Newly Commissioned Painting, "Life Calmly Gives Out Its Own Secret"

Life Calmly Gives Out Its Own Secret
48" x 60"
Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas
Harvey Collection
Dallas, TX

You see, I want a lot.

Perhaps I want everything

the darkness that comes with the infinite fall 

and the shivering blaze of every step up.

So many live on and want nothing

and are raised to the rank of prince

by the slippery ease of their light judgments.

But what you love to see are faces

that do work and feel thirst.

You love most of all those who need you

as they need a crowbar or hoe.

You have not grown old, and it is not too late

to dive into your increasing depths

where life clamly gives out its own secret.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

Das Stundenbuch

Let Me Come and Be Still in Your Silence

24" x 48"
Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas
SOLD
Khudairi Collection
Houston, TX

This painting now belongs to a wonderful couple form Houston who came to visit my studio in Dallas. Mr. Khudairi asked me to  explain the meaning behind the painting,  specifically,  what did those words say that were  barely legible in the background. As far as the writings, I frequently incorporate the written word into my  works. Poetry has really found a unique place in my life.  I collage  favorite poetry of mine into the background of my pieces.  I've found that  most of the writings are barely legible in the background, it is a way for me to give my  even though  paintings a "voice", and convey a meaningful, personal message from my soul  to the viewer,  a message that is left up to them to interpret.  Pablo Neruda is my favorite spanish speaking poet, hands down.  Some of the writings  in the background come from this poem below, as does the title.  The rest are pages from my handwritten journals.  Neruda directs his language so well in this poem,  making you almost whisper most of it.  Beautiful.  I Like for You to be Still I like for you to be still: it as though you were absent, and you hear me from far away and my voice does not                           touch you It seems as though your eyes had flown away and it seems that a kiss had sealed your mouth. As all things are filled with my soul you emerge from the things, filled with my soul. You are like my soul, a butterfly of dream, and you are like the word Melancholy. I like for you to be still, and you seem far away. It sounds as though you were lamenting,  a butterfly cooing like                           a dove And you hear me from far away, and my voice does not reach                           you: Let me come to be still in your silence. And let me talk to you with your silence that is bright as a lamp,  simple as a ring. Your are like the night, with its stillness and constellations. Your silence is that of a star, as remote and candid. I like for you to be still: it is as though you were absent, distant and full of sorrow as though you had died. One word then, one smile, is enough. And I am happy, happy that it’s not true.

New Painting, "The Search for Simplicity"

In Search of Simplicity New Painting Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas 16" x 20" x 1.5" Available "One day I will find the right words. And they will be simple." -Kerouac This painting was literally 5 other paintings before it was this one. There was so much I was trying to say with this canvas, and the message got really jumbled in my head. I felt like my ideas, my wishes for this one were in one of those stone tumblers that I used to long for as a kid, those mysterious machines that took ordinary rocks, swallowed them, and spat them out all shiny and interesting-looking. Once I stopped trying to force the ideas and let the painting speak through me, speak to me, did it emerge. That's how it always happens. One day I will learn...

Newly Commissioned Painting, "Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace"

"Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace" 

36" x 36" x 1.5"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

Wallace Collection

I came across the following scripture verse yesterday 

and it stuck with me:

"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. That we may find mercy and grace in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)" 

What a great reminder. I knew it belonged to a painting, but only when this one was complete did I see how the two fit together.  To come boldly, fearlessly, to something new and surrender to it offers the opportunity to find the grace within.

This client had a specific color scheme and style in mind and then let me run with it. Here is what emerged. I love working on commissions and allowing someone's vision to speak through my own. This union never fails to lead to something beautiful.


There colors were a bit of a departure for me, and already they have found their way into several other paintings I am simultaneously working on in the studio. I love how each painting influences the next and leads to progress and growth in this little artistic journey I'm on.

Stella Gets Her Groove Back, or Thank God for Summer School

Feeling so inspired today...2 commissions and 4 new paintings rolling in the studio.

"I think people don't place a high enough value on how much they are nurtured by doing whatever it is that totally absorbs them" 

Jean Bolen

I tend to work in spurts, frantically creating every second I can steal away into the studio for weeks at a time, followed by  a bit of  a drought.  To roll with that analogy, these past few weeks have been like the Sahara Desert. During this downtime, I believe some part of my brain is subconsciously letting the creative energy sort of pool for a bit and slowly reprogramming, recollecting. 

