All will be revealed...

Dear Readers,

Sorry this is such a late post! Friday night turns to Saturday morning so quickly. A lot has been going on and I can't wait to tell you all about it. I have been working in my studio and doing some other art related things. I am about to launch an exciting project very soon and I hope you will be a part of it! So keep watching this space and all will be revealed.

I hope all is well in your art worlds.

Thank you for your support! Talk soon!
Megan

The lines that connect us

 Works in progress in the studio

Today is day ten, but you wouldn't know any of that because I have been on a secret mission to break through my creative block and focus on my new series. This plan was hatched by my wise friend and fellow artist Jennifer Libby Fay.

Everyday for the last ten days I have set my alarm for 6:45 and been out of bed and in my studio and ready to work by 7:15. I have not turned on the computer or done anything that might distract me from my goal of spending a certain amount of time each day in my studio working. I couldn't talk about it online or post pictures of progress or even tell Stewart. This was to be my time for my own personal reward and satisfaction. I would text Jennifer at the end of the session and that would be it. I started fourteen new paintings in the last week!

These paintings fuse old maps (so far of Scotland, America and Arkansas) on to panel. So far the only elements in the paintings are pencil lines and white paint allowing only the color from the maps to the be the "color" of the paintings... This may change as these works are all in their infancy. I had 15 new panels waiting for me to use and I have now used 14. I had been collecting vintage maps and I have now used all of them and even had to go out earlier this week to get a world Atlas from 1947 so that I could keep working.

It has been interesting to see what happens when I roll out of bed and into the studio first thing with my crazy hair and sleep laden eyes. I work and I focus. I have always painted best in the morning. I have been listening to music on CD's because my iPod touch of course is connected to the WIFI and that is too much of a temptation, a distraction. So for ten days I remembered what it is like to have boundaries, goals, a plan and to simply show up. I have enjoyed working on these 14 problems paintings, letting the works take me along with them as I solve for the answer and I am not there yet!

I have been showing and selling my work for 17 years, so of course I know what I need and how to make the work happen deep down in my being. However, it is easy to get off track. It is easy to read the news and focus on more trivial things. It can be hard to make the work you are on the planet to make, sometimes it is even a burden. However, it is a bigger burden to myself and all those that love me when I am not working. I have to work.

When I work, everything else falls into place (well maybe not everything, life is messy and imperfect) but lots of things fall into place. Once this morning goal is accomplished I find it easier to work other routines into my life, the morning meal, the cleaning of the house, feeding my cat Evie, making a list for the day. There was more order and sequence and there was more fulfillment and consequence and so I floated on from one activity to the next and that made me feel a bit safer in my skin, to remember that I was dependable again and had a purpose.

I have worked on ninety-one paintings so far in 2012 while suffering with some of the worst artist's block and depression. I have to count these things up to remember that even when I don't feel like I am working hard enough or doing enough, I am. However, I must also remember that a studio routine is so important and crucial to my well being. I am grateful to be working.

There is a line in each painting that will connect with another line in a different painting so that when they are separated in homes and collections they will still have that line reaching out and they will still connect over the distance. Always there and reaching out.

Like all the lines that connect us.

For the people

 a place to write, a place to dream

Hello Dear Readers!

Another week has just flown by! I had my yART sale last Saturday and even with a scarce turnout I will call it another success for many reasons. I got to spend a relaxed day in my freshly clean house with my friends and fellow artists, Linda Sheets and Melissa Vest. We had the first fire of the season thanks to Linda and we listened to jazz and had apple cider and treats. I had all of my available work out around the house and there were works also available by Stewart Bremner. Linda brought some of her books and wooden "totes" that she has been making lately in between scratchboards. Some lovely people, including the Mayor came to say hello. Linda sold a book and a tote and I sold two pieces from Stewart Bremner's and my series "a place called home." I also sold one of my new small works on wood. Stewart and I couldn't be more pleased at the response our latest works have received. There are only four available out of the fifteen we painted this summer! Thanks everyone for your support!

What I loved about the yART sale was that my first patron of the day was a writer and a grad student in college and she put forty dollars down towards one of mine and Stewart's paintings and we are settling the rest in a payment plan. I felt like I had won the lottery with her forty dollars burning a hole in my pocket and I was also so pleased that she was giving herself the gift of original art. I know that for a student that ultimately $250 might be earmarked to spend on rent, food, books, travel, etc, but that she chose to commit to original art means the world to me and inspires me to want to paint more. I love all my patrons equally but it always means something a bit different to me when it is a younger patron or a student. It gives me such hope for the future and solidifies my belief that art is by the people and for the people. Art does not have to be an elitist event enjoyed by the few. My patrons come in every style and income level and I love them all. I am honored every single time someone makes that choice to buy my art, to live with what I made, to collect my work over several years and series and to note the progression and the trajectory of my life as an artist. These patrons not only support me financially and let me live this life, they encourage it. They understand my life and me and that is why I am always bonded with my collectors. I am so grateful for all the relationships that have developed over the years of my career as an artist. I am glad I had my yART sale so I could remember this, remember who I am, what I do and what I will do for the rest of my life no matter how tenuous the balance may become.

In other news, I have been getting things in order to launch a project (all will be revealed). I have also been getting my mind back into the state it needs to be in to make new work. I am writing, walking and listening to music in preparation. I have been in a bit of a blocked state and I let the well run a bit dry but I am steadily filling it again and soon the work will flow. Watch this space.

Until next week, keep fighting. The world needs your work!

yART Sale! Tomorrow!

My life returned to normal a bit more this week. There was an exciting meeting about a funding proposal and a project that I hope to launch soon. I am in the preliminary stages so I don't want to say too much about it yet but I will keep you posted. Let's just say something exciting will be happening soon and I hope you will be a part of it.

There was an Artist Think Tank meeting this week as there is every Thursday. I meet with artists Jennifer Libby Fay, Linda Sheets, Stewart Bremner and occasionally Melissa Vest on google plus weekly to talk about our art careers and goals. We have been doing this a while now and I think it is has really helped us all move forward, take risks and explore our options in our individual and collective art worlds. I am really lucky to have such good friends and a strong support network of artists that help me stay focused and driven.

In other news, I decided to have a Yart Sale! It is exactly what it sounds like, an outdoor Art Sale! However, the Arkansas weather has changed abruptly as it does, so now it will be an indoor sale which is fine by me. The sale is tomorrow Saturday October 6th from 10-3. You can learn more about the sale here.

I just wanted to cull my studio in what will be my only sale of the Fall season. There are oldies but goodies from many series over the years as well as my latest small works on panel that I have made for my Etsy shop. Stewart Bremner's and my combined works will be available as well. There will be some special deals to be found and even perhaps some work by some guest artists. There will be apple cider and cookies and sweet art for sweet people. If you are in the Northwest Arkansas area I hope you will join me as we celebrate Autumn! Cash, check, and credit cards are accepted. Payment plans are also available. I really hope to see you there! Feel free to invite and bring your friends! The more the merrier. 

And with that, I think I better close as it is already getting late and I have so much to do to prepare for my one day only sale!

Thanks for stopping by and as always for your support. 

Love, 
Megan

For Rufus

 Rufus being silly (how I want to remember him)

 

Hello Dear Readers,

I am sorry if you checked in here last week and you missed my blog. I didn't write. Last Friday, I found out the bad news that my beloved cat Rufus was terminally ill and would probably only live out the remainder of the week so I turned all my attention to him and took care of him until the end. My sweet, lovely Rufus died at 12:45 am on Tuesday morning, September 25th. I know I didn't mention Rufus on my studio blog but I want to mention him now.

Rufus was an extraordinary cat and a huge part of my life. I love and miss him very much.

It's fair to say I haven't been thinking too much about art lately. At the same time, art is about life; the good, the bad, the ugly, the sad and devastating.

I hope that next week I will have some happier news to report.

Love,

Megan

In this together...

