Lola Jovan Art Musings and Random Thoughts

The Time of Year for Storytelling

7/17/2023

The Time of Year for Storytelling

"The Time of Year for Storytelling" - oil on canvas, 26 x 31.5 x .75. Ready to hang. Available here, at Artfinder and at Bluethumb.

Our culture doesn’t think storytelling is sacred; we don’t set aside a time of year for it. We don’t hold anything sacred except what organized religion declares to be so. Artists pursue a sacred call, although some would buck and rear at having their work labeled like this. Artists are lucky to have a form in which to express themselves; there is a sacredness about that, and a terrific sense of responsibility. We’ve got to do it right. Why do we have to do it right? Because that’s the whole point: either it’s right or it’s all wrong.
- URSULA K. LE GUIN

The fairytale characters are leaping off the walls here at Malarkey Central. The stories are epic and varied and wild.

Le Guin is speaking right to me with this quote. I've been pondering the responsibility I have as an artist.

I mean, we want to go into the studio thinking LET THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN and not worry about what we're saying with our work and why. But if we want to tell a story - a story that connects with other humans, expands or explains their experiences, delights or sobers or thrills or saddens - then we've got to do it right. Which brings us 'round to being present with the process. Following the muse. Exploring the dark (and light) corners. Making sense (or nonsense) with the constant thrum underneath of the knowledge that it is sacred.

This piece lingered in the studio. I didn't know at first what it wanted, what it was saying or why I felt drawn to paint it. I know now. It ultimately whispered gently to me, a soft voice among all of the loud ruckus of the other characters on the walls.

The question becomes, what is it whispering to you?

About the art - the AI bot loves when we play with antlered creatures and the style of Edgar Degas. This means the bot puts antlers on everyone and ultimately tutus as well. Which is quite entertaining but often downright silly.

Once in a while, though, the images become profoundly moving and bring tears to my eyes, as did the fodder for this piece.

This one was all about resisting the use of color, keeping the creature shadowy within the forest and allowing our dancer to be in a "spotlight" in the painting. Many layers of glazing in a dance of "pushing back, pulling forward" while keeping things soft. A final layer of Gamvar gloss over this one gives it a museum feel. Oh!

work in process

Malarkey Central is now at Bluethumb!

Check out all your favorites at a whole new venue. Super delighted and STOKED to be part of this online gallery!

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Paradigm Shift

7/10/2023

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"Paradigm Shift" - oil on panel, 16 x 20. Available here and at Artfinder and Bluethumb.

Time is a cruel master.
No, Time is a thief, and a villain.
~ Alice and her mother describing Time

I used to think time was a thief. But you give before you take. Time is a gift. Every minute. Every second.
~ Alice to Time about her changed opinions about him.

We're back in the rabbit hole with Alice today. And she's quite serious and stern. Formulating and then reversing her opinions, fiercely defending her right to change her mind about things.

Paradigm Shift

And it is important to be able to change our minds (hearts, habits, lives, professions, directions, positions and beliefs). To be otherwise implies we already know everything and cannot possibly learn something that might make us say "AHA!" It is an old adage, for sure, but the more I learn, the more I know just how little I know.

And that includes our Alice. Whose creation story is perhaps laced with unpleasantness and undertones of possible impropriety. The deeper we go, the more that is revealed. She feels it, this particular Alice. She stares us in the eye and demands to be seen.

About the art - it is surprising just how hard it is to get the AI bot to take Alice seriously. It wants to imagine her in Disney princess form, though she and her story are much weightier and darker and riddled with...riddles. After numerous iterations, a few portraits emerged which inspired this piece.

This is smooth panel. The rubber wedge was used to create seamless background so the dark would appear endless. Eschewing texture, this piece uses color variation and glazing to achieve a sense of shadow and fabric.

To the right is an instagram video my husband stumbled across. Alice surely belongs in this eerie and peculiar place.

A Song for the Hunted continues through July 31. We invite you to stop by, check it out and leave us your thoughts.

