- Published on
Become Tidal
oil on cradled wood panel
12 x 12 x .75 inches
This item is unframed but ready to hang.
i no longer pray
to become unbreakable.
i pray
to become tidal.
to know exactly
when to recede,
when to rise,
and to never mistake
either
for defeat. - k.e. (Kocheli Poetry)
The words appeared after the art this week, crossing my path serendipitously during a random wander across the internet.
Imagine knowing when to recede, when to rise. Some days I do know. Others, not so much.
In the world, in conversations, in interactions, in art. Receding does often feel like defeat, and yet it is not. Rising sometimes feels like defeat (especially if I've taken the bait in a challenging interaction) and yet it is not. That I can recede and rise is proof that I am tidal. I break like waves to be reformed again. I rise like waves to crash again. The cycle is evidence of my tenacity and resilience.
In the art world I receded for a few years. Never disappearing (receding is still being, after all) but just doing less. It was necessary to focus on the art and my own creative development, and allowed the time to slay a few personal dragons.
And then the rise began. I said yes to a few things (including oooooh la la MONSTROUS) and art events and even learning some new (to me) technology.
But it is time for a mini receding, as this artist/writer/blogger/malarkey-maker takes a little break and hikes her way across the rugged coast for a few weeks. The blog will return in late September.
Where are you in your personal tide cycle these days?
About the art: beginning with a cradled wood panel covered with the new primer I've been obsessed with, I roughed in the big shapes loosely with a brush and thinned oil paint. This piece had a LOT of ugly stages as I went along. To the point where I nearly abandoned it. I had become to precious with the paint work and it lost all sense of organicness.
A lesson in sticking with it and letting go, because the last two layers really made this piece SING! A little bit of very wet paint at the bottom right to cause the drip lines for added texture. A palette knife at the end for some very sharp edges on the "rocks". I want to explore this watery landscape!
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Here is this week's bonus malarkey!