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How is everyone doing out there? Tell me about your upcoming exhibitions, projects, or any ups and downs in your art world you would like to share in the comments...

You and whose army...

This is a long overdue post.

Here is the deal. I feel I have a large supportive army behind me and I don't thank them as often as I would like. These people talk to me, write me, laugh and cry with me. These people inspire me, support me (sometimes with their purchases), but more often with their advice, time, attention, energy and love. I can't thank you all specifically, as I imagine some of my army would like to remain somewhat anonymous. I hope this post will still carry as much weight without a list of names and reciprocating web and blog links. I hope you can feel it in your heart what you mean to me and that you will know I am talking to you.

Thank you to everyone who has ever emailed or told me you saw my work, whether online, in a publication, or in the flesh and told me that it moved or inspired you. Thank you to everyone who reads and comments on my blog, blip, myspace, and facebook pages. Thank you to anyone who has made it a point to come up and talk to me at a gallery opening, or in my studio about my art. I feed off your positive energy. Thanks to all my teachers, good and bad who had a hand in shaping my artistic voice, you pushed me hard either way. I loved to work hard to impress you, learn more, and grow. I worked just as hard to prove you wrong about me if you ever had any doubts. Thanks to my best friends, who share their music, movie and book selections with me and keep feeding my soul when it gets empty. Without you I wouldn't keep playing this game. Thanks to all the artists that have come before me and left their beautiful, flawed lives behind in their art and stories. Thanks for all the living artists who give advice away freely and inspire and encourage. Thanks for all the people in my life who know I struggle at times, thanks for the ones who worry and let me vent and say ridiculous things when I need to. Thanks to my family for encouraging me on this path, even though sometimes it is clear it has not always been the easiest or healthiest choice. I have the most amazing friends from all over the world, and that is because of my art, and if that is all my art ever really gets me then that is good enough and I am very fortunate.

I do really think about you, my wonderful army of supporters, friends, family, and peers and I do use your strengths when I am feeling less than stellar; when I am unsure, when I am tired and low. I call on you and you always seem to come and pull me up and through.

Please know I am in your army too, and I've got your back.

Love,
Megan

Let the rains come...

Last night the tornado sirens went off for a long time while I was in my basement studio of the Underground and I was not worried. I listened to the thunder, lightning, and sideways rain.

I had spent the day driving a sharp pencil line through the heavy pulp of paper and paint. Just making dark scratches and hard edged lines while painting over them again and again. I could not get the pencil lead black enough or get the lines to make any sense. I will probably make more lines today- a guttural gesture across the paper, over and over again. This is the only thing that feels good right now.


music by Fever Ray, the song is entitled, "now's the only time I know."
all photographs ©2009 Megan Chapman

Thank you.

How I spent my summer...

I hope you will enjoy my latest paintings that were created in my studio in the Fayetteville Underground over the past 3 and a half months. I am so pleased to have these documented so I can share them with you, but also so I can share them with myself. This enables me to step back and re-examine with fresh eyes, and also serves as proof to myself that I have been working. It is easy for an artist to downplay any success we may have and to discredit ourselves. I encourage you to gather up all the evidence of your creative life and allow yourself to feel good about it. Keep fighting and never give in. I know I have said this countless times, but every day we paint is a victory.

Thanks to the locals for another amazing first Thursday. It was wonderful to see you all and talk with you about art. Keep coming back.

On a side note I was asked this week to submit 7 of my favorite songs and write a short essay for each one as part of the Ozarks Unbound Song Book. A new song is released each day. Click here to check it out.

*the music in my video above is by Moby, the track is Ghost Return off his latest release Wait for me.

Pocketful of inspiration

Dear Readers,

It has been a while since I just posted some things that are inspiring me at the moment. So here goes.

Thank you for checking in here, discovering this place, linking to it, telling your friends, and most of all, for your comments. I really appreciate any time you decide to spend with me, my art and words. Have a wonderful weekend. See you next week with a real story.

xx- Megan







Oh and here is an impromptu video I made of my studio...Enjoy!

My paintings are for sale. My work ranges in price from $275 to $2,200 and small original works on paper in my etsy shop are available from $25-$40. I will be adding more works there soon. Also I am always looking for additional gallery representation and exhibition opportunities. Thank you.

