A Recovery Blog

This blog is about my continuing recovery from severe mental illness and addiction. I celebrate this recovery by continuing to write, by sharing my music and artwork and by exploring Buddhist and 12 Step ideas and concepts. I claim that the yin/yang symbol is representative of all of us because I have found that even in the midst of acute psychosis there is still sense, method and even a kind of balance. We are more resilient than we think. We can cross beyond the edge of the sane world and return to tell the tale. A deeper kind of balance takes hold when we get honest, when we reach out for help, when we tell our stories.

Monday, September 29, 2008

More New Work



I painted this watercolor this weekend and am calling it The Looking Glass. It's based on a black and white photograph by Jock Sturges which can be found in his book The Last Day Of Summer.

I had been struggling with a couple of small abstract acrylic paintings and then switched over to working in watercolors. I was getting some ideas from a book on Paul Klee. I concentrated on an abstract watercolor painting he did in 1922 called simply, Green, Violet against Orange. It's primarily a hand drawn geometric design skillfully filled in with colors from dark to light to subtle in between colors. It has an architectural feel to it and uses some of the shapes like magical windows. I thought, this might be a good work to loosely follow. I soon found out that I couldn't reproduce the colors or even the shapes very well. I did two paintings of it, one hand drawn and the other drawn with a ruler (except for the circular shapes). In the first painting I had little control, the colors splashed over the lines and I changed the colors to make it brighter and less subtle. I decided that I was painting to practice getting more control and not to paint a finished piece. So, in the second painting I was more careful, but this didn't necessarily make for a better painting, just a cleaner one. I then tried making up my own design in a couple of more paintings. On the whole it was just plain fun to work at this and I plan to do this as a practice to learn more about shapes, colors and values in watercolor.

Before I went to bed one night I picked up the Jock Stuges' book and the very first photograph captured my attention. I thought that it would make a good painting and so I sat down and drew it on watercolor paper. Then I tried to get some sleep, but couldn't, so I got up and started painting. I find that my process when I'm into something is often quick. I also find that I have to keep changing projects and mediums to stay interested in my work. But I've been very pleased that I have been consistently working for three weeks now. A good ending to an unproductive summer and a good beginning to the fall season.
May it continue.

I posted a blog on the Artid site about going through an artist's block this summer. One artist commented that this is not unusual for artists and that sometimes a "block" is necessary downtime. I thought that was interesting, that artists need to not work as part of the process to getting back to being creative again. Perhaps one's unconscious needs time to assimilate new experiences, or maybe it's a spiritual process as well. Having said that I still prefer to work than to not work because I am happier when I work, but I can now be more forgiving of the time away from work this summer.

6 comments:

nancy said...

Stunning! I love this one, Kate. You capture a mood so eloquently. You inspire me to want to paint again.

Nancy

Anonymous said...

Hi Kate,

Your talent is very evident and it makes me feel humble that even at your level of skill that you struggle doing other peoples work. This is evident in my hairdressing work. However I like that you do not beat yourself up unable to achieve others work but look at it as practise. I am pleasantly surprised that you have had such a long spell at working and going to the gym. You are doing so well and keep up the good work.

JP

Anonymous said...
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Wanderer said...

Thanks Nancy and Jeni, I really appreciate the feedback.

Kate

Anonymous said...

Kate, I am so happy I stumbled onto your site. You have so much talent! If has been many years since we've spoken but I would love to see all of your work. I will try to be in touch.

Bev

Wanderer said...

Bev, if you're the person I'm thinking of, wow, it's good to hear from you. I hope you are doing well. I've thought about you these last few years. I painted a picture of your daughter from a photograph I took in maybe 2003 or 4. You can see it on my Artid site (the link is on the top of my favorite links list on my blog). You can also contact me from there as well. I hope to hear from you.

Kate