My Favourite Newsletter from Robert and Sara Genn...

Ostensibly for visual artists/painters, but good for any creative endeavour, as well as just plain living and looking in the moment:

http://clicks.robertgenn.com/creative-ritual.php

I found today's newsletter to be particularly relevant. It's been a topic of conversation recently around here with pals. For me, getting up early in the morning (usually 5:00 to 6:00 a.m.) is made infinitely more desirable than extended bed-lolling by good Italian cappuccino (Lavazza Crema e Gusto) made Italian home style in a cafetiere with filtered water, plus about a 4-inch chunk of Ace Bakery baguette sliced into three pieces horizontally, toasted golden and slathered in butter and homemade-by-me-with-almost-no-sugar jam. Sundays are devoted to breakfast with friends (or by myself with an interesting book) at the Chuckwagon, preferably after an early morning look-see at that day's estate sale and/or at the very least followed by going to the Antique Mall around 10:00 or so and cleaning up and rearranging the booth and showcase. 

Having written the above extolling getting up early, I have been known to go back to bed around 9:00 for a 20-minute nap. And naps around 3:00 or 4:00 are not unheard of, even when I'm working. It's that pesky brain fog that rolls in regardless of my state of mind or any inclination otherwise. Everything shuts down. Twenty minutes eyes closed and horizontal, I'm good to go. 

Actually settling down and doing artwork/making jewellery? Well... after a lifetime of devoted creative procrastination and bed-lolling 'til noon or until I'm guaranteed to be late yet again somewhere usually involving a job I loathe, I'm still working on that, but I'm getting better. The trick there has been to find work of as equally sustainable interest and intrigue as getting up for the above-mentioned coffee, toast and jam/diner breakfast.

My latest trip to Toronto and checking out stores (Lavish & Squalor, Queen between McCaul and University, ab-fabulous) has added another theme to my fairly scattered buying (lack of) focus. Expect more targeted Gothish/Edwardian/steampunkish finds/looks. These latest goodies will be arriving in Booth 800/801/847 at the One of a Kind around 1:00 p.m. this afternoon:

For those who are interested, I am still waiting for my Roman glass shipment to arrive. Should be any day now. More goodies for the November Gem Expo in Toronto are landing in my mailbox weekly, so mark your calendar and see you there. My hotel is booked -- whew! Even now, in early September, rooms are hard to come by for late November. Another habit I need to develop is "book room for next show while checking out of current stay". 

Thanks for looking -- and get yourself motorvating!

What Defines Good Design? Plus, since we're on the topic of art, some pictures from my past...

Yeah, like, sez who? Well, it ain't you deciding, and it sure ain't me. It may be as amorphous as air and exist only in the eye of the beholder, but good design is still as real as... real. 

I've been a subscriber of Robert Genn's newsletter and a fan of his thinking for years. He recently died, and his daughter Sara, an artist in her own right, is continuing the newsletter, writing her own columns and rerunning her dad's old columns which were -- are -- ruminations on all manner of topics applicable to any creative endeavour. Just sub out "paints", "painter" and "painting" for whatever you do and the materials you use. I highly recommend you subscribe.

A little detour: Maybe some of you don't know but I was/still am, if on hiatus, a figurative artist who seven or eight years ago moved into using PMC silver clay, largely for its sculptural possibilities, but also because I like to work insanely tiny (also I move a lot and full size sculptures and ceramics are a complete pain in the patootie to haul around). But then PMC got expensive, the economy tanked and nobody was buying the expensive stuff. At the same time, I got more and more into buying and selling beads, if for no other reason than I really like rocks. Waaaaay back in my own mists of time, I used to get paid to climb mountains and look at rocks, so I come by that interest naturally. Then I'd go back to Vancouver on my days off and go to the drawing studio (Basic Inquiry, which I see is still going strong. I also took a look at their Facebook page, some reeeeeally incredible work is shown there.). 

Some drawings from the Basic Inquiry years:

Jerry, Vancouver, 1989 (Founder of the Basic Inquiry studio, Vancouver, BC)

Peter Reede, Nelson, BC, 1992 (Peter was/is one of the better-known models at Basic Inquiry) 

Peter Reede, Vancouver, 1991 (Famous for his "moving poses")

Peter, Nelson, BC, 1992 (Another "moving pose")

Peter Winding His Watch, Nelson, BC, 1992 (I changed my position while drawing him this time)

"Len on the Rocks", Vancouver, 1991 (I'd just come back from my own Great European Tour and seen Leonardo's "Madonna of the Rocks")

Monica, Vancouver 1988 (A Vancouver dance & performance artist. She could hold the most incredible poses for the longest time)

Josie, Vancouver, 1991 (Elfen & impossible to capture.
It was as if I couldn't draw her features; I could only draw the air she displaced.)

