Visual Journaling and the body-mind connection

When I moved here from Alaska 5 years ago, life gave me more changes than I wanted.  I sensed I was coming apart emotionally, financially, and physically  My work had been primarily with children in Alaska.  Here I was working with adults, 45 of them, 3 times a week.

My anchor was Visual Journaling and the small journaling group that met Sunday mornings in an office on Lake Union.. In graduate school I'd learned and practiced methods of deep self-exploration from Stan Grof (Spiritual Emergence), Michael Harner (Shamanic Journeying), and reading Carl Jung  (Man and His Symbols).  The basic tenant was the immense value of the unconscious in healing. 

In our Visual Journaling groups we have used the Jungian approach to journalling with images and self-exploration questions (as introduced by Ganim and Fox in the book Visual Journaling).  We sometimes called it "Art Church".

Since then there have been numerous Visual Journaling sessions with individuals and groups at Art East Art Center, Issaquah; Present Sense, Wallingford; and community centers and homes. New sessions will start March 1 at my studio and April 7 at Art East. 

If you're interested in discovering more about your behavior and attitudes using a mindful, creative practice, Visual Journalling may be for you. Watch the video, and see how you feel about it.

I'm grateful to Marijean Baird for creating a video of this meaty, wild, surprising practice. 

 http://animoto.com/play/9qS57cRaYsU9xcO7aU0RIg

 

Full Moon gathering and Just-Finished paintings

Ahhhhh!
 .....delivery of 4 new paintings today to Vetiver Organic Hair Spa in downtown Issaquah.   .vetiverorganichairspa.com    Richie and Kristina have sold a few pieces already.  It feels good to have them go to new homes where they're appreciated.

Evening

Evening 2

Late Afternoon

Morning

We'll be exploring the techniques used in these pieces at Acrylic Paint Lab this Friday, Feb. 1 at the Orchard Grove Community Room.   10-4 pm.  Let me know if you'd like to come. 

Sunday evening, January 27, 7 of us shared dinner and Touch Drawing to celebrate the full moon.  Low-key, contemplative, and fun.  Look for other celebrations.  I offer them when I want to do community art and meditation.  

Gentle

Avatar

PAINTING FROM THE FIRE WITHIN  happens again at Art East Art Center on March 3rd. Save the date. 

February 24,  11-4,  PAINTING IN THE SPIRIT OF GEORGIA O'KEEFFE takes place at Art East.  We'll be working with open acrylic paints, blending, and diluting

Please share how your creative juice is flowing. 

Gail

Wet

This painting, "Hive,"  sold today! 

"First Freeze of Autumn" will be for sale at Art East's garage the first week of February

There hasn't been a lot of wet paint in my studio this month.  I realize I've been gone 2 weeks out of the last 4.  When I'm here, I paint.... and prep for workshops.  There is a rhythm to my life. 

I wake up, meditate, stretch, eat, do Pilates, yoga, or bike.  I start work at 10 and work until 4. 
It's not all paint and brushes.  I often sit and look at a painting with my eyes in soft focus, turn it different directions, take a picture and play with color saturation and value on the computer, or block out a part of the piece and see what it feels like to me. I design workshops as wild as I want them to be.

If I didn't do these little side trips, I'd be stuck.  My thinking would stop me from using the brush as it wants to be used.  Sure, thinking plays a part in all of this "creativity".   The thinking I want to use is "mindfulness".  I'm working from a place of intuition and energy rather than forcing a concept onto the canvas. Sustaining that flow is the crux of the process.

Honestly, I catch myself in the "I CAN'T DO THIS" attitude quite often.. Then I know I need to turn on FLASHDANCE or GET READY by Rare Earth (YouTube) and drop the rigidity. Dance!

 Does that mean I have no intention when I begin the piece?  No.  Does it mean I give up and start over when I feel lost?  No.  Essentially, it means I want to walk into a piece connected to my breath, my body, and a sense of "honest expression". .


 In March I'll be going to Homer, Alaska for two weeks to do an artist in the schools residency. I'll bring this painting back with me. It's odd how a piece can seem mundane when I do it, then 6 years later it has value. I bring this up because it's proof of  how important it is for me to paint exactly what's impressing me at a particular moment in time. "Honest expression" is painting what moves me. Now.

Mt. Augustine from the Bayview Bluff on Kachemak Bay

Namaste, Gail

New Year. New Day. New Moment.

Fullness.
Emptiness.
Questions I have today are emerging in paint and clay.
Photos here are about the juxtaposition of emptiness and fullness.  In my meditation practice, I experience emptiness as fullness. In the work the subject and ground are interchangeable.

