Today is my 39th Birthday. Not a mile stone birthday but one to give celebration to none-the-less. I started my day off a bit differently today. Instead of waking and sipping my coffee and going straight to the computer I went for a walk with my Dogs. The morning air is chilled, the birds are singing joys for new day and my Dogs are floppy eared bounce running down the path. This may become my new routine. It was great. After my walk I did go to the computer to check my e-mail to find my letter from Robert Genn which I subscribe to. His words always seem to provide food for my creative soul, today especially. Perhaps it was the walk, maybe the birthday. In this letter was an extra gift, videos of him plein-air painting. Plein air simply means in open air or outside. I did enjoy the videos and think you may too. I am such a visual person, as most artists are, watching a process is so much more rewarding and informative than reading about it. I hope you enjoy my Birthday Gifts as I pass them along to you.
Kiln update: The electrician is installing the 220 outlet for my kiln as I type this. My partner found a book for me at Barnes and Noble . The Complete Potter by Steve Mattison. The complete reference to tools, materials, and techniques for all potters and ceramicists.
In the studio, I abstract this responce even further into power shapes, colors, and symbols. In both cases, I leave out the details and allow you the viewer to fill those in with your own experience and imagination. If I have done my job as an artist utilizing color, light, form and composition, and you sense the spirit of things unseen, than I have succeeded. A Native American friend once said to me, “that to Native Peoples, everything has a spirit, the air we breathe, trees, animals-even rocks”, when she commented on seeing the shape of a bear in the rocks I had painted. If you can see the bear in the rocks, or in some way your spirit is moved to soar, then we are speaking the same language”.
