A Bounty of Roses

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

Singing is sweet, but be sure of this,

Lips only sing when they cannot kiss.

-James Thomson

Indiana Storyteller's Retreat

Indiana Storyteller's Retreat
May 26th 2012

We had a wonderful time this past weekend swapping stories at the Indiana Storyteller's Retreat!

'Til next year my friends...

Shakespeare said that art is a mirror held up to nature. And that’s what it is. The nature is your nature, and all of these wonderful poetic images of mythology are referring to something in you.

– Joseph Campbell

Paper Kiss

The Paper Kiss
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Acrylic on Paper
12 1/2 x 19 1/2"
Original available on Etsy

A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss.

-Goethe

(It had to happen at some point that I would create a painting inspired by Klimt's The Kiss.  A larger oil painting is to come...)

The Paper Dancer

The Paper Dancer
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Watercolor and Pen on Paper
12 1/2 " x 19 1/2"
Original available on Etsy

If you can't get rid of your skeleton in the closet you had best teach it to dance.

-George Bernard Shaw

Nightime

Nightime
Copyright 2011 Addie Hirschten
Acrylic on Paperboard
11" x 14"

Men are like the earth and we are the moon;

we turn always one side to them, and they think there is no other,

because they don't see it - but there is.

-Olive Schreiner

A well-spent day brings happy sleep.

-Leonardo da Vinci

Mother and Child

Mother and Child
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"
Original available on Etsy

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss

at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. 

-Honoré de Balzac

Pregnancy

Pregnancy
Copyright 2002 Addie Hirschten
Acrylic and Pen on Paper
8" x 10"

Astonished- she remained

seeing the sun-stars

and the live-dead world

and being in the shade.

-Frida Kahlo

Rest

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

Rest is not idleness,

and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day,

listening to the murmer of water,

or watching the clouds float across the sky,

is by no means a waste of time.

-John Lubbock

Take rest: a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.

-Ovid

My New Book!

The Joy of Living by Addie Hirschten

My new book, The Joy of Living, is now available!

This book is an exploration of philosophy and sexuality though my artwork.  It is a coffee table book full of paintings and quotations meant to honor the beauty of our earth.  It represents about 10 years worth of work.  Whew!

May it inspire you.

(As a side note- the electronic format is MUCH cheaper than ordering a printed book.  I receive the same amount of money for either version.)   Thanks for your support everyone!

The Agreement

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

If you live to be a hundred,

I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.

-A.A. Milne

Vision

Vision
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Prints available on Fine Art America
Original available on Etsy

All my life my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name.

-Andre Breton

Mother Mary

Mother Mary
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"
Prints available on Fine Art America
Original available on Etsy

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me.

They have clung to me all my life.

-Abraham Lincoln

Love

Love
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Prints available on Fine Art America
Original available on Etsy

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.
-C.S. Lewis

 

Women

Women
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"
Prints available on Fine Art America
Original available on Etsy

To look at a thing is different from seeing a thing. 
And one does not see anything until one sees its beauty.

-Oscar Wilde

Love is feared: it dissolves society, it's unpopular, and it's very rare.
-Christina Stead

The Spiral Dance

The Spiral Dance
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"
Reprints available on Fine Art America

The universe is a fluid, ever-changing energy pattern,
not a collection of fixed and separate things. 
What affects one thing affects, in some way, all things:
All is interwoven into the continuous fabric of being.

-Starhawk

Nothing

Nothing
Copyright 2001 Addie Hirschten
Watercolor on Paper
18" x 24"

Nothing can be created out of nothing.

-Lucretius

Floribunda



Flora Blossoms
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"
Reprints available on Fine Art America

I sit in my garden, gazing upon a beauty that cannot gaze upon itself.

And I find sufficient purpose for my day.

-Robert Brault

(Gardens always mean something else, man absolutely uses one thing to say another.)

