Questions

Q: Please tell us about your career track as a visual artist.

Bumpy may best describe it. I went to undergraduate school in Nottingham England and ended up at RISD, Providence Rhode Island for Grad school in sculpture. Then I was in Houston to do a residency program affiliated with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. I would say there my career took off. I sold some pieces to the Museum and a lot of work to collectors; I also did a commemorative wall for a synagogue and lots of other things. Since having my only son in the early 90’s my career went on a hiatus, until he was about 13 when I started to work seriously again. I have had my current studio for 5 years now and have been working mainly doing drawings. I had a solo show in Claremont last November.

Q: Please tell us a little about the work we've chosen to feature on our cover.

The piece you see on the cover is from a series called “inside the Brain”, it is from a series of 4 drawings, there are 4 series, so a total of 16 drawings. I got interested in the father of neuroscience, a man named Golgi; he was the first scientist to dye samples of brain tissue so that neurons could be observed. In my drawings I used washes of color in different orders,to think about his process. This is not the first time I have done images of the brain, in fact I did a large set of Brain drawings in Texas which the Museum of Fine arts owns, so I could say I left my brains in Texas.

Q: What are your other works like?

I work with a visual language, so things that wouldn’t make any sense in words, have their own logicality. I have many interests, so this is a wide-ranging question. I have always been interested in what lies at the heart of things. I am very curious and will get obsessed with many things. I have often used different cultures as reference points, In Grad School I was very interested in the Yoruba Culture, and a series of spoon women sculpture came out of that. My most recent other work has ranged from a huge triptych about the great battle between good and evil that mythologically has raged on this planet. I also got very involved with thinking about evolution and the piece that resulted is a series of pieces under the title “Fetus Octopus Heart”.

Q: Do you think there's one thread that binds all of your work together?

One of the threads is making the unseen, seen. For example lately I have been obsessed with the light in my work. In the latest series of Chakra drawings, halfway through everything changed and the piece now is also about coming into the light

Q: How have you seen your work evolving over the years?

Starting as a child I always made things out of what was to hand and drew. My interests were to always understand complex structures. In many ways I am still working with the same concerns, my interests in the spiritual path have deepened and trying to visually present very complex ideas is important to me. My work also deals with the body; I am always exploring literally how the body works. I also explore the mind, in a series of triptychs I worked on after the “Inside the Brain” series; I became interested in seeing if I could portray how the mind worked. I use the mind side of things to get curious about cultures or myths and then use those references in ways that interest me. For example I worked on a series using the Pandora’s box myth recently, in the original Greek the word was actually “pithos “ which means vase, this information then informed how the drawing turned out.

Q: Is there a specific thread that runs through all of your work? (If not, it's okay; I'm just always curious.)

The one common thread is to take the incredibly complex world we live in visually and condense it in my work to an understandable visual experience

Q: Do you see an intersection between written creative work and visual work? (If not, it's okay, too.)

I see an incredible link in all creative work; it comes from the same source. I was involved with a musician for ten years and the core place that both of our work came from was the same. It was wonderful to be able to communicate this with another human being. Often these conversations are difficult and I admit I don’t really have anyone I can talk to like that currently

Q: Wendy, you and I met as a result of a professional group oriented around goals. Can you tell us a little bit about what your goals are as a visual artist?

I would like to get my work out to the people who are interested. I would like to have the opportunity to make sculpture. It is a difficult profession to be involved with, the art world. I have done a number of record covers and CD covers in the past, which is a wonderful way to get the work out, Mostly I would like to have exhibitions where I can show what I do, and finance this in some way either by selling the drawings I do or doing commissions. I have also done a number of tile pieces for the local parks where I live.

Finished

I have completed the second series of Chakra drawings and am feeling pretty pleased with them. Similarly after I finished the first series,I am heaving a sigh of relief, it has been a huge undertaking. As you know from previous posts, half way through the series everything changed. This change will be very apparent as you see the photo of the work.

Some  things that occur to me as I look at the series:- In the 7th Chakra drawing I love the way the white wing shapes extend into the brain. I am still debating whether to put a gold leafed pituitary gland inside the brain. I like the way the eyes in the 6th Chakra drawing look, like they are going in two different directions. The 5th Chakra drawing worked well, to include the breath in the form of trumpets going to the nose and also the lungs to try and explain the Divinity of the breath. The avocado heart works in the series, as the lynchpin between the lower three chakras and the upper three chakras. I like the way it sits at the center and is slightly different from each side , but has elements of both.

In short its done, its over, c'est fin and I feel that never again will I attempt another Chakra series. Unless of course I do another chakra workshop series where I learn more things, hard to imagine, but I am proud of the result of this work I put everything I could into the pieces after doing the workshops for a year. I didn't quite bargain for the drawings themselves being such a huge transition going from darkness to light in such a literal way.

