Showing posts with label being an artist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label being an artist. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Quote of The Week: Patterns of Faith



" . . . . In the end, the message was: knowledge doesn't exist unless there is a will to find patterns, a believe to do things a lot better."











"This also has some connection with a bible verse I love and guided my life since childhood,
'to have faith is to be sure of the things we have, to be certain of the things we cannot see.' "
Patrick Ng



A playground slide and the creative process -- both require patterns of faith and certainty to begin the journey.

Patrick Ng lives in HongKong.

@AAB

Monday, March 10, 2008

Getting to Carnegie Hall


In the old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall, the answer is "Practice."

I think it is more than that. There are
--excellent artists who study and create and network but never get beyond a local gallery,
--good musicians who practice and perform and build a small following but never get beyond the demo CD and
--inspired writers who fill notebooks and files with whole paragraphs of words and ideas and complete some very good work but never get beyond publishing a bit here and there.

What is the difference? As a creative artist, my goal is not Carnegie Hall, but I do have goals to be met. Yes, how to get there is the question.

In a previous blog entry, I briefly mentioned soprano Tonya Currier's delightful performance during a Thanksgiving concert. Her repertoire is as wide spread as "This Little Light of Mine" (sung locally) and Marschallin in Rosenkavalier (performed with Toronto's Lyric Opera.) Next month, she will return to Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble to sing the soprano solos in Faure's Requiem and Rutter's Mass of the Children. So how'd she get there?

There are lessons to be learned from Tonya Currier. She has an extraordinary presence, an extraordinary style, an extraordinary delivery. Over time, she has studied and practiced AND she has worked to develop the "extra" which capitalizes on her own unique qualities.

That's how she is getting to Carnegie Hall.

@AAB

Monday, December 31, 2007

For This I Am Grateful

The days of Two Thousand and Seven have been unlike most of my days over the last forty years. I have done no painting, and only a little writing. I have attended few meetings and tackled no projects. I have simply been a grandmother to two charmers. (Hey, they are mine, I can say that!)

The children have only a few months left to live in our house. We hope they will live nearby, but Susan and I, along with Fred, Vinnie, Boomie and Green (our cats) will miss them when that time comes.

I know this is supposed to be a blog about my life as an artist -- what affects my process, what I have accomplished, what influences my thoughts. The truth is my life as an artist has had no production and no accomplishments. It has, however, had a great many new influences this year. I have learned a lot through Lucy's eyes and will through Belle's as well before they move. I hope when I return my dismantled studio to the rooms now occupied by my daughter and her little ones, I will approach my work with renewed enthusiasm, vigor and understanding.

Someone recently suggested celebrating Christmas with young children. Well, I have had the joy of Christmas every day. On this last day of 2007, for this I am grateful.
-----------------

If you are a regular reader of this blog, please accept my apologies for the scarcity of posts over the last few weeks. Once again I have attempted to complete partially finished entries and to edit photos so that my personal record will be a little more complete. So, if you get a blog-update email or two or three in the next day or so, it may just be an past-due Post. Read it or not.
I appreciate the comments and personal emails which this year has brought, I thank you and wish for you a Happy New Year.

AAB

Monday, October 29, 2007

Photo of the Day: The Curiosity of Shoes


There they were. Lined up between two garbage cans as neatly as in a closet. Just waiting on the curb.

They were comfortably worn, but not worn out. Yet there they were. I speculated on the reason for the change in a whole wardrobe of shoes. New job. Bad knees. Sex change . . . .

Except for the sneakers, they were all gone the next morning.

Curiosity. Brain food for artists.

AAB

Saturday, August 18, 2007

The MAGIC number is TWO!

Things didn't change much in the household when the new baby arrived. She ate and slept and cried. Big sister wanted to be a baby again, making baby sounds and forgetting potty training. We mostly just carried on as usual.

But, we have learned that the magic number is 2.

On the 11th, Belle turned 2 months and Lucy became a 2 year old. Belle began to smile and coo at more than just her Mamma and there is now a little person there. Lucy learned that "Happy Birthday," a cake and candles were for her; (and not just for the ChickFil-A Cow!)* and suddenly a preschooler lives here!


I can already tell that there will be less time for blog entries, housework and art. Having Lucy in the household since January brought lots of fun changes; the two-year-old temper tantrums are the least pleasant.




