Judith HeartSong

the sin of combination

2009-07-15T05:15:00.002-05:00

I must admit, I think it is the artist in me...some words just naturally go together in spoken and or written form like butterfly, and yet some go together (and to me) should be written together as one word and are not, like windshieldwipers... a grand word if ever there was one, and wouldn't that look great on a Scrabble board? That's a wholelottaletters alltogether. I have to be careful in all my daily writings, to not letthecatoutofthebag absentmindedly as to my proclivity for word combination and joining, lest it become a freeforall of willynilly words.

And just for the record, other people out there are very interested in the combining of words as well... which ones are allowed and which ones are not (and can we add new ones???????) So many rules, how does anyone ever learn this language?

Compound Word Lists Complete

2276 Compound Words

and from Stephen Wilbers

the home studio

2009-07-14T06:05:00.002-05:00

I am working at re-organizing my home studio to create some office workspace now that I have the gorgeous studio at the art center. I want to get my record-keeping in better order and I will need a small file cabinet for all the paperwork that is trying to escape from folders. It is still sometimes a strange thing to be in need of something I used to own in my old life, and there is a brief, disconnected moment each time where I am imagining the place that the item used to live in my old home in my old life before realizing that it is not here with me now in this place. Having gladly given up the "things" for my freedom and safety, I wouldn't go back for anything. In this life everything I own would fit easily in the back of a pick-up truck, and there is something to be said for an un-fettered existence.

Slowly I will get this room re-organized once again... something that has been on hold with the rather sudden move to new studio space and time commitments there, and little by little I may even get some things done that have been waiting in the wings like getting that quickbooks program installed on my computer (my accountant and a friend who reads here will be delighted if I pull that off). The trick is to keep moving forward and not get paralyzed over the sheer number of things that need to be done and items ticked off.

I am not sure how to work any harder than I am, or to find more minutes in the day. I am not sure how to ease the growing pains of change and adaptation to the new life that is building. I do know that in my life I have always placed the focus of my attention somewhere else than on my needs, and now (finally) that pendulum is rightly swinging in a new direction. All the work, all the effort is leading to a new place that I cannot see right now..... I am just following and working and waiting.

summer sunflowers

2009-07-13T05:41:00.002-05:00

Some good friends of mine are hosting a mini photo workshop beginning tonight that will culminate in a sunrise photo shoot tomorrow morning in a field full of sunflowers. Tremendous photographers and inspirational teachers, this workshop should be a big hit.

Having photographed sunflowers a time or two for my paintings, I will look forward to seeing the results of this workshop. Great things are happening in the photography department at the art center!

bosc

2009-07-12T07:04:00.003-05:00

original photo in Splash Bowl

watercolor study from workshop

label needed

almost complete

I spent the day in the studio yesterday and Virginia came along to work on her computer and keep me company. She gets to sit in my cushy office chair at my beautiful work table and it makes for a very nice feeling of companionship as we each work at our own pursuits. The pears are almost completed now, save for a little tweaking here and there. I am thinking that this will be one of the paintings that I will put in the resident artists' exhibition that is coming up, and there will definitely be some more still life paintings coming. We had a nice lunch outdoors in the square at Austin Grill, a favorite spot here in town.

a sweet surprise

2009-07-11T07:40:00.002-05:00

Virginia brought home a chocolate sunflower cake with vanilla icing yesterday and it definitely deserved a photograph. I spent the day in the studio working on the pears and painting the glass bowl. An artist friend whose paintings and talent I tremendously admire stopped by for a studio visit yesterday and she was surprised at the new paintings I was creating and offered very nice words about the growth and direction of my work. A compliment from a talented fellow painter is tremendously valuable and a great gift that I will remember. She also gifted me with a postcard of one of her recent paintings and I plan to visit her studio in Kensington one day soon.

summer light

2009-07-10T05:49:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday everyone.

red, white and blue

2009-07-09T05:49:00.003-05:00

I change the tablescape in my studio at least once a month, and I thought it would be fun to add some alternative patriotic flare for the month of July. These tablescapes are meant to be inspirational and fun, and they are always meant to challenge your ideas of what art "is". Tell me those blue glass bottles are not artsy with the light shining through them just so.......

white stripes

2009-07-08T05:50:00.002-05:00

Happy to once again be in the studio yesterday I had a good day of work despite a very painful and twingey lower back. Lots of schlepping and hauling and long hours driving probably had something to do with it... that and some major stress. No further stress is prescribed for the rest of this week.... time off for good behavior.

