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Don’t Worry, Be Happy
This CutUp and its sister—sister posted yesterday—both make me feel gosh-darned cheerful. I just love the saturated primary colors, the simple sharp-edged shapes, the curved line of the stems, the textures, the differing patterns in the leaves and petals, and the asymmetries. They coalesce to ignite an instant inner and outer smile in me, and… Continue reading
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February Harvesting
On a recent road trip to Quilted Threads in Henniker, NH, friend Phyllis, a pictorial quilter, captivated my attention by sharing how she ‘paints’ with textiles by harvesting small pieces from lengths of fabric she selects to create the images that emerge in her quilts. In a process similar to Phyllis’s, I harvest mindfully-selected bits… Continue reading
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Lost & Found
Whew! Inspiration eventually knocked at my door, asking to help reclaim the shapes that got lost in the visually confusing rickety-house CutUp I started and then set aside last week. Veiling and glazing, a few new elements, and touches of ink outlines joined forces in a dance of subtraction and addition that prompted the previously… Continue reading
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A Tell-Tale Heart
My heart rate was definitely elevated yesterday when I took work-in-progress to the basement in my home where my bare-bones Singer sewing machine gathers dust between infrequent opportunities to be of service. The early stages of creating this new CutUp had moved along with playfulness, purpose, and delight. I had harvested several especially pleasing scraps… Continue reading
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An Indivisible Whole
negative space, positive spacefigure, groundstruggle, easechaos, orderdark, lightstillness, motion yin, yang Continue reading
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Energy Flow
The body is intelligent, and it will naturally guide its energy wherever it needs to go. We don’t have to do anything except get the energy flowing, and then allow it to move. Qigong provides a way to cultivate the flow of energy in the body. I write the words above and then watch as… Continue reading
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What?!
Wendell Berry, in his novel Jayber Crow, expands his description of a rickety house with a simile: the whole thing was slung a little askew like an old dog half minded to lie down. I think today’s CutUp is itself a rickety house slung a little askew like an old dog half minded… Continue reading
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See-Saw
You know how on a see-saw, with some focused attention, riders can position their relative weights on either side of the fulcrum so as to allow for a pleasant cooperative experience of moving up and down, up and down in a satisfying rhythm, and sometimes choose to find the balance point that leaves them at… Continue reading
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Sometimes an Idea Takes a Little Time to Gel
OK, I admit it. I thought making a series of CutUps would be quick and easy; I’d churn out two dozen pieces in no time. Turns out, more often than not they’re time-consuming and challenging. Who’da guessed? Probably my muse. I suspect the challenges are precisely what my creative energy is meant to be grappling… Continue reading
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Wuji
In Chinese philosophy and Qigong there is a concept of Wuji that, in simple terms, represents the state of absolute emptiness or non-duality, where there is no differentiation between yin and yang. Wuji can be considered the foundational stance in Qigong. When done correctly, the practitioner achieves a perfect alignment, allowing energy to move freely… Continue reading
My Story
In 2014, I grab an unexpected opportunity to paint.
To make art.
I get hooked.
In 2015 I start a blog—a diary of my life as an artist.
I post my paintings and their stories. The good, the bad, the ugly.
My compass points: bust through fear, be playful, get messy, trust my gut.
dottyseiter: now playing 