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.
A new reality
We are in a new world right now. Nothing feels quite real – in fact, it just feels weird. What was important two weeks ago now seems rather inconsequential. Suddenly, we hone in on the essentials of survival: home, safety, health, family, nourishment.The...
Exploring a New Direction: Fiber Art
In early 2019, I decided it was past time to delve into a media I had been wanting to explore for years, but had not allowed myself to do. My reticence was that it would take me away from my painting practice. But my residency in Wales provided me with the...
Artists I Know: Rose Sanderson
I am continuing my “Artists I Know” series with the artist and founder of Createspace Wales, Rose Sanderson. It was my pleasure to interview her during my residency at the studio in Wales, U.K. You can learn more about my residency experience in previous...
Analog: a solo exhibition at the Center for the Arts in Crested Butte, CO
Take a tour of my Winter 2020 solo exhibition at the Kinder-Padon Gallery at the Crested Butte Center for the Arts! Over 20 paintings and an installation of fiber work is included. To learn about my Analog series, click here. Center for the Arts Crested Butte 606...
Create/Space: The answer is already there.
I have been back in Colorado for about two weeks. I keep looking back on my time at Createspace Wales, reflecting on the lessons there. I learned so much about myself, and my need to be in the natural world.Essentially, I discovered that my life does not...
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...