The Evolution of a Painting

This painting is a part of a recent pair of large pieces (3 feet by 4 feet) I completed for a local Designer and her client. The creative exchange in commissioned pieces is such a give-and-take, and throughout the process I was continuously emailing pics of the works in progress to the Designer and then working from her feedback to ensure the finished paintings' colors met --and hopefully surpassed-- her client's expectations. 

Here is a little glimpse into that process, and how the painting evolved:

Client requested the addition of blues and yellows...

Client requested less contrast...

We explored some gray-blues and warming up the  general feeling of the piece.

People often ask, "How do you know when a painting is finished?". I can understand why, especially with an abstract composition that is so non-objective, this is such a common question.  The best answer I can give is that I know I'm finished when I look at the painting and it doesn't bug me anymore. I look at it and am at peace.  

Finished.


Peace. :)

The Art Menu: November

The Art Menu is a Dallas-based company who handles the sale of canvas giclee prints from my original paintings.  They represent an elite group of roughly 20 Dallas-area Artists, and I am grateful to be one of them.  

The boys behind this company recognize local talent and take time to share the Artists' visions and the unique stories behind each piece with their audience.  It's not an everyday occurrence when someone can purchase a giclee and actually say they got to know the Artist behind it. And isn't that why everyone buys art...to connect with something meaningful? To be a part of a story, share an experience and create a memory?  Kudos to these guys for making this privilege more accessible to people who may not be in the market to purchase original artwork, but still want to own a meaningful piece.

To top it off, they are some genuinely nice guys and I really enjoy working with them! I am so excited to be their featured Artist of the Month. Check out my feature here. Also, here's a peek at a few listed as giclee prints:

The City of Blinding Lights

Our True Nature

And You Will Rise Up Like the Sea

The company launched just this year and I have been with them since the beginning.  As a working Artist, it's wonderful to have the hassle of producing my own giclées out of my hands, and put the paint brush back where it belongs so to speak.  Their giclee prints are produced in Dallas' Design District in a meticulous process that ensures the utmost qulaity. I have seen several of them in person and it is really quite difficult to tell if they are prints or originals.


Check them out on Facebook here to stay on top of news and upcoming shows. The Art Menu is planning several launch events in 2012 that are not to be missed! 

New Painting, "The City of Blinding Lights"

My Soul is Restless Til It Rests in You
36" x 36" x 1.5"
Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas
Available
Fine Art Giclee Prints available via The Art Menu

“Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential. ”- Wassily Kandinsky

Create: Local

Mr. D and I were headed to dinner at Bolsa, and as we pulled into the parking lot, I was thrilled to see the Dowdy Studio wagon set up for business right in front.  After hearing about their mobile pop-up "art wagon" for months, it was really fun to see it in person, meet Dylan and Pamela Dowdy  (the husband and wife team of Owners) and shop their tiny treasure trove of handmade goods. 


If you haven't seen the Dowdy Studio Wagon yet, here's a little backstory: In January, Dylan and Pamela renovated a 72 square feet empty cargo trailer. With their visions combined for an unique artistically driven mobile shopping experience, they got to work building and remodeling, the interior of their own kind of love child, the Dowdy Studio Wagon. 

Dylan screenprints his original music-inspired designs on clothing and accessories, including wood clocks. Pamela works full-time for Fossil as a senior graphic designer/illustrator, and comes home to Dowdy Studio where she illustrates her own interpretation of nature in her Scandinavian modern style in her jewelry, art and more.  

They are such a nice, genuine couple, and what resonates most when you talk to them is that they are living their dream and making a life out of their passion.  Their mission is " to spread the love of handmade local goods and encourage Dallas to have fun while supporting their local artists." 

Who can argue with that?

Photo courtesy of Dowdy Studio

The t-shirts showing off their original illustrations are easily the softest I have ever felt. Dylan chalked that up to "5 years of trial and error" in their quest to find the best shirt. I think he hit the jackpot. We picked up a "Drink Local" one, and I already foresee us fighting over it.


Find them on Facebook here. Follow that wagon!

The Third Child

The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to 
sit. ~Nelson Henderson


"The third child."
That phrase is used in our society as a euphemism for parental oversight, implying by the time you are on #3, that one practically is raising himself, with a little help from the older siblings.  Well, in our case it's sort of true. But as my husband and I have relaxed a bit with each of our children, we have noticed that, in turn, they have relaxed as well. 


And Mack is certainly the most relaxed of all. He is a little frat boy trapped in an 18 month-old's body...complete with the big gut, up-for-anything attitude and floppy curls.  So stinkin' cute, you can even forgive him for this little biting phase he's in right now.


My pregnancy with him changed our lives. After our previous "normal/boring" pregnancies with the other two (which is exactly what you pray for), we received devastating news at 20 weeks along with Mack about a rare birth defect in our unborn son's lung. At that point even his survival was uncertain. Weekly visits to the perinatologist and pediatric cardiologist for sonograms filled me with dread. His outcome, his survival, was in question each week. But as agonizing as it was, I am forever grateful for the experience of carrying this child and what it taught me.


