I pledge to pay closer attention.
Watching Rivers and Tides with the students last night (and the night before to prep), reminded me of the crucial artist habit I admire/strive for/ appreciate and that's the solid discipline of paying attention. (since I never took a psych class, these notes help) I'm turned on again to Richard Tuttle for that reason, too. Listening to material, to the little devil's advocate voice that says "put the sculptures on the floor" and whatnot.
Ok so, paying attention and putting in the time and editing and making and trying not to be so sheepish about the whole thing.
That and balancing dayjob and teaching gig and maintaining a few friendships and reading books ought to keep me busy enough but I'd also like to try to keep up this story here. Typing into this box and sending it out into the world is a great way to get lots of spam and a fine vehicle for my talkity talk talk. It's a little thing I can do to pay greater attention to something other than my paintings or my projects.
That said I ought to head back up to my studio and stare at the mess that is on my table, see if I can breathe some more life into it or put it to sleep.
take care,
Rachael

For me the best part of teaching is finding ideas again, dusting them off, and passing them around to the class. But when one has been away from libraries and hiding out in the basements of museums, all the ideas are sometimes overwhelming. I started teaching the course with a real plan of a plan but it's now a much more improvisation. I spend the days before the class reading, thinking, absorbing, remembering, discovering huge slides in the middle of museums and generally finding myself getting pulling back in to the history and mystery of art.
Tonight is the last formal (certainly not formal) lecture and I've decided to scrap half of it and instead of talk talk talking too much, show my students Rivers and Tides becaues they need to know more about how an artist thinks, they need to smile their way through finals and they need to know that leaves and twigs are as important as paint.


It is after all, looking at art and that's what we'll do.
More soon, I suppose.
take care
Rachael

oh yes, and Pull my daisy is on the web...yea!

There were fireflies in my head and somehow they managed to come out in my sketchbook. This is a pleasing page for me, thus I share.
take good care,
Rachael

Random but true, that in my life as an artist it is not constant rewards but occasional perks.
The Bread and Puppet Theater is coming to my town.
The entire text of Kandinsky's On the Spiritual in Art is online.
A few days ago I got a chance to spend my day painting while still doing my job. I was a semi-student in an amazingly productive and fascinating one day workshop with Sydney Licht who is more than a simple still life painter. Funny how I was able to be in the same place I am every day but in a much much different place. I was able to paint all day (save for the moments I was listening to the other painters and soaking up the color).



Here's hoping it is percolating in your world, too,
Rachael