PODCAST Season 1, Episode 16 “NOSTRUM / CURATIVE”
WISDOM AT THE CROSSROADS PODCAST.
Art like music plays a role as the backdrop or soundtrack of our lives.Todays introduction to “Nostrum” and “Curative”, a pair of 30” x 40” acrylic paintings on panel, were once given the cold shoulder. Now they offer a little bit of flexible colour magic and a balm for the soul in the depths of a Winnipeg winter.
Do you have a studio? Want a studio? This backstory may be a curative for any romanticised notion you might have dreamed. Unless you are attracted to heavy traffic, emergency sirens and a breeze on your side of the brickwork, that is.
I share a reflective tip to brighten your workspace and add a pro to the cons of my former expansive, frosty space.
We also learn about schlepping, What it means to sail across a parking lot in a brisk breeze and how to safely wrestle a 4’ square painting into the back of an SUV... shlepping. I missed painting this week when the work of art took over.
The meditation begins at 10:45 in the podcast today. I hope you will join me there.
The strong colour story of this pair has inspired a favourite visual journey that rises through the chakra column. Together we visualize a colourful chakra cleanse. We expand, we rise, we imagine and imbue our chakras with crystal magic from head to toe. You will want to return to this practice often.
Simple, energetic colourful, a curative for the winter blahs begins by getting top close and personal with paint.
Thank you for joining me. I hope you find something that resonates for you in today’s journey through the backstory’s of my studio practice. Today I ‘d like to introduce you to “Nostrum” and “Curative”, a pair of 30” x 40” acrylic paintings on panel that we have nick named Em’s Blue Pair. Maybe it’s the Australian coming out in us? Or maybe it’s because her collection is so vast it is simpler to reduce things down to slang terms. Whatever we call them this pair is a reminder of a point in time and place. They offered a little bit of colour magic then as I worked on them in my largest and coldest studio in Winnipeg’s Historic Exchange District through the depths of a winter.
You may have visited one or other of my studio spaces over the years but if we have only met over the airwaves today’s description of my artist’s studio might be all the curative you need to squash any romanticised notion you might have harboured an attachment to. A studio is the term used to describe an artist’s office, some are large, some are tiny, often they are hobbled together as an economic solution to doing the work of art, wherever we can. The standard is often set by what we can afford cause we are driven to create, whatever that looks like and wherever we are lucky enough to do that. My current space is my smallest ever yet it is also the warmest studio I have inhabited and in the depths of a Canadian winter an appropriately heated work space is worth the price of admission. I definitely won’t be going back to the antique groove in lieu of amenities anytime soon.
If you love the idea of an expansive loft style studio and can handle heavy traffic, emergency sirens and a breeze on your side of the brickwork then Studio 211 would definitely had been the one for you. The space featured all the charm of exposed blonde brickwork common to structures built at the turn of the, 20th century. It had massive exposed timber post and beam construction and intoxicating light. All of this 800 square foot space came with massive single paned windows, that are fine in a more moderate climate but in Downtown Winnipeg when the elements are invited in she gets pretty cold. Like, so cold that my paints and water buckets left too close to a window on an exterior wall would freeze overnight. The frost on the glass in January was not the arc of white spray paint added to the window panes on the set of a hallmark Christmas movie but the real deal that could get so thick the window was opaque. I actually found the patterns formed by frost fascinating and have used dye sublimated printing process to transfer those frosty images to fabric in a textile body of work I exhibited in 2020.
Here are Nostrum and Curative on my very sophisticated photography wall. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. I spent a week fighting weather to shoot images of a batch of paintings including this pair. Of course when I need them they are no where to be found on my camera roll, but just this pair??? Better images will replace these when conditions allow. 30” x 40” each panel.
About half of the 800 square feet in studio 211 really weren’t habitable for large chunks of time so all of my active workspaces were centered around interior walls that were the furthest away from the beautiful natural light that had inspired me to move into the space in the first place.
Brickwork adds character to loft living but so too does actual heat. The brick exterior walls would definitely have been more useful with the insulating factor of drywall that would come with the added flexibility of being able to hang artwork easily onto it without piercing the already fragile mortar rows with nails so large they were almost a javelin. Picture hanging on any wall in that space required something sturdy enough to prevent the paintings from falling off the wall as buses or ambulances rolling down McDermot Avenue rocked the 100 year old walls. I became deaf to emergency sirens during those years in much the same way that someone living along a train line acclimatises to the noise
NOSTRUM has a creamy yellow section that balances out the drama and intensity of the reds and mid range blues that dominate the pair. Apologies for the effects of fluorescent light on the colour story.
