The Challenge of Change
In the back of every issue of The Polymer Arts is a wonderful one-page article in which someone tells the story of their life as an artist, or of another artist (or artists). I hold a particularly special fondness for this section because it’s the one area in which artists get personal with us as readers. It’s not a setup to teach or preach or help expand your business or make you a better artist; it’s just stories. We can certainly learn from them (what can’t we learn from?), but they are still just artists sharing their story, or the story of other artists.
In this Fall issue, Ronna Sarvas Weltman talks about Gwen Gibson, a polymer pioneer who has moved largely from polymer to work on mixed media in collage and acrylics. Ronna writes about Gwen’s view on the creative process and the patience we must have with ourselves and our medium. It’s a beautiful little article that I would encourage you all to read at least a couple times to really let the ideas sink in.
The article in hand, Ronna and I only had to gather a few images of Gwen’s work before it would be ready to send to layout; but getting artwork of Gwen’s that was of a size we could print turned out to rather difficult. When she was creating beautiful earrings like these from 15 years ago, she had photos taken; but as the years went on and her direction in art changed, the original images got shuffled away. I guess things like that are bound to happen when you buy a 300 year old house in a tiny medieval French village desperately in need of repair and turn it into a creative retreat; I can see where you might have other priorities.
La Cascade is now a beautiful center for art workshops and time out of your normal world to learn a little bit more about yourself as an artist. The story of the La Cascade renovation adventure and charming descriptions and photos of the place can be found on the website along with information about the workshops, should you be interested in attending any one of them.
And don’t forget to get your copy of the Fall issue ordered if you haven’t done so already, as they will all be out and on their way this coming week!
