Tag: art

getting back

by susanbradfordart, posted in Basketry, Mandala Art

This is what the studio looked like just before I left for Pennsylvania in early April. There were lots of projects in process. Paintings, drawings, baskets, painted magnets.  It was messy and lively.  It felt so good to be in there.  I was content.

Today it felt a little abandoned.  It needs a good cleaning.  It wants attention.  I need to reestablish contact with all those projects.  I need to reset my priority to be in there.  I always have great plans to float right back into painting as soon as I get back home.  I have so many ideas.  

And then I’m always a little more tired, a lot less creative, and more behind with other stuff than I bargained for.

So be it!

 

something new

by susanbradfordart, posted in Learning, Mandala Art

chakras

A good friend of mine asked me to create a set of chakra paintings for her office. It is always wonderful for me to be challenged in this way, so I eagerly said yes to her. Feeling into each chakra (or energy center) in this new way really allowed me to look at myself in a new way, too. To present each one in a glowing, healthy way, I had to align with my own first and visualize one after the other feeling strong and whole. And then I had to figure out what that would look like for each one. The seven paintings on paper are a combination of oil paint, watercolor, oil bars, pastel, pencil, and charcoal.

What a great opportunity to play and paint!

 

Perfect Mandalas

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art

 

These are called Romanesca Broccoli and I think that they are stupendously beautiful.  We started them from seed last summer, and in early August transplanted about 20 of them from pots into the ground.  We had such a cool summer that they didn’t really take off.  But summer was followed by a pretty mild winter, and look at them now!

They are perfectly wonderful mandalas.  They have a central focus, then spread out in a seemingly limitless fashion.  They hold the promise of the universe in the intensity of their color, the great variety of their surface, and the depth of their rounded form.  If we choose, we can read many meanings into them, and they can speak to our souls.

But most important, did I mention that they are utterly delicious?  Sauté them, or steam them.  Or prepare them in my favorite way.  Roast them with just a little olive oil and salt.  425 degrees, for twelve minutes (or thirteen).

Yummy!  Perfect!


My letter is…

by susanbradfordart, posted in Creative Process, Visual Art, Writing

I am always a bit sad to miss the monthly Trance Dance, and especially so in January when everyone sets their intention for the year and dances it deeply into their bodies. Still, for the past few years, I have been participating from afar and that has been good as well.

So when I read Anita’s post on Tuesday, I asked her to pick a letter for me from the ones that had not been claimed on Monday night.  In her email sent to me yesterday, I learned that my letter for the year is “B.”

Now don’t get me wrong.  “B” is a perfectly good letter.  It is even the first letter of my last name.  But in my heart of hearts, it wasn’t the letter that I wanted.  I was sending out for a “C” (Creativity, Communication, Courage, Compassion – all things I want and need more of).  Or maybe even a “P” (Paint, Play, Pray/Meditate – which have been my standard resolutions for many years now).

But no, I got a “B” and had no choice except to embrace it.

Here is what I wrote, after quickly going through the above mental process.  Oh 2012… that was the year of going Boldly, Beginning once again, and Being true to myself.

I still want all those other words as well, but the “B” words should help a lot.  And while I was writing this, I thought of so many more lovely words.

Grace…

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art
the newest mandala

It seemed like a good idea.  I decided to do a mandala about Grace several months ago.  I took a few notes and did a few doodles, and then put it aside.  My thoughts about grace were all over the place, but that only made me realize how much I needed to work on it.

This quote from Anne Lamott kind of sums it up, “I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”

It is such a tricky and elusive word.  And working with it began to reflect my longing to pin things down, to understand the whys and hows and whats of my own life.  I want physical grace as well as grace on a spiritual level.  I want that ever popular state of grace.  I want it to permeate my thoughts and actions on all levels.  I want to live with grace and age with grace.

Yet my personal journey while working on it was not particularly easy, almost as if I were being shown how much work there is to do.  I’m not exactly sure what I learned, but I know that it made me think and look and feel a lot.

And that’s enough for now.