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Why Abstract Art?
“Art is an experience, not an object“ Robert Motherwell Some people hate abstract art and will happily tell you that. Some will be kinder and say “Oh well I just don’t understand it Actually even though it does not offer the viewer a picture of something recognizable, an abstract work invites the viewer to engage their own […]
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Looking at Art.
Some people are a little mistrustful of abstract art. Some people expect the painting to reflect or represent something. Some people want the painting to symbolize something. Or maybe to depict an experience. What if the painting itself was the experience? I see people, drift through a gallery, waiting for something to jump out at […]
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I am off to an art opening today but my heart and mind is with Ukraine.
I have never been to Ukraine. But growing up so many of my friends came from Ukrainian backgrounds. I knew so many kids proud of their heritage. I knew so many who used to go to their Ukrainian Dance competitions and I remember sitting in the audience cheering for their group at the Ukrainian hall […]
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On Moths and purpose and creative process
Metamorphosis is a profound change, from one stage to the next, in the life of an organism, as from the caterpillar to the pupa and from the pupa to the moth. I think I am in my moth stage right now. After months as a pupa, I am emerging from my cocoon and ready to be […]
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Love me Love me not.
As a child I remember plucking petals from a daisy and holding buttercups under my chin. These were magical ways of learning something about myself or so I believed Later in life I studied my horoscopes and had my tarot read to find out how my destiny was written in the stars or what truths […]
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What’s the title of this painting?
What is the title of his painting I ask myself. I look at it and think–What have I created here in this work? What is going on with all the shapes and layers and marks that form this composition. Where was I when I started it, and where did the process take me? I ask […]
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A New Year Wish for anyone struggling and not able to celebrate
“Face your life, its pain, its pleasure, leave no path untaken.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book I am re-blogging this post from 2013, a very difficult year in my life and I’m sending it out to anyone who has struggled this year. Life this year has been stamping its foot, screaming at the […]
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Trying to write a poem
0n the death of Seamus Heaney I am trying to write a poem because I am sad– and because summer is ending- and because a poet I love has died. I am trying to write a poem because– as the days grow short and the nights fall so suddenly- all my summers- of innocence and […]
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Insider Secrets
When I was a kid- my grade eight math teacher told our class about a mail-order scam where someone would put an ad in the classifieds–offering an ancient secret to becoming rich and famous. All you had to do was send nine dollars to a box number and the secret of unlimited wealth would be yours. A few weeks later, a booklet in a plain brown package would […]
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Mind your own business
“There are only three kinds of business in the universe: mine, yours, and God’s.” ~ Byron Katie Today, I had the urge to write about something that I was outraged about. I was annoyed about a particular internet art star. I wanted to be the kid in the crowd who cries out that the emperor has no clothes. But […]
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Phew!
I am working on my play again after a couple of months of avoiding it. I feel like I am standing in front of a house with no door– and I am trying to figure out how to get back in. Today I am going for a long walk around Trout Lake with my characters. […]
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Reminding myself of the light within.
The traveler driving down a lonely country road at night, is encouraged by the distant twinkling lights of her destination. But it’s the headlights of her car that keep her from driving off the road. In life we are drawn toward the bright light of desire and distant dreams. But only the light we carry with […]