Confessions of a Beauty Glutton

I feel so lucky to live in a time when I can communicate with and share with creative spirits around the world.  When a phenomenal photographer like Kristy Mitchell creates a new epic fantastical narrative photograph, or a phenomenal artist like Charles Vess is creating art for his new book, we get to see the results immediately.  Sometimes we even get to see the piece in stages as it unfolds.  What an inspiring and amazing opportunity!  The mythic arts community is closer and closer at hand, and we all feel much less alone.

However, there is an unintended and unfortunate side-effect to all of this ready access to aesthetic wonder:  We've become a society of beauty gluttons.

New images bombard us constantly.  Every day I undergo a delicious assault of wondrous imagery.  Pinterest overwhelms my senses, and after a while I just have to let all of the beauty wash over me in waves of awe.  But I find myself waxing nostalgic for the time as a teenager that a single image would refresh my senses for days...weeks...sometimes years.  I would stumble on an artwork that really spoke to me on the cover of a card in a random gift shop in a mall I would visit on a vacation, and I would stare at the purchased card all the way home, putting it up in my room and letting it fill my heart with motivation, awe, magic, belief.  Part of me really misses the singularity of that experience.

This painting by Helena Nelson Reed captivated me as a teenager.

Now, I see new images just as soul-stirring as the ones on those cards every single day.  New artwork by an entire globe of kindred spirits is brought before me like a feast before a queen.  And unlike a physical feast, it can be a challenge to know when I'm "full" of beauty and any more will leave me a bit overwhelmed.  I start depending on the visual stimulation like a drug.  I become numb to anything less than the best, and any emotional "beauty buzz" I feel lasts for less and less time.  As a fine art photography model, I can have a photographer send me an incredible image from a session that blows me away with its emotive and mystical brilliance, and yet a few days later I am restless for my next "fix."  

I know...I'm mixing my metaphors here...beauty is both a feast and a drug.  It makes me wonder just how the admirable Aesthetes of the Victorian age would respond today to Pinterest and Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram.  These followers of visual pleasure who counted beauty as their religion and not just as shallow impression...would they also be overwhelmed and not know how to deal with such a steady visual assault?  Would they remain content to gaze upon the beauty of a sunflower for hours when they have new images by Brian Froud, by Tim Walker, by Forest Rogers, displayed before them on a semi-regular basis like the most wonderfully-formed of bouquets ever?

How would they deal without becoming reliant and anaesthetized?  How do you?  How can I? 

Man Behind the Masquerade

So hi.

Um...it's been a while.  Like...a month and a half or so while.  And I'm quite sorry.  I could say that I got caught up in working on my garden, which would excuse me for the last few weeks, but honestly I just got caught up in coming home and perching on the sofa, curled in a comfortable ball and surfing Pinterest and the internet on my iPad (which is quite a challenge to write blog posts on).  

I've been writing down ideas for blog posts though, and I know the easiest way to get myself back into the game is just to jump right in and post a new blog. 

So here it is! 

There's this artist...his name is Kit Williams.  Perhaps you know his name already, perhaps you don't.  But you've probably heard of the little book he illustrated in the 70s called Masquerade.  The entire thing was a riddle, with a breathtaking treasure buried in a secret location only unlocked by following the clues in the artworks. 

There's much more to the story of Masquerade, which brings me to the topic of the outstanding documentary, The Man Behind the Masquerade, from BBC.  The documentary tells the story of what happened to the buried treasure Kit created, and shows us what Kit is doing these days.

Come to find out, he lives in a VERY Domythic house, making VERY Domythic artworks that utilize their frames, shapes and symbols, and secret stories.  He lives simply and quietly, with a core group of collectors who know where to find him.  I finished the documentary with a sense that here is a man who truly lives a life of magical creation.

The documentary used to be on YouTube, and if you know of a way to see it, please let me know!  I took these caps based on a few random parts of it that are still on YouTube.


Kit at work on a painting.

I love his shelves and shelves of books and relics and mysterious objects.

A collector discusses one of his works.  He creates the phenomenal frames for his art as well, and makes them a part of the piece.  This is a gorgeous example.

Love the Escher quality of this photo

More shots of his workspace.  So many warm glowing honey colors and wood tones....

Another example of how he plays with the borders of his pieces.

This image was what sent me in search of the documentary again to share it with you.  This is Kit's front door..  Oh yes.

More intriguing objects.

Love how it looks like he has wings in this shot.

Imagine having his art on your walls.  Instant enchantment.

Costumes and wings for model reference.

Or how about a whole bunch of his artworks?

Once again playing with the borders of his art.

His beautiful door and courtyard.

I know, Kit,  if I lived here I'd never leave either...

N

What a charming and subtle sign!

Mythic March Monday Makings IV

The month is winding down, and what a month it has been!  We have one more week to the official Mythic March, although hopefully those of you who are participating have found new fervor, started new projects, etc. that will extend beyond the original deadline.

This week I wanted to share with you two different resources for inspiring you to get off your bum and create.  Both have worked equally well for me this past week, in rather different ways.

