Joy Schultz Artist

"Be the worst painter in the world,
but the one who loves it the most."
Byron Katie

Be the Worst Painter in the World, but the One Who Loves It the Most "Be the worst painter in the world, but the one who loves it the most." Byron Katie.I once heard this as I witnessed Byron Katie doing "The Work" with a woman who was experiencing resistance to painting.

Hey, friends. Celebrating my second blogpost here. I'm really loving the writing. Someone asked me earlier today why do you do this? Why write or draw? My response is that I write to hear myself. I paint and draw to see myself.
"Know thyself" is not a little thing.

Drawing and Writing: To be or not to be? What a gift that is.And perhaps, could it also allow for a surprise?Something I've never experienced before.What if I ask the painting what it has to say?

Hi Friends! Today I was moved to draw something really up close--with no car window between me and it. With little distance between us. Something I could really be intimate with. Yet still outside. Something I haven't done in quite awhile. It was 37 degrees Fahrenheit. So I sat outside for about 45 minutes drawing the tree outside my back door. That was as long as my fingers could take it.

So who in their right mind would do that? And why?
Why sit out in the freezing cold and draw the tree you've seen a million times? Why not draw indoors? Why not something else? Why draw at all? Oh, the gifts! Let me tell you about the gifts.

This is the first blog I've written as part of sharing from my new website that I've recently created to share my drawing and painting. I'd love you to take a look and if you'd like to receive my blog regularly through email and/or receive updates on what I'm up, too, please sign up on my new website. I'd love to stay in touch this way. And as always would love to hear your thoughts.

Why Draw? with this suddenly retrieved capacity to draw: It is an awakening, a new openness for and insight into the livingness of living things,

Look! The color orange is at the door
and says to the yellow, "You go first."
but the yellow is also polite and says,
"No, you go first."
They are like good friends,
and their conversation is very charming.

Joseph Albers

I love this so much. If colors could talk
to each other what would they say?
So fun.

It's a sky, a man, a bird. Is it true?
Who or what would you be without that label?

"When you go out to paint,
try to forget what objects you have before you,
a tree, a house, a field, or whatever.

Merely think, here is a little square of blue,
here an oblong of pink,
here a streak of yellow,
and paint it just as it looks to you,
the exact color and shape,
until it gives you your own impression
of the scene before you."

Claude Monet

"The idea of knowing exactly where you are going is overrated."
Sarah Sze

I'm reading a wonderful book of artist quotes called "Art is the Highest Form of Hope". So fun to hear their thoughts as well as learn about people I've never heard of and check out their work. This is the first time I've heard of Sarah Sze. Check out this video for an amazing adventure and to experience more deeply what her words are pointing to.

And stay tuned if this resonates for you. I'll likely be unable to not share more gems from this book and perhaps the artist's work as well.
https://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/exhibitions/17-sarah-sze-tanya-bonakdar-gallery-new-york/

Sarah Sze | September 5 - October 18, 2019 Exhibitions

"I can't paint the way they want me to paint
and they know that, too. Of course, you will say
that I ought to be practical and ought to try
and paint the way they want me to paint.
Well, I will tell you a secret. I have tried and I have
tried very hard, but I just can't do it!
And that is why I am just a little crazy."

Rembrandt

"Peace in the city", ink, 12x18"

There is something so wonderful about a curve in relationship with a straight line--wheels and curbs, a fire hydrant-- a combination of both, pots and planters with plants, figures framed by windows and doors. Rectangles and squares everywhere, intersected by wild, organic branches. Pure delight. No need for color, with all these sensuous forms mingling.

Perhaps we can all get along after all.

If your house could talk what would it say?

Rest, sweet one,
for just a moment, look with me,
Rest, in these walls

built of trees that lived through twenty winters and twenty summers,
that lived through storms and droughts and fires,
and maybe even some beetles,
just to be here for you now and hold up these walls.

Taste the gazillions of raindrops
that watered those trees,
the burning heat and light of the sun day after day after day for 7,300 days.

Feel the grit of the the soil and minerals,
that fed their roots,
the gypsum dug out of the ground to make the drywall,
the sand, lime and soda dug up and mixed together
with great heat to make the glass for the windows,

the iron of 20,000 to 30,000 nails,
the copper for wires,
the petroleum for the plastic to insulate the wires
and make the pipes for your sink to drain, and your toilet to flush,
the acrylics for the paint on the wall,
and the paper on the drywall made from more trees ground up into pulp.

Consider the calcium, silicon, aluminum, iron
used to make the cement for your foundation
and sidewalk and driveway,
the ancient rich red clay of your bricks,
the sand in the mortar to hold them together.

