Self-prescribed Art Therapy
You probably already know where I’m going with this.
I complain a lot about all the stresses in my life, don’t I? Of course this is compounded by the stresses of the political and social climate of our country (and the world), of which I can do little but do what little I can- apply my vote where it may count, and prevent my dollars from going to organizations and retail establishments that don’t support the views I hold dear, that kind of thing.
Closer to home, the art gallery I belong to (and have been board president at for several years now) has become embroiled in some silly political machinations because one member of the board is unhappy that the rest of the board doesn’t support her ideas, all of which are aimed at getting her more “power”. There is also a lot of animosity between her and one particular member (not me) who really gets under her skin. It’s not fun to watch. But she doesn’t want to be president, she just wants to get her way. Kinda like a toddler, you know?
It reminded me of when my eldest was about 18 months old, and tried banging her head on the floor when she didn’t get something she wanted. The hardest thing I did was tell her that I loved her but I was not going to stay and watch her do that to herself, and then I walked away. She tried that particular maneuver one more time after that, with far less enthusiasm, and a similar response by me.
I think it’s time to walk away from the board, and so I will. The only question for me now is whether I do it sooner or later. My term ends in November. It will depend on how the next month or so goes. Either way, not only will I leave the position, but I plan on leaving the board entirely. I’ve done a lot of good for the gallery, mostly very much appreciated, but it’s someone else’s turn now.
This is where art therapy comes in. I can take out a lot of physical stress on the pounding and wedging of clay when I prep it for making things. The other part, of course, is making paintings. The tougher things get, the more I want to paint serene images devoid of people, and concentrate on something beautiful.
Having the actual time to do that has been limited, not just by gallery business, but also by my very enthusiastic embrace of pottery, and music as well. My BLP has a very busy music calendar- he performs alone, and also with another fellow in an Irish music duo- but I had agreed to do about 6 gigs with him this summer, requiring me to actually practice. (We do blues, Americana, some vintage rock and classic country.) It’s going just fine.
So I found some time for me this week, and in three sessions was able to complete a small and very fulfilling piece. it’s only the eighth painting I’ve one this year. (Most years I’ve completed about 30 -or more- by the end of June.)
The joy in this piece was the challenge of playing with a rather limited palette and trying to illustrate the clean glow of yellow light on the horizon while making sure the water and sky devolved into deep indigo without getting muddy. It’s been a picture in my mind for a long time, and it felt good to get it out onto a board. It’s an imagined view of Sinclair Inlet on the Puget Sound, but could really be anywhere the sun comes up over any calm inlet.
I feel better now.
“Summer Morning Glow”
12″ x 24″, oil on board
07/04/2023 @ 2:02 pm
Looks like the sunsets on my street 1/2 mile north at an estuary.
It’s one of your best.
07/04/2023 @ 2:18 pm
Thank you, Art.
Exactly- it has a more universal appeal than being a truly specific place. That’s what I had intended.
07/04/2023 @ 2:06 pm
“The tougher things get, the more I want to paint serene images devoid of people, and concentrate on something beautiful.”
I seldom admit this, but for exactly the same reason, I draw birds. In class, I draw the figure for students because I get paid to, and because I can, but on my own, eh. The art propaganda that the figure is the most beautiful form is blablah to me. Give me a saucy beady eye and a beak.
Re: the gallery. This is every artist’s experience. Not one, but two members of my artist group are in process of withdrawing from their society and guild, for the same reason, one member who makes everyone miserable, and in one case is driving the org into financial trouble and stasis, no new members are joining. I had an experience in the local arts association that began to feel work with a bad boss, rather than volunteering. Your experience may vary, but I’m guessing you’ll feel free once you leave. If not, you can always return. Or find another group.
Re: your painting. I loved this on IG. It’s as soothing to gaze at as I imagine it was to create. As a fellow stroker of surface, sometimes I wonder how people cope, not only with the current climate, but with divorces and illnesses and growing old and all the regular painful human stuff, when they can’t go to their studio, close the door, and spin lines into feathers. And you…just the word ‘indigo’ makes me feel better too!
07/04/2023 @ 2:32 pm
Suzanne, I always appreciate your insight into the art-making world and processes.
I’m glad you like the painting. 🙂
I don’t want to leave the gallery, just the board. If I stay on the board, they won’t let me NOT be president. I know this for a fact.
