Yes, sometimes my dog gets art stuff spilled on him. No, he doesn’t care.
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Judith Monroe Posts
Today was the last day of summer classes. For some reason, this summer session seemed harder to get to studio work for me. Maybe it was that I had to get up at 6 a.m. three days a week and I am such a night person and not at all a morning person. Maybe it was the other things that seemed to come at the same time to take me away from the studio. Maybe it had nothing to do with school at all and it was just my mental attitude.
Whatever it has been, it’s over now and I officially celebrated by clearing off the worktable, getting a new set of panels on it and getting them prepped with gesso. Next up, deciding on compositions, what images to use, how to put them together… that might take a little while but it will be exciting, I can hardly wait to see what comes together!
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Seems like sometimes the creative process just flows easily and quickly, artworks nearly putting themselves together with no effort at all.
And then there are the other times.
Other times, each layer struggles to be laid down, bit by bit, it comes together, ever so slowly. In between the layers, I struggle to get time in the studio and once there, I struggle with what exactly to do next. It becomes an endurance run, where I can only focus on the step in front of me, putting one figurative foot in front of the other, not able to even envision crossing the finish.
But then suddenly, it’s there, the finish, all bright colors and cheering fans. (Okay, maybe it’s just that the dogs are happy that we’re back home.)
That’s what this set has been for me, that long haul that I only knew I could finish because I’ve done it before, not because I could see where I was going. This is when art is truly work, but I still wouldn’t trade it for any other job in the world.
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For the first time in many years, I entered the California State Fair’s Fine Art Exhibit. There were over 1200 entries and the jurors could only choose 180 pieces for the exhibit, but they chose one of my artworks, which I delivered to the the Expo building today.
Needless to say, but I am pretty tickled. If you’d like to see the exhibit, it will be open with the fair July 10-26, 2015 and you can purchase tickets at their website.
It’s title is “Waiting for You”, taken from a quote by Italian Poet Cesare Pavese, “You need a village, if only for the pleasure of leaving it. A village means that you are not alone, knowing that in the people, the trees, the earth, there is something that belongs to you, waiting for you when you are not there.”
It illustrates the place where one comes from, where you can never go back, yet never leaves you. The place whose map is etched in your brain like the lines in your hands, where the leaves on the trees and the birds are all comfortingly yet painfully familiar to you. The place where they have to take you back, but they never fully understand you. The place we call Home.
I hope you can visit it in person, and if you fall in love with it, you can also purchase it and make it a part of your home.
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I’m working on a submision packet for a really lovely gallery that I would love to be in and one part of packet is a “brief statement as to why your work is extraordinary.” This is above and beyond the bio (which I should have updated here on my website soon) and my artist’s statement (ditto.)
Frankly, I was stumped, so I decided to go to my friends and supporters on Facebook for help. Over a month or so, I asked for reponses to my work, what people were drawn to, then to please help with this submission packet by telling me what makes my work extraordinay. The responses were all so affirming and wonderful, I was touched deeply and have also now been able to write that brief statement…
My artwork is a unique blend of photo-based mixed media, always using my own photographs with layer upon layer of color, texture and images. According to my fans and collectors, “It evokes not only a feeling, but also an entire environment that surrounds the viewer and captures the heart.” People tell me that they “love the conversations you have with Nature, including Life-Death-Life… It is the ability to narrow our focus to elements of nature, sometimes a single element… Which is what we need.” My art has a way of touching people, making them see the world around them in a new way. “Small wonders of nature that we might pass by in our daily life becomes a moment to ponder and revel in their beauty on canvas.” Viewers are drawn in by masterful mixed media techniques and “the use of images of nature leading into the subtle details that is telling a message. A message of love, hope and beauty…” that makes my work extraordinary.
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Last Sunday I did another live painting session, this time at Oak Hills Church in Folsom,California. Here’s the final product and a little about how I came up with the imagery for this piece.
Living the New Life
(Photo transfers, collage, acrylic, wax pastel and dried seedling on cradled wood panel, 30×60″)
As an artist called to bring glory to God, I try to be sensitive and listen to the prompting of the Spirit. This is an ongoing process, sometimes I feel more successful at it, sometimes less. It can seem to be a kind of a crazy thing, even to me, but that is when I step out in faith and grow.
The inspiration for this piece came from Colossians 3:1-4, as I read through it and meditated on it repeatedly, bits and pieces of images came to me and slowly came together as a whole.
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. (NLT)
One of the first things that came to me was the thought of heaven, and palm trees, which I first used as a symbol of heaven years ago, after reading passages in Ezekiel where he is going through the true temple in heaven. In those passages, Ezekiel describes the different rooms of the temple, each room having palm trees carved into the doorposts.
Another image that came to me was of a chair, where Christ sits, but it couldn’t just be a chair by itself. In pulling together images from my files, the wings stood out to me and came together with the chair. This seemed right to me but I don’t have any real explanation for it.
Dead birds are a recurring theme in my artworks, often referring to the scripture in Matthew about how God knows when even a sparrow falls, and how much more he watches over each of us. But in this case, we are reminded that we have died to this life and we are being transformed…
Finally, as I was trying to come up with another reference to Christ, I was reminded of how he is called the branch from the stump of Jesse, and at the same time I was reminded of the tree of life in heaven, so the prominent tree seemed appropriate on both accounts.
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Next Saturday, May 2nd, I’ll be doing a demo for an event called Art of Freedom, raising awareness and funds for victims of human trafficking. We plan on having as many as 140 guests creating their own artworks as I create mine, in a beautiful bakyard setting in Fair Oaks, California. So I need a few extra sets of hands to help mentor our guests as they go through this art experience.
