Hello, World.

A painting I did a few years ago.

In case you’ve been wondering where on Earth I’ve been, well, let me tell you. I took a little break this summer from my usual form of art, in order to try something new. I have been working on a story. Lest you think I’ve given up painting all together, I say, “don’t worry”. I have a new series of painting that I am planning. I’m going to have a little fun and try a slightly more expressive style with my brush work. In the mean time, I will continue to work on this book that I’m attempting to write. Which is where my thoughts for today come from.

It turns out that as an artist any form of expression is open to me. To be honest, I’ve never even considered writing something. I didn’t even know where to begin. But then one night I had a fantastic dream, and I found that as I shared this dream with people, they became very interested in it as a story. Well we all know how much I adore stories. (You can read my post on story here.) And then it occurred to me . . . why not? Do I really need have a degree in English Literature to be a writer? I am an artist. This is just another way of expressing myself. Well, it turns out that all you need is ‘to write’. So, that’s where I’ve been. Hunkered down over a notebook and a laptop squeezing my brain for what I hope will be enjoyable ideas.

I’ll leave you with this thought. One of the best quotes that I’ve come across. It makes me laugh.

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.

~E.L. Doctorow

“The Basic job of every artist is to take what is in their head, translate it through their medium and present it to the world as a finished work.

The most successful works of art speak for the artist to the viewer. Although it can be complicated, learning to use different mediums can be taught and then mastered with practice and effort. In my mind, there is no more important challenge facing any artist than to find, within your subject matter and medium, your own voice. Being able to portray your subject in a way that speaks to your viewer of your relationship to that subject is what makes the work successful. Not just for one image, but over a lifetime of work.”

. . . excerpt from

“When Photography Is Art”

by Juliet R. Harrison

Art Horse Magazine



So well put. Don’t you think? Deep down it is that grasping for the audience to understand what “we” are seeing that drive us to create. I often think about the philosophy of art. Why we do what we do as artists. Why did God put this desire to recreate so deeply in my heart?

Ciao Bella Gente!

It was sunny and warm . . .

. . . and then it wasn’t.

The End

Well the holidays have come and gone in a whirlwind of activities and family visits. That is where I’ve been if anyone wondered. Of course, our creativity does not stop for Christmas morning or dinner with the parents. Our brain keeps on rattling away and we’re constantly being inspired by the things that surround us. This along with snowy days, wrapped in the warmth of the wood stove heated house, leave an almost overwhelming desire to express ones self. And now that the world around is hunkered down to stay safe and warm through the winter storms it is the perfect time. However, I’m not going to dazzle you with my latest painting. It’s not finished. I have been thinking a lot about story; about how one forms it and relays it.  So I thought i would re-post one of my earliest posts where I shared a few thoughts I have about story. I want to add to the suggestions I make below as well. I recently watched The Legend Of 1900 starring Tim Roth, which is a fabulous movie, one of my favorites. The way this story weaves together is , I think, one of the most beautiful out there. Also, every other part, technical and artistic, hit the right notes too.

"Falstaff" A small painting I did a few years back.

Story

Everyone Has A Story To Tell

I am fascinated by story. I mean really fascinated. First of all everyone has one. Whatever you think about your own story, you have one. There are stories that are made up or influenced and changed by someone or something. And then there is perception. Everyone brings there own stories to collide with others and it influences how they perceive the story they just collided with. Stories can be spoken, they can be written , or my case they can be drawn. Stories can simply be experienced. There is HIStory and fiction. There is Historical Fiction. (Which some might say is closer to the truth.)

You could almost say that “life” is the story. Most stories participate in a reality that we understand. With a few very fantastic exceptions. One of my favorites is the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. Although you could argue that even the Jabberwocky exsists in a reality that we can understand. One of life and death, gravity and air. A world of morals and consequences. There is sense even among the nonsense. There is a movie that came out about a year ago that tells a story about stories. If you are a fan of stories then you should look into it. I think most people probably watched it and took its face value. And it’s face value was plenty good. But there is more there. I recommend that if at all possible you watch it with the director commentaries running. Anyway, it is called “Atonement”, directed by Joe Wright, who is I think a genius storyteller. As an aside, it also stars James McAvoy who is also a brilliant storyteller. This one story delves into various forms of story with in its own. ( It is a little heavy though, so be forewarned.)

