I spent many years staying in my lane, not wandering, not adventuring, stifling my curiosity because of outside pressures and inside fears. The anxiety of the unknown can be crippling! But not now, not here. I want to have the most incredible tale to tell when all is said and done. About the art: beginning with a piece of Yupo covered in white gesso, I lightly drew the figure with a small brush and thinned oil paint. I painting a light wash on the background to isolate the figure in the space, then some drying time. Coming in with darks I delineated the helmet, neck area and the basic figure shape. I used a small rubber wedge to carve back through the paint on the neck to expose the white underlayer and create "wires". A wash of golden yellow for the helmet and body, then blues and teals for the "glass" of the helmet faceplate. After more drying, small crushes and all of the tiny details over many, many layers. Finally, more washes of color to create and atmospheric background, then one more go with the small wedge to carve more "wires" around the helmet. This curious bot makes me smile. There is hope in that architectural visage. :)
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For each of you looking at that new beginning, be it in life or in art, I salute you. You got this. You are the strongest person I have ever met.
It is hard for me to sit and listen without leaping in to offer advice, solutions, opinions, consolation. But sometimes people just want to be seen and heard. So I listened, occasionally reflecting back her own resiliance, her big-heartedness, her long period of suffering, her loneliness, her pain. And I waited, solutions and advice in my pocket, ready to rescue. In the end, when she was no longer crying and was calm, she said she had pills in her bag and had been ready to take drastic measures. Oh. My heart. Instead, she thanked me for listening, asked me for a hug (which I willingly gave) and decided to go meet a friend and try life again. She just needed someone to listen. Once again, I learned not everyone wants money, not everyone wants a heroic rescue. People want to be seen and heard. I can do that. I also re-learned a lesson from long ago: the bystander has power. The power to do harm by walking by and the power to help by engaging. This is true in a small neighborhood, in a city, in a country and in the wide world. I leave you with this quote from a big-hearted human being who happens to be a dear, wise friend: It's part of our work as artists and writers to walk with others who make us uncomfortable, who we want to help who we can't help, who we can't help. - THEA FIORE-BLOOM
And I was floored. Because I had made an assumption - that what he really wanted was money (and who could blame him for that?) But all he wanted was what he asked for, and our yard signs let him know we were safe to approach. Whoa. Now, you might be thinking, Lola, what does that have to do with art? I am fixin' to tell ya! That moment of realization - where I saw something I did not expect to see, made a connection I didn't know I would make, felt things I was suprised to feel - that changed me. And that, that is what we hope to do as creatives. To make a moment like that when someone interacts with our art, our words, our writing (dancing, singing, sculpting, sewing, knitting - creating!) - that's everything. The man taught me something profound. And I am deely grateful. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this painting will go to the Portland Food Project About the art: another murdered painting becomes reborn into something completely different! With this piece, I felt the urge to create a spontaneous abstracted forest-scape; something reminiscent of our hikes. I didn't think, didn't plan, just began. Once the basic underpainting was completed, I let it dry for a couple of weeks. Coming back in with a palette knife and a couple of brushes, layers were added, texture built up and colors deepened. A simple glimpse of a place maybe my feet have walked. Very satisfying.
About the art: beginning with a piece of gesso'd Yupo, I created a mask in the shape of the critters and boat and painted around them with a thin layer of background paint. I use the mask technique when my hands feel uncoordinated (hello, arthritis!) and I want to be sure to get the composition and placement just right. Once the initial background layer was dry, I worked exclusively on the characters first, building the layers and details from the heads and faces outward. Then the sail and moon, then the boat. While those layers dried, more pinks and plums in the sky and movement in the sea. A final layer of detail on the characters and the boat, and one more layer on the background. After a couple weeks of thorough drying, a final layer of varnish over the whole shebang to really make the colors pop. The Question Exchange with the amazing Dotty Seiter continues! Here is my question number three for Dotty, and her gobsmackingly gorgeous response: Main Course - if creating was a main course (a sandwich, even!), what would it be and why? piatto principale the main course of creating, according to my poet/artist friend's way of thinking, is not a particular meal or dish but, instead, an actual course-- a flow, a pathway, a series of illuminating moments, an alchemy, a transcendence, a transformation, a lived experience highly sensory and immediate, a space outside of time and place, a threshold consciousness with which she becomes one, inhabiting it as it inhabits her, animated by generative energy and invigorating tension that resolve at the intersection of process and product no matter the process, no matter the product. in other words, not beef wellington, not quiche lorraine, not shrimp diavolo, but a life force that sustains her from the outside in and the inside out. buon appetito! --dotty seiter
While Dotty and I continue our Question Exchange over the coming weeks, a new winner and a new exchange will begin! Congratulations to Diana D. - you're the winner of the December Reader Giveaway! Huzzah! Send a message to me at [email protected] and let me know what method of exchange works best for you. I am looking forward to it!
