The Beginning Is In Sight

Wow! The last couple of months have been wild!

First, the biggest news: I am delighted and honored to have been accepted as a member of the Artists Gallery in Racine. The gallery represents a vibrant and diverse group of artists. The theme for the current exhibit is The Power of Love and Kindness, something we all can use a bit more of right now. The gallery is downtown on Main Street, stop by when you can. Wednesday - Saturday, 11:00 am - 5:00 pm.

A little closer to home, some of my work is on display, and for sale, at Story Keepers Books, a new used bookstore in West Allis. The shop has a great selection of books for you as well as Makers Nights, a book club and author events. Check out their Facebook page to find out more about it.

In 2020, just as the pandemic started, my Mom went into hospice and I became very sick with Influenza A. After several days, when I was able to sit up and take notice of the world around me, this thought came to me from somewhere outside of me:

When we stop teaching women to doubt themselves, the earth will soar and then settle.

For the last dozen years I have been soaring. I wanted to try and do everything. I made several solo cross country road trips, explored different spiritual traditions, took flying lessons, even got a cat. (I’m a plant person, the cat was not too happy to be in my custody.) I started painting in 2016 and explored all kinds of media for making two dimensional art. It was like being in my teens while I was in my 60’s: mostly fun, often intense, and sometimes just plain confusing for me and the people in my life.

Now it is time to settle.

I am selling my condominium and have moved into a 55+ community so I can simplify my life, focus my time and energy on community and art making. I have to tell you though, simplifying your life is a lot of work. Sorting through my things, deciding what I wanted to keep, selling or giving away the rest, then packing and unpacking has been physically and mentally challenging. There were days when I thought I would never get to the end of the work so I could begin to live that simplified life.

Today I emptied the last box. There is still some work to do to get my new apartment in shape but the beginning is in sight.

Be well everyone.

Feed the Fire of Your Creativity

On this grey mid-winter morning a poem by Wendell Berry comes to mind.

LIKE SNOW
Suppose we did our work
like the snow, quietly, quietly,
leaving nothing out.

For me winter is a time for working quietly indoors, taking stock, making plans for a new year. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, instead I set a theme for the year. For 2025, my theme is Feed the Fire of Your Creativity.

Winter is also when I focus more on abstract work. I just matted and framed a collection of mandalas. Working on black paper, I start by picking up a white colored pencil and making a circle. Then I watch to see what emerges. This is quiet, meditative work, with a solid, grounded feel to it. I call these pieces Circles of Light, you can find them here on my website.

Have a wonderfully creative 2025,

Ann

Conception, Colored pencil & gel pen on black paper.

Summer's End

I know, I know, I know. I haven’t put anything new on my website in months. For the past year I have been exploring other media, looking for a way to develop my abstract work, building skill in oil painting.

This summer I have been getting outdoors, to paint or just walk around, as often as I can. Painting outdoors is much more challenging than painting from a reference photo. This photo is from a day in early summer when I painted at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. I came home hot, tired, and covered with mosquito bites. My plein air work is improving but it is not yet where I want it to be.

When the weather turned cooler, I turned my attention to studio painting. But right now I am in the midst of cataract surgery which has slowed me down. My brain is trying to figure out what to do with this new way of seeing the world, with sometimes comical results. Yesterday everything was colored in big splotches of shifting clear/blue light and dirty yellow light, with bits of bright pink strewn around for a little contrast. No point trying to work on an oil painting until this settles down.

Meanwhile I am preparing something new for you. Check back in a couple of weeks, I should have it all spiffed up and ready to show you before the end of the month.

Spring In February

The end of last year brought an important ending for me, releasing me to move into the future with energy and enthusiasm. I am still working in oils but you aren’t seeing much because I have been working on a portrait. Portraits are hard and my teacher is patiently insistent that I do it well. Meanwhile, I am exploring ways to meld the two very different approaches to painting that I use - highly skilled and representational vs creative and abstract.

I found an online class which I hope will teach me how to bring some intentionality to my abstract work - seems like a step in the right direction. There are pre-recorded videos, documents with information and exercises, and a monthly live zoom workshop. The zoom workshops are recorded so yesterday I was able to pull up the oldest one and work along with it. First step was to make up a title based on a recent experience. I jotted down a couple dozen unrelated words but the only one suitable to use as a title was Spring in February. Not that great, but it was just practice, so I went with it.

Next step: list the visual elements associated with title. ? ? ? I was still wondering what to write down when the video moved on to the next step: list the emotions you felt with the experience. Oh boy. If I had the words to describe emotions, I wouldn’t need to paint them.

I switched the video off and set about trying to paint something spring-like or February-like. I am working with acrylic on these, which I am unfamiliar with, so I was soon completely frustrated. Could not get the paint to do what I wanted. I gave up entirely trying to paint Spring in February. Instead, I played around with the paint. Is the paper not right? What if I add some medium? How about mixing in some fluid acrylic to make things flow more easily? If I go over this wet paint with a mixture of . . . This was way more fun than trying to list emotions. Satisfied with what I had learned, I scooped up the last bit of paint from my palette and added it to the painting. As I gathered up my brushes to clean them, I looked down at what I had created.

Uhhhhh

I don’t think I could have done a better job depicting Spring in February if I had been trying to.