What is your wish for the future?

Current entries for the Community Dreams project.

As I’ve been painting the mosaic tribute to my dad, Silent Soul, many thoughts swirl about like quarks in all directions, at incredible speeds: why was he so silent, what was he thinking while scraping the paint off the house each spring in preparation to paint it, what was it like for him to be in a hospital on the iron lung for over nine months, how can I possibly give up painting because of the recession? Did he give up his creative community and ways because of financial struggles?

When he was at the end of his time in the “real world” as we know it, laying in his hospital bed in the living room of my mom’s and his home, a shadow of himself (Parkinson’s disease had wasted his body away), I would sit with him. Then, I didn’t know what to ask.

Dad spoke rarely, but would engage in a discourse on religious texts. He often spoke of desire is the root of all evil. I’ve been reading transcripts from speeches given by the Dali Lama and have come across this concept but I grapple with it. How can a desire, say for peace on earth be evil, unless the meaning is action is the way not passive desire.

After I complete, Silent Soul, I’m embarking on another painting-mosaic, Community Dreams. This project will be a collaboration of your dreams and my creative reaction, interpretation of them into a painting-mosaic. A half-a-dozen or so participants have signed up. If you’d like to be part of the project, contact me or come by the studio.

8-8-88 Update: first grouping, photos

Two more cartons of canvas have arrived. Ten painted, only 78 more to create.

The 8-8-88 Project

The 8-8-88 project is a tribute to my father, Bertram J. Tarlin who passed away this August on the eighth at the age of eighty-eight.

My dad was a quiet man: pensive, gentle and loving. Sometimes, as my brother Bill stated in his eulogy, it was challenging being his child because he was so reserved.

After the funeral, my sister, Nancy, and I came across a manuscript of a novel he wrote, The Artist’s Life. We believe he wrote it in 1948 well before he even met my mom. It’s about a female artist, a painter, seeking: the meaning of life, why art is essential, and true love.

While living, my dad never spoke to me about art or the universal themes in his book; he was a silent soul, yet now that he’s passed through the threshold from this world to… he speaks to me.

In his memory, I’ve begun a painting-mosaic titled, Silent Soul. When complete, it will consist of 88 one foot square oil paintings, one to represent each year of his life. Individually and as a whole, the artwork will attempt to capture the depth of my dad’s character as well as the gaps in his presence and unknown spaces where he may have transcended to then and now.

More Images than a TV

Recently I had the good fortune to have a couple connect so greatly with one of my paintings they purchased it for their new home. When I delivered it, they and their interior decorator contemplated it as it was positioned over the couch, across from a large flat screen TV mounted in an historically popular place for a painting, above a fire place. The painting, Worlds Apart, is six and a half feet wide and was too large for the coveted viewing spot and I thought that’s unfortunate.

Worlds Apart is an abstract oil painting named for its sense of depicting polarities, a bright “world” with a dark world accessed through a “portal” – a dark blue rectangle with vibrant marks emanating from it. The juxtaposition of the painting and blank TV screen gave me pause.

When we turn on a TV we play an active role. The media and its many creative contributors, at its best, can offer programs that inform, inspire, motivate, shock and bring laughter or joy to its audience. With its moving images TV initially appears dynamic in contrast to a painting. However, choosing to view abstract art is contrary to the thought; it is an extremely dynamic activity. Abstract art offers the viewers infinite opportunities for tele-visioning – freeing the mind to transcend reality, envision memories, fantasize and incessantly create new “programs” with their subconscious each time they choose to tune in and turn it on. This is just one of the many reasons I love creating abstract art!

Public Art – Benefits

I attended day one of the Trans-Cultural Exchange conference in Boston, MA today.

Many stories were shared about collaborative art projects not only with other artists but with communities.

I found the most interesting discussion to be about redefining “Public Art” to mean, art created with the public  (without permission from committees or with jurors) to benefit the public.  “Benefits” extended beyond the personal gratification of a viewer and or participant in its creation but to the community-at-large. One example, the Walk Here project, mobilized an at-risk community to lower crime and reconnect it to the rest of the city; it had become a place to avoid to the high crime rate. It worked. Please check out the link to this project.

Do you have Public Art stories to share? Use this forum to do so.

Where does “the call” come from?

Tar Hani my love

Recently I was given a wonderful gift – a prelease copy of the documentary Agadez, the Music and the Rebellion. It is a story of many things: freedom, nature, boundaries, and the power of creativity. The story follows a young, gifted musician, Omara Moctar, “Bombino” who like Bob Marley did for Jamaica, is bringing attention to the geo-political humanitarian issues facing his people, the nomadic Tuaregs of Niger. In the film, by Ron Wyman of ZeroGravity Films, Bombino recalls hearing a guitar for the first time when he was a young boy and feeling something pull him to it. Bombino’s music and Ron’s film are magical and reaffirm my calling to paint.

