I feel like I’ve spent the better part of 2021 scrambling back to my center. Getting baby girl established in her new high school, helping my other child undo the damage created from 2 semesters of virtual college classes, reconnecting with friends regardless of opinion about COVID, all while in a sideways sleeting shame storm over my disrupted painting practice.
Born in 1938, Janet Fish attended Smith College in Boston and went on to get advanced degrees in Art from the Skowhegan School of Art and Yale University's School of Art and Architecture. Primarily a contemporary realist still life artist, her work is especially about light, color, and composition, exquisitely incorporating colored glass and plastic to craft a rhythm of shadows and reflections.
Once again this year I am participating in Art Access’ 300 Plate Fundraiser. For those of you who don’t know, Art Access is an organization that works to improve access to creativity for differently abled and under-represented artists in the Salt Lake City community. Since 1984, Art Access has run programs to mentor emerging artists.
"May You Be Safe," "May You Be Healthy," "May You Feel the Devotion of Your Heart" are just a few of the titles from the "Written in Flowers" series releasing Friday, April 16th at 4 pm MT. These paintings and their titles take their origin in lovingkindness practice and the Victorian meanings of flowers.
"Born That Way" is a 5 x 7-inch oil on metal painting in a wooden gold frame, included in the blog image. My reflection on defining worth inspired it. This painting, along with a 4 x 8-inch oil on cradled metal painting, titled "She Said, and Now" will be at the JKR Gallery's show, 'Handscapes," in Provo, Utah, from April 2 through April 30.
Funny how we are continually being recycled into soil at our base biology, be it with our breath or our poop. The longer I am alive, see the turning of the seasons, watch the rise and fall of fellow terrestrials, watch movements evolve and dissolve, see children transform and parents dissolve, I see the cyclical nature of our very existence. Anything stable is just one moment, one encounter. The circumstances in that one moment will never arise, just like it again.
...be courageous and have intimate conversations with people with different points of view. Reach out to family members, community members, and friends and have vulnerable discussions. Be willing to go into the fire and listen with an open heart. Be loving to yourself, as you feel your defensiveness and fear arise. (Know that no feeling is permanent and use that to stabilize your emotional responses.) Let go of shame in what has come before and recommit to a new future. Look for common ground, our shared ideals. Look for the better angels.
While our experience of 2020 has been our unique storms in our individual bottles, we have all shared the struggle to feel safe. How does an artist step into the gap between what collectors want and and an artist needs? How to make art that will allow one to earn a living, provide inspiration, and encourage others to think about what they believe they know? What are my obligations as an artist? Can I live with myself if I chose safety over truth? I am most certainly butting up against ages-old questions.
It reminds me of that line from Rainer Maria Rilke, “Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
Kindness. Kindness is in me. It’s nothing I’ve lost.I carry it. I carry it in me. I can share my garden. I can leave flowers for the neighbor. I can donate to “No Kid Hungry.” I can be a witnessing ear to my friend’s woes.I can say a kind word to a Facebook friend, with whom I don’t agree. I can feed a stray cat, pay for a stranger’s bus fare. I can vote. We are not surrounded by kindness, kindness is in us. It is our superpower.
I feel like I’ve spent the better part of 2021 scrambling back to my center. Getting baby girl established in her new high school, helping my other child undo the damage created from 2 semesters of virtual college classes, reconnecting with friends regardless of opinion about COVID, all while in a sideways sleeting shame storm over my disrupted painting practice.
Born in 1938, Janet Fish attended Smith College in Boston and went on to get advanced degrees in Art from the Skowhegan School of Art and Yale University's School of Art and Architecture. Primarily a contemporary realist still life artist, her work is especially about light, color, and composition, exquisitely incorporating colored glass and plastic to craft a rhythm of shadows and reflections.
Once again this year I am participating in Art Access’ 300 Plate Fundraiser. For those of you who don’t know, Art Access is an organization that works to improve access to creativity for differently abled and under-represented artists in the Salt Lake City community. Since 1984, Art Access has run programs to mentor emerging artists.
"May You Be Safe," "May You Be Healthy," "May You Feel the Devotion of Your Heart" are just a few of the titles from the "Written in Flowers" series releasing Friday, April 16th at 4 pm MT. These paintings and their titles take their origin in lovingkindness practice and the Victorian meanings of flowers.
"Born That Way" is a 5 x 7-inch oil on metal painting in a wooden gold frame, included in the blog image. My reflection on defining worth inspired it. This painting, along with a 4 x 8-inch oil on cradled metal painting, titled "She Said, and Now" will be at the JKR Gallery's show, 'Handscapes," in Provo, Utah, from April 2 through April 30.
Funny how we are continually being recycled into soil at our base biology, be it with our breath or our poop. The longer I am alive, see the turning of the seasons, watch the rise and fall of fellow terrestrials, watch movements evolve and dissolve, see children transform and parents dissolve, I see the cyclical nature of our very existence. Anything stable is just one moment, one encounter. The circumstances in that one moment will never arise, just like it again.
New year, new opportunities... hooray!The new year brings several opportunities for us to social- distantly meet and enjoy my work in person. The p...
...be courageous and have intimate conversations with people with different points of view. Reach out to family members, community members, and friends and have vulnerable discussions. Be willing to go into the fire and listen with an open heart. Be loving to yourself, as you feel your defensiveness and fear arise. (Know that no feeling is permanent and use that to stabilize your emotional responses.) Let go of shame in what has come before and recommit to a new future. Look for common ground, our shared ideals. Look for the better angels.
While our experience of 2020 has been our unique storms in our individual bottles, we have all shared the struggle to feel safe. How does an artist step into the gap between what collectors want and and an artist needs? How to make art that will allow one to earn a living, provide inspiration, and encourage others to think about what they believe they know? What are my obligations as an artist? Can I live with myself if I chose safety over truth? I am most certainly butting up against ages-old questions.
It reminds me of that line from Rainer Maria Rilke, “Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
Kindness. Kindness is in me. It’s nothing I’ve lost. I carry it. I carry it in me. I can share my garden. I can leave flowers for the neighbor. I can donate to “No Kid Hungry.” I can be a witnessing ear to my friend’s woes. I can say a kind word to a Facebook friend, with whom I don’t agree. I can feed a stray cat, pay for a stranger’s bus fare. I can vote. We are not surrounded by kindness, kindness is in us. It is our superpower.
The Candy Club Collective arises from a group of 25 female artists who come together under the leadership of Katrina Berg to learn art business pro...
