Creatively Thinking

New Work.  "Trip To The Beach"  20x60 Mixed Water Media  A Unique Original. Does Art Matter Any More? The foundations that I have and that I work with when I create a work of art are always challenging me.  For example, the notion of all art being subjective - as an expressionist I used to live and die by that notion. But, lately I have noticed that the foundations that I was taught many years ago don't work for me anymore.  I ask myself why,  I build from my history and values to try and figure out if art matters any more or not. The notion of expressionism has changed for me. The word was once linked to independence and individualism.  But individualism and the struggle by others to capture my soul and my uniqueness and formulate it into their notion of selfness and subjectively have altered the notion of individualism as unique to individualism as anything goes - in particular the arts. So, I ask, "Does art matter any more?  Is art ...

“I saw the rainbows in my studio and I danced with them.” When I paint, my aim is not to try reconcile the conflict between chaos and order – to soften the hard edges of disorder and find a harmonious center or whole and then to soften the hard edges of disorder or make everything monochromatic. I believe that life is not that way. We become disillusioned when we try to make it something other than what it really is.  Life is bumpy and playful. It can be a marvelous ride if we don’t try and make it something that it is not.  When I look outside and watch the wind blow the tops of the trees, I ask myself,  "How in the world could I capture that movement, that dance without destroying its beauty?"  My aim when I create is to honor the movement, the wind and the differences in it.  These differences, this otherness like the wind is unique, individual and independent. Yet, at the same time, it is part of a whole - a whole where not all things fit together like...

My new work, "Three Pears,"   30x40 watercolor on 300# arches

"Fish In The Reef" was juried into the "Rockies National Watercolor Exhibition that is being held March 1-April 2, 2016 at the Western Colorado Center for the Arts.  What a wonderful time to be in the Rockies.  But, then being in the Rockies is always a wonderful, anytime.

"Park Bench" She came everyday listening to the sweet song the blue birds sang. She came everyday watched blue birds dance. Tiny sky blue wings waltzing with the wind. The park bench is empty these days. The blue birds still serenade and dance with the wind. She knows it is time to return. To dance with the wind. - Christine Alfery