When we were designing this website my designer said he
needed some text for my 'About’ page.
I froze. Right away I’m wondering what is an 'About' page? In his unassuming funny way he
suggested I think of it as a cocktail party interview.
“Ohhhhh….ok. I can do
that.”
Here’s how it went.
I’m at the party, standing awkwardly alone with the stem of
a wine glass pinched between my fingers, when a friendly face suddenly appears
before mine. It’s you. Clearly you’ve done this a million
times and you get right to the point.
“Whadda yeeewww do?” you ask.
My mind whirls as I rifle through my
list of do’s that I do.
“Gosh,” I
stall, “That’s a stumper of a question.”
After a pause, (this because I am still hampstering around the wheel of
do’s) I give it up and state,
“I’m an artist.”
“Oh, I seeeee.” You say, but of course you don’t…’see’ I
mean. Who can at this point?
“What
kind of artist?” you ask.
I reply,
“I do lots of stuff, but what I really do is tell stories with pictures… kind
of a fine art illustrator.”
Now
I’m hoping your curiosity is peaked because I love that you’re asking about me.
You ask, “Oh yeah? How do you do that?”
Ahhhhh. Gotcha!
This is the tricky part.
“Oh you know. It’s kind of a dance. I have a partner. She’s my muse and we
boogie around together. I have to
let her lead though. She’s bossy
when she gets going.”
I
smile. You just look confused.
“How’s
that?” you ask.
“I pretty much get out of the way and she comes through me.”
“umhum.” (that’s you)
(Back to me) “Yeah. I let go of all that head chatter… the fear,
paralysis, judging stuff, you know, the plugs to creative flow. Otherwise, she is so quiet I can’t hear
her. Then I take a deep breath and… (pregnant pause here)…I make a mark on a
piece of paper.”
“That’s it?” your
eyebrows rise.
“It’s a start.” I
reply.
“ Then I look at that mark and it tells me what to do, or rather, my
muse tells me what to do next. You know.
Where the next mark might look good.”
You’re nodding now. It’s starting
to make sense.
“And you just keep
going that way?” you ask.
“Yep.
That’s it. My piece and I take turns talking to each other, playing
together. We just have fun. We’re dancing together and when we’re
done we’ve danced out some wonderful thing. I think it surprises us both ‘cause
we keep coming back for more.”
“How do you know when you’re finished?”
“Hmmm. I’m not
sure that we are ever done. We just go on to different dances.”
“How so?”
“I join my muse and we dance up another piece and the piece
we made goes off to dance with you or somebody else….we just keep moving in and
out and round about like an open ended square dance macarena kinda thing,
jiggling and twirling around with each other….like life. It’s really what we all do all the
time. We are all making art with
ourselves and each other. Constantly connecting and expressing. That’s what art is….expression through
connection.
“Anyhew.
That’s about it.
Listen,
thanks for staying with me on this.
I feel like I’ve been doing all the talking. Now what about you?
Wanna dance?
You are invited to view my work at the
Drops Of Jupiter Art Gallery in
Winter Haven at 253 Avenue A SW | 863.287-
