Jay Michelsen
The Adventure of a Lifetime
My boxes are all packed and prepared to leave, my lease ended, possessions given away, and I am prepared to leave on my long journey for new surroundings and a life devoted to art. A journey which has taken many years to acheive. Not with great sadness I leave, but relief.
So in the meantime, I will take a hiatus, but I will check in from time to time, only to return more motivated and renew…
Comments: 9 comments
Sacred Spaces Sometimes Spelled Trouble for the Worshiper
Did you have a sacred space when you were younger that you would get in trouble for visiting in the event you got caught? Mine happened to be the middle of a large Iris garden planted accross the lane from a large Hawthorn tree. I would lay in the middle of that Iris patch and look up at the sky and the flowers above me, and my grandmother would give me the devil every time she caught me there….
Comments: 8 comments
Dreaming of Art
Do you ever find yourself in dreams, creating art? Last night, and many nights, I find myself painting in dreams. The format is quite different than one might expect from a work of mine, accidental coloring, abstaction. Last night I watched the droplet of watercolor run down the length of the canvas, and I watched as the colored droplets left the canvas and fell to the floor and I didn’t care w…
Comments: 7 comments
The First Halloween Costume
Currently I am working on two works, one of which is a little boy in a home-fashioned Halloween costume. Do you remember your first Halloween costume or one that you favored most as a child?
Comments: 6 comments
Leaving London
I am currently working on a painting called, Leaving London. It is inspired a good deal by our beloved Shirley, and, a book I read last summer of a woman writer for the New Yorker who was living in London at the time of the Blitz. During that time Londoners were encouraged to send their children to the country-side to avoid German bombing of London. In a few weeks the children would return only…
Comments: 5 comments
Entered a Challange
Tried to put one of my works up against the other art on Redbubble, and I’m happy I’m 19 out of 189 entries the last I checked. One of the wonderful aspects of Redbubble is building confidence in one’s personal work that I haven’t felt since my college days.
J.
Comments: 7 comments
A Sincere Thank You
Someone or some people recently purchased 76 cards of my work. I wanted to say to that person or them, thank you.
Comments: 9 comments
Why Do You Do the Art You Do?
Seems like a simply phrased question as it was placed to me today. Then as I began to consider, it’s not so simple. Maybe a superficial answer, such as I like the monumental style because it gives my subject a sense of importance and a sense of dignity, that are seldom attributed to the ordinary. But that’s not the real reason, really. Not once I got to considering the question at some depth. W…
Comments: 10 comments
Mud Hole Days
These days I have been periodically monitoring the progress of a neighboring home pouring cement for their in ground pool. One might think in the classic American way about going about building a bigger, more elegant pool, but my mind is taken back to those childhood days of playing in mud holes. Perhaps it was the naughtiness of it all, getting wet and grimy, faces and bodies streaked in mud-a…
Comments: 4 comments
Don't Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water
Not often do I find myself struggling through a drawing after all these years, but this week I found myself struggling with a particular piece of work and the kindness words from a friend and fellow artist, moved me from the point of abandonment to a renewed effort.
I just wanted to say thank you for that.
J
Comments: 5 comments