Burl Wood



Burl -

it grows on trees as a deformity;

a sign of stress,

such as insect or mold infestation.

 

Burl -

it is prized for its rare beauty;

artists who work with wood

know better than to judge

by its outward appearance.

 

A local journal featured an article about artisan

John Capanna, whose Creative Expressions in Wood

release the wood's natural beauty.

While working as a millwright, decades ago,

Capanna experienced an accident

that caused over 90% of his body

to be burned.

After surgeries and to work through

psychological and physical pain,

Capanna turned to woodworking.

 

In burl wood,

he found beauty,

brought out from deep within,

which he likens to

"digging into your own spirit."

 

We all have beauty -

beyond our scars,

our outward appearances,

our layers of pain and hurt.

Beyond all that deforms us

from reflecting what lies within -

complex, rare, exquisite beauty,

brought to the surface

by deep transformation,

through the process of

digging and smoothing,

of loving and trusting.

 



::Accepting::

 

This wire word I made for my

wonderful aunt

who chose this word

as hers for the year.

 

To be "accepting" -

it's not an easy place to be,

arms open, palms spread wide,

letting go of what's yours,

or what you wanted to be yours,

and accepting what is...

 

Reality -

hopes and dreams

don't always come to fruition,

lives end too early,

there are bumps and snags in the road,

and we are not always quick to accept

what comes our way

(at least, I know I am not quick to)

yet there is freedom,
I think,

to be found

in "accepting"

. . . . . . 

Art Journal Pages

Pages from my art journaling journey...

(Prompts from left to right, clockwise:  1) My heart is surrounded...  2) I want to... but I don't know how...  3) The secret tool in my toolbox is...  4) It is time for me to...)

 

(Prompts from left to right, clockwise:  1) I am concocting a magic potion... 2) I am standing on... 

3) A little bird is sing to me...  4) I see art in...)

 

(Prompts from left to right, clockwise:  1) I will gift myself with...  2) I am holding out my hand to receive...  3) It feels daunting when I think about  4) Peaceful moment)

 

(Prompts from left to right, clockwise:  1) I am choosing to honor...  2) Focus, flow  3) I have emptied myself of...  4) The ghosts haunting me are...)

 

(Prompts from left to right, clockwise:  1) When I cannot... I feel so...  2) I haven always wanted to...  3) I wish I could be like...  4) My war color paint of choice is...)

 

(Prompts from left to right, clockwise:  1) I feel in pieces when...  2) To stay afloat I will... 

3) I will bubble over....  3) I can gift myself with...)

 

 

(From left to right, clockwise:  1, 2, 4) "You must enter the grays and blues," a quote from a book I read by Natalie Goldberg  3) I want to open the door marked...)

 

 

The art journaling journey has been therapeutic and although I haven't created pages in a while, I plan to continue to do it.  It has brought another layer and element into my journaling process, a process that has much meaning to me as I have been journaling avidly since I was a teenager.  Seeing my pages here helps me to see all that I've learned through the art journaling I have done thus far.  I appreciate all of this.

 

~Brianne

Art Journaling

 

This year has been a year of reawakening for me. 

It started with reading The Artist's Way, and continued with going on photography outings, sculpting words and pendants from wire, and making collages from magazine cutouts.  Creating my blog, this offering here, has opened me up to thinking and seeing in new creative ways.  Another part of this journey has been art journaling which, as an avid journaler, was exciting for me to discover and begin to do.

 

When I won a subscription to The Art Journaler service one day, I was delighted.  Even more so when I received what you see in the following photographs in the mail!

 



I believe that the process of art is powerful.  It opens us up to what lies beneath the surface, and we are able to create meaningful, beautiful creations.  Art changes us, changes our thinking, our perception, and the way we see.  Journaling through art can help you work through what your life is facing in ways that go beyond words.  You can write yourself secret messages, truths that you will hold dear.  There are no rules, which I love. 

The Art Journaler community is a great one to be part of.  You can share your pages with others and see what others have created.  I will post some of my pages here on a next post.  It was fun to receive all these delightful goodies in the mail from the subscription service.  Imagine, as an adult, how fun it is to receive stars, words, hearts, puzzle pieces and such in the mail, in colorfully decorated envelopes, when usually there's no more than bills and junk!?  I think anyone of any age would benefit from art journaling, and can imagine this would have been a great practice to have known as a teenager, too.  Never too late, never too soon!

Rainbow Fabric

So thankful to have

found and bought

this fabric

 

 

What fun to play with the

colors of my dreams

in my land of enchantment.



In Front of Me

"It is very difficult for us to comprehend and value our own lives. 

It is much easier for us to see things outside ourselves."

  Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones

 

 

I'll always be Brianne,

wife of my husband,

mother of my children,

child of God.

 



 

I'll always be an artist, a writer, a dreamer -

those are essential for me to be me.

 

There will be parts of me that are shed away,

making room for others to grow stronger -

and as I go through the changes,

I must resolve to accept all of me, lovingly.