Find my paintings at these galleries and websites:

http://www.meganchapman.com
http://www.ddpgallery.com
http://www.bluemoonartgallery.com
http://www.wearartthouaustin.com
http://www.artmaven.etsy.com
http://www.meganchapman.blogspot.com

In the minds of strangers

To Dream and Swim © 2009 Megan Chapman

Unnamed and waiting in the loading dock...
©2009 Megan Chapman

This week has gone by so amazingly fast; a blur of studio meetings at the Underground, a flurry of paintings being started and finished. Words, ideas, and art communicated over great distances. I started on Monday believing I was going to accomplish some serious art production and I am not sure what happened or what that even means. So many ideas, concepts and flashes cluttered my brain and I couldn't get to the place I needed, to accomplish what I wanted; at the same time, things were accomplished. I am talking around the edges of things.

I was hoping to have all my new summer works documented so I could show them all to you. I am a painter and this blog has turned into more of a photo blog of late, which was never my intention. Photography is such an immediate and easy share. There is such instant gratification in the process and the results. I love this, but I do fear that it is eclipsing my paintings currently.

Balance has always been a struggle for me and that is apparent in my creative life as well. I gave away this week in more ways than one; it turned into an offering of sorts.

Are you giving away your days and weeks? Your energy and time? Are you getting back what you put in? What am I talking about? Just the edges of things and the minds of strangers and the creative spark that has to be protected.

This week I had a thousand conversations and everyone seems to be on the verge of either epiphany or total collapse. I am exhausted yet entranced...

Only if you run...

Maggie's World © 2009 Megan Chapman

Oh what to discuss today...
This week in the life of an artist:

I participated in a couple of interviews this week regarding the Fayetteville Underground, where my studio is housed, as more and more people are becoming interested in what we are doing in the basement downtown. I also watched the galleries for a couple of hours this week and showed patrons around the facilities and my studio.

On Tuesday I lead an intuitive drawing workshop in an upper level Architecture course at the University. It was a 3 hour course, and I had never offered a workshop of that nature and was honored to be asked by my friend and fellow artist Laura Terry who is a professor of Architecture at the University of Arkansas. It was a very interesting experience, first going over some of my paintings via my website projected on a screen before the class. I also passed around some of my Etsy paintings, so they could see those small works in person and as they contain more drawing and marks they seemed more appropriate for the class. I lead them in a relaxation exercise and then we listened to music and got to it. Intuitively painting and drawing; we asked and answered questions all the while. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. It is interesting to think about the marks I make and the questions I ask myself while I work, but then to vocalize those to the students and get them to think intuitively while solving the problems that come up within their own work, was a unique experience. I left the class with a better understanding that art making is comprised of a backlog of skills learned, along with the intuition to know how to put those skills to use. I also learned that for many people intuition is this mysterious force that they have not yet tapped into. I can't imagine. I left feeling confident that I had stepped out of my comfort zone and did a good job. I have given two art talks this year, and I have really enjoyed each opportunity I have had to speak with people about art. I think speaking about art is becoming one of my favorite things.

Then on Wednesday, I went on a photo shoot with my friend and fellow underground artist Maggie Ivy. There is a wonderful piece of land nearby that I like to photograph and I had envisioned it as a great place to attempt to recreate Andrew Wyeth's famous painting "Christina's world". I knew that Maggie would be the perfect model, so off we went to the land in the morning, out in the rain and mud but we got the shot! I am so pleased with the results that you can see at the top of the post. I felt elated all day over that photograph. I wasn't sure if I could pull it off and then I did. I guess the same thing goes with the drawing class- perhaps that is why this week has been such a good one. Challenges arose that I managed to pull off, I exceeded my expectations; I managed to do that by not having any expectations in the first place. I wish all my weeks were like this.

What happened on Thursday? Nothing much to be honest, I talked about art and life with friends and it was a long and good day, still pleased with the happenings of early in the week. I kind of took a pass on the day. I listened to music, went for a walk, took a photo. I will admit I was a bit crippled as I knew yesterday's photo wasn't going to be as special, but it didn't need to be. Today, I will take another photograph and I have no idea what it will be. Oh yeah, painting and 100 flashes of memory; I will be returning to those soon as well.

All I know today:
I am happy to be an artist.
I am happy to listen to the music, read the books, enjoy the films and art that I do.
I am happy to enjoy photography on a daily basis.
I am happy when I take risks and I am rewarded.
I am happy and grateful to be part of a global arts community that feeds my soul.

What do you know today?