Why Does a Conceptual Abstract Artist Paint Flowers

 

Featured image: Touch of Spring

If you know my aesthetic, you may wonder why this abstract artist is suddenly painting flowers, flowers and more flowers. The simple answer? Because I can.

When I say it is important for an artist to have freedom in creativity I mean it. And right now the colors and subject matter of flowers make me so happy – so I am going to continue to do them. It surprises me - I have never painted flowers for such an extended period of time. But I am learning so much in this process – and that is what being an artist is all about - discovering, exploring and doing what you love. So bear with me - yet another flower. 

I recently wrote about the pandemic and creativity. I thought about the creative spirit and the freedom to be able to paint over something that isn't working for you as an artist. Creativity isn't about saying ‘well technically this is just fine’ rather it is about saying ‘I love it with all its flaws and imperfections’. 

As an artist I may see imperfection, but I have found that others often don't see art that way. Rather they often see the beauty and creativity and appreciate and love something that I thought of as imperfect. That is one of the valuable lessons from art that I sincerely wish would be carried over into life - seeing the beauty and experiencing the artist in the work and relating to someone through art. Loving something that someone worries about is imperfect. Translated into life, seeing the beauty and appreciating or relating to the perspective and experience of someone else in a way that is different – that is true acceptance and that is wonderful. 

The Earth

 Featured image: Charting Pathways

When I walk this path

Boots touching the earth

There is such a 

Reverence for where

I am.

In The Chaos

 Featured image: Spring Dance

When we stay too far 

into chaos

Fear, 

the unknown pull us back.

There should be no

fear in  chaos

is,

the beauty of the

earth and all things

natural.

Ocean Waves

 Featured image: Big Water Ocean Pacific Dusk

Oceans waves

Each one filled with such

Power and energy.

Each one fade into the sands

Whiteness.

The energy

The Heart of the Earth

 Featured image: At Peace

Take the time
To look….
At the heart
Of the earth…
And…
The place
you are in
It’s breath
It’s life
It’s a delightful
Breathe it in
Earths glory
Never fails
Peace

Earth III

 Featured image: Along the Edge

Earth
Golden new growth
Shag bark spreads
V branch reaching up
Reaching, reaching
Touching the sky

The Unknown

 Featured image: Mirage

The unknown invites possibilities.

Circle of Time

 Featured image: Circle of Life

The circle of time permeates all histories and cultures. Birth, life, death. The circle of transcendence also permeates all histories and cultures, but it isn’t locked within like the circle of time. The circle of time is tightly woven, the circle of transcendence fibers is loosely woven and not bound to something like time. The weaving of one time into another time, the weaving of one concept of transcendence into another, interlocking the two, time and transcendence allows us to reflect through the history of time, and create through the history of transcendence.

When the circle of transcendence can move beyond the tightly woven weave of time, creation and creating, happens.

Water, Air, Earth

 Featured image: Sun, Tree, Water

creating
water,
air
earth
sky
earth
moving
moving
together
YET
Separate

Red Rock

 Featured image: Rocks, Rocks and More Rocks

red
rock
rain
creamy
yellow
sand
spires
earth
sky

Sense of Place

 Featured image: Mary's Necklace

She has a sense of place –
What is your sense of place?

Ravens

 Featured image: Ravens in the Backyard

Ravens, startled, rise on wings of black fire

Fox lunging over marbled snow

The skies golden with light

Avoiding the menacing dark cloud

Soaring

 

Featured image: Arizona Sun

Watching two 

birds soar

within the energy of an

air current.

Their movement is

wonderful, delightful, 

so glorious.  And

the beauty of it all

is that their

movement leaves

no trace . 

Links To The Unknown

 Featured image: Arizona Landscape

Spontaneity is how we link to the unknown.

I Became

 

I Became

One of the most eventual and very memorable experiences for me in my life was when I recognized I was one-of-a-kind, and knew it, and that I was a work of art. I imagined, I created, I became.

Featured image: And The Wheel Goes Round And Round

https://christinealfery.com/products/and-the-wheels-go-round-and-round

Fetish

 

Featured image: Arizona Landscape

I tell stories and I create stories for all the works I create.  They are personal stories about my life.  I believe that stories are our wealth.  No money, diamonds, gold, silver or what have you but stories.  Our history.  Stories we create become our history.  I love hearing stories from others about their lives, and the lives of others who are important to them.

Recently I traveled to the southwest, Tubac, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Sedona and Taos.  I hopped in the galleries of all those towns, asking about the stories the artists were telling in their work, both 3 dimensional and 2 dimensional.  At first I tried to visually read the artists' stories but then I found that I needed to do some research so I started asking questions about the artists' visual languages. I researched and bought books on the visual symbolism in their works.  I am still researching – their pictographs, their symbols that they put on their clothing, drums, shields and decorations.  

I was especially drawn to their fetishes.  The first fetish I saw and bought, just because I liked it – turned out to be a major piece. There were 5 fetishes tied on to the back of a mole.  The story here within this carving is that it is a directional fetish. Each of the five fetishes are different colors and different animals, I haven’t been able to identify all the animals but there is a bear, a wolf, and a bird. The yellow fetish is north, the blue one is west, the red one is south, the white one is east and the multicolored one is for sky.  The black mole represents the Idiwan’a – the Middle Place. How likely is it that I would get this sculpture that talks about the Middle Place which I talk about all the time.  The Middle Place is where all Zuni live under the mole's heart. Vital blessings come from each of the directions, the Zuni River flowing into the village from the northeast, the summer rains from the southeast, and the winter snow from the northwest. 

And another one was of two ravens tied together with a turquoise piece on their backs, the fetish.  The women who sold me the work told me about the differences between ravens and crows, or black birds.  Ravens mate for life, crows do not.  Ravens travel along or with their other crows do not they travel in clusters, groups.  I loved the story.  And I loved that the story was being told over and over again.  For me that is what art is all about – the stories, mine and the other viewers of a work.  Stories, our histories.  Just glorious.

Returning home, I am beginning to read all the books I picked up along the way. I am re-immersing myself into their culture.  It is hard because I felt differently when I was there.  Loving their culture and what they were saying.  I know my future work will reflect this trip for a long time – my head is just spinning. First thing will be sketches of Ravens in different postures.  I am lucky to have two ravens visit my feeder almost every day.  I am so excited about it.

Curved Bill Thrasher

Arizona Thrasher

Arizona Sun

Adobe Windows

Two Windows

Watching

 

Featured image: Tree, Tree, Tree

watching
the light
move and change
flooding
the woods
emerging
day