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Coming Into Your Artistic Expression
By Cornelia Powell | July 14, 2008
The defining function of the artist is to cherish consciousness.
-Max Eastman
If you talk to an artist about their inspiration, new worlds open up! As I continue exploring where our inspirations come from and what it takes to shift our limited belief of what we can accomplish and who we can “be,” I find artist Genie Maples’ story a perfect illustration.
I met Genie in her gallery at the River Arts District Studio Show in Asheville, North Carolina recently. She calls her contemporary oil paintings, “visual poetry” — and I loved the language they spoke and could feel the intimacy in the room. Genie’s space was full of spirit and life.
Genie shared with me later how she came to painting as a late bloomer. “I was over 40 when I started painting and had no idea it was something I could do to make a living. I had drawn as a child, but kept it private,” she explained. She then assisted her own little girls with art projects for years, and one day she had an experience that changed everything.
“I was pouring their paints into the sink, watching the colors go down the drain. There was this soft, buttery yellow color that mesmerized me. I didn’t want to pour it out; I just wanted to put it on paper.”
So she did. First the yellow, then some blue. (Perhaps not unlike the first painting I saw of Genie’s that day in the entrance of the multi-artist studio. The painting that led me up the stairs to find what I didn’t know I was looking for.)
Like many artists who say that their inspiration “comes out of nowhere”, call it spirit or a higher power, but something seems to take over and flow through them, Genie takes it further.
“Yes, there’s spontaneity when I paint, where what goes on canvas seems to come from somewhere else. But there’s also a rational procedure.” Genie describes a process where she’s learned to combine what feels like a “clear ego” with a spiritual inspiration, creating a two-fold process. “Thinking consciously, and staying present. It feels like I’m bringing my whole self to my work.”
Genie works in all sizes of canvases, and since I’m building a tiny log cabin on my magical mountainside with little wall space, I selected a like-wise tiny painting. Hanging right on the inside of her doorway, I kept coming back to the six-inch square titled “Her Heart.” I decided this was perfect, in size and message to bring home with me.
When I told Genie of my selection, like many artists, she seemed happy with how her art matched its new home, therefore at peace with letting it go. I thanked her by saying a little intentional “slip of the tongue”: Instead of “art” I said, “Thank you for sharing your heart with me.”
Same thing.
Love. Listen. Let go.
… with love from Cornelia
Topics: Remembrances, Women's Notes |