Okay, back from the mists, Genn's column today on design resonated enormously with me and I LOVELOVELOVE this quote: "True artists," said William Shipley, "are people who find bad design physically nauseating." YESSSSS!!!! 

I concur with Robert's definition of design and it applies to anything one creates, including jewellery. Long story short, Robert Genn's definition of what design is:

Continuum: Continuity is seen from one element to another. 

Harmony: Shapes echo and complement one another. 

Functionality: How does it work? Form follows function.

Implication: Elements are suggestive or metaphoric.

Concentricity: Elements circulate, extend and focus.

Control: The viewer's eye does what you want it to.

Strength: Forms are solid, committed, authoritative.

Personality: Your design motifs can be yours alone.

To this I would add "Wit": Not wit meaning funny ha-ha, but wit meaning intelligence and engagement -- that ineffable next step that makes the drawing, the painting, the jewellery piece, the architecture become "mine", as in I gotta have it. I gotta live there. It's ME. 

What would you add to this list?

Even more asides because it's the holiday (so it's raining, of course) and I have time. This weather makes me think of travel and Rome is always on my mind. But, in my real world, four days in Toronto is fast approaching, and that will have to do. In no particular order, some of my favourite drawings -- plus the only oil painting I ever did... whereupon I discovered I'm allergic to oil paint fumes, fumes of any description for that matter: a room full of 20-odd students using acrylics? Gag me. But so far so good on drawing materials:

Pat, sitting, from the back, Toronto 1998

Shawn, seated, Toronto, 1998

"L'Olfatto", pencil copy after Passante, Rome, 1997

Natasha, Rome, 1998 - SOLD

Monsieur Poisson (aka Mimmo Pesce), drawing instructor; Natasha, my favourite model; Me, Artist in ROME!!!; Sigfrido Oliva, painter; Solo Show, Via dell' Orso, Rome, 1998 (FYI, the gallery was located just a few doors down from the building Julia Roberts' character rented in Eat, Pray, Love)

After-the-show party. One of the happiest nights of my life. Yep, dinner even included a strolling Gypsy violinist. Rome, 1998

Holding up the wall at a group show four of us held in the apartment I shared, Rome, 1996. I was quite drunk, having just been dumped by the then love of my life whose name escapes me. 

Half-way through painting Somalian Refugee Baby in my painting teacher's studio, Toronto, 1999 (I took two years of painting in Vancouver where we were left to our own devices to reinvent the wheel and I learned sweet zip. I also failed art school. Phhht. Ten years later I paid this guy Michael to teach me classical painting techniques. We got through one technique (grisaille plus yellow, then red, then blue glaze) before he left town, something about teaching scuba diving in Bermuda... somewhere white sand beachy. Sigh...)

Closeup of Somalian Refugee Baby, Toronto, 1999

McMichael Fall Art Show, Kleinburg, Ontario, 1999 (See how the face of that baby in its mother's arms has gotten larger and larger -- and AGED!??! I've always had more than a little problem with keeping control over whatever I'm drawing)

Photo of Omar, Baby Tiger, Camping Sette Colli, Rome, 1995 (The campground was a zoo, with both human and animal/bird inhabitants pretty much freely wandering, and the owner had a licence to temporarily care for abandoned or injured wild animals which would then be returned to the Rome Zoo. This little guy had been rejected by its mother and Tony and his family were hand-raising it. He'd already been returned to the zoo, but Omar missed Tony and wouldn't eat, so he came back for another week or two. This was Omar's last day at the campground, as he was getting too big and didn't know his own strength. He was such a clown, and oh, my, did he stink.)

Baby Tiger, Plexi Etching, Toronto, 2001

Baby Tiger, Mylar Etching, Toronto, 2001

Model back view, seated, Montreal, 1993 (She was a postie by day) - SOLD

Portrait of a young man, Montreal, 1993 (Esoterica: when this guy came around to look at our drawings, he said to me: "I feel like you must have been walking around in my brain, that you know what I was thinking, because I recognise the expression on my face." I think this is one of the nicest compliments I've ever received.)

Ken, 1994, Montreal (This was the first time I felt like I captured the light in someone's eyes, and that's what all my drawing is about, really: capturing the light, the spark, that animates us)

As always, anatomy eludes me...

All images copyright me, Barbara MacDougall, 1988-2014. Please do NOT use, copy, redistribute or reprint without my express written permission. Thank you. 

Thanks for looking!

