Legacy

"Amaryllidaceae"
16"x16"x2"
acrylic, watercolor, ink, colored pencil
and tissue paper on wood panel
2012

    I am in to the seventh week of the Hello Soul Hello Business class. It is rich with soul searching exercises and savvy business advice. It really gives a creative business owner a launching pad no matter where they are in their business development! We have gone through a number of exercises designed to help us craft and perfect our business plan. The exercise I most recently read and wrote about in my journal is one that asks us the question: What do we want our legacy to be as an artist/business owner.

    I am an artist because I want to make my living making art. I want to make art that has a lasting meaning to those that I am honored to call "patrons". Whether they have purchased a greeting card or a large commission piece, I want my customers to feel cared about. When I first began selling my art in 2006 I priced my work at a price point that I was told was much too low. I was adamant that the prices were fair given my emerging status. More than anything I wanted my art in people's living spaces. I wanted it to be seen. I was fortunate that my audience responded and I have enjoyed growing support for my work ever since.


    My commission practice speaks most clearly to the sustainability of motivation behind why I do what I do . I want to create pieces of art that a patron’s family will feel connected to and cherish for generations. It is an honor to craft an original piece of art , originating from a parent's vision, wanting to celebrate the life of their family and child in a tangible and meaningful way. The memorial commissions I have launched through the arm of Phygment Studio called, "Fill the Ark"  is most poignantly driven by my desire to create a legacy for a bereft family who chose to celebrate the life, lessons and memories of a loved one who has died. I hope that the memorial pieces I create in collaboration with the family will serve as a conversation piece of joy in the aftermath of great pain and loss. 

    The relationships I have with my customers, my patrons are based firstly on trust. I know that making money will never be my sole motivation. If that day ever comes I will know I am done. Burnout happens very quickly when this is your driving force - in any field. The Hello Soul Hello Business course has given me the wings to soar beyond what I could have ever imagined for myself when I was a little girl making sketches of fairies in my makeshift studio in an empty closet. I never want to let that little girl down. I know I can never go wrong by keeping my values of trust and truth as my reigns. 

My "Right Brain" business plan in progress...

Some books I highly recommend to learn more about writing your own "right Brain Business Plan" are:

•      the Right-Brain Business Plan - a creative visual map for success  by     Jennifer Lee.
•      The Creative Entrepreneur by Lisa Sonora Beam
•      Taking Flight - inspiration and techniques to give your creative wings flight by Kelly Rae Roberts
• Do What you Love - ecourses and other online resources by Beth Nicholls

     

Stay tuned for my exciting launch into the world of Etsy! I was never sure if opening an Etsy shop was in line with my goals but I now know I can make it soulful and meaningful and so I am ready. Please send me your email address (to janemhoughton@gmail.com) to receive information about a discount when I have my grand opening! 

Thank you - I truly am humbled by your interest in my story 

Now That's a Horse of a Different Color!

Working on a few pieces for a show I will be part of at the Tang Gallery at the end of May...

I am entering the large "Blooming Pains II" piece I have blogged about before: Bang Head Here and Boo Boo.

It has been hanging in my studio for several months. Every day I look at it and have been silently agonizing over it - something wasn't right but I couldn't either put my finger on it or be brave enough to change anything drastic. I felt it was the color but couldn't quite figure out which direction to push it. Until one night I was watching Downton Abbey - the wildly popular Masterpiece Theater production that was featured this winter. In one of the scenes I noticed a lovely little lamp sitting on a table in front of a pale aqua blue wall. The lamp shade was a beautiful dark apricot color and it look fabulous against this wall! It was then I knew what I had to do to the bursting seed pod in this painting.

It went from this:

"Blooming Pains II"
36"36"x2"
Acrylic, watercolor, colored pencil, ink and tissue paper
on wood panel
as it was on 9/14/2011

To this: 

"Blooming Pains II"
36"36"x2"
Acrylic, watercolor, colored pencil, ink and tissue paper
on wood panel
3/22/2012

The lighting during each photo shoot was slightly different but I think you can see how I changed it from a cherry red with greenish aqua back ground to a apricot color on a more blue-toned aqua back ground. I also changed some of the stripes at the lower edge to add more interest. I covered the outer layer of the seed pod with an additional layer of tissue and added a few more tissue paper circles. I think I can live with it a little more amicably for the next few months before heading to Saratoga Springs, NY.

