Art Happens!

Anyone remember back when those "Shit Happens" bumper stickers were all the rage?  You saw 'em all over the place, although we did observe you were more likely to see one on a raggedy old beat up car  and less likely to see one on, say, a new Lexus. But they were quite a thing for a while, probably twenty, twenty five years ago. My friend Roger observed that "Shit doesn't just happen, there are active (you-know-whats) out there!"

It was also along about that time, I was a practicing artist. Oh, I still had a day job, and stuff like that, but I lived in a little house where I'd made one of the bedrooms into a studio. I had a nice sturdy easel and always had several paintings going. That's how I do it - get one started, and while it's "cooking," start another one, and so on. 

I started out with watercolor, then learned how to draw (a little backward, but that's just me) then moved on into pastel, and then oils. I was active in a couple of art societies and one of the old Artisan 9 galleries, and was easing my way into festival type shows and whatnot.Oh, my goodness, how I loved making art, and I got pretty good at it.

But something switched off when I moved out of my little studio-house. I still had all my gear, still looked at everything with the artist's eye. I still always thought about what would that look like in a painting, but did precious little actual artwork after the end of 1995. Got to be embarrassing when I'd run into an old friend I hadn't seen in a while, one who'd known me as an artist when they'd ask me what I was painting these days. I'd have to drop my head and tell them it'd been a while since I'd picked up a brush.

I guess I "took my art supplies on vacation to Cooperstown," which is a good thing, because that means I didn't get rid of my supplies. I still have them. Still have that big wonderful easel, and the paints and brushes. 

So I had a little time this weekend to do a little straightening in the garage/shop/barn, and rediscovered that easel. Had a brief conference with the Universe and said, yes, I believe I will, and carried that easel out to free air, blew the dust off with the air compressor, wiped the rest of the dust off with a damp rag, and brought it in the house. 

Got a couple of canvases (because, you know, I like to have more than one at a time going) and drew some images on them Saturday night. Sunday morning I applied broad acrylic color washes for underpainting, and in the afternoon began applying oil paint to one of the canvasses. Sure feels good to be back in the saddle, yes it does.

Back in the day I used to say, "Art Happens!" 
Now my thinking is more that "Art doesn't just happen - there are active artists out there!"