Dear readers,
Yesterday was the opening of my exhibition at Grifsteede in Utrecht. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, and a lot of dear friends and family came to visit. Was wonderful! Below you see a photo of mine while I was doing my opening speech 😉
Today I started a small artjournal.
I wanted to paint, but not for long, so I took this art journal that already was lying there for ages. It is quite small (if it is open 11 – 15 cm (about 4,5-6″), so I thought it would not work with my paintings. But actually it is quite nice. I don’t prepare it with gesso or so. I just used a small layer of golden paints (the higher quality), and on top of that the crayons. Very nice to experiment and play again with this great paint!
I have been thinking a lot lately about creativity and art and what it can mean for human beings. It is not only about creating beautiful things, it is also building trust in you capability to create, to make something out of nothing. And it is also growing your resilience – the capaility to stay with discomfort, fear, doubt, insecurity, and still keep going on. Why don’t we all make art (or at least the people who feel inclined to it? Because we think we can’t? Because it is not for ‘our kind of people?’ These are questions I am thinking about this moment. For me, I can say artmaking is important, it is just fun of course, but it is also learning me lessons that I do not learn anywhere else.
Thanks for reading!
Simone
Hi Dotty!
Thanks for your warm words! You have been my biggest supporter in this whole journey, and I thank you for that!
I had the same doubts about the art journal. What if I make something beautiful that turns out really well? Then it is only in my art journal… I recognize this ‘preciousness’ that you talk about . But today, after all this busyness around the exhibition, I felt like really being simple and humble and starting all over again, very small. Probably things will change soon enough, and will this art journal maybe gets a bit forgotten. But that doesn’t matter, I think. It is not a big ‘task’ or ‘promise’ that I should forfill. It is only a little book that I can use when I want to do my daily painting but I want to stay away from my ‘production mode’.. 😉
About the ‘enlightenment’ things: I think I understand very well what you mean, and I hope to exchange about that more. Might be something crucial.
bye!
Simone
Simone,
I can’t tell you how my heart sang when I saw the photo of you at your opening at Grifsteede! Having ‘walked’ within sight of your daily painting for 18 months now, I took such delight in seeing one of your (entirely familiar) paintings with a big space in which to share itself with others. I am in such admiration of your authentic heartfelt journey to this place, and your ongoing authentic heartfelt daily painting.
What did you speak about in your introductory remarks?
I laughed when I read that you have started a small art journal. I have been thinking about starting one myself! Have even written it down in my daily to-do lists several times as something to consider. What I really notice or think about with a journal is the experimental and playful nature of it. Somehow, thinking about having an art journal makes me mindful that I probably still have stronger feelings of ‘preciousness’ about my paintings.
I am grateful for your continued thinking about creativity and art. Your thoughts resonate strongly with me. It is about creating beauty but it is also about ‘building trust in your capability to create, to make something of nothing.’ And also about ‘growing resilience, the capability to stay with discomfort, fear, doubt, insecurity, and still keep going on.’
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Like you, art offers me a very direct way to learn life in ways that I don’t learn it elsewhere. I was JUST thinking about that yesterday. About how I have moments of living in what I might call enlightenment, and that those moments come most often through my engagement in creating art.