Artist’s Statement and Session Five - ArtWriting

Last week I promised my Artist’s Statement, completed this afternoon. Here it is:

“Approaching retirement age ten years ago, I wanted a new direction that would be a daily activity and would incorporate my personal life experience and my nursing career. “Standing still slowly” became an experimental blog for ‘Daily musings in poetry, story or just wandering with ideas, questions….’ in December 2011 to last one year. My medium of wordcrafting has included my own written work accompanied by a photograph from a nature stroll or a still life, and a quotation from another author from another website. Setting my own parameters for my posts, each photograph and each quotation must speak to the intent of whatever I have written.

As I have developed Standing still slowly, I have included book reviews, movie review and the occassional play review. Initially, I had no specific subject or theme other than my own experience with epilepsy and from my still active nursing career. I have also addressed social issues based on personal opinion. A couple of years ago, I began establishing a topic or theme for each month. With these parameters, my awareness of my daily life has heightened.

My first years of writing were influenced by Julia Cameron (The Artist’s Way), Naomi Wakan (Late Bloomer), Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones), Mary Pipher (Writing to Change the World) and a plethora of other authors and their books filled with their experience in writing. My interest in writing more deeply about addictions nursing, outside of my blog, has been encouraged and coached by Connie Frey, a certified Creativity Coach.

Writing has provided me with the satisfaction I sought in 2011. Standing still slowly has moved my life forward.”

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Tonight we discussed Reviewing an Exhibition. As I am not an artist in any medium other than words, I felt rather out of my depth tonight. How to write a Review of an Exhibition when my gallery visits are few and far between. Like a speed dater, I do not linger long on any one painting or work of art before I’m on to the next.  I listened to tonight’s presentation, listening for anything that would give me a hint. While the others broke into pairs to review each other’s creations, I began reviewing Google for any glimpse of hope. And there it was, art galleries with their websites and blogs. So for next weeks assignment, and for next weeks blog, I will write a review of a Victoria Art Gallery. 

‘Til next week!

“Writing is a vessel...with readers the ocean and authors as its sails…”

~ William Petersen