In the studio I spent hours painting lovely stripes in the background of the pear painting and I am very pleased with them and the affect. With all the curves of the bowl and fruit, the regimented stripes offer a nice counterpoint. There is still lots of detail work to do on the pears and the bowl... next up the deep sapphire blues to offset the highlights already added to the bowl.

Click on any image to see it larger in Flickr.

before you even knew I was gone

2009-07-07T05:52:00.003-05:00

I have been away for a few days, traveling to the wilds of Northern Pennsylvania to take care of some family matters. We drove up Thursday, back to the area where I spent my childhood years. It is always a mixed bag of emotions going back to this area, with all of the family history. This is where I lived off and on for all of my school-age years, except when my dad took a position as superintendent of schools in Scottdale (outside of Pittsburgh, for a few years). Our family name is still well known in these parts, nestled in the mountains and rural farming country that is Northern Pennsylvania.

Virginia and I made a brief stopover in Troy and I walked the grounds of one of my old family homes on Elmira Street with the current homeowner and we shared some stories and information about this place she and her husband bought from my folks more than 30 years ago. It was very interesting to learn that she avoids the same part of the house that I always avoided because it gave me a supreme feeling of disquiet, and apparently disturbs her as well. Very curious.

She wanted to know the history of the garden folly that my parents built from existing pillars that they found piled beside one of the barns when they moved in.... and I no longer saw the large square-carved carriage stones on the property that helped ladies alight from carriages long ago. We walked through the back barn that is now their pool enclosure and I learned that they had left the old work bench intact where my dad used to putter while a cast iron stove heated the place.

It is always a mixed bag of emotions to see the two houses where my family resided in Troy as they are also the sites of abuse perpetrated, and knowing that I was going back stirs up all kinds of ghosts. The house and two barns were all smaller than I remembered, but everything was well tended and well-loved by this nice couple. Hopefully happy family memories have overlayed the shadowed parts of my memories there.

Still to come.... a hike on the Loyalsock Trail, one of my old favorite places, and the other town I lived in about 20 miles away (and where I met Virginia at the end of 8th grade).

summertime, summertime, su - su- summertime...

2009-07-06T06:47:00.002-05:00

Oh, I am enjoying this summer. The warmth feels good and when I get to escape the artificial climate of a building my skin prickles at the feeling of the sun and heat. I walk slowly when I can, breathing in the perfume of flowering plants and warm earth. I always feel best close to the land and growing up in farming country never hurt me as it taught an appreciation for the seasons, hard work, and how hard it is to grow food.

Funny how a bowl of ripe pears can make me feel rich.

fireworks

2009-07-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

They never fail to bring back memories of other times and other places. In this third phase of my life, after childhood and marriage, I get to choose what I want and how things should be. For the first time in my life.

born on the fourth of July.......

2009-07-04T06:33:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to my good friend Mimi, who was indeed born on the fourth of July. The fireworks are all for you Dear Lady!

sunny side up

2009-07-03T05:59:00.004-05:00

It is not coincidental that my dad called me sunshine as a child, that I found a tremendous affinity with sunflowers, or that I am now known for my sunny disposition. In fact, it takes quite a lot to get me going as I always try to take the peaceful, passive stance in a squabble or argument. That said, once my fuse is lit I will stand up for myself.

I have always hated arguments... since childhood when I would creep out of bed at the sound of raised voices downstairs, and I still remember looking through the stair railing from about the fifth step down from the second floor landing.... watching my parents screaming and pointing in front of the fireplace on Elmira Street.