Mostly, I enjoy the company and work of the 27 other artists in the co-op.
Financially, I have got us to stable, with a lot of help of the BLP, who was a banker in his former life. That was a very big deal, as the last treasurer did nothing, and our accounts were in incredible disarray. I got him fired him off the board, and believe me, that was not fun. All fixed and functional now.
Also, I negotiated the last two leases when new owners took over the building, which also involved a restructuring/raising of the artists dues, commission rates, and dealing with all the members about that.
Just meaning that the big things, systems and protocols are well in place for whomever takes this role on.
Of course, if the next board f**ks up, I can and will leave the gallery completely.
The petty stuff is not my wheelhouse and I don’t want to live there.
And I definitely need more time for art!
07/05/2023 @ 8:03 am
Good grief that sounds stressful, and nutsy! Of course they want you to chair. They need someone balanced and skilled. You’re it babe. That is what seems to happen with artists in groups. I’m reading a terrific book right now…’Ninth Street Women’, about the women in the NY School, Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Elaine DeKooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Miro–it’s almost 900 pages! Along with their history, which I knew nearly zero about because art history=men, it’s gossipy, and talk about art drama…lots and lots of artist conflict, esp in groups and gatherings mixed up with gallons of alcohol. I’m not sure I could have been friends with any of them, but such remarkable lives. Btw, Georgia O’Keeffe won’t make her entrance until page 552…I peeked ahead 😉
I don’t know about you, but when the weather is bad–and it’s been nothing but gray and rainy here–I hunker down even extra with the pencils. Just finished the Adam and Eve blackbirds (super-longie) and a sketch for the next one, seagull vs french fries (fries in a beak configuration with a blob of bloody ketchup at the tip, weird naturalist humor), and multiple studies of a woodcock, which might be the most bizarre bird I’ve ever actually gotten to see.
P.S. a big octopus exhibit recently opened at the Aquarium. They have a live giant pacific octopus in that central tank. I’m gonna go, will give a full report!
07/05/2023 @ 3:05 pm
You are right- it is stressful and nutsy! And I’ve had more than enough of it.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve done with your Adam and Eve blackbirds- I thought I saw a post from you on Insta about that this past winter. Yep- just looked it up!
And of course, any other birds you are working on! That woodcock sounds fun.
At the behest of several folks who saw my octopus clay pieces and recommended the book Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, I got the book and started it…it’s just too silly for words, so I put it aside. Also back reading What the Buddha Taught for the second time. I think I’ll look into Ninth Street Women. That at least sounds interesting!
07/06/2023 @ 7:13 am
I read Sy Montgomery’s octopus book that describes her friendship with an octopus at the New England Aquarium. There’s a lot of science, also a lot of anthropomorphizing. Octopi are so intelligent and curious, and they only live a couple years, and Montgomery’s book was a narrative and a bit of tear-jerker. I learned enough to want to know more though! Should I give your book a try?
Ninth Street Women is the stuff you never learned in art history. Former hub’s dissertation was on Pollock, and he never mentioned any of it. For example, did you know that Alfred Leslie was a bodybuilder who won the Mr. Brooklyn title one year? Apparently quite the sexy beast.
Blackbirds finished and I’m always a little sad after a long one :(. It came out well though I think. Will photo and post on IG soon.
07/06/2023 @ 3:11 pm
I’m definitely going to look into the Montgomery book. Don’t bother with the van Pelt. Really.
I’ve got a new octo piece ready for the next time I run the kiln. it’s a jar with an octopus on the lid. I’m experimenting with a new glaze, so that’s always fun for me.
Today I finished a platter, also ready for the kiln- organic roundish shape. I coated it with black glaze and then used the sgraffito technique to carve away everything that was not branches or red-wing blackbirds. Lots of texture. I hope it comes out!
I will look forward to seeing those Blackbirds of yours on IG!
07/06/2023 @ 4:34 pm
Oooh, love the idea of an octo guarding their jar contents! The sgraffito blackbirds sound delightful too. Please post on IG. Btw, are you accepting the Zuck version of twitter? I did twitter for awhile but deleted my account after Musk took over, don’t miss it, and am not sure I want another thing like it.
