Red Tulip

“Single Red Tulip” ©Jill Rosoff 2011, 4″ x 6″, $40.00

The center of a tulip blossom, which is featured less often than the outer shape of the flower, fascinates me.  The very delicately-shaped and intensely-colored pistil and stamen contrast so wonderfully with those six simply marvelous petals.  Wonderful punctuation.

This composition also makes me think of a performer that’s just finished the song, arms uplifted, as if it’s saying, “Ta Da!”

New Crop of Tulips

“Single Orange Tulip”  ©Jill Rosoff 2011, 4″ x 6″  $40.00

I like the idea of a “portrait” of a flower.  This series came about because of a couple of influences: one, I love tulips, if you hadn’t gotten that yet, and they’re in season. The other is that years ago I bought this little pad of watercolor paper that’s postcard sized.    I thought at one point how fun it would be to paint a quick sketch of something while on vacation, and mail it off as a postcard.  I’ve done a few little pieces over the years, but never mailed them. There are actually markings on the back of each piece of paper for where to put the stamp.  That pad has been in my supply rack for years, so I decided to use the pad up, by painting one flower bud on each one.  The pink tulip last month was the first.  There are two more to come, then the pad is kaput.  Got to break out some new paper, my freesias are blooming.

My paintings in San Diego!

Four of my paintings, on the wall as you enter Glimpse Living in San Diego

Glimpse Living, a wonderful home design store in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego, is having it’s Grand Re-Opening this Saturday, March 19th, from 5 – 10 pm.  This entry wall happily features four of my watercolors on a luscious raspberry-pink wall, there are more in the store as well.

If you’re interested in coming:  http://www.glimpseliving.com/

 

About Creativity and Albert Einstein

I was watching Jon Stewart recently when his guest was astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.  Its a remarkably cool building on the West Side–if you haven’t seen it, put it on your list.  And it’s not all that far from Zabars….the makings of a fun day in NYC. Tyson is smart, interesting and funny, all great qualities in a person, he’s one of those people I’d love to have a conversation with.  The thing that struck me was when he quoted Albert Einstein about creativity:  “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”  Hmmm.  Still, the more I’ve considered it, the more I’ve come to agree with it, adding only that knowledge increases the potential of the imagination.

Now I’ll admit that from my artist’s vantage point, I think that its in the arts where creativity resides.  There is scholarly work that reports that kids who get to play in areas of the fine arts are more creative thinkers in adulthood (please keep the arts in the schools!).  So while at first the idea that Einstein would be talking about creativity was a little wacky, it actually makes total sense.  Every endeavor to create or define something is a creative process.  His theories of the universe came out of incredibly imaginative thought processes, magical journeys down new paths of thought.

All of this got me thinking of who else might have said interesting things about the subject. So I’m looking for who might have expounded on creativity and the creative process, and I’ll post the ones that I really like here.  If you find one you like, would you please send it to me?  (Use the comment button below, and if you wish I’ll be happy to keep confidentiality, just tell me in your comment, since all comments are manually approved in order to be published).

Getting back to Albert Einstein, though, makes me think of my dad.  Dad was a tremendously bright and curious man, interested in all sorts of things in the world and in the people he met.  He was one of those people who could figure out all sorts of things, from fixing a bike to fearlessly navigating a British camper with right hand drive and marginal visibility only via the side and rear view mirrors through Northern Europe.  His all-time conquest?  I think maybe it was driving that camper at speed up the Champs Elysee and around the Arc d’ Triomphe during rush hour.  Teeth-grittingly exhilirating, one of those times when you’re watching through fingers over your eyes.  He was completely rapt in the moment, concentrating.  When Dad was concentrating on something, as he’d go into his figuring-things-out zone his tongue would appear and curl up, covering his upper lip.  I crack up when I find myself doing the same thing when I’m puzzling something out, or when my sisters, my brother, and my niece and nephews do it.  I especially love seeing the kids doing it while they’re working something out in their heads, Dad lives in them.

When I got old enough that ‘how come’ questions were long past being cute, when I or my sisters or brother would ask Dad a question about how something worked, he’d reply, “When you take physics you’ll understand that”.   Thanks, Dad.  I’ll go Google it.  And so of course there’s Albert Einstein, involved in discussions about creativity.  I wonder if his tongue lapped over his upper lip when he was pondering the universe?

More art next posting.

Mexican Tulip Poppies

“Mexican Tulip Poppies on aqua wall”, ©Jill Rosoff 2011, 6″ x 11 3/4″, framed, $125.00

Another study in contrasting colors, the delicate yellow petals against the aqua wall and the green of the leaves.  The aquas and the greens of the background brought the yellow petals alive on the paper, which are punctated by the stamens, and then there are the stamens that have lost their petals, which shows those lovely pink tips.  A nice pairing with the painting of Mexican Tulip Poppies posted in September of 2010.  Thanks to Lea from my workshops who showed me these flowers in her garden and let me take some home to paint.