Wednesday, January 30, 2008

I think I can, I think I can

My childhood was made up of "you can't do". Negativity hurts your soul if you hear it enough.  My journey started rocky but I don't believe the negativity anymore. My soul is saying you can, you can just like the "Little Engine Who Could". I was tender but I'm getting whole and strong. I'm a warrior. That is what an artist is, a warrior. Taking on your own inner voices and saying I believe in myself and my mission as an artist. I've had wonderful experiences so far and more coming. I've met some wonderful people and I was on the Hallmark Channel May 3, 2004 "When is A Maze Not a Maze". See it on my website. I called it Creative Spirit video www.Landisart.com. I'm talking about listening to your heart.I'll be teaching classes from time to time on "Rituals & Mandalas, A Centering for your Life". If you are interested in that class let me know on my website contact page.So what to do about my "career". I'm in my 60's and I have a lot of living to do. What does your future look like? Just listen with your heart and let's start a dialogue.  

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

A Balancing Act

Learning how to walk as a baby, a baby has take little steps. As a seven yr old girl after getting out of the hospital and gaining my limbs back I had learn to walk with my arm not working. It caused an imbalance and with a few concussions finally got myself going. I wanted to leap and twirl and run but I got that beat out of me. So what to do, I started to dance quietly. I love to dance. It gives me great joy and I feel alive when I dance. I was determined to be "normal", whatever that means.

As an artist, I don't feel normal either. But being an artist gives me great joy. The problem is an artist has to be a business person too. What a shock that was! After I had the classes, I put myself out there and approached a gallery on Main St in Scottsdale and entered a national watercolor show and I got in both. AH I said, I've arrived. Wrong, I just painted and let the gallery do the work for 3 years. But it wasn't enough. Then the gallery moved off Main St. I had a solo show they put on in a nice restaurant. It was great looking. I was featured artist in a show. Then I got cocky when a gallery on Main St asked me to come aboard. Stupid is the word. I learned my lesson. Never let your ego get in the way of your career

Friday, January 25, 2008

Just a Little More

I guess I'm going to get a bit philosophical about the journey of THIS artist. You see, I've been fighting battles all my life because of the frame of reference that was put into my head. There are lots of books out how to slice and dice your brain to become a better person but mostly they make a lot of work out of it and I'm tired.
It seems that all the work I've put into becoming a better person is not neccessary. It is just accepting what is and having joy and gratitude each day. Letting go.

Now you say, what has that got to do with my art? I've been trying to please others with some of my art. When I first became an artist I was so full of love and joy of creating then critics came inside and outside. Doubts about who I am as an artist (this is over years). By listening to them, I lost that spark for awhile. I've been in a few galleries some good and some not so good. Some of them were and are encouraging and some just treating your art as a commodity period. It takes a lot of fortitude to not be affected. That is the secret. You just keep plugging away never giving up your dream. The future is going to be great as soon as I decide where I want to be. To be a Grandma Moses in museums or to be an artist in galleries or both. This is a GIFT given to me by GOD and I never want to dishonor the GIFT. I need to remember this is my journey. Let me know what your journey is.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

"Getting to Know Me" part two artist

Yes, there is a part two. This is the second part of my journey. I could fill it up with a lot of personal stuff but I don't know what would be germaine about art. So let me know if I get too stuffy ha. I'm a grandmother ( no way you say). How did that happen so fast? Time keeps marching and we have to keep marching faster and faster as we get older. I'm marching to lots of tunes that I learned through the years. But I'm struggling to keep marching to my OWN tune.
When I say part two artist, I mean it. Doing art in my second half of my life is being like a whole new person. The passion and the ups and very downs feel like a roller coaster but I wouldn't have it any other way. It drives my husband nuts sometimes and its not my hormones.
But on to art. Early on I realized that I couldn't take the odor of oil paints and anything connected with oils. I could have gone on to watercolor but I liked working with acrylics because I could cover mistakes because I can't hold my hand steady because of the physical problems. I really admire the foot and mouth artist who has to work with tremendous odds just to paint. They have a society called "Foot and Mouth Artists. Look them up on Google.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

"Getting to Know Me" song

Blog, Blog, Blog. That is what all the pundits say to do to advance the "career". I do journal but that is for me personally. So this is more of "getting to know me" as an artist and how I do my journey as an artist and as a person. Being open and transparent hopefully without having my boundries crossed.
I came to be an "artist" when I went back to college suffering from "empty nest syndrome". I had done crafts and baking and decorating but nothing prepared me for this. I had found an elective in drawing and since I could only do stick figures it was intriging and challenging. As a self-taught artist, I took 4 classes of life drawing, classical drawing etc. The more I took the more I was hooked, then I took painting classes. WOW, color was IT. I did landscapes, portraits, still lifes. The problem was when I worked at an easel my back and right arm couldn't take it.

You see when I was a girl I contracted polio. I was paralyzed from the neck down then slowly I regained movement in all my limbs except my left arm, which is still paralyzed. Also my neck and my right arm don't have much strength. So what to do.
I LOVE color and am a spiritual person so I started to do non-objective paintings flat on an architects' table. That saved me from a lot of pain and brought me joy at the same time because I was drawing from deep inside my soul. I needed to get that out.
So until next time to continue this saga, blessings to you.