Still Dreaming

Still Dreaming
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Original available on Etsy

I think we dream so that we don't have to be apart so long.
If we are in each other's dreams we can be together all the time.
-Bill Watterson

The Dream

The Dream
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"
SOLD

There are some people who live in a dream world,

and there are some that face reality;

and then there are those that turn one into the other.

-Douglas H. Everett

ArtReach

ArtReach Exhibit currently up at the Indianapolis Art Center

I work as an art instructor for the Indianapolis Art Center's ArtReach program.  ArtReach provides art classes to youth living in underserved areas of Indianpolis.  I love my job!  It is very rewarding and meaningful to share the fun and healing qualities of art with others.

The "Celtic Knot" painting in the right of the photo was created by my students and is currently on display at the Art Center through June 11th.  Tonight is our opening and party for the students!

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

-Thomas Merton

Love and Marriage

Someone
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Pencil on Paper

Despite the fact that I have been married, I recently had a fantasy about writing a book entitled, "The Anti-Marriage Manifesto."

But beyond my urge to complain-meister about marriage, how can I redefine what I want in relationships? What promises do I want to make to my lovers... or expect in return?

How about this...

I promise to be honest.

I promise to be empathetic, to listen.

I promise to drop everything and be there for you if your car breaks down.

How is this different from the way I would treat any other friend? Well, it isn't much different honestly, but there is a closeness that comes with intimacy. There is a bond. That bond doesn't have to be rigid and based on a fear of loneliness or cultural expectations. It embraces. It is forgiving. It is accepting... and gravy is it fun.

When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out.

-Elizabeth Bowen

The Cup

The Cup
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Watercolor on Paper

A full cup must be carried steadily.

-English Proverb

Roses

Roses
Copyright 2011 Addie Hirschten
Collaborative Collage and Watercolor created with my daughter

Last year I inherited my grandfather's rosebushes.

The picture below shows my first open bloom of the year!

Saint Joseph handed her a rosebud and said,

'Never fear.  When this blooms, you will be with me again.'

-The Grimm Brothers

Agape vs. Eros?

The Kiss
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Watercolor on Paper

So...

Agape = universal, unconditional love of all mankind

Eros = romantic love

What is the difference? Is eros just an extension of our sexuality? When we "fall in love" is it all a ploy by nature to perpetuate the species?

This difference gnaws at me because I can't help but see my heart's desire as a shining star. A hierarchy forms in my mind with that person at the top. No other hands feel as good. No other person is as exciting to talk to.

Does this eros inflicted hierarchy go against my universalist ideals?

Does it negate agape?

Or as one friend said does being in love make you MORE loving to all of the other people in your life?

Or all the above
oh how I love to see you smiling.
-Gnarls Barkley

Man in Love

Man in Love
Copyright 2002 Addie Hirschten
Watercolor on Paper
6" x 6"

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer. Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

-Gandhi

The Connection

The Connection
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"
Reprints available on Fine Art America

When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not with your brain.

-Mark Twain

?

hmmm...

but it does seem that the brain is at least somewhat involved

?

being that all of those parts of ourselves are connected through a tangled web of blood and cells... and become intertwined with others.

Go ye heros, go to glory,

Ye shall live in song and story,

go to immortality.

...if such poor love as mine
can help thee find true peace of mind,
take it,
it is thine.

-Gilbert and Sullivan

Sight

Sight
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Original available on Etsy
Reprints available on Fine Art America

You were my heart's desire before you were known to me.

I beheld your features with my soul ere I saw them with my eyes.

-Ovid

The Heart

The Heart
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Pencil on Paper
8 1/2" x 11"

I feel like my heart has expanded lately as if it can't be contained by the form of my small body. I have torn down fences, those barriers I had been limiting myself with. I can breath in and hold everyone I love there.

I am full

supersaturated

overflowing

(and don't you dare call me a dairy product!) I am as serious as a heart attack.

There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. 

My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.