First is this article from The Onion.  And yes, if you know anything about The Onion, you'll know it's rather farcical and tongue-in-cheek.  I started reading this article and thinking "oh gosh, hahaha, yes...that's just the problem I've had this entire month (and beyond) with motivating myself to create."  You remember earlier this month I was venting about how difficult it was to get off the ground on my projects because of long exhausting hours at the place where I work, which just had a grand reopening?  Yeah. 

So this article, titled "Find the Thing You're Most Passionate About, Then Do It On Nights and Weekends For the Rest of Your Life" is perfect.  You start out saying "ha yeah, that's me" and then by the end you realize "Hey, wait a minute...I don't WANT that to be me..."

Any time you're exhausted after work and just want to rest rather than do a bit more on that poem/painting/sculpture/story, read this article and hopefully it will jar you up and moving.

Second, a more traditionally inspiring resource, Terri Windling's blog, Myth and Moor, where she has had a few wonderful posts recently regarding artistic inspiration and motivation.  I find these two posts especially potent for inspiring, personally:

Art stands on the shoulders of craft

Mist and forgiveness

I must say, as much as I am moved by the incredible quotes Terri finds (such a resource!) I was socked in the gut by the words of the first commenter on the second link.  He said:

In the past I often found myself putting off projects until such time as I might be able to achieve the best creation that I can.. which of course is always tomorrow. I didn't have a name for it at the time but I realize now that what turned me into a master of unfinished projects and almost kept me from pursuing art was my lack of self forgiveness

Yes.  Oh gosh yes.  This is me.  To a tee. 


So let me ask you to do something.  If your projects this month didn't come out as you hoped...if they never even really got off the ground...practice what is preached in the above two links.  Step 1: Forgive yourself and then Step 2: Work again at your craft.  

This past week I worked on my craft by finally completing the second of three phases of a massive art project in my house: I completed the last sketch of the Twelve Dancing Princesses on my walls.  Now I only have step three left (the most intimidating):  actually painting them on the walls.  For more images, click here.

 

Mythic March Monday Makings III

Today I thought it'd be fun to show you some of the things people have been creating so far for Mythic March.  Because omg, *pretty*

Ali English has been doing multiple projects...art and writing.  Here are a couple of of her results, more at her blog post.

Once
Once, garbed in hope and youthful dreams,
naïve in velvet and silk, and lace at my cuffs,
I dared your forests, the rose and bramble that
barred my path, walled you in, or so I thought.
I did my fools dance to twig snap and birdsong,
moon struck, moon guided,
my once vaunted finery torn, as I slowly
became woods creature adorned with blood and sap,
time and the weary miles already travelled,
the colours that marked me a stranger in a strange land
left on tree branches and thorns,
bargained away to the witch in her cave,
or given to the stranger by the wayside,
and I have pitched gladly down rabbit holes,
chased ravens, and
sung with blackbirds, wild and crazy.
My velvets have become moss and myth, treeish,
and I’m slowly speaking the language of plants,
reading spells in the owl’s flight, and
I’m starting to understand the passage of time,
here, on my own.

These lessons have I learned -
how to see the jewel in a toad’s eye, and
leap with the salmon.
How to dance with foxes and sing their song while
still hearing my own.
The taste of tears like rain in all its seasons,
and callouses on my hands and feet.
The mark of corvids by my eyes,
gained by long weeks of scouring these woods for you.
And when, at long last, I
arrived at your sleeping palace, no longer a prince, but instead
huntsman, seer, wizard,
those arched, mythic gates opened wide, and
you greeted me – wide awake, sunrise in your eyes – and said
‘At last, here is a fit mate
for the Queen of the Perilous Wood.’
And I realised that you were never asleep at all, never lost,
never in need of rescue.
It was always I.

-Ali English


Gypsy Thornton has been trying to do an artwork a day, and has shared a couple of gorgeous examples:

Lisa Stock, my original partner-in-crime for the idea of Mythic March, has been collecting original artworks from various artists and using them as a starting point for short films. 

Annie Walker has been inspired musically, and the results can be heard in her SoundCloud.  She is adding to the cloud as she creates new compositions.


David Shane Odom shared pictures of the Odom family tapping their maple trees, and asked if this counted.  I say absolutely.

Jenny Davies-Reazor is working on designing new pendants:

Grace of Silver Swan has been painting spring flowers and is still working on a gorgeous mythic tree:

And I...well my next goal is to finish the last two princess sketches for my dining room walls, but I didn't quite get that done this week.  I DID have Tom take a reference shot for the final princess though!

Your Home's Hidden Collections

A few weeks ago, I read a little fun blog post posted by Broadway and Thresher in which he asked the question "what are the hidden collections in your home?"  I t hought this was an excellent question.  All of us have things we collect...for me it's obvious that my home has many Pre-Raphaelite artworks, and no small number of Windling Trees.  But what about the collections that develop without our even noticing it?

Since I'm so house obsessed, I was stumped on what a "secret collection" of mine might be.  Finally this morning as I sat in my living room and looked around, I realized "boy I sure do have an awful lot of patterns in here, don't I?"

I thought it would be fun to walk through the house and catalog some of these patterns, to see how they all combine and blend together.  Here's the result...the quilt of my home.

