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The Key to Silence

by artmuse12

A painting left unfinished… I originally started this painting in the summer of 2017.20190105_151123.jpg

If a painting can depict an artist’s state of mind, let’s set the tone of 2017:  The loss of my muse, Single mother of 3 teenage boys, Graduate Student, Working a full-time job, and a massive writing project. I was over extended to say the least.  Trump had been sworn into office and my role as a woman in America felt threatened.

Where does my art fit into this world? I longed for more female produced art. Desperately craving the influence and impact that women have on the art world. I studied female artist and the feminist movement. These artists were angry at patriarchal society, although justified, I struggled with this emotion.

Yes, I am angry sometimes, but I want to heal the energy not continue to rip open the battle wound and pour salt on it.  As the mother of three boys, who will someday be men, how can perpetuate this theme that men are the root of the problem.

How do I balance my semi feminist art and still raise better men, who are masculine yet emotionally and physically strong?  How do you raise men that treat women better, if I can’t figure out how to treat myself? How do I teach them that it is acceptable for a woman or girl to be able to communicate their emotional, sexual, and mental wants or needs? This is a strength, not a weakness.

Frustrated with life and feeling completely stifled, I started on this painting as a way explore myself, my art, my sexual control, and my relationship with my pussy.

I was looking for that euphoric state of mind for clarity and how to really achieve what I wanted for myself.  

How do sex and creative live on this wavelength?

Why does the statement, by our now president, “Grab them by the pussy” invoke so much rage among my gender?

Especially, since in the right setting this statement would have been funny to me.

A woman’s self-pleasure was never talked about growing up and female pleasure was not the center of the discussion. The theme of sex was that men wanted it and it was about them; lay down for him; procreate for him; and all on his schedule or command.

Girls are told that touching themselves is disgusting and that they shouldn’t do it. This mentality surrounds girls with feeling wrong, guilty, and dirty yet, this touching doesn’t feel wrong or dirty. Boys are not fed the same guilt or shame that girls are.  

Porn has become the definition of sex in our society and is a male control field. Boys and Girls are being flooded with imagines of woman serving men and setting unreal expectations of sex.

What if sex was taught as the center of pleasure or as ebb and flow between two people?

The original theme for this painting was about women having the courage to grab their own pussies. I put out a call for a woman to send me their self-pleasuring moments. Once I received a few photos I began to work.

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I was feeling proud of this painting and the overall direction. It was going to be incredible, but the noise from the out world invade. My eldest was mortified by this piece and our already turbulent relationship exploded with a list of all the things that were wrong with me. All of the things my 16-year-old thought of me and all of the things that he wanted me to change in order for him to be in my life.

Now this was not the first time I had been told I was too much and should change, but it was the first time those words halted all of my creativity. I didn’t respond to his demands and we didn’t talk for over a month. I journaled and worked through the tigers and self-doubt that this list sparked and this painting sat on an easel unattended. Mocking me….

I started new projects and let the idea percolate, hoping I would eventually get back to this painting. There were parts of it I like and yet it still wasn’t conveying what I wanted it to.  The list is all I could think about.

I continued to write, and my mentor introduced to half dozen female writers and artists, who were about going inward to fuel change. At this point I had altered and changed this painting and tried to salvage the parts I still liked, but I was still unsatisfied with it and feared it was a lost cause. A deflated concept and it went into storage.20180223_113858.jpg

I moved to other work and read more books by Regena Thomashauer and Lisa Lister.  The best lines were,”Hello, Gorgeous” and “Fix the feminine energy and the masculine energy will heal too” This is the concept rolled over and over in my head.

I had just completed “Fate or Free Will” and was preparing another canvas. But I pulled out this old canvas and brought it back into the studio.

“Heal the Feminine and to heal the masculine”   

Sometimes when I sketch, I will pull a book off my shelf, opened to a page, usually its page 44. I went to line four… “I’ve cultivated a deep and thorough, proactive of listening, dedication, surrender, and responsibility,…”

I sketched and carried these words for a few days… Surrender rolled over and over in my brain… How do I save the center of this painting? How do silence the list?

Why encourage female masturbation?

Why encourage women to honor or worship their pussy?

Why encourage women to touch them self and to find their own pleasure?

Why do I masturbate?

Surrender. Surrender. Surrender, sang in my brain.

To black out the noise was the answer… I lay in bed at night and the lists roll through my mind like a tidal wave.

Recapping the ever evolving “to do” list.

The electric bill was due 11th

Will the baseball cleats from last year still fit?

Where is the crockpot for Saturday?

The dishes didn’t get done, maybe I’ll get up early and do them.

Did I lock the back door?

Did I send that email for work?

The exhibit deadline is the 13th

Pages are due on 19th, I should write more

Look to left and see the empty side of my bed. Look to the right and see the clock… go sleep

Random recaps of lovers and what went wrong

Recap of why the old man at the bar flashed his dick at me.

Why do men only want to sext and not actually meet?

