Pretty Art vs. Edgy Art

I have been thinking about this topic for a while now and decided it was time to start a conversation.  I’ve stated openly that I enjoy creating ‘pretty’ artwork.  My theory has been that there is enough ugliness and harshness in this world and I feel no need to create more or to create something that reminds us of these tough times.  Maybe that is too simplistic or maybe it’s not respected enough and I should shut up (not that this is likely to happen!).  To set the scene let me build two descriptions and please note that I am not trying to put anyone in a category or to debate skill as I think we are each unique and skilled in our own ways.

Pretty Art:

It’s such a simple name but often landscape artwork is placed in the category of ‘pretty’ artwork.  It can be and often is soothing or passionate in a detached way.  Meaning landscape artwork will rarely challenge you to think about life in new ways or will evoke disturbing and uncomfortable emotions.  The artist may be expressing uncomfortable emotions or working out the technical challenge of creating a certain feel through new techniques but it is rare that the viewer sees it.  For example take Monet’s waterlilies,  they are stunning with exquisite composition and are a real pleasure to just look at.  Granted the waterlilies are done by a master but these pieces have depth and skill that is wonderful to view from an artist’s perspective.  Yet, few people who don’t study and love art will ever see anything other than a pretty painting.  And that is ok.  Without a doubt they are pretty paintings but they are so much more.  I would argue that most landscape paintings are more than just pretty, they often have thought provoking questions buried in the technique or the color choices or … pick a part of the painting and a question and see what you can find?  That being said there are definitely paintings that I have finished just ’cause it was fun or because I thought it’d look neat.  But.. often those are the paintings I created during difficult times in my life.  Times when my artwork was created as an escape.  I don’t know if my inner angst worked it’s way through the paintbrush or not and if it did I’m not sure I’d share my very private inner angst with the world and tell you what caused me to select that shade of red to paint over the church.  Maybe when I’m long gone someone will study my work, look through my life and say… oooh that’s why she did this.  In the interim I’m content if I can make art that fills my heart and hopefully will help someone else remember peace on a bad day.

Edgy art  or Art for other Artists:

Before I get into this, let me state that I really appreciate this kind of artwork.   It has so much value in our artworld and much of it’s value is not quantifiable.  Without people willing to push the boundaries, we would never have the impressionists or Picasso or heck anyone other than Greek sculptors.   That being said, some of the artwork is wonderful to look at and some is much harder.  I’ve seen brilliant pieces discussing the role of Jesus in our lives or a cardboard sculpture highlighting the great garbage patch.  These pieces are great pieces designed to remind us to think, not to just feel or to close our eyes to pain or responsibility but to think, a much harder goal.  I enjoy that these pieces successfully remind us of our responsibility.  Just as I truly enjoy that Picasso brought forth a new way of painting.  Do I visually enjoy looking at Picasso or a piece depicting Christ arched in pain over an eagle… no not really.  Do I want to live with them in my house.. nope I sure don’t.  BUT I respect an artist who can create such things, who can put a piece of their heart and soul into a visual expression for the world to see.  This art is awesome and can change the world… but so can pretty artwork.

I started this post as a defense and a hopefully a discussion of types of artwork and I would welcome your thoughts or comments.   I have seen that many people look at pretty work and think less of it than the edgy work out there.  I would argue that both have value and to only see edgy work as valuable or to only see pretty work as valuable is missing out on so much wonderful art.

So the next time you look at a piece of artwork I would pose this question for you.  If it’s something that is just  pretty… is pretty all there is to this painting?  or.. if the piece is uncomfortable to look at because of the emotions… I would ask how did the artist convey this emotion?  Did they use attractive or fun methods to do so?  There is value in all forms of artwork… let us be great and ask ourselves to look for the value in the forms and enjoy all aspects.

I wanted to tell everyone about the upcoming Everett artwalk on May 20th between 4pm-7pm.   The artwalk will be a fun adventure and this month we’re doing a small tasting of Georgetown Brewery’s beer!  Yes we will be checking id’s and nope there isn’t a fee but you will receive a coupon for Balefire.  This month we have two studios participating in the beer tasting and if you visit 3 venues on artwalk you get 15% off at Balefire.   

I’ve also added another artist to the studio, Joy Bezanis!  she is fabulous and will have some work up for display at the studio.  Come meet her, taste some delish beer and enjoy great work.

Hello all,
I”ve been working on getting my name out there.. and it turns out that there is a fabulous photographer in Seattle who is taking VR videos of artist studios in the Pacific Northwest area. He came by last week and honored me by taking some photography of my studio. come see me virtually… http://www.vrseattle.com/blog/2010/02/everett-wa-artists-janet-jane-liz/

On an upcoming note, stay tuned for next month’s artwalk. I plan on trying to get some tasty beer in for tasting and an opening. I’ll also be highlighting some additional artists. I’ll write more about them soon.

Some Philosophy in an Art Blog:

I’m taking a break from the update blog to give some moments and thoughts to our countrymen and women overseas.  As many of you know, and a lot of you have guessed I worked for the government for several years.   The time changed me rather dramatically and I hope it was for the better.

