THE ART ZONE by johannahmarie.com

A Vision For Creative Living is Spawned.

2011-12-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

So long ago I left here; Houston, running from things beyond me, in mind and body. How odd it is to return and sense such greatness in all that surrounds me here. The goodness, beauty and kinship of spirit among the people. I feel overwhelmed with the idea that everything I want is before me now. Every little detail etched out before me, waiting for my will to coincide with reality.

My work has been bombarded with psychic energy over the last two weeks. Metamorphic shifts within me have been worked out on canvas, and manifested some profound images. It is as if the whole Spanish Mission series has come full circle in my life. Personally; it started out being about transitions, from shadow to light, from one stage of being to another. The series encompassed the rights of passage that transcend a lifetime of spiritual development in humans, were one strives to evolve to a higher level of being.

Here I stand, at the gate way of my elder years. A lifetime of healing and art manifested over twenty six years. The end of one body of work into another, a new field for discovery into something new or undone. I am looking for a deeper level of expression that touches more people than mere form. I see an art studio in which I stand and hash out the differences in my minds eye. Manifesting on canvas the impressions from within, to a world outside of me, separate but one spiritual body.

The colour marks my canvas, the forms are becoming more personal and less commercial. I want scale, I love scale, to stand within a painting is to experience the energies of that artist. Pollock showed me that. I did not appreciate his art until I stood inside his painting and new what he was feeling instantly without words.

The madness when it is upon you seems more than you can bear. In the end; and in retrospect it all seems so perfectly orchestrated, one often wonders what the fuss was all about to start with. Such foolish minds, lie to the face of the ego, displaying shadows that are not there. Nor would they ever be there, if one would paint more and think less.

There is no fear of success, only lack of artistic work.

Create like a god, command like a king, work like a slave.
Constantin Brancusi

Artistic Burdens Strengthen the Path to Freedom

2011-12-05T23:15:00.000-08:00

As an artist, I study science, natural laws of the universe, religion and consistently sure the realm of the spiritual for insight. Often I look forward to the vision of freedom that only death could bring to the human condition. The things we attach ourselves to that cause great pain and suffering across generations, if the truth be know.

Several days ago I was attacked by fear, no present life threats just nasty old fear from nowhere. I sat threw it for 3 days, spoke with God on several occasions, even chatted with mother a bit.

Four days ago, cold turkey off cigarettes was so wretched, I made a simple decision to do what I love, tour the art galleries during a holiday reception and go dancing. Touring art galleries in Houston TX alone was terrifying but I pushed threw it, and discovered new inspirations for my work. Then off to the dancehall I ran. Kicked of the fancy clothes & tossed on the cowboy boots to heaven for me. I was no more threw the door of a dance hall 5 minutes and one exuberant person changed everything, I did not want to ruin it with my phone number, so I said no.

Two days ago, sadness shows up. WTF? I am thinking menopause now? I do not know, I had to goggle it. Five days off the smokes, really, crying over what. Who freaking knows. I do not even care, crying is so uncool in public places, WTF? So I wake this morning totally distracted by the fact that I awake this morning thinking of this freaking Patrick guy from the dancehall. WTF? I have gone mad, I am totally infatuated with a stranger I do not even know & so, I am crying.

Are all artist tortured by a dark side, I hope not. For most of us there is something, our brains are different, we did too many drugs in our youth, the doctor dropped us on our head when we were born. For me, between bad DNA and too many closed head injuries, I never stood a chance of being anything less than I am. I choose the way of the artist, because it makes me happy. I never believed for a minute it would bring me fame or fortune.

I always found it necessary to survive life in my world. Others who came before me also suffered from the artistic curse/blessing. Beethoven, Poe, Blake, Van Gogh, O'Keefee, Pollock so many before me the same, dead by addiction, suicide, mental insanities, just trying to fight the fight of living and trying to get out of this place with a bit a dignity.

So there it is and I am looking at some old stuff here - fixed ideas that have patterned my entire life. In the end. I asked an old women for help today, who knows some of the things I know, and wish I did not know. Things now, that are legacy, yet scares mark the tougher surfaces across the damaged areas. In the end, I accepted responsibility for my pain, for years of loss that I embraced like a sick and dying child, for all the years of sadness bestowed upon me from me, because I condemned myself to a certain type of life, a certain type of man, a certain type of demeanor and reputation.

