Not failed, just unfinished.

Before my troop of people and animals headed out to our county fair in July, I was in full snack prep mode. Yes, there would be fair food, but we also needed some snacks (lots of snacks) back at our camper to get us through the week. I decided I would make some homemade Chex mix. I’ve made a couple different versions of Chex mix before, but not very often. I found a recipe for what I would call a very traditional version, and this particular one cooked in the crock pot. I got all my stuff, customized it a little by leaving out the peanuts and adding in Cheez Its, etc. (Does anyone like or eat the peanuts?)

Well, my personalized version of this crock pot Chex mix came out soggy. I did everything like the recipe said, but it was a flop. A fail. Or was it? Maybe it just needed more time in the oven. So, I poured it out on a baking sheet and baked it until everything was nice and crispy. Not a fail after all, just unfinished.

Can paintings be like Chex mix? Of course, that’s why I wanted to mention my almost failed county fair snack situation. My last collection of paintings has sat on my shoulders for a few months, feeling like a failure. I was so excited about theses paintings, I picked out my recipe for them, and added in everything I liked, but they fell a little short. Soggy, if you will. Out of one hundred pieces I only sold four, and this should have surprised me, but it really didn’t. I’m terrible at marketing, for one thing, and maybe these paintings just weren’t finished. I usually love lining up all my paintings and signing them all and varnishing them as I tie up a collection, but I didn’t do that to this group. I think I knew that they needed to go back in the oven for a bit.

So, that’s what I’m going to do. I”m going to pull some things I love that are missing, and add it to the last farm abstract collection. I’m going to let myself experiment and play. Maybe it will work out and the paintings will finish out like my Chex mix. Not failed, just unfinshed.

This journal entry also serves as an announcement that if you liked any of the paintings from the farm abstract series as is, you might want to go ahead and buy them! I’m going to start pulling the listings out from the shop as I rework them!

“Red on the Horizon 2.0” This is a painting from my farm abstract series that I reworked with some collage. I still don’t think its quite finished, but it feels closer than it did before!

A pity party and some postcards.

About a month ago I was all ready to throw myself a pity party. Why? It seemed like every family I knew (in reality it was three actual families and one other family I don’t know but follow on Instagram) were preparing for exciting international travel over the summer. Italy. France. Italy and France! I know its not super awesome to admit feelings of jealousy, but that’s exactly what I felt. The only travel on our summer schedule was a pig show in Iowa, which my daughters and I opted out of. Livestock shows are fine, but the Almalfi coast they are not.

So, in this summer of my life I am not traveling. I am staying home with my family and my garden and all the animals. This is fine and good, and usually I am so satisfied with my life. Its all very layered, as these things are, but feelings of discontentment caught up to me. I love the animals, but the livestock shows are not quite my jam, and I was dreading a summer full of them. (Confession: I am a 4-H dropout. I think I completed one or two years of pig showing at the county fair before my dad and I came to the conclusion that it was more than OK for me not to do it.) Isn’t it ironic then, that livestock shows are exactly my husband’s and son’s jam, and my girls are pretty happy to join in too. My people could make and jar up this jam they like it so much. God is so funny sometimes!

Why am I sharing all this? Well, I think it pairs nicely with my art. I recently completed a series of farm abstracts inspired by the rural landscape for The One Hundred Day Project. Typically after I wrap up this project I flounder for a bit (or months) without a focus. I’m a person and and artist who needs structure or I do nothing. Knowing this, as I was working on that series I was thinking about what I should focus on next. I pulled out some old postcards that I had collected and painted on a few of them as I worked on the abstracts. I loved working on them! So, before I even had my “I’m not traveling” pity party I knew I wanted to do something with these postcards.

I have a lot to figure out as I go, but I’m really excited about them. Postcards from home. That seems just as ironic as the 4-H dropout surrounded by show animals in her adult life. I hope to write more about the process and my thoughts behind it as I go too. Art really is such a wonderful thing. Just thinking about this new collection of work has made my mind open up and be thankful again for the beautiful life right in front of me. Pig shows and all.

Why abstract?

While I have been making art for a long time, it has only been in the last few years that I have gotten more and more into abstract painting. It has crept up on me, this abstract work. Someone recently told me they saw my paintings online, and they didn’t get it. “Not getting” abstract art is a pretty common thought. Why would an artist paint abstractly if they have the ability to work more realistically? (I used to assume that if someone was an abstract artist it was because they couldn’t draw!) I know the style isn’t for everyone, but I know that at this time in my life it is for me. Here are a few reasons why:

1. I’m drawn to it. When I scroll through Pinterest or Instagram, I seem to always slow down when I see an abstract piece of art. I want to study it: the colors, the layers, the shapes, the feeling. I love a large piece of abstract art, how it fits boldly in a room. If I’m in a gallery or space that has abstract art in it I want to stand with my nose in it! I just really love looking at it.

2. It’s challenging. Before I had even dipped a toe into the water of abstract painting I sat up on my high horse of more realistic work and thought: “Abstract art is so easy. Anyone could do it.” Now, of course, I am off the horse trying to make my own abstract work and hello, it is hard. Abstract work is art boiled down to its very simplest forms. Shapes, colors, values. When something looks easy, more than likely it isn’t! Even if an abstract piece is drawing inspiration from life (like paintings in my farm abstract series) it still has to be able to stand on its own without a more obvious subject to support it.

3. Abstract art makes me feel free. This is probably my favorite thing about abstract art. It is so freeing! To look at, to make. When I first started making paintings that were non-subjective I just called them geometric paintings: I used watercolor to make repeating patterns of triangles. Lots and lots of triangles. I think I started making these triangle paintings just to test colors, but I loved the process to much I kept making more. Something about that repetitive work calmed my mind, which tends to run a little on the anxious side. This was the first time I think I made art for the process rather than the product. This has opened up a whole side of art making that I honestly never considered before. Free indeed!