Liminal Space Art Blog
"With dawn of the new year on the horizon, I resolved to exert my will on the world." -Holly Black
Painting Unexpected Choices on Our Canvas
I paint unexpected choices on my canvas. This collage of exotic fish swimming in strange, magical, deep waters creates a sense of mystery. It opens the door for the viewer to ask questions. Each unexpected choice is an invitation that sparks conversation.
Painting Inner Experience Within a Liminal Space
I draw a door from my childhood home, and I tuck it away in the shadows of my work. It represents yesterday. I add some birds. They are me, today. I include some words about my hopes and fears for tomorrow. Liminal art, my art, rides the tension created by the movement of time.
I Know the Truth
The surface of my canvas teems with fish, crawling insects, the turning colors of leaves, floating bubbles of air, deep blue waters, thoughts, and memories. Here, nature and memory anchor me. I find my center. Creative process is my peace. Art frees me from within the liminal experience. I know the truth about who I am because I paint.
Looking Around in Liminal Places
We cannot go backwards or forwards from the in-between spaces we find ourselves: the liminal spaces that can be an uneasy and disquieting place for many. This blog is about embracing the liminal “Right Now” with a quiet ease.
Swimming and Flying Through Time
You can think about yesterday and sprint towards tomorrow, but the “right now” is most important: liminality’s lesson for all of us. Today, we can do our best to learn this lesson. We can be who we were made to be. We don’t have to be concerned with yesterday, today, or tomorrow. We can just be. It only matters that we don’t let time hold us back from what “right now” holds and that we help others join us in seeing that this is true. Read this blog to learn more.
Liminality: Making Things the Same but Different
Do you notice that things have changed? Do you also see what hasn’t changed and anticipate what lies ahead in “Tomorrow”? Do you look for consistency in a world that’s constantly evolving? Consistency is what the liminal artist finds in the middle of it all: what’s happening in the “Right Now.” For the art maker, the essence of being a liminal artist is seeing things from the present moment while navigating “Yesterday” and “What’s Next.” This blog is about always noticing what came before and what lies ahead while creatively expressing the reality of “Right Now.”
Smart Art Storage in Your Creative Space
This blog is a challenge to find ways to organize and reflect on you work. Perhaps you don’t like my solution, or it doesn’t work for you. That’s highly likely. Look for a solution that fits your needs and allows for reflection and pondering. This will enhance your creative experience and allow you to consider your art making process from your current place in time and space. This is invaluable for the liminal artist.
Create a Space to Lose Track of Time
Can you create a space that makes it easy for you to start art making and avoid obstacles that might interrupt your creative process? What can you do to make your studio a place where you can be in the flow, totally immersed, and fully present? This blog is all about taking the steps you need to make art unencumbered and avoid obstacles you might face along the way. These steps can be the artist’s key to fully exploring “Yesterday” and “Tomorrow” from the “Present Moment.”
Painting My Way Back
Yesterday was challenging. The graves we planted upon were not of relatives long, long gone. The loss is still with us. Memories are crisp. But, we were together and that healed. The beauty of my children on their hands and knees, digging in the dirt, and working together to honor the memories- this meant the world us. Despite the mingling of sadness and the bittersweet, my heart floods with gratitude.
Something More to See?
Art can give us a glimpse of another’s truth, and that’s a God-given gift. Our forms of personal expression can unite us rather than divide us. Our “Right Now” can only be better when we seek to understand each other. The next time all you see is an “Easter Basket,” this blog just might remind you to ask the question, “Is there something more here for me to see?”
Easter Basket, 2021