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It's So Hard to Say Goodbye...And Hello Again!

After more than a year of using my website's native blog feature, I regret that it just doesn't work for me.  :-(  There are many ...

March 24, 2017

What Is Liminal Space & What Does It Mean to Your Art?

My significant other and I have these conversations about art and concepts pretty often.  It's one of the reasons I love him.  We often trade posts we find on social media, including mostly memes just to make each other laugh.  I believe we got into talking about liminal space after sharing photos from a tumblr we both like, called Glow Blog.  It features photos usually at night, that depict simple spaces or other subjects that are lit up with colors from faraway neon lights, or lights with atmospheric interference.  Basically anything that causes a "glow."  I had run across these images many times, and while I thought they were interesting I didn't look deeper until recently,  I can't really explain why.  I think it had to do with the feeling I began to feel when I saw some of them, which I later came to understand was a result of liminal space.

Image courtesy of GlowBlog.tumblr.com

All images courtesy of GlowBlog.tumblr.com


Most of the photographs can be attributed to a simple recording of light, especially unnatural man-made light cast on various environments like neon lights or car lights.  Some take a step further in causing an eerie, empty, or mysterious feeling.  It can be seen in the middle of the night in almost any public space like a train station.  During the day this place is bustling with activity, at night it is lit up, but empty, as if waiting for any activity to start.  It is in transition, and being there or seeing this space at this time almost causes us to fear an unknown.  Quite literally a fear of change, if you will.

What is liminality exactly?

March 20, 2017

Ruts in the Road to Creative Productivity

It's not uncommon for artists to find themselves at a standstill in their work.  It can be an excruciating experience especially when one WANTS to work, but can't seem to find the magic.  Julia Cameron writes in The Artist's Way that obstacles of all kinds will always stunt creativity, and the only way over, is through.  Creatives must train to work on their craft even when work seems unreachable. The inspiration is not there. The well of ideas has dried up.  All are excuses.

Sure the process may be hard at first but pouring one's soul into a project is not always easy.  It's important to realize that "easy" is not always a luxury one can count on.  Inspiration is also not a luxury you can count on.  When artists talk about a block,  they often don't see that the act of waiting for inspiration is itself a common block.  Writing your To-Do lists and Things to Remember can help clear the way.   But often what is stopping the flow of creativity is perfectionism.

"I don't have a great idea yet, so why should I start working?"
"I don't wanna waste my time making bad art."
"I need more time to make something really good."
"I don't want to be reductive."
"I don't have the talent to churn out masterpieces all the time."  
If these sound familiar, or you have a small voice uttering something similar, you're selling yourself short.  You're getting in your own way.  It's not your brain, or lack of ideas, or lack of talent that's holding you back, it is you.  It's your old nemesis fear.  It shows up in various forms trying to fool you that something else is to blame.
"What am I supposed to do then?"

March 19, 2017

Seen on tumblr: @heartsl0b

Aisle Horror - Mixed Media - heartsl0b - used with permission
Aisle Horror - Mixed Media - Savannah (heartsl0b) - used with permission

Clean Up - Mixed Media - heartsl0b - used with permission
Clean Up - Mixed Media - Savannah (heartsl0b) - used with permission

I ran across these artworks on a friend's blog on tumblr and thought they were so amazing even with a mundane setting/subject, the colors transform it into a liminal space filled with mystery and magic. You can see more of Savannah's work on tumblr here: heartsl0b.tumblr.com  I love how she perfectly captures how an artist might see the beauty in these images that could be passed by in everday life, even repulsed by.  I can't stop looking at these!  Please see more of her beautiful work at the above link.

I'm writing about liminal space in an upcoming post because I find the concept very mysterious and yet so common to our everyday lives.  I'm tying the concept into art, and things I've read that seem to be a common thread.  A softly glowing curious thread urging me forward down a dark yet hypnotizing road.  :-P

March 10, 2017

Busted Pipe Threatens to Sink my Studio!

The sun had not even come up yet.  I first heard the cat stepping lightly through the bedroom door to find his usual hiding spot.  I drifted back to sleep only to be woken up again half an hour later to the sound of rain.  I suddenly became startled.

"What is that?" I asked into the darkness.  The sound of water was on the wrong side of the bed, coming from the hallway instead of the window.  I raised up to the edge of the bed to see slightly out of the crack in the door, the tiny reflections of the living room light bouncing off a steady stream of what looked like water falling right in front of my bedroom door.

Let me just say here, that you should get renters insurance.  Luckily I did not need it this time, but I very well could have.   There's no going back in time to do what you should've done that would've saved you from a nightmare.  There are often no signs that something is wrong until it happens.  Until you wake up in the middle of the night to what you think is rain.  Or until you come home from a weekend visit and your house is flooded.

I keep thinking how lucky we were that we were home.  We hadn't finished unpacking every box, or found a home for every single thing yet, so there is a lot of stuff on the floor in various corners and under tables (especially my studio table!)  In moments of shock there is an uncontrollable frozen stare of disbelief as you wonder if you're actually having a nightmare, or if what is happening will just stop.  It didn't.

I must've stared at the ceiling not knowing what to do for what seemed like 30 minutes.  I saw the water start to travel from the hallway to the living room, going past my TV stand, my couch, to the front door.  I yelled for my partner to find towels, and I grabbed what few I saw and threw them to the floor.

"Oh my God, oh my God," I couldn't help but utter every time I looked up at this unstoppable waterfall of red water.  It was RED! At first I thought it must be coolant, and that it must go to the A/C unit, and that whatever tank was up there would run out soon, but it just kept coming.   I ran to the kitchen where the water seemed to be avoiding, to think, which seemed so hard to do  right now.  I knew I had to reach some emergency line for my complex, I had heard one before when we had other issues in our previous apartment.  I listened to all the options, nothing about dialing this or that number for an emergency.  How can there NOT be an emergency line?!  I called again to listen to the options again.  I chose an option. Not helpful.  I called again, chose another option, not helpful.

March 6, 2017

It's So Hard to Say Goodbye...And Hello Again!

After more than a year of using my website's native blog feature, I regret that it just doesn't work for me.  :-(  There are many great features like the custom build of each post, and the use of graphics in navigation, but it was all manually done by me, and it became more of a chore to constantly update links so that it all worked.  There was not a good flow for me, and trying to keep up with updating multiple areas for every post was just too tedious. 

On a regular blog, links to previous posts are automatic, and the job of blogging becomes much simpler when all you have to do is write and share.  I hate to leave behind the work I carved out there, but my intention is to blog more, and make that easier on my time.  Having the automatic features that a blog like this provides will make that happen, and be a huge relief to my schedule.  I will still incorporate some of the navigation features as best I can, and make the transition as seamless as possible.

Some of you may know this blog already, and it certainly feels familiar and easy to come back to for many reasons.  There is a wealth of older work to be seen here from my college days, and I'm happy that it will be available for easy viewing next to my current work. 

Thanks for understanding and I hope you will join me in a sigh of relief from here on out.  I will post links to my posts on my website periodically so that they still get some love and attention, as I put so much into them.  I'm not sure exactly yet what would be the best way to keep them linked, but I'll figure out, because I do want my .com/blog to point here eventually.

My lastest post can be found here: Mermaid, Witch, and Cosmonaut Walk into a Bar...

Mermaid, Witch, & Cosmonaut Trio watercolor paintings by Johnny Perez

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