The Reed Bed

The Reed Bed
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

Since I was cut from the reed bed I have made this crying sound.

Anyone separated from someone he loves understands what I say:

Anyone pulled from a source longs to go back.

-Rumi

Rumi would say to stop searching outside myself, I know, I know...
my source is always there but I am human and I ache for this union with the divine lover that can pull me back to the reed bed. I ache to lie there. The warm water and my lover surrounding me as I surrounding him.

I could not exist, could not exist at all, unless you were in me.
-Saint Augustine

How the World May Be Changed

How the World May Be Changed
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Original available on Etsy

Had you been there tonight
You might know how it feels
To be struck to the bone
In a moment of breathless delight.
Had you been there tonight
You might also have known
How the world may be changed
In just one burst of light.
And what was right seems wrong
And what was wrong seems right.

-Herbert Kretzmer, Les Miserables

Friday Feature: Matisse

Christmas Eve 1952 by Matisse

Everyone is all aflutter here in Indianapolis due to the fact that our art museum, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, is going to host an exhibit of Matisse's works this coming fall!  We are going to have color and a splash of Fauvism. I am so stoked.

The Fall of Icarus by Matisse

In 1941 Matisse went through a surgery due to cancer.  After that he was confined to a wheelchair.  While this might have pushed him into a depressive funk instead he experienced a renewed vigor, "une seconde vie" a second life as he put it.  During that time he produced a new body of work made of paper cut outs.  This was the ultimate lemonade out of lemons situation.

Madame de Pompadour by Matisse

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.

-Henri Matisse

The Dance by Matisse

Lovely Patrons and Frames

Bounty of Roses
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Acrylic on Paper
8 1/2" x 12"
Sold from Etsy

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.

-Benjamin Franklin 

I am so blessed to have such wonderful patrons to support my art.  This one recently sold from my Etsy store.  Once it arrived and was framed, the buyer updated me with this picture in its new home:

"Bounty of Roses" Painting in its new home!

It is so comforting to know that my babies have found good homes.
Many, many thanks!

Making the Dream Reality

Making the Dream Reality
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Original Available on Etsy

Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.
 
Below is a link to a lecture I recently gave on finding the universal in folklore...
how our we are united by our commonalities.
 http://www.uui.org/sermon/finding-the-universal-in-folklore/

Friday Feature: Michelangelo

Pieta Sculpture by Michelangelo

There are two interesting elements to the life and works of the artist Michelangelo that fascinate me. The first being how he identified himself as a sculptor and didn't care for painting yet he produced amazingly dynamic frescos.  The most famous of which is his work on the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

Note how sculptural Michelangelo's depictions of the human form are in the painting above.  The lesson I take away from this is how craftsmanship in any format can aid in the development of another.
And then there are the issues of loincloths...
Shortly after the Sistine Chapel was finished it was decided by the powers that be to have another artist paint loincloths over the genitals of the bodies of the ceiling frescos.  This action was influenced by the conservative movement of the Counter Reformation.  What irks me as always about such censorship is the idea that our bodies are crass.  I perceive sexuality as a divine energy responsible for our own creation, something to be celebrated with sacred reverence.  The paintings were recently restored to their original state of nude glory.  Rock on.

I feel as lit by fire a cold countenance

That burns me from afar and keeps itself ice-chill;

A strength I feel two shapely arms to fill

Which without motion moves balance.

The flesh now earth, and here my bones,

Bereft of handsome eyes, and air,

Still loyal are to him I joyed in bed,

Who I embraced, in whom my soul now lives

-Michelangelo's love poems to Tommaso dei Cavalieri

One Bridge... Many Paintings

Illinois Street Bridge
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
SOLD

Depicted above is the first painting I created of one of the bridges crossing the Broad Ripple Canal in Indianapolis over a year ago. Since then I have settled on one spot looking east toward the Illinois Street bridge.
Like an old friend or a bad penny I always come back to that spot. It is just a spot like any other but I love it. Just like lovers I can't help but have favorites. Maybe it is hierarchical but this spot...
this is it.

Double Arch Painting
Copyright 2011 Addie Hirschten

Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you, Did my heart fly at your service.

