In order to counterbalance the chaos and craziness that apparently is our new normal, I consistently turn to three things: Nature; moving my body in some way; and creativity. (Ok, four things if we’re counting wine.) I felt the need to reconnect with you all and, since I don’t really have much to say, I thought I would show you what I’ve been up to in the creativity department.

These two paintings were accepted in the Hawaii Watercolor Society Open Show:

“Moonchild” is the batik painting on my website that has a video demonstrating how I work the wax-resist method. Fun and fast to watch.

“The Starry Unknown” was a fun experiment in creating abstract art. I love how the white part of the paper, the section without paint, glows.

Coming up in October is the first annual Strong Artist Life online show and I have a few paintings accepted in that as well. You will see invites to check it out on my Facebook page.

“Exploda” is an exploration into multi-media creativity. In this case, I started with the batik watercolor method, then added hand-painted collage papers, then I added another layer of backing paper and used fluid acrylics and gesso over all that. This process was so fun and crazy that I’m going to show you all the steps in a separate post so keep an eye out.”

“Wake Up Laughing” This is another Take 2 abstract inspired by the outlines from dried color washes left behind from other paintings. An extra gift from the art faeries.

I’m prepping for a batik demonstration I’ll give this month and I decided on five bamboo designs ranging from distant view to an almost abstract close up image. I used the same color palettes for each one and am, as always, inspired by the varied the results. I’m going to show the group one painting in progress for each stage in the batik process. If you are on Instagram or Facebook, you can find very short videos on my sites telling about these paintings and their progress.

Here are some of the demo paintings in progress. I’ll explain more about each one later:

This design stage has three color washes, two wax applications as well as the final overall wax application. This one is ready to be ironed and then on to watercolor crayons and colored pencils, collage, fluid acrylics, or whatever else I can think of.

Here you see two color washes and two wax applications. I’m also creating a new portfolio of my paintings, a binder of giclée prints, to show and tell my take on the batik method. I also had my photographer create print packs - giclée prints of my paintings with mats - that I’ll offer to the group as well. I look forward to interacting with them.

What about you? I hope you are establishing your own new routines, ways of keeping your minds and bodies sane, healthy and happy. Let me know what’s working for you.

Exploda demo coming next, gang…

Judy

Here are three things I believe: 1) We are all creators; 2) we all need to express ourselves and; 3) we are all motivated by the desire to see and to be seen. To me, it’s not about ego. I think we are driven to want to matter, to interact, to connect, and to perhaps create something more by joining together. Individual efforts bring results; cooperation, however, usually achieves more.

Let me tell you a story of co-creation - a story about creativity, of serendipitous timing, and of five loving hearts.

It begins on a Sunday as one heart approaches another…singer/ songwriter Mary Veselka has written a lullaby and wants to use her friend’s art to create a video to accompany her recording. This artist friend, Sherri Harris, is also a friend of mine. As Sherri listened to Mary’s song, she knew her work wasn’t the right fit. And then she thought of me.

So far, we have three loving hearts in this tale. Number four is my web wizard friend, Robin Sagara, who worked with Sherri to get her the perfect paintings for the video.

Now, friend Sherri is also an art curator and she orchestrates her church’s art gallery. Her next program was to showcase children artists and she wanted to play this video alongside the hanging works in the gallery. Sherri shared the lullaby with the kids and let them paint whatever came to mind.

When she sent me the first results, the audio track was separate from the video. I experienced issues with compatibility between our software and computers and I couldn’t open some of the files. Originally, the artwork was to be mine alone yet, once Sherri saw the children’s paintings, she knew that theirs and mine should dance together to the song. (When you watch the video, I would ask you to pay attention to Sherri’s finding the perfect visual fits for Mary’s words.)

These computer glitches required the expertise of our story’s fifth loving heart, Pamela Roberson. She is another artist friend and also an art coach; Sherri and I belong to her Strong Artist Life group. Pamela’s heart (and computer skills) combined the soundtrack and the paintings into a flowing montage that makes me cry every time.

Of course, all the little children’s hearts belong in this story as it is their paintings, expressing their little shining selves, coupled with Mary’s words, that bring the tears. As the title says, “Co-creation at its best.”

Dream on little dreamers…

Judy

How are you feeling now that life is back in gear? I’m eager to see how my life will play out and I hope you find yourselves in a positive frame of mind. Maybe it’s the I-am-so-ready-to-move-on frame of mind. It’s all good.

"Delirium" first color wash. I love love love the marks created by the air bubbles. Not sure where I’m going with this yet, I just wanted some bright color.

The craziness of the past year shifted my focus. I’ve been busy culling, cleaning, and reorganizing my condo and studio space in addition to up-leveling my creative and professional self.

I’m having a bucket load of fun in the studio experimenting with a lot of “what ifs”: What if I used this weird color? What if I started mounting the rice paper onto panel boards? What if I started applying gel mediums over my batiks? What if I used collaged papers to create designs?

Second color wash: First, I waxed the spirals on the first color wash. Then, I enhanced the magenta and added a contrast blue-green.

In baseball terms, I’m feeling the thrill of uncertainty stepping up to home plate, bat in had, ready to swing. Not concerned with home runs, I’m simply lobbing balls into play and reminding myself to be alert and open to whatever comes my way.

I changed the orientation from vertical to landscape and intensified the existing colors. Still too ho-hum, I added yellow.

I’m also busy on the business end of life (bleah) organizing digital photo files, creating show-and-tell booklets to leave at art galleries, and entering my paintings in shows.

I’ve recently finished new paintings which will be photographed soon. They’ll be on the website shortly.

Pushing the “What if I did this?” button, here you see gold thread I’ve embroidered onto the spirals. I’m still not done with this puppy; it lacks enough tension for my taste so you’ll have to visit the website to see the final version.

Stay tuned!

Judy

P.S. If you are curious about the batik process, check out my Facebook page for my short and sweet “Studio Update” videos.