Inspiration from a Neighborhood Art Sale

“My artist friend hangs her paintings in trees.” That’s all my sister-in-love Angela needed to say to nudge me out the door. I was ready to attend the annual Labor Day art sale down the block from her home in Evanston, Illinois. It was one of the highlights of my summer in the U.S.

Amy O. Woodbury has been selling her artwork in her front yard on Labor Day weekend for over 20 years. Indeed, she used to hang her canvases from tree branches—until this year when the city gave her tree an unwelcome haircut. When we showed up, Amy had her work displayed on a large wooden stand and on tables. Oh, well, it was still delightful to experience art outdoors on a sunny day with a nice breeze!

I am as interested in the creative process as I am in the creative product. I enjoyed talking with Amy and hearing her story. She had been a professional dancer and choreographer until she retired in her mid-40s. (I later read that most dancers retire from performing in their late 30s or early 40s.) That same year, her husband gave her some paints for Christmas. That was 24 years ago. Amy has been painting ever since. Many dancers and musicians, she said, take up painting later in life.

Several things impressed me about Amy’s story. First, she was willing to embrace a new season of life. When she was no longer able to do what she loved, she found a new channel for her creative energy. I’m pleased that all of her paintings include dancing figures. She discovered a different medium for expressing movement. She traded the stage for a canvas.

When I asked Amy how she got ideas for her artwork, she said that she likes to buy used canvases at thrift stores and paint over them. Facing a blank canvas, she said, is scary. (So is facing a blank page.) She prefers to allow the lines of the older painting to inspire the form of her new one.

Amy mixes her paints on disposable paper plates, but instead of tossing these used palates into the trash, she saves them and strings them together. She had nearly two hundred paper palates stitched together and displayed—like a colorful patchwork quilt blowing in the breeze on a clothesline. One might even say dancing.

The palates were a beautiful mosaic and memento of the colors Amy had put into each of her paintings. They are also a lovely metaphor: the individual moments of our life may look messy and chaotic close-up, but from the distance and perspective of time, the accumulation of those moments can reveal pattern and design.

Finally, I love that Amy’s husband bought her paints after she retired from dancing. It was a simple but wise gift. Sometimes all we need is a little nudge out of the door to inspire us.

 

 

Please encourage your friends and family to subscribe at: justaboutanything.life

Please encourage Mona at: encouragemona@gmail.com
Download a pdf version of Just About Anything October 2022