-Shakespeare, The Tempest

Autumn Day by the Bridge
Copyright 2011 Addie Hirschten

Winter Morning
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Prints available on Fine Art America

Bridge Over the Canal
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Prints available on Fine Art America

Winter Morning

Winter Morning on the Canal
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.

-John Steinbeck

Friday Feature: Karl Albert Buehr

Young Woman with Parasol by Buehr

Women and light... this is the glory of the German born Chicago artist, Karl Albert Buehr.  

In silence we must wrap much of our life, because it is too fine for speech.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lady with Yellow Shawl by Buehr

Strolling Figures in Landscape by Buehr

Portrait of Womanhood Reception

Morning Light
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

This Friday January 11th 2013 from 5-8pm there will be an opening reception for the exhibit "Portrait of Womanhood" at the Indiana Interchurch Center of Indianapolis.  This painting "Morning Light" will be included in the show along with a wide variety of other pieces by different women artists.  It is a self-portrait including my daughter when she was just a few days old. 

I hope to see you there!

Do you not know that I am a woman?  When I think, I must speak.

-Shakespeare

 

Kindling Fire

Kindling Fire
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.

-Shakespeare

(Funny- coming from a man of words is it not?  Then again it can be frustrating to try to communicate all that we feel with only words or paint or any other artform.)

Friday Feature: John William Waterhouse

The Siren by Waterhouse

Heavy with symbolism and classic mythological stories John William Waterhouse's paintings have a refined elegance.  What I like best about them is that they convey a lot of emotion despite the fact that they aren't "expressive" in the splashy color manner of the later symbolist movement paintings. In this next painting he illustrated Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott"...

I'm Half Sick with Shadows by Waterhouse

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot:
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed;
"I am half-sick of shadows," said The Lady of Shalott.
-Lord Alfred Tennyson

Echo and Narcissus by Waterhouse

To be half sick with shadows is to be tired of dreaming of living.  When you reach the point where reality must be pushed to fulfill the delights of your imagination.  Yet for today I am content to live vicariously through these myths and legends.  Tomorrow I will take action.

Reaching into the Water

Reaching into the Water
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Original Painting available on Etsy

Any soul that drank the nectar of your passion was lifted.

From the water of life he is in a state of elation.

Death came, smelled, me and sensed your fragrance instead.

From then on, death lost all hope of me.

In the waters of purity, I melted like salt

neither blasphemy, nor faith, nor conviction, nor doubt remained.

And if you become an ocean, I'll drink all your water.

-Rumi

Reincarnation

Reincarnation
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 36"

 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground;

for out of it wast thou taken: 

for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.  

-Genesis 3:19

 As we fall to death and decay the dust of our bodies is the fuel for new life.

 It is a secret of the world that all things subsist and so not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterwards return again… Nothing is dead; men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals and mournful obituaries, and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and well, in some new and strange disguise.

- Emerson

Happy New Year!

 

Friday Feature: William Morris

William Morris Tree of Life Tapestry

Inspiration for the Arts and Crafts Movement came from a reverence for the natural world.  At a time when industry and cities flourished between 1890-1910 people craved the delicate beauty of country life.  William Morris was a leading artist in this movement designing tapestries and wallpapers. He believed that beauty should return to every home regardless of class. He wrote, "I do not want art for a few; any more than education for a few; or freedom for a few."

William Morris "Strawberry Thief" Tapestry

Today a resurgence of Morris' work can be found in the form of needlepoint kits and reproduction wallpapers.  Not to mention he is featured on many a Pinterest board including my own.  I think that Morris would have loved that his work continues to honor nature in our homes and that individuals recreate his designs for themselves.  For we have the power to create heaven on earth.

A good way to rid one's self of a sense of discomfort is to do something. That uneasy, dissatisfied feeling is actual force vibrating out of order; it may be turned to practical account by giving proper expression to its creative character.

-William Morris

William Morris "Willow Boughs" Wallpaper
(The most popular of Morris' paper... I so want this for my laundry room.)

With the arrogance of youth, I determined to do no less than to transform the world with Beauty. If I have succeeded in some small way, if only in one small corner of the world, amongst the men and women I love, then I shall count myself blessed, and blessed, and blessed, and the work goes on.

-William Morris

The Star and the Flower

The Star and the Flower
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

You must become brother and sister

to each and every thing

so that they flow through you 

dissolving every difference

between what belongs to you and others.

