My Comments on Flor's Art

Flor Larios asked me in a comment on my last blog to tell me which words I would use to describe her art. I had already been to Flor's site and I like her work to start with.

First I'll show you some of her work and then I will share the comments that we exchanged.

Flor has two different styles: her almost whimsical paintings and her collage work.

My Comment on Flor's Blog:

"...Words to describe your paintings: feminine, whimsical, and light-feeling. I see large eyes that see everything and smaller mouths that don't say too much. Quiet observation. I see a celebration of being a woman.

Now that being said, I want to talk about your Frida Collages. The shrine that you recently did with Frida in Traction [The Broken Column] is a powerful piece. The crosses, too. Frida sees and doesn't speak. She cries silently in her paintings and I think that you have expressed it beautifully. Especially in the one where she has the skull on the forehead. Did you put that in there? If so, it was brilliant. She sees her mortality. There is a boldness in those designs and you have tied the details together beautifully. I would love to see you make more of that type of collage as well as your paintings..."

"I want to tell you a quick story about seeing the Frida exhibit in San Francisco last summer. I had seen the Frida in traction [The Broken Column] painting in books before but when I stood in front of the actual work, it felt like all the pain and sadness came flooding into me and I understood what she was trying to say. I nearly couldn't stop crying. And the collage you did like that brought it back and expressed it very well. Very nice work, Flor!"

And Flor's comment back to me:

"I just have to say wow! You described my personality looking at my paintings...I am impressed! ..."

Words to Describe Art: A Challenge!

The question was raised in Dayle Doroshow's post at That Creative Place's blog: how can we describe designs or pieces of art that have a certain quality? She was looking for a word that meant something like "Sophisticated" but when she looked the word up, she realized it didn't fit at all. She chose to use the words, "natural elegance". It's a good term.

This is what natural elegance looks like to me:


Elegant! Degas, Little Dancer

It really got me thinking and I realized that this is the same kind of thing that I ran across while studying art and art history. So seldom can one word describe or categorize any given piece of work in art or craft. And I think about the comments that we leave for others when we show our work...beautiful....gorgeous...cute...etc.

This is indeed a Gorgeous bracelet by Etsy seller Coralia


This pin really IS Darling. by Pat Winter


But how do you describe this?
It more complicated than to just give it a one-word comment.



Etsy seller TilebyFire

The reason that art and craft is so hard to sum up is because there are so many different aspects to a work. You can talk about the color (bright, muted, subdued, bold, luminous), the shape (angular, linear, organic, proportional), the composition (well-composed, asymmetrical, balanced, unified) and we haven't even brushed on meaning, genre, or other elements of art. All of these things apply to craft as well as fine art.

It would be fortunate for us if we had many descriptive words just for the word "beautiful" in art like the Inuit people have for snow (urban legend, BTW). But it's not that simple. I challenge you to look closer at the works that you see and comment on to find something more specific to say about what you're looking at. It can be a teaching tool in our own art-making.

Here are some more of my words:

Vibrant
Mystical
Abstract
Original
Unique
Intuitive
Rhythmic
Flowing
Swirling
Dramatic
Vibrant
Primitive
Strong
and my ultimate word....sublime.

This hasn't answered any of Dayle's question because I'm not so sure there is a word that describes natural elegance. Much of it lies in one's own interpretation of the word. Maybe the most important thing is to know what the words mean to us and what we're looking for in our art.

I haven't touched on the negative words to describe a work. But we should be aware of these, also because we can learn from these as well. We probably won't be leaving any of those on our favorite blogs, though.

Etsy Artists

OWOH notice: I'm going to be giving away two turtle pendants instead of one! A lot of people signed up...so I'm going to throw another one into the pot. Picture to come by the weekend.

Now on to the blog...

Etsy is really something, isn't it? I think that it has been a big part of this craft Renaissance that we're seeing. The drive to buy handmade (and to sell) is taking off!

Here are some artists that you may not have seen.

Cathy is a Polymer Artist and Etsy Seller (name dumauvobleu) who lives in France and makes gorgeous polymer beads:

Alison (Etsy Seller Earthtonesonline) is another polymer bead artist. She gets really interesting color patterning and her bird beads are to die for!

And Etsy Seller Naftali whose work has been featured in several magazines, including Bead and Button:

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

CHA Report

I'm just back from CHA (Craft and Hobby Industry show). Christi Friesen roomed with me and that was fun! I feel like I've known her forever. We talk on the phone but I hadn't actually met her face-to-face.

Paverpol was probably the highlight of the show for me....I made a figure using paper towels for the draping (and purse). I like the back better than the front. I used a mannequin, paper towels, and cotton fiber for the hair.

Talking to Rose and Christa gave me a whole new appreciation for Paverpol (which I had little experience with) Anyway, looks like I'm going to certify for them to teach Paverpol!

I took these workshops and these are the goodies that I came away with:

My favoritist workshop was with Thomas Mann, Metal Artist, on learning to saw metal.
It was fantastic and I learned so much on sawing that I can even apply to my gourd work!
He's releasing a series of kits that we're considering carrying.
All I have to show from it are some little stars and shapes that I cut from brass but I did buy a Learn-to-saw kit! He's really awesome!

This is my wax/altered/mixed media book cover. Not sure how well I like it. But it was a beeswax class with Suze Weinberg (who is quite a character! I love her!)

From Suze Weinberg's class...a book, wax stylus, chipboard die cuts and lots of other things.

Claudine Helmuth's Mixed Media Madness...that's my project and all of the paints
and brushes that I got to take home.

This is a hardware bracelet that I did in Heidi Boyd's class.

We came away with her newest book also!

Things that I found interesting were lots of gorgeous resin pendants. I saw people embedding gorgeous things into the pendants, jumprings, crystals, all kinds of sparklies! We're going to carry a line of settings (bezels) to inlay polymer and resin into and resin with molds also.

Lots more to report but I'll save it for another blog!!

Isn't OWOH fun??!!!

Working on a New Project

I've been working on My "Mini Sailor's Valentines" as a low cost project/class at my site. I'll put a link here when I get it posted. I finally found a use for the coral hearts that I collected last May in Hawaii. But any kind of heart, stone, polymer, other clay, could also be used.

This is a shell collage that I did over a picture frame for my daughter for Christmas. I like the brown palette that I used. (Click on the picture for a larger image)

I'm getting ready to go to Hawaii again next week: this time I'm teaching at a gourd festival on the big island. There is lots to do to get ready!

New Years Thoughts:

I have been practicing being more "in the moment", something that is talked about a lot but I had never quite gotten the concept of. I read Eckhart Tolle's A New World and it finally makes sense! This is the best thing I have ever started doing for myself, for my art. I wish you blessings of creativity for this coming year.

Hi all!
This is my first post at my new blog! I decided to turn my old blog into my website's blog. That Creative Place.
Here are some snowmen that I, my daughter Robin, and my grandson Chase made last night:

Chase had such a great time making them! He was laughing himself silly.

Almost done with Christmas makings, I have a few more things to do on a mosaic lamp and then it will be Christmas. I tell myself every year that I will start early but I haven't as of yet. I will get it down one of these years. :-)