-Dalai Lama

A Strange Story...

Addie, Age 10
Artist Unknown
Pastels on Paper

Once when I was about 10 an artist asked to draw my picture while I was visiting with my grandparents.  She created the picture above but my grandmother told me that it had been splashed with water.  I thought the picture was destroyed.

Flash forward twenty years...

My Mom found the picture among my grandmother's things.  Did my grandmother think that it was too much of a boost to my ego to have a portrait of me? 

Why did she choose to hide it?

Censorship is the height of vanity.

-Martha Graham

To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.

-Oscar Wilde

???

Sketchy

Sketch for the painting, 'The Container'
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten

Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so.

-David Grayson

Hope

Hope
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten

A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.

-Stendhal

Absence diminished mediocre passions and increases great ones,

as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.

-Francois de La Rochefoucauld

New Paintings for Etsy...

Riding the Wolf
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 9" x 12"
SOLD on Etsy

This painting sold from my Etsy store on Friday! 

One friend commented that she looks "courageous and at peace with herself."   I like that assessment.  You would think that a person balanced precariously on a wolf would exhibit some fear... fear of falling or fear of the wolf himself.  (Rather like the gingerbread man riding atop the fox's head to cross a river only to be gobbled up.)  But she is balance like an expert California surfer. 

How can we ride the waves, the wolf, or our lives with balance?

I just added these paintings to my Etsy Store as well...

Dreaming of Spring
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas  9" x 12"
Available for $150. on Etsy

Pandora's Box
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 9" x 12"
Available for $150 on Etsy 

Path in the Woods
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 9" x 12"
Available for $150 on Etsy 

The Embrace

The Embrace
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech

when words become superfluous.

-Ingrid Bergman

Sigh...

Tonight is the Night!

For any thing so o'erdone is from the purpose of playing,

whose end, both at the first and now, was and is,
to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature.

-Shakespeare

Tonight is the night! 

Our paintings are hung for the "Reflections" show. 

Join me, Beka Nimtz and Marie House for a lovely evening...

Friday April 6th 2012 6-9pm

Fletcher Place Art and Books

642 Virginia Ave.  Indianapolis, IN 46203

Reflections on the Canal

Reflections on the Canal
Copyright 2011 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

The Wind is the breath of the earth. 

Into every corner it unfolds and reaches;

without choosing between high or low,

exalted or humble,

it touches everywhere.

-Song Yu

This painting of the Broad Ripple Canal in Indianapolis will be featured in the "Reflections" show opening this Friday night!

Join us for wine, cheese, live music and fresh paintings...

April 6th 2012 6-9pm

Fletcher Place Art and Books

642 Virginia Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46203

The Greenway Path



The Greenway
Copyright 2011 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 24"

A hush is over everything,

Silent as women wait for love;

The world is waiting for the spring.

-Sara Teasdale

This painting of the Broad Ripple Canal in Indianapolis will be featured in the "Reflections" show opening this Friday night!

Join us for wine, cheese, live music and fresh paintings...

April 6th 2012 6-9pm

Fletcher Place Art and Books

642 Virginia Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46203

Canal Greenway Bridge

Canal Greenway Bridge in Indianapolis
Copyright 2011 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
 9" x 12"

All my writing is about the recognition that there is no single reality. But the beauty of it is that you nevertheless go on, walking towards utopia, which may not exist, on a bridge which might end before you reach the other side.
-Marguerite Young

This painting will be featured in the "Reflections" show opening this Friday night!

Join us for wine, cheese, live music and fresh paintings...

April 6th 2012 6-9pm

Fletcher Place Art and Books

642 Virginia Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46203

6pm on the Broad Ripple Canal

6PM on the Canal
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

This painting featuring the Broad Ripple Canal will be featured in the "Reflections" show opening this Friday night!

Join us for wine, cheese, live music and fresh paintings...

April 6th 2012  6-9pm

Fletcher Place Art and Books

642 Virginia Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46203