No star, no leaf shall fall-

you fall with them-

to rise again 

in every new beginning.
-Herman Hesse

The Nativity

The Nativity
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

Yet in the dark streets shineth the everlasting light;

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

-O Little Town of Bethlehem, Phillips Brooks

Friday Feature: Carl Larsson

Painting by Carl Larsson

Swedish artist Carl Larsson's depictions of his family offer some of the warmest images of home life during the Christmas season.  This leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement had a style that was both realistic and fluid.  I admire his delicate yet confident line work.  

Larsson's home was decorated with outstanding murals such as this one.

Happy Holidays!

Sketch of a Woman

Sketch of a Woman
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Pen on Paper

The human heart has many treasures, 

in secret kept, in silence sealed.

-Charlotte Bronte

Her History

Her History
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

And what's her history?
A blank, my lord.  She never told her love,
But let concealment, life a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: she pin'd in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy,
She sat like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief.
-Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Love which is made to be silent is most painful for it goes against the best of our nature.

Conventionality is not morality.

-Charlotte Bronte

Friday Feature: Claude Monet

Norway Village in the Snow by Claude Monet

Monet equals classic impressionism. Landscapes that capture the subtle changes of light as the day progresses. For paint to reflect the tone of fleeting environments, this was Monet's goal.

For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at any moment.

Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. 

It's enough to drive one mad. 

I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.

-Monet

 

Below are a couple of Monet's quick studies of light...

Haystack by Claude Monet

Haystack by Claude Monet

Here is an excellent example of how light changes over the course of just a few hours... amazing!  The earth is so beautiful.

Love Alters Not

Love Alters Not
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediment. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove: 
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken; 
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error, and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, not no man ever lov'd.
-Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

Leaves Have Ripened

Leaves Have Ripened
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 36"

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

-Robert Frost

Friday Feature: Wassily Kandinsky

Composition 7 by Wassily Kandinsky

Kandinsky is considered most famous as a founder of the abstract movement.  He allowed for symbolic images to drop from his work depicting only non-representational shape and color.  His goal was to communicate emotion through color exemplified by the painting above.

Color provokes a psychic vibration.

Color hides a power still unknown but real,
which acts on every part of the human body.

-Kandinsky

And that is all cool, influential stuff...

but honestly my favorite Kandinskys are his works just before he hit abstraction... when there was still a hint of a human form or a landscape.  What can I say- I love the more Fauve-ish Impressionism greater than the later forms of Expressionism.

Personal taste.

White Sound by Wassily Kandinsky

As the Sea

As the Sea
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints Available on Fine Art America

O Spirit of love!  how quick and fresh art thou,

That, not withstanding thy capacity

Receiveth as the sea.

-Shakespeare

Moving On

Here is a view of my latest work in progress. Layer number one is always (usually) a thin wash of burnt sienna over the whole canvas with a thicker application of the same color to create the image.   This layer is a bit ghostly and I sometimes find myself liking it so much it is hard to move on to the next step. 

But we must move onward and upward!  Yes?

For all at last returns to the sea, 

like the ever-flowing stream of time, 

the beginning and the end.

-Rachel Carson

Stay tuned; the next layer will be posted on Wednesday.

Friday Feature: Egon Schiele

Holy Family by Egon Schiele

Schiele created characters with distortion to the point of strange and yet they embody personalities just as strong as yours or mine. He abstracted images til they became more "real" to us than a photograph, hitting at the way we feel about things as opposed to what we see.

And... he loved the embrace, as do I.

Schiele's work also tends to provoke the topic of defining the difference between art and pornography. Of this I say that the quibbling usually is done to elevate art and dis porn.  The underlying assumption being that sexuality is bad and should be shunned while "art" deals only with our higher forms of self.  I view sexuality as a sacred energy and think that it is an integral part of who we are.  As such art should not be restrained from addressing issues of sexuality.

If it speaks to you- let's embrace it.
It must be hitting at our core.

 I am only interested in the truth.

Drawing by Egon Schiele

Art cannot be modern, art is timeless. 

I must see new things and investigate them. 

I want to taste dark water and see crackling trees and wild winds. 

-Egon Schiele