The Rebellious Curator

Big Feet

I always tell my students to keep a sketchbook and draw or paint whatever they want in it.

I usually never tell my students to do something I don't do myself, so I have many types of sketchbooks filled with many random things I have drawn or painted over the years. Some things I like, others I don't, but that's how anything in life is right? It's just a good practice for an artist to keep making and creating as often as possible to maintain and foster their craft. I'll post a few pages of my sketchbook in the next few weeks..

"Creativity takes courage." - Matisse

Ok, so here I am, doing what I said I wasn't going to do..post any more paintings. 

Yes I have been closet painting. I tried, but I couldn't stay away from my brushes for very long.

I have been painting for myself, making and painting what I feel like. I'm trying things, moving from painting to collage, to constructing a dollhouse, doing all kinds of miniature art, and assemblage. It feels right to do this, and a bit rebellious.

The painting below is almost finished. I've always wanted to paint a rainbow in oil, and what I'm finding, is that it's hard to keep the colours of the rainbow clean and transparent. I'll add a few more thin layers of pink and purple at the top of the bow, and a stormier sky to create more value contrast for drama.

There's more to layer on the foreground grass which is not visible in the photo, and includes some distant wildflowers. 

I decided to share this because it's kind of pretty, and in a world full of uncertainty, it's important to remember God's promises. 

"If you think of this world as a place simply intended for our happiness, you will find it quite intolerable. Think of it as a place for training and correction, and it's not so bad." - C.S. Lewis

I think heaven is the place for happiness..and it lasts forever.

It's what happens when you die o/c 2013

I found a 3x3 inch watercolour tucked away in my backpack which I had painted on location in the mountains long before the pandemic. It looks nice in this wooden frame.

"The goal of the artist is to deepen the mystery" - Francis Bacon

INFJ's are creative people who live mostly in their heads.

Their intuition is constantly in overdrive, and this can be exhausting for them.

Ideas, thoughts and emotions live as abstract in INFJ's and is why they are often drawn to create the abstract. Thinking abstractly however, can cause complications when voiced both through their art, and in communication with others, resulting in being mostly misunderstood.

Even so, they need to express themselves through various forms of art and are constantly thinking of new ideas.

Their mind is hard to turn off.  and many INFJ's do not sleep well.

Found an old journal with a few of my earliest blogs..

Blog #9

On Regret

"The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave it neither power nor time". - Mary Oliver

Untitled o/c 2014

I went through a period of time where most, or all of my paintings had pink and green. I also loved the power of combining pink and orange, or placing pink and orange next to each other. I always added areas of pure titanium white and small bits of bold red for contrast. That combination is still magic to me.

I always tell my students to paint from their heart first, then their head. The hand will follow.

I found an old journal and wanted to share a few of my earliest blog posts:

Blog #12

Hubris Bloat

"My husband is a full-time Theology student. He reads a lot of dry, scholarly text. He recently coined the term Hubris Bloat to describe descriptive artspeak like this:

In this painting, I engaged aspects of painterly abstraction, generalized areas of colour, rendered light imprecisely, and intentionally confused spatial relationships. 

In other words, it's colourful and confusing."

Potty Mouth House o/c 2014

This painting was part of a series of abstracts about a derelict, abandoned house by the river near the community where I live. This house was broken down, grown over with vines, and riddled with graffiti. From a distance, it may have been haunted, but upon closer exploration, it had a rather welcoming personae. I tried to capture its soul, as I felt the house had its own interesting history despite being laden with profanity and disrepair. This painting describes the interior looking in through the broken front door toward a staircase. The word DEAD was grafittied on the exterior to the right of the entry, and an upside down cross to the left, which I made only partially legible in the painting.

Two of the other paintings in the Potty Mouth House series.

The abandoned house by the river.