Curiously Creative Life

I have been thinking about how I can best share with you about how I live a curiously creative life—most especially in respect to visual voice.

My entire life has been about creating connection with others, typically through my creative pursuits. I use my unique visual voice to create, inform, delight, teach, and coax curiosity in others. I share of myself generously with all kinds of people because this really matters to me.

Family
Friends
Business Owners
Contractors
Artists
Real Estate Professionals
Doctors and Dentists
Landlords
Cafe and Shop Owners
Market staff (I did a lot of grocery shopping while raising two boys)
Post Office Service Clerk(s)
…and so on.

Each of the people most dear to me in my life seem to choose to live outside of a ho hum ordinary existence. The thread that I see is creativity and curiosity. Not the “draw a straight line” creatives! No, what I mean is the people that do what they love, and find meaning in menial or even repetitive work.

People that do their jobs with joy are endlessly curious about how to do things differently and more collaboratively.

I live my curiously creative life by constantly asking questions. I add play into every week—usually outside or in my sketchbooks. Laughing and crying become fodder for innovation in my work. On a good day, I know that what I feel and think matters.

I want my art to help others to see the world differently— I whimsically initiate curiosity.

I start with a million questions.

Every single day I write in my journal to capture barely awake before coffee musings. I ask myself questions over and over again. What is it I wish the world to know? What matters to me so much but I am afraid to tell anyone?

How do I want to brighten the existence of other humans through my creative voice?

When did I first realize I have a unique vision of the world? Have I realized my unique vision and voice yet?

How can I best help myself to express my most prized and dearly held ideas, innovations, love and angst?

I pursued a graduate degree in both communication and fine art, that’s how much the idea of sharing my gifts with the world matters to me—4 years in classrooms and library study + studio time beyond college.

Visual voice matters to me.

In my lifetime, my dream is that I can bring about positive change through my and our collective voices. The world is full of too much information these days (and not all of it is positive or helpful). I can post on social media like crazy and reach no one at all or millions of people!

It makes sense to me to know my deepest core values and artistic voice so that I am getting heard for what matters most. The rest is useless extra noise.

A curiously creative life takes daily effort.

My new work is challenging me to dig deeper into my artistic visual voice. Below is the first of a new series of work.

Suzanne Gibbs, ©2019, Tea Cup Face, flashe paint and posca pen on cradled wooden panel, 14 x 11 inches, $450

Art-O-Mat Blocks, Set 3 2019

I took a slightly different approach this month with my Art-O-Mat art blocks project. Typically, I begin with drawing and then add paint. Sometimes I use collage and drawing + paint. This time I began with paint—used expressively. Once it dried I added drawing on top of the paint.

I never know where my work will go or how fast it will sell when I ship the work to Art-O-Mat.

What’s important to me is that people can get a pocket sized piece of my art for $5! This is really a hoot! Be sure to watch the video at the bottom of this post from the owner of Art-O-Mat talking about how he began this project of art for all budgets!

Brief video of my latest set of art blocks.

Trivia: Did you know that at any given time Art-O-Mat is distributing the work of 300 artists!

©2019, Suzanne Gibbs, Face Block, art for Art-O-Mat. For sale only in select Art-O-Mat machines around the world.

Retired cigarette vending machines are refurbished to vend original art, creating the unusual and clever Art-o-mat® – Don't Go 'Round Artless!
Posted by UNC-TV on Monday, April 22, 2019

Art In Context

So many times I have shown my work to you as a carefully cropped images with no context of how the work might look in a space.

Today I want to change that.

A sample of three of my pieces in our home on a shelf above our couch.

This work is available for sale. Although, I must add, my husband would say, “Hey! what happened to that art I like?” if you actually purchased the work!

Ummm, what pieces?!? I’d say…

As you can imagine, this is a regular conversation! 😉

©2016, Health School Tales, pen, watercolor, 4.75 x 4.75 inches, 12 x 12 inches framed, $185

©2016, NEW, pen, watercolor, 4.75 x 4.75 inches, 12 x 12 inches framed, $185.

©2016, Touch, pen, watercolor, 4.75 x 4.75 inches, 12 x 12 inches framed, $185.

Questions? Comments? Desire for unframed art? Please use this form to get in touch with me, thank you.

Sketchbook March 2019 + Plus

Recently I had to move out of my studio. While doing so I found two sketchbooks that I had started, but never finished. Determined to not let the pages go to waste, I began filling the back half of the sketchbook(s). Shared here is one of the two books.

In the beginning I found that a few pages were not as complete as I wished so I went ahead and drew on top of what I had created in 2017 and then also moved forward and filled the book.

Filling an older book is not nearly as much fun as taking out a new book to fill and imagine the rules and possibilities for the pages. However, I did find that by following through on the idea of filling what had not been filled I was forced to look back at my work. With that came some self evaluation. A good step in a solid studio practice.

The pages did get filled, but the more important part was the lesson I taught myself.

Primarily, I kept a promise to myself—I filled the pages.

