Created in its wake

We've been here before

mixed media on paper

29.7 x 42 cm (11.69 x 16.54 in)

£125

The sun has been out but it has been bitterly cold. The blue sky and the brightness have been a welcome change. It's even staying light well after 4pm. Spring is around the corner (a long way around the corner, but around the corner just the same).

Memory Serves

mixed media on paper

29.7 x 42 cm (11.69 x 16.54 in)

£125

I took two walks to post three of my works on paper to their new homes in the States and to Glasgow. 

Monday: Post office walk number 1

I enjoyed the sun and even saw my first snowdrops! I gasped out loud when they caught my eye like a long-lost friend, a sort of "what are you doing here!" moment. That pretty much sums me up - I am constantly amazed by the world and nature's beauty. It truly brings me such comfort and joy. Listening to music and walking in nature feed into everything else I do.

Wednesday: Post office walk number 2

It was crisp and cold out, but no snow. I visited an old graveyard on the way home. One of my favourite things to do. I love the old stones covered in lichen. Reading the names, running my hand over the symbols - angels, skulls, and masonic imagery. Always astonished by the dates from so long ago. I walk over the frozen grass looking at the skeleton trees of winter, breathing it all in.

Sequence of webs #3

mixed media on paper

29.7 x 42 cm (11.69 x 16.54 in)

£125

I would like to walk to the post office again soon. Five works on paper remain. I am enjoying featuring specific works during the month. This will continue, it helps me focus and not get too overwhelmed. I have created a lot of work over my lifetime and during these past 9 plus years in Scotland. Not only have I created it, I have managed it - stored it, moved it, packed it, documented it, and kept up with it. Every time I create something, it feels like a billion-step process is created in its wake. I am becoming more discerning that what I create must warrant all the steps and all the expense and energy.

I am also thinking about what I want and need to say, as well as, how to say it in my future work. This all takes time, so it's a good thing it's still winter. While I ponder it all, I will keep featuring specific bodies of work from my studio. Let me know if you have any questions about these works on paper.

Rebuilding. Sketches for a new tomorrow #3

mixed media on paper

29.7 x 42 cm (11.69 x 16.54 in)

£125

Sequence of webs #1

mixed media on paper

29.7 x 42 cm (11.69 x 16.54 in)

£125

In other news, a bit of culture I've enjoyed: 

Films: 

Saltburn 

The Holdovers

Television: 

True Love (6-part series on Channel 4)

Music: 

Pictish Trail 

Books: 

Daily Rituals: Women at Work by Mason Currey 

(just picked this up yesterday - excited to read it)

Thanks for popping by the Studio Blog. I hope you are well, happy, and inspired and if not, tomorrow is another day. Thank you for being here. Keep fighting.

Calling up the warriors...

The Man Who Fell to Earth. Starring David Bowie. 1976.
Meme from the internet. 

I woke up at 4 a.m. with ideas that needed writing down. I had big plans for this blog too, but then other things kept getting in the way. So here I am at the end of the day, finally sitting down to write and I know I won't share everything I am thinking. My thoughts are coming too fast and some of the things I think are no one's business but my own. 

Last week, I was calling forth creativity and the unborn art at our fingertips. Tonight, I am calling forth my warriors and you don't need to know exactly what that means. I alluded to the idea on last week's Tuesday Studio Video Visit. I am sitting in the middle of great change or desire to change as many of us are since the pandemic began - this requires new ways of thinking but more importantly doing. 

I want to do this differently. I want to think about this differently. This meaning, art, specifically my art. I know I have said this before in different guises but I mean it. Time is of the essence. I have to change my thinking about all of this. The way I think about it no longer serves me or anyone else. 

So, I will need to call forth my warriors and lists will be made, and I will remember opportunities that went before and connections forged over years and years, and the new ones here in Scotland as well. I will be vulnerable to some degree and I will be scared and I won't know what I am doing and it will be hard. I think that is how art and a life of growth might have to be. 

I have given myself so much grief over this calling. I have limited myself, my experience, and my art because I have been ashamed that this is my path. I am ashamed that this path leaves me vulnerable to living on a shaky foundation. I often feel like an alien in this world. A high functioning alien that needs a lot of time to just look out the window and notice all the beauty.

I don't want what you want. I don't want to live how you want to live. I don't need what you need. I don't value you what you value. I don't strive for what you strive for. I am not motivated by what you are motivated by. I am my own person and I have the right to live this way even when it is often misunderstood, judged, and questioned. 

you = societal values at large/the capitalist machine. 

I think you and I, dear reader, have a lot in common and share many values. The warriors (and thankfully there are many) who read my posts, follow me on social media, support me, and have collected my art over the decades can thankfully see, read, or hear something in the work that resonates. I am forever grateful. You will be hearing from me soon... 