Sy Montgomery is a really interesting person. She has a monthly guest slot on Boston Public Radio where she talks about critters, they archive those shows I think. Recently she was on talking about octopi, prolly to inform and promote the Aquarium exhibit, but honestly she had me bawling onto my drawing when she told the story of that friendship, even though I’d read the book.
Kosher is right abt other people piling on the piles. I served as department chair, one time. It’s a three year term and someone wisely made a two term limit. Only one person did two, and she was a nut. No one else enjoyed it and we always went out to the local pub to celebrate when someone’s term ended. It’ll be good for your co-opers to share the responsibility, even if they don’t do it as well as you did. They’ll learn!
07/06/2023 @ 5:03 pm
I will post the pics on the new pieces right after the next firing. Looks like that will be Sunday or Monday. (I have an art fair on Saturday at a local cider house. We’ll see how that goes. If not good, then I will bow out from the other 2 dates they offered me.)
07/06/2023 @ 4:37 pm
https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/08/17/boston-public-radio-full-show-aug-17-2022
here’s a bpr show where she has a slot talking abt hawks. the octopi show was only a week or two ago but did not find it
07/06/2023 @ 4:42 pm
Wait! I just found a link to her reading from the book…only abt twenty minutes, so just an excerpt. If you hate it, skip getting the book 🙂
https://www.wgbh.org/news/post/listen-3-hearts-and-soul-octopus
07/06/2023 @ 5:01 pm
Thanks!!! I will check it out!
I have a twitter account that is over 10 years old that I have never used. No plans to, or the new zuck version either. I spend more than enough time on social media as it is!
07/06/2023 @ 12:23 pm
Being good at something and liking it are two different things, particularly when it comes to administration. I’ve watched my wife be a department chair and learned just how huge a gap there is between being good at something and liking it. For administrative stuff, this is particularly true of introverts – there’s an extra layer of tiring to it all.
I love the painting. The palette makes it look unified but still realistic. Particularly late in the day, gold light does that. If it had rained recently I’d tell you to look away from the sun for rainbows.
I’ll tell you something else about work you’re good at that other people don’t want to do. People will pile the work onto you, figuring that you care so much about how things work that you’ll accept the burden for that reason, even if it makes you feel trapped and even if the burden is unfairly concentrated. If you complain, they’ll get used to the idea that you complain but do it anyway. At that point in the juggling act it’s time to drop a ball, deliberately. They have to learn that there’s a hard limit to have many balls they can toss you.
07/06/2023 @ 3:30 pm
Wow, did you hit the nail on the head.
Realistically, organizations need folks like me to take on their administrative functions. We are determined to do a good job, and often succeed, even though we don’t relish the tasks and interactions necessary to keep things on track.
And yes, I am an introvert, making much of this especially wearing.
I’ve done admin work before, as the education director of a learning center. Overseeing testing, developing education plans and analyzing data was interesting and rewarding. When the center’s operations director hired me, I told her that if she wanted me, I was fine with doing all that, but I was not interested in selling programs to parents. She agreed, but 2 years later decided I needed to do just that in addition to my other duties, and so I left.
I got the gallery through COVID, and made enough of a positive impact in a lot of areas to feel good about putting it in someone else’s hands.
So, I’m currently creating an operations manual for the next person who takes on the president position. I will likely do one for the treasurer position as well. No one did that for me, and there were a lot of things I had to figure out on my own. Very stressful at times. The next person in each position will have a document to refer to, and can ask as many questions as they want to get started. But I’m OUT sometime between September and November.
The next board elections are November, but I may resign before that if I think it’s feasible.
Thanks for your comments on my painting. We do get a lot of rainbows here- more than I’ve ever seen in the 50 years I spent on the East Coast! I’m currently working on a second piece, same size, same general theme, but with a softer and lighter color palette.
07/06/2023 @ 7:59 pm
Where I saw rainbows was when I lived in Lafayette, IN. Even doubles. I once saw a vivid one last close to half an hour.
07/06/2023 @ 3:26 pm
much admired
I am crossed legged on the floor {…} sound over Gene Pitney’s
Greatest Hits {…} rain washed us clean for hours {…} in for a landing freshest ever at last dayxday as birds frolic swoon aloud {…} looking everywhere for that old time suitcase
07/06/2023 @ 3:30 pm
Thank you, JP. 🙂
07/08/2023 @ 5:52 pm
‘Merica & me love to go a wondering. Purple Mountain: not far!