I'm moving at a snails pace and it's ok.

Sometimes not getting anything done and just noticing is how I am finding the moments that connect it all together.

Winter is not my season. I often dress like the above painting .. while inside. Going out can be traumatic, the cold hurts my bones and makes me cranky. I feel a bit envious of people who can go to a party wearing a sleeveless dress or are walking around with no socks. For me, winter is hibernation time. I know this about me, I’m turning 64 next week so I’m used to it, as it’s always been this way. I’m going to (hoping to) keep up a good attitude this year. I want to start with noticing and appreciating.

There is a lovely trail near my house that I take long walks on. I love catching a glimpse of a cardinal and listening to the winter birdsongs. Watching the deer hop around and the rustle of dry leaves makes the cold more bearable. My trail is a straight line either north or south but I’ve been thinking a lot about how curvy a path it is getting through life. And I’ve been noticing the intersections lately where something from the past that I’ve forgotten about is the thing that ties my ideas together. The one I talk about often is about how I had a very solid foundation in learning to use gouache and matching color as a young artist in a textile design studio in the fashion district in NY. There was the matriarch of the place who would go around and pretty much bully the “beginners” into matching paint colors exactly to swatches of fabrics. I spent what felt like months doing that. She would stand over me and say the color was a little too dark, too red, too blue, too grey. I had to do it over and over until it was right. How to mix color became ingrained within me. And then I didn’t paint for ages and ages while I was pursing my career. When I came back to my sketchbook and gouache decades later I knew that gouache was my medium. It fit like a glove. It made sense.

I recently came across the work I did for a project at RISD. A piece of it is on the left and a section of a very current landscape is on the right. That’s over 40 years of time in between. I remember distinctly doing the project from school. It was the fall and I had gotten back from a hiking trip in Vermont. I wanted to recreate the feelings and impressions I had there. These were on very large pieces of paper and I had an absolute blast making them. When I pulled them out the other day I was kind of dumbstruck as to the similarity of the concept, the marks and the color to the landscape work I am doing now.

I can be so blindsided in the moment that it never occurs to me that I have a lifelong passion and purpose for what I am making. It’s similar to the days when I’m painting and I have to remind myself that I’m happiest when I paint loosely. I mean, why doesn’t that always just happen naturally every time? It’s really a big mind game and it can be exhausting. I’m not sure what other patterns I’m going to find in my life but I’m looking out for them now. The winding path becomes part of the paintings and a reflection of a life. Is this true for everyone, does life wind around and around with common moments without us even realizing? I don’t know.

This winter I’m happily gong to stay warm, reflect, slow down and make choices that circle back to the who I am.

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Coming up in the New Year:

January 13th 1-3 EST A New Zoom Workshop!

Reinterpreting the Mona Lisa. Gayle and I really enjoy taking a classic painting and repainting it with our own twists and styles. We aren’t trying to make it look like the original particularly, It’s simply a good exercise for observing what exists and decide which aspect of the art you want to focus on. I have made a few versions already and I know I want my focus to be on color. One idea is to play with a soft neutral version and see what happens. All ages and levels, This is a stress free event! Donation only. This could be a fun holiday gift to give!

Happy Holidays!!

xx, Jennifer