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Tornado Season

Friday, May 30th, 2008 by Alyice

Last night we had our first official tornado warning for our hometown and we weren’t happy but then again who is ever really happy when a tornado comes roaring through their hometown?

Usually the tornados in our state don’t get this close and it’s one of the reasons I like living here, but last night was a different story. We’ve had severe thunderstorm warnings, on and off, for the past few weeks then last night a severe thunderstorm began making its way towards us. The news had been reporting tornado warnings on and off all night, but nothing near us.

Then we saw our city name flash across the television screen and heard the word: Tornado. We were in disbelief. We’ve never experienced a tornado before and didn’t want to experience one now. But no sooner did we see our city name flash on the screen did we hear it: the warning siren.

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It was time to make our way to the basement. We grabbed our shoes, closed the doors to each room (don’t even know why I did that), grabbed our caged animal friends, and walked down to the basement where we commenced to turn on the radio and await the news that the tornado had passed. There was only one problem, we didn’t have any batteries in the radio so as my husband and I made our way back upstairs I stopped to look outside the kitchen window and pray.

The winds grew so strong that the trees no longer appeared to be dancing in the wind but moving about with anger and rage, the sky grew darker, the seconds between each sound of thunder and the actual lighting grew closer together, we felt the rumbles in the ground, and the house began to shake. For the first time in my life I was afraid that a tornado would touch down on our home, in our city.

I thought about my prayer and realized I wasn’t praying with all my heart, I had allowed the surrealism of the moment to take hold. So I stopped praying. Looked outside the kitchen window again and prayed again. I prayed that the tornado would not harm us. I prayed for protection of my family by naming each member one by one. I prayed for our home, and I prayed that the tornado would dissipate.

Then I made my way back downstairs where I heard my husband say, “this is going to be a long night” and my son say, “it’s going to be a boring night—we don’t even have a television down here to pass the time.” I glanced over at my daughter and smiled as she sat Indian style on the floor, blanket surrounding her, and earplugs in her ears. She was watching a movie on her iPod and oblivious to what was taking place around her.

Fifteen minutes later we were notified that it was okay to leave the basement. A half hour later my daughter received a phone call from her friend: “Are you okay? Were you scared? If we make it through this night alive do you want to hang out tomorrow?”

Until next time…

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Create Art For The Right Reasons

Sunday, May 25th, 2008 by Alyice

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I love creating and it doesn’t matter if anyone else likes what I create or not because right now I am not creating to please someone else’s idea of art but rather creating to learn and grow as an artist and to relearn what it means to absolutely be in the moment. But I also have a dirty little secret: If I start a project with the intention of selling it, I almost never like it and I rarely complete the piece.

Linda Cain, Artist

Meet Linda

Linda Cain, Artist

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I couldn’t put my finger on the cause until today. After interviewing Linda Cain and listening to her talk about the importance of staying true to one’s self when it comes to creating, I realized that every time I sat down to create something with the intention of selling it, I hit panic mode. I began thinking, “What if they don’t like it? What if it doesn’t sell? What if they ridicule the piece?” You see, I was going about it all wrong!

Linda believes that “when it comes to art, it’s important to remember that it’s your time and your money; do what YOU like. (Of course commission pieces are different.)…Save yourself time and energy and just do what makes YOU happy if you can. If others truly don’t like your art, there’s nothing you can do about it anyway.”

When it came to creating with the intent to sell, I was truly creating for all the wrong reasons. I was creating to meet someone else’s expectations, not my own. I was creating with some preconceived notion that what I create has to be a certain style or look a certain way for the public to be interested enough to buy. I was creating with the wrong person in mind.

And that’s when it hit me: For gifts, for personal use, or for sales, create what feels right first and foremost. It is funny how you know things in your head but it takes awhile for your soul to catch up.

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Interview With Linda Cain

Saturday, May 24th, 2008 by Alyice

Linda Cain, of Cain and Co., began taking art courses in the early 60’s but after getting married, she moved to Colorado to raise her family and put her art on the back burner. Eventually, art began to beckon her again and she could no longer put it off. Today she cannot go a day without creating something, to do so leaves her feeling unfulfilled. She loves the challenge and sense of accomplishment when each piece is completed and creating makes every day worth waking up to. However, she says her greatest success, as an artist, comes every time her grandchildren step into her art studio and create a piece of art they are truly proud of. Discover why she believes learning many techniques enriches your mixed media art in a way that only one medium cannot and why she believes you must stay true to yourself as an artist.

Linda Cain, Artist

Meet Linda

Linda Cain, Artist

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There’s a lot of mixed media collage work on the market these days, how do you differentiate yours from the rest? In other words, what do you feel makes your work unique and truly your own?
I have tried to dabble in anything I could get my hands on. I find that each and every time I learn a new technique I can incorporate it into things I’m currently working on. I put antique hand tools or door knobs on canvas as well as scrapbook ephemera from the local stamp store. And wire, I love wire and beads on projects. I’ve even written words in wire that have found their way onto my collages. My latest adventure was actually a request made by a group of girls that design vintage bead findings. They asked me to design several journals using their findings. Of course I love the concept because this is something I have not seen anywhere else: truly different.

But the thing that I love most about my collage pieces are the embossed metal pieces I’ve done and pieced onto my houses. It’s one thing that seems to add dimension and shine to brighten the piece. My Row Houses are something that really made me feel good about myself and what I’ve accomplished. I did them after my mother passed away and I was in a real slump. The embossed metal on them sets them apart, I think. I got hooked on embossing with metal after a class that taught me how to use many different tools on several different kinds of metal. And of course, my pen marks now seem to be required on most pieces—whether it’s white pen dashes or dimensional black dots—they’ve become my trademark.

As you know, art is very subjective in nature. What some people like, others do not. I’m sure you’ve received both positive and negative feedback in your career, but what I want to know is how you handle the negative criticism, especially when it hurts deep down within your soul?
I guess I’ve been either very lucky not to have gotten much criticism from very many people to my face, or I’ve just chosen to ignore them. But if I had to think in terms of criticism, I guess it would be when they disagree with the way I want to put something together. I simply do what I want, thank them for their opinion, and say…”that’s the way I want it”, and I do it. They still may not like it, but I will sleep better knowing I did it the way I wanted. It’s better than being bitter about being talked into doing it their way and hating the piece. When it comes to art, it’s important to remember that it’s your time and your money; do what YOU like. (Of course commission pieces are different.)

I think all artists kind of wear their hearts on their sleeves to a certain degree but I’ve come to the point in my life where I know there are people who genuinely like what I do and that’s all that matters to me. Making students happy in a class I’m giving is more than enough to make me feel good about what I do. Someone once told me, after I had my feelings hurt about something, that “the person that criticizes someone else’s life usually doesn’t have one of their own.” It’s worked for me, but it took way too many years to figure it out.

My advice: save yourself time and energy and just do what makes YOU happy if you can. If others truly don’t like your art, there’s nothing you can do about it anyway.

Visit her at Cain81Art.blogspot.com

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