Today, I am entirely ready to become more than this, or that which was. To let go of now, and then, for I have no power to over come that which kicked my spiritual ass the first time. These internal forces within me that rise to the surface above my rational thought, that which displaces my emotions so recklessly, those strangers that strike you so hard by just being themselves - your never the same again. The twist of fate, a serendipitous moments, those conversations with God you had mindlessly, in boughs of fear and sadness, when in desperation when you utter the words, I pray for your will in all things Lord, please do something.

To the world it means nothing, but to me today I know love, respect, hope and trust are in me. I know I asked all the right people for help and took what action had to be taken to set things right. I communicated what I want and what I believe to others, that I trust. Deep down, I know something big is going on, I do not know what it is, but it is huge, I can feel it.

What I sense is it smells like love, love of all things good and bad, love that surpasses all understanding. Love that is eternal now and forever. Love that can not be destroyed or denied, because it is under all condition good, just and right.

To be Artistic is insane & most people live there whole lives and never imagine having one day like today, much less thinking so much of so little. Tis no wonder we perish in the midst of it all, for who has the nerve to say it out loud, much less own it.

New Social Network ReverbNation for Contemporary Music Discovery

2011-11-29T12:18:00.000-08:00

Here I was playing with a new jo bio format

The names johannah marie; and marks the consistent nature of my personality. God's gracious gift followed by bitterness, go figure!

I'm from the X Generation, we are the fore runners of Disambiguation. The X Generation was born into adversity without acceptable guidance from those around us, we succeeded in the face of that adversity at great sacrifice. In the beginning, Art Therapy was my medium of exchange from there to what is now, here for me.

Contemporary Visual Artist of Western Fine Art defines me professionally. A female visual artist, representing through a Westerner's mind set certain iconography with a new expression of ambiguity. Using the power of colour and composition for effect, I am creating an enigma of sorts, by utilizing visual elements to conjure an emotive response from a targeted group of people to see something beautiful.

Dedicated schools of thought that I follow, are the Arts, ancient religion, science & philosophy. Formally educated in behavioral science, psychology, applied science, and the studio arts. I find that I am an abstract conceptualizer with a very high manual dexterity rating, which means I am a thinker and very good with my hands. Mostly, I am introverted but no ones believes that too much, because I love life, people and places and travel to new places often. Being an artist is perfect for me, I look forward to the day, I settle down, build the studio and just be. It is soon approaching.

O'Keefe once said, she was taunted by images in her minds eye until she achieved them on canvas, thanks for that Georgia. I'd of never said that out loud, if you would not of spoke first. Micheangelo stated once that as artist, it is the process of creating that we are addicted to, not the end results - true story is that. I have found my path, making more money every year from the artist ventures that find me. Soon it will become a way of life and it will sustain me totally, I believe that today.

So there it is in a nut shell, the bio of jo.
How did I get here? Music, sound, conjured elements manifested out of silence, out of pure nothingness. Musicians have always been genius to me, I love the silence but reverberations assembled in such a way, conjure greater forces within me. I paint, draw, sketch, create visual elements in a trance like place I call the art zone, not always but when the stage is set just so, definitely. Pure sound without so many words my ego can attach to but maybe different words that make more sound.

In my studio, Wassily Kandinshy understood my experience. It is the joining of collective creative forces, merging together an expression in whatever medium. The feed, the connection, the streamline of consciousness which unites us all together. That is why I am here, to discover something new, different, more than just sub standard ego restraints.

We have come so far in such a short time and yet there is so far to go.
But the magic is here, now, before us always.

2011-10-31T05:35:00.001-07:00

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Dreaming Big in Texas

2011-10-31T04:42:00.000-07:00

Sick for a week with this seasons flu, high on fever, therma flu and exhaustion. Placed me a week behind in studio works in the design business. Although when life started to return by day 4, after gaining sustenance on day 3, I painted & made a trip to the art store.

This perfect little bush bucket, so highly priced after 10 honest years of painting, has brought new life to the studio. Clean brushes, nicer equipment and hope for a new easel someday soon. The overwhelming urge to settle has weighted heavily upon my heart lately, after years of wonder lust.

Hopes of owning my own studio one day in the near future seems possible these days at 46 years old. Seeing my child and grandchildren daily seems like a vision of happiness or heaven. Knowing my grand daughter and I are kinder souls of wild artistry, surprises me not.

