more progress on the ATCs, no regular daily art.

Almost done with these things, I hope to be back on my usual art routine this evening!

i ended up spending my studio time getting started on my Artist Trading Cards for the October swap (I’m late!!) They’re based on an older daily art that I’m still working on, so I included that in the photo as well.

Here’s another view of my worktable, just for j=fun

And below is a photo of my current display at Harmony Collective Artist Gallery. I started a couple months ago to start doing a sort of long term retrospective. Starting with 2013, I’m showing selected daily drawings on the wall and putting more of them (the less-polished ones) in the bin below. I’ve gotten up to April, May and June of 2013.

This post is a walk-through of the art show I have up during the month of June. It’s not in a very easy to access location, and solo shows are not a thing I have often done. So this post is for anyone who wants to see what’s in the show, but can’t get there in person!

All the art in the show is framed, and selling for $70 each (except for “SUM”, which is $500).

DAILY DREAMINGS

The Practice of Daily Art

I have always loved making art, but resisted defining myself as an Artist. Failing to find satisfaction in other pursuits, I eventually went to art school for a couple of years (the School of the Art Institute of Chicago). I loved my explorations there, but decided that I did not want to pursue a career in art-making or teaching. So I stopped making much art, for a long time.

In 2009 I recognized that I missed art-making, and felt sad about it. So that October I began a practice of making a drawing every day. I have continued the practice, more or less uninterrupted, to the present day.

Each day I face a blank piece of paper, and spend time making some kind of picture. I show all the pictures on my website, as a form of accountability. The time is spent in meditation, exploration, and play. I listen to intuition and subliminal inspiration, and find images and connections I might not be able to reach using words. I try not to get blocked or derailed by value judgments or expectations; the point is the music of lines and colors. These drawings and paintings are results of that practice.

“Sum” – 1988,~3′ x 4′, graphite on paper

This was one of the last pieces of art I made before I gave up the practice for two decades. I had it professionally framed, to remind myself of the work that I had put in up to that point.

INNER CRITICS

When I began my daily art practice, I ran into a chorus of inner voices with a lot to say about it. These ideas, expectations, and judgments had led me to give up on art-making for years. They offered me all kinds of reasons to give up and stop now.

As I persisted, it became clear that I couldn’t really make them shut up. But I could get them to go sit in another room and leave me be; I was going to make art, whatever they thought of it.

I’ve occasionally made portraits of some of those Inner Critics, teasing apart characters that offer reasons and excuses for not spending time and energy doing something that I love.

The Critics are not useless; they encourage me to be clear about what I am doing, and why. It’s worth paying at least enough attention to refute their unkind words.

I believe that all forms of creative expression are what gives life meaning. It’s how we understand our existence and connection with each other and the world. Each of the Critics holds a grain of truth, but they lie when say it is the whole of the Truth.

Maybe creative expression will not save the world, but it does give people a reason to think the world is worth saving.

It’s also really true that if you do something with intention every day, you can learn a lot about it, and also about yourself!

DAILY DREAMINGS

…a little selection of my daily art…

Aside from the daily art I post here, I am working on getting some of my collages in shape to show in my space at the Harmony Collective Artist Gallery. I have a show in a larger space in June, and I’d hoped to show collages there, but the curator requested other work. So there’s not as much space as I’d hoped, for showing the larger group collages. But I have plenty of smaller ones, that will fit in my 6′ of wall space in the collective gallery.

Here’s a preview of what I’m working on.