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taking break from series with this. always seem to go back to the female body.

Betty Woodman Installation in China

such a great peak into what goes into a major installation like this.

i'm also totally curious about how much dough they spent on art!  i mean wow!  god bless those americans.  pretty incredable- if i ever go to china i want to check the american embassy out.  wonder if they let in canadians...

Betty Woodman

went to see Betty Woodman give a lecture the other night at the AGO.  It was really interesting to view her work and listen to her talk about her instillations.  i'm most interested in her as a ceramic artist that approaches her work very much from a painterly point of view.  her wall pieces are pretty spectacular and i loved seeing the evolution from an idea into what she is making now.

she showed a short film that i'll post. so good.

i wanted to find out more about what she would have to say about if she approaches her work as a ceramic artist, a painter or a sculptor.  I love that her work spans one, two, three dimensional aspects and maybe her approach is so unique because simply, she is all three.  Craftsmen, artist, doer.  I loved her large wall pieces and was very interested in them as murals- the space she leaves them, the colours and combining actual painting.

At the end there was a q&a and someone asked her something to the effect of how she always finds joy in life with her use colour.  I really liked her response- she basically said that she didn't think it was right to psychoanalyze an artist's life by their work.  I think the audio from the talk can be heard on the ago blog site.  it may not be up yet.

I've recently been reading about Picasso and the relationship between his paintings and sculptures and i couldn't help think about that as i listened to betty.

this is a quote i really liked;
"in some cases his sculpture is inspired by his paintings but at other times it is the very opposite; he may convert a canvas into a sculpture.  Or from a sculpture motif he may make an entire painting."
James Sabartes on Picasso

cedarvale loop

this is the run i do. 9k.

new painting, acrylic

looking over it

recently i went thru a bunch of old poetry and journals.  i copied stuff out, read it out loud and i can't believe how effected i was.  it all just sat there for days as i tried my best to smile for the kids and listen to them ask me all those VERY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS RIGHT NOW MAMA.  bed time comes and i tuck them in all happy and spent and my mind can return to it.  part of me just felt so sad, like it was all so wasted.  sitting there.  but then something clicked for me, i can't remember when, coulda been walking home after school drop off, washing dishes after omelettes, watching the boys in the tub, the words were and are information.  they are an emotional snapshot of a time that couldn't ever have been recorded any other way.

i have been painting for awhile now and was so uncertain about my voice for so long but i think with maturity i see it coming together, it was always there, i just needed to find the best way express it.  so much practise with the paint. so much experimenting, what an affair.  in one of my writings i draw beside it.  as i read it i can see the colours whirling around, creating washes and blending.  contrast. line. a little of both over here. faded over there.  i'm picking up my brushes daily now and thanking myself for providing clues and material for what i can now express.

thank you clay for giving me the time i needed to build my skills. i just didn't expect it to effect my painting this way. i want my paintings to be authentic and emotional, i feel i'm achieving this.  (god i hope i am)  will post nearly finished painting based on some writing soon.