Until next week, keep fighting. 

With love and gratitude, 

Megan

Detail of the first drawing of the year 2022

 

And if you missed the latest Tuesday Studio Video Visit, here it is. Notice the better lighting! That's thanks to you warriors. ❤

You said I made a bad decision: A new series of small works

See these new works (mixed media on linen panel 10x10cm, set into a 15x15cm tray frame) and much more at Open Studios, Saturday, December 1st from 11-5pm at The Out of the Blue Drill Hall 36 Dalmeny Street, Edinburgh. You'll find me in Studio G23. See you there. 

*******

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To look at you

Tired but pleased

The sun is shining and I am just home from the studio. I want to go out and explore Edinburgh in the sunshine and celebrate a good week of work. But first, there is the matter of my weekly studio blog. So here we go.

This week was all about finishing up some resting pieces and allowing some resting pieces to tell me they were finished. It was full on and truthfully I am pretty worn out but gratefully so. Last week, I shared the first two of my large works in my new series. This Tuesday, I shared my studio video visit where you can see and learn more about what has happened in the studio since then. Here are the latest paintings in the series (pardon my mobile phone shots, proper photos in the near future).

120x100cm

80x80cm

80x80cm

100x150cm

100x120cm

Honestly, when I woke up this morning, I wasn't sure if I had it in me today and thought about taking the day off but then I bought myself a wee gift of an old album I used to have. It was just the ticket and the work got done.

Thank you to everyone who has had a kind word or shared this latest work. It feels really good to be painting in this way again and your support really helps. Okay, there are about two more hours of proper sunlight left in this day and I aim to get out in it! Until next week, keep fighting and for the love of everything holy, remember that every day you paint is a victory.

Go big or go home

How many times have I tried to make myself small? How many times have I tried to fit in? How many times have I tried to be agreeable? How many times did I try not to rock the boat? How many times did I not play my hand? How many times did I stifle myself out of fear?

Too many times, enough of that. Today's motto is "go big or go home."

Paint big, dream big, live big, and take up space. Take up space and make it beautiful. Take up space and make it bolder. Take up space with pure nothingness. Take up space with the edge of a charcoal smudge. Let the white envelope you and the blackness tell the secrets locked in your heart.

Let the paintings pour right on out. What is enough? You are. Your work is. That black brush stroke, that swath of white, it's enough.

Until next week, keep fighting.

Contemplation

I am cleaning up my thoughts and stories that surround my art, process, and why I make art in the first place. How did I get here?

I feel this is some dark and murky territory and I feel deeply challenged as I wade in. This is an emotional landscape. I feel a bit lost, floating around the edges of things unable to put words to where I am in my head regarding my art. I feel like I am hovering above the meaning of it all and my feet are nowhere near touching.

This is not a bad thing, it's just uncomfortable and that is a good thing. I am challenged and I don't have any answers. So with this knowledge, I move forward.

Ideas about value and worth swirl around my head, mirroring my self-esteem. I have underpriced my work. I have undervalued my work. I have undervalued myself, my time, and my skills. At the same time, I have shied away from the true risk in my work. I have only scratched the surface because of fear. I have been lazy and played it safe. I dance on the outside of my real work in order to keep the peace, in order to fulfill a void, in order to fulfill a need. Not always but often. There are bodies and pieces of my work that go deeper. I remember them as if they were a dream, and I am always trying to get back to that secret door.

I like dirty work, torn work, imperfect work, energetic work and dark work. I always have but I don't allow myself to make this work too often. I hold back, I censor, I repeat and stay safe.

Today I am an artist

To see and speak ©2011 Megan Chapman 

"You are what you do today, not what you did yesterday" this is a quote from a book about money found on my walk in the park this morning.

I needed that message. The universe speaks to me in unexpected ways, perhaps it does to you as well. I am not always listening but I am always glad when I do. 

Once home from the park, I read some more from the book and then I made some art just for me. Today I am an artist. This week I did other purposeful art related things. I submitted my work to a large agency (who knows what will come of it but I did it). I looked through some of my older work in the studio and decided to have a sale. I organized my Etsy shop and decided to have a sale there too. I met with a patron yesterday and about her special commission I painted for her and she seemed pleased.

In my life, I look for the lessons to be learned and these lean years are providing me with many. Today I am an artist. I hope I will be tomorrow as well.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next week, keep fighting.

If you are looking for my Summer Sale. Click here. Please send me an email at megancha@gmail.com if you are interested in one of those works, I would love them to find good homes as I downsize.

If you are looking for my Etsy $10 Sale. Click here. Everything is affordable in my Etsy shop, enjoy a rummage but those fourteen pieces are especially so.