They all want a mother to marry and a whore to fuck.

Is there a happy medium to this?

The words throughout the day, week or month…

Whore

Slut

Mother

The balance in my checking account

Dirty girl

My puss

Powerful

All racing around as if there is a finish line and my hand moves south.

To explore a forbidden land.

To explore the thing that men desire and fear the most.  

As I feel the warmth radiating and fingers find their rhythm the noise gets quieter and the sensation of pleasure moves up my body. I have to surrender and the noise fades to black and for the next 30 seconds to 10 mins I am lost in self pleasure, nothing else matter and the world doesn’t exist for this moment it is ALL me and the sensation of surrendering to myself  to climb the mountain in order to calm the tidal wave and center my thoughts.

Release the expectation of others and regain my control.

Thank you, Gorgeous, you are the key to silence.
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An Artist without a Studio

by artmuse12

I took twenty minutes yesterday at lunch to sit in my sort of empty studio.

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Oh lord, I have missed this space!

 

 

I struggled when I first gave up my downtown studio space, but over the years I have created spaces in my home to work and store art pieces.  Recently, I have had to crate and boxed up my supplies, projects, and books stacked them on and around my desk. All pushed against the easel wall.

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Truthfully, thought I could survive construction, but it’s all kind of getting to me. I have been feeling the lack of order for a couple of weeks, yet this week it has hit me the hardest.

This not having a set place to paint and write.  One where I can create and leave my mess until I can come back to it.

Maybe it’s the lack of mid-day re-set. The hour I took before my boys went on summer vacation and before construction started.  That time of day where I could stare at the canvas, the note-book, and/or the garden – quite creative listening.

It might be different if there wasn’t some sort of improved in every room of my house but there is which I am in creditably grateful to have the ability to make these improvements. However, it is wearing on my creative soul.

I tried to paint in the garage, but now it’s to sticky out and well the tools and supplies of the remodel have slowly taken over and it pulls out of my zone.

I have attempted a few spots out and about to sketch and work, but it’s not the same. For me art is not just about the production is the process the movement that runs through my entire body and sometimes when there is the possibility of an audience, that freedom is stifled.

While I sat on the wood floor, staring at the plywood on the south wall where there was once a window. I look the left out the broken east window and envision the glass doors that will soon be there letting in all the east sun. I can see the shelving. The unpacked brushes and books all able to breathe.  I can see where the tracking lighting will go and the sink where I will clean my brushes.20180724_074201

I see the improved wall easel and the future creative moments, with new fresh energy.  All these things I have envisioned while I saved and sacrificed for will be worth it.

And in the meantime, I need to find a place to let loose and make some art.

Art keeps me balanced and without it is like a part of me is missing.

I am an artist in limbo.

Inspiration

by artmuse12

Where does inspiration stem from?

It comes from all sorts of places, but mainly it should come from within.

I see things all the time that give me inspiration that make me want to produces better clearer art.

The lighting at a concert, golden hour, or the light beaming in threw my studio windows.

 

The sound of the rain falling on the glass table and the flower blooming in my garden.

There are melodies that control my brush strokes.

Lyrics that form shapes and colors.

People that invoke energy;  sensations that are both good and bad.

Art is trying to create balance between words and the images as they come, knowing that logic and emotions have a dance that doesn’t always make sense.

I produce art to answer only my questions;  my art is for my souls, and the hope is simply that someone else can relate and appreciate the story being explored.

 

Change and begin again

by artmuse12

Sometimes when I am stuck I have to begin again…

Stop giving to others.

Find my center and than fucking breathe.

Stop fucking holding it in

Stoo holding it fucking back

Focus on the center;

that breath;

Say I am… and chase the spinning words

Stuck on the words.  

by artmuse12

Words are spinning around me in a chaotic fashion. It is both fierce and at the spend of light at times it feels like I’m trying to catch a falling star.   

Intimidated by the words that I cannot catch. 

There are times when the words get stuck on repeat and come at me over and over again. I write them and sketch, show them with those other free-falling words.  

They are spun in so many colors and there are so many options.  

The written words seem to be the hardest they are the bond of commutation and I chose the words I use so carefully with yet simple words can elude me.  

I see the words and images in all directions. Everyone else sees them left to right, but it’s not that predictable for me they come in like the rain and in all directions.  

Music slow the words down and the painting use to silence them.

Now, I am painting to catch the words.

 

What you touch yourself

by artmuse12

What you touch yourself!?! – is the shocking response I get from men who find out that I masturbate.

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I am not sure why the expectations of masturbation are so different for woman than they are for men, but they are. Women are shamed for it or told that it’s not okay.

I figure when we encourage woman to self-explore it gives them power within their own sexual awareness.  They discover their likes and dislikes better, and if they can bring themselves to organism, they are less likely to make bad decisions when it comes to having a sexual partner.

