Looking Glass Eyes

I noticed something last night, something that surprised yet pleased me. I had gone out to attend the ArtWalk here in Bozeman, Montana with the specific intention of meeting the sculptor who had created the angel wings pendent and earrings that I wear nearly ‘round the clock. I'd purchased the pendent last October, after my son moved out of my home, when I found myself living alone for the first time in my life and wondering how to begin living for myself once again. This very beautiful wearable art is titled Naissance, rebirth. Very fitting for the next phase of my life.

I soon began an email conversation with the artist asking him to create the matching pair of earrings I now wear and thus felt as though we had a connection that I wanted to honor. So off I went last night, in the rain, to meet him - a very nice gentleman, unassuming and friendly. We chatted for a few moments as he showed me the other work he’d sculpted using the earring design he'd created for me and then thanked me for the impetus to create the pieces. He then went on to show me other new artwork and that’s when I noticed it … the self-judgment. He called his work “weird” with a wincing that showed on his face. I was bemused by this display of self ridicule.

Being an artist myself, and having more than my share of self-judgment, I’d always put other artists up on a pedestal, or at least on a step-stool. Above me. “Real” artists, those who make a career of their calling and who support themselves with their art, who have gallery representation, and who, unlike me, have talent and visible success. This had been the internal self-dialogue I'd heard for many years. Not the truth, mind you, just my own self-judgment and recrimination. So this sculptor stood, in my mind, upon a pedestal of endorsement and accomplishment. I, on the other hand, have only had one solo show, three invitational shows, three juried shows, one second place award, and was a guest lecturer, but only once. Obviously not enough to justify calling myself a “real” artist. Like I said, self-denial and censure, lies I told myself.

It was through the More to Life program that I’d learned the truth about who I am, the truth about my abilities, talents and character. And it was the more than two years of truth-telling that led me to the next point in my conversation with this “real” artist. I whipped my business card out of my back pocket and handed it to him stating that I am a photographer. I didn’t say “I want to be” or “am trying to become” or “dabble in” as I frequently have said in the not so distant past. There was no framing of it, no qualifying or explaining, no down-playing and minimizing. “I am a photographer,” I said and smiled. It was owned right down to my toes and it showed in my demeanor.

It was only after walking out of the gallery that I noticed the absence of shrinking in myself. I stumbled across it while reflecting on the flinching I’d witnessed as he spoke of his “weird” art. I had seen my former self on his face, a self I am happy to leave behind. And isn’t it ironic that it was this wincing man’s artwork, this Naissance that I wear daily around my neck, that bore my intention along this very self-affirming journey from purpose, through vision and into reality?

Perhaps he saw himself, too, his true self, in my looking glass eyes. I can only hope.

Photography Show!

You are cordially invited!! There will be two distinct bodies of work being exhibited, "Light" and "Shadows."

Artist's Statement for "Light"

My photographic art allows me to indulge my love of bold color while pushing the envelope of realism. I am motivated to repaint my world in new shades through the interplay of natural subjects clothed in unnatural hues. In this series, the colors of my digital photographs are enriched to produce images which reveal the dynamic of nature’s intensity, otherwise lost to the casual observer. In creating art that requires the viewer to interact with the work, I force the eye to search for value and definition thereby discovering my subject’s secret life as art.

Artist's Statement for "Shadows"

Think of all the descriptive labels you may have ever used to identify a teenager, perhaps someone you knew or simply saw hanging out downtown: punk, freak, slacker, druggie, jock, goth, slut, bitch, flake, etc., labels you‘ve used in thinking and speaking of them; labels that may have served as barriers to keep you safe from them, which may have identified you as superior to them or at least as being different from them and they from you.

Now recall the labels that were used on you as a teenager: weirdo, jock, brain, egghead, momma’s boy, juvenile delinquent, teacher’s pet, bum, stuck-up, whatever it was – we all had them.

As you stand before these images fill your mind with all of these limiting labels … then look into their faces. Do you see an emotion you’ve felt, a pain you’ve carried, a freedom you’ve longed to know? Can you bridge the gap between you and them?

PS: This is one of the reasons I haven't posted a blog for a while.

Art as Financing

Good Medicine © 2006

Just sold this piece through the Sweet Pea Art Show. It has always been my most popular piece of photographic art and now the proceeds will finance my October show. I love it when this stuff happens and I accept with gratitude all of the abundance that the Universe bestows upon me. Aho!

Living the Dream

For the past few days I’ve been working on creating an invitation postcard, an invitation to my first photographic art show. It feels somewhat weird to be making such a statement, as though it should be about someone else. But it isn’t and I’m wondering why I’m finding it to be a bit of a challenge to don the mantle of artist when it has been a lifelong dream of mine.

I suppose it’s about stepping up to meet the goal, to make the final push to the summit. What will change afterwards in the way others see me, in the way I see myself? It seems best not to even think about it, not to step outside of the experience and look at it like a movie, but rather to simply go on experiencing my life from within the dream. Aside from having a desire to create, to live in those moments of spontaneous artistry, I haven’t really had a clear objective, much less a plan for how to get there. I am merely responding to my long ignored prime directive to be an artist. It is no more than a matter of being who I am.

So, yes, I am having my first show in October and I’m no longer qualifying it by adding that it is only in a coffee shop; it is still my first show. And at the urging of my good friend and sister in spirit, a very well known Cherokee fine artist, I will be issuing a press release and having an artist’s reception. It’s good to have friends who will hold the mirror for me, who encourage me to see myself in their looking glass eyes.

Photo Art

Sunflower, v. 2.2
Copyright 2006 Trish McCormick Photography

PaintJam w/Dan Dunn

I actually clapped at my monitor. And the music is awesome, too.