Creatively Thinking

I personally believe that an artist needs to think – to use her mind when she is working and creating. Using ones mind allowing for concepts/ideas to be formed and created is part of the entire process of creating a work of art. Using ones mind also integrates the foundations an artist stands on with these concepts and ideas. So it should not be surprising when I say I disagree with Joseph Conrads comment in his preface to “The ....... of the Narcissus,” that “The artist appeals to that part of our being which is not dependent on wisdom; to that in us which is a gift and not an acquisition…” Suggesting that art is a gift is something that many creative people say about themselves, or find that others say about their work, examples include, “oh Christine you are so gifted” or an answer I frequently find myself saying, and I have blogged about, “I have no idea where it comes from, it is just there. It is a gift.“ In truth, for me anyway, it comes from my foundations and my a...

A friend of mine, Kay Lorbecki, who frequently sends me comments on my blogs, sent me something that I would like to share.   She recognizes that my constant question in   my blogs is “what is art?”   And those of you in the arts recognize that that question has been asked time and time again, and to date, and to arts credit and to the credit of those involved in the arts, it has not been pinned down to a solid, unmovable concrete answer.   The concept of art, does change with the times.   My need to maintain the “life” in art is what my blog is all about.   The life in my own work and the life in the work that others who call themselves artists do.   Kay is an artist.   She said she understands art as follows:   Joseph Conrad interesting as it pertains to “what is art.”   Written in 1957, the title of the work is offensive, but the thoughts contained within are worth a look. I am captivated by this line, “ To arrest, for the...

Morning coffee with angels. Land of Angels That dimension     Invisible dimension     Sensed not     Seen    Felt    Not touched Angels surround     Me     Touch     Me     Fill     Me In this land     Where     spirits     Live     Peace Heaven on earth     And     another     dimension Perhaps our human lives and the changes that happen to us are like the life of a dragonfly were we transform into another different dimension.   One life ends another beings. Featured image:  "Shamans" 15"x10.5"  Acrylic on Paper. Part of The Fishing Cabin Series

Gremlin green moss Darkly green pines Wind tickling glassy lake Sun reflecting back at me Soaring like a bird Featured image:  "Out To Pasture."  8"x8" Acrylic on Paper. At the Cabin Series 2018

I felt the now familiar tug, then the pull, then the really powerful pull.  I knew there was a very large fish on the other line.  It gave me; I never know how to tell a female fish from a male fish so the fish will remain an it, a great struggle diving deep pulling the line far out.  As it tired, I was able to pull it closer and closer to the boat I saw it was a huge northern pike.  Some people fish the lakes up here for pike, I am not one of them.  They smell and they are slimy.  What in the world is that slimy stuff all over them?  I have no trouble with touching a walleye, removing the hook that captured it, but the pike, nope, no way I will do everything in my power to avoid touching them.  I even bought myself a pair of plastic pink pliers, they even had a heart in the middle of them where they came together.  Don’t laugh , it was a good choice they had flat, not pointy, heads at the end, whi...

"Is reality real?" Remember the age old philosophical question?  If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it fall does it make a sound?  One can extend the question to does the tree exist, does sound exist if no one hears it no one sees it. Well if no one is around to hear it then no one hears it. But that does not mean it doesn’t make a sound.  It is an objective fact that the tree makes a sound.  Just as it is a fact that just because no one sees it it still exists.  It is real.  A tree is a tree, a sound is a sound. I believe that reality does exist within our perceptions.  We can’t make sound anything other than sound, we can’t make an object anything other than an object.  A tree is a tree.  A sound is a sound.  But we can create other things that we can identify as a tree, a sound.  We can make purple trees for example.  And sounds that sound like a falling tree but it isn’t the sound of a real ...