There are hundreds of things that happen at the end of my pencil. 

But perhaps the most important thing that happens at the end of my pencil is being present. Completely and in the moment present.  I love photography, but it’s such a fast moment that happens between you and the shutter and the image capture. Drawing is a longer experience – more of a meditation that requires sitting, and looking, and looking even harder. And when I’m drawing from something – a tree, a person, an animal,whatever, there is an energy that runs through the end of your pencil from you to that object. This is how it is for me anyway. If you want to see, really see something, sit down and draw it. Get to know it intimately.

You can’t do anything else when you concentrate and give yourself up to a drawing, so you are forced to BE HERE NOW. And that’s a very good thing for correcting a life out of balance. (photo and drawing by Catherine Massaro)

A while ago I did a post on Above Average Dogs, and my history with animal portraiture. I finished the portrait I talked about this week, and thought I’d share it. Why? Because she’s beautiful! Another above average dog goes to a good home.

There are so many good art books out there. One of my favorites is, THE VIEW from the Studio Door, by Ted Orland. It’s a book on how artists find their way in an uncertain world.

Here is an excerpt that I found particularly valuable to me.

“…When it comes to making art, our intuition is often light – years ahead of our intellect… we sense the meaning of the world unconsciously and capture that meaning through our art – and then have to wait for our intellect to understand what we already knew.”

Something I learned in my last body of work, featured in this web site (TO END IS TO BEGIN) was to go with my intuition and not second guess either my motive or the outcome of the work. I just started doing it – one after the other for over a year and a half. It was only the following year that what I had created became clear to me. They still reveal things to me everyday.

( feature photo – Studio Massaro/ NV – interior, by Catherine Massaro)

Camille Paglia wrote the most amazing article, How Capitalism Can Save Art. Camille is a University Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts in Philidelphia.

I think I’ve read it about 10 times now, and it’s just so powerful and well written. Check this paragraph out:

…”Capitalism has it’s weaknesses. But it is capitalism that ended the stranglehold of the hereditary aristocracies, raised the standard of living for most of the world and enabled the emancipation of women. The routine defamation of capitalism by armchair leftists in academe and the mainstream media has cut young artists and thinkers off from the authentic cultural energies of our time.”

I love my iPhone too. And I love this lovely Mac Book I write this blog on. I love this amazing machine that allows my voice, art and website to reach out to anyone, anywhere. But thankfully I was educated in an ART school, where making something every day mattered. Looking deeply and thinking long and hard about what you saw was our everyday fare. The history of art was our timeline and connection to the past that put our history in perspective.

God, I loved art school. It taught me to think and see in a hundred different directions. It’s a sad thing to see the arts diminishing in our troubled public education system. It will make for a weak society.  Even as we advance technologically we are in fact getting less and less civilized I fear.

(featured image – DRAWING 101, canvas collage by Catherine Massaro)

We make plans. I had a good one for Saturday. Go to Schreiner University and get a nice photo of graduating seniors and do a blog about surviving graduation. Then on to Kerr Arts & Cultural Center to hear Dr. Robin Clark do a talk and slide show presentation on The Making of an Artist, on the development of kid’s creativity, and get a nice shot of me and Dr. Clark.
Anyway, that was the plan, until I woke up Saturday morning feeling nauseous and feverish. I showered and got ready anyway, but had to lie immediately down, still with the upset stomach. I realized the 30 mile drive out to the university was probably a bad and unsafe idea considering how I was feeling, so I called Brett, one of the seniors who had arranged for our meeting, and had to leave a message on her phone as no one answered. Then I fell back to sleep for another 2 hours.
When I woke up I felt so guilty about cancelling on the young people that I decided at least I could drive out and take some pictures of the show to use , having missed a chance to photograph them, and how hard would it be to just sit ad watch slides and a one hour lecture after all?

So, chamomile tea in hand and a warm head I ventured out. I arrived at Schreiner’s and ran upstairs to quickly shoot pictures of the show, 2.87 lbs. The concept for the show was to illustrate how the human brain, (which weighs 2.87 lbs by the way) is effected through three different themes:
Brett Morrison’s theme: Compensate creativity/ dyslexia
Kelby Ruiz: The Mental side / golf
Laura Nentrup: Beneficial pets / animals

I had been to the opening reception earlier in the week and thoroughly enjoyed each of their unique takes on exploring the subject of the brain and how it’s effected on specific subject matter. What was significant to me was the fact that they had each taken an approach that was uniquely personal to them. Brett is dyslexic, Kelby a golfer, and Laura an animal lover. Through their graphic arts program, they each assembled a show that showed exactly how the brain interacts with a subject near and dear to them. I was excited to show some photos of the exhibit on the blog, but more there in a minute.
Now I am still queasy and warmish, race through the show and taking pictures quickly, drag myself back to my car to try and make the beginning of Dr. Clark’s talk. After she begins, I realize it’s a 2 hour talk, not 1, but sit down in a feverish mist and watch slide after slide of delightful children’s art as she walked us through the 3 stages of cognitive development in children’s art; scribbling, symbol, and realism.