Would love your feedback! 

Thanks for visiting!

detail: Blooming Pains II (3/22/2012)

Quick update...

Wanted to share a quick shot of the piece I featured but hadn't finished in the post from last week: using tissue paper in mixed media tutorial...

"...And the Song was wordless"
16"x16"x2"
Acrylic, watercolor, ink, colored pencil and tissue paper
on wood panel
2012

This piece is to be shown in the upcoming show at One Mile Gallery in Kingston, NY this August.

Happy Friday ! 

A Simple Thank You

For every limb you've gone out on,

every dream you've given root,

every encouraging word that

will someday bear fruit....

Thank you

(c) 2007 Terah Cox & Gittel Price

     A handful of years ago I was in a favorite town where I like to go when I need to tap back into myself and gain strength from what ever it is that makes me keep putting one foot in front of the other. While I was poking around in the shops and galleries I came across a small print with the above saying printed under a black and white photographic image. I was going through an especially challenging time back then and was feeling very much alone and scared. I saw these words and I immediately felt it as a thank you note to my wrung out soul. 

     I keep it on the wall of my studio as a reminder on those shaky days when I begin to question the direction of my work. I am reminded that there is a tiny seed still growing in this creative spirit of mine and it needs to be nurtured and gently nudged in order to "bear fruit". 

    I am beginning several new and exciting ventures - new arms to my business that I am confident will be more  aligned with the motivations behind why I make art. These new projects are inherently intensely personal and therefore highly vulnerable. I have all the mixed feelings normal to new things: excitement, fear of the unknown and pride in the idea that I am bringing something into the light that has never before been done...not by me anyway. 

   

 I think it's important for all of us to pause occasionally to thank the tiny seed of our souls that pushes us out into an unknown world every day. It takes bravery to push our visions out and say, "well, here goes nothin" ...  

Tutorial: using tissue paper in mixed media

It's been a while since I shared my techniques of using white tissue paper in my mixed media work. I have changed my technique slightly over the last six months. 

I started using tissue paper about seven years ago when a friend asked me to recreate Eric Carle's  caterpillar from his Very Hungry Caterpillar book on a large canvas for her daughter's room. For that application I used the tissue just as Carle had: altering colored, non-bleeding tissue with paint, oil stick, etc... I then cut the paper in shapes to make the caterpillar. 

As I became comfortable with the medium I began to use it as a layer of additional interest in my mixed media pieces. I was taking encaustic workshop classes back in 2006, 2008 and loved the way the layers of wax lent a milky, translucent layer to a piece. I wanted to use the tissue paper to create a similar experience. I now use it to varying degrees, depending on where I want to go with a given piece. 

Recently I became inspired to work some birds into my compositions as symbols of the human spirit. I have been doing a lot of seed pods and bursting blooms in various stages of 'becoming' to stand as the inner most expression of who we think we are in relation to the relationships in our lives. I came across a sketch I had done in my journal some time ago which served as a perfect jumping off image to go with. I want to push some boundaries in this piece in terms of varying detail and texture. Using tissue paper in between layers of paint allows me to build visual interest slowly. The surface changes with the addition of the tissue and it forces me to make decisions about what to keep and bring forth and what to leave more subtle. 

sketched-in acrylic layer

The first step is the acrylic layer on the wood panel. I lay in the basic composition and color balance. In the past I did pretty detailed sketches before starting a piece. I am now working more loosely and forcing myself to make more spontaneous decisions. 

I go in with colored pencils to enforce lines that I don't want lose and to add subtle color that may or may not be seen clearly when I cover it with medium and tissue paper. This creates happy accidents that I can in later steps choose to enhance or leave as is. I think it creates a richer surface and therefor more interest in the final piece.

The colored pencils can also serve as tools to remove the wet acrylic layer - as in the circles in this lime green seed pod, revealing the red base layer.