Transformation

So all of us humans whether we want to be or not are on the spiritual path. Some of us looking for a guru, which in Kundalini yoga terms means going from dark ,"gu" to light, "ru". As well as this literal dark to light change, there is also a refinement change.

Many years ago I visited the city of Granada in the south of Spain. The Alhambra contains the remains of the 8th century conquest of the Islamic Moors and therein lies  the Palace of the Nazarenes. The stone work and architecture is exquisite, so delicate and refined. We spent many hours wandering through courtyards looking at fountains and the most elaborate ceilings . The mosaics , tile work and general craftsmanship were superb.

Afterwards coming out of the Palace into the city I was struck by how primitive the large stone steps were outside, rough hewn stone just set as slabs to walk on. It caused within me a great jarring sensation. I wanted to stay in that sense of refinement.

I am still working on my set of Chakra Drawings, I have finished another one , the third eye.

Female/Male Imbalance

Well I am still working on the Chakra Series, I think I have finished the 4th Chakra see it below. Today I came across this interesting quote ,so my "notes" this week are dedicated to this quote.

Jada Pinkett-Smith: “The War on Men Through the Degradation of Woman”

As we look at societies where the women are lost, struggling for education and otherwise disregarded, versus those who consider women the center of their communities, Jada‘s words ring all the more truer. Read what she has to say below:

How is man to recognize his full self, his full power through the eye’s of an incomplete woman? The woman who has been stripped of Goddess recognition and diminished to a big ass and full breast for physical comfort only.

The woman who has been silenced so she may forget her spiritual essence because her words stir too much thought outside of the pleasure space. The woman who has been diminished to covering all that rots inside of her with weaves and red bottom shoes.

I am sure the men, who restructured our societies from cultures that honored woman, had no idea of the outcome. They had no idea that eventually, even men would render themselves empty and longing for meaning, depth and connection.

There is a deep sadness when I witness a man that can’t recognize the emptiness he feels when he objectifies himself as a bank and truly believes he can buy love with things and status. It is painful to witness the betrayal when a woman takes him up on that offer.

He doesn’t recognize that the [creation] of a half woman has contributed to his repressed anger and frustration of feeling he is not enough. He then may love no woman or keep many half women as his prize.

He doesn’t recognize that it’s his submersion in the imbalanced warrior culture, where violence is the means of getting respect and power, as the reason he can break the face of the woman who bore him four children.

When woman is lost, so is man. The truth is, woman is the window to a man’s heart and a man’s heart is the gateway to his soul.

Power and control will NEVER out weigh love.

May we all find our way.

Jada Pinkett-Smith

Back to the Chakra Series

Earlier this year I began a new series of Chakra drawings, trying to incorporate all the knowledge acquired from doing a year long series of Chakra workshops. As you may remember from an older blog I finished the 1st, 2nd,and 3rd, but the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th were very problematic- I have never experienced such difficulty bringing a drawing to fruition. I got so desperate ,as I restarted drawing after drawing, that I tried to force it, only to realize that no , best to put away the whole series and wait for a better time.

Now with the completion of the 7th Chakra drawing and the new Lotus series. I realize what has been going on, and why this happened like this. I have entered a new phase, that of being in the light, I can no longer use black ink to start a drawing.

The 4th Chakra or heart, is where if you are lucky enough, to have your eternal flame turned on , you can start to live in the light. Most of humanity operates from the first three chakras, security, sex and power, to see the truth of this, you have only to look at the world around. A very small percentage of humanity have moved towards awakening the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Chakras. For me this move from darkness to light happened at a perfect time during this series, to show what it means in a very literal sense.

New Age

I was at a wonderful gathering on Boxing Day for those of us who are British, if Dutch the day is called Second Christmas, a time to celebrate with friends. What a great idea and what a great group of interesting people, I am making new connections. TB and I found ourselves at one point talking about our 10 and 5 year respective experiences, living at a Spiritual commune/school in the East county of San Diego. We left almost 16 years ago now, to move to Los Angeles, it was a time of great learning.

I was talking to a woman who asked why I was so anti-New Age. I didn't feel that I really answered her as it took some thought, so here goes. Before I joined the spiritual school I felt that I was searching for my purpose with great vigor. I read all kinds of New Age books searching for esoteric knowledge, like gathering stones on a beach. After 5 years a lot of that interest dropped away as I decided to focus on my life, my schedule,my finances, my creativity. In other words I stopped being so interested in the writings of others,the better to focus on what I know and what lies inside me.

