Author: Michelle

This is the penultimate art talk in this virtual library series with Joyce. This week it was all about the art of happiness. Joyce talked about various artists who painted happiness in their art.

A piece of Monet’s early art was the “Garden at St. Andresse” (1867). It was a seaside painting, showing going to the beach as a leisurely activity for the first time. This was a modern idea. It’s a scene of happiness and joy.

Another piece of Monet’s is “The Artist’s Garden at Giverny” (1900). It is capturing a moment in time, and one is happy to be in nature because it represents spirituality, still and quiet.

Henri Matisse painted the “Joy of Life” (1906) – the colors were free from reality – for example, the grass is yellow instead of it’s normal green color.

Lastly, Joyce asked us to draw joy, and/or what brings us joy. I chose to draw myself in a window scene, singing, surrounded by my books.

This week’s session was about trauma and art, and Joyce led us through various artists who have had trauma in their lives and have used their art to heal.

First she spoke about Jackson Pollock and his psychoanalytic drawings he did in therapy for his alcoholism. She spoke about how you can bring out your subconscious through art. While he was sober, Pollock did drip paintings, which was considered abstract expressionism, and he flung the paint onto the floor and released his energy. He and his wife Lee Krasner were action painters.

Krasner dealt with Pollock’s tragic death with her art, and she used her whole body in a sort of rhythmic dance while painting while she created. She said that you can’t have a plan or control it, and that the art is like a force or energy that moves through you. It’s a form of surrender.

Hilma af Klint, a Swedish artist, used to paint landscapes and portraits. Then she loses her sister and began to make abstract art after this trauma. There were seances that were performed around Hilma, and she did paintings that came automatically through her while she painted without questioning anything.

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist who does everything from fashion to mosaics to performance art and paintings and drawings. She was unfortunately abused as a child; her mother asked her to spy on her father while he was cheating on her mother. Her mother also made it known that she didn’t approve of Kusama’s art and often tore it apart. Kusama had a psychotic break as a teen, and began seeing dots, which she incorporates into her art. She now perminantely resides in a mental health facility in Japan and creates art in a nearby studio.

Frida Kahlo had a bus accident at the age of 18 and a metal rod went through her pelvis. She had 40 surgeries throughout her lifetime, and died young. She was able to paint in bed while she was healing.

Pablo Picasso created art that showed the suffering of the world. One of his paintings is of the Weeping Woman, which showed what the world is feeling, and another is his famous Guernica, which shows the horrors of war.

For this event, Joyce spoke about the challenges of being an artist when one has a physical disability, especially in the artist’s older age. She mentioned for example, that one could make adaptations such as using a thicker paintbrush if one needed it. Or, if an artist had Parkinson’s disease and their hands shook, they could create completely different art, and it would come out abstract, instead of how it usually did.

Joyce also spoke about many different artists with physical disabilities and how they were still able to make art.

Lee Krasner
Lee had a brain hemorrhage in 1962, and later arthritis. She used the working fingers on her right hand to guide her left hand so she could still paint. She also made collages of her already-made paintings and drawings. She was an “action painter,” meaning she used her entire body when she painted; she even figured out how to do this in her later years.

Edgar Degas
Degas was an impressionist painter who had visual impairments. A lot of his subjects were about sight. Artist Mary Cassatt also suffered visual impairment.

Frida Kahlo
Kahlo had a bus accident at the age of 18 and as a result, needed a metal rod in her spine. She painted many self-portraits from her bed. This period in her life is actually when she realized her talent and love for art.

Claude Monet
Monet was an impressionist who painted light and color. He painted the same objects in different light on purpose. He then loses his ability to see color and light because of cataracts. The surgery was very new at the time, so he was afraid to have it done, but later he did have it done in one eye. Before the surgery, the paintings came out more abstract and darker. He also suffered from depression as a result of losing his son and second wife. After the surgery, Monet painted the famous water lilies in his later years.

Chuck Close
Chuck Close was famous for creating faces that look realistic from far away. He had an aneurism in his spine and lost mobility of most of his body. Also, from boyhood, he couldn’t recognize faces.

Matthew Raynor
Raynor suffered a horrific diving accident that left him as a quadriplegic and paralyzed from the chest down. He couldn’t move 85% of his body, was in the hospital for 3 months, had to move back in with his mother in his 20s and needed her help to pretty much do everything. After he recovered, he discovered an old hobby – photography – and figured out how to do it with a drone, which gave his life direction and purpose again. You can visit him at www.matthewraynor.com.

Joyce told us about a movie called Imber’s Left Hand, about an artist named Jon Imber who had ALS and had to learn how to paint with his left hand.

I am looking forward to attending next week’s art talk!