Meeting you. Where we are.
Does this sound familiar….. before it was an adult issue of being categorized as an artist, there was a capacity to make. With time, that ability or need was lost - sort of like the ability to skip. The need to lift the body up and forward into the air with joy is/was/can be subsumed by adulting. Even the most creative folks can be lost to this stage of life. The growth of renewing my own art practice is something I have written about before, and will most likely again.
This year, turning 50, I have just finished several years investing in the value of the artist brain, artist economy, beginners brain, academia, and arts in health…. or are those all the same thing? Starting this winter, I am offering virtual one on one workshops to support those already working in the arts, those that need to realign with the why, and for those that just need to begin again. There is no shame in slackened artists muscles, I am here for it. Connect with me, allow me to meet you where you are at. Let us embolden your practice with a few things I have learned over the years.
Over the last few decades I have become quite adept at the power of an art kit…. between classroom art kits for elementary schools, to art kits for quarantined folk during Covid. Ironic, due to the core memory that as a child, if a box of art materials was given to me, I was hesitant to use the precious array of things. I may have craved those paint brushes wrapped in plastic, dry watercolor wafers, and not enough paper kits, but I would never use them. What was it that I was waiting for? I was waiting for permission, and someone to share the making with.
Since then, I have learned to collate “unprecious” materials into art kits that are unceremoniously useful. Each is designed to assist a virtual meeting to play together and with enough material to keep going. Our time together is to clarify a direction to follow that is yours, and not mine. IT may be as simple as building the habit to reach flow, a scientifically proven state that allows time and self to be suspended… And as complex as negotiating ideas around art lessons that help to fight a variety of society’s maladies, but that is a different essay to digress.
What you need to know is that….drum roll please…. I now have permission to send Nano Cellulose fiber (CNF) for artists to use in their art practice research.
Yes, I can send you CNF, and CNF cake!!!
WORKshops in CNF are laced with lessons that can be applied to other practices, and is a good groundwork for building your artistic research muscles. WORKshops in Photography are a great way to tanglably move towards pure beauty and aesthetics, and beyond towards sense making. Last but not least, WORKshops can also be essential lessons on self permission, and making time… to make art together. Let me do that with you.
Practice does not make you an artist, unless you decide you are. Just like doing sit ups will never make me an athlete- But it will help me dance the night away till my bed time at 8.
Portrait by Joey LaBlanc