a work in progress

Life is a great big canvas and you should throw all the paint on it you can.

Danny Kaye

Lots of titles in my mind for this one, but I keep coming back to a heady bouf. I think I must have taken that from Jitterbug Perfume, which would make sense since it is that heady book which inspired this painting.

Adding bees, adding details, getting close to completion. Buzz.

Jim, my friend, you are now the bee with the goatee, large with white wings about to land just to the left of her eye. The one looking for maximum taste and freshness, that is.

I’ve been busy as a bee! My head is buzzing. Must paint more bees.

Step 10: paint the swarm.

Next, I’ll finish these flying bees and then paint in more individual bees until I get the swarm moving across the canvas the way I’d like them to.

February’s Studio Play Day was held today and I was happy to find the participants had little experience in art making but were eager to step into new territory. It was a lot of fun to watch one woman struggle through the discomfort of the beginning stages, where you don’t know where you’re going with it as an art piece but have some intention as to your theme, and into the finishing of the piece where the flow has taken over and the piece seems to have a life of its own. I am sharing her collage with you above.

When she arrived at my studio, she stated that she wanted something to help her keep her focus as she moves through a major home remodeling project, an intention I completely relate to with all my desires for improvements to my home. She has a lot of energy and is attracted by bright colors. She is building a room in the attic of her house to be her space for meditation. I think her collage does a wonderful job of combining her colorful exuberance with a feeling of well-being. She is moving into her power and learning to be calm about her exuberance! She said that the final minutes of creating the piece made her have to really consider what elements, among the hundreds she had gathered around her, were essential. I hope her collage will serve as a playful and cheerful reminder that her focus is always present when wishes to access it and that part of the joy of being the person she is lies in the abundance of ideas she carries around with her.

As for me, I hope I continue to be blessed with just the right participants in my workshops. It is so much fun to make materials and techniques accessible to people and to be present with their often new-found ways of self expression. Thanks for coming to the workshop today, ladies. I enjoyed having each of you and hope you will return for more creative play. Next month’s Studio Play Day will focus on polymer clay as we make beautiful filigree rattles from eggs. More on that later. I think I must go karaoke now…

I’ve been painting little bits on the bees here and there over the last few days and I feel I’ve neglected my blog as I focus on some old and new business tasks. I have been enjoying emails with another painter and thought I’d include a little of my end of today’s conversation for you.

…It seems I have to do this one the hard way sort of coaxing the bees out as a group, while I wait for them to tell me their true form and meaning and inspire me to complete the piece. Tedious, painting little bees, so I have determined a way to make it harder than it has to be.

… I have been reading Skinny Legs and All, a continuation of my Tom Robbins orgy, in which the main character is a painter and art and money are often discussed. Some things are simply not about money and that is all too rare in our time and place, he repeatedly reminds the reader. I have a friend who made beautiful books and gave them away. She has a friend who has a chic little shop in LA who wanted to sell her books. My friend declined, convinced that doing it for the money would harm her enthusiasm for her craft and possibly even affect the quality of it. I told her to sell them. I make stuff to sell. I want to sell all my art. I like money. But the part that keeps me interested in painting is the process of creating and solving little problems as I work…

Like the bees.