Last weekend, Mr. F and I took a little backpacking trip up into the Trinity Alps, a mountain range about two hours east of Eureka. As we were hiking, I got to thinking about the parallels between the creative process and adventuring. The act of being creative, whether as an artist, writer, musician or however you stretch those muscles, is a daring endeavor– you can plan and prepare, but the real joy is in the unknown path ahead.
Want to know how to be a creative adventurer? Here are a few simple steps to venture into the unknown!
1 | set some goals and make a plan. Think about where you’d like to end up and what you think you’ll need to achieve to get there. The trail might be smooth or you may end up doing some bush-whacking to find your way, or you may change course altogether, but setting out with a vision of the finish line will help keep you focused when you feel like giving up.
2 | find yourself a partner. Whether it’s a spouse, friend, or fellow creative, tell someone your plan. It’s never smart to go out into the wild on your own and having some company along the way will help to keep you on the right track and keep your perspective in check.
3 | work your plan, one step at a time. We all want to race to the finish line, to skip the grueling climb and reach the peak. Prepare to feel overwhelmed, discouraged, to want to turn around and head back down the mountain. But keep on keepin’ on and before you know it, you’ve turned the next corner.
4 | know when to veer off the plan and take a risk. Just because you have a plan doesn’t mean you must stick to it if things aren’t working. Maybe the path isn’t what you thought it would be or you just need to liven things up a little. Take a risk and you may find that you end up in a place even better than you imagined.
5 | let yourself take a break. If you’re finding yourself discouraged or disillusioned with where you’re going, give it a rest for a while. Do something else, something fun and completely different, then come back refreshed and rejuvenated.
6 | celebrate your successes! It’s easy to get so caught up into heading for the next goal that we forget to take the time to celebrate our achievements. Take a moment, a day, an evening, and dedicate it to treating yourself and reveling in a mission accomplished!
7 | evaluate & recalibrate Now that you’ve reached the pinnacle, look back at what you’ve done and how you got there. What would you change? How can you be better prepared for next time? Mr. F and I do this after each backpacking trip and we always find things we can improve for next time.. I mean, did we really need all this trail mix?
Once you can see objectively where you’ve been and how you’ve got there, you’ll have a clearer idea of where you’d like to go next. And a sense of assurance that you can do what it takes to get there.
Are you headed out on a creative adventure or find yourself in the midst of a journey? How’s your progress?
Have you ever watched a sunset, watching the sun melt into the landscape and wished there was a way to capture other than on your iPhone? New York artist Jamie Harris seems to ensnare the elemental liquidity of nature in infused glass.
These encapsulations of color seem to magically suspend the elements forever in animation– a sun that never quite sets, water that freezes mid-flow. Bright, saturated color hangs in translucent waves that seem like they could crash into each other any second. Completely enchanting.
Remember candy necklaces? I mean, jewelry you could eat?? Every little girl’s dream! And big girls, too, as it turns out. Scottish jewelry artist Rosie Kimber crafts her own wearable confections from resin, silicone, and sugar crystals creating modern, artistic baubles pretty enough to eat!
These put those candy necklaces to shame. So much prettier and without the yucky slightly sweet chalky taste!
I do love work filled with calming translucency and dreamy washes. But sometimes, I’m in the mood for something a bit more wild. The work of South African born Boston-based artist CK Aderem is filled with controlled explosions of texture and color that is totally getting my juices flowin’.
These small scale paintings are like tiny landscape abstractions, bursting forth with color and teeming with movement. Layers peek from behind each other like a mythical creature shyly glancing from around a corner, enchanting and drawing me in to try to get to another glimpse. I want to slide down those thick lines of paint, to see where falling down those rabbit holes might lead. What an adventure it would be to fall into the candy colored world he is creating!
Summer is officially here! ‘Tis the season we take to the water! Perhaps as an escape from the heat, but even more so, we are drawn to watery places this time of year because of the calming effect of water upon our souls and spirits. In summer, we give ourselves permission to pause and it’s tough to be stressed and harried when gazing out over the ocean’s horizon. Toronto artist Elizabeth Lennie captures the way summer draws us to the water and out of our depths.