Story As Expression

I live my own story but I also use story to express myself. I choose art as my form of storytelling. When I was in college I was surrounded by fellow students who were dying to tell there story in a more dramatic way. They wanted to show angst and aggression. They had a need to shock and awe people with their stories. And I could never get into that. I have always felt a need to express beauty. To use my stories to encourage or uplift or simply beautify. I worked in animation for several years and was asked once if I thought that the work I was doing was worthwhile. My response was, “Yes, of course”. It may not have changed the world in a dramatic way, but I always felt that I was bring joy to someone somewhere, who might be watching the story I helped create. And now I paint horses. And I feel the same way about it. This is my expression of the story I see and live. Horses are a part of my story and so is art. It seems like a natural conclusion.

I’m Not Trying To Be Deep Or Anything

I’m really not. I just think its neat to think about these things that pervade our lives quietly. Things that a lot of people don’t really give the time of day thinking about. Things that make life more interesting if you just give them the time to influence you. I think it is the loss of that childlike imagination that makes adults so unhappy. I mean what kid doesn’t love a bedtime story or sitting on grandpa’s lap to hear stories of the “old days”. So I guess I’m still a kid. Except now I like my stories in a lot more variety. I love going to museums with a young friend of mine. We’ll sit in font of a painting and I’ll ask her, “What do you see?”, and she’ll proceed to look, I mean really look, for all of the things that the storyteller has left for us to see. And then I ask her to tell me the story of that painting. Sometimes I see something a little different, but the point is, there is a story there, just waiting for someone to come and just spend a little time with it for it to come to life. It drives me a little crazy when people just walk through a gallery or a museum and don’t really give the work the true time of day. I know you can’t do that for every single painting. You’d be there for hours, but you should be able to pick out a least a few stories that interest you. And I’m not talking about being all deep and metaphysical or anything like that. I’m just talking about simple story.
For example, there is a painting of a woman on a hill. Many people say, “How nice a woman on the hill, isn’t that pretty.” I say, “Why is that woman on the hill?” and all of a sudden you’ve got a story.

Anyway, speaking of stories I think I’m writing an epic. That’s enough for now. Thanks for listening. Cheers!

OK, so since I got absolutely no response from my last post I’m just gonna move on. The next points I was going to make about what makes a good image were technical quality and artistic or aesthetic sensibility. Feel free to still make a comment about those if you want. I’m going to just get back to my journaling.

06 Autumn Serenade

So yesterday after church I really didn’t want to just go home. I felt to urge to go out and do SOMEthing. Well, last Tuesday after my riding lesson, as I sometimes do, I decided it would be fun to just drive around.

I like to to just take off on roads I’ve never been on before. It’s a lot of fun and you find places you might not normally. However, I recommend that you do this on a full tank of gas, as I discovered last Tuesday.LOL Don’t worry I didn’t end up stranded somewhere. I managed to make it to a gas station just as I hit empty. But the real point of this monolog is that I ended up driving through part of the Vermont National Forest. I was so struck by its beauty that after church I asked my sister Katy if she a) had her camera with her and b) did she want to go for a drive. The answers were yes. So, off to the National forest we went with cameras and tripods in tow.

The first two pictures above are of my fearless sister in the “Freezing” weather trying to get her shot and of what a beautiful day it was as we started out down the road.

All in all I’d say we got a few nice shots. It was fun to get out and play with our cameras. I learned that I really need to find my manual and learn some of the finer details of my camera. I mean whats the point in having a nice camera if you don’t know how to use it, right?

I wish we’d gotten here just 15 minutes earlier and there would have been a great reflection of light in the pond.