A creation,

created,

and

creating -

that is me.

 

"I've come to understand that the creative process is not about creating something separate from myself; it's about creating WHO I AM.  I create myself through my creations."

Alison Strickland in Harvesting Your Journals

The Infinitesimal & Me

Sometimes I forget, you know? 

That I love the small things,

that the small things are what speak to me loudly.

I return to my blog to carve out space for me,

sculpt my reality,

offer to myself what no other place provides for me. 

I come here to remind myself of truths that I need to remember

and to highlight to myself who I am.

 

 

Does it make sense, to find a piece of the infinitesimal

glinting on the floor while vacuuming at day's end? 

And then to spend five to ten minutes photographing it to get it just right,

so it can be seen,

not overcome by its smallness

or washed out by bright light?

To take the tiny seriously; what does it take, really?

Oh, the reminder of my heart cry -

how I needed it so.

 

 

I need my art and I need this space for words and photography.  Last night I sat on the couch stitching my thread painting, and it is going to take many, many hours more until I can call it complete.  And then, and then - there are variations to do of "A Gift For You".  There will be one that looks more like a Claddagh symbol, with the heart shining in the middle.  There will be another that will have the hands placed beneath the heart, palms up.

(as I look at this picture, I realize how much more clearly photography allows me to see)

I love the worlds created in tiny spaces, such as Elisa Kleven does in her wonderful children's books, and the stories I read to my son - The Borrowers and The Littles.  I am enthralled by tapestries, and I love the unicorn series.  Stitches speak to me, and fiber art entices me.  I dream of creating tiny scenes with the little things I collect, placing them in mini frames or shadow boxes, and showcasing them on display.  I desire to blow up the macro photographs I take of teeny entities, making them huge and forcing them to be noticed.  I envision worlds in tiny spaces, such as this necklace charm I created out of wire and beads.  My three little birds.

“Do the little things.”

— St. David of Wales

This is my life work and this is a large part of who I am.  An embracer of the infinitesimal, a lover of the tiny.  Does what I am going to look like it matters?  No?  Then I am going to do it.  Yes?  Can I promise myself this?  It goes against the grain of the world, with its big ways.  To stay here at home with my children, while the NYC and Dubai size bigness loom on the horizon.  The dreams placed within me matter and have purpose in the world.  Will the world overlook them and me?  Probably.  Am I okay with that?  Yes, I think so.

My kids and I have been collecting postcards from the 50 states.  One we received from Oklahoma had information written on it stating that the state experiences thousands of small earth shakes each year.  My son and I were surprised to read this!  Most of these quakes are not strong enough to be felt, but they still occur there.  They don't usually lead to a larger earthquake, but the vibrations still must do something to affect the inner worlds of the people whose feet touch the ground above them.  Wouldn't you think?  How do I know the earth is not shifting beneath me?  After all, it is mustard seeds that move mountains, not huge machinery.  Big change comes from underground movements.  Big change stems from the tiny. 

Colors of My Dreams

she approached with the

scarf around her and i thought,

where will i find it?

is it possible

to create the colors of

my dream's existence?

 

there they are in threads,

modeling clay and fabric;

blues, pinks, yellows, greens, purples

 

colors of my dreams

exist; grace leads me to them,

tangible and real.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharing with lovely

recuerda mi corazon

haiku link-up day

 





The Kitchen Sink

 

There is something profound about the kitchen sink.  It seems odd to say this of a seemingly mundane entity which carries the loathe of daily life's chores, mostly for women.  (My husband, bless him, helps out most nights, when he is home, because I've done so many dishes during the day that I am done by evening time.) 

The sink, whether in the kitchen or laundry room (as pictured above), carries significance.  Our daily lives, 0ur seemingly mundane tasks, carry significance.  Abstracted, highlighted, and placed in a different context, we are able to see anew what lies beyond the surface.  

Over the sink, we have time to think.  Our thoughts connect us to the divine as the water runs and we wash and the grunge is washed off and sinks down the drain.  I placed my word, freedom, over my sink, wondering {and deciding} that this place was holy.   



To see the sink literally in a different context, as artist Ann Agee has done through her installation in the picture at the top of this post, sheds light on the work of women {by means of the artist} exemplified in its true essence.  As my friend Anna expressed recently, "... I understood why people write fiction - you can FREELY talk about what is under the surface.  It can be more true than nonfiction.  Similarly, for me abstract art is more true than realism, because it tells the deeper story, 'what's essential.'" {"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye" is a quote from The Little Prince that a group of us Art Journalers were discussing online.}