My original studio was also on the second floor. A forward thinking previous tenant had painted the ceiling boards white. This made for beautiful reflective light perfect for a painting studio. 211 was a much bigger undertaking so instead of painting the ceiling above the entire space, when the land lord declined my request, I installed 4’ x 8’ laminated Masonite panels above my painting wall and created a similar though modified reflective effect. I highly recommend this strategy if you are looking to improve the light in a work space
This detail view of NOSTRUM shows my habit of painting the edges of a panel so that when seen from the side the image appears to wrap around the canvas or panel. The client then does not have to add a frame. Framing though, is like adding jewellery or mascara. It dresses the artwork up, adds the punctuation.
I did have lots of space to spread out in that downtown studio and that was a huge advantage when I was in textile mode constructing an art quilt project or composing quilt gems from my precious scrap bags. Emma’s pair, Nostrum and Curative were witness to the unique world of my studio at that time. Like many paintings they spent time on the paint wall opposite the breezy windows in the path of the north wind. There they got to take in the entire activity, they saw mini compositions grow in silk and maybe even raised a painterly eyebrow as they observed fabric fragments accumulate into deep piles at my feet. I know it looks bad if you happen to wander in on a particularly intense creative episode, but sometimes I like everything in view. You never know what tiny square of a former necktie or printed silk remnant might be the final piece in a colourful puzzle in fibre.
Here’s a little climate reference for you. How cold is it? It’s Effing cold! Paint will freeze when the studio lacks insulation. My former space definitely lacked the warmth I had hoped the beautiful light and that expansive space would offer.
This old girl is kitty corner to my former studio building. The view to here was often obscured in the winter because of frost.
These two paintings NOSTRUM and CURATIVE, created in Studio 211 have been in residence in our younger daughter’s basement suite for several years. They’re pretty adaptable down there and have been hung as intended and sometimes in reverse just to change things up; Covid has taught us to be flexible like that. They have more recently appeared on zoom and been the backdrop to interviews with colleagues and clients. Right now she wakes up to this graphic world and sometimes shares them through the structure of her swinging basket chair where they have become an integral part of the perfect student office in a pandemic.
A little comparison for you. The winter landscape lacks the colour of the physical garden
This detail of “Em’s Blue Pair” adds colour to the indoor landscape.
I love how art like music plays a role as the backdrop or soundtrack of our lives. Revisiting them now for this project has first of all granted me more flexible access to my daughter’s space which has been interesting. Getting reacquainted with them has also taken me back to the energy of my former studio space and the other players that grew out of that creative period. I like to paint in multiples. A pair like this diptych are fun to work with and easy to live with. 30” x 40” is a comfortable size to paint: generous meaning the size and shape gives me room to physically get into it as they hang on my painting wall, while not being too big that they are too heavy to lift and carry or what I usually call, schlepping.
I have been doing a lot of schlepping this week, delivering commissioned options to two different homes first for trial and then for adoption into their forever homes. I love to see my work loved and am also fascinated by the decision making process. “” Bear Necessities” and “Tina’s Garden” will get a moment in the blog/show notes (and feels like) it might end my week with a morning visit to my chiropractor after my swim at the Y tomorrow. Podcasting might be more intense with technology and writing but it does not involve negotiating a breeze across a parking lot with a 4’ square panel acting as a sail that then needs to be wrestled it into the back of an SUV. Pros and cons to everything.
I have missed painting this week
Here’s a painting being schlepped. “FIESTA” was donated to the Oseredok art auction where she raised $1700 for Ukraining refugees arriving in the city. I am grateful for the support of the community who placed bids and supported this very worthy cause. At 24” x 60 Fiesta is a simply fit in the back of my car. 48” x 48” is my size limit before i have to enlist the help of a friend with a truck or rent one.
That’s the end of todays backstory. Thanks for tuning in to this episode. I hope the images are helpful and that you are finding something of your story within mine by listening in to the podcast, or catching up through this blog.
If my work or words inspire you please consider sharing the podcast with a friend or writing a review. You can listen to the full episode anywhere you get your podcasts. It costs nothing to do so and i would be very appreciative.
This week’s meditation begins at 10:45 in the recording. I hope you’ll take a listen
The covid university classroom/student office