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humbly seeking imagery

me in ttv by andrea

did i tell you about taking pictures like elephants in the rain at the laundry mat? we looked at the images upside and backwards and tiny like herds of humble elephants bowed down with long trunks as the rain pitter pattered on our hands. hula taught us a ttv class after her show recently and it was AMAZING. i took a bunch of photos, but have only processed two thus far.

one of katrina (love her beret, scarf, ring and rarely captured pensive stare):

and another of ms jen and her mister bob (mustaches at the curiosity shoppe!):

all of it makes me so, so, so very excited for our upcoming joy retreat with polaroids, painting and cooking! there may still be some spots left...

i wrote about kindness over here. and hula wrote about my new painting series on one of my fave design blogs~ poppytalk. there are still some treasure seekers originals in the shop too.

be well,

mati

you are beautiful!

yes, you!! my darling assistant fanny gifted me this on tuesday. i love that i awake to it on my dresser under my mirror every morning. i believe there are more in her awesome etsy shop. i also adore my original mindy painting (i think her name is carissa, the painting's name!)... more in her sweet shop. both of these girls i met as students at the artful journey retreat and they are making art like gangbusters!

and check out the furtherest ring on the right... the hot pink + green number... andrea's sweet girl ava made it for me:) feeling loved.

i also wanted to say a big THANK YOU for buying any art and mention i have new prints in my shop too!

i'm writing this in advance as i'm actually away at hot springs right now with no wifi or cell service. hope i don't go bananas! i'm clearly addicted ;)

xxxxxxx

mati

photos by the fantastic bob lake

NEWEST TREASURE SEEKERS ARE UP!

My newest sea series is now available in the shop! Limited edition prints are available from the last series too. Thank you! xxxx

treasure seekers part 2

my newest batch of treasure seeker paintings will be available tomorrow, as in thursday, november 18th at 10am pacific standard time!admittedly, i'm a wee bit obsessed with boats and shades of turquoise right now!

begin...

i love how you can line up the seas in them...

wide ocean sea bloom...this painting combines vintage wallpaper with contemporary patterns, beautiful shades of blue paint sanded to show layers with a silver leaf boat and charcoal pencil. Not to mention the fuschia blooms~

sea wall...

with this series i'm connecting the dots between my childhood on the maine coast and today on the coast of sf. my papa named a boat after me and i think that was formative in my thinking of myself when i was little. here's the name plate still hanging in my childhood bedroom~

ships ahoy!

xo

mati

fun stuff

* registration is now open for the JOY retreat i'm teaching at up on the oregon coast... painting, polaroids and cooking! and the sea :)

* my friend cindy featured me recently for her sketchbook stories on an illustration i did for the cute magazine "baby bug"!

* toffee magazine is out! they did an interview with me for their current issue! you can download it here for only $2.95!

xoxo

mati

*

process + perfectionism

i want to share some shots and thoughts of a good art day.


it begins with coffee on the back porch (this is when the basset hound behind us is not barking) and 3 pages hand written of the morning pages a la julia cameron. I have her complete set: The Complete Artist's Way: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice, which looks like a bible and sort of is for artists!


i wanted to share this excerpt on perfectionism from julia that ties well to my earlier post about flow--she speaks about her artistic process in writitng:

To the critic, ease feels foreign--and suspicious. Work should be work, shouldn't it? Surely nothing can simply flow?
Damn the colloquial! Every thought, each sentence, must be carefully weighted. Nothing can begin without knowing the ending. There is no room for exploration, for ambiguity. The critic is a nervous man. The critic likes known routes.

The critic believes in product, not process. Do not try to simply rough something in. Forget sketching. That's not good enough. The critic does not like us to have the joy of creation. It is interested in fixing things, not in creating things. It insists there must always be something to fix.

Julia then moves on to talk about the two functions of the artist, the creative impulse and the critical one. She calls the critical one by the name Nigel, which is funny if you have an english friend named Nigel like I do!

Nigel in her mind is stereotypically:

...a gay man with impossibly high aesthetic standards. My work is never good enough for Nigel. He is always with a red pencil. According to Nigel, who has never been known to say anything nice, it is the critic's job to be critical.

I love the idea of naming and separating the critic from the creative process. Letting the creative process be a time where you can do no wrong. Make no mistakes. Be completely imperfect. Then later bring on in Nigel to edit when you're ready!

After I do my morning pages-- I bike on down to my on to my studio that's about 6 blocks away and start by seeking inspiration.



Then I do a bit of staring at my paintings from different angles and seeing what they need.


then turning up the music (feeling particularly fond of the weepies newest Be My Thrill lately, thanks to andrea's rec) and playing in paint!



xxxxoox
mati