Sunday, November 12, 2017

Notes from my journal

 
 silk and wool coloured with coneflower and iron
My teacher told me that my work did not fit into the modern aesthetic. 

But we aren't in the modern aesthetic.  That has happened.  Whistler.  Monet.  Monet only became really good when he was 70 and did those water lily paintings.

It took him his whole life to find his own voice
Monet empowered himself. 

Monet said to himself - "why should I paint a background -  a foreground -a middleground - when all I really want to show is the foreground?"   Those water-lily paintings are  huge. 

Monet would have failed art school.

Use your imagination.  Work beyond the eye.
What is imagination?   Is it your mind?  Not only.
You have to let your heart loose too.
Connect with your HEART.

If you want to reach a different level - an inner attitude, more pleasurable, more imaginative - then you need to go beyond what other people think.

Carl Beam
 
Images in this post are of fabrics I dyed with plants this past month.  I used coneflowers, walnuts, iron, and time.

As I continue with my project of reading old journals and then wrapping them, (see here),  I come across remarkable things.  In this post I am sharing notes I took while listening to Manitoulin Island's Governor General's Award winning artist, Carl Beam  speak in 2004.     

6 comments:

Ms. said...

If we stopped every time some entity disapproved, we might never have walked the earth, much less gone on creating for decades. Fortunately, we were stubborn enough to push on. The fabrics are gorgeous.

Roxanne said...

Judy, I'm baffled and fascinated all at once at your Journal Wrapping Project. Like bones frozen in the tundra for eons. And yet a selfless release of ego. A potent paradox.

Margaret said...

Thank you. Those quotes -- and they way you incorporate their attitude in your own aesthetic -- are gems for me...

Sue McQ said...

Friend, I am in awe of those beautiful fabrics. So much potential. Looking forward to witnessing your journey with them.

Liz A said...

Velvet has not been on my radar ... but seeing it used to such good effect in Mended World and likewise seeing the play of light on this stack of cloth about to become, I am rethinking that

Tina said...

I really enjoyed reading that-I have been discouraged about my own work, where to go, where to stay, this really resonated with me. Thank you, my friend!