When the "Ah Ha" moment is an "Oh Duh"

Last night I had the clearest moment of realization, that in fact all of my current hardship can truly be attributed to my own actions (kharma).

Like- Duh!

Transformation

Since the New Year, I have been making many positive changes to my life. But I think the source of all this change actually came not from my free will, but because I had to stop drinking to take Accutane. Its not as though drinking were some kind of issue, but when it was absent I noticed how much a filler it can be, much like the other things I've phased out

Reductions:

• Not Drinking
  
• Quiting TV
• phasing out myspace
• checking email less

Additions:

• Revamping my studio
• Working on exciting ideas for my new show
• reading more
• going to see more art, going to museums
• collaborating with friends
  
• Volunteering and taking classes at Shambhala
  
• Re-committing to my daily meditation practice and trying to work with lojong
  
• Keeping this blog and my accutane blog
  

Without the time filler activities, I've been able to add in so many more positive activities. One down side is that the Accutane makes me feel like a lethargic arthritic old lady, so I haven't been exercising at all, and it is driving me crazy. I am looking forward to May, when my skin transformation is complete, the accutane is over, and I can maintain my new life style, but with energy.

Discursive Emails

So quiting my gmail addiction will prove to be more challenging then TV, because I do actually have to use it. Its amazing how even just cutting back just this one day has really exposed the discursive quality of my mind's attachment to it. It comes up all the time. Like *Ping* "I wonder if there's new mail?" *Ping*. Its identical to the way thoughts come up during meditation. *Ping* *Ping*

Students Drawing in the Atrium at Wright

I had them combine three perspective views of this space into one abstracted composition! It pretty much rocked.

Paramita of Discipline

I've successfully stopped watching TV. I've watched TV twice in the past 3months! This is a big feat for me. I used to love to veg out, unwind and watch TV, especially after work. But really it didn't help me unwind. So basically since the new year, I've been without it.

Quiting TV has freed up time for reading, which is not only great because of the knowledge gained, but actually seems to calm my mind when it is frenetic. The act of reading is so very different from other mental activities and from TV, that really no matter what I am reading, I can feel my mind changing, much like during meditation.

Now for step two.

I will quit checking my email, but once a day, maybe twice a day when I teach at Loyola, because the students use it to contact me. Always having the gmail tab open, is like a bug in my ear. Like a siren, it lures me to a falsehood of connectivity and socializing, but in reality it creates this nuisance habit, frenetic brain waves, and huge amount of lost time.

Web 2.0 is wildly successful at making us think that something will actually happen on the internet. By tapping into one of our strongest needs- of belonging and socializing, it offers us really a bait and switch, and instead leaves a feeling of emptiness and wasted time, and maybe a new pair of jeans.

With my new time, I would like to ideally do actual social things, and participate in society in much more meaningful way. Last night when I finally decided to put this new plan into action, I turned off the gmail, and I wrote the sympathy card for my godfather I should have written two weeks ago, and I burned 3 CDs for my friend and put them in an envelope. I want to write real thank you notes. I want to use my new time to really contact people, and really let them know that their gestures and their friendship is very important to me.

Students Drawing Today at Wright

Redundantly American in Free Februrary

We went to see the Hopper exhibit Saturday at The Art Institute, during free February.

The Hopper exhibit was predictably lovely. His work reproduces very well, so there is not much more revealed in viewing the paintings in person. The canvas are not unexpectedly big, but the colors can be quite vibrant. I really prefer his work focusing on urban and prairie scenes which include much visible and psychological space. There were some very cool early etchings, including two depicting the first "El" car. which I've been in at The Chicago History Museum. I find his work incredibly American, and it is not secret, that I am an idealist American, and I love being an American. His work captures American scenes and psychological space. After seeing his body of work, I felt like I knew him. I really feel like he was always right there with his subjects. That he wasn't an estranged visitor to the scenes and characters, but that he too dined with locals late at night, or sat lonely in a hotel room, or chatted with bathers on the east coast. I felt that he was right there with capturing what was current, because he was doing it. In the 50's towards the end of his career, he began painting western-route 60-esque travel and motel scenes. Just as America was embracing the car and newly paved and connecting roads. He seems redundantly American- being as he appears in photos, "Joe American", he seems to live the American life of the time, and then he cinematicly captures it in paint.

The last painting was the best and truly a culmination of his life's pursuit.


Saturday during free February was not the best time to see art, but is was a refreshingly casual and boisterous day at the museum, where everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. And the museum was packed with a sea of visitors, really the way it always should be.

Don't miss "Girls On the Verge" in the basement. Its delightfully uncomfortable, sensitive, humorous and shocking.

Gordon Matta-Clark

This past weekend, Michael and I went to see the Gordon Matta-Clark exhibit at the MCA. I was so happy to finally see the MCA hosting (almost) contemporary art, and an artist that I've admired for a long time. The exhibit is great, but since Matta-Clark's career was so short, there wasn't much there that I hadn't already seen or read about. I was really inspired by the table of books that was source material for and documentation of Matta-Clark's work. I took notes.

Effortlessness

It seems that many things like my art and teaching come together with what seems to be such relative ease, that I struggle to impose more effort. I feel that if I could or would "work harder" at it, it would be some how be better, recognized, and the big show that solves all the problems would be the next show.

But in fact it is from a place of ease created by confidence in my experience that things fall into place. It is the gasping and guessing that create the stress of doubt.

Tucson Exhibit- Conrad Wilde Gallery

Dear Friends,

I am excited to announce that three pieces of my encaustic work are being exhibited in the Third Annual Encaustic Invitational at Conrad Wilde Gallery, in Tucson, AZ.

The exhibit runs March 1-29, with an opening reception on March 1, from 6-9pm.

If you or anyone you know is in the Tucson area, I hope you can make it. I am looking forward to the opening and the Tucson weather.

Sincerely,
Renee Prisble Una
--
una-love.com/renee

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A quick thought on a new idea I am forming: The Mythology of Contemporary Art

I think the separation of contemporary art from everyday life has been as detrimental to art. The idea that contemporary art is now different, and making a difference, in a way that traditional and historical arts have not, or in a way that other creative acts have failed, is indeed sad. There is an increasingly exclusive religion growing around the obscure and specific actions of people deemed qualified if not anointed to single handily represent the culture without participating in the culture.

Art separated from life may not be art.

the fightback against “bad” public sculpture in the UK has begun

This is awesome and hilarious!

Collective Chicago

Whats going on with "underground art" in Chicago?

I wanted to be in a collective. I felt that a collective was a great opportunity to learn about other artists' practices, collaborate, try new things, be part of change. But the few art collective exhibits I've been to (both underground collectives and mainstream) look just like gallery exhibits. It seems like the collectives are just mimicking the gallery system they seem to say they rebel against. Why exhibit gallery art in an alternative space?

Maybe these are separate issues, but where is the performance art? Were is the site specific installation. Where are the revolutionaries? Who is planning the next deviation? Who wants to? Is there an avante guarde in Chicago?

On the plus side, I went to an apartment gallery (only once) that shows great promise. Mini Dutch exhibited two interesting pieces this winter. One was an interactive sculpture, and the other was a site specific installation in their "installation room." Not only was the work good, the presentation great, and the gallery director professional, but I didn't feel like I walked into a clique gathering that was accidentally listed in The Reader. Although it was in their home, it had a professional feel, and the party aspect was down played compared to the art.

The Art of Creativity

I've been working diligently towards my next show, happening in June at Northeastern Illinois University Gallery. I named the show "White Moment". It will feature new and "old" work integrated to create a new installation and new understanding of the "old" work. I am really excited about it. It’s almost as if I'm beginning to use my own previous works as found objects, and combine them together to recontextualize each other into new work. I feel liberated.

I googled "White Moment" before I sent it off to the curator as the title of my show, and the article "The Art of Creativity" from Psychology Today came up. I printed the whole article and taped it into my sketch book. There are so many interesting points articulated there that I have been trying to articulate myself about the direction of my work. I will be mining that article for new work and for my show statement.

I want to write a clear essay/statement for my show "White Moment” which articulates and explains my relationship to and my investigation into the relationship of art viewing, art making, and meditation. An article in the text “Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art” touches on the relationship between the three. I don’t mean to suggest that they are interdependent, but they are also not independent. The ideal moment of making, viewing and meditation is that of “no mind”.

"If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few."
-SUZUKI-ROSHI

The Caucasians

Sometimes I think about carpets. Michael and I currently use a 30yr old cow hide in our living room, which is still really cool, but as you can imagine, balding.

I've admired over time a graphic folky rug style and pattern, but finally discovered its region and makers today.

The Caucasians:


I love the brilliant colors, graphic animal and plant symbols and the use of white to emphasize the negative space.



The colors of this boarder are great. I love the variation of dye lots.



I really love this irregular pattern.




The shapes in middle remind me of quail.