Polar Vortexes, Art, and the Soul

     What do polar vortexes, art, and the soul have do with each other, you ask?  Plenty....if you think in metaphors!  Let's give it some shape here.  How do you describe polar vortexes?  Try severe, extreme cold.  Hunkering down under blankets, inside parkas to keep warm.  Major discomfort in getting out and about.  Starkness and restriction of normal activities.  What about art, then?  How do you describe art?  As that which nourishes, uplifts, transports, changes your perspective, feeds your soul?  Finally, what about soul?  Is it that part of being human that feels, responds morally and emotionally to beauty, truth, life, and death, and that is eternal?

                                                          

    Loveland, CO Ranch

                                                                         8" x 10" oil

                                                                       Bonnie Patterson

     Okay, now link them all together in this aspect metaphorically.  As in daily life, so in our life experiences polar vortexes bear down on our souls...cold, frigid, undesired.  How does your soul deal with them and come out better for wear?  That is where art can step in and play a part to redirect your emotions, console grief, give perspective, divert focus, and inspire anew...whether it be music, theater, movies, literature, dance, a painting, or sculpture.  That is the power of art!  And polar vortexes are not permanent....the weather will change.  The sunshine will come and it will be June once again.  

     But right now it is still January and I'm excitedly preparing for a 6 week art class I'll be teaching in South Omaha with youngsters.  Since the 2014 Winter Olympics are in February, our theme is learning to draw sports action figures.  We will be following what is happening in the Sochi Olympics and having fun putting our interpretations of the human form in motion down on paper.  The class will be patterned along athletic training modes of drawing warmups, coaching instruction, implementing new knowledge in workouts, and then wrapping things up in a cooldown of reviewing main points and cleaning up.  All finishers will receive a a medal!  

     For those of you in Colorado, why not include a visit to the Coor's National Western Art Show at the Denver Stock Show this month?!  I have always been inspired during the winter blues with a feast for the eyes by wonderful western artists at that event.  All the best in this New Year to you!