I use white tissue for a few reasons:

     I can make marks on it with colored pencil, oil stick and or acrylic before applying it to a piece. If I apply gel medium on the dry acrylic layer and then a second application over the tissue once it is smoothed down over the medium, the tissue essentially disappears, leaving any marks I made on the tissue as a floating layer on the acrylic. 

•      I can make surface bubbles on the piece - mimicking the effect of wax - by leaving the acrylic layer dry (no gel medium) and simply laying the dry tissue on the piece and brushing slightly watered-down gel medium over the dry tissue. The gel medium will soak through the paper, adhering it the the surface of the painting but will create many random air bubbles underneath. 

Once this layer of tissue dries I then apply a second layer of Acrylic Ground for Pastels - watered down slightly so that it is not so thick. When this layer dries it allows you to add watercolor, colored pencil, graphite and of course, pastel. 

From this point I can begin to really carve out the piece in terms of varying the detail, introducing the dominant color palette and adding subtly with watercolor. Detail can be added with the finer points on the colored pencil or ink pen. At this point it becomes more of a give and take between me and where this piece will take me. It's when the fun begins! 

This piece is destined to be part of a group show I will be a part of this August at the One Mile Gallery in Kingston, NY. I may share a sneak peak when I complete it so stay tuned! 

Happy creating - please share your experience with this medium !

Launching the Ark

Joan Parker Thompson Moore
1/25/1931 - 3/4/1996

Tomorrow marks the sixteenth anniversary of my mother's death.

 Today marks the launching of a new arm of my commission practice. 

I would like to share how this idea for these unique commissions was born. 

    My mother lay in her bed in my childhood home in Trenton, New Jersey in the final stages of a battle that never really gave her a chance. The brain tumor was diagnosed on November 20th of 1995. She died three and a half months later. My mother was one of those souls on this earth that you meet once or twice, if you're lucky and leave those who were touched by her dumbfounded at a force that would take such a positive spirit from this planet. 
    Mom had been accepting visitors from close friends and family all this particular week. She had asked my brother, sister, father and I all in her own way if we would be okay. If we were happy. She even imagined lives for us that she knew she would never witness: a yellow house for me, a new partner for my father, children for my brother...She consulted with her pastor and made peace with a God she had loved dearly all her life even through the tragic death of my older brother, Jeff twenty years earlier. 
    I entered her room on one of the days after she had been talking with her pastor. She seemed agitated and I asked her what was wrong. She answered that she was angry at God. "I have told Him I am ready, I am ready to die and he won't take me...I want this pain to end, I am ready to go." Somewhere I got the courage to say to this woman who I could not imagine my life without, "Mom, maybe you could think of your life like an ark (my mother was a passionate collector of Noah's Arks)...that you have worked all your life building this ark to be strong and sea worthy through loves, losses, friendships, lessons and so many, many happy memories. It's time for you to trust that you have helped Sally, Tommy and I begin to build our own arks and that we will be safe, we will be comforted by your lessons, our memories. It's time to trust your own ark and push away from the shore, knowing that we will be okay." 
    Later that night I found my mother laying on her side, struggling to remove the photos I had taped to the wall next to her bed. I had chosen pictures of her friends and the many hilarious times they had cooked up together, I included sun rises and of course her grandchildren and family. She was so weak as she grabbed the photos and pushed them under the covers of her bed. When I asked what she was doing she said, "I want to put these in my ark...I want to take them all with me." My mother slipped into a coma the next day and died by the end of that week.  

"Grace"
12"x12"x2"
acrylic, ink, watercolor and tissue paper
on gesso board

To honor the memories and lessons that our loved ones leave us when they die I am launching

"Fill the Ark"

Memorial Commissions

This new arm of my commission practice will utilize my unique methods of creating original pieces of art born from respectful collaborations with bereft families. My background in grief facilitation with children and families will guide me to shape a timeless piece of art for the grieving family. The result will seek to celebrate the life of the loved one while serving as a deeply personal, timeless and visible reminder to all that share time in the home. 

I have much work to do to bring this new venture into the forefront of my business mission. I put it out there now as an intention. I can not wait to meet the new challenges this will bring!

*Please see related past blog entries: Love and Loss and Reverberation. 

Also - please refer to the section on my website that features my commission practice. Brochures are available.