While Lennie’s portfolio is filled with more typical watery palettes of blues and greens, it was to these warmer pieces that I found myself most drawn. Something about these peachy tones reminded me so much of the slowing down we do in the summer time. Perhaps they recall the glow of sunset over a day spent in nothing but play, with no plans to stop any time soon. A day when we let ourselves linger, whether on the beach or simply over dinner on the patio at home, we relish relaxation in summer, a lesson we could all carry over into every other season.
To see more of Elizabeth Lennie‘s work, please visit her website. Mr. Forager & I have lots of waterside backpacking and camping planned for this summer. How are you relaxing this summer?
Thanks to this gypsy-like lifestyle we’ve chosen, Mr. Forager and I find ourselves on frequent road trips. Whether journeying to our next destination or exploring our current spot, we’ve put a lot of miles on our little Hyundai! Each stretch of highway has its own personality and Seattle artist Matt Sawyer beautifully captures the atmosphere of the view from four wheels.
An analog fine art photographer, Sawyer’s work has this beautiful signature palette– desaturated yet strong color and light that is reminiscent of those mornings when you rise before the sun to hit the road and evenings when you decide to just try to make it a little bit farther before stopping for the night. There is a quietness about this series, as if you’ve turned the radio off, stopped talking and just listened to the road as it passes. It has stories to tell, we just have to listen.
*This post contains affiliate links. As curator of the Artsy Forager for Mantle Art Collection, I receive a small commission on each piece sold from the collection.
In this week’s round up of gallery shows and museum exhibitions, I am so bummed that I’m nowhere near any of these spots because each of these shows looks amazing!
Click through the gallery links above for more information about each show. If you check ‘em out, tag me ( @artsyforager ) on Instagram with the hashtag #dontmissartsiness! If you go I’ll be totally jealous!
It seems I’ve been more obsessed with flowers this spring than ever. Perhaps because here in Northern California, everything has been blooming like crazy! I’m constantly discovering new floral delights, both of the cultivated and wild varieties. Our favorites are the wildflowers that can only be discovered by hiking into the woods, where they grow freely and without abandon. These paintings by French artist Laurence Amelie capture the untamed beauty of flora unleashed.
When we’re hiking, I often wonder how a certain flower came to be in the place we find it. Was it’s seed dropped by an overhead bird? Or carried on the wind to arrive at its destination? Whatever the method, the result is a beautifully haphazard garden where flowers grow content and untethered. On her website, the artist refers to this as “poetic disorder”. Such a lovely turn of phrase for the way in which wild things grow.
Three posts in one day?! What’s going on? I’ll tell you what– I am joining with the folks at Great.ly to celebrate the first ever White House Maker Faire! America has always been a creative nation, but in recent years, as technology has become accessible, we’ve seen the rise of a Maker’s Movement, creating opportunity where there were once just dreams. Today, the White House celebrates our #nationofmakers and so do I!
To honor just a few of the amazing makers out there, I thought I’d share a handful of the creative entrepreneurs you can find in The Trove, my boutique gallery at Great.ly—
Emily Jeffords
Jennifer Steen Booher
Meredith Aitken
Romina Bacci
Deb Haugen
Find more from these amazing artists in The Trove! I’m so honored to play even a small part in helping to build up these creative careers! Happy Maker’s Day!
This post contains affiliate links. As a Great.ly Tastemaker and curator of The Trove, I receive a small commission on each piece sold from The Trove boutique gallery.
In my guest post “Artsy Abroad: Fear, Frustration, and the Art of the Forage” last month, I described the time I spent at the beginning of the year in Batuan, Bali, seeking out artists to interview during a month-long arts writing grant. I was lucky to find an abundance of artistic inspiration during this time and am excited to share this with you now…
Ketut Jaya Kaprus’ studio in Batubulan, Bali, Indonesia. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell.
One of the first artists I was introduced to was Ketut Jaya Kaprus. Kaprus brought a sampling of images and videos with him (see the video at the end of this post) and this meeting sparked a wonderful and ongoing conversation about art, the environment, and our artistic inspirations.
Soon after this initial meeting, Kaprus invited me to his home studio in Batubulan and then to his friend Made Budhiana’s studio in Denpasar. I spent the day with Kaprus, Budhiana, another artist Wayan Sunadi, and my friend and translator Sudipa Yasa from Bali Purnati. Together, we discussed their experiences at art school, their artistic community and arts collectives in Bali, and their work.
top | Ketut Jaya Kaprus, detail from one of offering paintings. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell. bottom | Kaprus’ examples of physical offerings, the inspiration for much of his work and color palette. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell.
