tickles our fancy, often downloaded from various sources.  Or we read popular novels that often does not require us to be inquisitive about what we are reading. Or we even skip reading altogether, and just wait for the movies to come out.

I’m not being negative about entertainment, but I’m concerned about the lack of accountability and expectations of entertainment. We are not actively engaged with entertainment. We sit and be seduced by candy-coated perfectionism that has nothing to do with that’s real to us. We become blind to what’s real around us.

Arts is so much more than entertainment. Arts makes us be more engaged with what we are seeing, hearing, thinking. Arts is broad. Theatre. Visual arts. Literature. Arts & Culture? Arts *is* culture. Arts *is* society.

It’s so amazing, what a move from a big city to a small town, has done to open up my eyes.  The people who lives in Wells, are very intelligent, and articulate. They do not hesitate to talk about what they heard on CBC radio, which leads into a spirited, bright, intelligent discussion. Theatre, in the summer, is well-attended, because people are willing to suspend reality and follow the plot and storyline, well, because in the world of theatre, if the actor is a mythical Shakespearian beast, you believe him to be this mythical Shakespearian beast, without the aid of any special effects or make-up.  Art galleries are well attended, artworks purchased, and discussed upon. If someone wants to do a reading, it’s done. Oh, and the pleasures of live intimate music. Songwriters interacting with the audience in such a way that you’d never get from just listening to iTunes. And all these are successfully blended with entertainment as well.

I’m not saying that the big city does not have this – they do, oh they so do, but they aren’t as well attended nor well supported on a large scale. If Vancouver could replicate the audience participation with the arts in Wells on a per capita base – perhaps all of the arts  organizations would not only be doing phenomenally well, but they’d also have clout in the city and beyond. When I return to Vancouver, I intend to seek out the theatres, the art galleries, the small concerts, even if I must go alone to all these.

What I’m saying is, we have all these cultural treasures in our own backyard, and we’re not even looking. And newspapers reflects society, I believe. Look at the Vancouver Sun – they have an Entertainment section, of which if you peruse it, it will cover TV shows and celebrity news primarily, but it will include theatre reviews, but mostly of the big players, not necessarily smaller theaters. There is almost nothing about visual arts. However they do cover literature quite well.  The other city newspaper, The Province, is identical in its coverage.

You have to look to alternative news sources to find all these little cultural treasures. Georgia Straight, The Tyee to name a few.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being entertained. All I’m asking is that you look in your own backyard and see what’s there, waiting for you to wander in. You’ll be pleasantly surprised and entertained in a different way!

Wells Mini Murals 2012

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I want to talk about an annual event in Wells, that is a legacy of the ArtsWells Festival of All Things Art, an annual music festival that takes place in Wells every BC long weekend.  It is called ArtsWells Mini Murals Auction.

The idea behind this is that visual artists participate in creating these 4′x4′ mini murals, of their own choosing. ArtsWells provide them with the substrate, and acrylic paintings, and upon completion of the ArtsWells weekend, they take the completed artworks into storage, where they varnish and frame them for outdoor display.

In March, Island Mountain Arts Gallery hold a showcase of these mini murals, to be auctioned off. It is a little bit different in the concept that one does not bid to own these mini murals, but rather, bid for the right to display one of the mini murals on their property in Wells for 2 years. The bidders do not own the artwork, but they certainly own the pleasure of displaying such work on their property.

Around Wells, there are framed murals that are affixed to the sides of houses or garages. They certainly add to a charm and attractiveness to an already attractive town. (I will have to go around town to take photos of some houses that has a mounted mini mural, and add them to this posting soon.)

I created one of these murals that are up for auction this year, which can be seen here, along with other participating artists.

I guess they don’t necessarily use titles of paintings, but I do have one for my artwork, which is “Forget-me-not, Mr. Bumblebee”.

"Forget-me-not, Mr. Bumblebee", 4'x4' acrylic on plywood. Permanent collection of Island Mountain Arts

I choose this subject because of two things: I wanted a nature snapshot of what I often see in Wells, and is often my favourite moments of summer in Wells, my way of slowing down and savouring the now: big fat juicy bumblebees flitting around forget-me-nots in bloom. It is just a small second of a summer life in Wells, but if you stop and become mesmerized by this simple activity, you can lose minutes of your life – and be better person for it!

I also wanted to bring to attention the dwindling population of honeybee colonies due to various factors, and that if we were to lose even a small thing like a honey bee, can affect the bigger picture, the food cycle.  Hence the “Forget me not, Mr Bumblebee” title – even though technically a bumblebee is not a honey bee… but I digress.

I cannot speak for the other artists as they all have their own inspirations for their murals, but I hope that you will explore the auction, visit Island Mountain Arts Gallery in person, and  make a bid for any one of the artworks, either online or at the gallery! They are a great addition to the local scenery.

Auction display and bidding is in progress, and will run until Monday, April 9th at 5pm.

Painting with a passion

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“Do you get emotional when you paint, Laurie?”, my friend Patrick asked me the other night over delicious pizza at Sharon’s house.

I said, not really, I’m much more calm when I paint, in a meditative way, but not get crazy emotional. I might cry if I feel that I’ve pushed myself beyond my limits and achieved new skills. I know I cried at the Paris workshop, when I looked at my drawings from the first class to the drawing at the last class. But that’s the extent of allowing myself to get emotional when I create.

I gave it some more thought as I thought Patrick asked a really valid question that should be explored more. At first, I thought, is there something wrong with me, not getting too emotional while painting? Does it mean I’m not passionate about painting?

I think I’m in a technical stage, where I try to hone my techniques to be a better painter, with not giving much thought about the passionate part of painting. But when I know I get better with each painting, I get more passionate about painting, so even if I’m not quite all there in making my work mine, as opposed to a study of techniques, I slowly bring in my own passions while I continue to hone my technical skills.

The creation of art is the passion. The completion of art only ignites another creation.
-Jeffrey Breslow, sculptor

I’m not perfect, far from it, techniques-wise. But I strive to achieve a quality in my paintings that I can stand by, and be proud of it. I know my voice, my style, my own passions, will find its way into my paintings. I can only keep on painting. It’s possible I don’t even know what exactly is my passion when it comes to painting, just yet.

I do know one thing: I get negatively emotional when I don’t paint. I get depressed, and I get paranoid about things. So, maybe painting is my passion in itself.

Passion is the breath we take, the water we drink to sustain ourselves. Without air and water we perish; without passion an artist will wither and blow away.
- Jack White

It’s a challenge when I can’t come to an acceptable answer (to me) to a great question … it makes me obsess over it – do I need to be extrovertly passionate about what I do? Do I need to show the world how passionate I get about something?

An update, news and more paintings.

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It’s been a while since I last wrote in my blog. So what have I been doing since the last post?

In a nutshell, I worked, and I painted more paintings.  I have finally came to a concept for a series, which I will begin to start writing exhibition proposals, and give myself a goal and deadlines. For this particular series, 2 completed artwork, 1 near completion, and 2 complementary artworks (not really part of the series, but same subject).

I also struggled. I came to the realization that I need to move away from Wells, for my own personal reasons, and while I do have sadness in moving away from my friends here, for I will miss their love, support and cooking, I do feel happiness in moving back to Vancouver. I have lived there for 25-something years, and while the city has its faults, the city has a lot  more resources for growing even more as an artist, such as life drawing sessions, art galleries, and networking with many other artists.

Currently there are about only 4 or 5 professional visual artists in Wells, and each of them are very individually strong personalities, and they will be losing one among themselves. While it might be a little hand-wringing, keep in mind that there are still a good number of musicians, writers and actors that calls Wells home, and through these individuals, Wells maintains a strong sense of creative wellbeing.

