ANIMAL SPIRITS EXHIBITION

Posing with who I consider to be art royalty at the Animal Spirits exhibition opening at Big Crow gallery! Immediately behind me is some of my art which sold in the first week. Hurray!

In the blue polka-dot scarf is Diane Olivier, an extraordinary artist who teaches at City College who I will be accompanying to Morocco for a wonderful art-making opportunity. On the other side of me is Sandy Yagi, another extraordinary artist who I admire. The gallery is run by another extraordinary artist, Anna Conti, whose landscapes of the San Francisco waterfront are incredible. I felt very lucky to be in such company!

Here on the wall is Honeybee from my Dreamers series, a 3-plate yellow, ochre and black etching. 

They put two of my works that I've never exhibited before in unusual, perfect little spots. Above: my little ink-on-wood New Year Misogi Imp in the fireplace. Below: my spider-web cocoon ladies nestled between nests. 

This lovely lady above purchased a black and white version of one of my linocuts. The gallery drew quite a crowd all through the evening, and they were the kind of people that really wanted to dialogue about art. I think it was one of my most favorite receptions and exhibitions; the look of it, the feel of it, the people who came, the sales, all of it.

INTERVIEW ABOUT MY ART IN CAN SERRAT, SPAIN!

Nice interview here about my Channeling Series in Can Serrat, Spain:

http://www.canserratart.com/2013/08/daisy-eneix-can-serrat-artist-in.html

CHANNELING (completed works)

Daisy Eneix, Lightning, 23x16", ink & graphite on paper

(click on image to enlarge)

Daisy Eneix, Rain, 23x16", ink & graphite on paper

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Daisy Eneix, Moon, 23x16", ink & graphite on paper

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Daisy Eneix, Float, 23x16", ink & graphite on paper

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Daisy Eneix, Faith, 23x15.5", graphite on paper

(click on image to enlarge)

INQUIRIES:

Overall

What states of being do people embody when they feel most present, attuned, aware, charged, connected to nature, an entity or a consciousness in this Universe that is greater than themselves? 

How can I explore this with others? 

How can I express it in drawing?

Process

How do I translate the intuitive experience of mark-making that I get from printmaking to drawing?

How do I combine gestural, atmospheric abstraction with careful representation?

How do I combine graphite and ink without one overwhelming the other?
How do I make room for more open space and less density in my completed work?

How can I enhance precision and remove peripherals, as in a poem?

Content

How do I continue this artistic path of connecting the visceral and ephemeral? 

How has its meaning evolved for me over time, and how can I go deeper into this topic, to previously unexplored territory? 

Collaboration

How do I engage other people in my work while still maintaining the freedom 

to work in solitude and fully listen and respond to where the Muse leads?

*

These works were all completed during my month-long July residency in Can Serrat, Spain. I am grateful to them for the time, space and nutrition (literal and figurative) that allowed me the luxury of experiencing drawing as my sole priority.

Thank you for viewing!

ANKH

I had great fun working on a commission for an Egyptian Ankh combined with four requested elements. After researching the Ankh's meaning I am fascinated: Egyptian symbol of life, unification of male/female, reference to ancient Snake Goddesses, and more. So much material!

I've enjoyed searching a way to weave everything together in a work that unifies all of the requested elements compositionally, symbolically, thematically, metaphorically AND that will look good on the body it is destined for - because ultimately, it's intended as a tattoo! So exciting...

You can see the image much more clearly if you click on it to enlarge it.

Daisy Eneix, ANKH, 23x16", graphite

Drawing the Body Channeling Divine Energy

I'm back in Can Serrat, Spain for a second time, in a month-long artist residency. Drawing and drawing and drawing all day long!! It is such a pleasure and a gift to be able to do this for a significant period of time.

The project I'm working on here explores the body channeling, giving over to, or being in the flow of 'divine energy,' however people may choose to define it, or in whatever context they have felt it. It could be through a particular spiritual, ritualistic or meditative practice, or in an encounter with an elemental force of nature, or by opening themselves up to whatever may be their concept of God, or in some other way altogether. I've asked friends and acquaintances to consider and embody that state of being, which has been the taking-off point for the final works.

