PODCAST Season 2, Episode 5 “RIVER VIEW”.
WISDOM AT THE CROSSROADS PODCAST.
This episode takes me back to a weedy incidental green space where I am reminded of the cyclical ways our journeys connect to our past and to each other.
“Riverview”, the focus of todays conversation, is part of the “Sweet Suite”, a series of small paintings that freely bloomed on panel this summer in the studio.
It is the result of my recent travels along the road less travelled, down memory lane that came full circle into the present. The process allowed for a lovely moment not looking back but pausing reflectively.
Riverside, was part of the summer’s “Sweet Suite Series”. Acrylic on Panel 11’ x 14” makes the paintings in this group small yet mighty. They were a lot of fun to play with in the process.
The meditation practice is inspired by the idea of a reflective pause. In this episode the meditation begins at 5:28 In the recording. It is 12:00 minutes of tuning into the body, listening, relaxing and allowing yourself to accept the pleasure of the pause. Join me for a few precious moments of refreshment and fill your cup to overflowing before you take up the reigns in the rest of your day.
The river is a feature of the city I live in. Winnipeg’s history is enmeshed with the flow of two rivers sitting as it does at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. My current studio looks out on the river not far from this vignette.
I delivered a painting to a client recently, one I have known for many years. Our introduction was unconventional but the story of our association is a reminder of the cyclical ways our individual journeys connect to each other. Today’s delivery also brought me back to long ago lovely afternoons when I picked up our daughters from the Montessori Learning Centre’s playground. It was also here that I made my own lifelong friendships with likeminded mamas.
I met this client on that playground too, though indirectly. She was a volunteer then and often found my little Em at the end of her outreached hand during the afternoons activities.
Spring in the neighbourhood. This snapshot taken only a block of two from the Montessori playground our girls once bounced among.
My studio practice then was also in its infancy. Time to be creative was precious and usually undertaken in the rare hours when my household slept. Occasionally I had the energy to get a couple of hours in at my shared and cramped space in a 100 year old building in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District while the girls were at MLC. A piece I made at the time, called “Angel Blankie, was exhibiting at a juried show in Chicago as part of the international quilt associations conference. Attendance at the largest quilt show in the world was astounding in those days and as it turns out my client was one of those who saw my work there. She told me of her adventure of how she was drawn to a fragile art quilt made of paper silk embroidery and feathers. She was moved by the story that accompanied the piece and realised the maker was Canadian and shared the same last name as her little Montessori friend.
I am still not sure if it was a good thing to be introduced to someone first through an art piece, then via a three year old before I was finally introduced as myself, but we did become friends and our paths have crossed over the years.
I do love the details that show up in my work. Snapshots of details like this hopefully give you an idea of what the surface looks like from the space I work in. I am never more than an arms length away.
Inspiration is everywhere . I don’t ever begin a composition with an inspiration image in hand that I attempt to replicate . I do take lots of photographs though, that can often result in a body of work inspired b y the same experience of a particular place. Each one evolves into its own composition.
Montessori afternoons were everybody’s favourite. For me they provided respite that allowed for some creative enterprise even if it was just taking photographs to add to my inspire held in the bend of the red river. At the time there was some landscaping going on that formalised public access. Trees and shrubs were planted and the walking trail worn unofficially into place was hardscaped. I love an incidental greenspace so I was naturally drawn to weedy clumps of purple flowers that freely bloomed alongside flowing grasses. Some of my earliest works on paper in acrylic and chalk pastel were inspired by this weedy walk under construction.
This past spring I happened to take a road less travelled. It’s been more than 20 years since those paintings and that Exhibition in Chicago. The landscape continues to bloom with perennial purple clusters in the spring and I couldn’t help but to take myself down memory lane to photograph the riverside show again.
Later this past summer, at another clients request I began what came to be called the Sweet Suite of 11” x 14” panels that quickly bloomed into a series of 20. The last few pieces were inspired by that resilient incidental landscape with the Riverview.
The sweet suite in progress. Taking snap shots along the way helps me to figure out where I am in a composition. A change of scale is always a helpful tool. A studio practice really is all about practice.
Delivering “Riverside” today I returned to the neighbourhood where my blossoming daughters began their education and the seeds of their early lives were planted. It was a full circle moment for sure.
My client has her own grandchildren now and my daughters are both midway through professional degrees and no longer bouncing in the MLC playground but I have to say I was really comforted by that Riverside drive taken in the present that took me full circle into the past. I was inspired by the memory of a riverside drive taken only yesterday that feels not unlike the many versions of it taken so many moons ago.
You might recall me mentioning in past posts that I often begin with an intention. The Sweet Suite came about fairly quickly in the summer of 2022. I did not add an intention into every panel but the intention to play and love what i was doing in the process was a factor in the series as it developed in the studio. This was the love embedded at the onset of one of the 20 panels the series grew into.
It takes a lot to keep Winnipeggers indoors during the lovely summer months… just saying ‘
Well, 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. The meditation this episode is a little longer at 15 minutes but I guarantee you will feel refreshed after taking a self care pause with me.
If my work or words inspire you please consider sharing the podcast with a friend or writing a review on Apple Podcasts. You can listen to the full episode on apple or anywhere you get your podcasts.
This week’s meditation begins at 5:28 in the recording. I hope you’ll have a listen…and enjoy a little self care with me. Until next time, stay well.
Amanda