Breakers at the Jetty Mixed Media
“It is the artists business to create sunshine when the sun fails”.
Romain Rolland
Artists make work that inspires and buoys us in difficult times, reminding us of the valuable things in life. No matter how bad things get, if we look, we can always find beauty. Whether it is in nature, literature, music, movement, or the visual arts. It is there for us to enjoy. It’s a way to renew and recharge.
For those of us who are “creatives” we can also lose ourselves in the process of making and creating art. For others they can enjoy the fruits of our labor. It is the sunshine when the sun fails to shine.
How glorious it is to go to the studio and lose myself in something. To not care about how it turns out or what is happening outside the doors of my studio, but to just enjoy the journey. Funny, it is at those times when I produce my best work. It is because what is deep inside comes out and it is personal.
I am not naive enough to believe that all art is beautiful. It is not! A portion of it is a statement about what is happening in the world and some of it is horrific. The art is powerful, disturbing, and is recording history in the making, and let’s face it, it’s not always pretty! I can’t ignore it. It is in my face 24/7. I have a TV, an iPhone, and an iWatch. But I can choose how I process it, handle it, and relate to it. I truly, like many others, wish I could solve all the problems in the world. But I can’t. I can only control my little part of it.
It is our reaction to adversity, not adversity itself, that determines how our life story will develop. Life is what we make it, what we choose to focus on, what we search for.
To quote R. Kipling. “When the world wearies, and ceases to satisfy, there’s always the garden”. I have spent a lot of time in my garden lately and of course that motivates me to go to my studio and celebrate the beauty of nature.
If I can create something that makes someone smile or look closer at the wonders that surround us, or just even view it from a different perspective, I will feel good about what I have done. I am the glass is half full person and I want to make sunshine!
I want to make people curious about the natural elements. It’s my artistic voice. It has come out through the years in various forms, from realism to abstract expressionism. In oil, watercolor, pastel, mixed media, collage, and sculpture. But it has all had a foothold in the natural elements that surround me.
Finding what it is you are passionate about is important in developing your artistic voice. Learning many ways to communicate what is important to you is emotionally satisfying and a process that takes you out of the here and now and lets you explore unseen emotions.
I loved this quote by Romain Rolland. It resonated with me. I am drawn to art that makes me feel good about life and humanity. That has a happy vibe to it. What type of art do you lean to? Carolyn