Welcome to Before the Brush.
Here we go.
Day five of these quick shots all about re-grabbing that beginner's mindset.
Gathering ourselves here today,
Day five as I said,
For this quick shot.
Getting our beginner's mind going once again with that non-dominant hand is our tool to employ and see what comes from it.
Today we're going to dance a little bit between materials.
So we'll start dry,
We'll go wet,
And we'll come back to dry.
It's Friday,
Why not let's go out and dance.
Look with more than your eyes at what is wonderfully there to be looked at with no obligation to think constructively about it or turn it into useful purpose.
How's that for a playful thought bubble?
It takes the obligation off of things.
It takes the obligation out of perfection,
Off of perfection or creating something purposefully beautiful.
I don't know about all of you but in my work in the studio I do not necessarily,
Okay I never come to a piece and can envision its beauty that will beget at the end.
It's not there until it's there is the point.
And loosing those chains of obligation to construct something in that just right way is beautiful,
Freeing.
Yeah.
Look with more than your eyes at what is wonderfully there to be looked at with no obligation to think constructively about it or turn it into a useful purpose.
Let's just have fun.
Fun is a useful purpose.
Enjoyment,
Delight,
I've left that word long,
You know,
Left it alone for long enough I'll bring it back.
Delight,
Delight is a very useful purposing.
I'm going to stand up today and if you're able to join me in this posture please do.
It will help you engage your entire body in this process.
Arms of course,
Well hands of course,
But wrists and elbows and whole arms and shoulders and even in your torso as we move a little bit in this as I called it dance between the materials.
We have connected all week in this grounding parts of these quick shots of these creative meditations we've grounded in our space and grounded to our materials.
I would hope that maybe that is a consciousness we've all come to this space with already.
You're anticipating me going through those motions so you are already giving your appreciation to these materials and surfaces and colors.
So keep that in your mind and in your heart that consciousness,
That conscientiousness,
That appreciation and gratitude.
Well instead of purposely starting that way we start with our bodies,
With our movement.
Again if you're standing great if you're sitting then modify as needed.
Set your feet a little more than hip width apart.
We're going to be dancing so get a really solid foundation.
Lift your toes,
Spread them wide and then drop them back down to the ground.
If you're comfortable closing your eyes do that and with that sixth sense and that sense of touch envision and feel every part of the bottoms of your feet engaged with the earth and sinking like roots into the space you are in.
Now from roots grow trees and trunks and stems and that is ours,
That is us,
That is this body,
These legs rising from the soil of that foundation we are in.
Using that imagination picture your own body as that beautiful stem reaching to the sky straight,
Strong,
Lifted,
Turning your face to the beautiful warm Sun lifting your arms,
Your hands like the leaves spreading to receive the air,
The nourishment,
The moisture,
That light,
That warmth.
You fully connected and receiving,
Grounded and expanding.
This is where we are and this is where we begin.
Bring it on in.
As I said once again we're gonna dance through these paints today so get yourself into a position where your knees are loose,
Your hips can wiggle,
Your arms can,
I was gonna say gyrate but we won't go that far,
And let's begin.
Non-dominant hands,
We are new to this dance floor so pick it up in that non-dominant hand that first instrument you're choosing to use,
Your dry material got my graphite pencil here and just for 30 seconds or so let the movement of your body create the pattern before you and dance.
Wiggle the hips if that's what's calling.
Laying your shoulders from your shoulders and then let it die down and stay and head off to the side.
Part of me wants to go back in and fill in all these little shapes and forms that my pencil created.
That can be for another time I don't even know if you're able to see that.
That can be for another time,
An idea for next time.
But now we bring in paints.
Non-dominant hand pick up that brush,
Add color how you'd like.
I'll go through my normal routine of adding color and place it where it wants to land.
Perhaps you are partnering with this color and it is a dance floor before you with many engaging across this surface.
Puddles of paint,
Partners in this delightful creative process.
Mixing and mingling across the floor of this process of this painting.
Stay loose,
Stay engaged,
Stay enthusiastic,
Enthios.
Dance with your brush.
As the information becomes complete for now,
Usually for me that is when my brain starts to tell me what to do rather than my instincts and intuitions.
That's when I put my brush down and go to what calls next,
Which is one more time with some dry material.
We are dancing between dry and now wet and now dry.
For me that's going to be charcoal.
Thought I might bring in my crayons but charcoal it is.
Non-dominant hand one more time.
Let's use the whole body but let this charcoal or this next element dance with what already exists.
Whereas the first dry material we let our bodies dance it across the surface and become this time let's let it dance with the information that's already here.
How can it start to elicit a composition?
Not perfectly,
Not beautifully,
But interestingly,
Fresh,
Intriguingly.
What's with the circles?
Stop!
When the music stops.
Your music is still playing.
By all means keep going.
My music has stopped because I feel something that needs to happen once this surface is dry.
That is where my dance says it wants to go.
All right everybody I thought that was going to be much longer but it is a quick shot after all.
I enjoy getting that first layer of information down and then returning to them when inspiration strikes which is usually when I wake up in the morning I can picture,
I'm grabbing something,
I can picture what I did yesterday or this week or something with all of you and have just a glimmer of an idea of where I want to start exploring with it.
I'm a colorist is how I've been called besides abstract,
Besides encaustic artist and this morning I just thought I'm gonna do another grid pattern over that first day's quick shot and then I see squares so I started playing with this one again and you know just letting what comes come.
Hopefully that is information all of you can use to look back at all the creations you've done in these quick shots and see what can come for you.
It's a step,
It's a process,
It's a layering,
It's a play or perhaps you've worked into every one and kept going just continued on from this time we've been together and let it keep playing out until you end and finish and complete a gorgeously impactful composition so now listen to that rhythm that's yours,
Dance that dance that is yours and have fun with this.
It's been a fantastic week of quick starts working with our beginner's mind once again.
Keep creating.
Over and out everybody thank you so much for being here.
Appreciate you much.
