Dreaming Art Again

I don't know if it's technically dreaming. I'm kind of awake, but kind of not. At any rate, it is done in the wee hours which does have a downside... a little tired today and I have to go to work.

The reason I'm so excited about it is it's been a long dry spell concerning art. I was working on a portrait this summer and got seriously stuck. A class at the Art Students League of Denver with Margaretta Gilboy really helped unstick me, and I was able to finish this portrait. Before

that point, I was pretty excited about getting into the portrait business. But I realized I wasn't feeling the joy when I painted anymore. Things got busy, and I stopped doing pretty much any kind of art. I made a couple of simple handmade journals for sanity's sake, but that was it.

I felt like I possibly wouldn't do any more painting. This fall, I've had another go at battling my migraines. An elimination diet cleanse turned into something longer. I found out gluten could be added to my triggers and since I've been eating clean... no more migraines. Except. When I am around art supplies, solvents, chemicals, fumes, holy mackeral! I'm getting some doozies! This only strengthened the feeling of no more painting. And besides, I had grown increasingly uncomfortable with the thought of putting this stuff out into the environment. Not to mention the packing materials that go with art.

Flash forward a few months at 4am. I woke up, sort of, to Gwyn, my boy kitty, sticking his stinky little feet on my face. This is his quiet, middle of the night way of saying "I love you". Then Cy Twombly-like drawings started floating into my mind. There was color. There was black line, some bold, some obfuscated. I could actually feel myself drawing on paper. Then, some fabric sculptures appeared. First vaguely, then very concrete. Individual pieces. A series. I could see the construction. I didn't sleep for the rest of the night.

These works are very different from the realism in my portraits. They are definitely mixed media, which I am passionate about. They are much more about a feeling that capturing an image. This has been a recurring frustration throughout my artistic life, capturing the feeling of what I see. Who knows where this will lead, but I am starting on some small pieces.  This one is from this morning, the first.  It's rather difficult loosening up like this, but not as difficult as I expected.  It will be interesting to see where it leads.