Many thanks to all who have read, viewed and listened to the Question Exchanges over the last couple of months. Upon reflection, I am certain I personally feel enriched beyond expectation by the entire process! Anyone who is interested in participating in a future exchange please reach out to me at [email protected] and I'll gladly leap into it with you! For now, blog comments will be just that - comments! Thank you for them! Your readership and participation make this whole blog space sparkly and so very rewarding! xo
About the art: continuing my exploration of copper panel as a substrate, and my fascination with helmeted, faceless beings. Once more embracing a more earthy background with a very modern figure in the foreground, keeping the background soft and the edges of the foreground more crisp. These are androgynous beings - inviting us to dismiss gender stereotypes. I'm particularly fond of Amal's beaded neckpiece, Cerys' outrageous shoulders and Bakari's dressy white shirt. This trio has been major good mojo in the studio - more copper coming in 2025. :) It's the last post of the year, and your final opportunity to enter the December Reader Giveaway! Leave a comment on any one (or more) of December's posts to be automatically entered to win a piece of original art - FREE! The winner (or winners) will be announced right here in the blog during the first week of January. Ready? Set? GO!
About the art: inspired by our own family of crows, who pose for the camera nearly every day and somehow remain mystical and powerful despite their absolutely ridiculous antics and the silly sounds they make. Beginning with a gesso'd canvas and a light sketch with a brush and thinned paint, then slowly working from light to dark. Alternating between brush, rubber wedge and a squeegee (to get those delicious textures at the bottom of the painting) and between hard and soft edges. Letting the planets be wonky and wobbly while the center stage crows are crisp and noble. I think Rocky and Natasha would be pleased. It is the final week of the October Reader Giveaway! Leave a comment on any blog post this month to enter. One (or more) lucky readers will win a piece of original art - FREE! Now THAT'S a Halloween treat!
About the art: continuing an exploration of a mash-up of robot and human as in the ballgown bot series, except this time exposing the vulnerable flesh of humanness with the slight augment of the cyborgian (is that a word?). The goal with this piece was to embrace the neutrality of the figure coloring and allow the background and the robotic arm pieces to be the only obvious color. As always, the Yupo allows an easy, relatively rapid layering of oil paint, and also the ability to carve back through it (the background design elements and the artist's signature) to expose a pale pink underpainting. This piece just oozes strength and bold badassery to me. Yaaaaasssss please. Congratulations to Dotty and Marta! Wonder Mike chose your names at random as winners of the August Reader Giveaway! Send your mailing addresses to Wonder Mike at [email protected] and your free art will be shipped to you lickety split! And thanks so much to all who participated. A new contest begins next month! Hooray!
About the art: beginning with an old acrylic painting and a tub of black gesso, murdering the old painting to make room for the new. Carving back through the wet gesso to reveal a spot or two of the underpainting color. For this piece, I used no inspiration image. Just a color palette and my Planes of the Head mannequin - https://planesofthehead.com/products.php. I sketched a basic shape and features with a small brush and some thinned oil paint. Then the requisite 80 million layers of thin washes - darkening the background, highlighting the face, the flower petals, the hair. Allowing the texture of the original painting to create a kind of old-world crackling of the skin. OH! A walnut-oil laden brush over wet petals to create the dripping effect. A final layer of Gamvar gloss over the dried painting to make the darks sing. Congratulations to Sara V.H.! Wonder Mike selected your name at random as winner of the April Reader Giveaway. Be on the lookout for your prize package in the mail. And thanks to all who participated! Hooray!
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AuthorLola Jovan 
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