Wednesday, October 24, 2012
More new work . . .
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Studio Tours 2012
Susan Keale
invites you to see
her latest
mixed media paintings
&
handmade illustrated books
@ El Dorado County
September 29th & 30th
and
October 6th & 7th
10:00am – 5:00pm
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Fall Workshops with Susan Keale
"Autumn
Harvest" Illustrated Watercolor Journaling – Intro Level
Saturdays, Oct 20 and 27, 10:00 – 2:00
$100 held at Pence Gallery, Davis , CA
Illustrated
Watercolor Journaling is great for travel, home, recipes, and more! It's like journaling but with drawings and
watercolors. Focusing on the theme of
"Autumn Harvest," students will learn to use ink pens and basic
drawing, watercolor techniques of color mixing and textures, lettering and page
layout, along with fun writing exercises to create lively illustrated
journals. The students will learn how to
pack a portable set of art supplies that they can travel with to Halloween
adventures, Thanksgiving travels, or simply to their kitchen table. This is a beginning level course that can be taken
more than once because each time there's something new.
"The
Holidays!" Illustrated Watercolor Journaling – Intro Level
Saturday Nov. 3, 10:00-3:00 and Sunday
Nov 4, 12:30 - 3:30
$100 held at University Art on Marconi in
Sacramento , CA
Illustrated
Watercolor Journaling is great for travel, home, recipes, and more! It's like journaling but with drawings and
watercolors. Focusing on the theme of
the holiday season, students will learn to use ink pens and basic drawing,
watercolor techniques of color mixing and textures, lettering and page layout,
along with fun writing exercises to create lively illustrated journals. The students will learn how to pack a
portable set of art supplies that they can travel with to capture winter's
magic, on family vacations, or create personalized holiday gifts. This is a beginning level course that can be
taken more than once because each time there's something new.
Hand Made
Illustrated Story Books for a Sweet Holiday
Recipe
November 10, 10am-2pm: $50
Following in the
storybook illustrator's tradition of Beatrix Potter and Tasha Tudor we will
draw from a still life, paint our drawing, and write in the recipe. From the illustrated recipe we will
make a fold out book. No
experience necessary. You
will learn illustrating and watercolor techniques, how to decorate the
book-cover with texture, and how to bind your book together. This is a great activity for all and
makes great gifts for family and friends.
~No art
experience necessary.
~Contact
Susan for supply list – materials not included.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Artist Archetype
The last several months I have been questioning and writing
about what it is to be a bodhisattva artist.
But recently I have been wondering more simply what is it to be an
artist? Is it something a person is born
to be? And, in this world of
consumerism, is it possible to be authentic and what is an authentic artist?
Jung identified certain personalities and behaviors that he
classified in psychology as archetypes.
The Artist is one of them; Jung specifically categorized it as the Artist-Scientist
archetype. Some of the attributes
associated with the Artist-Scientist are their ability to come up with novel
solutions, being curious, idealistic, self-confident yet afraid of failing, and
having childlike wonder with a logical mind.
A more contemporary view of archetypes comes from the
Enneagram type system. The Artist in
this system is characterized as being sensitive, expressive, and spiritual. Emotions are the vehicle by which the Artist
understands themselves, others, and the world.
They do not fear painful emotions and this is often a way for them to
develop compassion for the suffering of others and the world. Nostalgic and idealistic by nature, the Artist
seeks meaning, growth, and healing.
I relate very strongly to both descriptions I find of the
archetypical Artist. The listed
attributes are characteristics I have had all my life. Which leads me to believe I was born an artist. I'm not sure what the karmic implications are
to this other than I have the sensibilities that seem ideal for self awareness,
thirst for beauty and graceful solutions, and a deep wish to heal my own
suffering and be of benefit to others.
As far as being authentic, I believe that lies in living
one's personal truth. Which in my case,
is always changing and expanding, while strangely stays the same. I think my quarry about authenticity must be
an example of being afraid of failure.
Perhaps this is the search for meaning in a world that is
inherently empty of meaning. So Zen . .