Luckily these dry spells are actually a good opportunity to catch up on bookkeeping, updating the website, client meeting, etc...all of the business of being an Artist that most people forget about. Taking care of business (or "TCB" as we call it around here) is actually a welcome change of gears for me because it keeps me from feeling like my career is idling and the bonus is that often leads to more progress, jobs, etc.

It is amazing to me each time when these droughts strike that inevitably the muse returns...because when I am in one of my little creative breaks I often wonder how I am ever going to muster the inspiration up to paint again. To me, creativity is not something that can be "used up". It is an infinite well that we can always tap into.  Even though the well may lie dormant for a while, it is never dry.  I love how each new work I paint leads me to the next...this little journey I am on is quite an amazing ride when I stop back and take a look.

I'm sure it's no coincidence that all three of my kids, ages 4 and under, will now be out of the house (and out of my studio) two days a week for summer school.  It has been fun having them home every day for the past few weeks as it has given us a lot of leisure time to play with friends, plan fun excursions, but I am a big proponent that breaks are good for everyone.

Stella got her groove back!

Newly Commissioned Painting, "In the Garden of Truth and Light"

Mr. D and I recently returned from a weekend in Las Vegas with some dear friends. While the boys were gambling, we girls went shopping in one of the totally outrageous and over-the-top (what else would you expect in LV?) malls they had there.  Amidst the high couture and garish lighting and fountains,we were captivated with these beautiful clusters of poppies that were blooming.  My friend Erin even mentioned that they reminded her of one of my paintings.  It was so random, but we just played the tourist card and snapped a few pics.

Believe it or not, a few days after our return I was commissioned by a Client to make a poppy painting.  

(Cue "Twilight Zone" music.)

Just goes to show if you are patient, listen, and have faith, you will find that the Universe is unfolding exactly as it should.

In the Garden of Truth and Light
24" x 24"
Acrylic and Mixed on Canvas
SOLD

This painting was made especially for a woman who truly comes to life when she is outside working in the garden. I light-heartedly refer to Cathy as a "plant artist". I wanted to create something that stayed within the confines of her request for a bright poppy painting, but also conveyed her own personal warmth and light.


I wrote a personal message to her on the back that read: "While spending time in the garden, you can fall into a deep meditation...one where you have complete identification with the earth.  At this higher conscious state, we realize that the light of love is all around us because it is a part of our divine nature."

New Paintings, "Connected and Detached"

22" x 36"

(2 canvases, 18" x 22" each)

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

"In the space of letting go, she let it all be.  A small smile came over her face.  A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and moon shined forevermore."

-Safire Rose

I worked on these canvases at the same time and simply cannot decide if they are supposed to remain connected or not...they work both separate and together.  All this thinking about connection led me to the title, and got me thinking about the meaning behind the connections between all of us.

I think the easy part about manifesting/creating those things that we want in our lives is the desire and the imagining.  These are the fun parts. For me, the hard part is detachment.

Often, we get attached to how we expect certain things to come to us, when or where. Or we are attached to how certain things/people "should " or "ought to" be.  And of course, these expectations hinder us. We get in our own way.

The secret is in the allowing and the understanding and with that, the letting go.

Perhaps today, right now, is finally the time just to let it all go, and let it all be.

This painting is currently on display at Momo's on Knox in Dallas and available for purchase. Fine art giclee prints available on Etsy.

New Painting, "Spaces in Our Togetherness"

24" x 28" x 1.5"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

“But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”

 Kahlil Gibran

After I finished this painting, I tried to make some sense of it and figure out where it came from within me. Sometimes I know before I paint, and sometimes, as in the case of this one, it only becomes obvious afterwards. 

Anyone who follows my work can see that birch trees are one of my favorite subjects. They simultaneously convey a strength and frailty that I find fascinating. I looked at the painting above and realized that there are five trees in this one. "Why did I just paint 5 this time?", I asked myself. Then I realized that there are 5 people in my family and discovered upon reflection that this painting was inspired subconsciously by them. My husband and my three children are my whole world. However, without the spaces in our togetherness, without my time to myself, often spent in the studio, to nourish my spirit and my soul, I am not fully me. These spaces in our togetherness make us whole, make us strong, as much as anything else.

