Brush Confession #10

May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the Root of happiness.
May we be free from suffering and the root of Suffering.
May we not be separated from the great happiness Devoid of suffering.
May we dwell in the great equanimity free from Passion, aggression, and prejudice.

-THE FOUR LIMITLESS ONES CHANT

Brush Confession #6

My work visually has been about landscapes. The main reason for this shift is because of my current living situation. My paintings have become smaller and my studio has expanded into the great outdoors. The difference between working inside a studio compared to working among the land is that your process is no longer privet. Your work becomes a collaboration with nature, strangers, weather, and time.
My paintings are now a visual diary of a painters’ eye.
Site is important to me now. My imaginative mind must be in connection with my heart when deciding where and when I will park my canvas and paint. The landscape painter is chosen to paint the beauty of the heavens and the rawness of the land. However, I have found that it is not just about the physical appearance of the work it is also about the inner meaning of the landscape. I try to paint the things I see and feel. I am trying to discover the meaning of life through the land. I am seeking advice. I want to be embraced by the lands rich ecstasy. My lessons are hidden among the soil and I must dig and find the truth.

Brush Confession #4

“Left to myself, I rely on my
Intoxication with work…
and then I let myself go without limits.”
Van Gogh

Today a valley of yellow wild flowers intoxicated me while my eyes embraced the rolling hills accompanied by cows and birds. Each brush stroke I created was a visual response to what I saw. I was simply in the moment. I was one with the land. And while I was painting, I realized an important lesson. I will never fully know where my creative journey is going to lead me and I cannot predict who and what I will become. The only certainty is that I am changing and transforming into something larger and deeper. I am doing the work! I am choosing to allow myself to simply be. Trusting in the process and the universe. Just like Van Gogh, I must let myself go without limits.

Brush Confession #3

I have begun facing some big shifts in my practice as an artist. My painting boots are walking a thin line between the past and the future. I have striped myself away from the comfort of a home and a studio.
All I am now is a painter and my studio has become the great outdoors. The landscape is now my teacher, my home, and my heart. I am a gypsy preparing for the road. I am a human being letting go of material things and coming face to face with my own truth. I don’t always like whom I see in the mirror. I am as vulnerable as the animal that gives himself up for food. I am jumping through paintings with my heart open. Trying to make all the pieces fit. The horizon line is where a guardian angle embraces me. The trail of the brush has begun. I am consumed by the view and the endless possibilities. I am ready to surrender to the process. Less is more.
During this hard time in my life there have been a few books that have really spoken to me and one of them is Ordinary Sparkling Moments by Christine Masson Miller. A book that is a piece of art, a book that has struck my core and given me so much light during this time of transition. I opened her book randomly today and this is what my eyes read.

“It is innately human to want to hold on to things-people, memories, objects, moments. But life does not allow for such grasping on any permanent basis, and perhaps that is our greatest challenge as expressive beings…To create for the sake of creating, knowing that what we create might not have any value beyond our doing it. Knowing it will someday be gone. To live for the sake of living, knowing each moment we have is over with every blink of an eye, knowing we will someday be gone, with only our creations left behind.”

I must live each moment like it my last and know that I will always be an expressive being who work must move forward letting go of things, and people and surrender to both the process and the now. Life is to short and less is more!

Ps. If you would like to have Christine book go to http://www.christinemasonmiller.com/

Brush Confession # 1

Little house of travels,
Itching my subconscious.
Bristles eager to be dipped among
the endless purple mountains,
and blue amber waves.

Little house of travels,
Popping rhythmic chants against the hot and cold pavements…

My heart believes.

I am the road,
and the brush is my teacher.

Endless nights…
Heading for the horizon,
Living the life.
Counting the stars.

Tire to pavement,
Not afraid of time.

Surrendering to the process.

Walking in and out of paintings.
Not afraid of my will.

The brush has spoken.
The blank canvas awaits her.

Little house of travels,
Where art is born
and dreams become real.

Nov 2009
By Marlene White

The Brush & The Road

The Trail Of The Brush…

Goal:

A dear friend gave me a card once, with a quote by Denny Kaye that said, “ Life is a big Canvas throw all the paint on it you can. “ I have a dream of traveling throughout the United States of America in an RV, creating paintings that will be evolving along the way. My studio will no longer be confined to four walls; it will expand into communities, cities and various landscapes.

I will be creating a video about painting and my personal experience on the road. Exploring what happens when an act of painting becomes public and collaborative rather than an act done privately.

This project is about my desire to find a deeper understanding about my own internal process as a Deaf, Queer, Woman Artist grabbling with identity and the need to find myself through the power of art. Leaving behind the comfort of my home and a familiar community.

Every brush stroke will be a record of an exact moment traveled and experienced. Each mile driven will be an opportunity to bare witness to life. I will travel the states with awareness, not passing the things that move me, but stopping to know them. Capturing their teachings through painting. Revealing trails of brushstrokes created with mindful intentions.

The video and paintings will contain the stories of time and places overlapped. Memories carried into each other.

The road will be my teacher and the brush will be its voice. I will investigate all directions; share both my internal and external growth and the power of painting. I know the canvas will be measured by inches, but the outcome of this journey is limitless. True art strikes deeper than the surface and life is a great big canvas waiting to be painted.