Consider all the hands and mouths and feet and minds and designers and wheels and machinery that worked together
to find and gather and measure all those materials and more
from across the miles,
to put them all together in exactly the right way
to remain strong and solid and weathertight.

I give you shade in the summer
and insulation from the freezing cold in the winter,
a thermostat so you can adjust the temperature to the exact degree of your comfort in every moment.

I’m here for you when you are lonely.
I’m here for you when you are exuberant.
I offer you a quiet place to sit and sleep and contemplate,
or to turn on some music and dance across the floor
and raise your voice in song!
bouncing the notes back to you again and again.

Sometimes I sing to you a quiet little song—
a little rhythm section from the fridge,
the fiery breath of the furnace blowing hot air
through all the vents,
a random creak here and there, or a squeaky meowing
only a kitchen cupboard can offer as you open it very slowly
or continue to move it back and forth, back and forth,
playing your own song,
improvising your own music with the hinge.

Sometimes
you think you are alone.
Look at me.
Consider again.
Open your eyes.
Look and see,
how all the universe is present with you here,
just for you, supporting you, the whole universe.

I am here for you.
I don’t need you to be any different than you are.
I can hold you in your darkest dreams
and your vibrant joy.
Supporting, supporting, supporting.

My name is service.
My name is love.

You come and go as much as you like,
whenever you like.

I remain.
Here.
For you.

Space.
For you,
Friend.

"If your house could talk", watercolor, ink, 18x12"

Hey Friends and Art lovers, I am happy to announce that I have a new website to share all my paintings and sketches on. I'll also have a blog and newsletter that I'll be sharing and if you'd like to stay in touch that way and hear some of my musings please do sign up for one or the other. I'm thinking the newsletter will be every two or three months and the blog more often, though I don't have a regular schedule in mind yet.

And if there are any topics of interest to you related to the practice of drawing and painting or seeing, I would love to hear them.
www.joyschultz.com

P.S. I've still got lots of info to upload on this new website, but there's plenty there now that I am excited to share. I'd also love to hear any feedback and/or questions you have.

Joy Schultz Hi Friends, Welcome Home!I love that you are here. Thank you for your patience while Iam in the process of birthing this website.

I'm adding this here bec it won't let me update my profile picture. Hopefully I can use it once it is on FB.

"Turquoise Table and Chairs", ink, watercolor, acrylic, 18x12"

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but a turquoise table
and three turquoise chairs,
curving and flowing and singing with glee,

"Look at me,
look at me,
look at me,
look at me!"

I knew in a moment it was love at first sight.
I knew in it moment it was put here for me.

Turquoise light glistening in the sun,
"Come touch my roundness,
just for fun.

Feel the way I curve all around,
not one inch of straightness
anywhere to be found."

Just rolling and relaxing right before my eyes,
oh, what loveliness here to surprise.

"Maha Soul", ink, watercolor, acrylic, 11x14"

Yesterday pretty much all parking places were taken when I went to draw, so I drove around the block a few times and found an open spot on a "side street". Kind of a funny term, especially because when I first got there there were no people on the street,
but it didn't take long for people so full of life to come along--two or three energetic joggers, an older couple who got out of their car and put their masks on before they turned on to Main Street, a young woman in a sweatshirt and sweatpants, a cute young man with fabulous hair (Have you noticed how young men are now wearing amazing hair styles?!

So much life on this "little side street". Ha!

Maha Soul Yoga was closed but soul was alive and dancing.
Maha means great, mighty, and abundant (in Sanskrit)
and that's what I witnessed on this little side dish. Ha!
What a nourishing feast.

"Frolicking on Main Street", ink, 12x18"
When was the last time you frolicked?

"Above the ice cream shop", ink, watercolor, 14x11"

To focus only on the part,
separate from the whole,
may offer a bent/crooked perspective.

Even stones (hard as rock)
may appear crumbly,
and soft waves
gently lapping the shore
may seem to dry up
or even rage.

And even living above an ice cream shop,
filled with big vats of a 1000 flavors or more,
right on your doorstep,
may seem to come up short.

It's only in relation to others
that the mirror
can show me
this one.

"Big Green Truck", ink, watercolor, 11x14"

oh the big green truck!
how much I love you.

Just sitting here in my car,
and here you come!
gleaming green

oh sweetheart,

rolling down Main Street
sharing your brilliance,

on a cool winter day,
the sun just about to set,
you zoom into sight
and steal the show!

Hey everyone!
look at me,
be refreshed!

oh, your happy song,
spreading green everywhere you go!
traveling traveling traveling

what delight!

any moment,
surprise!