Given recent losses in unknown but respected and admired colleagues, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to our choices as individuals and as a nation.   As individuals who have amazing freedoms are we obligated to protect them, by force if necessary?  Once we are in an area, no matter how sticky and uncomfortable it is, are we obligated to stay?  I would say yes we are.  I know that many people are not suited for foreign service, be it armed, civilian or just taking on the stresses of handling a nation at war.  That means that those of us who can/could handle such things must do so… no pressure or anything for those who feel like they can and must serve in civilian or military service.  I want to be clear though.  The fact that we can and do serve in war zones by no means devalues the contributions that others make.  It’s like being tall enough to reach the top shelf for your friend… why wouldn’t you take that book off the top shelf to help them out?

As it turns out, I’m a more sensitive soul and have subsequently struggled with my choices and the sheer violence of warfare.  I’ll openly admit, I have PTSD… and I didn’t even go into combat.  Maybe that makes me wussy, but at the end of the I don’t care, the reality is that war is hard, it is brutal and filled with brutal choices.   And I’m so very grateful that I was able to serve for however long I did.

As a precursor to some questions:  yes it was hard, yes there were days where I cried over losses of friends, or the stress of knowing my friends and loved ones were in danger.  Yes there were days that I cried over the stress I knew I was putting on loved ones.  My family and friends did things and gave support that means more than I can express.  They made it possible for me to serve and continually reminded me why I served.  But.. at the end of the day I’m grateful I was able to serve.  I am honored by the sacrifices and courage that our countrymen have shown.   And I have learned that the sacrifices are not all overseas.  You who are here and are kind to people coming back are incredibly important.   You who sent random care packages and notes from kids (my favorite was some little boy wishing we all had a frog), you who allow us to be a bit off and socially inept when we come home… you are serving your country too.  You are serving the homefront.  And here is my wish to you and I guess now to me.  We are the homefront, we are the country too.  We must acknowledge that the war is hard, it will cost us.  At the end of the day, we are in Afganistan and Iraq.   We have started something in both of these locations, some will argue (and I would agree with them) that Al Qa’ida started it but we responded.  It was our choice to go over to these locations and for right or wrong I believe it is the right thing to stay a while longer.   We are there, the least we can do is give these guys a chance to see what it is like to be free.  I don’t have false illusions (well not many I hope), I am not expecting miracles like a stable uncorrupt government.  I do however, hope that we can show enough people what it is like to have a representative government, to read books, to know that not everyone outside their village is a hateful individual.

So here is my thank you to the homefont and to those who are overseas now.

Christmas preparation and a new marriage

We talk about Christmas, prepare for Christmas and work ourselves to the bone trying to bake, shop and generally create the ‘perfect’ christmas.  I would like to take a few moments to think about the spirit of Christmas and what it means in my world.  I find that the spirit of Christmas is the gratitude and the joy that we all can share around this time.  It’s the love of friends, the joy in a child’s face or even the joy in a loved one’s face when you find that perfect present or the perfect thank you.

I have often found that the spirit of Christmas can be lost in the materialism that surrounds Christmas.  One of the things that I was taught as a child is how to create a Gratitude List.  Granted it’s something I learned in Sunday School, however, I have found that it is applicable in life no matter your religious beliefs.  The general principle is that you sit down and think about all the things in your life that you’re grateful for.   As a child I’m pretty sure my stuffed animals made the list, or a kind word at school etc.  This year my gratitude list is huge and each item is a major life changing event.  A wedding to a beautiful man, a new home, a life that includes art, my own business that is making a profit… if a small one and the list keeps going.

In a world where so many people lack basic freedoms, we not only have freedom we have the option of doing something with it.   So my question to you is… what is on your gratitude list this christmas?

Blog update:  11-16-09

I’ve finished working  on some holiday themed paintings.  I decided that this was a great time to try out my sparkly paint… it works great on snow. The paint gives a subtle sheen that I think evokes the impression of a sun lit snow covered field.   Have you seen a field in sunlight, how is glistens and sparkles?  I think it’s one of the most stunning sights in the world.

I did a ton of research on different non-denominational holiday symbols and found it exceedingly difficult to do something that I associate with the holidays yet isn’t directly associated with Christmas.  For me the holidays is Christmas or to be more accurate, the Christmas spirit.  I love the idea of giving and the spirit of generosity that is often associated with Christmas.  The odd part of it was that I started thinking about this stuff in..OCTOBER!   but I guess that is the life of commercial stuff.

My ideas so far have ranged across the board; someone hauling trees, a snowman (finished-see below), and a snowflake.  I want to do the snowflake in the puddling style but I’m not sure how it will work.  I would really like to do the snowflake with the sparkly paints… cause that is way more fun, but they don’t seem to flow as well as the regular watercolors, which means using them in a puddle isn’t the best idea.

so… I have the snowman completed.

Oh and I added a Season’s Greeting’s to it.  Let me know if you like it.  You may be able to see here how I used the puddling technique and the area below is all flowey.  I like this piece but don’t love it… I think the snowman is a bit awkward and I’d like to redo the foreground.  That being said, I think it’ll look great on a card… and that’s why I painted the piece.

the next piece will be based on the below sketch… A snowflake.

