Susan M Gibbons

12-16-19 Have you ever felt so agitated inside that you had to get it all out?  I was like that last week and went to my studio and painted.  What came out of it was good for me - six paintings.  I was a painting fiend!  It felt so good but at the same time, it was an anxious place for where I was and where I had to go mentally, was an uncomfortable place.  I'm pleased as to what was produced but it was not easy painting.  In fact, I was exhausted afterwards. It was very physical.  I do want to paint more of these.  It's not that they were 'fun' to paint, they were needed for me to paint and felt very unrestrained and honest.  I was happy with the results.  I just now, want to go very big with them.  They were painted on Rives BFK printmaking paper (acrylic), 30"x22", which is a good size but I can see them going to four-six feet in size.  It was a challenge and really, I wasn't sure of what exactly I was doing.  I jus...

12-5-19 Entering into the studio is a sacred time.  As artists, we can forget that especially as deadlines loom over us or the business aspect of our craft needs attention.  But really, the time in the studio is sacred.  It creates for us a place to be, to contemplate, to struggle, to work through obstacles, to achieve (or not) our desired expression.  It is a time of connecting to ourselves, to our being, to create and capture the moment of when the connection is made between ourselves and the work and eventually to others. It is also a time for us to relinquish the worries and cares of our lives and enter into a place of active being.  This seems to be a oxymoron for to be, many times, we are resting but in the studio, we are working.  But it goes beyond work.  It is the time where we enter the 'zone', that place where our creative actions, materials, concepts, and execution all come into one. The synergy of that time creates the sacred space in ...