Tips for how to start appreciating art

Looking at art is like meeting a person, and having a conversation with them, getting to know them. Think of the art as another human being. After all, some person somewhere made it, and put something of themselves into it, and had some reason for making it, some idea they wanted to put out there in the world for others to see/hear/experience. They can’t respond back to you when you meet their art, but you can respond to what they’ve made.

If you don’t know what to say to a stranger, it helps to prepare an interview, come up with a selection of questions to ask when you meet them.

Pay attention to your first impression, as it can guide you in how to proceed. With most people/art, there might be something familiar you can talk about.

Try to think of something similar you may have seen before that you can compare it to. Is there a person or animal in the painting? Do you recognize anything about them? What are they doing? Are they alone or with others? If with others, how are they relating to each other? If a landscape, is it like any place you’ve ever been? Is it daytime, what season? what’s the weather like? Where’s the sun? Any people or buildings in it? And with all art, you can ask yourself how you feel when looking at it. Could you “enter” the painting, such as by a road or path if a landscape, or a door/window if a building?

Some of them are difficult to talk with. They might be totally unfamiliar, strong colors, strange shapes, odd materials that you’re not even sure what they are. Alien. Maybe it’s a canvas with just one color in it. Why did the artist choose that color? What does the color remind you of? Is there a texture or shine to it? Is it balanced from one side to the other?

Or maybe it’s just a very strange thing… with this kind of art, you can start by asking yourself how you feel when looking at it. Do you want to stare at it? Get closer? Touch it? Or stop looking at it and run away? Does it scare you? Make you feel sick? Why? Is it the odd shapes, weird mix of colors? You might find yourself learning as much about yourself as about the art.

After you have more experiences looking at art, you can more readily enter a conversation, back and forth, with the art. What is it saying, and how are you responding? Over time, the more you look at an individual work of art, you will notice new and different aspects of it that seem to appear from nowhere, which makes you feel like there is a real conversation going on.

Garden of the Gods

Pikes Peak

I live in a beautiful part of the country, close to these two well-known wonders. The climate here "suits my clothes" and seems good for my health as well. I wish I had some real friends here but that's starting to change. I'm getting accustomed to the solitude which is leading to feeling more at ease with myself. More artwork is coming from this, slowly but steadily. I'm doing a lot of thinking about, planning new images, getting and working with ideas, making changes to recent works. Finding my way. 

2016 has been a hard year, with mostly external challenges, with one exception: the moving away of my son's family, including my two grandsons whom I've spent almost every Friday with for 3 years. I moved here to be near them, and now that they've gone, it's been a major adjustment. Like pulling a plant out by the roots. I understand why they moved, but still, it's been hard for me. I had feelings of being betrayed, abandoned, deceived. I was angry, hurt, fearful for awhile. 

There might still be some of that, but I've been working with those feelings and lately feel like I'm growing through them, putting new roots down, roots of my own, and am starting to feel more connected to this place as a result: my cozy house, my neighbors, the groups doing work that I care about. It helps to focus on actions that improve conditions for others. I send postcards to my grandboys, gave them an annual pass to their local science museum, so they can get out of the house and learn more about their world. I donate to my local public radio station, art museum, and nonprofits that support public lands. 

That last one is a little selfish, since I value having access to hiking trails where I can get away from the city and be among wild beings (plants and animals). To me that's like food, medicine, energy. To paraphrase John Muir, going out there is like going inside, like getting recharged, refreshed. I need to go to the woods, the rivers, the mountains.

St. Mary's Falls hike with Meetup group

So it's been a couple of years since I've posted here! Two years and one month, exactly. Time to pick it up again:

It seems that I'm more inclined to write after having gone out on a hike. Definitely a pattern to it. Even though I've been hiking quite a bit and not writing, I feel like writing after a good hike. Walking in the woods tends to settle the brain and make coherent thoughts more likely to come about.

Today's hike was led by a longtime local, and the pace was quite brisk for an all-uphill trail in icy/slushy snow. I lagged behind, partly due to being out of shape, partly due to fighting a cold, partly due to still getting adjusted to the altitude, but mostly because I insist on looking around as I go while also watching my step. When almost to the destination (but at the steepest part of the trail), I decided to turn around and let the others continue, letting them know I'd meet them back at the cars. That's when the hike started to be really fun.

