The absence of words

It's Friday again! The weeks just keep spinning past faster and faster. I can't believe it is almost September already! Today as I write the windows are open and it is a grey rainy day and the music of Joy Division fills the air around me. This is writing, making and thinking weather! My favorite!

Let's see what's happened this week. Well as you know, last week I cleaned my studio after Stewart and I worked in it this summer completing our "a place called home" series. This week, I spent time getting to know the space again and sorting through all my tools and paints, trying to enjoy the space. I also painted in the space, working on the eighteen 6x6" mdf boards on two or three occasions since the clean up. These small works consist of gesso, white acrylic, torn vintage paper, graphite, color pencil, walnut oil and charcoal powder. They are not unlike the 12x12" pieces from my "Sometimes I love you and other stories" series in their basic composition and palette but there is something missing. The typed words on the vintage paper are not there.

I wanted to get away from the words and back towards allowing only the paintings to convey the message and somehow the absence of words seems to do just that. You can feel an eerie silence in these works. You want them to say more but they don't. They aren't talking back this time, it is all up to the viewer to tell the story and squeeze the meaning out of the dusty charcoal, the white paint and the void left behind on the paper.

Where are my words? Well for one thing, I am a painter by trade and not a writer. I love words but I can't use them all the time. Also, this has been a lonely time for me as my community has gotten smaller and Stewart is no longer here and I am no longer there. There is a void, so it seems the work would reflect this and it does. The lines are still there as the basic connection is still there. Communication from these works continues through the texture in skips and sputters of paint rather than type.

I have a lot more work to do on these new small works before I put them in my etsy shop, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. After that, I will start on the fifteen 12x12" panels with the vintage maps as I explore another concept that has been rolling about in my mind. Where it will go...

Until next week, keep fighting!

To remember again...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

As the weather cools (I come alive)

This week I had hoped to get back to my regular studio practice but this was not exactly the case, I got closer to it and that is what counts. I did work a little in my studio and I also amassed supplies so I could start working on the bigger series that keeps showing up in my mind. This is a slow rebuilding process but it is building nonetheless.

dark art in progress on mdf panel with a side of aubergines

I gessoed 20 6x6' MDF panels to begin a small series for my Esty shop. Once gessoed, I covered all or part of them with powdered graphite mixed with walnut oil. It felt good to just be making broad messy strokes of gesso over the wood squares and I liked covering over the white with the darkness. I am not sure what will become of these, if I will embed paper into these works or if color pencil will serve to brighten the darkness. They have landscape elements but truly I have worked on too few of them to figure out what they are yet. I am looking forward to resuming work on them and documenting and putting them in my shop.

vintage maps waiting to work

In the meantime, I received the vintage maps that I ordered for my next series of 12x12 panel paintings that I am gearing up to do. I also received the fifteen new panels from Perrodin Supply Co. I am so excited to be using their panels again! I also ordered some Gesso and other supplies I need for the project. So that is what this week has been about, getting all the materials together again, flirting with making and doing a lot of talking and thinking.

Also as a side project, I have been dreaming of doing a large paper piece that is affixed to the ceiling and is allowed to hang down and away from the wall draping down into a pool on the floor. I have been seeing this work ever since I went out to dinner one night with Stewart in Edinburgh. We were talking about our upcoming (at the time) series "A place called home" and I kept seeing this paper piece thinking it was for that show but it was actually meant for my show (a show I don't even have scheduled yet.) Yesterday, I mentioned on facebook that I was looking for large lengths of paper and today a large vintage roll of paper was delivered to my door by artist Linda Sheets! It is beautiful, yellowed, thick with the quality of maps. It is ideal. I can't wait to start working on it. I have been wanting to work on a large physical piece for quite a while, especially after making fairly small works for the last year or so. I am looking for a challenge and I need space for this work. I see paintings, drawings, maps, diagrams, an internal compass on paper. I have been thinking a lot about this idea of an internal map or gesture of the self. I have always been fascinated about what happens on the inside of people, what we hold on the inside of our skins. The thoughts, emotions, the beautiful and the ugly, deep inside - hiding. I am looking forward to seeing if I can turn this into something that isn't just juvenile, self absorbed or angst riddled... but I can't really allow myself to care too much about that. I am approaching this as a piece for me, art for art's sake, an experiment that may never see the light of day or could be a companion piece for the smaller works, not unlike a manual living was for the falling into sound works. I want to get excited about the work again and this project seems to fit the bill. We will see what happens. I don't even really have the appropriate space to work on this but I know I will make it work.

the knowledge seal,  a return to yoga

In other news, this week was spent in the company of good friends and fellow artists. It was spent walking and doing yoga and trying to take extra good care of myself. It is time to look inward and take care the way only I can, if I am to do the work I want to do. I am looking forward to exploring my new etsy series, my new 12x12 series and the paper piece of my visions with you all soon.