We had a lot of fun as I said. Even if it was freezing.

This is a lovely view of Stratton Mountain in the dusk light.

Note the icicles!

As we continued on the sun began to set.

Stained glass window.

And the finally . . .

Rosa Bonhuer “The Horse Fair” Absolutely one of my favorite paintings.

Art: is the product or process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects the senses, emotions, and/or intellect. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics and even disciplines such as history and psychoanalysis analyze its relationship with humans and generations. -Wikipedia

Purpose of art

Art has had a great number of different functions throughout its history, making its purpose difficult to abstract or quantify to any single concept. This does not imply that the purpose of Art is “vague”, but that it has had many unique, different reasons for being created. Some of these functions of Art are provided in the following outline. The different purposes of art may be grouped according to those that are non-motivated, and those that are motivated. -Wikipedia

I think for the purpose of our discussion “motivated” art is what we’re talking about. Now there are too many motivations to mention and I don’t think that’s really what my sister was after when she asked me, “What makes a good photo?”. But the purpose of the image is one of the things to consider when thinking about if an image is successful or not. So, that said the sub-question is does this image fulfill it’s “purpose”? The funny thing about art is that once the viewer puts their own spin on what they are seeing the purpose may actually change a bit. If an artist has done there job than their original idea for the image should be read clearly, but as we as individuals bring our life’s experience to the moment that original “purpose” may seem different to us. Art’s organic nature is one of the things that I really love about it. So enough said…. how about some images?

I put this in because it succeeds in its purpose.

Images with a message.

Advertising	Representing	Teaching	Commenting

These are the most in your face kind of purposes, wouldn t you agree? So what about these?

Photograph by Robert Turner

Sorry I had to put a husky in there

What is the purpose of these images and do they succeed?

Obviously, purpose is only one element of this discussion, and there are many parts to yet be considered. I asked my sister the question, “If I took a photo of a pile of doggie doo doo among fall colored leaves, would that be a successful image?” What I’m getting at is that you don’t have to “like” an image for it to succeed in its purpose. Something ugly juxtaposed against something beautiful would have something to say. Oh man, I could so easily go off on a HUGE tangent about story and how important it is.  LOL  But I won’t.

OK, OK, I’m sorry I got on my soap box. And I know I’m not answering my questions. Mostly because I feel I know the answers. So here’s to hoping someone out there in cyber-world will find this an interesting discussion too, and I won’t just be talking to myself.

It’s OK I’m used to it.

(Images in this post were taken from a free images web page. Artist unknown unless specified.)

I really hope my post title doesn’t confuse anyone. You see, October is a really busy month for my family. We have multiple birthdays, mine included, a very busy business season, and because it’s foliage often times we have friends visit. So I am sharing different levels of photographs today. From the family snap shot to attempts at some artistic landscapes.

This year we had our very good family friends Marge and Ed Evans visit us. The Evans’ are a family we grew up with. We had a wonderful dinner at The Reluctant Panther Inn and it was so wonderful having them there to share it with us.

Then It was my nephew’s birthday. I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and , thinking he’d say chocolate or vanilla, he promptly answered, “A camouflage cake!”.  . . . OK.

Love this kid!

So amidst all of this fun and excitement my sister, who is learning photography, asks me, “What makes a good photograph?”. LOL Ummmmmmmmm, could you ask me a more loaded question, Katy? It took me a few starts to just begin the conversation. I mean where do I start. So . . . with that question in mind I thought it might be interesting to start a discussion about just that. I will even be brave enough to say let’s discuss what makes a good image. Which opens the talk to more than just photography. Only fair as I’m a painter. Now, I’m not saying that I’m an expert at photography, because I’m not. But I think I have a fair amount of art training and so will try to  bring that knowledge to the convo.

Conversation

“The information exchange of ideas by spoken (or typed) words.”

This means I would love to hear from all of you your thoughts on the subject.

First I’ll start by throwing out a couple of photos I took this week. Katy and I had a funny chat about “floophy” water, so . . .

