Patti Edmon Artist

In times of frustration I feel that I've painted a million pieces and am still not where I want to be. So, I recently joined psychiatrist and abstract artist Nancy Hillis' Artist's Journey . It costs more than I can afford but I reasoned that art is the blood flowing through my veins and short supply means certain annihilation.  Looking back through my photos, I was surprised to see that I've only been 'abstract' for just over a year. As that realization settled, I started to feel justified, happy even, about my progress. And these pieces, done over the past few weeks (along with 30+ others), really are just the beginning. Before starting this new, deeper journey with Dr. Hillis, I was focused on fewer, more layered paintings that might look good in an office or over a sofa. I don't know about you, but having a sofa in my creative vision blocks a whole lot of authenticity. I still love these paintings but I'm surpr...

Painting my heart out, painting out loud, painting outside the lines... so many ways to express intuitive painting. Over the past several months I've been totally into abstract. My love for color is deep and each layer of every painting tells a different part of the story. Crowns 24x36 acrylic on gallery canvas, my favorite painting ever, was accepted for Linus Gallery's Abstract Exhibit and I couldn't be more thrilled. This (and most all other) was inspired by Jean Michel Basquiat ... not his work so much as his approach to painting. Let it fly! Dig down to that primal place where the real essence resides - otherwise known as 'flow'. I'm not using Facebook, searching for galleries, sending my work out. I don't know, it has been a personal process, and OK, so I have hundreds of paintings!! Next step is to do the thing - you know, website, social media schedule, etc. etc.  Have you done that yet? Wow, so daunting. And time cons...

I recently figured out that if I don't like a painting maybe it's just not finished! Brilliant observation after several years, but it made me wonder if other artists have consciously come to know that or if it's embarrassingly obvious... The one constant in every piece of art I've created is layers. I love layers. I live to layer. So, it would seem that I would have already come to this conclusion. But I've spent considerable amounts of time working on a piece only to file it with the other shunned canvases.  I don't know about y'all (ok, I grew up in Upstate New York but I've lived in Kentucky for a hundred years), but does this ring a bell? I mentioned it while in workshop with the fabulous and talented  Wan Marsh (at Random Arts in late August) and she looked at me like I'd just informed her that the world is round.  So, whether or not it's a no-brainer that fact changes the entire process, makes each step less 'brain surge...