“To create one’s own world takes courage.” Georgia O’Keeffe
“Creativity takes courage.” Henri Matisse
This past week I showed a new painting to friends, and I prefaced their first view with, “Look what I birthed this weekend..”
There were times when I looked at the painting and silently asked, “Where did you come from?”
ZENergy – Acrylic by Lisa Brunetti
The painting and I were at a stalemate, and over the weekend, I gave it the reins. The struggle vaporized, and we galloped over the finish line!
Cindy Ricksgers published her timeout for art early this morning, and some of her words nailed what I intended to write.
“Sometimes – we’ve all experienced it – good art just happens.
Out of the midst of the struggle – to find the value, to correct the perspective, to get the color right – with artwork-in-progress that occupies hours and hours over the span of many weeks…comes a piece that seems to be birthed fully grown, without angst or worry or even much forethought.
It seems almost unbelievable, like magic…or a miracle.
I love when it happens, but I don’t trust it.” *Cindy Ricksgers – Timeout for Art – Process
When I look at this painting, and at the ‘eyeball rock,’ I smile and enjoy sharing this closing quote:
“Those who dance are thought to be quite insane by those who cannot hear the music.” –Angela Monet
May all of you have the courage to dance, music or not!
Z
Zeebra Designs & Destinations 
Breathless…
Raye
thank you amiga! your paintings are always refreshing and breathless; i’m honored that you approve of this one!
z
Beautiful and courageous–you birthed something very special here.
thank you amiga! i can see your smile and wish it were here in person!
I love this, and really do understand what you’re saying. I think it’s a little bit like writers’ block. When I write, and I’m writing well, it’s as though the words are coming through me from somewhere outside of me. When I’m searching and scratching my head, and beating up my brain for an idea then it’s hopeless. You need the magic to flow through you and paint or write itself straight on to the paper!
yes, it’s like receiving a gift when things flow so easily.. and it can be extreme work when it’s ‘not there’ — but usually the block will release if we don’t give up! thanks so much for your comments! it’s great to have you back and full throttle! z
Love the pic too!!
I love the painting! It reminds me of Georgia O’Keeff’s art, but with more heat! That’s a good thing. can’t wait to see more.
thanks! i think that people will always associate paintings of skulls with georgia o’keeff – i’m not sure if it’s possible to paint one without the instant connection to her work… i hope that she would be pleased with this painting! thank you for seeing the ‘heart’ connection and for sharing that with me!
this next week i’ll be in the cloud forest and will be working from life w/the lovely flowers!
lisa/z
Z, I have missed you. It looks like you have been inventively, busy. I like the contrast. I also like Angela Monet’s quote. Keep dancing Z. You help us hear the music before we know it is there. Well done, BTG
hey! thanks, as always, for your positive feedback. i’ve adjusted a bit to the lack of internet options, so i am grateful for those times when i am online. it’s my loss that i am behind on reading posts that keep me informed on what’s happening in the world.
i’m glad that you liked the quote, which reminds me to stay young at heart! yes, keep dancing even if others don’t hear the music!
z
i think that you and your family do a good job of listening to the music! thanks for being such a great support! z
Lisa, I’m in awe of this painting, and can’t even come up with the words…it really is special. Thank you so much for sharing it! Thank you for your reference to my blog, too!
thank you cindy! your feedback means a lot, and it’s encouraging to know that the painting has its own power.. i truly cannot take credit for it, and i’m sure that you understand!
it’s odd how we were both focused on the same ‘where did this come from’ birthing process!
z
It is a stunning work.
thank you! every time i look at it, it seems to all but come to life.. i remain a bit puzzled by how it strengthened on its own power! z
Birthing is painful and you make this look like it just flowed naturally from your mind’s eye to your paintbrush. What a piece of creative energy. Such talent you have, Lisa. A toast to you. 🙂
thank you from rainy quito! i enjoyed a cafe con leche tonight to shake the chill from my bones – thanks for the positive feedback, and cheers to you!
My gosh. It took me three passes through here to see the zebra. Never mind what I was seeing before that – suffice it to say it was reminding me of Georgia O’Keefe, too.
The rockeye? That thing would make me nervous, just sitting around and looking at me.
