Blog

Painting, teaching, studio, gallery, exhibiting in shows and sharing it all with my Studio Partner, Percy. Whoa! My Art Life is anything but static and setting priorities is a daily thing. And there are No Straight Lines. You may be an art buddy, art student, friend, business associate, art collector, art appreciator or someone I have never met but would like to. The best way to let you into my head and heart is to talk about my paintings, how I make them and what they mean to me.  

Sometimes when things are sad and difficult and unsure, as now with life turning our lives upside down, I turn to painting. It does not necessarily provide answers, but the process can be consoling. Painting is a way to pull out feelings and then morph them into something I can see and touch. For those who don't paint, even looking at someone else's painting can have the same effect.

Surprisingly, what I produce at times like this is not sad, or difficult, or unsure. For instance, I am painting butterflies this month. I will show it to you soon. But as I begin this weekly Blog, I would like to take you to another time when I was anxious and not knowing which way to take my life. I pulled out a memory of a moment that quieted me, and I felt safe.

When I lived in NYC decades ago, I wrote the following for a weekly writer’s group I helped found. The words came from my first experience of scuba diving in the Netherlands Antilles. I could feel my breath slow, and a calm came over me as I descended into a world of blue. A mermaid painting sprung from these old memories:

Water Thoughts

In this place of drought and spareness,

memory of water takes me down.

I silently descend,

drifting beyond things I think I know.

The power of blue,

pulling me toward ecstasy and danger.

I will soon not be myself,

but something unimagined in that place above.

Something that belongs here below.

I am losing my colors, leaving them with the sun.

Disappearing into a world of watery flickering,

as if behind a sheer curtain moving in the breeze.

I am not afraid of what may show itself to me.

Of things I only feel might be so.

Suzanne Elizabeth Murphy

                                    1988

I began her  6 years ago. She has become my  “Meditation Mermaid", and somehow I know she is me. She has had many forms, and I have not been able to finish her. I remember reading somewhere that Leonardo Da Vinci worked on his Mona Lisa for 7 years until he died. It will probably be that long for me. But hopefully, I won't die!

Right now, she is sitting against my studio wall on her side. She is large, 36” x 48”. I can't ignore her any longer. I'm thinking that if I talk to you about her, it might help me understand what I want her to be. Join me for my next Blog where I will dare to show you images of all her evolutions, all my mistakes. I keep trying to remember Edgar Degas' wisdom, "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things."

To catch up, you can find my first three Newsletters, No Straight Lines at:  https://www.suzanneelizabethmurphy.com/newsletter-archive

I invite you to share my Blog and Newsletters with a friend using the Social Media buttons. And I always welcome your comments.

See you in a few weeks for more. Stay safe and hopeful. The world needs you!

Suzanne