"The flame of love, still burning strong", ink, watercolor, 12x18"

I love seeing how people are finding ways to continue to serve.
There are fires and heaters at many of the eateries on Main Street inviting people to sit, drink, eat, and visit/commune all outdoors in the fresh air. So what if it's winter and 32 degrees. I love seeing resilience and how even better ways of doing things arise out of the call.

"Tea bar", ink, 14x11"

Such fertile ground.

Steaming tea,
steaming love,
warming the air,
warming the hands,
toes, fingers.

Oh the heart!

In Tea, Tea bar and cocktails, Littleton, Colorado

"Through his sketches, Javier wants to connect with the moment he is living in, with what is happening, and with how this impression is taking shape while he draws. He is not searching for a concrete subject, but to transmit what is inspiring him at the moment."

If you are looking for inspiration to start sketching, sketch more, or simply to enjoy it more, you might want to check out Urban Sketchers and subscribe to this zine. It's free. This is a great issue.

https://issuu.com/drawingattention/docs/da_jan_2021_/16?mc_cid=45f2cb2f44&mc_eid=f08b9efdcf

Drawing Attention January 2021 Drawing Attention, the official monthly zine of the Urban Sketchers organization, communicates and promotes official USk workshops, symposiums, sketchcrawls, news and events; shares news about USk chapters; and educates readers about the practice of on-location sketching.

"Duncan's Inaugural Ride", (ink, acrylic, pencil), 18x23"

So, way back August on one of my wonderful bike rides, I saw something I'd never seen before--a kitty in a front basket going for a ride! I love kitties so I was very interested in this and asked the human something about it, and he told me it was "Duncan's inaugural ride"!

It was Duncan's first experience ever
getting taken out of his home, driven in the car, put in a basket, and then whizzed through the air on a bicycle out in the sunlight and fresh air--whizzing by bikes, and runners, and dogs, and babies!

As you can see, his eyes were huge! I would have loved to take his picture along with his owner, but I either forgot my phone or just didn't ask in that moment and then he was gone, and I never saw them again--though I looked and looked and kept alert for them all the way home.

So when I got home I drew a little picture in pencil of what I could remember. Actually I drew it very big on a big sheet of paper, because those eyes were so BIG. And it's been sitting on a table since then.

Then a few days ago I was really inspired by a sketch a man from Malyasia did with a wooden stick and ink. I really wanted to play around with that, and I thought this kitty would be a perfect place for it. So I looked in a bag of junk I've collected off the street on walks and picked out a great little piece of broken wood. It worked great for the man's moustache and beard too. Oh, yeah, and the basket.

Thank you to Teoh Kim Seah for the inspiration.

"Open for business!" (acrylic, ink) 14x11"

"Baby blue peekin' through", (ink, watercolor, acrylic) 12x18"

"Nothing mundane", ink, 18x12"

I've always loved alleys. My first memory of an alley is of abundance! I was about five years old and we had an alley behind our hundred year old house. One day I saw all this amazing stuff people were just throwing out. Gobs of it! Wow!

Alleys are kind of "rustic"--like a little one lane country road right in the heart of the city. Plants might be overgrown and you get a view into people's backyards that you don't get to see from the street. You get to see how they really live-- their sweet havens and cherished gardens, and their weeds and their "junk".

It seems alleys frequently have lots of bricks and views of old one car garages, with windows!

And in the city, or downtown area of a town, oh my! Like in this drawing, there are all kinds of lines and angles: stairs and railings on the outside of the building, and ladders, and platforms, and pipes, and wires, and vents, and electrical boxes, and backdoors, and who knows what. It's such a different view than from the front. It's like a whole new world--exposed. I feel curious about it all.

And in that very narrow alley way the walls of the buildings seem to rise so high into the sky--sometimes three stories or more. It invites me to look up and up and up. Then I see all the different shapes of the roof tops. And lots of patterns!

And no one tries to put a "facelift" on it, no facade, to make it "look good" and pretend it's something it's not. It's gritty and grounded. It's where the garbage goes. It's unmanipulated. It's always surprising what will show up there. It offers adventure.

"Main Street", (ink, watercolor), 11x14"

"Heart to heart and toe to toe", (ink, colored pencil, watercolor) 11x14"

"Thinking outside the box", acrylic and ink, 15x20"
(Palenque Restaurant downtown Littleton)

"Generosity couldn't be contained." (watercolor, ink, acrylic) 14x11"

Joy Schultz Artist updated their business hours.

Joy Schultz Artist updated their phone number.