Here are some of the drawings in progress:

Daisy Eneix drawing in progress, detail, 23x16". 2013

Daisy Eneix drawing in progress, detail, 23x16", 2013

Daisy Eneix Faith/Flying Backwards (in progress) 23x14", 2013

Daisy Eneix Sky Float, 23x16", graphite and ink on paper

Daisy Eneix Sky Float (detail), 23x16", graphite and ink on paper

Daisy Eneix drawing in progress, detail, 23x14", 2013

The next stage for these drawings will be to add contextual and atmospheric elements that build upon the state of the being of the figure, as I have begun to do in Flying Backwards/Faith and Float.

Once again I seem to be exploring this idea of resonance between the visceral and the ephemeral, a theme that seems to have always been at the core of my art and inquiry. But in this incarnation, I get to collaborate with others and to work in new media, which both feel like exciting new directions for me.

Confluence & God

Odilon Redon

Noticing uncanny coincidence, which I am seeing more as confluence. There has to be something as work - Nature, God, Consciousness, whatever you want to call it. Something more than what we know. Life is just too uncanny. 

Confluence #1:

1. A running theme in my artwork is an exploration of where the visceral, erotic and spiritual meet. Lately it seems that the spiritual side has a new kind of gravity that I'm ready to drop into artistically. I'm not sure what it will look like, but I'm once again returning to artists that drew me initially in that direction: Odilon Redon, Anselm Kiefer, Ana Mendieta, Joseph Beuys and more recently Michelangelo. There are many others, but these are the first that come to mind.

The surprise: There is an exhibition at the museum where I work that is exploring spirituality, and my assignment, as a docent there, is to explore the section Genesis and discuss how I would present it. Amongst the artists are: Kiki Smith, Ana Mendieta, Bruce Conner. Could not be more perfect for the direction I want to go in my own art.

 Confluence #2:

2. I've been wanting to explore new ways of making marks that resemble printmaking, but without the tedious process of making prints. I want to make art in a more direct, spontaneous manner, but mark the page - incise the paper - as if it was a plate. Scrape it, surface it, burnish it, sand it, ink it, as if it were metal. But also, draw on it.

The surprise: Who did I run into with these questions on my mind but a calligrapher, who is using unusual German inking tools. I don't even know what they are called. But I have them. I thought they were merely calipers. I did not know the full extent of their use. But I can dip them in ink. And so - I am coming up with whole new ways to make marks.

Finding Your Line

Recently Christian Tissier, one of the best-known practitioners of aikido, gave a seminar at my dojo. People came from all over the world to participate. I was glad to learn from him, and also of the surprise opportunity to ask him questions. Aikido is as essential to me as art and, for me, they deeply inform one another.

So I asked him this: At this point in my training, how do I best advance internally? Is it about focusing on something in my practice, or attending more seminars? How does he approach it? [Stay with me here, I'm getting to the art part!]

He said: "You must find your line." He talked about aikido as having many lines, lines of ancestry in particular, and that jumping all over and trying to pick up something from everywhere is actually not so useful. That sooner or later I'm going to have to choose my line, and follow it.

As simple as this may sound, it had never really occurred to me before. I guess I've always believed that I should listen, look, and try to learn from everyone who has something to share. That it is important to remain entirely open. Not to select, if it means leaving out.

Sometimes people just say something at the right time and it goes 'thunk.' Yes, aiming involves going towards. But there is another part, which is about letting fall away the parts that are not the target. That at a certain point in one's practice, being continually open to all new influences may be just as stymying as being totally closed to them. That if I want precision, if I want to get to the core, I also have to hone.

So the obvious next question I had for myself was, what does 'finding my line' look like, both in aikido, and in art? Here is how I applied it to the art:

FINDING MY LINE
1. Literally: What are my unique mark-making techniques?
2. Methodologically: What do I choose to make, and also not to make?
3. Heritage: Who are my artistic ancestors?
4. Innovation: To what new places am I taking this trajectory?

It's not as if I haven't considered these things before in this context; they just haven't been at the forefront.  So I am looking forward to embarking on using these guidelines as a lens, and seeing where it takes me.