 Detail: The Trial Years: Scroll Number One.

Dear Readers,

Thanks for joining me this week. I hope your own art world is treating you well.

This past week has been a bit unusual as I started a new side project that I wasn't really expecting to start quite yet. The piece is called The Trial Years: Scroll Number One. It is an 8x3ft work on paper. The goal was to create four of these scrolls, one for every decade I have been alive. There may only be one in the end, as working on this scale is quite physical. I don't have any studio walls that are that large so I am having to tape the paper on the floor of my studio and work on my hands and knees or straddle the three feet width of paper and bend from my hips and paint on the paper on the floor. Fun times as you might imagine. I decided to document this project solely on my facebook artist page. Have you liked my facebook art page? Well if not please consider doing so as I am going to try to use it more for the latest updates and photographs of what is going on in my studio.

So this week I have been prepping and adding layers to this behemoth/hellion/monster (these are just a few of the pet names, I have given this latest experiment). It has been exciting to have a bit more of a focus in the studio and to just be exploring and making art for arts sake. It seems a bit like a luxury to just be playing around in the studio and working on a perhaps unsaleable painting in this economy/these trying times/recession but for some reason it is what I must do right now.

Things are a bit of a shaky mess financially and I hate to say that as I don't want to focus on the negative when I am a positive spin type of person usually. This week, there was that moment where I saw a "we're hiring" sign outside of an office type building at a strip mall and I wondered "Should I pull in and apply?" I quickly came to my senses and drove on. I have a job, it just doesn't pay that well right now. By being an artist I assume certain risks and this just happens to be one of them. I still wouldn't quit this job or trade it in for another.

I have a bit of an all or nothing personality and that works pretty well with the feast or famine art world. I just keep riding the waves, making my art, focusing on what I can control and hoping for the best.

Thanks for checking in.

Love,
Megan

PS. Here are a few ways to help an artist even if you can't buy their work right now:

1. Share their work, website, etsy shop, facebook pages with your friends via social networks and your own personal blogs, email, and word of mouth.
2. Encourage them, let them know how much you like their work and what it means to you.
3. Keep your eye out for opportunities for your favorite artists and share them. (Grants, residencies and galleries that are looking for new work.)
4. Barter and trade with artists.
5. And never be afraid to ask the artist if they might consider payment plan options. Most artists are glad to work with you on this.
6. Refer your favorite artists to design firms, architects and encourage people you know in these professions to use original and local art when they can.
7. If you have a connection with a gallery or a potential venue share this with the artist.
8. Be an advocate for the artist. Sometimes you have connections that artists haven't even thought of and you can connect the dots and get that artist's work seen.
9. And if you are an artist yourself, don't hesitate to do these things for your fellow artist. There is enough to go around and the attitude of being all in this together feels good and is helpful to all.
10. Share supplies that you may have that are gathering dust and that might truly inspire someone else!

Thank you! We really are in this together!
Until next week, keep fighting! The world needs your art!

A simple story

What? Friday already? Hello dear readers, lovely to find you here as always! What happened this week you ask?

Well, I completed 18 new works and listed them all in my Etsy shop! Last Friday's post really helped me to solidify my goals with the new small works I was creating. I love it when I sit down here to write my blog and suddenly I have a much clearer idea of what I need to create and of what I want the work to convey. I have said it before but keeping this blog for the last five years has helped my art in ways too numerous to mention. I think next to actually making the art, sitting down to write about the process as well as the experience of being an artist is something I would recommend to all artists, no matter what stage in their careers.

Three of my new pieces have already found homes and I am grateful. Please visit my Esty shop and have a look at these latest works. "The absence of words." 

And with that, I will let the new paintings do the talking. Next week, there will be more works in progress, this time in the form of larger 12x12" paintings on panel mixed with maps, at least that is my goal. I must keep moving and let the momentum carry me and remind me of all I want to say and of my certain purpose.

Every day we paint is a victory and many days it is a hard won battle but we always get there in the end. Always.

love,
Megan