When I arrived at Kaprus’ studio, he began by showing me a handful of his smaller framed works – all of which were naturalistic in style and depicted detailed paintings of the daily offerings one sees all over Bali. As a Hindu priest in his home village, Kaprus is inspired and motivated by traditional Balinese customs and ritual symbols – all of which he incorporates into his work. These smaller paintings beautifully capture the details of the offerings that are an integral part of everyday life in Bali. Kaprus became interested in making these offerings at a young age, and later, he began transforming the physical offerings into representations of them as well.
left | Interior of Kaprus’ studio in Batubulan. Photo by Ellen C. Caldwell right | Kaprus painting in his studio during the interview. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell
Besides these realistic paintings, Kaprus is more known for his loud, colorful, and abstract paintings. Monumental and larger than life, in many cases, these paintings covered every inch of his walls—a physical symbol of the way in which art and the creative process takes up every aspect of his spiritual and psychic being. Seeing both of his painting styles together shows how the colors and symbology from the offerings are the literal inspiration for and translation of the larger abstract paintings. In this way, the smaller works shed a light on the meanings and jumping off points for his larger works.
After a wonderful studio visit and interview with Kaprus, we headed to Budhiana’s studio in Denpasar. Simply put, Budhiana’s studio is the stuff of dreams.
The entryway to Made Budhiana’s studio in Denpasar. Photo by Ellen C. Caldwell.
A large, two-story barnlike structure, it has all the right lighting, large open spaces for his huge canvases, an amazing sound system and movie projection setup, books and music to inspire the mind, and art to inspire the senses.
Budhiana is an established international artist and he sees part of his role in Bali as being a mentor for fellow artists. He invites artists to apply for short residencies to share his lovely studio space while working on their own practice. He is also a lover of classic rock, so much of our day was cast to a soft pulsing soundtrack of Hendrix, Zeppelin, and Clapton: an undercurrent, as if the studio’s lifeline.
left | Inside Budhiana’s studio. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell. right | Inside Budhiana’s studio. Kaprus, Sunadi, and Yasa pictured from left to right. Photo by: Ellen C. Caldwell.
Budhiana’s work is generally large (a minimum of about 4-6 feet wide) and very colorful. Steady lines of bright reds, yellows, and oranges pack the canvases’ frames and tell a larger story. Humor and visual narrative, both large and integral parts of Balinese culture, are as much his medium as the paint and canvas themselves. Their friend and colleague from Indonesian Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta (Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta/ISI Yogyakarta), Wayan Doel Sunadi, was also there to show me his paintings. Sunadi’s work takes the comedy up a notch too, as he plays around with humorous subjects and viewers’ expectations for contemporary Balinese painters (as with Mystery of Sunglasses).
left | Wayan Doel Sunadi, Mystery of Sunglasses ( detail ), 140 x 200cm, mixed media on canvas, 2013. Photo courtesy of the artist. right | Wayan Doel Sunadi, Tarbang, acrylic on canvas. Photo courtesy of the artist.
A final interior of Budhiana’s studio. Photo by Ellen C. Caldwell.
None of these artists paint in the older, traditional Balinese styles in any conventional sense, but they all show their artistic roots in different and distinct ways. Through symbology, humor, and narrative, they all ground their practices in older and existing elements of Balinese painterly traditions and themes while experimenting with new and distinct styles that highlight contemporary Balinese culture.
“Ketut Jaya Kaprus: Artwork and Inspiration,” 2014, Film director and editor: Dadi Reza Pujadi, Music by: Jeff Schmidt: live solo, and Marcus Miller: solo bass, A Free Parking Working Film. Video posted courtesy of the artist.
Are you loving these little virtual foraging trips through Bali as much as I am? Thanks so much to Ellen for sharing her adventures and to the artists for opening their studios. More to come from Ellen next month!
Are you an artist, arts writer, or blogger who is planning a residency or trip abroad and would like to share your own Artsy Abroad story? Shoot me and email via the Contact page and let’s chat!