I went to the canvas to process my feelings of anxiety, fear and maternal longing. I created profusely because I didn't know any other way to process what was happening to my baby. Today, by God's grace he is 100% healthy and full of life, our very own little Miracle Mack. 

Effervescence

But if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have returned to my art.  Those paintings I created with him became the jumping off point for me to start showing and selling my work again. In utero, he inspired me to return home to the canvas, and create, and he continues to inspire me each day. He teaches me to be present, to appreciate every moment. Because even though we are at the mercy of powers greater than us, God has a plan. Life is precious and beautiful.

I Hold So Much in My Heart for You

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...

New Painting, The Quest for Clarity

16" x 20"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas
Available for online purchase here

“More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity.” -Francois Gautier

If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans, right? Well, He has certainly had a good laugh on my behalf.

You think I would learn by now that good things only come from an authentic place, a place of clarity. This painting was a little light in the middle of feeling creatively tapped out at the moment. I have been working in the studio, a little too hard lately, with a sense of certainty...certain that I have to create something important, certain that this next piece will be my greatest.  After a week, it seems I ended up completely scrapping three canvases, just too overworked to salvage, and this one that was sort of my "test" canvas, my  "study" where I could be loose and free and not worry about the outcome so much, was the jewel.

Certainty can sometimes silence our strongest instincts–when, ironically, certainty is always an illusion.

The secure job could become obsolete. The dependable friend could move away. The stable relationship could run its course.

None of the things that seem secure and safe are guaranteed to endure–not forever, or for any length of time, for that matter. The nature of life is that everything moves and changes, ebbs and flows, with beginnings, middles, and ends.

We don’t get to know what will end when. We don’t get to know how long things will last. We can play the odds, try to align ourselves with probability for maximum longevity, comfort, and ease. Or we can instead focus on the possibilities that excite us and enjoy the journey to and through them, one moment at a time.

We can either make what seems to be the best choice for minimal loss and change; or we can get clear about what we want to do with the short amount of time we have, and then embrace the unknown, with our passion as a compass, finding our way as we go.

The irony about choosing the path that seems the most certain is that it generally guarantees only one thing: that we go through life wondering how things could have been if only we weren’t so scared.

Today if you find yourself clinging to something that feels predictable and safe, ask yourself: Are these the moments I want to remember when I look back on my life some day?

Newly Commissioned Piece, "Between the Stillness and the Movement"

16" x 20"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

Private Collection of Erina Alvarado

"You tell me to stand still but I am not walking," he shouted, "whereas you who are walking say you are still. How is it that you are standing still but I am not?"

The Buddha turned round, "My legs move but my mind is still," he said. "Your legs are still but your mind moves all the time in a fire of anger, hatred, and feverish desire. Therefore, I am still but you are not." 

- Majjhima Nikaya

Fine art giclee prints of this and my other original works are available here on my Etsy site.

New Painting, "Remain Fluid in All Things"

12" x 12" x 1.5"
Oil and Mixed on Canvas
Available HERE

When I completed this painting, I was reminded of the Charles Bukowski Poem, below...

no help for that / Charles Bukowski

there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled

a space

and even during the
best moments
and
the greatest
times

we will know it

we will know it
more than
ever

there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled

and

we will wait
and
wait

in that
space.

~ You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense, 1986

And isn’t this the truth?  The space haunts me. It follows me around wherever I go, no matter who I’m with, at any given moment. At the darkest moments, it feels like a gaping hole in my small universe. At other times, the space is shallow, but it’s never full.

This space is restlessness, a longing for more, not be confused with unhappiness or depression. It’s fidgeting, constantly going and moving and talking and thinking. For me, it is a fear of never feeling complete or always adrift in the world.  But here's the thing I focused on while painting this piece...that's not always a bad thing.

But even in the best of times, times when I should feel like I have it all, there is a glint of something missing…

I have always thought that I just wasn’t occupying the space with the right things. It is an ongoing challenge for me to be comfortable there. So, I have always tried to fill it. I have tried to cover it up with family obligations, friendships, yoga, partying and work. But, I realize now, the space can never be filled.

As Bukowski writes, there is no help for that. The space will always be with us. What I strive to do is learn to accept it and face the insecurity, rather than fill it.

The space is not supposed to take us over. It is there to remind us that there is more and there will always be more. It is our motivation to continue searching for those things and people that keep the space small. And  there is nothing wrong with that faint indication of longing…

New Painting,"The Valley in the Middle of My Soul"

The Valley of the Middle of My Soul

30" x 40" x 1.5"d

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

Available

" A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." -Lao Tzu

This painting began as a study for a larger commissioned painting. I was able to play with the colors and textures and movements that felt right instead of worrying what was manifesting itself on the canvas met the requirements of the Client. In a sense, it came from a more authentic place. It evolved through me, flowed from somewhere in the valley of the middle of my soul...hence the title.

Detail

It struck me how much significance this piece had in and of itself. It is a part of the journey, and the journey itself is home.The path to enlightenment--and more practically, the path to mental, physical, and spiritual peace--begins, like most journeys, with a leap of faith. Through philosophical enquiry of just a basic surrendering of something we refer to as "ego," we may take the first steps of learning.

Decorate your Walls; Decorate Your Soul: 6 Reasons to Invest in Original Art

On Golden Waves
24" x 28"
Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

#1 Because it moves you and makes you feel

Some art just resonates with us. It moves us. It stirs our soul and evokes an emotion, a memory, an intangible thought – and we want to capture that feeling and feel it again and again. If you find art that you truly love, that makes you feel happy and inspired, buy it and bring it home with you, and you will return to that place every time you look at your painting. 

"The City of Blinding Lights"
24" x 36" x 1.5"
Oil and Mixed on Canvas

#2 – To mark the milestones

Some people like to collect art to mark the milestones in their lives.   For example, many couples like to invest in a piece of original art on their honeymoon, as a reminder of their wedding and the special bond that they have, and then purchase a piece each year on their anniversary. Others like to purchase new pieces when they move to a new home, or to celebrate the birth of a child and thus began a legacy of sharing the love of art with your children. Paintings also make the most memorable wedding gifts...you may not remember who sent you those crystal goblets but you will always know who sent you the painting. 

#3 -Art reduces stress

We are surrounded by to-do lists, chores, errands, and tons of advertising messages. Taking a moment or two to look at artwork gives us a visual vacation. It is refreshing. It can lift your mood. Owning and displaying art can enrich your life and reduces stress. It can take you back in time as you recall the memory or occasion you purchased it, or move your forward as a little mental escape.

Relax
24" x 24" x 1.5"
Oil and Mixed on Canvas

#4 – Art personalizes your space

The walls in your home are the walls of your own private gallery. You are both curator and artist. Choose art that is an extension of you. Original art is the ultimate conversation piece. It always gets noticed by your guests. Artwork is a signature way to personalize your home, office, or whatever other space you want to enhance. The art you select reflects your personality, style, and taste. It is a great way to make a space feel comfortable, to make it your own.

Original art avoids a cookie-cutter look. It brings warmth and life to a building and makes it a home. If you like quality – granite countertops and high-end fixtures and appliances – then I encourage you to invest in original art, rather than reproductions. Original art will enhance the quality of your home.

"Stay in This Moment"
10" x 10" x 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed

#5– Original art is unique

There is nothing like an original piece of art. You are the only one in the world who possesses it.  With an original piece of art, you get the complete visual experience created by the artist. Sure, you can get a print instead, but the print lacks so much of the original. There is a richness to an original piece that just can’t be matched – or even come close! You get to see every brush stroke, all the nuances of color and depth. 

Self Symmetry
14" x 22"
(2 Canvases, 11" x 14" each)

#6 – You ensure that art continues to be made

Wouldn’t the world be a sad place without art?  If there were no art to add beauty and decoration to our lives? It is disappearing at an alarming rate in our children's schools, and as parents it is up to us to foster a love of creativity in future generations. 

Believe me, Artists are not creating art to get rich. There is something in us that drives us to create. When you purchase an original painting, you are voting with your wallet and helping to ensure that the Artist can continue making art!  

What other reasons to invest in original art can you think of?

I’d love to hear them! And thanks for stopping by!

Gladiolas
24" x 24"
Acrylic and Mixed on Canvas

All of the paintings featured are by me and available if you are looking for some original art of your own.  Email inquiries to utopiapkwyarts@yahoo.com.

New Painting, "All Around Them, the Universe Began to Unfold"

24" x 28" x 1.5"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

Original is available 

Giclee prints available for online purchase here.

I am so fascinated with the symbolism of the lotus flower. The roots of a lotus are in the mud, the stem grows up through the water, and the heavily scented flower lies pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight. This pattern of growth signifies the progress of the soul from the primeval mud of materialism, through the waters of experience, and into the bright sunshine of enlightenment.

Though there are other water plants that bloom above the water, it is only the lotus which, owing to the strength of its stem, regularly rises eight to twelve inches above the surface.

According to the Lalitavistara, "the spirit of the best of men is spotless, like the lotus in the muddy water which does not adhere to it."

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.

New Painting, Let me Come and be Still in Your Silence

24" x 48"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

"The trees in the storm don't try to stand up straight and tall and erect. They allow themselves to bend and be blown with the wind. They understand the power of letting go. Those trees and those branches that try too hard to stand up strong and straight are the ones that break." ~Julia Butterfly Hill

Try as I might, no matter what I am working on, I always return to my tree paintings. Their symbolism, the strength and frailty and giving they portray, is synonymous with how I see myself.  

(Detail)