Amazing Feat of Activity
Hey there gang of my heart--I've been suffering frim withdrawls of interet/blogging, so I crawled my may towards the CUNY library where my man Graham let me in so I could reunite with y'all.
So far I am unemployed this week. Maybe I am in complete denial, but I am not worried. If I don't work next week, THEN I'll be worried--but today I stayed in bed reading until 9:00am, drinking coffee, and enjoyed myself immensely. The last 5 days have been a mixture of the regular life, and the spectacular magic that you can create for yourself easily, if you just let it happen.
Saturday evening I had this strange, easy inspiration to do a collage. This is something that I've thought about doing a million times, but always put it off, for more important endeavors like watching Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters for the bajillionth time, or lying on the floor bemoaning that I'm not artistic enough. For some amazing reason, I didn't second guess myself and I simply went into my studio and started doing it. I've never done a collage--but I am ALWAYS inspired by Keri Smith's practices. The result: IT WAS SO FUN! I created it on a small canvas as a dare--something small, but OUTSIDE my journal. At first it was going to be square images on a grid, but then I got really into all the colors overlapping, and then taking old photos or book pages. THEN I took out my black Sharpie and it was ALL OVER. I drew an encompassing frame around it and these little scribble designs I make all the time over all the squares. THEN I took colored pencils and colored in various spots. The minute I stopped "playing it safe" and risked a little by drawing on it, I couldn't stop myself. I liked the result a lot. Also, through looking for scraps of paper I found this tiny picture of Ethel Merman, and was inspired to do a portrait of her. And usually I put it off, or file the image away, but for some AMAZING FEAT OF ACYIVITY I didn't--and I finished it on Sunday night!
One thing I love about doing visual art, is that suddenly you have this thing in your hands that didn't exist before--and it reflects something immediately in your inner world. I looked at my collage above my desk this morning and the portrait of Ethel Merman up on the wall and just felt happy about my life and excited to create more. So I started a new, larger collage this morning. I swear, I love color so much, it makes my mouth water. I love taking whole sheets of paper that I have thickly painted with shades of color and cutting it up to various sizes and then "reassembling" those pages in a picture--the different shades act differently against one another and create something entirely new and textural.
Other wondeful things from the last few days:
*more walks in Central Park, with the cold air, and dogs finding sticks, and leaves all gold, and then a harty breakfast out.
*Baked my first pie of the season--apple and blackberry. We ate it hot, with melting vanilla icecream!
*I saw my best friend Jenny Sue for 4.5 hours on Monday. It felt like a surreal dream to sit in a cafe and talk at length after 3 months. I cried when I saw her off at the subway.
*Yesterday, in the rainy morning, I went to the Natural History Museum and sketched the totem poles in the Western Indian Wing. Afterwards, I got a cup of coffee and walked with my umbrella in the Upper West Side, blowing steam clouds from my mouth.
Art makes everything good--or rather, when we make art it is JUST GOOD. Maybe that's why I'm not worried about a job right now--I'm walking around with all these riches just pouring into my pockets.
So far I am unemployed this week. Maybe I am in complete denial, but I am not worried. If I don't work next week, THEN I'll be worried--but today I stayed in bed reading until 9:00am, drinking coffee, and enjoyed myself immensely. The last 5 days have been a mixture of the regular life, and the spectacular magic that you can create for yourself easily, if you just let it happen.
Saturday evening I had this strange, easy inspiration to do a collage. This is something that I've thought about doing a million times, but always put it off, for more important endeavors like watching Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters for the bajillionth time, or lying on the floor bemoaning that I'm not artistic enough. For some amazing reason, I didn't second guess myself and I simply went into my studio and started doing it. I've never done a collage--but I am ALWAYS inspired by Keri Smith's practices. The result: IT WAS SO FUN! I created it on a small canvas as a dare--something small, but OUTSIDE my journal. At first it was going to be square images on a grid, but then I got really into all the colors overlapping, and then taking old photos or book pages. THEN I took out my black Sharpie and it was ALL OVER. I drew an encompassing frame around it and these little scribble designs I make all the time over all the squares. THEN I took colored pencils and colored in various spots. The minute I stopped "playing it safe" and risked a little by drawing on it, I couldn't stop myself. I liked the result a lot. Also, through looking for scraps of paper I found this tiny picture of Ethel Merman, and was inspired to do a portrait of her. And usually I put it off, or file the image away, but for some AMAZING FEAT OF ACYIVITY I didn't--and I finished it on Sunday night!
One thing I love about doing visual art, is that suddenly you have this thing in your hands that didn't exist before--and it reflects something immediately in your inner world. I looked at my collage above my desk this morning and the portrait of Ethel Merman up on the wall and just felt happy about my life and excited to create more. So I started a new, larger collage this morning. I swear, I love color so much, it makes my mouth water. I love taking whole sheets of paper that I have thickly painted with shades of color and cutting it up to various sizes and then "reassembling" those pages in a picture--the different shades act differently against one another and create something entirely new and textural.
Other wondeful things from the last few days:
*more walks in Central Park, with the cold air, and dogs finding sticks, and leaves all gold, and then a harty breakfast out.
*Baked my first pie of the season--apple and blackberry. We ate it hot, with melting vanilla icecream!
*I saw my best friend Jenny Sue for 4.5 hours on Monday. It felt like a surreal dream to sit in a cafe and talk at length after 3 months. I cried when I saw her off at the subway.
*Yesterday, in the rainy morning, I went to the Natural History Museum and sketched the totem poles in the Western Indian Wing. Afterwards, I got a cup of coffee and walked with my umbrella in the Upper West Side, blowing steam clouds from my mouth.
Art makes everything good--or rather, when we make art it is JUST GOOD. Maybe that's why I'm not worried about a job right now--I'm walking around with all these riches just pouring into my pockets.
posted by Summer Pierre at
3:24 AM
4 Comments:
You realise, don't you Summer, that now we want to SEE those collages, and the drawing! And we realise, of course, that you longer have access to that magical scanner :(
Now I am serious about this offer: I intend to buy one of those fancy scanner/fax/copy machines, so when you next come to Northampton you can have my 'old' scanner (not so old and in great condition, slimline and no need for a power cable, it connects via USB and gets the power from your computer, how clever is that). This is a selfish offer because you NEED a scanner so that we can continue to enjoy your art. Let me know what you think and I am sure we can work something out ...
Happy walking :) Kerstin
Wow! What a magical time you had with the collage and Ethel. Thanks for sharing.
i LOVE your energy! if you have some to spare please shoot it my way. :-)
i too am in love with collage and color. reading your post made me itchy to create.
love, kat
hey! get a job, willya? i miss you! :)
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