art opening

Emotions, exhibits, drawings and books

A Creative Life, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, art prints, art supplies, art techniques, artist book, artistic inspirations, books, business of art, creative thinking, fine art, Gifts, mental health, public art, reading, sketchbook, Sustainable creativity, teaching, words and pictures

My exhibit “For You By Sue the ABC’s: Art, Books, Cards” opened at the Aurora Gallery. It was my first art event since my adopted Mom passed so it was hard in many ways. But I spent time talking with my spouse and being in touch with family and friends so that helped. I didn’t attend my art opening in person because I’m still being careful re Covid and, frankly, I didn’t want to cry in public. Even so I heard nice comments via social media from people who saw my exhibit during the opening and took the time to tell me they enjoyed it. It’s safe to say quite a wide spectrum of my emotions were covered.

Which made me glad that I’d spent time reading Marcus Aurelius recently. Over on A.M. Sketching I thought, as I sketched, about a quote from Marcus Aurelius – regarding not needing to always have opinions and the practice of letting opinions float by as they will. I find this is true of my emotions too – they come and go if I just let them alone. So, it helped this weekend to just let my emotions come and go without forming an opinion about how I felt. Not forming opinions about my emotions helped me to sustain both my creativity and my ability to do the business end, so to speak, of living a creative life during a personally difficult time.

This last week I made an effort towards my new drawing tutorial gig via Nil-tech. I did a demo of drawing “Hedgehog in Shade“.

It’s a beginning… here’s a link if you’d like to see my very short tutorial effort.

Here’s a book I’m reading and enjoying. I find the main character’s way of cheerfully adapting to difficult circumstances very refreshing.

I’m going to read and rest some more. Thank you for reading and for your kind comments. See you next Monday.

opening story stuff

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art gallery, art techniques, Cats in art, fine art, public art, still life, Sustainable creativity

I find that with each art exhibit I learn more about my own work. Last night, during the opening party for “Story Stuff” at Caplan Art Designs, I had multiple questions about my art techniques – in addition to conversations about the content within my artwork. As a result I realized that I’m an ancient art technique nerd. Many of my works in this exhibit utilize art techniques originating in the 19th century and earlier. I didn’t consciously set out to use so many old techniques – handmade paper, paper dying, and gouache to name a few – they just suited my content as I created it. Several different people commented that they thought my use of old techniques made my work “ethereal”.

Wow! New thoughts to think – and thank you to all of my fans for that! Thank you for all the stimulating conversations!

Quite a crowd ebbed and flowed throughout the evening. Here’s a photo from one of the moments. I’m wearing a red shirt.

What a fun evening!  Now, back to the studio to make more art!

on seeing story stuff

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art gallery, artistic inspirations, fine art, still life, visual story

Beauty and wisdom are all around us if we’re attuned to look for them. Like a mystery story detective looking for clues we train our eyes to “see” what is there. This is partially a function of he way our brains work. We see what we expect to see. How broad or narrow that expectation is affects what we will see. It’s all too easy to “see” only to-do lists and drudgery in daily life.  It’s too easy to “see” beauty only in dramatic once-in-a-lifetime vacation places. Yet our view can be broadened so we can see beauty in the fruit at the local market – and find wisdom on our coffee cup.

I see my job as an artist as a practice of seeing beauty in ordinary places and things; of telling the stories of the beauty and the wisdom I find. To help others to see the beauty too.

Beauty and wisdom can be too easily ignored, lost and forgotten – and when that happens life can seem dull and drudgery filled.  This is why we need to constantly train our eyes and minds to look around our mundane lives and see the beauty, the wisdom. It takes repeated practice. It takes detective work.

Dr. Bob Hoke (the psychiatrist I illustrated a book for) had a phrase for this phenomenon of the mind “When the student is ready the teacher will appear. And sometimes the teacher has been there all along waiting patiently for the student to become ready, to notice and remember to notice again the next day.”

Here are some beautiful ordinary things I remembered to see – and what I thought about them:

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“Life’s a bowl of cherries, stems pits and all” – by Clancy – 8 x 10 inches – acrylic and gouache on board

Life’s A Bowl Of Cherries, Stems, Pits and All – At the farmer’s market during Rainier Cherry season I saw a father teaching his very young son how to pull a stem off, chew the cherry, extract the pit and put the stim and pit into a cup. it reminded me of how we have to be taught how to deal with the adversities in life, how to cope with the pits, how to focus on and remember to enjoy the good things.

CoffeeCity72

“Coffee City” – by Clancy – 5 x 7 inches – acrylic and gouache on board

Coffee City – I’ve been thinking of how much our lives are reflected in the objects we own, save, give away or dispose of – and the many mundane moments out of which a life is made. Perhaps choosing carefully what we focus on, choosing what encourages our “better angels”, choosing what becomes mundane is what makes for a good life.  These thoughts began when I was having coffee in one of my downtown coffee shops, staring at the highly polished surface of the ceramic coffee cup which reflected the surrounding city-scape. It was an ordinary moment that elevated my spirit. So I made this painting in order to remember.

You can see more art examples from this exhibit in my recent posts here and here.

More info about my upcoming art opening is available on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/2217205128523609/

True confessions: since the opening party is tomorrow night I am having a bit of the “will anyone come?” jitters. No matter that I’ve been having one person exhibits for many years, many times a year, or that all events have for the most part been well attended – even knowing all of that as opening night nears I get a little nervous. (“Will anyone else see….?”)  The exhibits matter to me. They’re risky on many levels. That’s part of the exhilarating fun of living the artistic life.

So, yes, I can see the beauty in my nervousness.

Mostly.

 

an open Fur Suit of Happiness

A Creative Life, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, cat portrait, Cats in art, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art

Last night was the opening of my art exhibit “The Fur Suit Of Happiness” at Caplan Art Designs in Portland Or. Lots of people came. Many nice things were said about my artwork. Many good questions were asked. Several people used the “M” word when referring to my artwork and I still get a warm fuzzy feeling when I hear such evidence that people “get” my work! The “M” word is “metaphor” or “mythology”.

And yes, the work of Joseph Campbell has inspired much of my artwork!

During the opening last night I found it was helpful that I had just given a speech the day before (blog post about the speech here) – so I still had my “talking shoes” on.  There have been openings where I’ve gone to a gallery directly from my work in my studio – with a slight pause to change clothes – at such times I get to the gallery and find I’ve almost forgotten the English language. Or any language but pictures. And I need a few minutes to “find my words”.

Didn’t have that trouble last night! I was almost chatty Cathy!  Here are a few pics:

And one of our friends came to see my new work and gave me a whole sack full of sheet music for my future collaging pleasure!! Wow!!!

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Here is a photo of what the gallery wall of my artwork looked like without people standing in front of it. The pedestal in the photo holds a portfolio of 50 of my small ink dog art pieces.

WallOfArt

The way the owner of the Caplan Art Designs gallery arranged the wall proved to be a wonderful way to help people zero in on details within my work. The over-stimulation seemed to help the viewers focus.  One person had an epiphany while looking at the wall saying to me “Oh! I get it! You’re talking about human behavior metaphorically with your dogs and cats!”

I almost hugged them. But I didn’t because I’d never met them before last night. Wow! They used the “M” word!

Swoon.

 

fine art and fine wine

A Creative Life, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, fine art, public art, visual story, words and pictures

Here are some photos of my fine art in the process of being exhibited at a winery, Burnt Bridge Cellars in Vancouver Wa, for a First Friday event, June 3 2016 www.burntbridgecellars.com

At the winery I’ll have new artwork in an exhibit titled “Enjoying Time”. The opening starts at 4pm Friday evening and includes music, food and wine and, of course, visual fine art.  (The exhibit will be available until the end of July – see the winery’s website for their hours)

I like having my artwork in winery’s – especially when there is good food prepared by a chef (like at the Burnt Bridge Cellars), and music – because my artwork in general is about taking time to enjoy small moments. So what better way to amplify my artistic thoughts than to exhibit my art in a way that can engage all of the senses?

Fortunately my art agents at Caplan Art Designs agree and aid and abet my efforts! (The gallery owner brought some of my artwork from the gallery and consulted about the display at the winery!) www.caplanartdesigns.com

Here is my “Enjoying Time” exhibit statement:

“After attending a symphony followed by a multi-course dinner and drinks with friends I began thinking about time; musical time, cooking time… finding, taking and spending time on things that bring joy to life.  I thought about how our lives are entirely made up of time and it’s up to us to use our time well.  So I began to collect, from my daily life, my own “enjoyable moments” – and recreate them for you with some of my favorite animals.”

And here (finally!) are the promised photos –

Sue Clancy's fine art on exhibit above some very fine wines at Burnt Bridge Cellars

Sue Clancy’s fine art on exhibit above some very fine wines at Burnt Bridge Cellars

Sue Clancy's fine art in the process of being exhibited at Burnt Bridge Cellars

Sue Clancy’s fine art in the process of being exhibited at Burnt Bridge Cellars

 

 

more wine and other wonders

art exhibit, fine art

Another party, um I mean art opening, at Burnt Bridge Cellars! July 3rd from 4 to 9 pm – there will be live music, art and a chef creating 4 or so Greek dishes and, since this art exhibit is in a winery it goes without saying that there will be wine!!! Here’s one of my handmade paper collage artworks at the exhibit:

MassiveMastiffMunching72