But I cannot help but notice that there is a lack of collaboration within visual artists. The writers gets together regularly to have readings; the actors collaborate on ideas for their summer performances; the musicians get together to jam and feed off each other with their ideas; but the visuals… it’s a very solitary activity. Often there are reasons for this, as we can’t be distracted, and sometimes it’s a very emotional creative process that collaboration is just not possible. Now, I don’t mean collaboration as in working to create work as a group, but in a general discussions, feedbacks, support kind of collaboration. When there’s really only about 3 or 4 visual artists, and these same people are very much a part of my social life, and vice versa, I guess it would be difficult to switch over to a scheduled group meeting, I suppose. However, the writers, the actors, the musicians, they’re in the same boat and yet they do it well and have came out with excellent products. Maybe there’s a magic number before it can be a possibility. On the other hand, Vancouver has more artists than you can shake a finger at, and not all of them eat, breath and drink from the same well as you do.

Back to Vancouver, another reason to leave, is more employment opportunities, year-round. It might have been a different story if I could have one more consistent client in the region, that could make up a difference. I have a retainer client from the Lower Mainland, and one more retainer client from my region here would probably be enough for me to stay. A retainer client who will have an x number of production work for me on a weekly or monthly basis, a client who has magazine and newspaper ads that needs to be done, or promotional collateral on a consistent basis. However, not to be as either there is no budget; they have someone already that does the work in-house or through a very good friend far away that they’d rather hire; or has been pretty much scooped up by other regional designers for a while now.  All it would take is one steady client for me to stay. But that is not to be, and I am not at all bitter about it. It’s just the way it is, and it makes much more sense to move to where existing and future clients has so much more appreciation for what I can do for them there. So I look forward to reconnecting with colleagues and clients in Vancouver, and possible new opportunities.

My latest work, which is now completed. And SOLD. It’s a great feeling.

"January 15, 1pm" - Oil on Canvas 24" x 36"

This painting is an experimentation using different brush works, including rollers, and with a very limited palette of ultramarine blue, white and black.  On January 15th, 2012, it was a particularly foggy overcast day, where everything was blue and seemed so moody, so I captured a shot of this particular time, and tried to recreate my impressions of the landscape at this moment in time.

Economy of art

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The story of Picasso’s napkin
Picasso was sitting in a Paris café when an admirer went up to him and asked if he would do a quick sketch for him on a paper napkin. Picasso politely agreed, did a quick sketch  and handed back the napkin — but not before asking for a rather large amount of money.  The admirer was horrified: “How can you ask so much? It only took you a minute to draw this!” “No”, Picasso replied, “It took me 40 years”

A friend does very interesting sculptural work, and I guess out of my naivety, I asked if she’d show me how she does something. She kindly refused, explaining that for her, art making is a private journey and she prefers to make her art in her own privacy, and asked why she should give away what took her years to learn how to do, for nothing?

Acorn Squash Study – a Work In Progress

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It is squash season, and there are a lot of interesting squash in all sizes and shapes.  I picked up an acorn squash that was in a cute shape. Good friends also gave me a turban squash to use as a still life. So it’s going to be a fun painting sessions with different shapes and colours.

I set up my still life stage, and since I usually paint at night, I decided not to do a shadow box, but rather, let it stand in the lights. I have a daylight lamp that works well in giving light without heavy glare. The background of my divider and the cloth it sits on is also light in colour as well. I choose this because I want the focus to be on the squash.

Squash - Work in Progress. The squash looked like a hedgehog.

I did preliminary sketches using a conte crayon, then used Burnt Sienna & OMS to draw in the big lines.

I painted the backdrop first, changing a few elements such as the background. I use a mixture of Cremnitz White and Payne’s Grey, and painted the background, simply. I added more white for the tablecloth.

Then I started the underpainting for the squash – a mixture of black, sap green and terre vert, with a smudge of burnt sienna. Thinned only with a little bit of OMS.

Now it’s to let it dry, while I move on to the turban squash.