The New Age movement is another dogma that causes us to look outside ourselves for guidance. Admittedly its more appealing, than Christianity/Islam/Judaism, but for me personally just as distracting and dangerous. So now I cringe when I hear people say "Love and Light", what does that actually mean, or maybe its just me.

I have finished another drawing in the Pandora series, check it out below.

Pithos or Pandora's Box

So it turned out that when Zeus told Pandora , do not open the pithos or large jar usually used for storing wine, oil or grain and often the size of a man. The Box ,came much later and its origin ,is in the misspelling  of Erasmus of Rotterdam. in the 16th century, instead of pithos he wrote, pyxis which meant box in Greek. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's painting of Pandora with a box, further compounded this . So back to Zeus, he knew that she would go ahead and open the jar revealing all the evils of the world, so why did Zeus set her up? Is this the change from the matriarchal societies, to the patriarchal world we still live in, that began around the birth of Christ. All that was female especially in term of religion was destroyed or absorbed, so the female energy was blamed for every ill in society. Seems about right to me.

This relates to my work because, I was working on a drawing that looked like all the evil of the world flying out onto the paper. The piece had started as the drawing of the 7th Chakra, but it just wasn't right , so I cut it in half ,added a panel of paper and carried on trying to finish it. I wanted to add the box of Pandora's  fame but it didn't seem right. After doing some research and finding out about the jar imagery, I finished the piece. You can see the results below.

Reverse Archaeology

The weekend before Thanksgiving I had my opening at a space in Claremont, I showed nine framed drawings. The lady who organized this, said ,of the opening "it was wildly successful" and it was. I met lots of interesting people, one of them, a geologist, talked about how difficult it is for some of her students, to recognize topography maps as the literal guides to the landscape , that they are. I suggested that she use clay or play-dough to see if they could come up with a three dimensional model of a part of a topographical map. As I was talking to her about my work, it struck me that I do my work in a reverse archaeology sort of way.

Let me explain what I mean, I start a drawing with the initial marks, then I keep adding layers, until all those layers are integrated. Those first marks on the paper look fresh and vital, as though they have been revealed in their perfection , along with the visual balance that occurs as the drawing progresses. This end result of the drawing is that each mark is revealed and is important  to the finished piece. Its as though by adding layers I am discovering the importance and balance of every single piece of the drawing, reverse archaeology.

With the landscape that the geologist I talked to recognized from her map, there is also a layering, literally as rocks are formed by uplift and volcanic actively, but also by erosion and weathering. An archaeologist  has a different set of tasks , to uncover civilizations that have been buried. It would be interesting to talk to someone in this field, to see if my supposition that its all about revealing what is buried. I can see clearly this accumulation of layering really in everything. This is the best part of showing my work, I get to talk to people who can give me so much food for thought.

Mind Control

I had to renegotiate my lease for my studio space last week. It made me feel very tense as I punished myself with my unworthiness. I had to go through the whole litany of my mind, making me feel bad for not being as successful as I think, I should be! What does this even mean, mind? It will never be enough for you. I have chosen a very difficult career, maybe, I have to face that there won't be a payoff anytime soon.

I am having a small show of nine drawings in a space on Indian Hill Blvd in Claremont. I framed the pieces ,at the normal sort of cost for this activity, which caused another round of anxiety. Great now the doubting Thomas of my mind ,has more festering worries to latch onto.

Meanwhile I go into my studio, not sure if it was the fact that my lease is now settled for the next two years, but I had a very productive time and finished four small drawings. The "Warrior Series", a quite surprising combination of colours and larger than normal collage element. You can see the result of my efforts in the image below.

Artist Statement

As a consequence of my father working for the BBC, I was born in Benghazi and lived much of my life living and traveling in different countries.  This has given me an incredible flavor of the world both visually and culturally.  I’ve lived in the US for many years and hold both US and UK citizenship. 

My training at various art schools, including my undergraduate degree from Trent Polytechnic in Nottingham, England and my MFA from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence here in the US provided a wonderful foundation for my work.  I went on to do a number of Artist-in-Residencies including the Core Fellowship in Houston, Texas where I have work included in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.  I am also in various private collections including the Edward Albee Foundation.

While raising my son, my art career was put on hold.  During this time I continued my spiritual exploration to understand who I am.  I have a love of meditation, which in turn has enriched my art.  My goal in life is to have an understanding of the inner world and the outer world.  This is reflected in my work in a very concrete way.  My art is very literally a journey of my spiritual exploration, for example, in 2007 when I began to work seriously again the work represents a black and white world.  As time goes on, I am exploring a truly Technicolor world as never before.

For the past seven years I have worked consistently on my drawings.  I have produced a complex body of work that I am ready to show the world.