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, email me for details.

A Poem for Wednesday: Poetry

Life on Mars          11" x 14"                    Oil and Mixed Media on Gallery Wrapped Canvas       Available on Etsy Poetry

And it was at that age ... Poetry arrived in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where it came from, from winter or a river. I don't know how or when, no they were not voices, they were not words, nor silence, but from a street I was summoned, from the branches of night, abruptly from the others, among violent fires or returning alone, there I was without a face and it touched me. I did not know what to say, my mouth had no way with names, my eyes were blind, and something started in my soul, fever or forgotten wings, and I made my own way, deciphering that fire, and I wrote the first faint line, faint, without substance, pure nonsense, pure wisdom of someone who knows nothing, and suddenly I saw the heavens unfastened and open, planets, palpitating plantations, shadow perforated, riddled with arrows, fire and flowers, the winding night, the universe. And I, infinitesimal being, drunk with the great starry void, likeness, image of mystery, felt myself a pure part of the abyss, I wheeled with the stars, my heart broke loose on the wind.  Pablo Neruda

New Painting, "Big as the Sky"

24" x 24" 

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

Would you hold my head up high?
Would you make my life as big as the sky?
Would you spend the rest of your life with me?"
-a.m. sixty

The painting is a part of my abstract series and was created using oil paint, mixed media and collage. I have yet to visit Montana, but am confident we will get to Jackson Hole in the next few summers and am curious if the image on my canvas, the one that my mind's eye holds, matches up to the reality of Big Sky Country. 


My aim in this work was to capture how this big sky, the universe, puts it all into perspective.  How can I feel so small sometimes and as others as big as the sky?

I have listed this one on etsy if you are interested in purchase.
Copyright of work, including all rights of reproduction in any form, are held by the artist.
©2010 Gina Marie Dunn

New Homes

I love when collectors snap photos and email them to me.  As an artist, there is nothing more special than knowing a piece of me has been left with them for as long as they choose to display my paintings on their walls. Here are a few shots of my paintings in their new homes.  

A Poem for Wednesday: The Road Not Taken

Solitary Pine

10" x 12"

Watercolor on Paper

This painting is available on my Etsy site.

The Road Not Taken 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

by Robert Frost

New Painting(s): Podcast I & II

two canvases, 

15" x 30" x 1.5" each

oil and mixed

"You must be who you are and cultivate this. Do not wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working." Henri Matisse

In these two paintings (Podcast II detail on left), I have begun to explore a new series in my works...the theme of Growth: The Miracle in the Seed.  So many of my paintings explore this already, how nature grows and changes and how that is reflective of personal development. Where we come from, who we become...how we were made, how we change...why only some thrive and why...

Collective Subconscious

20" x 52"
(3 Canvases, 16" x 20" each)
Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

The Swiss pshychoanalyist Carl Jung suggested that we all share a reservoir of memories--the collective unconsciousness--which consists of common images or archetypes, expressed as kind or wicked people, good or evil spirits, images in nature, etc.  These are derived from the long experience of the human race, passed down in an unconscious mode from our ancestors.  Thus we may all share the same images within our dreams or nightmares.

Do you ever dream of trees, forests or a quiet sky?  Sometimes I dream of things over and over again, only to process these dreams through a painting and then find the image in my head is gone.

Love Grows

8" x 10"
Acrylic and Mixed on Canvas


“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” - Albert Einstein


This new little painting is now on display at The Blues Jean Bar in Snider Plaza. I always love to be reminded that my outlook on life is a choice. Here's to choosing to live today like it's a miracle.

See My Light; Love My Dark

12" x 16" 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed on Canvas

“There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion” -Carl Jung

The most terrifying thing is to accept yourself completely. I created this piece with the sentiment that nobody is perfect, everyone is flawed in some way.  When you truly learn how to love someone, you love them as a whole person.  You love the dark and the light.