I decided to do a little demo for these art mentors in my home studio, while making a couple samples for guests to see (and be able to purchase.) Not everyone was able to come, so one smart cookie asked if I could make video of what I was doing. Another sweet cookie agreed to hold my phone for video and they came out pretty fun, so I decided I could post it here, since I’ve been so busy I have neglected the blog lately. I’d say I’m killing two birds here, but we all know I don’t actually kill birds…
But I digress… here are the series of videos and I’ll insert a little about what is going on… To begin with, these are quilt-inspired works and I used a little template (like guests will get) to draw out squares of images and text and then I tear them out and place them in approximate patterns to start first, then rearrange.
In the second video, I’m adding texture with Spackle…
Video three, eggshells as texture…
Number four, a very brief bit of painting…
Fifth, we are talking about how to use sand as texture, though I don’t actually have any sand to demo with…
And finally, me alone in the studio – I don’t talk as well when I’m holding the camera – so you can see the finished products, after more paint and more paint. My camera person had to leave, so I didn’t get it all, but I think this is something I could do better with a little more intentionality in the future.
If you’re interested in purchasing either of these pieces, you can come to the Art of Freedom event next Saturday or you can email me, or contact me via the contact tab on my website here!
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For me the process of creating a piece starts far before anything ever reaches the panel. For this piece, titled “Life & Death,” it started with the class I was teaching last summer and one of the first assignments I gave my students to go shoot around campus, just concentrating on design and composition. While going through the submitted images for critique in class, I saw one student had photographed a deer skull in the nature area on campus. I was so excited I told him I wanted to know where it was and asked if he would take me to it. He agreed to show me, slightly amused at my request. It was no doubt not exactly the reaction he had anticipated. That’s how I acquired the deer skull in this piece. I had no idea what exactly I would do with it at first, just that I knew that I wanted to photograph it and use it somehow.
The same sort of thing applies to nearly every item I photograph. I often don’t know how it will fit in my work but I feel compelled to collect and photograph these items, trusting that the meaning and how it fits with other things will come with time. When I’m photographing the items, all I am concerned with is seeing the light and capturing the essence of the item, I am concentrating on the beauty of the form and presenting it in an pleasing manner.
After I’ve edited the photographs, I will print them out in small sizes and then start looking at them and how they might interact with each other. I’ll sometimes put them into compositions in a small journal, like sketches in a sketch book. Then it’s finally time to start on an actual piece. When I start printing out images for the piece, the relative sizes may change and sometimes an individual image may even change, but the concept remains.
Usually it’s somewhere in the time between capturing the images and putting them together into the piece that what they are actually saying starts to become clear. Suddenly a narrative comes out of the images and I understand what my subconscious was trying to say, or sometimes I am starting to understand. Maybe I will read something or have a conversation with someone and it’s like a little switch goes off in my head, triggering the artistic epiphany. Sometimes it happens later, when I’m in the physical stage of creating the piece. Sometimes the meaning is very clear to me and I can succinctly describe not just one meaning, but layers of meaning. Occasionally it is shrouded in mystery, tickling the edge of my mind and I can only just barely verbalize it. What I always know is that there is spiritual truth in the work, speaking to life, death, and transformation. I’ve been building a set of symbols that can be a guide to the narrative of each piece, but ultimately each viewer brings their own narrative to any work of art.
When I actually start applying the layers onto the panel, it’s a very meditative process. First some texture, then collage and gesso – it can be like prayer – then the photo layer and colored pencils – I am calm and focused – then paint, and more paint – I am eager with anticipation, waiting to see what it will finally look like – more collage, more paint – I’m on a voyage of discovery – wax pastels, more paint, more pastels – constantly experimenting and trying new things – adding whatever else the piece calls for. It’s a process that takes days, building up the layers, like a reverse archaeological dig. When I’m painting, I feel more alive. I can get lost in the process, unaware of time, like when I’m reading a really good book or watching a very engaging movie. Time stands still in the art making and all is well.
“Life & Death” is 10×10″ and created with photo transfers, ephemera, colored pencils, acrylics, wax pastels and a real feather. If you’re interested in this painting, contact me by clicking the link at the top of this page or by commenting below.
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I admit it, I am completely facinated with all kinds of natural artifacts that others may find odd or just plain creepy. It’s not that I think things are creepy and like that, but it’s just that I can appreciate the beauty in things that are not perfect or new or even alive anymore. I think the structure of a skeleton is amazing, just like the branches of a bare tree. And I don’t mind if an animal is no longer alive, I am still in awe of how it looks, whether it’s been preserved or maybe even if not…
So I have found myself in this place where I collect things, all kinds of things, on walks and hikes, and that friends who truly understand me have found and given to me and now – that I have purchased.
I aquired my first taxidermy specimen some time ago, an inexpensive pair of chicks, but they were a little funky. Recently, I decided to put some mony I had been given for Christmas toward something I really would enjoy and I got my first nice taxidermy bird. And then I got another one. (And a sweet little sleeping rat, too, but I won’t tell more about that one just yet.)
It’s not like one can go down to the local taxidermy shop and just pick up a little something, at least I haven’t found that shop yet. But I have discovered that there are some interesting taxidermy shops on Etsy, and that’s where I’ve made my recent purchases. So I order my new treasure and then patiently wait for it to arrive in my mailbox. I feel like a little kid again, eagerly inspecting the mailbox every day, wondering when exactly it will arrive. I try to be cool about it.
Finally, the package arrives and it’s so exciting that I even document the whole process…
And upon opening…
And finally…
I love it! This lovely little songbird came from Europe and I don’t even know what kind it is, so if you have an idea, comment below. Thanks!
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