Change of Perspective

Turn the world on its side 

and you may see the world looking back at you.

Reflections in a mountain lake

tipped that way

reveals a totem pole of sorts.

I count six or more strange faces.

what do you see?

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

Bend

Bend

Bend down to touch

To make a closer observation

To make connection

To grow in relationship

With everything

Bend

Change your approach

To make things work

Let go of your need

To maintain control

of everything

Bend

It is a chance you take

True you might break

Hold on to love

Give yourself away

In everything

-------------------

Somehow I lost half of a

year of posting.

Oh well!

Starting again to try.

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

Father's Day Collaboration

I did another collaboration. On Fathers day I told my family I wanted to paint. So I had them all come over, I put out three primed panels and a bunch of paint and brushes and said pick a color, put a few marks on then pick another color and so on till we fill all three boards. The panel here is the smallest of the three. So once it was dry I started to draw into it.

This is the panel before draw-in

 

 On this panel I had added a few small pre-painted paper scraps that I glued in before my crew painted. They are the parts with finer detail. This is the panel after I started the draw-in.

I then decided on the second panel(not shown) to add more pre-painted scraps after the crew painted. I will try and do a post with all three of the Father's Day collaborations.

I really enjoy the feeling of connection when allowing others to create the base. I am working now at trying to move beyond just out lining color and to create a feeling of a story or many stories being told at once.

This becomes more of a depiction of our jumbled stories tangling with one another. This is the true challenge of life. How do we make all these stories move together?

                             The panel after draw-in

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

Caught Up In It!

Eye See

I keep finding myself

caught in the movement

of line and color.

Sometimes I define myself as the line,

probably a control thing.

The color seems so out of control.

Is it the line that defines the color

or does the color simply allow the line

a place to be?

The color says, "sure, outline me, 

run lines through me, 

shade me in, 

you can even black me out!"

The color does not care.

The color knows it is there

and in control,

I think.

Still caught up in it 

so I don't really know

what's going on.

Random thought brought to you by art play.

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

In The Play

The Art Is In The Play

I created this activity for my exhibit The Art of Play the Play of Art. The purpose is for art gallery visitors to have opportunities for direct contact with a piece of artwork. The piece in this case was sculptural in nature. As a mixed medium sculpture it involved a variety of painted wood shapes, fabric, artificial foliage, wire, string, yarn, bamboo rods, paper and a variety of fasteners. Visitors were invited to look at what had been created previously and change it in some way. Many guests had to be convinced that it was alright to make these changes and that the structure was not the art, but that their engagement with the objects was actually the art. One woman said she was filled with emotion at the idea that in an art gallery she could do such a thing. She loved the opportunity and spent a significant amount of time rearranging the space. 

I know it is important for persons who toil as artists to be recognized for their craft. I also want all people to experience and embrace artful moments that energize their living and draw us all closer together. This concept is an important aspect of what the arts are all about.

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

The people in artful moments

 

Thoughts from a painting

Streams of Information Dreams of Devastation

We are not ready for the machines we have created.

We are still very much children screaming,

"it's not fair, he has more than me!"

or

"I was here first, so it's mine!"

We are

standing in the cradle

and we can reach the war room table.

DANGER

We are electing leaders who think this way:

me, mine, only us or U.S.

Let's build a wall!

The walls have already been built around our hearts and souls.

Fear has walled us up for thousands of years.

We are alone and afraid, walled up in our houses, 

our neighborhoods, towns, cities, villages, farms, 

businesses, churches, synagogues, mosques, temples

and sometimes standing in front of family members.

The machines we have created

are for a generation that has taken down the walls,

all the walls,

and understands fear is erased by living together,

communicating and sharing wealth and power,

 not hoarding it. 

I will stop here for now

and give some of myself away.

Yes I created the above image 

and as it formed it spoke to me of information,

streams of information.

We have massive amounts of information

bouncing all around the world.

It has the potential to save us or destroy us.

I see many using it to heal

and many using it to destroy.

Someday I would like to change the title of the piece,

but I, too, still have walls in my way.

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

 

Click image to enlarge

Sense

Make Sense of This

I tried to talk to you but my words made no sense

I tried listening but only heard the sound colors make

I beat sticks on rocks, that only chased snakes from their hiding places

I danced around in circles till someone said this is a square dance

I have tried to make sense of this

but it seems like I am getting nowhere

and if you've followed my previous words

you will realize that even nowhere is somewhere

So there I am, there we are, got the sense of this?

Yes you are deep into my head

Welcome

Jeffkimsey-carroll.com

Paint Me a Picture

Emotional Circuitry 

So much

so many

altogether

overwhelming

          They keep coming

          compounding

          interacting

          electrifying

                  Somewhat disturbed

                  yet intrigued

                  I am laughing

                  then enraged

                             Layer upon layer

                             I want out

                             but without 

                             I am lost 

                                          Am I the story

                                          or words on a page?

