Fresh flowers in the studio

Roses from my husband were the nudge to get out into my garden and pick flowers to add to the arrangement. Nothing like fresh flowers bursting with color in the studio!

Iowa State Fair

Garden of the Soul

©2010 Melynda Van Zee

36" x 48"

Acrylic on Canvas

So excited to find out that both of my entries into the Iowa State Fair Fine Arts Exhibit were accepted. Both "Garden of the Soul" and "From Above the Wind and Waves" will be available for your viewing at the Fine Art Exhibit at the Cultural Center on any day of the great Iowa State Fair to be held August 11-21 in Des Moines, IA.

To be honest, there is a part of me that can’t believe I just wrote that opening paragraph. You see I’ve been going to the Iowa State Fair for as long as I can remember. Throughout my entire childhood, my dad had a booth in the agricultural division of the fair, so we would spend long days wondering through all the fair attractions while he worked. At night, if he wasn’t too tired, he would take me for one ride on the double ferris wheel-equally terrifying as it was electrifying-spinning wildly and flying over the fair grounds seeing for miles. As a teenager, I would occasionally get to invite a friend along to spend the day with me at the fair. Vivid memories of our bodies covered in stickers advertising political candidates, looking for treasures in the Shopping Mart, posing for photos in the Victorian dress up booth, meeting on-air TV personalities in person to capture their signatures-all a part of an Iowa girl’s annual trek to the fair.

I have continued the tradition of visiting the fair as an adult, bringing my own children to make their fair memories (riding a horse for the first time, flying down the Big Slide on a burlap mat, admiring the big bull, riding a boat in the pitch black at Ye Old Mill) and I never miss a trip to the Cultural Center to take it all in. In my years of teaching art to kids, I would love to check out all the kid’s art works that were displayed-looking at the talent and cruising for ideas I could use in my own classroom. I created my own dollhouses as a girl so I don’t miss a chance to see the amazingly detailed doll houses that are displayed. Several year ago on a whim, I decided to try to enter some of my photography to the photography exhibit at the fair. To my great surprise, some of my photos were selected. I’ve entered several more times over the years, always delighted to walk the aisles and see when my work showed up.

But, the fine art exhibit...that was the “someday”, the never gonna realistically happen “someday” part of the fair that tempted me-dangled out there in front of me as a “What if?”

“What if I actually started seriously painting my own paintings rather than dreaming about it?”

“What if I actually started to do what I had been so busy teaching for so many years?”

“What if I got brave enough to enter?”

“What if I get rejected?”

I did get rejected the first time I entered a painting a couple of years ago. But, I tried again. So in this fortieth year of life, I can say that there are still “What ifs?” that God is placing and answering in my life. There are still things that I have to learn and there are still surprises waiting around the corners of my life. Sometimes I get frustrated about living in what other people call "fly-over country". I lament the lack of opportunities that are available in more rural areas. I can get restless with right where I am. But, I am resolved to continue to make the decision to take a long walk with my camera to capture the beauty and depth of my home and pick up the brush to paint what I have to say. And, I am delighted to make another trip to the Iowa State Fair to revel in all that makes this place I live, this Iowa, a continual field of yet-to-be discovered treasures, good old-fashioned fun and dreams for the future.

From Above the Wind & Waves

©2010 Melynda Van Zee

36" x 24"

Acrylic on Canvas

Converged Paths

"Converged Paths" is a two woman art show I did this spring with artist Andrea Van Wyk. It was such a delight to do an art show with my own art teacher. Enjoy these photos from the exhibit.

The Joan Kuyper Farver Art Gallery presents:

Converged Paths. The Journey of Two Women.

Andrea Van Wyk and Melynda Van Zee

Joan Kuyper Farver Art Gallery, 2nd Floor, Pella Community Center,

712 Union Street, Pella, IA.

March 1st - 31st, 7:30 am to 4:30 pm M-F

Artist Reception: Friday, March 4, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

As journeys go, they ebb and flow, bend and twist - meandering places we didn’t dream possible. The journey of these two women started over twenty-five years ago, Andrea starting out in her first teaching experience and Melynda beginning high school as one of her students. As an educator, you wonder how teaching will resonate in your students and the hope is for seeds of knowledge to take root and grow. This exhibition is the result. Presenting a garden of work that has come from these two paths that were joined at the beginning and now converge once again. Both Educators and both artists, both are connected by the desire to visually create and capture the beauty of their journeys.

Coram Deo

I will be facilitating a Breakout Session called Just Imagine at "Coram Deo...Living in the Presence of God". This women's retreat will be Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011 at Calvary Christian Reformed Church in Pella, IA. There is a fabulous group of presenters and registration is available online until Feb. 20. Join us!

Just Imagine will feature ideas on using the arts as a pathway to living fully in the presence of God. We will discuss the attacks and roadblocks that get in the way of us freely expressing our God-given creativity and discover how God can use the arts to bring spiritual growth and healing in our lives.

Nature walk as my sustainable practice

It’s been cold here and when I say cold, I mean cold...as in below zero. And, when it is this cold, I can’t walk in my favorite spots, but I can dream and I can pull out my photographs and I can spend an afternoon focusing on my favorite nature photographs from the timber I walk in whenever it is not this cold! Nature walks are one of my “sustainable practices” as an artist. One of the things that keep me going, keep me fueled up, help me to shake out what is in my head and my heart. They help me to really see and notice what is around me. Some days I just head out for some physical exercise-a chance to stretch and take in the fresh air, but on days that I really need to slow down, I grab my camera. There is something about taking a walk with a camera that really gets me to take it slow and see what is around me. I am reminded again to look at the world through artist eyes, to see the beauty at my feet or above my head, to see the truth that is evident in nature every time I venture out. To remember what it is important and to remember where to focus-on the mystery that is much bigger than me.



What to do when it is December out your window and tropical in your soul

I suppose I really shouldn't show "works in process", but this is the deal- I'm excited about a piece when I'm in the middle of it. OK-excited and... terrified, and grumpy, and anxious while it works its way from my heart/mind/soul until it appears on the canvas.

And, then it is done. Oh, I can and do talk about finished pieces-ponder what they might mean to me weeks or even months after they are completed, but for the real excitement-it doesn't happen when I "show" my pieces, sell them, or hang them in a gallery.

The real excitement happens when I'm in the middle of it and I've laid the first color down.


And I'm starting to anticipate where this might be going... One thing I have learned is that if I talk about a piece or a concept I'm pondering too much before it appears on the canvas-it is likely that the piece may never appear-something of the "ummph" (now there is a professional term!) fizzles- part of the desire to "birth the new" gets soft.


And...nobody really gets to see this part of the process-this is you and the canvas, you and your thoughts and the spirit flowing through you. This is the part that has taken me a long time to really embrace-to really cherish what happens in the quiet as it all merges and begins to appear and flow and move into places that I couldn't have planned or sketched before it happened.


Sometimes I have no idea what images will emerge when I start painting, but with this piece I had a starting point. I knew there were these bright passionate flowers, sturdy trees and a garden wall protecting it all-but a purple wall-really it had to be purple?

I have just a small section to go so I'm not wrapping any more words around this right now. It is time to be quiet and finish the work-and to look forward to sunshine and relief from the storms outside my windows.

Creating a Studio Flag

Studio Flag
©Melynda Van Zee 2010

Creating a flag is an opportunity for you to use color, text, and movement to piece together a little bit of blessing for your home, family or studio. For centuries various cultures have created and flown prayer flags as a way of releasing their prayers/thoughts/images into the world. Bits of left-over canvas scraps from my studio, basic craft paints, a couple of chip brushes and a Sharpie all combined to make creating these individual pieces a snap. The tricky part for me was the sewing-this became sort of a "sewing primer" for me-a great place to learn the basics and experiment-no need for perfection here! Thanks to my patient sewing instructors-so good for me to sit and learn something new-to let someone teach me and show me the way. Wasn't nearly as difficult as I made it out to be (although I am still not entirely prepared to deal with the whole "bobbin" thing...by myself).

1. Select random pieces of cotton canvas. Cut into shapes and lay out in desired size. I used a decorative flag I already had as a basic template for size and shape. I simply laid the decorative flag down on my studio table and placed my painted pieces on top until the design was complete.

2. Use craft paint and chip brushes to add color to canvas pieces. After one side is dry, paint reverse side.



3. A black Sharpie is a simple way to add words and designs.

4. Use a sewing machine to sew pieces together with basic and zig-zag stitches.

5. Remember to create a pocket to slide flag pole through-I also added an interior canvas tab loop that attaches to the clip on the flag pole (so your flag does not slide down).

Enjoy!

Hopefully the flag will help those enjoying the studio tour this weekend to find my house. Click here for more info on the Red Rock Arts Alliance Studio Tour and don't hesitate to stop by if you happen to live in my corner of Iowa.