. there is nothing to attain, no one to be, no place to go. Just accepting the masterpiece that we are at
each given moment. Curious. . . Art
historically, have we moved to a new place that is no longer the iconoclasm of
abstract expressionism? Or the inertia
of endless individual expression? What is the focus of art now?
What do you think? Please
share your thoughts in facebook comments or in the comment box below.
Best,
Susan
Thursday, August 30, 2012
I took Maryjo Koch's Botanical Illustration Workshop in Bonny Doon, CA.
Maryjo demonstrating painting a thistle.
Me painting.
Beginning my thistle with a graphite watercolor pencil.
Adding gouache.
My finished thistle.
Final project was painting a stick covered in lichen.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Evolving Art
I have recently been reading a group of inspiring books that
I've chosen as a means to awaken or recharge a new level of creativity. As part of my art practice, at my mentor
Andie Thrames' suggestion, I have found it is necessary to review my mission as
an artist every six months or so. This
is not only for my own awareness and growth, but so that I can communicate
about my art and process in art statements and in sharing creative enthusiasm
with others. To keep myself engaged and
charged I have to participate in my education by reading, attending workshops
with artists that I want to emulate, and by interacting with art to discover
what speaks to me.
There are four books I'm loving right now in which each
author is talking about our interconnectedness.
David Abrams, ecologist and philosopher, speaks magically in Spell of the Sensuous about the history
of our disconnect from nature and our inner nature due to the refinement of
language and written communication.
Through Abrams mystical descriptions of feeling nature and the ways
indigenous cultures view themselves in nature (which is express it via
storytelling), one is reintroduced to a once common communion with nature. This book has philosophical depth that I can
sometimes only digest a paragraph at a time.
It is rewiring my mind's concepts about perception.
Meditation is been part of my way of becoming more perceptive
and aware my interconnection and inter-dependence with nature. The nature of our minds is nature. We are nature. This isn't new to Buddhism. The
Harmony of Emptiness and Dependent-Arising: Tsong Khapa by Ven. Lobsang
Gyatso elaborates on cause and effect in relation to emptiness. Once again I am reminded of the fault of
ignorance and how ignorance of the ultimate nature of phenomena leads to every
choice we make.
As I continue absorb the teaching-words in these books I
find that something is slipping or softening in how I perceive phenomena. I listen for the ways nature talks to me and
I look for the eyes that are seeing and perceiving me. I wonder how it is that we humans think we
are bigger than and dominant over nature.
Poet Gary Snyder writes so captivatingly in The Practice of the Wild on the wild that we are. In Snyder's introduction he writes, "A
key term is practice: meaning a
deliberate sustained and conscious effort to be more finely tuned to ourselves
and to the way the actual existing world is. 'The World,' with the exception of a tiny bit
of human intervention, is ultimately a wild place." (p. viii)
It is in this wild place that we live and create. I have recently been introduced (by Sue West)
to the art work of Enrique Martinez Celaya.
A well established and visionary California
artist who paints, writes, lectures, educates and inspires others to delve deep
and reconnect. His work is profoundly
spiritual from a scientific and globally philosophical view. In Collected
Writings & Interviews, 1990-2010, Enrique Martinez Celaya ,
taken from Celaya 's
manifesto, he writes, "It seems more sad than ironic that in the process
of mastering our destiny through technology and global reach, we have lost our
respect for nature and our sense of belonging to something larger than
ourselves." Celaya sees the artist role to be that of a
prophet. It is with that inspiring idea that
I explore and contemplate his work and the works of others engaged in nurturing
our awakened minds.
The image above is from my series of painting on California
butterflies. There are over 120 species
of butterflies that live in the Sierras according to Dr. Art Shapiro, professor
of Evolution and Ecology, and his UC Davis research team. They have a fantastic website http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/ with
images of each butterfly. The butterfly
represents for me the ability to transform.
My mixed media pieces evolve in an intuitive process of cooperating with
the art materials, the subject matter, patterns, and contemplative mind frame.
May you be well and inspired!
Susan
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