I’m going to use resist to protect the snowflake design and then paint a puddled passionate background.  Maybe in a green?  Or maybe I’ll do a red background with a green snowflake.  I would like to keep the colors contrasting yet christmasy.   I think that the combo will make for a fun card.   The trick is to keep the design simple enough that it will reduce in size for printing very well.

I finished the painting, let me know what you think!

Off to create some cards!

Liz

The Process:

As I was wandering through our backyard the other day I took a moment to appreciate living in the Pacific Northwest.  We get these amazing cloudy nights where the clouds create a luminescent layer back lit by the moon.  Looking at the clouds over my head,  I had an inspiration moment and decided to try and recreate the feeling I had.  It is rare that I’m walking through an area and can see what I want to create like a vision floating in my head.   The hard part is then carving the time to create what I want.   I will start research, photographs and sketches immediately.   I find that the painting takes over my brain and it’s all I think about—in our family we call it the art frenzy.   All else becomes secondary to creating the piece—at least it used to.. now I have a personal life that matters more so I have to figure out a better balance.

For this piece, I wandered through our backyard and took a series of photos of the trees that inspired the piece.  I then printed the photos out and pasted them around my worktable so I could stare at them as I created.

Creating the sky in my vision was an interesting journey.   Since I normally work in watercolor, I naturally began thinking of this piece in watercolor.

That being said, I thought this piece would be a great opportunity to create an oil painting.  I started a watercolor sky and an oil sky… and loved the oil sky.  I had so much fun that I began adding the trees to the oil painting first.

I found that the required patience of working in oil was a major transition but probably good for my character (I’m terribly impatient).  I first created the sky and had to wait two days for it to dry.  Each tree was painted and then given some time to dry.

Now the question is, “is the painting done?”.  I welcome your comments and thoughts on both the oil painting and the watercolor painting.

Best wishes to all who are out there!

Liz

I’ve been working on several pieces and thought I’d include some images here.

The first piece is a watercolor landscape done in the puddling style.  The painting is based on my travels through Bhutan, a small country in the Himalaya’s.  While traveling through Bhutan I noticed that the air was incredibly clear, wonderful and it was some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever experienced.   The country itself was very safe, the people were lovely and the food not so lovely.  We knew we had problems when the dogs (which were everywhere) couldn’t eat food that we had leftover (read the meat was so tough I couldn’t eat it).  The painting isn’t finished, I am going to add a river flowing through the piece and some light colored mountains.  I am going to strive to achieve a sense of distance.  Grey out the colors in the distance so that you feel like you’re looking far away.

This other piece is something that came to me while standing in our backyard on a cloudy night.  Out here, we get these amazing cloudy nights, where the light filters through the clouds and silhouettes trees.   As I stood in our backyard appreciating the night I started to dream about how to translate it onto paper.  I’m trying two translations, one is watercolor and one is in oil.   Although I almost always work in water based media I thought this would be interesting in oil… so I’m starting.   I finished the sky in both the oil in the watercolor.

In the oil I love the flow and movement of the colors in the oil painting.   It’s very different than my usual style and I am interested to see what happens for the rest of the piece.  We’ll see if I love it, hate it or screw it up :).   As in the watercolor I will add in tree silhouettes to really develop the composition.

In the watercolor piece I didn’t go as dark as I often do but it may still be too dark for my vision.  I’ve yet to decide if I love this night sky yet but I thought I’d put it out there so you could see the artistic process.   I would like to hear any thoughts.   I plan on putting in pine tree silhouettes in the next few days.

I would love any comments or ideas.

Journaling, how do you start?  I’ve heard so much about this, read about this and some of the artists I  respect do this… maybe it will help me.   My sister gave me some watercolor paper in a book and I have a journal… just never used it.  I struggled for years with keeping a journal, I know that for many it is therapeutic or can help them tap into the creative soul.  I always found it intimidating.  I know that I’m not a brilliant writer but also I worked in classified land for years.  How do you let ideas flow from your head when 80% of what you think about is classified?   I still struggle with this but at least now my entire life is not classified.   I’ve decided that it’s time to get over that intimidation and fear (thanks for the inspiration Michelle and Kristin) now I have to just start doing it.   Oi!  If I get any journal entries that aren’t horribly embarrassing I’ll post them here.

Thanks for the inspiration guys,

Liz

Hi everyone,

I’ve finally succumbed and am starting a blog.   I’ll use this site to update any new creations, let you know of upcoming shows and maybe to discuss art and the world of art in the pacific northwest.

I’ve been participating in a program started by the Arts Council of Snohomish County called “Art in Great Spaces” and have decided to stay in my great space through the end of the year.  So please feel free to come by the studio.  I will be there during the week from 9am-4:30pm and by appointment on any other days or any other time.

As of right now I have a bunch of new cards that are available for purchase, and I’m working on two new pieces based on my travels through Bhutan.   I’m going to collect some photos of the pacific northwest and work on a pacific northwest series.   Then I’ll work on a holiday series.