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It's All About You

6/27/2012

11 Comments

 
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Welcome to IAAY number two! This time it's all about Rebecca Venn, who is a superb water-colourist and pencil-wielder. She's had many exhibitions and her work is one of the main attractions in fine art collections around the USA and Europe. 

Rebecca gained her BA in Art from Brescia College in Owensboro, Kentucky. That said, she considers herself self-educated rather than self-taught as she has searched out artists whose work she admired and studied under them. 

Ultimately she taught Life Studio at UW Parkside, and a variety of workshops at the Charles A. Wustum Museum in Racine, Wisconsin and The Clearing in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin.

IAAY is published every Wednesday (yes, all of them), so there's plenty of time for you to join in too! Contact me via the comments or via Twitter: @mickdavidson.

It's All About Rebecca Venn
It's All About Elizabeth Sparhawk Jones
Deciding on one artist that has influenced or inspired me is a daunting task. I think I have, without realizing it, been affected on many levels walking through the Chicago Art Institute and seeing vision after vision that crept into my dreams at night and no doubt appear on the tip of my paintbrush in the morning. And so many are men. I love many of them and it is easy to choose one, so I do not. I choose Elizabeth Sparhawk Jones.  

She was a surprise for me. Seeing her stunning painting one day entitled “The Shoe Shop”. I wanted to know more. In it you can hear the rustle of the skirts and marvel at the crisp white blouses that are a uniform and sensual attire at the same time. And those brush strokes make me marvel.

When she was at her peak she won a prestigious award that she was to collect in Europe but her strict parents would not allow it. Gradually she sank into mental illness. After many years she reappeared and became successful once again. Her work was never the same though. It is as if her spirit, once shattered, is now viewed through the lines glued together, distorted, holding the vessel of her talent together, but not the same.

I choose her and her magnificent artwork as inspiration when days are hard. It is her determination, her brilliance, her fragility  and her talent that I admire. I am not fond of her last work, but this earlier work was so very beautiful. In a time when success was hard for a woman she shown like a star, unable to be ignored.

It's All About Me
This painting is titled “Swimmer I”. It is a watercolor measuring 17” x47”. Originally it was a movie that inspired it. The move was an HBO film titled “Angels In America”. At the end of the film the actor tells the story of the Fountain of Bethesda. I loved the idea of the healing aspect of that story with the water washing over the person and transforming them to wellness, spiritual and physical.

When this artwork was exhibited, many people would call it “the Swimmer” so I renamed it. The original inspiration is personal and viewers bring their own stories and I love that. It is probably why I leave an unfinished quality to a lot of my work so that the viewer can have room to experience their own visions.

This subject of water and the human form is a passion for me. We are a large percentage water and I find that I tend to return often to watercolor and the human form. It is the risk of watercolor that excites me. It makes me crazy and happy at the same time. It is like life. Risky and joyous. It is flux. It is flow. It is sensuous.

You can contact Rebecca via the following:
  • Twitter - @Rebecca5002
  • Website - www.rebeccavenn.com

11 Comments

June 24th, 2012

6/24/2012

0 Comments

 
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Inhoudsopgave
1. The Darkness Beneath - Free Copy
2. It's All About You - Read All About It!

The Darkness Beneath: Sex, Death and Trains, all Yours For Nothing (still!)*

*Terms and Conditions apply: you can get a free copy of my first novel, The Darkness Beneath, by following this link - but hurry! Only the first 100 people to sign up can claim a free 
copy.


It Is All About You!
Well we got off to a flying start with the first IAAY with a brilliant contribution from the irrepressible Maureen Hovermale, and nearly 800 people reading her piece, plus several comments. Thanks for being the cutting edge Maureen!

The next IAAY will be out Wednesday 27th June, and will feature one of the USA's top artists, Rebecca Venn. She paints and draws exquisitely and I'm looking forward to introducing her to you. 


If you're a writer, painter, musician or any other kind of creative person, and would like to take part, please have a look at the guidelines. You can contact me via the comments here or on Twitter: @mickdavidson.

Where Did All The Time Go?
I stepped rather niaively into having a guest contributor - for instance I hadn't though about the extra time needed to gather up new contributors and organise their material, and then add all that to the blog. But it's been worth it as I've had a lot more people visiting my blog and websites, I've made some new contacts with a variety of creative people (some of whom will be featured in IAAY - hurrah and thanks!), and one of whom described my idea as 'innovative'. Which I like a lot.

I like it because I've toyed with the idea of having a guest contributor for a while, but wanted to do something a little different to either a guest blog or a straight interview. Cutting out the middleman (me) and letting the contributor strut their stuff in their own way seemed like a good idea. Judging by the reactions I've had, a lot of other people agree. 

For me, creatvity is one of the most important things in life: it fires the imagination and takes us to places we never knew we would or could go to. It also forces us to expose our inner selves to the world, which is often very challenging. Despite this, I know that all the difficulties we experience are worthwhile. Not only that, we get to join a group of people who are fantastic to know, supportive, helpful and full of wisdom gained by travelling the same path. We might work alone, but we are not alone.

One of the things I hope comes from IAAY is that others will read it and become inspired to create as well. And if that happens, I'll be very happy indeed.
Cheers.

0 Comments

June 17th, 2012

6/17/2012

3 Comments

 
Picture
Tabla de Contenidos
1. The Darkness Beneath - Free Copy
2. It's All About You


The Darkness Beneath: Sex, Death and Trains, all Yours For Nothing (still!)*

*Terms and Conditions apply: you can get a free copy of my first novel, The Darkness Beneath, by following this link - but hurry! Only the first 100 people to sign up can claim a free copy.

It's All About You - Time to Get the Excitements On
This Wednesday an unsuspecting world will wake/be already awake/fall asleep to the news that my very first It's All About You blog will be published.

And our first contributor will be the very marvellous writer and extremely industrious Maureen Hovermale. She'll be catapulted into the digital stratosphere on the 20th June.

It's All About You will then appear every Wednesday and will probably vary a bit for a while as I'm sure I'll have to get all experimental on the format. 

I've already got five people lined (three writers/two artists) but I'm greedy and want more contributors, and I want them now! And any of these could be you. Yes, that's you I'm talking to, the one looking at your computer or other handy digital device. 

I want to know what turns you on about being creative: what book or work of art gave you the wanna-do's and the I-must's? And when you did done or were all must-ered out, what did you produce?

I want to know about that too, so it's a great chance to show a slice of your work and tell everyone why it thrills you to have created it. You never know, you might even give someone else the wanna-do's and I-must's - and sharing and spreading the power of creativity has got to be, in my opinion, one of the best things any of us can do.

All you have to do is write 250 words on something or someone that inspired you to go create (and supply the quote or a pic of the art work). The second part features an example of your work and another 250 words on why you like it or how it makes you feel or... well, whatever you like really.

The only rule is that this isn't an opportunity to big up a mate, unless you happen to be mates with Cormac McCarthy or Francis Bacon. That said, it doesn't matter where you are in your career: I want to hear as much from the unpublished or unexhibited as much as I want to hear from those further up the success ladder. All are welcome.

If you want to take part, contact me via my blog's comments or comments form, or on the Twitter: @mickdavidson.
Cheers.



3 Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Mick Davidson is a full time technical writer and semi-full time fiction author. He also finds time for both guitar playing and photography. When not being creative, he is heavily involved in Staring Out The Window research.

    He is definitely in the market for publication and agent representation.

    The links in my blog are doors to adventures and other countries, they don't all land in the most obvious puddle.


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