Day 6. Stand as 10,000
Author: Denise Hopkins
Day 5. Exhale.
“Exhale” 6×6 oil on canvas I have been keeping a sketchbook this month in hopes of making this 31 a little more organized, a little less frantic. If I can work out the ideas ahead of time, so goes my thinking, my actual studio time can be less fraught. Ease is my word for 2024 […]
Day 4. Displaced
“Holy Longing” 8×8, oil on canvas Back in November I was in Baton Rouge visiting my brother and we took a walk in his neighborhood which is in the middle of town, full of big historic homes and beautiful well-kept lawns. When I spotted a fox in someone’s yard, I at first thought it had […]
Day 3. Ease.
“You Have My Full Attention” 4×4, oil on canvas “I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed” – Mary Oliver A while back, before it finally and […]
Day 2. Beginnings are Hard
“Splendidly Small, Brilliantly Blue” 4×4, oil on canvas Beginnings are hard because they necessarily involve loss. With the first stroke, suddenly what once held infinite possibilities now displays just one. And a completed painting, a recorded song, a finished poem is now only what it is instead of all the infinite things it could have […]
Day 1. Marathon, Not a Sprint
It’s been twenty years since…
I nervously took my first art class in 2000 at Spring Hill College. My professor’s kind but direct handling of me and my work turned out to be exactly what I needed. Unlike my peers, I was just discovering a penchant for art– not at eight, but at eighteen. And so for four glorious years […]
What is Good.
I will defend my position with the gusto of a hummingbird claiming her spot at a busy feeder: the currently popular sentiment (as evidenced by mugs at every home goods store and tank tops on instagram), “good vibes only” is not only unrealistic but also irresponsible. I know my cheery demeanor, my flowery art, […]
Mary Oliver’s “Hurricane”
I had two friends reach out recently about hardships they are facing. The kind of hardships that feel so unfair, so unnecessary. Both times I immediately thought of Mary Oliver’s poem, “Hurricane” which I have taken to reading nearly every morning. I’d love to create a new piece inspired by this poem. The […]