The children’s art was interspersed with master’s works to show how many of them reverted back to these early stages at different parts of their own careers. It was cleverly illustrated over and over again at each of the stages. But it was a struggle for me to sit comfortably until the subject of the circle came up. Dr. Clark pointed out that between the ages of 4 – 8, universally, children begin drawing circles. The mandala form. And it is seen as a major step as an abstract leap to representational art. If you have read my ABOUT section, you will realize that the mandala form plays heavily into my canvas collage body of work. And to my surprise, realized how I too had apparently reverted back to one of the early stages of cognitive development as a mature artist. I could use the term ‘full circle’ to best illustrate the great take away from Dr. Clark’s talk.

As she concluded, I was having waves of nausia again, but really wanted a nice picture of us together for the blog posting, so I handed my camera to a woman in the audience and asked her to please take a picture of us in front of the last impactful slide on the screen. The slide, entitled, LOOSE TOOTH, was a huge child’s mouth, big red lipped grin with a floating unattached tongue , rows and rows of white square teeth with braces and one little tooth coming up. I positioned myself and Dr. Clark in front of the slide and just handed her the camera and said, “Nothing to it, just push the button!” And so she did, I shook hands all around and beat a path for home before I got any worse and was unable to drive home.
There I collapsed on the bed and woke up 6 hours later.

As I downloaded the pictures to see what I was going to use, I was horrified to see I had the left the flash on for all of the photos I took at the 2.87lbs. exhibit, getting nothing but huge glaring reflections. Basically, unusable. But the best was yet to come , as there I stood smiling with Dr. Clark in front of LOOSE TOOTH, with giant red lips going across my face. Disaster. Well, I decided to embrace the horror of the entire day and share it with you anyway. Lesson learned .Stay home when you are sick or expect less than perfect results.

So to the young people, my apologies again for missing our photo op and screwing up the show shots. Please enjoy this less than flattering shot of me with giant red lips over my face as payback. And don’t forget, LEAVING SCHOOL IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS ENTERING SCHOOL. Because, to end is to begin.

Gifts come in many forms. One of my favorite lately is being given the honor to talk to people about living a creative life and my colorful journey of same.The reason I mention gratitude is when I talk about the history of this journey to people, I am constantly reminded of the many people who contributed to it and help make it possible. From teachers, to friends, to my husband, who made it possible for me to become a full time artist. No small gift. But my journey up to then had been my own, with many mentors both in the business world and the art world, and their encouragement and advice have impacted me greatly over the years.

This week I had a lovely studio visit and lunch outing with David Smith, Dean of Schreiner University and one of his students from the art program there, Karli Fischer.

Karli is not even in her senior year, but already anxious about what the transition from school to the real world will be like. Will she find a job? Will it be a rewarding job?And as she spoke, she talked about her insecurities about this and that, but the way she communicated told me she already has the confidence and drive to make it, whatever it is.

The best part about living a creative life is the endless possibilities to experience and share what you experience from your unique point of view. And jobs are just one of those areas where once you get out of school you are able to utilize your unique viewpoint. Hopefully employers in Karli’s future will be looking for those people who want to share the unique way an artistic eye has of communicating and navigating our complicated, busy world. Our job as artists is to notice things, make connections with life from those observations, and try to share that experience through our art.

I could talk to young people all day long and get excited about what lies ahead for them. Their lives and careers are so full of possibility. While Karli is filled with uncertainty for now, experience tells me she is going to be more than fine. She should know that uncertainty is going to be her best friend for years to come. Living a little on the edge will keep you sharp, curious, engaged and inspired.

So my gratitude is to you Karli, for letting me into this exciting part of your life, and to David for keeping me connected to the fresh minds coming out of art programs.

My friend Sarah loves photography. She has one foot in the working world and one out the door, dreaming about leading a more creative life. So I introduced her to The Hill Country Arts Foundation and a group show that was coming up. She joined, having never shown her photography or entered a show, and here she is with her first RED DOT!

She was nervous and unsure about the whole event, but I see her closing one door and opening a new one on her creative journey of discovery.