‎”Sometimes it felt to Isabelle, at the end of the two hours it takes to wash, tone, and dry a print, that she is the thing being made. The black fish of her hands have swum through fixative, through water, through gold chloride. They have breathed underwater. They have twisted their way up to the light, and here she… is, standing now on the shore where they have pushed her, looking at the world anew. The wet heat of them flopping in her breast, turning inside her like a wish.”
~ From Helen Humphreys’ Afterimage

Thanks, Sweets!

I’ve started to pay attention to the times when I think I’m slacking off (lying on an air mattress in the middle of a lake hardly constitutes ‘work’ in its dictionary definition). I thought of five new paintings while floating on that lake. My friend was wearing a turquoise bikini, and it was impossible not to note the three turquoise dragonflies that landed on her all at once. Sometimes the smallest moments can impact our work. In discounting those moments, we do ourselves and our work a disservice. So, off you go! There will be plenty of studio time when the rain comes.

She’s 36″ x 36″, oil and acrylic on canvas. SOLD

I showed some new works at the Paint In, all of which have yet to make it to my actual website. I’ll post these on here soon.

The role of good nutrition in the management of HIV/AIDS has become increasingly important over the past two decades. Access to nutritious food is one of the most powerful weapons available to fight the devastating effects of AIDS.

I decided to participate in this cause after a friend asked me to donate a piece last year. When I travelled in Africa, back in 1997, I saw people who were clearly affected by ukimwi, “the skinny disease”. It was frightening and sad to see people with no resources suffering in this way. This is my way of giving back closer to home.

Last year, I’m proud to say that the sale of my painting raised $2000 for this worthy cause. This year, they asked me to be their feature artist. Let’s hope this new painting, called Flight, Oil on canvas, 36″ x 48″ will bring in the same generous amount. I’m quite pleased with the way this piece turned out.

It’s such a joy to paint birds. The crows and swallows that I paint are so social. I recently found my first Bird moment in an old sketchbook from when I was 19. I clipped out an image of seagulls, and wrote a quote beside it: “We are all angels of but one wing, only by embracing each other can we fly” ~ Luciano de Crescenzo

This last one has my name written in Arabic, by one of the gents at the place we were staying. What is it about seeing our names on things? At least it’s not on a grain of rice!

To bring me right back into my other life, my artist friend Jennifer Olson asked me to show with her at the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria. Passages opens this Thursday, May 20 from 6 to 8pm. It runs until May 26. The hours are all on the CACGV website. I’ll be showing work from my November show, Passage, which was hung at the Macpherson Library Gallery at UVic.

Please come and see new paintings, works in progress, and me!

A candy study I did back in 2000

I know what she means. Every single time I arrive in my studio, plunk down my bag, and stand in front of a series of partially made or blank (eek!) canvases, I freeze. I don’t want to be there. I want to organise drawers, prime door casings, sort tools, file clippings, anything but face those canvases. If I’m perfectly honest, I’d say I’m inspired 10% of the time I plunk down that bag. It’s not that I’m ungrateful for my career, or a sour little brat. That’s not what I’m getting at.

The thing is, once I start doing anything to those white squares, they take on a life of their own. In Alison’s words, inspiration becomes irrelevant.

The hand is moving, the critic shuts up, the hand takes over.

The versatility of acrylics and oils are such that one can just muck about and allow something good to happen (or not), and to be perfectly honest, something good happens 90% of the time. You really do just have to show up for it, and not wait for that elusive Inspiration. I find I feel more “inspired” after a good productive day in the studio than I ever do before it. Especially if I’m not particularly inspired when I arrived! It’s like being dragged to see a film you have no interest in, and loving it.

The word inspiration should really be subsituted for commitment.

Do I feel inspired today?
{Music swells}

No.
{Music dies down, like a broken record, a la Monty Python.}

But do I feel committed today?
Yep. I’m here, aren’t I? 

Okay then.
{cue sounds of CBC Radio 2, a kettle boiling, and the swiff swiff of something, anything, being applied to canvas.)

Off I go, y’all.