In the late 1970s, I became a background artist at Coffin & Company Motion Pictures, a commercial animation studio in Seattle. I bloomed under Jim Coffin’s direction, concepting as part of his team of designers and animators.

As I grew more independent and confident in my thinking, it became difficult to present ideas I believed in with a passion only to have a client reject them out of hand. This was the planted seed that caused me to think apart from the commercial world of solving the client’s needs, and looking into what I might create for myself individually, without the overbearing intrusion of a client’s gaze.

Prior to this, I hadn’t thought of myself as a “fine artist”. I wasn’t an intellectual or a scholar; the art school I had attended in the late 1960s was specifically commercial in its application. However, even then my favorite instructor at the school was the design teacher Fred Griffin, a fine artist.

Fred was a painter and materials fabricator and probably the first genius I’d ever met. We connected through a shared interest – old comic strips and a new, emerging idea, the graphic novel. He used those forms to reveal to me an entire universe of visual relationships I had been looking at but had never seen.

The final revelation was seeing reproductions of the work of Mark Rothko. That was when I experienced my first sense of transcendence in art. I became less interested in the figure and more in the space surrounding the figure – the landscape.

While there were many years left to go in my maturation, marred by depression, alcohol and the land mines of childhood, I was eventually able to become, and remain, a fine artist.

The Point of Light

I’ve attempted to find the best words to describe my own comprehension of what I do :

Abstraction and representation

Ancient and Present

Light is the base of manifestation

The curve of the Earth

Lora Jansson titles her portion of the exhibit “Move On”

 

Move On

Stop worrying if your vision Is new
Let others make that decision –-
They usually do
Just keep moving on
Anything you do
Let it come from you
Then it will be new
Give us more to see…”

Sunday in the Park with George, Steven Sondheim

I celebrate the fierce energy and all the colors of life. When I paint abstracts, I feel like I
am drinking colors, and those colors fill my soul. It feels to me as if the paintings are
creating me.
It’s a great irony that I started to paint at the age of 72 because I was losing my vision.
My creative passions – writing and shamanism – broke down after a decade of trauma.
I needed a creative outlet to keep my soul from withering. So the day after my 72md
birthday, I started to paint. This is my first public showing.

 

Great Decisions Features NATO and European Security at the Library this Sunday

Speaking of the Bainbridge Public Library, the facility will host Great Decisions this coming Sunday March 9, with a very current topic, “The Future of NATO and European Security.” The lively discussions take place from 2 – 3:30 p.m. at the Bainbridge Public Library. All events are free, with donations appreciated. Refreshments are provided.

March 9 – The Future of NATO and European Security.

March 16 – India: Between China, the West, and the Global South.

A potential fifth program, discussing International Cooperation on Climate Change, is also in the works.

Now in its 19th year, Great Decisions at the Library is part of a nationwide, non-partisan program of the Foreign Policy Association intended to broaden public involvement in foreign affairs. While enjoying refreshments, Great Decisions at the Library participants first view a 25-minute Foreign Policy Association video on the topic under consideration and then engage in a discussion led by a moderator from the U.W. Jackson School of International Studies. A Briefing Book, published by the Foreign Policy Association, is also available.

Visit the Bainbridge Public Library website, BainbridgePublicLibrary.org, for more details about this year’s topics and guest moderators.

B library logoAs part of Library U, the Bainbridge Public Library’s lifelong learning program, Great Decisions at the Library is sponsored by the Bainbridge Public Library with funding support from the Bainbridge Island Friends of the Library, the Bainbridge Community Foundation, and a generous donation from the family of Louise Brody Weissman.

Email GreatDecisionsBainbridge@gmail.com to be added to the mailing list for suggested background readings on the topics and other information about Great Decisions at the Library. The readings are also be posted on the Bainbridge Public Library’s website about a week before each discussion.

Copies of the Briefing Book can be purchased from the Foreign Policy Association at www.fpa.org. A copy is also available for reading in the library.

 

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