If we're here, we assume we're present. Maybe not.  It seems we want to get to the NEXT thing, the NEXT idea, the NEXT connection.  For me, the deepest connection to  anything is stopping to find out what's here, not what comes NEXT.  It's not easy. This piece reminds me of the yin and yang symbol, although it's a flat picture plane with a floating dark form.  If you can enlarge the photo, you can see the sprout inside the dark, cold sphere.   It's part of a series of 5; 4 are on the table (in process now).

My dad told me it's better to be able to do many things than to do one thing well.  That question comes back when I find myself looking for descriptions of my work for the almighty Google search engine.  If I want more exposure, I need to describe what I do succinctly.  I have no clue.  I do many things.

My intention for 2013 is to paint from a place of deep connection to physical feelings and emotions.  Because my mom is becoming more frail each day, I have no idea where this will take me.  I want to be open and strong. 

The classes and workshops I offer are intended to give you tools to take your discovery practice farther.

You're invited to the next Acrylic Painting Lab ...... exploration in acrylic paint, collage, and watercolor as acrylic paint.  Where? in the community room here at Orchard Grove.  The next one is January 25, Friday, from 9:30-3:30.  You're invited to paint.  Register with you intent to show up at gailbakerartmaker@gmail.com.  $35 or pay what you will. 

 Painting in the Spirit of Helen Frankenthaler at Art East in downtown Issaquah on January 13, Sunday from 11-4. Go to http://arteast.org/2012/11/pt1-painting-spirit-of-frankenthaler/

Touch Drawing Full Moon on January 27, Sunday, from 5:30-8:30 pm at Gail's studio.  Silence, color, touch, sensation, vulnerability. Donation for materials welcome. All materials provided.    gailbakerartmaker@gmail.com    Soup and bread shared.

Welcome, Winter!

                                                                                                    Summer Garden

Good Morning!  
It's  a gray day here in Washington.  Solstice is here. We celebrate on Friday with Touch Drawing.

After months of painting, I can finally get excited to show what's been born.  Thanks to Michael Johnson for the photos and lack of  room in my apartment, these pieces are already in a show at Vetiver Organic Hair Spa (also a gallery). It's behind The Egg and Us (across from Issaquah post office) on Gilman Boulevard. Kristina and Richard have offered their space to me this time of year for 4 years now.  I'm grateful for the invitation. You're welcomd to go in to see the pieces.  Check the website to see their hours.  http://vetiverhairspa.com/ 

Higher resolution photos on website on December 20..

                                                                                                        Undulation
 

  Winter garden asleep.

                                                               Ascension.



Borage takes over my small garden plot. The blue flowers attract bees by the hundreds.  July, and August are perfect for watching them work  because I can get as close as I want. They don't care. What surprises me is humans' fear of bees.  I've been stung. I know about allergies. However, bees are a primary part of our lives.......... pollinators. If we poison them, we poison ourselves.  See the YouTube video Queen of the Sun. These paintings are in honor of bees and their struggle.

This painting, "Hive," now has gold leaf added  to exaggerate the reflection from bees' wings.  I wanted to get the feeling of the "buzz" in the hive as well. First question asked about this piece is, "What is that textured stuff on the left side?"  Packing paper stretched and attached to the canvas with polymer medium.

                                                                                                                          Hive





 
The garden inspired work about stones, too.  These 2 pieces are at Vetiver.
They're textural, painted in layers of thick gesso, paint, and polymer gel 
mediums. I'll be teaching this process in the Intermediate Acrylic Painting 
Class at Art East this next quarter. 

 

 

And the joy of creating.

 May you feel the joy of being alive this season.  

I am blown away by this high desert country in Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree! This is not the dry, barren place I imagined it to be.  It's alive with birds, coyotes, bats, stars, wind, and blue blue sky. The rock formations are unbelievable.
http://www.joshuatree.org/

I'm staying at my son, Gabe's. Today, in his back yard,  I started a 4'x 4.5'painting of how I feel here.  It's a sense of space and freedom I haven't experienced for a long time. What a great place for a group painting retrea!.  The temps are in the 40's at night and high 60's during the day in November and December, through January.  

Interested?

 

Remember this painting? The Banana Fairy? 

This is how it began...... a collage warm up for the sake of play. 

Never throw away the crazy stuff.  You can't tell where it may fit! 

And this one?  "Try to See It My Way"

It came from a section I removed from another, larger painting that never satisfied me. 

That panel looked like this....

The reason I share this is that painting is a PROCESS.  It's not a formula. 

The mystery of it comes through as I move the paint and let it move me.