Learning Lessons?

There was a time when I felt it was important to just draw, paint or do conceptual sculptures, so I wouldn’t confuse people to the type of art I was creating. My thinking was, by limiting myself in some areas, I would be able to cultivate and focus on my technique in each medium.  As each series was produced, I would learn, grow through my mistakes and successes in the pieces. My overall style strengthen, my personal confidence increased in the art I was creating and exhibiting. Then that big tree fell on my studio/house…my world, my art world came crashing down and the long road of starting over begain. I didn’t worry about art at all, because I was surviving day to day. Several Lessons occurred to me through the years of recovery and the rebuilding process…I learned to embrace change, to shake things up and stop thinking no limits…it all could be for the better.

A Good Thing

I wish the days were 34 hours long, or that I had a couple more hands and arms because I have accumulated quite a bit of “art” that is swirling around inside my head. My thinking hat is expanding with each new task, and that is causing me to push my entire thinking of the types of artwork that I can produce. It was almost 2 years ago that I decided to shake up my creative thinking process by making different choices in my life. As a visual artist I started volunteering at The American Theatre, a performance theatre in Hampton, VA., this small step to be exposed to other artists….dancers, musicians, actors and their forms of artistic expressions, was truly a wise decision.  

Motivation

After I have finished one piece of artwork in a series I have consistently felt …. “Ok, Now to the next piece?” My mind has already jumped to designing my next creation, busy contemplating every highlight, shadow, line, and the tones, the positive and negative spaces in the composition. I am totally absorbed in this never-ending state of creating that my brain has been obsessed with. Repeating this process of pouring myself into my work, harnessing my artistic energy into a structured and at times a very meticulous style can leave me feeling drained mentally as well as physically.  This exhaustion  has become a fantastic amazing motivational feeling to me and to be honest, I think...ok, I know, I am addicted to this cycle of creating pieces of art to be in a series! 
 

What’s Their World?

Artists are in mostly in their own world when creating their works of art. I think that artist’s have many styles of art that they will produce over their lives. I have found that it can be about their world or it can be how they see their world.  It can be serious or ridiculous….a release or maybe a bleeding out of emotions. What I discovered in designing “along the line” is that I was mixing up, combining my own personal feelings, yet I wanted something of the viewer…..to engage people to look at the larger picture, this electric, linked world we live in. What would people do if it was gone or is this too much already? I am a thinker, sometimes too much; thankfully being an artist allows me to liberate all those thoughts about this world and myself.



Creative path

I thought I would push myself by taking this project one more step down this creative path….So here is the video of “along the line”…. part of The Sketchbook Project World Tour 2012. Several years ago I was persuaded to do some very small artwork for some art exhibitions, most pieces would fall in the 6x8 inch and under. I had been drawing on a large scale and was eager to see if I could switch to a miniature. As the years and drawings continued, I was able to produce some tiny pieces. The smallest was a little over 1x2 ½ inches. I believe that all those small drawings got me ready for this project. The book is like 5x7 inches, and all the paintings inside are 4x5 inches. I learned over theses decades to be open and take chances with the art I am producing. The path is open wide for those who want to travel down it……

Good-bye

I mailed my book off to The Sketchbook Project yesterday. It was a happy good-bye.  I am not sad to let my book go, because I do want others to touch it, read it and think about the issues in the book. I don’t know what others feel when they look up into the sky or if they do. I wonder do others see the sky or the poles, wires, cables, lights, all the interconnected strings of our modern world. My relationship and attitudes concerning electricity, cable, internet even home/house and my art, my world was updated by a tree falling down.   This unseen but seen power that is generated passed long and contained by wood, metal and rubber encased cables that is used and dependent on every day by people, the invisible world blood.  Long held feelings were discovered, worked through and let go or better said…. mailed off! So, off I am….. on to the next series. I started painting on 3 new canvases last night.  

Happy

I am in bliss and contented when I am thinking about and making art. It’s a feeling that has been with me since childhood. A feeling so familiar that I just need to put on the right music and my mind starts it’s inward path towards creativity…..I am happy….. Because through art I am able to work out my inner turmoil or I might be trying to explore my thoughts, maybe distracting my body and mind. As I fall deeper into this state of creating…..I can feel at peace with myself. I feel that I am fulfilling my purpose. I am appreciating my gift. I find that the more that I drive myself into creating and expanding my art the more that I am able to visualize the next exciting step of making art and being happy.



Merging thoughts

I have found that through making art series that I have been able to explore my own thinking about subjects that I may have dropped because I only did a single piece. I enjoy the challenge a series creates, each work has to stand on its own, yet link to its sister pieces and then the series needs to stand as a whole piece of work….. As if they are not separated by space, wall or page.  The concept of the series needs to be investigated from a diverse but cohesive, interconnected progression of artwork that tells the story….or what lingers in the mind of an artist.

The Art of Transformation

 Transformation can be a quick process or one that last years to decades…that’s the beauty of transforming one’s body, mind, house, life or even art. Knowing there is going to be a development that hopefully shows growth, a clearer vision or a new take on creating. Years back I just started cranking out theses black and white sketches that lead me to the drawing the series “Grace” and a few other series…… I do love to draw, the marks, lines and shadows but even as much as I adore drawing, I felt I needed to expand myself to painting and color. In many ways this sketchbook and the paintings that will follow have been brewing in my head for years.  I didn’t know at first where my “art” was headed after the hurricane in 2003. I was able to see growth in destruction of my home and my studio..... everything was bound to be affected by this huge tree and this situation. I knew..... how I would be living and what type of art I was making would be revamped because I would be a different person after all the rebuilding was done. I would be transform, as well as my artwork.