A Poem for Wednesday

Conception

30" x 40"

Oil and Mixed on Canvas

Fine Art Prints of this original painting are available on my Etsy site.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends And before the street begins, And there the grass grows soft and white, And there the sun burns crimson bright, And there the moon-bird rests from his flight To cool in the peppermint wind. Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black And the dark street winds and bends. Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And watch where the chalk-white arrows go To the place where the sidewalk ends. Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go, For the children, they mark, and the children, they know The place where the sidewalk ends. Shel Silverstein

Thursday's Other Creative Soul: ART is ART and Mother/Daughter Owners, Carrie Jepsen and Renata Holder

Today's feature spotlights ART is ART, a unique gem on Henderson. ART is ART is a mother-daughter owned furniture/artwork/accessories shop, located east of 75, that was voted “Best Art Support” by Dallas Observer and “Best Consignment Store” by Dallas Voice.



Name/Location:
ART is ART consignment gallery
2811 N. Henderson Ave., Dallas, TX 75206
Tues. - Sat. 11 to 5:30, Sun. Noon to 5 (Closed Mon.)


Tell us about your work.
At ART is ART consignment gallery in Dallas, the main focus is spring-boarding talented, local artists by showcasing their original, modern artwork at surprisingly comfortable prices. While absorbing, customers will also discover contemporary and vintage furniture and accessories, as well as individualistic, hand-crafted jewelry and pottery.

What would your *ideal* day be like?
We love a day when we get new furniture and artwork on consignment, and we get to rearrange the store to incorporate the new pieces. Renata's day job as a commercial interior designer makes this an easy task. We love to arrange in such a way that our customers can envision the items in their spaces. Ideally, clients are inspired to buy multiple pieces that work well together, and they feel good about supporting local artists in the process. It's a win-win for everyone! OH, and we love days when the local celebs pop in! Wentworth Miller, star of Prison Break, chose ART is ART to hunt for a gift for Ellen DeGeneres. NBC's weather gal, Samantha Davies, did a little browsing. Kelly Clarkson bought art and furniture, and yes, she sings while she shops! Kellie Rasberry of the "Kidd Kraddick in the Morning Show" did her Christmas shopping for Kidd and bought him a cool painting by artist, Debb ie Simms! Kellie is super sweet in person, and boy is she tall!



Renata Holder, Kellie Rasberry and Carrie Jepsen

What are your passions?
At ART is ART, we're passionate about supporting our local artists and helping them receive the attention they deserve. Their work is so breath-taking! We're also passionate about offering a wide range of inventory that accommodates any shopper's budget.

What are your goals?
We plan to continue to grow our business like crazy and increase the promotion of our fabulously-talented, local artists. We're excited about the future of ART is ART, and we hope to continue to be the buzz of the town. We've won "Best Of" titles from the Observer and twice from Dallas Voice! We'll keep hosting eventslike our annual "Candlelight Walk on Henderson" every November that involves tons of shops on Henderson staying open late and offering discounts, munchies and bevs. Crowds of people enjoy shopping up and down the street, while getting a jump on their holiday gift buying!


Renata and Carrie hosting the "Candlelight Walk on Henderson" November 2009.

Who are your creative influences?
We typically showcase 15-20 different artists from the Dallas area, and they continue to blow us away! We constantly keep our walls filled, and we're inspired by their artwork every day.

Are there any other relevant experiences that shaped who you are today and what you do?
ART is ART is owned by Renata and Carrie, a mother-daughter team. Renata is an artist and partner in a design firm. Carrie is a budding artist with a background in advertising. They get along well and often desired starting a creative business together. Thus, ART is ART was born. Doors opened in 2004 on Lower Greenville. It began as a contemporary furniture and accessories shop with a touch of local artwork. After eight months, the store was forced to close due to the tear-down and construction of retail/apartments, which was just as well because the location wasn’t quite right. A year later, ART is ART reopened on Oram St. at Skillman and evolved into a more eclectic atmosphere. Within a short timeframe, the wealth of local, artistic talent began to present itself. Jewelry designers got in on the action, and retro furniture and complements were added to the mix. Two years later, the decision was made to scout out a more visible, hip location. On September 1, 2007, ART is ART relocated to Henderson Ave. Finally … the perfect fit! Third time’s a charm. Locals agree that it’s the absolute, casual dig for right-brain stimulation.

What are your web sites/social networking links?
www.artisart.biz Connect with us on Bizzy.com under ART is ART consignment, and follow us on Facebook under Artisart Consignments.