Creatively Thinking

When I begin working in the visual space of abstraction where imaginaries and concepts are floating around, I attempt to create a visual space where my free will makes choices as to what I want to see and what I want others to see.  That is where my training comes in, I have learned how to help others visually read the imaginaries, the concepts that float around in that abstract visual space. These concepts are real – a beautiful reality, they are objective, so others can see them also. They are not nonobjective. This for me is the struggle when I come to a blank white sheet of paper, to look for and emphasize in my work those concepts for which I believe in – independence, individuality and freedom and hope that others can see them also.  This is the challenge of my work.  These are the subjects in my work. The piece I recently finished.  “Tightrope” Which is part of my Precious Jewels series.  Let me know if you can visualize, independence, individuality and...

My current thinking seems to be asking the age old question,  "What is art?"  I don't know why I say my current thinking. I have been asking that question ever since post modernism with all of its relativity. Not only has art become part of the postmodern movement, it has also become less precious. It seems that everyone accepts comments such as "anyone can make art" and "it's all about your own personal interpretation or how one sees things."  I believe art, aesthetics, are all about personal interpretation. That does not make art relative and subjective. How can I say that? Everyone is unique and all “art” is unique.  If an object is not unique, original, and one-of-a-kind, then it isn’t art.  The idea, the concept and their uniqueness is art.   Just like one person is unique to themselves and to their own individuality, “art” is unique to itself and its own individuality.  It does not depend on collective thinking.   NOT everyone’s i...

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