As for the artistic process, one of the great mysteries in my life just now is how easily the etherees come. That’s not to say they don’t take some work, and some sitting around just “aging” — they do. But they are easy, and they’re getting better. I need to figure out why, so I can apply those lessons to my other writing. Sometimes, there are lessons to be learned in our successes, as well as our failures.
yes, i look at that rock eye and also wonder, ‘where did you come from?’ i’m anxious for my friends/fututre owners to see it to get their feedback, but it seems a bit powerful to me.
i’m traveling, and it’s in its own andean handbag and could serve as a concealed weapon! it’s large grapefruit size or larger!
i think most everyone immediately associates skulls with georgia o’keefe, and that’s fine with me.. i hope that she experienced as much fun and joy as i did when she painted those images!
there are so many great benefits toward getting older, and yes, sometimes we tap into a beautiful stream that generously flows in our direction!
I also felt the O’Keeffe influence in your painting. If we’re going to be influenced, let it be by someone as capable as she. The last time I was in Santa Fe, I made sure to visit the O’Keeffe Museum. That was in 2002, so maybe it’s time for another trip there.
oh yes, that would be a great gift to have that luxury to bask in the genius of her paintings!
recently i scanned a collection of o’keeffe quotes and thought that it would be fun to create art based on the reaction to her quotes.
sigh; i need a dozen more lives!
many times recently i’ve loaded your spanish wisdom to read offline, and i always appreciate those word connections. z
If I see a sale on extra lifetimes I’ll you know so you can order some.
thanks, that would be great! 🙂
I enjoyed this post immensely for you have given me a glimpse into an artist’s thought process. Thank you for introducing me to Cindy! 🙂
you are so welcome! sometimes there’s a push/pull between the artist and the work. for me, it’s an evolution – first going by methods that have worked in the past, and for planning the painting to the point that it loses its spontaneity.. and then one learns to disconnect from ‘thinking so much’ and just letting it go.. much like being comfortable with a horse – just give it the reins and every so often guide it in the general direction you’d like it to go!
(otherwise it might try sloughing you off between two trees or beneath a low limb!)
thanks for visiting cindy’s site as well!
I’ve started to follow Cindy’s blog. Your insights are my “food for thought.” We live is a world that rewards speed, but the process of “just letting it go…” does not happen overnight. I just finished a biography of Georgia O’Keeffe – so was very pleased to see it at the top of your post.
Have a great weekend!
wow – cool art – cool post – and I love the words so much – especially this – “good art just happens.”
but then the ending one – by Angela Monet – wow -very cool….
“Those who dance are thought to be quite insane by those who cannot hear the music.”
hey!
thanks for always finding time to comment! you always have such positive things to add. i’m glad that you approve of the painting and of the other quotes!
yes, the final quote always makes me chuckle!
The colour and design are stunning, but it’s that intriguing assymetry that really gives this picture bite. There’s also the intellectual interplay of the chimera – two animals combined, and the bleached skull. I have missed your paintings in recent blogs, thankyou so much for sharing this. Tony
thanks, tony, and i’ve missed seeing your brilliant xray pics.. i think/hope that i’ll be catching up on your posts very soon! for 24 hours i’ll be online much more often than for the past few months!
did the flooding/cyclone affect your area?
z
Hey, You’re always welcome. The cyclone largely passed us by, it was centred to the north, made it’s way back out to sea and kind’a side-swiped us. Lots of rain and wind but no damage. Thanks for asking. Best of luck with your internet connections. Tony
Superb imaginative art.
Not only a zebra, the hot colours imply the creation of the sun.
‘He’ looking at you.’ or ‘we will we will rock you.’
thanks, oh creative one! i’m glad that you like the painting! your last post featuring the trees was very nice.. trees are powerful, aren’t they?
There so many and all are wonderful I have hugged some of the mightiest trees and I cannot decide on the best but I love the Boabs and the Gums.
there’s something about the ancient guavas – guayavas that i really love.. they’re so solid, silvery in some areas and peeling bark in others… they’re medicinal.. and seem wise.. but all trees seem wise!
our ceibos are like your boabs – they have such unique personalities, and i am very drawn to those.
yes, gums are nice.. as are sycamores… and eucalyptus and — and — and — oh wow, how about those royal poincianas/flame trees?
Jacarandas in flower and Silky Oak they blossom at the same time, a mass of blue and the golden Silky Oak.
There is the smell of the bush, Aussies always call it the bush unless it is a rain forest, we still have large areas.
