Bryant Road Trips
A friend asked me the other day if I enjoyed traveling just because I enjoy traveling or if it actually plays a part in my art (I love a good rhyme) as well. I do love traveling, but it does play a part in my process and art making for sure. We will circle back. Hear me out.
Love a good road trip? Me, too! I am exceedingly thankful for a husband and boys who love them as well. Living in East Texas definitely offers tons of fun options for a quick weekend getaway when we begin to feel like we have been cooped up for weeks on end. This past weekend, my boys - all three of them - and I headed out for Huntsville, Texas. Kevin nor I had ever been, and all we were interested in were the Sam Houston attractions. I have a bit of an obsession with good ole Sam - kind of strange, maybe, because I am not a native Texan, but neither was he - so I was hopeful this trip would wrap up my need to visit most of his adventure sites. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn’t. I’m not sure yet, but I will let you know.
On this trip, we drove straight to the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and walked around the Steamboat House, the Woodland Home, and several other buildings that were brought to this place for Sam Houston enthusiasts to enjoy. The Sam Houston experts have done a fabulous job detailing every exhibit with lots of historical information. It was a great environment, my kids were engaged and learning, and my husband and I learned a lot as well. Win. Win. We, of course, had to visit Sam’s final resting place and the sixty-seven foot tall statue of him on the side of the interstate, too. I was amazed at how much my kids took in and how many questions they asked about him and his life. Turns out that whole travel and education thing really works out.
As far as my art goes (I told you we’d circle back), Sam’s journey is one of soooooooo many experiences. I love that he wasn’t afraid to try new things, to stand up for the things he believed in, and at the end, his final words were what and who he loved most - “Texas. Texas. Margaret.” This makes me cry every time I think about it. I love that in spite of losing people, losing hope, losing love, losing himself at various points in his life, he not only finished strong at the end, he persevered through the worst of times and got to celebrate the best of them. It is this, the best kind of character, that inspires all of my artwork. The people whose journeys I paint are not always famous. Many of them will never have their names mentioned in a history book, but they are examples of courage, of integrity, of spirit. They are the people who stand by others when no one else will. Or throw an arm around a shoulder so no one sees the tears of a broken soul. Or encourages the person whose smile is starting to fade. Or keeps climbing higher while those ever so near try to pull them down.
Keep Your Ear and Create
It all begins with an idea.
How did this blog get its name? Well. . . . there is a (short and) winding road that goes like this: Vincent Van Gogh “removed” his ear and everyone knows it. Everyone. It’s a pretty famous story. Of course, there are a few different versions. One version says two nights before Christmas in 1888, he used a razor to cut it off after a severe bout of depression. He was in France, so this makes me sad. I’ve never been, but I’ve always been under the impression that France is a happy, beautiful place to get in touch with oneself and have a lovely time.
Another version says that he got into a little tiff that perhaps got a little physical with artist Paul Gauguin, and afterward, he chopped that ear off and gave it to a prostitute. I mean, what a thoughtful gift, right? Nothing says “true love” like a hacked off ear. After the no doubt romantic gift giving, he was admitted to a mental hospital in Arles.
Yet another version: he broke. Seriously, the man was under enormous pressure: 1. Theo, his brother, and principle source of Vincent’s financial stability, was engaged to be married and would undoubtedly be unable to pay for Vincent’s lifestyle any further. 2. Vincent and Gauguin had been hanging out intensely for just way too long. 3. He had cranked out so much work that his creative, mental, and emotional limits had been taxed beyond the normal scope of where those levels should be.
All this to say that I think we can take a lesson from Vincent. Regardless of how anyone wants to analyze it, Vincent was quite passionate about what he created - paintings, letters, drawings, etc. Can we be as passionate and still live a perfectly normal innovative life? I believe we can. I believe we should. And I believe we ought to while keeping our ears in tact. See, I think living creatively can indeed mean making sacrifices here and there, but I think we can keep a balance so that our most important entities - our families, our friends, our ears - don’t have to suffer. I also believe we must have aspects of creativity at the very least scattered into our daily lives whether we paint, sculpt, whittle, write, sing, play an instrument, cook, dance, or act. Or whatever other really awesome creative thing you enjoy doing. If you’re the parent of any age child and you are aware you and the little one are spending way too much time on the technology, if you are a creative who just needs a little inspiration and motivation, if you are a person who knows you need to be doing something in the creative realm but your ADD hinders you from making a decision on exactly what (welcome to my world, btw), or if you are the most non-creative person you know, this blog is for you. There will be lots and lots and lots of creative morsels for you to enjoy through the course of this blog. Welcome to the studio, Friend. I’m glad you’re here.
