Category: Creativity

There is a term in art that is “a sure line”. When you say an artist has a sure line it means a line drawn with such confidence that you can feel it.
Most lines are not sure lines but when ones comes along it is the greatest line and the whole painting hangs on it.
The energy from a sure line is infused with a whole lifetime of learning.
You eye will go to the sure line the first instant it hits the canvas.
The line will be drawn with more than you had before you drew it.
It is easy to mistake a sure line for a bold line but when you see them side by side the sure line is obvious.
Sometimes you don’t need much else to finish the painting.
To paint a sure line you cannot have any awareness of yourself, The line must come out of you but you can’t be in the way. Things done without thinking about it too long are alway the greatest gifts.
An old saying is ” An artist is a person who knows when to stoop painting”
You can’t overanalyze things or it will stop breathing.
A sure line is the total breath of every painting.
The insert is an example of a sure line that is pretty obvious. You can feel it breath.

The main thing is the spark and you cant make the spark happen. You can only be there when it does.
What is talent but being at the right place at the right time.
You can develop skill but that is not the spark.
You can develop discipline and that also is not the spark.
The spark comes from somewhere else outside of you.
And it comes through you.
The East Village was a spark.
It was just an idea that snowballed into a special place that I have not been able to replicate again.
My husband and I lived in the East Side of Tacoma where it was sort of scary.
To overcome that I decided to write a newsletter to send to my immediate neighbors in three blocks. So about 100 papers. I just talked about what was on my mind and asked people to write back and talk to me about what they were thinking and who they were.
Before I knew it the East Village was born and we had not only a newsletter but a Poetry club , a Film Club and a creativity group. We were just neighbors but we meshed together into a big thing. We painted our front doors and had a contest that was covered in the newspaper. WE were always in the newspaper for something.
We had signs made that the city put on the streets to denote where the East Village was.
It was like a force that was a miracle. We would have street parties that were incredible. We had live bands. We had east village tee shirts made.
We were a dream. I remember walking around the neighborhood passing out the newsletter and thinking that this was the only thing I ever did in my life that mattered.
People moved away and before you knew it the East Village lost its band of followers.
But it did happen. It really did occur.
LIfe is like that, you think something will never end because it is so great and then it is gone.
I don’t think I could ever do that again. It was a special thing .. It was a spark.

The reason people pay a lot of money for original work is because it is close to the spark. The spark is the mysterious place where all things are invented,discovered, or created.
Before in the universe there was not this painting and now there is this painting.
It does not matter how good of a copy you can make of someone elses work, it will never never never have the value of the original.
The spark is the thing, and it is the only thing.
All skill aside, a new thing that no one has done before is important.
That is why original art is expensive. It has to be.
There are more ways than one to be expensive.
It is expensive to the artist too. They can never do it again.
I am doing some works on paper for the gallery right now that will be more affordable.
I thought well I will just do some redo of older paintings that sold before.
Now comes the expensive part. I have to make new pieces because even I try to  duplicate the first one the feel is not the same. I have to make a new piece.
I am the one who made the first one and I cannot duplicate it.
You would think if anyone could it would be me but that was a moment in time and that time is gone and I have to move on.
I can never bring that time back and with it that spark.
that is why art is expensive. You never get that moment back.
Prints of art only are a shadow.

Work should be a pleasure to do. It should feel good to get your hands in the dirt and pull weeds, The water should feel good when you wash dishes.
I love to paint. I love to slide in color after color and watch what emerges, I love to look at my subject and look for loveliness and a beautiful line.
I love to draw that beautiful line and try and absorb it through my fingertips.
All work should be a joy. Now
Quite a few years back I do not think work was as readily enjoyable. Cutting the heads off chickens to eat== well that must have been more of a chore but I bet there were things that they had that we have lost.
Long letter writing with a beautiful quill and an ink well.
Cream on raspberries.
My Grandmother on my fathers side had an extremely hard life.
Work from early morn to late at night. She had such a big garden and load of clothes to make and bread to bake and kids to care for. She loved her hard work garden the best and she certainly never complained about canning 200 quarts of fruit every year.
She said she was grateful to even have a tree that produced fruit.
We should all be grateful for all that we have and think about it more.
Love what you do today and no matter what it is. Work is a gift.

When I lived in San Francisco, I met a woman who had just come for a two week visit.
She was from New York and wanted to check out S.F. I never saw anyone go to town on learning all she could about a place in just two week. It was like a job. She worked at it and the result was she knew more about it than me in two weeks than I knew in Ten years.
There are two ways to live somewhere. One way is to just make yourself comfortable and do what is easy and the other is to get involved with people who live there and find out what you can do to be a part of what is going on.
I would say 90 percent of people just do their own life and that is that.
That is why 10 percent of the people control everything.
Everyone else lets them.
anyplace can be amazingly interesting if you leave your own life and connect the dots. Even little tiny places that seem of offer no attraction can become mind blowing wonders if you know a bunch of people.
Take Soap Lake for example. There is not too much going on in the way of a first glance. But if you know the people who live there a lot is going on. A lot that you can take part in.
A place is not great because of museums and stores and big business. New York can be a cold lonely place in the midst of that.
A place is only a collection of Precious People with incredibly interesting stories to tell.
You only have to leave yourself behind and open your mouth and start asking questions. Here is the best question to ask that my husband asks of almost every person he comes in contact with-“What are you doing?” And he really wants to know. And everyone without exception is glad to tell him.
That is why we love love love love everything single place we live!