                                          I have made connection

                                          now to engage

                                                      Moments?

                                                      emotions?

                                                      relationships?

                                                      Paint me a picture

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

Click Image to enlarge

 

When It All Comes Together

 

Very well then, when it all comes together

A few thoughts on this piece

 

-It is possible that every piece of creativity is a search for God or something that represents the creative force of the universe.

-The piece above is like many of my works. It is me searching by creating.

-I often create a chaotic base on wood or canvas and then draw into it

-This puts me in a very relaxed state

-I think of the lines and symbols as an undefined language that only another creative (or the universe's creator) might understand 

-The word understanding is misleading

-Understanding implies knowledge transferred

-All I am attempting to do is transfer feeling

-The feeling you will receive will most likely depend on your state of mind at the time of viewing  

 -While all creativity maybe a search for the divine, it is also a mirror to the moment

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

 

Somewhere

 

I left it somewhere.

The question is 

which somewhere?

There are so many

somewheres!

In fact everywhere

is a potential somewhere.

It is in a "where" that

something can always be.

Once something can

be there

it is a somewhere.

Above is a picture 

of about 100

different somewheres

and things being there.

This whole thing is pointless

but I like the picture

and had to put it

somewhere. 

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

A Whirling About

 Once we were blobs of paint on a canvas

Then line began to define

and before we knew it we were whirling about

and feeling quite divine

In the whirling one may find themselves 

feeling truly, I say, most free

yet activity of such a vigorous nature may call one

to occasionally take a knee

still when you're a blob you have no bone or knee

and when you stop, you just spread out

so with no way of stopping, go on with your blobbing

and continue to whirl about.

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

In This Way

 It is so far to the outside

where warmth lives between bodies

within this space

out of a need

we will touch

and in this way

we will be one

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

A Town

A town 

in mind

in time

in case

in and around

in search of another space

I put color on the paper

then penned in shapes

it made me feel like I had found the place

nowhere in particular

found by forming lines

in a town drawn by me

Imagine what one finds

Above is a word storm. I look at the picture I created and try to write thoughts as fast as I can. I do get stuck sometimes. Trying to make fluid movements between my art work and my writing. I started the artwork to undo writer's block. Then I stopped writing. Now I am trying to find a balance.

Jeff

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

Moment #23

 Light is better with Dark

kraD htiw retteb si thgiL

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

Tree

This Day

It set you on fire

the light passing through you

jumped into my sight

I raised the camera and grabbed the image

took it with me

took it home

saved the light and the fire

so I would always have it

but I don't really have it

I look at it

it is outside of me

I don't have the light and fire

you had it, tree, in that moment

I got to leave the moment there

with you, tree 

let the moments move through me

and beyond

don't need to take it home

Breath

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

In The Works

My brain is a machine

with a program

that runs constantly

The program is designed 

to keep me alive

The program's definition of alive

is survival

It is all it has ever known

When I ask it to show me true life

it says

it's in the works,

keep moving forward and you will work it out

 Let's think some more

Just keep thinking

You will work it out

Don't stop thinking

cause then you are dead,

just run the program 

It is in the works

I no longer think

this is true life.

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

Fragments of Stories

Inside my head are fragments of stories.

They are all mixed together

like a jig-saw puzzle

that makes no sense.

There are many more than those pictured here.

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

This is Where I Have Come To

This is where,

well not a where,

more like a how -

how when you think

of everything 

all at once

and it all runs together

into a puddle

left from a mental rainstorm.

You say 

so this is where I am,

how I've come to be?

where I've come to...

just that.

jeffkimsey-carroll.com

You Were

There are moments

where you are not who you are,

and you can accept that it may just be the moment;

but there is the possibility that you never were who you thought you were.
 

Pandemic - Art

So here I am with all kinds of time. Laid off, trying to collect unemployment, told to stay at home, so why thousands of people are suffering and dying all over the world I am in my garage making stuff. Feeling guilty for having no real skill to aid the situation other than the ability to stay put. They are claiming it is the best way to help but it does not feel helpful. So I will continue to cut out chunks of wood cover them with paint and hold on to creativity for those who are fighting for there lives and all the people on the front lines in hopes that someday we can all get back to our dancing, painting, writing, or whatever we/they may do.

"One Moment In the Way"
Wood an Acrylic Paint 22"x13"

The color and shape of life 
are there...
obscured by a moment
We did not want,
expect,
or plan for.

I did not realize what I was creating until this was a few steps from completion. Distressed forms blocking vibrant color symbolizing life peaking through. All on a base of illegible scrawling designed to draw out feeling rather than understanding.

Jeff Holding on