I started to sing the old New Hampshire song I learned as a kid in 4-H, "I want to wake up/in the morning/where the purple lilacs grow/where the sun comes a-peeping/into where I'm a-sleeping/and the songbirds say "hello"... since lilacs grow naturally around here, I changed the words a bit to suit the locale. Then I saw a black squirrel and while watching it, a big clump of wet snow landed between my front pack and my shirt, a very wet cold spot! Shook it off and kept going... went alongside a steep slope, and was inspired, by having seen pacific northwest snow donuts, to make my own. Rolled a sticky snowball down the slope, and it gathered more snow as it went, becoming a tall rolling donut as it went. Another one got very large, hit a shrub, broke apart and kept rolling, becoming a dozen or so more donuts! Lots of fun! Then I saw a family further down the trail doing the same thing! Some went all the way down, 100' or so, to a little creek at the bottom.



I thought about how I've been meeting new people here, and wishing to meet someone who'd like to go hiking regularly without having to go with a large group... and thought I'd better narrow down that wish. I want someone who likes to hike but also likes to go slow enough to enjoy the scenery, have a little fun, notice new things, critters, odors, sounds, birds... while also being prepared for the weather and destination. And someone who doesn't dislike meeting dogs on the trail since they seem to be everywhere, and who doesn't grouse about politics along the way... There, that's my wish!

I later learned that where I turned around on the trail was not far from the goal, a waterfall. But it was reportedly a very disappointing falls, almost all covered in snow, barely a trickle. So I didn't miss much!

Morning rain

Seems the forecast for the next few days shows the first half of each day with a much higher chance of precip than the latter halves. Kinda interesting. Maybe plan my daily walk (which I've been missing lately) for watching the sunset...

Flying Time

Not just 2012, but February already! Zoom!

We had a solid week of a hard freeze a couple weeks ago, and fortunately it came after a nice thick blanket of snow (6") covered everything in the garden. Fluffy insulation topped by a thin layer of crust. Perfect protection from the frozen winds out of the Fraser valley in Canada. So after it all melted away and temps went up to the 40's again, the brussels sprouts have been plumping up and the kale looks fine.

Seed Catalog Time! I ordered some Tepary beans out of the southwest, from Native Seeds/Search in Tucson. I chose two kinds: one from a high elevation in Mexico, the other from near the coast. I figured either one might translate into coping with high latitude near a coast like here? An experiment. The garden is south facing and gets quite dry in July/August, so they might do well. Looking forward to the black garbanzos again, they are a fun little plant, very pretty and productive with little tending.

Off to have some apple/blackberry pie for breakfast! Sunny day ahead...

End of February already?

Having another week of "wintery" weather. Nothing like New England, sure, but for here, it's been a cold one. Kale got hit hard and won't be edible this spring. Glad I'm converting the garden to perennial fruits, much less work. I think. I planted a fig tree a couple of weeks ago, defying the odds, and may have lost. Oh well, I'll try again when it really is spring, and once established it'll be able to withstand this kind of chill. Many neighbors have full size trees that produce very well. Love fresh figs!

Work: may have a full time framing position coming up later this spring. Have been invited to apply/interview by the store manager. Okay, benefits, doing what I know, sounds good to me. Only drawback would be driving out of town. I'm spoiled by being able to walk to work at both of my part time jobs I have now. But I'd better grow up sooner or later, and get real with this employment thing!

I miss my grandboy! Had a wonderful visit with him and the family in January. Wish they didn't live on the other side of the continent. I considered the possibility of moving back to the east coast, but with the higher cost of living and my income record, I doubt if I could qualify for another mortgage back there, so I'd be going back to renting, which is pricey too... Gonna just do what I can here and make more trips. Hoping for another one maybe this fall, see the trees turn color (they do here too, but not as intense or with such variety.) By then, the new grandboy-to-come Ahvi will be a few months old, and Efren will be that much older and more amazing.

New Years Eve almost 2011

Been a long time since I've written here. Thought I'd start it up again, see how long it lasts this time. See if anyone reads/responds...

New Year's Eve, almost 2011. In spite of the crappy economy, I feel like personally things will be steady and improving this coming year. I intend (=new year resolution) to do more income producing projects, independent of my two part time jobs. I want to fix up old frames, for people who own them, or else buy and resell them. I want to do French Matting as a custom service. Special things like that. Maybe even do some of my own art and sell that. Little things that I can do on the side, at home, in my spare time, that will bring in a little extra.

I also will continue to transform my front veggie garden (used to be lawn) into a more perennial food producing spot. It's a heckova lot of work doing annuals, especially when summers are so iffy. I will keep a small spot for garlic, and maybe for squash or peppers as those seem to have done well even in crappy summers. Otherwise, more berries and other fruits. Maybe try a fig again but put it out away from the house so it can get more sun.