Art | Life | Process
My mother always wanted me to be a writer. So, here I write about all the things: art, life and the process of both.
Create/Space: Thoughts as I am leaving
Tomorrow afternoon, I conclude my residency at Createspace Wales, and head back to Cardigan for a night before going to London the next day. I get a few days in London with my husband, before the whole adventure is over.It feels like I just got here, and...
Create/Space: Observation #2
Taking part in this residency, in such a rural part of the world, where nature is the undercurrent of nearly everything in the way of life here, has allowed me to reconnect with a part of myself I had long forgotten. It is a part that needs to be part of...
Create/Space: Observations
I hiked back up to Mwnt today, this time with the intention to paint there. I wanted to attempt to capture the colors; also, it is a strange and beautiful place. It holds deep history, and you can feel it. The church here has stood for centuries, and the...
Create/Space: When Art is Surprising
Before I came, I assumed that I would just plop down into another studio an ocean and half a land mass away, and just make the same work I always do.But that is not what happened.Truthfully, I should not have expected myself to just plug back into the...
Create/Space: Following the Path
I swear this isn't some sort of walking holiday, or that I am re-enacting Wild but in West Wales instead of the Pacific Crest Trail. I will admit that there are similarities. A woman alone, hiking along an official national trail of significance. But...
Create/Space: Beginning the Work
"The call is to leave a certain social situation, move into your own loneliness and find the jewel, the center that's impossible to find when you're socially engaged. You are thrown off-center, and when you feel off-center, it is time to go...When you cross the...
Create/Space: A Change of View
After yesterday's angst, I needed a day to just be, and it turned out to be perfect weather for just such a day. After visiting in Cardigan and seeing some of the growing art scene there with a new artist friend, we drove up the coast to take in the views....
Create/Space: Detox from the Cultivation of Busy
I live in the culture of busy; no, the cultivation of busy, like a fine wine, only instead of the nectar of the gods, I get more things to do. I have built a life in which I do, do, and do more, until I collapse. And sadly, it seems like almost everyone I know is like...
Create/Space: Oh, the Possibilities
I leave in a few days for the U.K. and Wales specifically. I am getting nervous in a way I don't remember being nervous about travel in some time. Perhaps never, in fact. This time, I am traveling alone; I am leaving my family; I am going somewhere completely new and...
Create/Space: A New Blog Series
In a few short weeks, I will be traveling to the far reaches of Wales in the United Kingdom to take part in an artist residency at Createspace Wales. To say I cannot wait is a bit of an exaggeration; truly, I cannot contain myself with excitement. It will be two weeks...
The Persistence of the Gesture
At its core, art is about leaving a mark. This ranges from the conceptual work that leaves a thought in a viewer’s mind, to a three-dimensional sculpture carving out space, to the ubiquitous gestural mark in painting and drawing. The last is the mark that most...
Analog (in a digital world)
Painting is slow. It requires time, and attention, and engagement. Painting is without algorithm or artificial intelligence; rather, it is the most human of intelligence. It is the oldest intelligence, begat from the hands of ancient peoples, tens of thousands of...
Story of a Commission
In 2018, I was commissioned by a client in California to create a large oil painting. It was a piece in reference to one I had completed earlier that year. Here is the process from start to finish.Before the start of a project, I ask the client a series of...
Some things cannot be named.
A personal essay exploring the intersection of art, science and the transcendent experience.by Julia RymerWhen I look at the sky, I feel as if I live in it. It is a subsuming force, one I observe constantly throughout the day. I am caught in the interactions of cloud...
Sometimes creatives have to get day jobs. We aren’t failures. Deal with it.
The public shaming– and defense– of actor Geoffrey Owens, the Cosby Show cast member who was recently "caught" working as a cashier at a Trader Joe's in New Jersey by various news outlets, struck me. I think it hit the nerve of every creative person, as many of us...
Thoughts on the artistic process
I’m battling my way through my work, preparing for an upcoming show, but also, as always, simply doing the work: creating, destroying, pondering, playing in the studio. Marking up canvases and instantly regretting the marks, or sometimes– not often– loving what I have...
The Role of the Artist in Society (if there is one)
“But the artist… speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation — and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity...
Why is color gendered?
(Or, what makes a color feminine or masculine?)My former mentor and art professor once gave me an exercise to push through a painting block I was experiencing. He said, “Make two paintings that are the most ugly paintings you have ever seen. Use every color you hate,...
Being the artist you are
One of the most profound moments of my artistic career happened not with a great mentor or inspiring artist. It happened, instead, with a professor I quite detested at the time for their negativity, cynicism, and angst. I never took another class from her, in fact....
How does your IKEA poster make you feel?
Recently a friend of mine asked if I ever made large paintings. She had been staring at the same IKEA poster on her wall for a few years and had suddenly realized she hated it. It had a picture of the Eiffel Tower, but she couldn't relate. It meant nothing to her, she...