June 1-30, 2019 | Opening Reception June 6 6-8pm | Palette Paint | 5813 Grove Ave. Richmond, VA 23226
https://palettepaint.com/artist-dandridge-davis-june-2019/
Upcoming Show
You are invited to attend:
https://www.uptowngalleryrichmond.com/
Sharing Kindred Spirits
The First Step
in Katherine Tzu-Lan’s painting process I discovered while reading about her in October 2018 Virginia Living is ironically the same as mine. We both begin each work with a “pour”, haphazardly pouring watered-down acrylic onto our flat surface. In her case, paper, and mine, raw (unprimed) canvas. This process apparently appeals to each of us as we enjoy the lack of control … the freedom of movement and happenchances that evolve. “This ‘chance operation’ becomes the starting point for the work.” Even though we haven’t met, I feel as though we’re kindred spirits.
Sharing .... The Artist's Way
To reignite creativity in a profession that can be solitary, a friend recommended an oldie but goodie book by Julia Cameron: The Artist's Way
Julia encourages artists through Creative Affirmations. Pages 117-118 read, "When a painter is painting, he or she may begin with a plan, but that plan is soon surrendered to the painting's own plan ... we are more the conduit than the creator of what we express."
Sharing .... current and upcoming SHOWS
Coleoptera | Acrylic on Canvas | 36"w x 50"h
Please join in visiting current shows and attending openings of upcoming shows.
Feb 23, 2018 - Mar 17, 2018 Group Show @ ART WORKS 320 Hull St. Richmond, VA 23224 804-291-1400 www.artworksrichmond.com
Mar 23, 2018 7pm-9pm Opening Reception Mar 24, 2018 10am-4pm READ Art Show New Community School 4211 Hermitage Rd. Richmond, VA 23227 804-266-2494 x2229
April 27, 2018 Opening Reception 6-9pm through May 19, 2018 Solo Show ART WORKS - Skylight Gallery 320 Hull St. Richmond, VA 23224 804-291-1400 www.artworksrichmond.com
Sharing .... inside the Artist's head
In HoldStill by Sally Mann, the reader is taken inside of the artist ...
As an artist working solo, it's easy to relate to Sally Mann's passage where utter transparency is revealed as she depicts in detail the struggle that goes on inside of the creative process. Beginning on pg. 281-283 ... This freak of a good picture inevitably inspires a cocky confidence, making me think this new project will be a stroll in the park. But, then, after sometimes two or three more good ones, the next dozen are duds, and that cavalier stroll becomes an uphill slog ... So I soldier on, taking one dodo of a picture after another, enticed by just enough promising ones to keep going ... Eventually the law of averages takes pity on me, and doles out a miracle: a good new picture ... dismissing for the time being my panic and despair." Misery loves company.
Sharing ... Silence
In reading this month's Town & Country I came across an article that "spoke" to me. And it was ironically titled: Do Not Speak. In our digital charged world, I am not alone in craving peace and quite. This article lists places people pay for just that. Their called digital detox camps as people realize their addiction. It sites the proven benefits of silence from a Duke University study. They found mice that had two hours of silence everyday, had triggered brain cell development. And in a study in the journal of Heart, found that silence had more of a calming effect on breathing and blood pressure than even soothing music.
Enjoy some silence!
Sharing at Hollins University
Yesterday I had the privilege of participating on the Visual Arts Panel for my alma mater's Career Conference in Roanoke, VA. To kick off the event Tina Wells, CEO and founder of Buzz Marketing Group spoke. There are 3 mantras that she lives by and encouraged the audience to adopt:
1. Assume that everyone has a POSITIVE INTENT
2. Always hold yourself ACCOUNTABLE
3. Choose a solution that is on a HIGHER GROUND - where the most benefit
Great advice for students and alumni alike!
Sharing Japanese Aesthetics
new piece
Sunday's sermon in Richmond, VA was the first time I'd heard of Wabi-sabi. It means finding beauty in broken parts. Wabi-sabi originates from Japanese aesthetics and celebrates imperfection in art. Seemingly the opposite of the Western world. As I start a new series, this phrase seems timely and appropriate to use as it's cornerstone. More to come ...
Richmond Home 2013
Sharing ... Flaws
Summer 2012
Daring Greatly - Brene Brown
Perfection is self-destruction. Perfection is addictive. "I'm not interested in hiding my flaws ... it's important to have self-kindness, especially when we fail."Perfection stifles creativity. From Leonard Cohen's song "Anthem":"There's a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Sharing the Strife to Have a Mary Heart in a Martha World
Fall 2012
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World - Weaver
This sentence sums it up and I agree 100%: p. 57 "The problem is, contrary to popular belief, we can't do it all. We're not even supposed to try."
Sharing and Relating to Robert Motherwell
Motherwell: Beside The Sea
In October 2011, I was reading
Robert Motherwell by Dore Ashton, Robert Buck and Flam
These few sentences grabbed me as I could completely relate to them:"The painting are not skills, that can be taught, but a process, whose content is found, subtle and deeply felt; that no true artist ends with the style that he expected to have when he began, anymore than anyone's life unrolls in the particular manner that one expected when young: that it is only by giving oneself completely to the painting medium that one finds oneself and one's own style ... such is the experience of the School of New York."The physical act of the hand moving in a painting is of great importance, it cannot be detached from the meaning of the image itself. The hand moves, feeling is transmitted. A gesture makes feeling intelligible.On p. 12, I like how Motherwell responds when asked, "what does the painting mean?""There are so many levels. So many decisions made through the creation of the painting that it becomes a slice of life ... a 'voyage'."Naming a painting is a primitive, inadequate but deeply rooted way of identifying the ineffably complex nature of reality."An artistic medium is the only thing in human existence that has precisely the same range of sensed feeling as people themselves do -"'The inner world' of the artist was a complicated human affair, and consequently difficult to express. That is why I invented my art. In this sense art is a necessity, a natural out growth of man's life."And it is our pictures, not ourselves, that live the social life and meet the public ... It is interesting that the creations of solitary individuals should turn out to have such a gift of socialibilty!" - Abrams (Wallace Art Gallery)p. 23 "My hand just flies and I do not even have to think; my my hand just does it, as though I am not there."p. 25 "It is more what you unconsciously know then what you think. In fact, I would say that most good painters don't know what they think until they paint it."p. 30 The central problem for all modernists remains:1. How to insure meaning which requires a certain amount of stability2. How to change meanings which requires a certain amount of innovation and disequilibrium.In short: a surprise. How far to go?