-Robert Harbison

Infinity

Infinity
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
12" x 16"
Original available for $175. on Etsy

Height, width, and depth are the three phenomena which I must transfer into one plane to form the abstract surface of the picture, and thus to protect myself from the infinity of space.

-Max Beckmann

Queen of the Night

Ishtar, Queen of the Night
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
12" x 16"
Reprints available on Fine Art America
Original available for $175. on Etsy

A beautiful woman can be painted as a totem only;

not as a woman, but as a Madonna, a queen, a sphinx.

-Saul Steinberg

(Parts of this image were inspired by a 4000 year old Babylonian sculpture.)

Flora

Flora
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
12" x 16"
Reprints available on Fine Art America
Original available for $175. on Etsy

Tis my faith that every flower
enjoys the air it breathes. 

-Wordsworth

The Three Graces

The Three Graces
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Pen on Paper
8 1/2" x 12"

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers,

it shows he is a citizen of the world,

and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands,

but a continent that joins to them.

-Francis Bacon Sr.

The Orchid

The Orchid
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Pencil on Paper

If you had loved something, wouldn't a little bit of it always linger?

-Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief

Man and Woman

Man and Woman
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
12" x 12"
Original available for $150. on Etsy

Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism.  But in fact they are perpetually passing in to one another.  Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid.  There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman. 

-Margaret Fuller

 



Still Dreaming

Still Dreaming
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Original available on Etsy

I think we dream so that we don't have to be apart so long.
If we are in each other's dreams we can be together all the time.
-Bill Watterson

The Dream

The Dream
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"
SOLD

There are some people who live in a dream world,

and there are some that face reality;

and then there are those that turn one into the other.

-Douglas H. Everett

ArtReach

ArtReach Exhibit currently up at the Indianapolis Art Center

I work as an art instructor for the Indianapolis Art Center's ArtReach program.  ArtReach provides art classes to youth living in underserved areas of Indianpolis.  I love my job!  It is very rewarding and meaningful to share the fun and healing qualities of art with others.

The "Celtic Knot" painting in the right of the photo was created by my students and is currently on display at the Art Center through June 11th.  Tonight is our opening and party for the students!

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

-Thomas Merton

Love and Marriage

Someone
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Pencil on Paper

Despite the fact that I have been married, I recently had a fantasy about writing a book entitled, "The Anti-Marriage Manifesto."

But beyond my urge to complain-meister about marriage, how can I redefine what I want in relationships? What promises do I want to make to my lovers... or expect in return?

How about this...

I promise to be honest.

I promise to be empathetic, to listen.

I promise to drop everything and be there for you if your car breaks down.

How is this different from the way I would treat any other friend? Well, it isn't much different honestly, but there is a closeness that comes with intimacy. There is a bond. That bond doesn't have to be rigid and based on a fear of loneliness or cultural expectations. It embraces. It is forgiving. It is accepting... and gravy is it fun.

When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out.

-Elizabeth Bowen

The Cup

The Cup
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Watercolor on Paper

A full cup must be carried steadily.

-English Proverb

Roses

Roses
Copyright 2011 Addie Hirschten
Collaborative Collage and Watercolor created with my daughter

Last year I inherited my grandfather's rosebushes.

The picture below shows my first open bloom of the year!

Saint Joseph handed her a rosebud and said,

'Never fear.  When this blooms, you will be with me again.'

-The Grimm Brothers

Agape vs. Eros?

The Kiss
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Watercolor on Paper

So...

Agape = universal, unconditional love of all mankind

Eros = romantic love

What is the difference? Is eros just an extension of our sexuality? When we "fall in love" is it all a ploy by nature to perpetuate the species?

This difference gnaws at me because I can't help but see my heart's desire as a shining star. A hierarchy forms in my mind with that person at the top. No other hands feel as good. No other person is as exciting to talk to.

Does this eros inflicted hierarchy go against my universalist ideals?

Does it negate agape?

Or as one friend said does being in love make you MORE loving to all of the other people in your life?

Or all the above
oh how I love to see you smiling.
-Gnarls Barkley