Keeping promises can be tough when there is no boss, no one clamoring for the work, and what I promised to myself felt dull once I started. Still, I did the work. So, without further explanation I bring to you my March 2019 plus previous work from 2017, sketchbook page turner!

As always, if you like the work and even if you don’t feel free to comment. Let’s have a dialogue about keeping studio promises!

Art for the local hospital.

Yesterday, on April 4, 2019 I dropped off 3 pieces of art for a local hospital art show.

“Dogs, Cats, and Other Pets With Their People or Without.”

I thought this was a cleaver show theme. I thought I had zero work to enter this show. Then I took a look through my inventory and interpreted the theme my way!

The art I submitted is shown below.

Suzanne Gibbs ©2016, Development Perfect, paper, pen, watercolor, 4.75 x 4.75 inches, $185

Suzanne Gibbs ©2016, Self-Care Free, paper, pen, watercolor, 4.75 x 4.75 inches, $185

Suzanne Gibbs ©2016, Alive! LOOK, paper, pen, watercolor, 4.75 x 4.75 inches, $185

Honestly! Who says grasshoppers can’t be pets! I used to catch them when I was young. I also used to catch snails and spiders! For the snails I’d set up races and see who would win on an imaginary race track.

I am free to sell these works, and they can be shipped as soon as the show closes. Please contact me here if you are interested. I am willing to consider a bundle price for all three!

Opening is Sunday, April 6, 2019 from 1:00 – 3:00 at the Southern Coos Hospital in Bandon, Oregon.

Suzanne Gibbs, ©2019, Alive! LOOK, paper, pen, watercolor, 4.75 x 4.75 inches, $185 Framed.

Final show date is Saturday June 29, 2019.

Sketchbook March 2019

My March 2019 sketchbook is a different size than February’s book. Due to travel, I worked in a smaller sketchbook that I could carry in my bag.

Join me below for a sketchbook page turner!

Represented in these pages are drawings made in several locations. Dinner guests in Eugene, Oregon. Railroad museum in Portland, Oregon. Lunch in Arcata, California. And I even stopped in the Redwood National Forest in Del Norte California to draw elk in the wild.

Interested in more sketchbook pages? Please visit my blog (and use the search feature to find sketchbooks). You may prefer to visit my YouTube Channel. When and if you do, please hit like or subscribe to follow the work as I make it, thanks.

March 2019, Art-O-Mat Project

Typically I would wait a few months before I make a second set of art for Art-O-Mat but this time I worked on two sets of 50 small art pieces back to back. One set was completed in February and a second set, shown here, in March.

Often, Art-O-Mat is on back-order for sending new blocks to artists. Like myself, they are a small company making a difference nationwide in their own special way. Our common denominator is that we wish to reach a wide audience of people wanting original art. Said another way, not all art needs to be sold expensively and expressly for people with large amounts of disposable income.

With these blocks selling at $5 each in vending machines across the United States, they genuinely are art for all.

To view previous posts about Art-O-Mat look here, here and here.

Mini-Art Book

The following video is made for you. Contemplate whether you have room in your life for your creativity and visual voice.

In February, a friend sent me a handmade mini-book. In return, I made one for him. Then I filmed the pages before I sent the work.

I believe that sharing and gratitude creates joy!

Sharing a Suzanne Gibbs original Mini-Book here, brings me joy. I believe that we can live our best life when we open up to our creativity no matter how small the project, no matter how trivial that work might seem.

In my studio practice, I hope to always have room for even the tiniest of projects, because little sparks of joy make room for larger good work.

To share your gratitude, click on over to YouTube and hit like!

new old stuff—my books!

My books are once again available on Amazon!

Maybe you never noticed that they disappeared. But I did! How awful it was to do the work, and then no longer have the work exist. I worried I would never again be able to get copies printed. I worried the work no longer mattered.

But my work does matter, and so do I!

So, I got to work. Here is what happened, the company Create Space, where I originally published the books, was bought by Amazon. Poof! The books no longer exist. I did not get notices of the change because an older email address was used to notify me of the changes. Unless I was willing to jump through hoops to re-establish them as my work, they would be forever … gone.

Two weeks, 4 phone calls, and 8 emails was all it took. My books are alive once again! And the prices have been reduced just a little…

Conscious Curiosity can be found here.

My Year of Separation is here.

Please help me celebrate. Conscious Curiosity was published 4 years ago and My Year of Separation was published one year ago!

February 2019, Art-O-Mat Project

Every few months I create art for Art-O-Mat. Why? Because the art is sold for a mere $5! This allows people who would normally not purchase original art a chance to own an original Suzanne Gibbs piece. And for those that do often purchase original art, a bargain piece for their collection.

Here is a look into my process for making 50 art blocks.

An insiders look at the process I use to create art blocks for the Art-O-Mat project.

This project is also known as Artists In Cellophane. This time I created 50 blocks with drawings on both sides.

For more on this project view these previous posts here and here.