Back then my dad was a school principal, before he moved on to the position of superintendent that he held in several districts on through his retirement. My parents were going through a stormy patch and soon they went away for a "marriage encounter" and came back after the weekend with a bumper sticker for their car. I didn't understand where they went, but it didn't make a difference in the day-to-day dynamics of my rather difficult childhood.

My oldest brother went through a rough time with my parents as he went through high school and discovered the love of his life, and it made me sad for him that they were always yelling. Top of his class, captain of the basketball team. One day after graduation he got in a car with his girlfriend and drove to Florida and never looked back. My one friend and safe harbor from the storm was gone.

My next brother was always an under-achiever and as the middle child my mother felt he needed extra protection, and she overlooked all the calculated, underhanded, manipulative things he did. As far as she was concerned he was an angel, and I think she loved him best as he was most like her. She said he would always be the weak one of the three of us. He began molesting me sometime before my 8th birthday.

He went to college on my parents' dime and took basket-weaving and partied hard until he joined the campus crusade and was suddenly "born again". He came home spouting all sorts of psychology 101 and continued to be vicious and cruel to me, once pulling me up out of a bean bag chair by the hood of my sweatshirt so forcefully that the zipper front cut into the sides of my neck. Getting "saved" had not improved him.

Finally, thankfully, he was gone.... but now my mother's vengeance was focused only on me. The physical and verbal abuse was terrible. My teachers did not want to know that all was not well in our household and they ignored all the signs. My dad the superintendent was always absent, emotionally and physically - always working. It was a tough few years to get through and I spent as much time as possible away in the woods or with friends. After graduation I ran and landed in Florida... soon to be entrapped in an unhealthy 20 year marriage because all of my cogs never had the chance to get fixed. Stupid. That marriage is the single biggest mistake I ever made, except for my beautiful children.

This upbringing might have made another person mean and uncaring... my pendulum swung so far in the other direction that for the longest time I would not, could not stand up for myself... and I lived in fear of making people angry. Doormat was my middle name.

Fast forward twenty years and I am tired of anger and stirred up emotions and drama, and all I want is peace and quiet and calm. I have removed myself from my family of origin for my own safety and well-being. I want to draw good people to me, to smile at them and love them and cherish each and every friend in my path. Not susy sunshine, but someone whose sunny side is up.

can you move those clouds for me?

2009-07-02T06:40:00.002-05:00

Sometimes it is so hard to see what is right in front of you. The life lessons and signs and all the things that our bodies can tune into or not depending on what is happening around us. Strong scratchy energy and clouds can obscure things that on another day would be obvious in the shuttered mind, and reading signs on the ground is impossible in a dust storm. Waiting for clarity and allowing love in to ease the (sometimes) very painful process of being.

how many campers fit in my studio?

2009-07-01T05:44:00.003-05:00

About 15

Yesterday I had the opportunity to lead the first of four watercolor demos for a group of fifteen campers and two staff members at the art center. They all gathered in the studio and we talked about my work and process, how my studio is organized, and then I painted a wash for a goddess painting with a running commentary as they called out each of the colors that I would use. We had a great back and forth conversation, and everyone was very focused and tuned in. They were great guests and are welcome back any time!

At the end of the day a camper brought her Dad and her little brother into the studio to show them the washes, and it was so nice that the demo had made a strong impression on her. Three more demos with different groups of kids will happen over the course of the summer, and other resident artists are preparing demos that they will present as well to enrich the kids' artistic experience while they spend their summertime making art.

I love this art center and the service it provides to the community at large and to all of the people who have the opportunity to learn and experience so much just because the art center is there. It is such a wonderful place and I am so fortunate to be there.

July's Artsy Newsletter is hot off the presses

2009-06-30T05:34:00.002-05:00

The next artsy newsletter is published for the month of July and there is lots of interesting reading, and some tips for artistic summer fun. Best of all there is a valuable coupon for savings on a piece of original art. Have you signed up? Look in my sidebar to the right for the sky blue box and add your email address to the ever-growing list of subscribers. One email at the beginning of each new month will land in your email inbox to give you lots of in-depth information with a fun artsy twist.

no more topsy turvy

2009-06-28T05:22:00.005-05:00

I have lived, for most of my life, allowing other peoples' moods and whims to affect me and how I live in profound and frightening ways. In recent years, with sweeping changes, I have tried to do things differently. I am unsure that I will ever be able to fix all the damage that was inflicted in the first 38 years of my life by people who were supposed to care about me, as it echoes still inside me; but I am trying hard to make good choices and to decide what is best for me according to my needs and desires and not everyone else's. Taking the studio has been an important part of that commitment since first realizing that I would need to find dedicated studio space that was all mine... and that has made a difference for me. Arriving early in the morning before everyone else, I still have a moment, as I turn the key, where it is all fresh and new and perfect.... every time I walk in that door. It is exactly how I want it to be and I get to decide how it will be and what will happen on a daily basis. What would I give for an un-damaged soul? Would I be the person I am now without that history? I think not... the wonderful and sad parts of me would not be the same. So to keep the wonderful parts I must keep the sad parts, and try to heal them little by little in the nurturing of a daily life that is as peaceful and gentle as I can make it. Each day is the last day, each day is the only day.

d'anjou pears

2009-06-27T06:39:00.002-05:00

I stopped at the market yesterday for some chocolate milk and apples to go with some wonderful brie. While there I saw three red pears calling to me and I carefully bagged them so that I would not bruise their tender skin. Back at the studio I took some photographs... it seems I am going off on a pear tangent here. I took some photos of the pears in my wonderful Splash Bowl, and also some with them on a white backdrop all alone. Yesterday I had lots of visitors in the studio and so much to do, and the day flew by.

evolution

2009-06-26T05:44:00.003-05:00

I was talking to my good friend in the studio yesterday late in the day after many had gone home. She had showed me some brand new work she was doing... a departure and something just breathtaking and wonderful and beautiful. I loved the work. She said that she was excited about her process and where it might go and I thought about the fact that I, too, have been thinking about new directions and techniques and covering new ground in my work.

The sky is the limit and I am fortunate that I am able to decide on a daily basis what I will work on, and that decision is not guided by a production schedule or by outside forces. As an artist it is a fine line, walked by many, between the world of commercial success and personal inspiration. I am fortunate to have achieved a lot so far in my career.... but there is always so much farther to go.

There is no finish line (other than death), only exploration and the refining of skills and the endless reach for more - more abilities, more experiences, more projects, more paper. Moving past the safety and comfort of what is expected, being courageous in allowing experiments to happen and evolve.

That is what I am thinking about.

I need a notebook tied to my wrist

2009-06-25T05:44:00.002-05:00

So many ideas come in the night between sleep cycles, tossing and turning... walking to and from the parking garage... while driving the car, running errands, standing in line. Titles for series, ideas for process. So many ideas that cannot all stay in the forefront of my consciousness, even though they might seem obvious and unforgettable.

The reason for this post? I forgot one.

Something important related to descriptive wording for a new series. One half of the thought is there, but another word escapes me. It hit me while leaving an elevator in a parking garage yesterday... one of those lightning bolt moments where the connection is obvious with a root word connected to the series.... and now the word is (temporarily, I hope) gone. I even thought I wrote something down somewhere regarding this series... but I cannot find it.

I need a notebook with me every moment it seems as the ideas are coming fast and furious and with everything going on in all aspects of my life there is so much to remember.

work on the summer pears

2009-06-24T05:35:00.002-05:00

I was excited to get into the studio yesterday... studio days are always the best days. I put the final layers of topcoat on the new abstract canvas, part of a new "units" or "components" series and left it to dry for the day. I spent the day working on the acrylic pear trio and am adding layer upon layer of color to build the rich coloration of the pear's skin.

