Monday's Inspiration: The Past

University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History

This year, I've been working to overcome my creative block and other issues keeping me from making art. Part of that process is taking myself on weekly "artist dates" where I do something special for myself, usually in a way that relates to my creativity, but not always. Last Friday, I decided to go the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon, my first alma mater. Lately, I've been wondering how I can combine my love for anthropology with my love for art, since I have degrees in both.

Stone lamp, found near the John Day Reservoir, Gilliam County

As I walked up to the museum, I was asking myself how this week's date related to my art. I had the answer pretty quickly, thanks to the work I've been doing recently to figure out what most speaks to me aesthetically. The museum's main exhibits are a series of near-life sized dioramas, showing Oregon's different regions –the coast, the valleys, the Columbia plateau, and the great basin– and how Oregon's first peoples lived traditionally.

10,000 year old sagebrush sandals

In the exhibits, I saw my favorite colors, greens, blues, browns, grays, black and white. I saw the beautiful textures of natural materials. I saw the enigmatic faces and symbols of rock art, found almost everywhere in the world - a universal human heritage. The experience was both restful and inspiring.

I'm going to be asking myself how I can incorporate the essence of this experience into my artwork in a way that is respectful of the sources, creating without acting in a way that amounts to cultural appropriation. One of the themes of the museum is to remind visitors that the descendants of the people whose lifeways are depicted are still here, something that is indelibly etched in my thinking as a result of my studies in archaeology and anthropology for my first degree.

If you happen to find yourself in Eugene, a visit to the museum is well-worth the time and the small admittance fee.

Favorite Things: Transition Times

A Sunset in Seattle

When I was listing my favorite things the other day, I thought about my favorite times of the year and the day, and I realized that the times I like the best aesthetically are all transitions.

Utah Winter Sunset

My favorite time of day has always been the late afternoon/early evening, with dawn/early morning coming close behind. The sky is so beautiful with its many shades of blue, rose, and gold.

Sunset over the Willamette

Summer is absolutely my favorite time of year, for the sun and warmth and sweetness of the air. But spring and fall are both prettier, and I love to watch the colors of the changes. In spring, I love the visual relief of the explosion of color, leaf and bud after the long, gray winter.

Spring Flower

In fall, the trees turn to fireworks; a last hurrah before the grays of winter take over again. Winter is my least favorite time of year, however, I still look forward to fall's colors.

When Autumn Leaves Start To Fall

I think my most favorite colors will always be nature's more restful shades of blue and green, but I do love the warmth and glow of rose, orange, and gold.

Favorite Things: Earth & Sky Colors

These are my favorite colors: brown, green, blue, white, black, gray.

This year, one of my goals is to make it through The Artist's Way. For a long time now, I've been struggling with my creativity, trying to work my way through creative block and to find my own voice as an artist. As I go through the process, I decided it would be good to sit down and list what I really like - the things that move me personally, and that feel like me. I wrote a list and I'm going to be exploring it here for the next few weeks.

The list, titled "Stuff I like", started when I was looking at my Etsy favorites last week and I realized that almost everything on the first page of my "likes" was either brown, green, or blue - with lots of black, white and gray as well. I thought about it for a bit, thought of my wardrobe, my favorite pottery, looked at the bits of art on my walls and realized "oh yeah, these are my favorite colors."

I set out to create a treasury based purely on my favorite colors, without fretting about whether or not the treasury would be popular or make the front page or anything like that. I love the result. It's kind of this road map of the heart of things that I like.

As a wise acquaintance said, it's not enough to like stuff, you have have to understand why you like it. I love these colors because they are the colors of earth and sky. I love nature and her colors: soft greens like moss and agate, earth browns, water blues, sky blues, especially transition time skies - sunrise and sunset. Clouds. Stones.

They are restful, comfortable colors, and I never feel the need to "live up to them" - they are undemanding colors, not like reds, oranges and yellows. Although those do have their place, which I will explore more next time.