for a friend

(pen, oil pastels and acrylics on paper)

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(C) Art, MJ Calitz, 2010

paint moments brighter

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so this is two things
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(1) it's my picture and i'll "paint" on it if i want to
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and
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(2) sometimes all you have to do to help a friend carry a heavy load, is to listen
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(C) Photograph, MJ Calitz, 2008. Photo art, MJ, 2010

lovely holes

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why am i painting ovals?
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(because an oval is noT an egg…)
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yes, it could be a mouth wide open with sorrow and silent crying, the pain buried so deep that you can’t make a noise. oR it could be a womb. bleeding. empty. hole but not whole.
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so i’m painting ovals. and people say “oh, what a lovely hole!” (only in my head of course.) and i think, what’s a lovely hole? and suddenly i’m finding beauty in unexpected holes…
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like skulls.
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they have lots of holes. holes for eyes. nose. mouth. ears. i use to find skulls creepy. now i look at them and i think, breath flowed through those holes. (life.) eyes turned this way and that. (what did it see?) and i see beauty in decay…beautiful creaMy white bones with liFe-giving holes.
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and what about the little holes. like the holes in beads.
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or those pLastic doll faces we used to store string in. you could pull neveR ending string through a tiny hole in the mouth. now that’s creepy, some people would say. but it made me smile. big smiles.
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i use to write poetry like strings of beautiful pearls falling from my lips. now i just paint ovals.
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(what’s that piece of cloth doing in my painting?)
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…and 6 is a healing number.
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(C) Art, MJ Calitz, 2010

big red ovals

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lately i've been painting (or making) big red ovals. i'm not sure if it represents an empty womb or a screaming mouth or a combination of things or just a vague unidentifiable feeling. whatever it is, i like the look of it. and it feels like a release of negative energy...a healing on some deeper level. i call this process "undercover therapy."
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this is an abstract mixed media piece. i started with an 8 x 10 canvas board painted black and two pieces of scrap wood glued together roughly and painted white, attaching the wood to the canvas. then i added hot glue and more paint to the black piece and nails, red embroidery thread, a hematite cross and broken egg shells to the white piece. i wrapped black embroidery thread around the white piece (you cannot see this on the picture) & added two small red beads.
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i love this piece. it feels very different from my previous art...i think i'm finally growing into my own and finding my balance as an artist.
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this is good...and yet i wonder if i'm ever going to write poetry again. where did my inner poet go?
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(C) Art, MJ Calitz, 2010

the ever seeing eye

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(C) Art, MJ Calitz, 2010.
(oil pastels, water colors & acrylics on paper)