This is true.......... plus some Solar Quartz pictures

"The most pernicious aspect of procrastination," says author Steven Pressfield, "is that it can become a habit. We don't just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed."

Got this today from Robert Genn's newsletter, The Painter's Keys. Subscribe today: http://painterskeys.com/ Doesn't matter what you do, this is an always inspiring and interesting newsletter with contributions and commentary from all over the world.

I've been thinking about this recently, how most people seem to be living their lives increasingly vicariously. It used to be through other people's lives, maybe in a book or a magazine or something we saw on television, but close the book or magazine and it's gone. They were often jumpstarts to our own adventures, careers or interests. I remember when televisions used to go off the air at midnight and not come back on until 6 a.m., and we could only get a few channels, maybe an extra one if the weather was right, certainly, there wasn't that much on that was that interesting to everyone all the time.

Now it's non-stop roaming, hypnotically flip-flipping, click-clacking away our lives virtually, online, not in reality, not in the here and now. It's like there's now no need to make a change if you don't like the way things are going. I know I do it myself! A couple of days ago in particular, the six hours I spent online went by before I realised it, gone forever. I didn't work, I didn't make jewellery or draw or paint or sew; worst of all I ignored my beautiful dog. I also ignored myself in a fundamental way because I don't remember what was so important that I could devote six hours to it. I had nothing -- zero, zip, nada -- to show for that 6 hours. That's the part that gets me. The goneness of time.

I really resent computers and the Internet now for the way that time lines and deadlines have been compressed, with the resultant stress and inhumane expectations that have been created. Are we really that much more efficient now? And I've always hated television and telephones. Cell phones with their texting/mini-computer/gaming capabilities? Don't get me started. People have always asked me (with suspicion, of course, like I'm some kind of liar, even though the results are there in front of them -- like they've completely lost belief and/or trust in their own senses and I'm trying to trick them) how I do all the things I do, take the courses, work the jobs, join the groups, produce the volume of artwork and now jewellery. Well, let's see. First, I don't spent 40+ hours a week in front of the television. This is now the accepted average that children spend in front of the TV and computer. What on earth are they watching? What are adults watching? That's watching, not doing.

But let's go with 40 hours. 40 x 52 = 2,080 hours per year of free time. Say we sleep 8 hours a day, so that leaves a 16-hour day in which to do things. 2,080 / 16 = 130 days. That gives me 130 "extra" full days per year that I have per year to do stuff that the "average" person does not because they're watching television/on the computer. I can take a second or even a third part time job. I can volunteer. I can take college/university/special interest courses. Learn a language. Do my art, make jewellery, sew. Et voila.

Or I can sit here and write this blog. I'm not a Luddite. The ability to stay home and make my living, avoiding endless hours of commuting every day if nothing else, is only possible via the computer and Internet. Everyone tells me/us that social networking is the way to success, that we have to "be" everywhere. I see all these different means as colossal timesuckers, nothing but "other"-sanctioned procrastination that means I'm not making jewellery, I'm not doing a damned thing other than posting pictures to add to the billions of pictures that are already online and adding yet more words to the already gabillions of words that are out there. Tell me again, how does this work for me/us?

For now, I'll stick with the blog, deviantArt and my much-neglected website. Oh, and not to forget the endless novella-length emails to my pals! And the Saturday market. Novel concept these days, innit? Face to face with real people. Not to mention reeeeally good food there.

I went to the wholesaler on Wednesday. I had so much fun, as usual. My newest treasure to play with: something new to me called Solar Quartz.

What is Solar Quartz? According to http://www.fortunatenumberjewelry.com/: Solar quartz is a natural colorless, white or gray agatized quartz cut from stalactites. The centers of these stones are translucent with dendridic mossy inclusions. Probably the most versatile multipurpose healing stone, quartz amplifies energy and healing, draws and sends energy, and stimulates natural crystals in the body’s tissues and fluids to resonate at new healing frequency.

Solar Quartz is very, very pretty. These have been dyed, obviously, but I picked the most tastefully "enhanced" strings I could.


Solar Quartz I: centre bead is about 1" high, smallest beads are about 1/2". The colour is fairly accurate



Solar Quartz I: closeup of two beads. The colour is fairly accurate.



Solar Quartz II: centre bead is about 1 inch high, smallest beads are about 1/2 inch high. Colour is fairly accurate



Solar Quartz II, closeup. Colour is fairly accurate

If anyone wants to buy either string (and note that these are presently on temporary strings; they're not finished jewellery) please email me at bemacdougall@gmail.com for more details. Each string is $20 plus postage.
Now to get out of here and do some work, dammit!