Pivot Points

In March of this year, I took the plunge and enrolled in the Art2Life Creative Visionary Program (CVP). It was expensive, it felt insanely extravagant, and perhaps a bridge too far. I did it anyway. And I am so glad that I did. It was not my first exposure to many of the concepts taught, and yet as the program unfolded, I internalized more and more of the most critical concepts. My confidence grew, I took more decisive steps towards defeating my limiting beliefs, and I developed a more visceral understanding of the path to my own true and authentic art. These deeper convictions and my understanding of them continues to bloom and evolve. I know that for the blooming to continue, I must continue to open my heart, continue to dive deeper, continue to ground myself in the learning of the lovely 14 weeks spent in the program. I also know that I have been forever changed. A pivot point in my artistic career has occurred.

I began my journey down the road of art in the late 1990's. I was building a house and I fell in love with some Portuguese tiles - tiles that I could not afford. They were far beyond even my stretch budget. But I returned to the tile store week after week to lust after them. Eventually, I was forced to choose, and some lovely Mexican tiles wound up gracing my kitchen. The house was finished, but the Portuguese tiles continued to burn bright in my imagination..

A friend saw a notice of a tile making class in the local newspaper and alerted me to it. I would make some Portuguese tiles for myself! I dived into tile making and the greater world of ceramics. I never actually made the Portuguese tiles - it turned out that in the making, I much preferred relief work - but I thrived. Working with ceramics evolved to include working with warm glass and I came to see myself as an artisan, someone who would have been a member of a Renaissance guild, but I never thought of myself as an artist. That "a" word was way too intimidating.

Years passed and one summer my youngest daughter came home from college with a digital camera. I became intrigued and she taught me how to use it. Soon, I had a digital camera of my own and I added photography to my artisan interests. Even as I became an accomplished photographer and photography teacher, I avoided using that "a" word. It still intimidated. Then a friend asked me to join a study group based on The Artist's Way. As we worked our way through the book, I began to tentatively refer to myself as an artist - another pivot point in the journey. When I retired in 2019, I had settled completely into my new identity. I was an artist.

Along the way, I have worked in a number of mediums - ceramics, glass, photography, encaustic, hand printing, collage, and hand made books, dabbling with painting here and there as augmentation to my work, never the centerpiece. I started CVP thinking that I would work through the program as a mixed media artist, but I found myself painting. And painting. Starting with acrylics, but quickly moving on to dive headlong into painting with oil and cold wax medium. I experienced another pivot point. I suspect I will be painting for the rest of my life. I suspect that I was always meant to wind up here - that my authentic self is truly emerging.

In CVP, we were taught that good things come when you do what you love. That finding your true voice is not some intellectual exercise. Rather, it is simply choosing, time and time and time again, the things that bring you the most joy - the colors you love, the tools you prefer, the techniques that feel right in your hands and to your eye. The idea is simple and yet profound. It's simple and yet it takes real work to truly internalize. I feel that I am on the right path, and the joy in my heart has been rewarded. Several of my recent paintings have already been snapped up by collectors. I believe that my delight in the making is palpable in the product. The biggest pivot point yet.

A gallery of the recently collected works follows.

Love and creativity always,

Wanda