So what are some of the hidden collections of your home?

Mythic March Monday Makings II: The Comedy of Creating

So as I think I mentioned before, my Mythic March seems to be morphing from one long project into a series of shorter ones.  The project goal for this past week was to create a costume piece for an upcoming photo shoot I'm doing at the Ohio State Reformatory. 

Here are a couple of my inspiration pictures for a hint:

I had a plan, I had a base for the structure.  I had a tagging gun borrowed from a friend, and I had an old 1970s copy of an Emily Dickinson poetry book withdrawn from the library for a quarter.  I had a thoroughly mythic plan to slowly work on the skirt..patiently....ruminating on each poem on each page as I went.  Then I tried using the tagger.  And used up a whole line of tags trying to punch two of them through the paper and the skirt base.  And threw it on the floor along with the book pages, using a choice word or three, none of which appeared in the Emily Dickinson poems.

I'm here to talk to you today about when the process gets messy.

Because oh my, it will.  Sometimes a project will pop into your head, and you'll go out and buy the materials, sketch up the designs, sit down at the keyboard to type, or lift the paintbrush to canvas, and everything will flow like the hand of the muse is directing your every move.

Sometimes....not so much. 

But I'm here to tell you, that's normal.  Do not give up on the project just because it gets dirty, sloppy, frustrating, or seems to be fighting against you.  That is not fate, the universe, or your muse telling you it's not supposed to happen.  Sometimes the most beautiful of results can only be reached through slogging through the cruddiest of mudpiles.

Let me give you an example....I sometimes will do modeling for fine art photographers.  My favorite sorts of pictures are narrative and a bit romantic or fantastical in nature.  And some of the most ethereal images we've wound up with have been achieved through the most hilarious behind-the-scenes footage you could ever imagine.  And that's by no means exclusive to my experience.  I can practically guarantee you that a good half or more of the graceful and magical images you see and admire on your internet journeys were only created after the model and photographer walked through muddy swamps while batting away mosquitoes, got covered with sweat and powdery asbestos-laden paint and dust in abandoned buildings, were covered with poison ivy, etc. 

My point is...the resulting image may be lovely, but it can take a lot of blood sweat and tears to get there.

One of my favorite examples is this image by Amy Parrish of Atelier.  It's one of my favorite pictures I've done.  But can you see where I'm supported by that root system?  No?  That's because I wasn't...I was balancing precariously on the very edge of flexible roots, and literally five seconds after this picture was taken, I splashed with a thud into the water below me, getting slime and twigs in my hair, and I don't even want to know what else.  We laughed, I walked back to her house with the wet skirt making squelching noises against my legs, and I took a long shower. 

Learn to laugh at the process. Learn to accept that sometimes you will get the chance to meditate peacefully on each Victorian poem as you sweetly clip together a new ensemble, and sometimes you will end up fitfully poking straight pins through paper (and your finger, as often as not) as you half-watch an episode of Merlin and battle against exhaustion from a long day of work.  It just happens that way.  And in the end, unless you confess the whole silly story in a blog post to everyone you know...ahem...it can be your little secret, and you can just let the results speak for themselves.

So what have you been working on?  Are you battling with your projects, or are they coming naturally and flowingly? 

Mythic March Monday Makings

So we've reached the first Monday of Mythic March, and I thought perhaps Mondays, the first day of the week after we've hopefully had weekend time to work on projects, would be a good time to check up each week on how we're doing on our projects.

Okay, me first.

I've failed.

Yeah.  So we're four days into the month already, and I have to confess to you guys, I'm just not feeling the author spirit.  The grand reopening of the library where I work was yesterday, sneak preview day was Friday, and by the time both of those events were over, I was drained dryer and more tender than a used dishrag.  The idea of starting a short story or novel just was put by the wayside every night, and I felt increasingly guilty for not being creative when I was the one who had led the battle charge toward the idea of Mythic March just a few days ago.

But beyond that, I was also feeling very emotional and mildly mopey, and couldn't quite put a finger on why.

Until late last night, I opened up a new app on my iPad for digital painting and doodled out the above image...my first digital painting I've ever attempted and in ways it rather shows....in about an hour.

I felt so much better afterward...not quite as guilty for not starting on my story, but beyond that I felt invigorated and renewed by the actual act of creation.  I know not everyone feels this almost addictive need to engage in the act of creation in order to feel renewed and joyful, but I'm sure some of you out there at least can relate. 

And then I realized...this is another reason why Mythic March is so important.  Not only because those people out there who have never, or rarely, attempted an artistic endeavor need to see firsthand that their voices are important, but also so that those of us who might be, in some ways, intrinsically artistically minded people who who have lost our way can be reminded of just how we can benefit from the act of creation. 

I saw this on a microcosmic scale when my mood plummeted after a few days of not creating, and then lifted significantly after just doing a simple doodle painting on my iPad.  Imagine what an hour or less of creating could do for you!



So that's my less-than-aesthetically stellar update: what have you been up to?  What are you creating?  Please feel free to post links to your progress from Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, or any other site you prefer.  And I will be linking this blog post to a thread on Facebook as well.