recluse

...man, I feel like this post has been ' a long time coming'.  I just couldn't nurture the seedling,  nor tame the beast    for weeks       I couldn't focus, couldn't rein it in         I couldn't find the words or topic that seemed even remotely relevant or valuable.  I didn't want to just drop another promo ¡BLAM! for another art show opening...(which is THIS WEEKEND at People's Art of Portland at Pioneer Place Mall.  The totems will be there people! TOTEMS.).

For a while that's all I could muster though         Bare bones, basics.  Straight facts               So I remained recluse.



What I am saying here, now, after two weeks of stewing, is mainly my admission of just that. I have been stewing in the throes of grief- solitary, paper-thin, teary-eyed and emotional          Ungrounded.   To say the least           Tethered to the world that exists by just a mere- but sturdy- thread....it must have been silk.

For, the storm has passed for now, for the moment, and I am here to re-emerge intact.

When I withdraw this far into my turtle shell of loss and grieving over my dear mom, I don't often create visually     My focus just isn't there       It seems meaningless or trite or pointless then-                   So  instead I take to constructing poems from a pile of sentence fragments, phrases, and words lain out before me.   Its a psyche check-in, I like to think.  If you "follow" me, you know the drill...

There's a series developing- aptly called "grief: part _____"

                        and they go like this:

grief: part one, 6/28/2011

grief: part two, 7/12/2011

grief: part three, 9/8/2011

In the midst of my floating, hanging by that paradoxically strong single thread,

I worked on the tiniest paintings

(each roughly 1 1/2" x 2 1/4" on wood scrap)

I made some new works, and managed to put them on my website

                     and

I have been inspired by these new-found blogs/artists:
...for totems I dig the Village Dog
...which directed me to the work of Gala Bent and her blog called drifts and scatters (how fun!)
...and this work of Gordon Cheung's ....

....and do you know about Amargosa?  There's a fabulous documentary to do justice to the tale of lovely Marta Becket, a total inspiration for the way to shape one's artist-life.  I cheers to that      ...and to the grace and commitment to know when to bow out, and when to drive hard, re-emerge.