I see you! I may know something about you. You are just like I once was, hesitant to share my literary art. It felt risky because then I’d be an open book! Guess what? My writing has been the most fulfilling thing I’ve done in my lifetime, other than tackling the hardest job on the planet – doing my best at being a good mother.
Springtime is a great time to take an exciting leap. Whether you’re someone who has been turning wooden wares on a lathe, doing some art journaling, enjoying creating choreography for a dance, writing lyrics to a song or putting paint on paper or canvas hoping your art will become gallery-worthy, don’t hide your light under a bushel. Step into it! Unleash your creative freedom.
“Hand-penned letters written by our ancestors are evidence of their human spirit, and in part, our own.” ~ Sue Batton Leonard
Does anyone share my opinion that a part of civility went out the window when the popularity of corresponding by handwritten letter went by the wayside?
I ended up being the “caretaker” of the largest part of the maternal family ancestral records, memorabilia and ephemera. Among them are letters to and from one of my ancestors, whom I believe was a woman ahead of her time. She held a position in the late 1800’s that few other women in the country did. Her treasured correspondence has details about her employment and resignation from her position. The letters are so properly and beautifully communicated, they put our dashed off business and personal-related text and email communications in this day and age to shame.
Every so often I reread the letters, thinking I will try to pair down what I am storing, but five years after my parent’s deaths, it is very difficult to do. It would be like forgetting my forebearers from several past generations ever existed. To me, that is a moral/ethical dilemma when I think an author’s literary influences and writings, in part, come from the provision of one’s inherited background.
“…man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots, whose flower and fruitage is the world…” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Have you ever known anyone who seems to make an art out of everything they do? I have. I greatly admire them for it. I try to put a little touch of creativity into my every day tasks and bring beauty into my home any which way I can.
I enjoy casual crafting and find personal fulfillment in that. I had fun handcrafting a few simple Christmas gifts. Decoupage satisfied my desire to dabble with something I hadn’t done in a decades. The colors held pretty well on the pansies I had been pressing between parchment paper inside a book since last spring.
I attached a little watercolor tag to each of the decoupaged bottles which said, “Bottle your hopes and dreams, but remember to uncork and act!”
Photo Above: Three decoupaged art journals. Most of the pages were left blank, so the recipient can use the booklet however they wish. My sister called me immediately after receiving hers. “I know exactly what I am going to do with mine!” I look forward to seeing it. She received the journal on the right.
In my writing as with my crafting, I don’t wait for inspiration to strike. I’ve learned to start and see where my Creator leads me. Living without overthinking too much gives us freedom to live by what comes naturally. That’s wholesome living in and of itself.
Cheers for a creative New Year! Hard to believe the first month is nearly over.
Today, I am reposting a story called “Angels Across the Fence,” about an encounter I had with a plein air painter a few years ago. It was a delightful day in every way.
Hang in there artists! Spring has never failed us – it will here be sooner or later. As we all know, “there is a time and a reason for every season.”
Watercolor is a medium which I’ve always considered a “wild child.” It wanders where it wants to go and easily gets puddled up in messes. From my own experience of just “dabbling and splashing about” with watercolors, its a very hard medium to tame. Thanks to artist, Frank Spino who was graciously giving of his time and explanation, he shared a few tips he uses to get the results he wants. I understand a little more of how he keeps control on a paint medium that strays and meanders. Using his easel set up with a work-in-progress, he talked with me about his process, which was so informative.
My meeting Frank Spino came last Sunday, when I went to an art exhibit he’d curated. He and four more watercolorists -Kathleen Maling, Joanna Barnum, Matthew Bird, Janet Means Belich “Five Voices in Watercolor,” was exhibited at the Gallery 220 in Havre de Grace, Maryland. All equally talented having earned what many might call “elite status” in the world of watercolor painting. Their work has been juried in to the prestigious American Watercolor (AWS) International Exhibition and many have been featured in top-notch art magazines.
Each one of the artists is set apart stylistically by what they bring to the paper. Frank Spino wowed me with the high level of color saturation he has been able to achieve through a very watery medium. A transplant from Florida, you can see where the interest in the citrus subject matter came from. His work is by no means limited to fruit.
As with former Floridian, Kathleen Maling, whose interest often lies in painting very large scale reptiles, such as lizards and crocodiles, alligators and Komodo dragons. Gigantic creatures! But that is not all! Her watercolor “Egret,” shows her adeptness at painting shorebirds.
Matthew Bird‘s work has a special softness to some of his figurative work, which upon my first introduction to him seems to be in-line with his demeanor. “Stopping by the Woods” and “Angel of Music,” as well as his classical still life paintings had me doing a triple-take, as I thought they were oil paintings.
“The Poet is a Funnel” by Joanna Barnum brought to the viewer a very emotive piece, depicting the face of Grace Cavalieri who was the tenth Poet Laureate of Maryland. It shows the poetess in three poses whereby her deep feelings for perhaps what she was writing or feeling about poetry she read are on full display. Grace has obviously been very moved. As you can see in much of Joanna Barnum‘s work on her website, it is affective, imaginative and powerful.
Last, but certainly not least, the Indian corn, leaf paintings and the Amish and simple life paintings brought to the exhibit by Janet Means Belich, were all synchronistic down-to-earth images. Much of what can be seen in her images are found in the fields and destinations in this partly rural county and in nearby Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Photo by Sue Leonard:
Back row – Artists Frank Spino (l) and Matthew Bird (r),
Front row – Johanna Barnum(l), Janet Means Belich (c), Kathleen Maling (r)
“Five Voices in Watercolor” was a spectacular exhibit. I enjoyed the art, speaking with each of the artists and taking in the “art vibe” once again in Havre de Grace, MD.
One of my most read blogs ever was about “A Single Thread,” a narrative written by Tracy Chevalier. As I walked through an exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art about ten days before Christmas, I was taken back to the historical fiction book of Chevalier.
Making Her Mark is an exhibit about Women European Artists who lived from 1400 to 1800. They lived long before the era of “surplus women,” written about by Chevalier, who were primarily women widowed by war and worked for the church. All women of the era (1400 – 1800) were schooled and trained in the “domestics” and many were greatly revered in Europe for their skills which “perpetuated and conveyed power” for the Catholic Church, the nobility and for the elite.
A sewing and watercolor paint box displayed in the exhibit was highly useful for those who were multi-talented.
Other women were papermakers, print makers, painted decorative items and made silver wares, sculpture and other iconic religious items to decorate the church.
Others were book makers.
Many were visual artists whose art, hundreds of years later, are in the top art museum collections around the world.
Tapestry to make robes, drapery, kneelers and other upholstery for the holiest and lace makers were among them.
Others studied and drew botanicals many of which were often written about or mentioned in the Bible, such as the mustard seed, myrrh, hyssop, cedar, lilies and roses.
Artists, is there any form of art in which you feel you really excel? Do you focus solely on what your soul beats the strongest for?
For more information on this exquisite exhibit, visit the BMA website. The exhibit will remain hanging until January 7, 2024.
This beautiful painting “A Village Street in Winter” ” by artist Alfred Sisley (1893) represents the anthesis of what happens in today’s world at Christmas. In villages and towns in America and in many other countries, the hustle and bustle is frenzied.
I am going to take my annual holiday break from posting on All Things Fulfilling.com until after the first of the year. Have a blessed Christmas season. And see you back here after the first of the year! Thank you to those who follow my blogs all year long and purchase my books. Look forward to 2024!
When the mind is clear of all noise and self talk, this is when solutions are revealed, artists are inspired, paradigms are shifted.~ Stephen J. Kochan
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