Recycled Landscape

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So my self-portrait is put on the back burner for now, as it’s going horribly wrong. I’ve definitely learned what not to do next time. I think I just over-analyzed things and forgot a couple of very basic rules:

one: DRAW first, until it’s perfect. Don’t rush, don’t just do a drawing half done before moving onto a painting.

two: Keep it SIMPLE. Get the big forms first, the big planes. Then move onto smaller forms. Leave some things undone. Don’t overwork things.

At the end of my painting session, I’ve got a palette full of paints. If it’s fresh, I just put some Saran wrap over it, and leave it for the next session. But if it’s a day old, I either scrape them off and discard them, or I use it for a small painting 10-min painting session, on a scrap canvas.

Today I did that, using just palette knives and a palette of flesh colours of varying hues and tones. Whipped up an impasto landscape painting that will probably take forever to dry as I didn’t add any mediums to it.

A 10 Minute Riff on Slide, 8"x10" oil on canvas on board

Self-portrait and depression

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Depression is an illness that can happen to anyone, and for no reasons at all. There are many forms of depression, in which some experience for a short period, and able to shake it off, or at least head it off at the first sign. Some experience a very deep depression where everything is hopeless.

For me, I’ve been fortunate not to ever experience the very deep end, but I’ve had bouts of mild depression from time to time. Some of them are seasonal-based (like right now), and some of them just happens. But never serious enough to require medication (other than vitamins).

Years ago, my doctor sent me to a therapist who basically taught me to recognize signs, and how to try to head them off. One of the signs is self-abuse, in my case, mentally, where I would constantly put myself down, call myself useless, etc. Perhaps a very good example would be this particular blog:  Adventures in Depression.

The therapist advised me to apply some critical thinking to this mental voice. So if I were to tell myself that “everybody thinks I’m stupid”, start having a conversation with that voice, but in a rational way. “Oh. Really? Exactly who thinks you’re stupid?” You can then imagine that the mean voice trying to come back. “Well, Joe Blow thinks you’re stupid.” I just go on and say “Did Joe say that to you? Or are you just putting your own word in Joe’s mouth?”  Hard to argue against logic and rational thinking, and eventually, that voice goes away because I start to think, “oh, that’s so absurd. No one thinks that way about you because they’re too busy worrying about themselves!” And if it doesn’t work for me? Go to my doctor, stat.

There’s a saying, “Be gentle with yourself” – and it’s for a good reason. We’re so hard on ourselves, that we turn a deaf ear to other people who has nothing but kind words for you. We’re more likely to hear the critics in our life than the cheerleaders. Yes, we strive for critical appraisal as it’s often a benchmark for our achievements (“I’ll show them, I’ll prove them wrong!”), but at some point we need to stand back and take in the accolades and smell the bouquets being given to us.

So, keeping this in mind, it’s a very difficult thing to do, doing a self-portrait, my first self-portrait. I’m actually learning to be gentle with myself, and not to be horrible to myself. Yes, I’m fat, but look how the light shapes the chin here, the throat there. Look how the shade shapes the features. It’s weird, but I start to look at myself as a specimen, oh, here’s the brow bones, and where it begins and ends, etc. In a way I’m taking out the emotions and feelings of how I look, and really focus on the anatomy of my face. Somehow, I’ve seem to have silenced the inner critic, and bought out this inquisitive explorer who’s just learning so much about my own physical presence. How my brows are shaped, how my nose is connected to my lips, and so on. How light forms this cheek and how shadow forms the other cheek. It seem to be a strange concept for the inner critic that she doesn’t know what to say.

It’s strangely cathartic.

Originality

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Originality
From The Painter in Oil,
by Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst

Originality is not a thing to strive for. If it comes, it is not through striving. The search for originality seldom results in anything worth having. It is a quality inherent in the man; and the best way of being original in your work is to be natural. Perhaps the most useful advise which you could receive is that you be always natural. Never be artificial nor insecure; never copy another person’s subject, manner, or method, with the intention of doing as he does. The most original things are often the most simple, because they have come naturally from a sincere desire to express what has been seen or felt, in the most direct way.

Chapter 12 – Originality
The Painter in Oil
Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst