Hello! Hope you are enjoying this wonderful day! I am glad to be sharing this quick view of my latest Patreon tutorial upload.
The scene is a beautiful reflective water near a shore and a distant crop of trees. It feels like just the place I would like to sit and relax for a bit.
I invite you to head on over to my Patreon to see the full tutorial. Whether you are a painter or not, I think the process is really fascinating to watch.
While you’re there, be sure to take a look at the other projects I’m working on. Fiber art, watercolor and pottery are the mediums I focus on but you will also find a variety of added benefits like how to organize a yarn stash, how to use old books to create sketch books and how up to make your own mats and frames. These are all the things that are waiting for you to discover at Patreon.
Discover Your Creative Potential with Our Patreon Community!
Hello! I am thrilled to share the news of my new Patreon channel with you. While I enjoyed getting to know so many of you during my in-person workshops, I want to make my workshops more accessible. The goal is to build a community where we can meet, share our progress, and encourage each other.
Why Patreon?
I searched for a good place to meet and share exclusive content like behind-the-scenes views of the farm, share news offer previews of workshops, and support and offer guidance to the attendees of my workshops. Patreon feels like the right place. It is an environment where I can share weekly updates, workshops, and tutorials.
Let’s grow and create together!”
I invite you to join me there to build what I hope will be a fun place to share, learn, and grow. This is a great opportunity to join me on the ground level to build something together. As an early Patron, you will help me set the sails and chart the direction for this new adventure.
I am hosting an art talk relating to my practice in Clay, Fiber, and Watercolor art. This project is part of a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council in Northern MN.
I will be exploring the results of agitation and water to create works of art and how the same art can be therapeutic while being reshaped by life’s agitations.
You are invited to attend and participate.
****This activity is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, thanks to appropriations from the Minnesota State Legislature’s general and arts and cultural heritage funds.**
Beginning with the End
I completed my residency in June 2023. The experience was cathartic and was a turning point for me professionally. I had personal struggles including estrangement from a child. The loss of a child, by their choice, is a crushing blow. I had to face my failures as a mother and come to terms with what was left of me absent from that role.
Choosing to be anything else was like searching through the darkest room with sharp obstacles at every step. I spent much of my time in the Attic working on the mediums I find most rewarding to work with. I found that the components of my art coincided with the stage of my life I was grappling with.
Taking form
The most significant thing I learned was that I had no choice but to feel my way through the darkness. It wasn’t going away on its own. I had no choice. As I worked with the Clay, I added water and pounded it, wedging it between my hands against the hard surface of my workspace. I manipulated what amounts to a bit of earth and water into a sculpture that told the story of how I felt. I cried and my tears added to the moisture of the earth in my hands.
The same formula held true for the fiber that I used in my studio. In an effort to make something beautiful from woolen scraps, I had to add water and pound the fiber until a felt sculpture emerged.
Lastly, came the realization that the watercolor paintings also required the agitation of the pigment blended in water to complete the process of painting an image.
The Agitation was Key
In the darkness, I found the answer to my becoming. I found the value in the agitation and the pain that life brings occasionally. Just like the pain of childbirth, we endure it to find the beauty of a new creation. In my case, I gave birth to a new version of myself. I welcome the process and am less afraid of the pain and agitation that leads to form. I see it for what it is. I necessary step in the process of living this life. It changed my perspective completely.
Water Breaks
I named this sculpture Water Breaks. Originally, the name indicated the break in my relationship with a child. The sadness of the loss. Then I imagined the joy I’d want my child to experience. I was relieved that I had raised a child who had the wherewithal to choose herself and her happiness, above all. I had not been a good example of that kind of personal strength. The darkness was lifting as I observed more closely. It was not my child that was playing in the stream of my tears. It was me. I had found the joy in my work and I was exploring a part of me I had not known and never allowed into the light.