After the hurricane, I thought..."this is going to take along time" and it did!!

The Best

The best thing about making art is that it’s a path of self discovery. Whether it’s through the use of color, composition, subject matter, style or which medium of choice…. So many avenues an artist can travel their road of creativity that lurks in their mind.  I went with  bright colors  and “conceptual sculpture” for my “Fish” series, then black/white  drawing  for my “River” series …next color pencil for the “Balance” series  and now I am back at painting…for “along the line” and  “Balance #2” series. I am having those fantastic internal feelings when my mind has sketched out the art. Now it’s up to my hands to get working…..this road has has hills, valleys and mountains but I did make this choice to travel.

Do you overlook or look over things?

I ask the question because one point of view is to not see the object and the other view is to examine the object…opposite directions to how your eyes and mind will appreciate or sense the world. I ponder myself….which point of view is better than the other? Or is it best to break it down to each element, each moment in time, each component separated and valued to it's impact and consequence on our lives. 

"do you overlook
 the wires, the poles
to see the
sky?"

Mixing it up!

Making art expands when an artist starts mixing up their mediums.

"What do you see when you look up?"

 In planning out this sketchbook I laid out which pages to paint and what sizes they would be first. I would do the main page then I used the left over paint on the opposite page. I begin to think of phases that connected to the theme of the book for the extra paint page. I noticed that even my statements or questions had a certain flow as I arranged them with their partnered visual page.

Words mixed with mix mediums….

I am on cloud nine making art!

Seeing more..

Look. Glance. See. Watch. Gaze. Stare. Peep. Glimpse. Spot. Observe. Notice. Perceive.
How do you go about seeing objects in your world?
There are numerous words for the way we use our eyes towards the world. Then after our eyes do their job it’s up to our brain. Understand. Appreciate. Comprehend. Know. Realize. Distinguish.Value. Recognize. Perception. Discernment.
How does your brain work ?

"the more i look
the more i see"

 

Along the line.....

"do you look at the sky?"

“Along the line”…I do like this phrase. I was told by a fellow artist, Carol Anne McErlean, about The Sketchbook Project, just Google it for more information. I had been taking photos of the sky, mostly when I am driving. I noticed I was focusing on the light in and around the clouds, the colors that change in seconds......then there are these poles, wires, lights that would cause me to find the right angle to get them out of the way…. more shots, more time, more work! Then after the downloading of the photos, I noticed that the ones I did like the best had some sort of thing in the photo. So, as I was looking through the subjects that I could pick from for my sketchbook, "along the line" jumped out at me. I like that this title has so many meanings. The Sketchbook will mean something different to everyone, even me…and along the line I am thinking… what’s next?

Do you sketch it out first?



"along the line" by liz greene

Most of the time when I am working I don't  (or didn't) sketch things out first.The planning takes place in my mind and then I would go make something. When I was young, I didn't want to waste my paper, crayons or maybe it was my time....or was it my own expectations that I was going to create something with my hands and it was going to be good. I had thought about the design, layout, colors...now to the fun part. Over the years I have admired artists who take the time to sketch their pieces out. I see that value of those sketches in a way now that  I had rushed through during my youth. The planning process helps you see your mistakes or your better choices. I am learning to sketch out new pieces of artwork.....& everything else!

Small steps count



The Sketchbook Project

  Sometimes the steps you take in life are big ones, like having a baby. Sometimes the steps are important ones, like buying a car..... but after having bought and sold several cars over the years, it becomes a special step yet it's a familiar step. Creating art has steps...big, familiar, new, old, exciting, scary, repeating, bold, intimidating, leaps of faith....that happens when an artist minds starts  imagining the next piece of work. I have found out that even the small steps count, maybe they are so important because they are the first ones that can lead to those much bigger steps...... that I want to take.

Creating art is fun, creating art is work!

Creating art is fun, as a kid you just do it all the time and you don't care about what happens to the end piece. Maybe you give it to your mom or teacher to hang up. Maybe the piece goes in a folder to be graded by the art teacher. Maybe you are the only one to see it....then you start creating another piece with out regard to what are you going to do with "it"....it's all about "making, creating, building, drawing, painting, gluing, carving, weaving" (a flood of materials is running through my mind) It's a beautiful time of being an artist, being young, just wanting to make  something.
Then you grow up, you make art but then that after thought of what do you do with it becomes...Marketing, Selling.


tower of power



The winds are strong.....

"Orange sky after the rain"

I love to draw and several years ago I did nothing else but black/grays/white drawings. I felt the medium and lack of color was a perfect fit for me to express myself. I had been doing conceptual sculpture before that so going to what I thought was a simple, straight forward medium would make my life simple, controllable and I could make my mark in this art market. I am now ready to stretch my artist wings and ride on the creative winds that are swirling through me. Painting, mix media….no limits. Just fly….the winds are strong.  

The need to create......

I have been an artist all my life. It's been a gift to me, a medium that allows me to express myself on such personal level about any feeling I am having and a place to get it out. I have often created when I was not feeling good....getting lost in creating to forget being in pain and this last year with all these surgeries, like now,   thank-you for my gift

Michael is a American!

This is a drawing I did for Michael to celebrate him becoming a U.S. citizen. It's a small piece, maybe 5x5. I like being able to use words in the drawing, and breaking up the background in sections with different patterns.