I sense a richer life ahead here at every turn I am finding what I want and have the resources to get it, in my unemployment. When my life stopped in Pittsburgh, I paused giving God his head, like a trusted steed and riding ever so slowly into this very position today. Richness abounds around me and it is good.

I will work among the sick and injured, because I can and it is the least I can do for my humanity. For whom much is given, much is expected and I can be responsible for that today. My art is my gift from God to fill my heart with stillness and strength daily. When people like so much that they unass large amounts of money it seems almost wrong, to love what I do so much.

I am satisfied, that I have been where I have and moved on to today. I am home here, surrounded by my kind. Like minded in spirit and temperament, among the beautiful and wild. We are the perfect Texas combination of exuberance lifestyles. Art, Science, God and Country; I live as I die wild & free living the dream of a good and righteous life.

Sleepless in Texas, contemplating life.

2011-08-14T02:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, is it possible for friends to conspire to keep you in town, when you said "No I'm not back, just passing through". Friends can be a burden, then again they can be your strength too. For days now a deep sadness has over come me and I'm not sure why. I remember feeling this in the mountains of Wapiti Valley and sitting for days to understand what it was.

For as far back as I can remember, I have always been sad. Sad my Dad had to go, sad my Mom was always drunk, sad my husband died, so for my kid to be raise alone by me. So many opportunities have come my way, so many chances to do things different and what is saddest to me is the fact that I have denied myself happiness for so long.

A dear friend once said; Johannah, your responsible for your own happiness and for years I contemplated what he meant. Today I know what makes me happy, producing art. Creating and designing beautiful things for other people. I really do not care what it is, as long as I can create it and do it myself. I love art, it sustains me and makes me whole.

Is is not funny how distractions come along in moments of indecision or doubt. How well the ego can manifest the right shiny objects that catch its eye and proclaim to be desire or need in your life. Oh yeah, just attach yourself to the sinking rock and watch your dreams fall aside. Experience shows that distractions always lead to nothingness. A complete episode of wasted time and energy to do what? Face the inevitably at a later date and time, like it will be easy next time.

My choice today is to meditate and concentrate on my passion to create. For today I believe that beyond the sadness is something within myself that will free me from the mistakes of yesterday, when I denied myself the right to be happy. I will concentrate on designing and creating beautiful things for the world to enjoy. Whatever ego distractions come my way, I will let them be what may, for possibly I am wrong about them too.

Concentrate on designing and creating art forms, mediate on my emotions and wait. Wait on my intuition to show me what she wants. Wait on the emotions to reveal to me the other side of the sadness, for obviously it åis a place I have never been before.

Indecision & Doubt Are Not My Friends

2010-11-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

Amy Landus Ranchy Women Are Tough

They told me, not making a decision was still making a decision, yet to do nothing. Sloth has pledged my mind lately, as opportunities have passed me by for ego's sake.

Paramedic school was forgone because of $2,000 cash, and a friend said yesterday; all you had to do was ask. Wow, what a fool I am, so full of pride. I missed the chance for a dream come true for an idea that said "I am so tired of being poor and relying on others". It was a catch 22. I made the wrong choice.

Now contemplating between a paid University degree by my hospital or building upon the artistic work of the last ten years. I walked away from the BSN program in 2000, for a life in an artist the community nestled in the mountains of Cody Wyoming. My success there was significant artistically but my mistakes were many. I was basically unprepared for the good fortune that was bestowed upon me & self destructed on my own insecurities.

Two things I realized in the solitude of my mountain home. Fear is carried within and radiates out into the world that surrounds you. And sadness has always been a companion of mine that deprives me of opportunities to be happy. Thus today the primary focus is to out grow the limitations of my past ego restraints and reach beyond the borders of my own mind into something more productive & lovely.

Coincidental happenings, are they nudges from God? If they carry a sense of excitement that seems to good to be real, I think maybe they are. I do not know. A dean once told me that, when God gives you a talent it is only right to use that talent. Then I had limited ideas to being able to work as a professional artist and sustain a living. Now, I am torn between making money and doing art.

A professor once said that it is always a battle between making art and making a living. For one must have a living to be able to make art and making a living seems to get in the way of having time to make more art. At forty five, much time has been spent on either side of this coin. The pressure is becoming greater as the years slip away & older age comes my way.

