Artist Spotlight: Seb Barnett

It's been a while since my last post. One thing or another took my focus this past few weeks.

Today I learned some terrible news that a beautiful soul lost the battle with depression and took their own life. Seb Barnett was an incredible artist who inspired me and encouraged me. I wish I'd known you better when I had the chance. The world is less bright without you in it.

Blodeuwedd by Seb Barnett

I remember that Seb often railed against the idea of artistic "talent" as something you either had or you didn't. Instead Seb championed the notion that accomplished artists were the ones who put years and years of work into honing their craft.

So here I am, back at it with blogging my progress, still at the beginning of my journey, trying to follow your lead and put the work in.

Diva Challenge #287

I started with a watercolor background, created the design using Staedtler fineliner pens, and then I deepened the color shading with Neocolor II watersoluble crayons and Prismacolor colored pencils. I learned a valuable lesson about the way that finely sharpened colored pencils can sometimes scratch through the softer, more fibrous watercolor paper I was using for this piece. You might notice that one of the abstract orb shapes looks a bit more like a pearl than the others. That one got a bit of Liquid Pearls paint to cover the damaged paper.

Windsor & Newton watercolor in
Transparent Yellow and Quinacridone Magenta

Work in progress, after inking the design I
added shading with watersoluble crayon and colored pencil

Diva Challenge #287 on watercolor tile
Dreamcatcher, Nebel, Yincut, and Sandswirl

Daniel Lamothe's Dreamcatcher pattern is quite stunning all on it's own. Here I let it take center stage with a mandala-like circular symmetry. I used a Uniball Signo white ink pen and a white chalk pastel pencil on coal black Strathmore sketch paper. I was inspired to try my hand at the convergent shading technique shared by Lynn Mead.

Diva Challenge #287 on black tile

This post is for you, Seb. You are missed.

Intuitive Art Processes

Tomorrow my family is heading out of town for a five-day excursion down to Portland, Oregon to gather with a few hundred other homeschoolers. This annual trip is a highlight of our year and a chance to reunite with far-flung friends and an opportunity to make new ones. Five days filled with fun for the whole family as well as sharing support with other parents for the process of facilitating our kids's educations.

In light of my weekend travel plans, you get a mid-week post!

This week the Diva's challenge to "spill it!" encouraged me to explore the intuitive process of art a little more deeply. No set string, no pre-planned tangles or patterns, just the opportunity to invite chaos and chance into my art practice and respond intuitively to what arrives.

I've been admiring tiles splashed with watercolor lately and so that's what I decided to use for the "spill it" challenge. First I splashed some watercolors and then I spilled some salt.

watercolor drips, splashes, and spills

I used the smooth side of one piece of Canson watercolor paper and one piece of Strathmore Printmaking paper because I didn't want too much surface texture of the paper to interfere with the tangling later on with my Pigma Micron pens.

I used Windsor & Newton watercolors in Transparent Yellow and Quinacridone Magenta because I really enjoy the combination of yellows, pinks, and oranges they make together and being transparent colors I knew they would blend beautifully without getting muddy.

When everything was dry, I cut both papers into ten 4" by 4" tiles.

4in x 4in tiles splashed with watercolor

I chose this tile because the long leggy drip of watercolor across an area of white space immediately brought to mind the tangle Quandu by CZT Eni Oken. That was the start of my intuitive process.

beginning to intuitively tangle the organic shapes
created by the watercolor

I continued to follow the drips, splashes, and spills, filling an irregular shape with Aura-leah, another with Printemps and Flux-like weeds. When a lone Poke Leaf showed up in those Fluxy weeds, I knew that more Poke Leaf and some Poke Root would have to find a home somewhere in the tile. More of each tangle here and there, then joined by Footlites and many orbs and auras. I know that I could keep developing this tile with shading and highlights, but for now it just feels finished. I decided to listen to that feeling.

Quandu, Aura-leah, Printemps, Flux, Poke Leaf, Poke Root, Footlites

This exploration of the intuitive process and my own upcoming trip to Portland both served to remind me of Portland artist and art educator Flora Bowley and her Brave Intuitive Painting modality. I hope you enjoy this short painting video of hers as much as I do!

Welcome to PurposeWorks Studio

PurposeWorks Studio is home to my original works of visual art. It is also a landing place for my thoughts about art, writing, dance, connection, community, and service. This blog is a reflection on my personal growth as an artist, the way I define it.

artist  /ˈärtist/  noun:  anyone who yearns to express thought-idea-emotion in a passionate, intuitive, or even spiritual way

I start with the belief that each of us is born with an innate ability to express ourselves creatively even before we are verbal. The baby experiments with vocalizations; the toddler scribbles with gusto and instinctively sways to music; children imitate and act-out their imaginings. 

These expressions are biological imperatives.

Yet as adults - responsible grown-ups with lives that are serious business - so often these imperatives are tamped down, well-hidden, and long-forgotten. It can take effort to get out of our own way, to let that yearning drive for a while. But the result is that, for one moment or many, we show up as our unique, precious, and divine selves.

So welcome to PurposeWorks Studio, a place where I will show up, give way, and heed the siren call.

Maya
watercolor on paper
Julie Bazuzi (c)2016

when you hear the siren call

but fear forbids you from following,

there you find

your purpose

and once so seeing,

before you stretches

the freedom

to forge ahead