Then on the drive to my weekly riding lesson I came across this great vista. It was a cool/neat misty morning.

I encourage you all to go visit my sister’s photo journal at . . .

Katy Noelle’s Photo Journal

Here is one she just sent me via e-mail. She’s been playing around with black and whites.

So!

What do you think makes a “good” photo or image?

I’ll give a few of my ideas on my next post.

Cheers!

(Just a reminder that all images in this blog are property of the artist, and used with permission if not my own work. Please do not use or copy my work without my permission. Thank you)

So many of you know that I just celebrated my 40th birthday. I’m having a very “foody” birthday. On the actual day my family and I went out to dinner at L.A. Burdick’s. A very nice restaurant over the Connecticut River in Walpole, New Hampshire. Among the wonderful presents and well wishes I’ve received Julia Child’s Cookbook and “Babette’s Feast”, a fabulous foody movie. This coming Wednesday we will be going to the Reluctant Panther Inn in Manchester Vermont for another FABULOUS meal.

Sample menu at the Reluctant Panther

My friend Beth sent me some flowers as she wasn’t able to visit this year and my sister also gave me a bouquet. I decided to combine them to have one large bouquet. And here it is. . .

Aren’t I a lucky girl?!

Yeah . . . I am.

It is my trainer’s husband’s birthday this week. I take the group lesson on Tuesday mornings, and there is usually a coffee time after our lesson. We all gather in the tack room for some coffee and pastries (If someone has brought any. They usually have.) and chat about the lesson, whats new in our lives, or other general horsey stuff. Last week we decided to celebrate Henry’s birthday following the lesson that was yesterday. He is turning 82 and I volunteered to make the cake. As many of you know, I make cakes. I make them very tasty. And, I’ve played around with decorating. I have never gotten into the gum paste, modeling chocolate, or fondant world of cake decorating, however.

Until now.

(Be kind its my first attempt to use gum paste, ever.)

I wanted to make a somewhat masculine cake, as it was for Henry, and a horsey theme seemed appropriate.

I don’t know if you can see the stitching detail I tried to put in.

For those who may not know that is an attempt at a D-ring snaffle bit.

Henry and Jenette specialize in trakehners. I had used brown food coloring to turn the gum paste a leathery brown and “pearl dust” mixed with a little lemon juice to paint the bit silver. I had some of the silver left over so I painted the trakehner brand on the top. I’m really glad I did because Henry and Jenette really loved that detail. The raspberries are because its a french vanilla cake with buttercream and raspberry filling.

The funny thing is everyone wanted to know if I did this professionally. Which I guess I sort of do. I said I’d be happy to make cakes for anyone and handed out my artequine business cards.  A few more people know that I paint and do commission work, as well now.

But most of all I had fun.

The Whistlebinkies

Do you have a book or story from your childhood that important to you as a child? I do. Well there are a couple for me, actually, but on several occasions recently one of those tales has come to mind. The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen.

I’m a Nielsen, so it’s kind of a no-brainer that my sister and I would be read Hans Christian Andersen as children. This one particular book really influenced me. Andersen’s stories helped me dream and the illustrations by Milo Winter inspired me visually. One tale and one painting in particular.

The Wild Swans illustrations by Milo Winter

To me, the princess Elise was the MOST beautiful person in the world. I can remember reading the story and then staring at this illustration for what felt like hours. She was beautiful and sad. And her beauty was not just surface. If you have never read this tale, then I encourage you to find it and read it. Mind that you read Andersen’s original and not an adapted version.

My copy is a 1928edition from Rand McNally.

It is a story of love and sacrifice. Elise endures cruel pain and threat upon her life, but even in the end when there seems to be no hope she keeps trying. It is a little unusual in that most fairy tales involve the curse being on the main character. But there is no curse upon Elise, only on her brothers.

I’m not sure exactly why this story keeps coming up, but I’m glad that it has. It bring back fond memories for me and reminds me of the moral paragon that it teaches.