Thanks for checking in. I hope all is well in your art world.

Begin again...

The unknown variable
Mixed media on panel 12x12"
© 2012 Megan Chapman & Stewart Bremner

Well, let's see what happened this week. Mostly I tried to stay busy and I did a pretty good job of that for a while. I recovered my dining room chairs and I organized many drawers throughout the house...

The reception for my exhibition Hush happened last Saturday at the Fayetteville Public Library. There was a nice little group of people in attendance, I appreciate the folks who made it out. There has been a lot of art this summer, it seems to come in waves. Sometimes I fear my work has been overexposed in the region but when an opportunity comes my way, I generally say yes! Even while the reception was small in attendance it was large in sales, patrons and friends. I sold another collaborative piece and I sold two paper pieces that I created in Scotland, one framed and one unframed. I was quite pleased with these sales and I am thankful to the Fayetteville Public library for the opportunity to have an exhibition in the reading room. I just love how my work looks in the space, it really just fits right in. Hush will be up until September 4th. So if you are local to the area, I do hope you will get a chance to see my work.

After the reception, my friends came over and we had a little party. It was a fun time, I am so lucky to have such lovely, talented, and supportive people in my life.

The rest of the week just kind of happened, with more cleaning and organizing. I started putting my studio back in order after Stewart Bremner and my marathon painting session for "A place called home." It felt good to touch all of my things and take stock of my inventory. I also ordered fifteen more panels from Perrodin Supply Co. and ordered some vintage maps of America and Scotland for my upcoming series. I am excited to be thinking of my next series. I think I may also start another small works series for my Etsy shop soon as well. I will of course keep you posted. Later in the week I also sold one of my older paintings from my 2008 series "evidence of the disappearance" I now only have two of those older color series works left. It is hard to believe.

By next week, I hope to have everything in order and return to my regular studio practice so rather than me writing here so much about promotions and exhibitions, I hope to return to talking about the creative process and sharing works in progress and what is happening in the studio. This time last year I was working on feverishly finishing up Sometimes I love you and other stories for my exhibition in September. It is hard to believe that it has almost been a year. Time marches on, faster and faster. I am really looking forward to diving back in the world of making and doing.

Thanks for checking in with me this week and as always thank you for your support of me and my work. I can't do this without you.

Hush...

Well, here we are another Friday already! This has been a long and short week as many of you know Stewart Bremner left on Tuesday morning to go back to Scotland, but what you might not know is that it took him forty-five hours to get there! So even though I took him to the airport Tuesday he didn't get home until Thursday at 11am his time. I was vicariously nervous and stressed until he got to his destination which made time do strange things and here we are and it is Friday. But I still have some news...

If you are local to the Northwest Arkansas area on Saturday August 4th (tomorrow, as I write this) I hope you will join me in the Walker Community Room of the Fayetteville Public Library from 3-5 for the reception for my exhibition Hush. Not only will my work be on display upstairs in the Reading Room but just for the reception, I will also have the nine remaining works of Stewart Bremner and my latest series, A place called home. I will also have some of my remaining smalls works that I created in Scotland for sale only during the reception as well.

I have really enjoyed having my work in the library, the exhibition looks great and I can't wait for you all to see it with fresh eyes in a new space.  The exhibition will be up through September 4th.

In other news, plans are already underway for the next east prospect exhibition... oh yes, it is never too early to plan... Don't worry I will keep you updated.

Thanks for checking in and for reading. Sorry I don't have that much for you this week, hopefully by next week I will be finding my rhythm in this new reality and have lots to tell you.

Until next week, keep fighting. The world needs your art.

As July comes to a close...

Distance becomes us
Mixed media on panel 12x12"
© 2012 Megan Chapman & Stewart Bremner

As I write this there are only five days left in July and it is heavy on my mind that Stewart Bremner is returning to Scotland on the last day of the month. There are exciting things going on and there are some big things planned for the future but the fact that we are about to be separated after getting to spend seven months together takes the lead in my mind.

I wish I was going to Scotland too. Sometimes when I look at the photographs from my trip tears come to my eyes. I can't believe I was there for four months and that I got to see and absorb so much art, architecture and of course the atmosphere. It seems like a dream. It wasn't always easy or even always fun but I would like to do it again. I have to hope that I will.

The three months that Stewart has been here have been filled with art, whether creating our A place called home series or installing and promoting various exhibitions, we have been busy. Art consumes us and our time. It is wonderful to be able to create it together. We are lucky.

I tell myself this will be a time of even more concentrated work. I have projects planned that I hope to see to fruition. I have a new gallery relationship to nurture. I am also a member of a network of artists that will be meeting weekly as an action team to encourage and promote our work and our goals. I have a new body of work I would like to get started on. I have travel debts to pay off and need to focus on living within my means so that I can travel again. I also need to just focus on my health and well being. So far this year has been busy, wonderful and more than exhausting; it is time to refill the well and move forward.

Thanks for being a part of it all. Thanks for reading our blogs, tweets, and facebook posts. Thanks for coming to our exhibitions, for sharing our art and our story. We are grateful for all the support and love we have been given.

Now, until next time there are still five days left in July and the lovely Stewart Bremner is in the kitchen making our lunch and I can't wait to enjoy it with him and enjoy what the future holds as it comes one day at a time.

PS. If you are local to Northwest Arkansas please come to the reception for my exhibition Hush at the Fayetteville Public Library on Saturday August 4th from 3-5pm. Chances are I am going to need a hug.

We built a nest of letters...

A few works from Hush at The Fayetteville Public Library

What a week!

Monday started with an interesting and exciting business meeting and some great views. Tuesday, there was a much needed get together with theatre maven Erika Wilhite. Wednesday I enjoyed a day off and some giving of time in honor of Nelson Mandela and then yesterday there was another good meeting and the installation of my latest exhibition, Hush, at the Fayetteville Public Library. Today, Stewart Bremner and I are being interviewed for a feature in the Free Weekly about our current exhibition, A place called home, which continues through July 27th at the Arts Center of the Ozarks.

Never a dull moment in my art world and for that I am grateful.

Yesterday after Hush was installed on the walls of the library, I do what I always do, I take a minute to absorb the new exhibition space and the work I have done. I viewed the familiar paintings with new eyes as a viewer and not the artist. I read each painting with words and I studied the pure abstracts and I marvel yet again how a space changes with art, how the blank room I entered was not the same and how even the paintings change as they take on their new surroundings.

I have to say I think the library is a particularly perfect fit for this body of work. As always, there is that quiet moment when I just look and a calm comes over me. I relish that fleeting moment of complete satisfaction after watching the work slide into place to fit the space. There is a zen to putting up an exhibition, less is always more as space is required so the work can breathe and truly be seen. I felt so serene as I was doing my walk through. At one point a young woman, who I know from many openings, looked up from her computer, smiled and whispered across the room, "Megan, your work looks really great in here..." Thinking about it now brings tears to my eyes. Her face was so wide open and she wasn't saying anything more or less. I smiled and I floated out of the room, Yes, my work looks really great in here...

Here is my statement for Hush.

Megan Chapman’s exhibition, Hush, brings together three recent bodies of work into one. In it viewers will find works from the artist’s popular series, Falling into sound, Sometimes I love you
and other stories and From across the ocean. All of these paintings are part of what the artist terms her White Series, that began in 2009 and continues today.

In Falling into sound, the artist began the transition into more minimalist work, using a near monochromatic palette. These paintings are quiet and meditative but also buzzing with layers
of subtle colors and texture. Two of these pieces are featured in this exhibition, Sometimes and Falling into sound.

Many of the paintings that make up both Sometimes I love you and other stories and From across the ocean, feature words written using an old manual typewriter and vintage paper. The words are
the artist’s own and reflect her thoughts while being in a new long distance relationship with Scottish artist, Stewart Bremner.

The small framed paper works, from the artist’s most recent series From across the ocean, document the artist’s first journey overseas, when she spent four months in Edinburgh, Scotland. The lines echo
the geology of the area, the sea and the atmosphere of the grey winter sky. Simple words and lines are used to stage these moments and hold them in a type of permanence.

Megan Chapman’s Hush brings all of these works together and into a new light. These works are not unlike chapters in a book, each a little different but very much connected in the telling of a story, not
only about the artist but also about the viewer.

Hush will be on display July 19th through September 4th in the Reading Room on the second floor of the Fayetteville Public Library. An artist's reception will be on August 4 from 3-5 in the Walker Community Room.