The book was, Follow You Dreams & The Money Will Come; that sophomore year of college in 1994. I have held onto that ideal, in hopes that one day it would be true. Many years have pasted by and still I await the dream and clarifying what God's will maybe for someone like me.

It is just a decision I have to make, not based on any cultural trend but more on my own joy in life. Coincidentally, I have applied to a major advertising company in the Pittsburgh area in hopes of being creative and making money. I could go to the Art Institute in Pittsburgh and learn how not to make the mistakes of the past in business. Then maybe one day, I could have my own little design studio & art gallery.

small business specialist professional artist by TAZ Custom Graphics & Web Design in Piitsburgh, United States

2010-10-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

small business specialist professional artist by TAZ Custom Graphics & Web Design in Piitsburgh, United States

Tis the season for darken spirits.

2010-08-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

Good God, some days the world the is more than I can bare. People overwhelm my senses and I restrain from inappropriate remarks, when my hearts desire is not to. Oh such humanness is so degrading, mundane & totally undesirable to me. I cry because it saddens my soul that so many people are robotic and unaware of a real sense of life or living. I cry because I hate being good or civilized as one expected. I hate the restrain of civilazation.

I crave the mountains, the silence, the open air of free being. Feeling apart of the wind, the river, the wilderness. Here life can pass me bye so quickly and I will never know I was alive at all. For what are we here for, the city is beautiful at night. The lights the river the crickets ever sing. This place so small, yet so much. So much of everything and so much nothingness.

How easy it is to wonder alone, in search of something, not knowing what it could be, but ready. The impulse to feed, fuck or fight. To feel alive from head to toe, to ravage the sense of being, to feel so deeply you bleed. Tis the season to feed the darken spirit of the manic mind, for it is bored and lonely. Tired of goodness and being appropriate, wanting justice and action. Willing to pay the piper the fee to be me, unlavished and unleashed.

Age is an evil foe the the hypomanic, for beauty fades and physical abilities weaken and the mind. The mind wanes, and it fails you, your quick wit becomes nonsense and you question your reality. Remembering a sharpness that was uncermonutable, a retention rate the was fantastic at best and now the keys disappear from mind and memory.

Tonight I feel less than I want to be. Pitful to be crazy and medicated, misunderstood and slighted as weird. Tonight I cry alone and you could care less, nor will you ever know.

2010-01-25T18:49:00.000-08:00

Until I read Georgio Okeefe's autobiography, I would of never admitted to visual images in my mind that feed the artistic process. Many artist use their art to process the manic process. As a hypomanic, it is the only source of interpretation outside of drugs. Even in cases of great pain from within, drugs can not hold the truth from escaping from within. I have always embraced my madness, as a scared secrete, fro fear of what the world would do if they only knew. They love the art, but do they judge the powers that create such works as evil or insane. It is my pain, my process and your world. I am only here to survive you all, til my death and my peace return me to eternity.

Madness & Creativity; fate or fact

2009-11-05T16:33:00.000-08:00

Years ago, I read "Witness to the fire : Creativity and the veil of addiction" by Linda Schierse Leonard metaphorically, I understood the concept of purification by fire. Experiencing extreme conditions until the only thing that matter are pure, untouched and nature in an unnatural world.

Then I was astonish at how artist knew and understood their natures, finding it necessary to mask reworld realities with altered states of consciousness, unleashing an abyss of creativity. Not just raw creativity but personalized transcendence of life's turmoil. Many pursuited it into the depths of hell and sacrificed there livies to addiction. Many untold expressions they left for others, to view and experience what they found in the journey the under went. Was is by cause or necessity? Does it matter, either way?

What is the paranormal sensitivity of the artist or creative person? Why are we drawn to forces beyond our control. Was Edgar Allen Poe a mad man or had he found a way of unconventional genius? Later, Kay Redfield Jamison's book "Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament," and explored the relationship between madness and imagination that has been noted since pre-Grecian times. Again, I was drawn to the correlation of fire, creativity and the power of madness.

Forever these things have been present in civilized society. Socrates begins by discussing madness. If madness is all bad, then the preceding speeches would have been correct, but in actuality, madness given as a gift of the god provides us with some of the best things we have.
So if one so be chosen by god or gods, to be touched or crazy, then what possible pursuit would one find with such measures. May we call an excorsist and remove Almighty touch, so we may go make a living and pursue life? Modern day psychiatry has a pill for your ill. Is is my ill or is it dictated my social standards of how we are expected to act in civilized society.

