Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.

 Nature repeats itself

"It never occurs to me that (skulls) have anything to do with death. They are very lively. I have enjoyed them very much in relation to the sky." Georgia O'Keefe

In the previous blog, I wrote about the the human form and the importance of it in creativity and art.  Mastering the human form will allow the creator to master other forms in nature.

I have some palm trees in the back yard which have surprised me by how high they have become.  They were sold as small trees and now over power my small back area, towering over the trees in suburban Melbourne.  Despite their height, I have enjoyed the changes that they display with each season.  I don't know much about palm trees, but come autumn, they shed some of the old branches and their bark.  Mornings I will wake to find these scattered in my very small yard, did I already say I have a small yard?  You can imagine the space these take.  In any case, recently I found a piece of the bark on the ground and I thought in my mind that it was the bones and skull of a cow.  

The shape was similarly uncanny, and straight away I thought about Georgia O'Keefe and her skulls, floating in the sky, when I then realised I am far away from the desert, and there couldn't possibly be such a small skull of a cow in my small backyard.

Right there, I thought again, look at how nature just repeats itself.  It seems that certain designs just work, and then nature just keeps on creating them in places least expected.

Below, is 'Ram's Head, Blue morning glory, 1938,

Georgia O'Keefe

The similarities are so prominent and obvious, I can be forgiven for thinking that a small cow's skull landed in my backyard.

Georgia O'Keefe used a variety of medium for her works, pastels and watercolours to name a few.  The skulls were collected after a drought in New Mexico.  They must have been an intriguing lonely sight in the desert, sad really after a drought and the impact that nature can have.  They are quite ethereal, as if rising into the sky, to perhaps a new reincarnated life.  I could be reading too much into it though.

I then decided to create my day three challenge, and thought that I would draw the bark, then use water colour.  My artistic energy as an artist though does not sit well with water colour.

It is a beautiful medium, but I like the thickness and boldness of what acrylic paint can offer, and when I use water colour, the wash, pale effects turn to layers which defeats the purpose, so when I say layers, I mean paint layers.  I'm not happy with this piece, but I enjoyed working with the shape I found, and realised that no matter how hard I try, I just cannot work with water colour.  I let my bark float in the air and I incorporated some flowers too, I was interested in the choice of orange for the background which gives the work a fiery almost apocalyptic feel, and it is this notion from the piece that I might like to consider further.

So, there is always value in what we create.

Enjoy

Stella Grammenos-Dimadis