What "Art" Means To Me

First of all, let me say that my only real aspiration with respect to art is that I want to paint "pretty pictures." (Thanks to Ellie Milan for this description. It's what the "avant garde" art wardens call art that looks like something recognizable: "just pretty pictures.")

I've been drawing and painting since approximately 1990. My husband, an artist of many colors, helped me learn to draw, first. That was a joy and an agony, but I got better. I was just happy if a figure or face I drew looked vaguely human.

:-D

Later, I was "allowed" to play with watercolors. By 2010 or so, I started using oils as well. I have a Master's Degree in English, but I started taking college art classes and all the workshops and  6- or 8- week classes at a local Contemporary Art Museum that I could get.

What those things taught me eventually came down to this. Art is for you what it means to YOU and what you love. It may not mean the same for me or for someone else. I might not love it as much as you do. You'll see in "My Work" a number of much older pieces which I was proud of at the time, but I believe they are "art" now just as much as anything else I see on display online and in galleries.

A huge part of this determination is how a piece of art makes me feel. Do I want to keep looking for a while? Or do I want to move on to the next piece? Does the art make me feel calm or happy or intrigued? Does it leave me wondering what it means or what is behind that tree?

I'm generally NOT intrigued by dark or ugly things, but that's just me. To each his/her own.

As for me, I usually paint either what I see in my imagination, what I see in nature or in people or animals or things, or sometimes combinations.

WHAT I DO NOT THINK ART IS: I do not think that "art" is what the upper echelons of academia, galleries, museums, or art dealers say it is. I think that the bottom line is that it is "in the eye of the beholder," and all of us are "beholders." Those upper echelons, I have found, often refer something as "art" that is not what I, personally, feel is art. Eye of the beholder, and I have eyes! And no one should insist that I or anyone else has to agree with their opinions.

I'm just a person who loves to make things that are beautiful. Sometimes it's not on a canvas; sometimes it's music I play on my hammered dulcimer or my mountain dulcimer or my gorgeous new Alto Psaltery. Sometimes it's with knitting needles or a crochet hook.

Making art is a joy, but it's also often frustrating or tiring or even a little boring....for a while. But I always come back to it because of the first one: The Joy. But I also hope that what I create brings someone else a bit of joy.

I like to think I am still on my journey, and wherever I am today, I will be further down the road tomorrow. Then who knows where I'll be next week? Next year? Ten years from now? I want everyone to be able to look into the future with anticipation and maybe a little excitement. Those are good things. I hope I can help someone feel those things too.

Welcome!