One (or more) lucky visitors will receive a little something from us. Hooray!

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Sorrow is the True Wild

7/3/2023

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"Sorrow is the True Wild" - oil on Yupo, 17 x 24. Available here and at Artfinder.

Is sorrow the true wild?
And if it is -and if we join them - your wild to mine - what's that?
For joining, too, is a kind of annihilation.
What if we joined our sorrows, I'm saying.
I'm saying: What if that is joy?
- ROSS GAY, The Book of Delights

We leave Alice exploring in the background for a bit as we dive into the wild-er-ness. Wilder than Alice? Oh, indeed.

This month, mixed-media mosaic artist Helaine Abramson and I explore wolves, women and art in A Song For The Hunted. When creating a show like this, there are a lot of things that end up on the cutting room floor, as they say.

Sorrow is the True Wild

We give ourselves a restricted number of pieces for these shows, but the muse doesn't care for rules or guidelines, so there are stacks of wolves and women who appeared along the way. And threads of thought and inspiration less explored, like this one - sharing sorrow, joining wilds, creating joy.

If the "wild" is the sorrow and the sorrow is the wolf, then my wolf looms large and feisty behind me. Hovering, coloring what I see, shadowing. But that very thing, shared with another, does, indeed create a visceral JOY - a connection unexpected and energetic and healing. Oh yes.

About the art: for this one, I used myself as a model for the AI bot, uploading my own photo and asking for woman and wolf in a sepia-toned sketch. Six degrees of separation from my photo later, the bot landed on a series of woman and wolf sketches that had my inner muse beaming.

Beginning with a light wash of thinned oil paint on Yupo and a very sketchy charcoal sketch, slowly adding varied values. Carving back through the wet paint with chopstick, rubber wedge, paintbrush handles to create a scratch, sketchy textured feel to the paint. As always, resisting the urge to overly define, letting the wildness remain.

We've launched softly this month...little fanfare, a few cheeky adverts. We are so incredibly grateful for the hundreds of you who have already stopped in on opening weekend, left comments on Facebook and Instagram, sent emails and encouragement.

The show is open through July 31. Pop in as often as you'd like! And who knows? One (or more!) visitors and commenters this month may win a little something from us. Woot! Or should we say "awoooooooooooooo"?

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The Beliefs That Cloud Your Vision

6/26/2023

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The Beliefs That Cloud Your Vision

"The Beliefs That Cloud Your Vision" - oil on cradled wood panel, 20 x 20 x 1.5. Ready to hang. Available here and at Artfinder.

Come new to this
day. Remove the rigid
overcoat of experience,
the nothing of knowing,
the beliefs that could
your vision.

Leave behind the stories of your life. Spit out the
sour taste of unmet expectation.
Let the stale scent of what-ifs
waft back into the swamp
of your useless fears.

from 'Prescription for the Disillusioned" by Rebecca del Rio

Here is the thing about rabbit holes - the deeper you go, the more you discover. And sometimes what you find is not what you'd hoped for, not what you imagined, not what you wanted. But there it is. And once you've seen it, you cannot unsee it.

Alice in Wonderland is an allegory for many things. The more time I spend there, the more it becomes, well, a bit personal. How cheeky! But this is what happens when an artist crawls into a theme and shines a light on every little thing. Somehow, magically, life itself becomes illuminated.

I'm curious...and curiouser. What do you see in this piece, dear reader?

The Wildest of the Wild

It's COMING!

A Song for the Hunted is nearly here! Join mixed media mosaic artist Helaine Abramson and me as we explore wolves and women in a new show that pushes our creative boundaries while celebrating the bonds we share as women and wildlings.

Show opens July first and runs all month long, right here at www.lolajovan.com/exhibits

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Losses and Hardships

6/19/2023

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"Losses and Hardships" - oil on plywood, 15 x 16.25. Available here and at Artfinder.

Fairy tales were a natural fit for the fantastical imagination of the young artist. Since her earliest childhood, she seemed to dwell partway between the real world, with its disproportionate share of losses and hardships, and some otherworldly wonderland of levity and light — a wonderland Virginia could now bring to life for the world.

- from THE MARGINALIAN, on the life and art of teenage artist Virginia Francis Sterrett by Maria Popover.

The fairytale crowd are corralled into the studio waiting area this week, as we pause to mention the lives of crows. Alice and her cohorts will return next week with gusto.

Rocky and Natasha, our adopted crow family, seem to have lost not one, but two fledglings this season. Their little departed selves ended up in our vicinity, so we scooped them up and gave them a proper farewell.

Losses and Hardships

One of the crows (Natasha, we believe) spent a few late afternoons on the birdbath near the tiny memorial site, watery-eyed and listless. We know that crows do mourn, and we thought perhaps she was (and hoped she was not ill). We sat with her when we could, softly talking and making our own (awkward) crow sounds.

I suppose we have created a fairytale around these two city crows. We watch them, make up stories about what they're doing or thinking, add a wonderland of levity and light to their little lives. We illustrate with our words, appreciate with our eyes and connect with our hearts. Anthropomorphism at its best.

What we really want to know is - what stories do they conjure about us?

About the art - beginning with a crow photo and a ton of words about mourning and crows for the AI bot, I finally landed on an inspiration image that combined both birds and abstracts into something emotionally representative (in my eyes).

A piece of square, thin plywood left to me by my recently departed art friend seemed the perfect substrate for this subject. Beginning with thinned oil paint and the basic background, adding the crows one brushstroke at a time and resisting the urge to perfect the details. Walking back to look, walking forward to dab. This piece has been varnished with Gamvar Gloss, an odorless varnish which brings out every bit of color.

Congratulations, Molly and Dotty! Wonder Mike and Lilly drew your names out of a bag of treats - you're the winners of the June Reader Giveaway! Watch your mailboxes for a little original art coming your way. And thanks SO MUCH for participating!

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The Heart of Conflict

6/12/2023

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"The Heart of Conflict" - oil on paper, 18.5 x 18.5. Available here and at Artfinder.

As the ruler of Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts is the character that Alice must inevitably face to figure out the puzzle of Wonderland. In a sense, the Queen of Hearts is literally the heart of Alice’s conflict. - SPARKNOTES.COM

The long passage down through the rabbit hole has landed us at the feet of the Queen of Hearts.

She's terrifying, absolute in her rhetoric and yet, ultimately, just a playing card - powerless to actually harm anyone. Kind of like the inner critic, yes?

The Heart of Conflict

My inner Queen of Hearts shouts "off with her head!" over many things, both professional and personal. She's very loud, rather bossy, and takes up a lot of space between me and the other side of whatever she's yelling about. It is a challenge when the thing that trips you up is your own inner villain. Looking at this piece helps me shush her - I can replace her stern visage with an image of my inner cheerleader. Who might look something like Alice. :). More to come.

It's time for the JUNE READER GIVEAWAY! Leave a comment below about how you manage your own inner critic and be entered in a chance to win a small piece of art FREE!

About the art: the AI bot loves the Queen of Hearts. It has a way of making her quite frightening and imposing, if you give it enough words. Beginning with a soft pencil grid and adding a rough sketch, I placed a wash of thinned oil paint on the background. Then working from the face outward and gradually deepening the darks, making sure to keep blending the colors enough to mute them into this rather renaissance color palette. Ending with the hair, which was created with very thin paint and a round brush lightly held near the long end, dragged and rotated simultaneously to create a dreadlock/coil effect. She's beastly, and I kind of adore her.

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Impossible Things Before Breakfast

6/5/2023

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Impossible Things Before Breakfast

"Impossible Things Before Breakfast" - oil on cradled wood panel, 18 x 24 x .75. Ready to hang. Available here and at Artfinder.

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Oh, let's DO believe in impossible things!

On our bookshelf here at home sits a growing collection of science fiction. Some as old as 1950, others as recent as 2022. When you read a span 70+ years of futuristic imaginings, it is easy to see how many of these "impossibilities" are now quite real.

As artists, writers and creators, we are charged with the mission of imagining the impossible, the improbable, the unlikely and the peculiar. Whether it is Alice in her best insectoid tea-serving form or the unsettling emotions of being human captured and rendered into a treasure of experience and deep beauty, or the landscape of a hidden mountain pass covered in mist and made magical for those who may never get to place two feet in that place - we carve a path in the human continuum that makes space for the unlikely to blossom into existence. Whoa.

Click on the image to link to the video

Here's a link to a 1960's BBC version of Alice In Wonderland. Mary Jean St Clair, the granddaughter of Alice Liddell, had a lot of concerns about this rendition. As a descendant of the girl who inspired Lewis Carroll's story. she worried that "the film would make her grandmother ‘appear into some sort of strange person’ when ‘[s]he was not’. The BBC version was not intended for children, and doesn't even use costumes! I admit to not having watched it in its entirety. But I am fascinate by this very peculiar version of Alice.

About the art: beginning with a wood panel with a very smooth surface treatment (almost as slippery as Yupo) and adding layers of dark, liquin- thinned oil paint. Moving the paint with a large rubber wedge to create a spider-web effect in the background and letting the darkness fade into the bright foreground. A rough sketch of "Alice" with thinned paint, then off to the races in creating this quirky piece. Final details with a small brush.

The AI bot and I are now on the same page about Alice. Together we are well down the rabbit hole of peculiarity and improbable Alices. It is absolutely delicious.

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Uninvited

5/29/2023

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"Uninvited" - oil on Yupo, 19 x 20. Available here and at Artfinder.

“It wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited,” - March Hare, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The rabbit hole is deep and twisting...and sometimes leads to oddities.

Alice has taken us somewhere curious this week. She has claimed her place in this alien landscape, where she may or may nor feel at home, and may or may not rule over insectoid creatures. Her "face" is unreadable, but her body language is pretty clear - "I belong here", says she. I wouldn't dare argue with her.

Uninvited

Alice herself is an oddity in Wonderland - an oddity among a curious community of weirdos. In trying to make sense of the nonsensical, her frustration mounts. Maybe we are all trying to make sense of the nonsensical in these odd times? But maybe the lesson here is just to embrace our own whimsical weirdness.

When I personally let my own peculiarities and oddities fly their flags, I feel much more content, less stressed and more self-accepting. It sets the inner critic back on her heels (as you might imagine) and then...THEN is when the real creativity begins.

About the art: using a prompt which included "insectoid Alice in Wonderland" and some references to artists both fantasy sci-fi and classical, the AI bot spewed forth a veritable smorgasbord of ideas.

In this one, using thinned oil paint to begin a muted background and then drawing in the sketch on top, I embraced the idea of Alice sitting on a chair which was, itself, insectoid. Allowing the darks to come forward makes a lovely bit of drama. With the Yupo, the paint can be moved, removed, scratched through, layered translucently or thickly. And there is a bit of all of that in here.

The Liddel family, whose girls inspired the names for Alice and her sisters in Alice in Wonderland. (Photo: NATIONAL MEDIA MUSEUM/ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY/SSPL/GETTY IMAGES)

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I Am Not Myself, You See

5/22/2023

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I Am Not Myself You See

"I Am Not Myself, You See" - oil on cradled wood panel, 20 x 20 x 1.5. Ready to hang. Available here and at Artfinder.

“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, Sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”

“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar, sternly. “Explain yourself!”

“I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, Sir,” said Alice, “because I am not myself, you see.” - from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

The Alices are restless.

They want to be released into the world, so here we are, tumbling down the rabbit hole into a story of multitudinous meanings and a heaping helping of malarkey. The combination is quite irresistible.

The Caterpillar and Alice have captured the essence of transformation in this conversation - we are not the same at the end of the day as we were at the beginning. Nor the week, the month, the year, the lifetime. And good thing, too. We can grow, change, adapt, morph and meander into the beings we are at this moment, even as we are moving into the next iteration of ourselves. I am not myself says Alice. Herself (and myself) is not a constant. It is (we are) ever flowing, ever changing.

Let's go back in time - take a look at the first ever Alice movie (right).

About the art: the AI bot and I are having a long wrestling match about Alice. The bot wants to make her a syrupy Disney character, while the artist wants something more peculiar and a bit creepy, perhaps? After a hundred Alices and as many prompts, some delicious inspiration has emerged.

In this one, I began on a gesso'd wood surface with a liquin-thinned background of oil paint and created a basic floor and textured backdrop. Alice was next, layers upon layers as her pale intensity grew and grew. Her shady sidekicks were last, along with her ever-growing hair, which is an amalgamation of small brushstrokes, chopstick drawing, rubber wedge pulling and fingertip smudging.

Congratulations to Dotty, Robyn and Niki! Your comments about transformation landed you in the winner's circle, where Wonder Mike and Lilly insisted you all win an original piece of art. Hooray! Send you mailing address to the shipping hounds at thewanderingsofllola@gmail.com and your treasures will be on the way. Thank you so much for your participation!

There is a new Reader Giveaway each month this year...stay tuned for June's giveaway - coming soon!

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C1ND3R3LL4

5/15/2023

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C1ND3R3LL4

"C1ND3R3LL4" - oil on paper, 21 x 21. Available here and at Artfinder.

“Fairy tales are rife with transformation — from beast to handsome prince, from dirty scullery maid to well-dressed princess. It is perhaps no coincidence that nature in the Cinderella stories facilitates transformation, for nature itself is a changeable thing, from season to season, from a sunny day to rain, from an egg to a flying bird in a matter of weeks."
― Marie Rutkoski

Here we are, back in the realm of fairytales, where the AI bot has provided the inspiration to paint a robot Cinderella. I wonder if that means the AI wants to be a real girl? Because everyone, at one time or another, wonders what it might be like to be something (someone, some way) other than what they are.

I have always been dazzled by transformation.

Whether it was rearranging the living room furniture as a kid (which my mother, for some reason, never minded), painting a wall, cutting off (or growing out) my hair, even simply pulling weeds to make a patch of the garden look better - something about transformation makes my eyes light up. I understand Marie Kondo's desire to tidy. Except I see it as magic. Perhaps it is the hope that accompanies visible change. If I can change this small thing, maybe I can also influence that big thing to be different. And by different, I mean better. Safer. Happier. Rut-less.

And, well, if you want to go all out, you can always change your name. :)

About the art: beginning with Arches oil paper and some liquin-thinned paint, I toned the paper in two sections, blue upper and the dark brown/violet mixture in the lower section, leaving space for the robot. A quick colored pencil sketch, then shading the robot with a small brush and thinned paint. Moving around the painting, alternately softening (with brush or paper towel) or hardening lines (with brush or rubber wedge) until the right balance was achieved. Adding in the details with a tiny brush, then glazes of color for the background robot body, glaze of white mixture for the tutu. Adding hot spots at the bottom and resisting the desire to make the background look like anything specific. This one makes me grin every time I walk by it in the studio.

It's time for the May Reader Giveaway! Leave a comment below describing a moment of transformation (or the hope of one to come) in your life. One (or more) lucky reader (s) will be drawn at random by the giveaway team of Wonder Mike and Lilly to receive a small piece of original art. Hooray!

Coming soon! A Song for the Hunted, a new collaborative on-line show with the amazing mosaic artist, Helaine Abramson. Details and sneak peeks coming in June. Get ready to get WILD!

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The Time of Year for Storytelling

Paradigm Shift

Sorrow is the True Wild

The Beliefs That Cloud Your Vision

Losses and Hardships

The Heart of Conflict

Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Uninvited

I Am Not Myself, You See

C1ND3R3LL4

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