Now there will be two for stories and songs, two for walks to see amazing things, two with fingers in my paint and crayons on my sketchbooks, two with tears to be kissed away and two for bedtime hugs.

Oh, yes. TWO is the MAGIC number!





*A little note: We stumbled upon the annual birthday party at our local Chick Fil-A. It was Lucy's first "birthday party," so when she went to a friend's party the next week, she sang "Happy Birthday, Cow!" For her own birthday, she got a special cow from her great-grandmother LaLa which had been her gift several years ago from Truett Cathy, the Chick Fil-A founder.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Knowing Who Shares the Path

Mamma said family had just gathered for two other occasions and would be together again for the cousins' graduations and that we didn't need a big Mother's Day dinner this year. So she came to our house where, although there were just five of us, there were four generations around our table for Sunday dinner.

In our family, we are aware of generations. And even when we don't see them often, we care about the cousins who fill the countryside. Occasionally, we gather on hot porches in summer and warm rooms in winter to welcome newlyweds and new babies who have the family nose or hair color or long legs. We visit cemeteries and pause to read headstones from the past and to remember the long deceased and their influences on the family. We return to church "homecomings" for dinner on the grounds and catch up on latest family news. We have no doubt that those who share this path are both who we are and who we will become.

As artists, we forget to look at our own "history." We don't understand how we got where we are or even how each piece connects to create a " body of work." In answering questions about influences, we blithely name one or two well-known names, but we don't really know what the influence is. In thinking about experiences, we realize that we have not let them into our work. In wondering about other artists, we forget about bits of their techniques which creep into our own. In searching for our own identities, we need to be reminded of the generations around us.

Finding a personal path as an artist is sometimes as simple and as obscure as this -- knowing who shares the path -- the influences, the experiences and the shared bits of artistic DNA. Then we will have no doubt about both who we are and who we can become.

-0-0-0-0-0-
A note about today's photos: (LaLa top left; Lucy, lower right) In April at "Homecoming," my grandchild explored the small country church which my mother joined more than 80 years ago. She touched the windows, the altar and the organ very carefully as if marking her place in history.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

What Is It Like To Be an Artist?

Last week, in spite of my coughing and hacking, I was interviewed by a middle school art student. She had to ask questions, visit my studio, complete a painting in "my style" and make a report on "her" artist. I really didn't feel up to it, croaking answers to her questions, but I thought back to a report my daughter had written in the fifth grade and the impact it had on her and "her artist." (She had selected my friend, Georg Shook, and declared, "After all, he is famous, Mom." Georg was genuinely pleased when she gave him a copy.) Somehow, I found the energy and made the effort to meet with Jordan.

Her questions were interesting ones but sometimes we veered away from the topic. I had forgotten that her parents had brought her in a stroller to a neighborhood party at my house; she had forgotten that she had come. Her grandmother had recently become a member of our family; we were both at the wedding. She had been to the opening or two of my latest work; I had forgotten the quiet teenager.


But this was about art and there were those questions about being an artist which needed answers. . . .

Good questions to ask any artist!
--When did you know you were an artist?
--Do you have a formal art education?
--Did your family encourage you?
--Which artists have influenced you the most?
--What are the most interesting things which have happened to you as an artist?

It was a long project and one which required time, preparation and thought. I applaud her creative and caring teacher. I thank Jordan for making me think about what it's like to be an artist.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

I'm always saying, I wish I had one more week.

On Sunday, I attended a concert by the Manhattan Piano Trio. Their first piece was a fantastic dance of the piano, violin and cello in three movements.* Fingers flew, bows dipped and butterfly notes swirled in the afternoon light of the stained glass. My friend who had booked them called them just three weeks earlier to ask if they knew this wonderful piece she had just heard on public radio. They didn't; but they learned it. I thought, "That's how you do it! You don't say, I don't know how or there's not enough time -- you just do it!"

Manhattan Piano Trio -- http://www.manhattanpianotrio.com
*Beethoven - Trio No 4 in B flat major, Op. 11 (Allegro Con Brio, Adagio, Tema: Pria Ch'io Pipegno)

Concerts with a Cause are sponsored by St. John United Methodist Church with donations to various local charities -- this month to Salvation Army. They were begun when the new Dobson organ was installed three years ago. Pictures of the organ and a concert schedule are here: http://www.stjohnumcaugusta.com/MusicProgram.htm