I’m currently working on two separate paintings. One with is full of  women’s vulvas and their fingers, the working title is “self-teach” and the other is a grouping currently of two canvases with both a female and a male masturbating, the title is “Watch Me”

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The Self Touch painting is at this pointing, sitting unfinished because I am dealing with the personal shame surrounding my sexual knowledge, openness, and my exposure of my evolving work. I have let it sit on an easel while the rest of the painting presents its self to me. I’ve been reading several books Wet, A Decade of Negative Thinking, and Hot White Truth through these books I have been able to acknowledge my fears and work on furthering my path and desire for social change through both my writing and my art.

Over the weekend I was able to discuss my work and concept with a fellow artist. We discussed my new nickname and the local bar where I have been painting, which is the Pussy Painter.

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However, this nickname has created a buzz it has opened dialogue with the blue collar crowd. They have asked me very real questions about my art, my subject, and my concept as an artist. My favorite question so far has been “Are you just super horny?” No… Than a yes, accompanied by a laugh. Then I go into the theory behind my art.

We talked about the complexity of “Watch Me” that the pairing of the two makes the individual paintings stronger,  combined with the spaces I am working on these paintings, which is on the patio of a local bar makes for an added layer of complexity to the title of “Watch me”

We discussed the reasons as to why I choose to a paint these subjects in public places.

I even had a very gruff man say, although he wouldn’t seek out nude art, especially  male nudes he could say that this was a beautiful painting of a dick.

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The idea behind “watch me” stems from the trend of sexting and dating in 2017.

 

Relationships become virtual and lacks an organic connection. However, there is a sexual virtual connection between the two subjects this idea of strangers sharing this private act between one another while describing what they want the other to do to each other enhancing sexual stimulation both in their minds and genitals.  The climax is also different than masturbating alone because even though it’s self-inflected the desire was created by the interaction  and the experience was shared.  As the artist I get to a part of this intimate exchange the moment of “Watch me” and by taking out to the a public place to create it, I become the part of the subject as other strangers watch me bring out this private moment onto the canvas.  Again, it sparks conversation about self-pleasure, sharing it with others, and the most important part it opens up the conversations on sex positive.

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**all working is in progress

Trusting My Voice

by artmuse12

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So last night I sat staring a white blank Word document with that cursor flashing and blinking. I started to write and then I hit the famous delete delete delete.

Even wrote a paragraph on parenting struggles of raising teenage boys, with my lack of male role models growing up.

I asked for some suggestions on topics to write about. I am tired of writing about my personal life, which has more to with being so publicly vulnerable than anything else.

I mean for fuck sakes, I am strong, independent women and I don’t need a relationship. Yet sometimes I want one. Maybe to reassure me that I am worth someone else time and energy.

I have multiple posts saved and waiting to be published some of them are perhaps passed the expiration date to actually post them, or they may not apply and/or were simply fleeting thoughts.

The suggestions of topics to write about were the possibilities or the idea of a parallel of universes, timeline crashing into one another, or perhaps maybe in an alternate realities where we end up with everyone we ever dated.

Would it be Blissful or would it be torturous… What would the outcome be?

What I should be working on is my book.  The one I have been privately writing for the last nine months and I am at the rewrite and editing stage. I am almost at the finish line, but multiple doubts come into play as I get closer to the final version.  You know the doubts, its like a loud judgmental voice stating “that no cares about what you have to say” or that my voice will shame the ones I love.

Fear prevents us from doing and changing…
Yet softly my inner voice says, “Lean in and trust your truth”

Doubt

by artmuse12

I had this dream I was sitting in a room. “I don’t doubt his love for me” I say.

He says, “I don’t doubt her love for me”

A non objective person in the room says “If you don’t doubt his love and he doesn’t doubt your love, then what do the two of you doubt?” Unanimously we respond, “my capability of loving the him/her enough.”

Exploring your self

by artmuse12

I am working on a concept about self touch and the shame associated with it. Putting out a call for women and men to send me masturbation selfies is an odd request. However, I was curious to see how many would share these intimate moments. Moments that can be empowering.

There is something incredibly intimate about painting these private moments and getting lost in the beauty of it.

*These are all preliminary paintings.

Not Sioux City

by artmuse12

I had been so busy trying to wake myself from a nightmare that the time we were together felt like a dream come true. A dream I had let go 18  fucking years ago.

Yet, because I still love you because you are important to me,  I let you in and told you my secrets, only I watched you walk away like you did all those years ago. I am not Sioux City, but I was “the one”

The one you pulled in only to push me away after I exposed my heart. You, like most want me, but only if we can run away and pretend the real world doesn’t exist.

I was distracted by my trip, able to let you and my real life out of my head, and enjoyed myself, reconfirmed my lot in life.

As I came back to reality, you didn’t even ask if I made it home okay, you shut me out just like before. My heart will not go back into the cage, but it is bruised and its my only fault because I am too trusting and see the good in everyone.

Today, my heart is heavy because the reality is that it was just a dream and I wanted to believe it was more.