As an artist must I surrender my artistic nature for modern expectation to be civilized. I am too medicate a behavior because the world I live in lacks compassion and understanding. Why must I see the beauty of life, and wale at mans injustice when I am not normal, not by choice mind you; but because god's or DNA dictate by nature. Many psychiatrist, do not even believe in hypomania, yet our very country was founded because of it. For all our past indiscretions, we became a world power faster than any other country and yet, here we are.

Instead of mind-altering drugs, we need courage, determination, self-discipline, and sound principles to face and overcome our personal problems. Counseling and therapy can help many people, but the contest is not between psychiatric drugs and psychotherapy -- it is between drugs and all of the many ways in which people learn to overcome emotional suffering and to triumph in life, including love, family life, devotion to the community, principled living, and spirituality.

Peter R. Breggin, MD, is a psychiatrist and boldly confesses, many of our problems of our own making due to ignorance and lack of education. Science should dicatate the conditions of the mind, not society or government, for they rule often not to kindly. Artist should live and be what they are and not held as a lesser sect of social order. For the have served kings and goods for millenniums, as sooth sayers and healers of the soul.

I have educated myself, pursued my art, found safe ways to make money removed from the mix of social rule. I use my abilities to help others and I serve to God who so serve me the disorder. For if he dishes it out, he is my source of control and science has helped me along the way. I bear no shame for quick mindedness, bold expressions, and an ability to feel levels of ecstasy and pain beyond comprehension. I prefer my way of being over those not so blessed. For boredom lives not here, and my life is full of many experiences. I will gladly await old age for the gentle contemplation of a life well lived.

connectivity

2009-10-28T23:08:00.001-07:00

Cyberspace without limits (yet), no language barriers, hell you do not even have to be good looking or speak proper language. A world wide open for instantaneous connectivity on a global level. This is the future for a global humanity that even the president of the united states is advocating. Yet much like anything else, it carries its own demons to be reckon with. So prudence or wisdom be your guide, I will settle for intuitive instinct to discern the BS from the viable knowledge. For knowledge is power and with power comes responsibility or corruption. The choice is always ours to make, so tread lightly and be warned that everything carries its own consequence. Being fearless in nature, I reveal in the chance to find new venues, new outlets, new ways of discovery and say be yea free to find that which we are seeking. For without venture, would you merely exists or maybe never really lived at all.

My Mission Statement

2009-10-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

My story is an "American Ideal of Freedom" of someone coming from a past of hard roads, we are often called "children of adversity. All my life I have drawn and doodled in times of great stress, as a means of meditation to center my thoughts and process my feelings.

The art I create expresses my true spirit within me and speaks of the roads before me. It is a reflection of my humanness and how my reality can become clouded and tainted without reason sometimes. My artwork is a healer of all things before me, behind me from within me. The culture I grew up in and the icons I use reflect those things that give me strength on the road of life and bring me pleasure as a human. My hope is to share that with you, the viewer.

I use southwestern colors to stimulate emotions, contemporary American images that are familiar to us all and my application of paint to canvas reflects my personal style of building texture in the foreground. Because it is the things closest to us, that have the deepest effect.

I study color theory, like an expressionist artist, and use symbolism as a modern art form. I am drawn to artist like Peter Pauls Ruben, Kandinsky, Van Gogh, William Blake and others of the past and present. Trying to learn from those before me which followed a path that I see in their art-forms, trying to knowing and understanding the past.

October 24, 2004 became the day I decided to give into my artistic nature and become a professional artist full time and gave myself ten years to succeed or flop. A vow of poverty, entry into an art community and a wish to succeed which has given me great peace. Two years into the dream I land my first gallery showing and my career continues to grow in an artistic way.

They said in 2004, I was a hypomanic to my reply "what an understatement " not knowing what that really meant. Touched by the God's Socrates called it. Vincent Van Gogh died at 37 years of a much worse condition similar to my own. There is no romantic idea to this reality, but it is the reality I must endure.

A rapidness of the mind, or a creative genius some have said. All my life it seemed a curse to be so driven, in so many directions going somewhere but never sure exactly where. The curse has become the gift, handed down from heavens gate. As the old Jewish proverb goes, "it is God who will deliver the final blow".