I am also working on the next version of the artsy newsletter that will include a summer sale coupon. Get yours!

my favorite of the thirteen new washes

2009-06-23T05:01:00.002-05:00

An art consultant dropped by yesterday to consign a painting to show to a client who loves big splashy florals. She took the 30 x 40 Sunflower Reverse, and it will be interesting to see if anything comes of the showing. Working with consultants is a good way to get work into the hands of new collectors.

The studio is humming and there are so many things to work on, including the summer pears and a sketch I need to work on for the shorebirds (my thoughts are still percolating there). I am starting a series of canvases with gold leaf squares, and I don't know where that exploration will take me.

My favorite of the new washes is calling for its sketch and I will look forward to moving forward with all of those pieces. I got a quote yesterday from a local printer who already makes my business cards, for a series of four notecard designs that would feature my art... so things are moving forward in good directions.

Many have written to check on us after the devastating crash of two metro trains yesterday at 5 pm. The crash, in Northeast DC was on the red line that you have often heard me talk about, but in another part of the city. This morning at least nine people have died and more than 75 people are reported injured. It is shocking news to hear. Our thoughts are with all those affected and I just hope that all of our friends from the Zoo are safe and sound this morning.

it calls to mind... (all the new washes)

2009-06-22T06:40:00.001-05:00

In thinking of what I wanted for a new series of washes, I craved burnished colors, summer into fall colors, colors of growing things that are then harvested. Ripe berries, earth, summer green grass, pale golden wheat, turquoise stones like my grandmother gave me, deep red shades almost to brown. From my paint box I chose shades seldom used.

I am not sure where my mind is... it is busy always but now more so than most days. I am thinking, reflecting, dreaming and pining, yearning for something and nothing.... imagining, always imagining. These goddesses of deep burnished shades are not meant to be lighthearted and breezy, these will be the goddesses of hard work and strife... depthless emotion. The sacred feminine. I am coming to a new place, or returning to an old place... I'm not sure. Another layer of the onion is removed. I am humbled at always beginning again.

I got to the studio early yesterday and the table was already set up and centered in the middle of the room. I got to work on more washes, working on an abstract red acrylic when they were drying. When I begin these washes again it takes a while to get the process singing again. There is a dance between wet paper and paint at just the right moment, spattering at just the right time when the paper is ready to receive it, and salt and alcohol before too much drying has occurred. A friend dropped in to check on me... thank you my Good Friend... and stayed for a few minutes while I worked and we chatted. I am lucky to know some amazing people.

The colors of these washes, in particular, are exactly what I was looking for in my mind's eye. In all there are 13 washes.... as always on purpose... to honor the lucky #13 of my arrival at the art center as the thirteenth resident artist.

Wash 6 is my very favorite. Hop on over to Flickr by clicking on an image to see all thirteen.

washes for the goddess series

2009-06-21T06:06:00.002-05:00

Three of the washes on full sheet 300 lb d'Arches watercolor paper. There will be more to see in these vibrant colors but I also want to revisit some of the rich deep colorations of years ago with browns and earth colors. I don't know if that is a reflection of my recent mood or a new direction. I can see the gold leaf halos on those rich colors and it is calling me.

it all comes out in the wash

2009-06-20T05:53:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a good day in the studio after errands and paperwork that are all a part of the business of art. I moved the table to sit in the center of the room and covered it with plastic sheeting before I laid out all my watercolor supplies and squeezed new paint into my paint trays.

There is something calming about the ritual of setting up to paint, and it is so good to be coming back to the goddess series. I painted several washes and as each sat to dry I moved over to work on the beginnings of the acrylic pear trio, laying in a basecoat of yellows to define the fruit.

It is so much easier to work on this series in this studio with enough room and proper surfaces to work on, and once again I was grateful for how the stars have aligned to finally bring this studio into my life when it was so needed.

The light late in the day was gorgeous and summer soft... I am glad I had the camera with me to take some pictures. You will see the washes soon.