Patti Edmon Artist

After living with the feeling that I'd gone as far as I could with faces, I discovered the next challenge - color. And texture. Incorporating some of my texturing techniques and creating layers - with varying degrees of visibility - opened a whole new channel in this process.  I felt a little bored, maybe frustrated when I finished the series of 45 faces (ha, for me that's a huge series), and it worried me. I fretted, during an illness-flare week I stewed, trying to reason my way through the Big R (resistance, thanks Steven Pressfield ). I caught phrases running through my head like, "I'm not a real artist, I can only get to point X," and "why am I doing this anyway, there are so many more experienced, far more talented face makers out there..." Not quite fast enough to silence them - yet - but I'll bet anyone reading this knows just what I'm talking about - monkey mind! Then I saw a post on a friend's Facebook page an...

Aside from a couple of small, gifty projects I haven't worked in my studio since the Red Thread Retreat . If my feet were smaller I'd probably have made more progress on the re-purposed shoe boxes, but there are still four weeks until Christmas. I'm not sure whether it's taking care of sick children, too much on the list, the crush of cold weather on my arthritis, or all of the above. I do know that the more I try to control or balance obligations the more frustrated and impatient I become. And still no finished boxes. And I still can't decide if time away from the studio is simply that, or if triggers a germination of sorts. An examination of the inner-workings of the creative process often isn't pretty; for me anyway, it's scattered and messy. Preparing pumpkins for Thanksgiving pies seemed an apt metaphor, a labor that involves guts and sorting, scraping away the pulp and seeds, which have their own use, then setting asid...

photo by Alice Taylor Edmon, my incredible and beautiful daughter I've been smiling since yesterday. Not a sweet or content smile but a full-out joy and gratitude grin. Having included Steven Pressfield and his fabulous books in so many of my posts, I decided it was time to let him know just how much they have impacted my creative process and improved the quality of life overall. So I did. I kept it to 3 paragraphs and didn't over-edit the email, just sent it off. What I was not expecting was a reply. Twenty minutes after I hit send.  He thanked me for taking time to write a "wonderful, warm and funny letter!" He went on to say, "I'm delighted that "War of Art" found a home with you (and "Turning Pro" too).  Your blog/site looks great." Wow. Now, is Steven a regular guy, who gets up every day and battles to do his work (which, he does extremely well) and put it out for people like me to read? I haven...

The third in the series of 12x12 canvases featuring Frozen Charlottes (and cabinet cards) is perhaps my favorite so far. I think it's the glove... one of those rare treasures that - once discovered - becomes a must have. The glove has been in one of my many collection bins for three years. I could not imagine how I would use it, but hoped that one day there would be a moment of realization that it would be just right for a piece of art.  I enjoy sifting, sorting, stacking and perusing the objects, papers, fabrics, junk jewelry, vintage treasures and rusty bits I've collected over the years. But I’ve often had a sense of reluctance when it came to parting with a special bit even though I was incorporating it into my art. I doubt I'm the only artist who keeps a stash, hesitant to forge ahead for fear that another, better purpose will reveal itself. In due time. Meanwhile remaining content to marvel at the folds, wrink...

My husband, Jim, has a new business partner and Edmon Design, founded by moi in 1990, is now Balance Creative, LLC . We've known David (Caldwell) for years - they have been contemporaries in the design/advertising community since their years at the same college. Our teenagers are close in age - our sons love metal (music) and our daughters danced at the same ballet studio for several years. David's reputation includes descriptors like integrity, talent, strength of character, humor; in short, we're thrilled to have him and 2012 started off with the kind of enthusiasm and sense of adventure that should fuel our life endeavors. David's daughter turned 14 a week ago. He'd mentioned to Jim that he'd like to give her a box like the ones he'd seen on my blog. I haven't completed a project since well before the holidays and hesitated to commit, unwilling to add another half-finished piece to the stack. As I began anyway, I realized the true impact of havi...

The end of the movie Cast Away when Tom Hanks is standing at the intersection in the middle of apparent nowhere, after the girl in the truck has explained where all the roads lead - seen it? Though a likely conclusion is inferred, the movie - like real life - doesn't finish the story for us. Though I have not shared the experience of being marooned with only a ball for company, I identify with the sense of being lost and a search that, while seemingly external, is a metaphor for the inner journey. Miles-long stretches of open roads, no clearly marked destinations... crossroads. I've spent many hours standing there often not realizing that it wasn't going to be made easy by a bolt of lightening or script writer. Sometimes having choices is as overwhelming as not having any. A studio stocked with enough supplies to go retail does not equate to art making. A stack of empty journals and cache of pens doesn't create prose. I've written poetry, short stories, essays, blog...