Science of Creativity

What do you think?

http://www.ted.com/talks/charles_limb_your_brain_on_improv.html

“Give me Liberty, or Give me Death.” 1

Oh Patrick. Oh Patrick. Were you an artist too? How many of us artists could bear to give up what we do, our freedom to think and create as we please?

In the early 1990s, when I was working for an engineering company and none too happy about not being creative in my work, I met Alex Shagin, an incredible medallic artist and individual. The Wall had just come down in Germany and the SU was dissolved. 2

Alex is Russian. He had been the chief medallic artist in Moscow, creating coinage. When designing the coins for the 1980 XXII Moscow Olympics, Alex wanted to use Roman numerals in the design, not Cyrillic. Fighting for his liberty to create the designs, his art, as he sought fit, Alex lost his apartment. He lost his job. And upon fear of worse, with the aid of Jewish NGOs, he escaped from the USSR, without his beloved or his mother, not knowing if he would ever see them again; because of his actions, they had been denied visas to leave. 3

As an American, born here in the greatest of countries, able to create any art I choose as I like, I feel blessed. In this present social climate, with neighbors being gunned down in markets, able bodied hard-working folks becoming homeless and hungry, the sick and poor being denied life saving medical care, are most Americans receiving their freedoms of “Life. Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness?”4 As artists, this economic and social malaise provides infinite possibilities for inspiration to create great art, to create an aesthetic for positive change. However, if folks are unable to afford and/or justify their purchases, are we artists, without financial stability truly free to create? And, if no one views our art, what impact on the world can we have?

Joanne Tarlin exhibits at the Liberty Hotel

I’ll be exhibiting paintings available to be purchased, this Tuesday evening, January 18th, from 6-9 pm at The Liberty Hotel, Boston.

On view will be a new work, “And they came with guns.”

Thanks for reading.

Peace,

Joanne

———
1 Patrick Henry from his speech at the Virginia Convention, 1775
2 “The weakening of the Soviet government led to a series of events that eventually caused the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a gradual process that took place from about 19 January 1990 to 31 December 1991” Wikeepedia
3 As relayed to me during our conversations together in Los Angeles.
4 “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Declaration of Independence

How much is that?

Joanne Tarlin, Transcendence No. 14

Well open studios for January came and went like January sunshine — welcoming, bright and gone too fast. Not too many folks showed up but those who did were engaged.

One couple who was taken with my latest installment in the Transcendence series, (No. 14, shown above) asked, “How much are you asking for this painting?” Without giving it much thought, I grabbed my calculator and figured out a price based on its size, as I do with all my work. Then I told them. They asked if there was “wiggle room.” To which I replied in the affirmative and more prices were exchanged. They left without purchasing the painting.

I’ve thought a lot about the situation and what I’d do differently next time. After speaking with my wise friend MH here’s what I’ll try next time I’m faced with The Question.

Couple: We just bought a house and we really like this painting. It would be perfect in our living room. How much is it?

Me: That’s wonderful. Are you starting or building an art collection?

Couple: Starting.

Me: Congratulations. Investing time together to find just the right pieces that will make your house a home and you can enjoy for a lifetime together is a worthy endeavor.

Couple: So what are you asking for this piece?

Me: Have you set aside funds for your collection?

Couple: Yes, but we have a small budget.

Me: That’s okay. You have to start somewhere. Tell me the amount you are thinking of investing.

[They told me a price that was much lower than I wanted for the painting they were looking at.]

Me: Hmmm…this painting took me a long time to create. It’s a little more than your budget but I could give you extended terms to purchase it.

Couple: We were hoping to acquire a few pieces. (This is a comment they actually made when I told them the price.)

Me: I understand. I have a few other smaller paintings you may also like. You could acquire this one now and I could loan you one of the others for a period of time and then you could purchase it too or return it and exchange it for another.

Couple: That sounds good. What are the pieces you’re offering to loan?

I’m thinking, this is better than not making the sale at all and it would have more of my work out in the public.

What do you think?

Joanne

Open Studios Open Minds.

Friday will be the first Open Studio of this new year. Who will attend?

Of course the usual locals looking for a cup or two of the cheap free wine and a warm social place on a cold New England eve will be there. Hopefully the students, filled with energy, fresh ideas, eager faces and linked to everyone everywhere will show up. Will friends, patrons and new patrons visit too?

Like standing before a blank canvas, the days before open studios are exciting. The anticipation about what will happen can be exhilarating. Will what comes to be, be colorful, mellow, energetic, sensual? Will I be carried away in the moment? Transcended?