Category: Art

March 1, 2025 / Art

I ask for so much from art but sometimes I think I offer nothing in return.

After years of thinking this way, I realized that art asks for my attention and focus. Not my perfection, not my productivity—just me. Art asks you to show up, to listen, to engage. It asks for your willingness to wrestle with uncertainty, to risk vulnerability, to sit in the silence where ideas form ( if you can do so, you are more disciplined than I am.)

Art doesn’t demand grand gestures. It doesn’t care if you have all the answers. What it craves is your attention, your curiosity, your willingness to let it lead sometimes. It wants you to trust it, even when it makes no sense.

Previously I mentioned that “I offer nothing in return”, but consider this: you give art a space to exist. Without you, it would remain unmade. You give it form, even if only in fragments. You give it life, even if only for yourself.

What happens if you start treating art like a relationship rather than a transaction? What if, instead of asking art to serve you, you asked how you could serve it? What might it become if you gave it your trust, your time, your patience? Then I thought:

Art is a companion. Maybe that’s all it’s ever asked of you.

Whoa.

Yeah, that one got me. Sometimes we get so caught up in getting something from our art—validation, meaning, escape—that we forget it’s alive in its own way. It wants something from us, too. Maybe just a little reverence. Maybe just to be made without expectation. Maybe just to exist without needing to prove itself.

Art is weird like that. It mirrors what we bring to it. If we demand, it resists. If we fear, it hesitates. But if we listen, art speaks to us. .

September 21, 2024 / Art

Unlike my first two attempts at paper collage, digital scraps are limitless. I’ll make an effort to do better but these are first proofs of a working concept.

September 15, 2024 / Art

My second attempt at scrap collage work. I grabbed a discovered post card from Germany, some scrap and used an index card for the backing. It’s simple, it’s fun. Need more scrap that suits my tastes and take it from there.

August 31, 2024 / Art

While making good use of the chrome spray paint, I grabbed two black canvas and a few fasteners lying around the garage and made a wet, metallic collage.

I like this project and plan to follow up with seashells and various spray colors

August 31, 2024 / Art
August 30, 2024 / Art
August 18, 2024 / Art

My first attempt at an analog collage, with an added bonus of blackout poetry. Thanks to my number one fan for her encouragement and supplies!

July 31, 2024 / Art

Just doodling a few of the things I am seeing around when I am out and about cycling.

July 31, 2024 / Art

I’ve been experimenting with digital crossword puzzles and newsprint lately. With crosswords, I’ll solve the puzzle (entertaining in its own right) and then bonus(!) I will take a screenshot of it when complete. Then, in Apple Photos, use my Apple Pencil to markup the image to find words that stand out. After those are mapped out I will then cross out the rest to come up with some poetry. Although, that is limited to the words on the puzzle so they are more statement than poetry.

After reading an interesting article with Apple News, I will take a screenshot and do the same for the article- try to connect words and to form a new phrase or sentence.

The whole premise is ridiculous but it is mentally challenging and time consuming. I’ll see how long the fun lasts but for now, I am enjoying it.

July 10, 2024 / Art

There are many reasons as to why I was looking forward to utilizing my typewriter after I relocated. One, was to make art from it. I’ve been a long time fan of ASCii art but there are people out there that have taken it to the next level and then some.

After nerdscrolling and falling down a few internet rabbit holes, I’ve discovered so many type-art resources out there.

Such as a pamphlet from 1979 turned into a pdf from the Internet Archive entitled Typewriter Mystery Games.

Obviously this would utilize multiple ribbons, paper and practice but I’d love to explore this further.

Until next time,

January 3, 2016 / Art

(at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston)