I am starting with no expectations except to post about art and ideas. I have scads and scads of notes on paper of what I want to do (make a bowl with the air dry clay I have had for years sitting on a shelf, de-clutter and organize the tiny bedroom that I use for my art space, make ceremonial rattles from paper mache and sticks I found, do some of the arts and crafts projects that my friend Katharine sent me that she taught in her library workshops, improve my portrait painting skills, etcetera, etcetera). But for right now, I just want to post images of things I’ve done, both recently (not lately, because my work space is unusable atm) from this summer, and long ago when I was in high school, art college at PNCA, and also at PSU. My only immediate goal in resurrecting this site is to put up some pictures in a safe place. I say safe because even though it is public, it *feels* more private and personal than Instagram, because there is no expectation of comments or likes, etcetera. I might change that mode of thinking, but right now I know the reason I haven’t shared any art on social media is for fear of judgment, and also that if things aren’t finished, which they often aren’t, that I don’t want to present them to the world. But, I don’t care about that here, because the process is more important than the product right now.
Again, I want to reiterate to myself and anyone else, that these are all what I would call “studies” or experiments, or practice paintings. I’m choosing ones that I like, for one reason or another, and not because I consider them *brilliant* or even complete. They will be in different types of media, but mostly drawing or painting, maybe collage and mixed media, but it will be things I made and like to look at, even after I made them.
Wow, I’m also learning (slowly) how to even do WordPress. I don’t know how to adjust the size of that image! Whatever. I’ll do it later, or not. That’s not the point right now. So, another big reason that I have never started an art Instagram (or Tumblr, or Facebook page, or DeviantArt) is because it is drilled into you as an artist that you have to have a “style.” It has to be consistent and recognizable as your own, and it usually is supposed to be all in the same type of media, showing your personal technique. If you don’t have that, there’s no point in sharing and posting your work to the public eye. If I have ever had a defined personal art style, I’m not sure what it was; I think I am still discovering that as I reinvent my art practice and learn through experience how to paint again. In the future I might note the media used (graphite, charcoal, acrylic, watercolor, etc.) or what the art was for (a tutorial, a class, a gift, an exercise, etc.) but for now, consider everything untitled examples of me experimenting and playing with process. Thank you to myself for posting finally and getting this ship out of the harbour, and thank you to gemini AI for the inspiration via the Nostaligic Italian blog. PEACE. P.S. I just figured out how to preview this post, and the image doesn’t look as oversized as it does here, so that’s A-OK anyway!
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