But where I grew up in the bush it is concrete jungle now.
Our childhood sensory input stays in our memory and new input is influenced by, it what forms our individual character.
There are people that are afraid of the bush and the animals in it.
I ran barefoot as a child and learned if you respect animals do not surprise them or try catch them or kill them. Give them room and they do the same.
Some like salty crocodiles you need to give plenty of room.
I understand how you love nature. You would love the Aussie bush as Pauline does.
ha! i ran barefooted while racing my sister and sliced my foot wide open.. it didn’t slow me down for long, though i am now always cautious if i run barefooted!
in this climate i’m barefooted a lot and it helps stay grounded.. otherwise i have too much electricity in my body and short out electronic items!
All that electricity may be part of your magnetism Lisa.
You haven’t slowup you are too full of enthusiasm for your many interests.
I mention ‘earthing out ‘in one of my posts the static electricity does build up in our body.
Bare foot in the dewy wet grass early in the morning is a childhood memory.
In construction work I started early, to make the best use of the day light hours.
Now it is to see the sunrise when on the East Coast.
So it is a habit with me wherever I am, there is never enough hours in the day.
Morning is my best time of day I get a head start.
A burst of energy with a cool center. Out of curiosity which came first? The head or the waves?
uhvhi!
it’s early morning here.. i’ll bet you”re just hitting rem sleep!
first was the glimpse of teh skull at playa el matal, where the beach is quickly vanishing.. then a pencil sketch w/the zebra lines.. and then the painting of the skull, washed first with lights and darks, then stripes… then the bands and waves of colors slowly radiating out… a white halo separated the skull from the colors.. i couldn’t decide if it should have subtle other tint or if it should be left white… i floated in yellow and it seemed wrong… next were short radiating lines in the band of yellow that conflicted w/the flow of the other..
i left it for a while.. strengthened the yellow.. darkened the yellow toward orange…wondered if i should change it to purple or blue – complimentary color of the oranges and reds and yellows… and then a brick wall.. i pondered the mola effect and thought that the lines would detract…somewhere in there i photographed it and then drew the lines on the computer and didn’t like it..
we stared at each other for another ten days…
i studied other photos of skulls… then studied my original photo… then repainted almost the entire first skull.. strengthened and warmed the darks.. and didn’t like it so painted it again w/cooler darks… and about that time i stopped fighting it, and the details landed where they should.. and the colors worked, and lines were mandatory – an obligation…
and then it was finished…
would anyone know of that inner struggle when looking at the painting? the pain was gone though, like a mother, i was there during the process!
yes, it was birthed for sure!
I think they might because it is an intense painting. Forceful. 🙂
the head was first, then the ripples around it and finally the black lines.. i still look at that painting and wonder, ‘wow.. where DID you come from?!’
🙂 From Amazing YOU!
ha! hopefully next week some new surprises will magically appear from this incubation period!
Bring on the magic.
si.. i think it’s sometimes a state of mind.. and if we are open to the magic, it arrives!
Absolutely loving the zero
Yes, out of struggle came the birth of the final run. What a fantastic finish, your painting filled with energy and mystery of the Zebra! Simply love how you managed to stay with the design and gave the painting its own way. Love it Z!
I LOVE your new painting!!!
thanks! one never iknows how a painting will take the reins and change its destiny!
z
Yes, yes and yes, Lisa. I’m right there with you. Love your piece. Going with the creative flow. It just works so well ~ sometimes! With affection my friend, Penny xo
Thank you Lisa! 🙂 !
Wish I could hear the music that is playing inside your head Lisa. Your work is fabulous! 🙂
“Where did you come from?”, that could be the title of the picture. Z, you always do such great art work, and quotation too. Courage to dance, of course.
Fabulous! And to think, I’m in the heart of Georgia O’Keefe country at the moment.
I think the best work from any artist comes from «nowhere». It’s indeed like magic, or like a spiritual experience, and it does indeed take the courage to trust this process where you have no idea where it will take. The American existential psychologist Rollo May wrote a whole book called The Courage to Create. Anyway, I think you zebra/bovine painting is fantastic. Wouldn’t mind having a copy on my wall…
What an amazing post Lisa! Your pain produced the most stunning result….powerful and pulsating with energy! Have missed my visits here. Take care 🙂
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Lovely post and thanks for stopping by my blog…