Ann Agee's work plays with historical conventions of decorative and fine art, as seen through contemporary eyes—the white porcelain quotes both the eighteenth-century English porcelain, and chinaware found in second-hand stores. The resulting body of work resembles a range of fantasized objects that tell the artist's daily life, which is inseparable from her art. The gallery space is transformed into partly a replica of the artist's home studio where all the pieces are produced, and a hybrid market place. Stenciled floor-to-ceiling scrolls reproduce parts of Agee's home studio in unrealistic, bright colors. A jumble of white, flowery sculpture-objects in porcelain cover large tables. Figurines represent daily life activities, from gardening to street protesting, children studying, and the artist modeling her pieces at the wheel. Some are kept under glass domes, while smaller porcelain objects are stored in jars. Hand-made shoes, dresses, and steel chairs, among other things, complete the tableau. A hand-made catalog advertises the objects on show, most of which bear the Agee Manufacturing Co. stamp, as a signature of the artist's "production". Quoting the artist, “for the sake of the labor, and the freedom to make variations,” she will carry forth concepts and motifs that continually develop in unforeseen ways. The resulting body of work resembles a range of fantasized objects that lie between the ideas of usefulness and decoration. On the walls, Agee’s large-scale paintings on paper often function as a backdrop for her installations by depicting the space of her Brooklyn studio—a creative cacophony in which all the pieces are produced. info

During the Thread Painting workshop I recently took, we had plenty of time to talk about art, and found a common love for fibers and beads and such.  Liza Lou's Kitchen was mentioned, as she covered the whole scene in beads, as seen in the sink above.  It's beautiful.  Liza Lou is known as the Queen of Beads, whose world is glittering.


"A splendid introduction to an artist whose devotion to her work
produces environments so dazzling they verge on the miraculous."

I believe art can transform our vision.  I believe art has the power to change how we see.  I know it has happened for me, as I click away, urging my camera to capture fragmenting views of the sink that has become an altar space {an alter place}, a holy place, where I spend plenty of moments of my days. 

Why not honor it as venerated? 

::Breathe:: while ::Waiting::

I have been feeling so impatient, so in need of change,

so ready to move forward into something new. 

I need the messages of these wire words I've recently sculpted,

which fit so well together with the message to

 

Breathe

while

Waiting.

 

I need to.

 

Deb won the giveaway that I offered here recently,

and I had the opportunity to sculpt her word, breathe.

These words are from her blog, as is the image below:

 

one two three. be still

breathe belly deep, exhale slow

let go. calm down. BE

 

 

reminder to breathe...deeper, longer.

 

While

 

like my authentic friend Anna.

Some of her words are below.

 

"As I think about waiting, I think of these pages full of longing, confusion, pain, and joy."

 

"It might sound like a passive word, but wait is an active verb. It is an action that we take. That day I learned that waiting is brave when everyone else is moving past you. It is brave to believe that there is something better ahead, while letting the opportunities of the present expire."

 

"Those of us that are idealists are always waiting. I could write volumes more about the waiting, and what I'm continuing to learn." 

 

I do look forward to reading more stories,

that are part of the volumes, Anna.

 

 

These words are woven into my story as I mold and sculpt and wrap the wire, prayerfully meditating on the message of the word and the meaning for its recipient.  As I continue my own freedom pursuit, these words help guide my soul, too.

Freedom, I am still reaching for you.

 

 

 Vivian, the collection of wire word sculptures continues growing, fulfilling your very special vision!

 

Ellen, I think you're like the dendrologist I mentioned in my last post, there has been more going on beneath the surface than I think I realized - proprioceptive?

Thread Painting

My attraction to the infinitesimal began after watching an Antique Roadshow episode that featured an 1819 Philadelphia School Girl Silk Embroidered Picture.  Since then, the infinitesimal has become one of my secret obsessions, with messages about its meaning scattered around the world for me to find and seek. 

That is why, when I found out that a Thread Painting course was being offered at Peters Valley, led by artist Missy Stevens, I had to go.

Thread painting is all about using tiny stitches to bring your image to life.  Using a punch thread needle, and the colors of your choice, you punch tiny holes into your fabric to create the image of your desire.  You can shade with your thread, create shadows, add brightness.  You can use metallic thread to cause sparkle and shine.  You can add beads to your piece.  There is such depth of creativity and freedom allowed through this medium, and *there are no rules*.

 

This piece is the lovely Gina's, an amazing artist who is currently working on her MFA.

This is Judy's, whose husband volunteers at Peter's Valley,

and whose son is an amazing woodworking artist. 

It turns out that Judy was secretly inspired by

his cityscapes in the creation of her piece.

Here is the wonderful Missy, working ingeniously on a piece she has been creating.

By the end of the workshop, I was able to complete as much as you see

on the piece on the left, which is mine. 

(The one on the right is Gina's.)

I love this form of art.  It speaks to me with depth on many levels.  The piece I am creating is called
"A gift for you" and is with the pink hands holding out a blue heart.  The background is a circular rainbow.  All this week, I've been stitching for an hour here, an hour there, or a few rows when I am able.  More has been added, but I will take time to write about it again more next week.  For now, this is an introduction and a record of memory of my beginnings with this unique technique.

Here is just a quick photo

of where I am at with my piece so far: