Editing

Movement (Work in Progress!)
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
22" x 28"

I'm not sure if this painting is finished or not. I keep adding layers to it. We shall see.

Don’t judge or self-edit as you go through these explorations…

give the unexpected room to emerge by allowing each movement to evolve

from the one before and lead naturally

into the one that follows. 

 -Brenda Divelbliss, Speaking on Modern Dance

Two layers ago it looked like this...

My Grandmother on her Deathbed

My Grandmother on her Deathbed
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Acrylic on Canvas
16" x 20"

From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.

-Edvard Munch

May Day on the Canal

May Day on the Canal
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

Claudia said, "But, Mrs. Frankweiler, you should want to learn one new thing every day."

"No," I answered, "I don't agree with that.  I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal.  But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything.  If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you.  You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them.  It's hollow."

-E.L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Taking Care

Taking Care
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Acrylic on Cardboard

No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn't experience it all. There's that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should've been paying attention.  Well, get used to that feeling. That's how your whole life will feel some day. This is all practice.

-Chuck Palahniuk 

This is a quickly done sketch of a rather ghostly ethereal woman.  It is on plain old cardboard so the acidic quality of the paper will probably make it deteriorate fast.  Sometimes it is liberating to think that it won't last.  I can be less careful. Then again this whole thing is just going to rot away.  So what was the point?  It is a sketch.  It can lead to something else, something of higher quality.

Be of love a little more careful than of anything.

-E.E. Cummings

A Study of Roses

Study of Roses
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
6" x 6"

Here's flowers for you;

Hot lavender, mints, savoury, marjoram;

The marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun

And with him rises weeping: these are flowers

Of middle summer, and I think they are given

To men of middle age.

-Shakespeare, A Winter's Tale

Spring 2013

Spring 2013
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

This is one of those paintings that reflects my mood for a whole season of my life.  This spring was full of growth and excitement and warmth.  

You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.

-Pablo Neruda

My Life Belongs

My Life Belongs
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 36"

This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, 

and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

-George Bernard Shaw

Last Call for our Expressionistic Painting Class!

Ready to start the "Portraits of Passion" Show at the Sanctuary

This was an exciting weekend for me with my first solo art show on Friday!  We had an elegant evening in the beautiful Sanctuary space.  I talked so much that I forgot to take pictures during the show!  Thanks so much for everyone who came out in support.

The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand,

as in what direction we are moving.

-Oliver Wendell Holmes 

Reincarnation
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 36"

And now I am on to my next endeavor... our Expressionistic Painting Class starts this Thursday- so this is the last call to join us!  We are gathering an amazing group of people who are at all levels of painting skills.  I tell my students often that there isn't anything I can do that you can't do... it will just come out in a different voice.  This class will focus on expressing that unique voice with lots of fun splashy experiments!  More info below...

Class: Expressionistic Painting
Indianapolis Art Center
Thursdays July 11-August 1st, 2013  7-10pm
Join us in this class as we explore the master painters of the Expressionistic movement. Inspired by their methods and philosophy we will create paintings to release emotion and express the beauty of the world around us and within us.
Register here:
http://reg131.imperisoft.com/IndianapolisArtCenter/ProgramDetail/39393530/Registration.aspx

The world is moving so fast these days that

the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

-Elbert Hubbard

Artist Statement

Open
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
20" x 30"

This is the artist statement I just wrote for the "Portraits of Passion" art show opening tonight...

As I was gathering together the pieces for this event I realized that when I created many of the paintings I was trying to prove something to myself.  I was trying to prove that love is real.

Sometimes I have this deep seated fear that we are just selfish 'spiraling coils of self-replicating DNA.'  I fear that everyone is just out for themselves.  But I don't want to believe that.  I look for evidence of open fun-loving giving everywhere I go, when it is in 'giving that we receive and loving that we are loved.'

I want to believe that we need each other, that we support each other.  I want to believe in love.  Where is the line between love and lust?  It can be blurred.  It is hard to distinguish between the two sometimes.  Yet that can be the spot at which love can be the most exciting, when you can't separate your mind from your body and your lover from yourself.

It is my hope that if you are also in that spot where you are finding it hard to believe in that beautiful sacred energy of love that you will find it here.  It is my hope that we will find it reflected in each other.

Join us tonight:

Event: Portraits of Passion
The Sanctuary on Penn 
701 N. Pennsylvania St.  Indianapolis, IN 46204
Friday July 5th 2013 6-11pm

Silence Sleeping

Silence Sleeping

Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

 The human heart has many treasures, 

in secret kept, in silence sealed.

-Charlotte Bronte

A Labor of Love... Portraits of Passion Art Show this Friday!

The Hourglass
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

 When I gathered up all of the paintings for my art show tonight there was a total of 73!
 

73!  I am going to have to narrow it down.

This is what we call a labor of love.  My art is my expression, my safe-place, my love, my passion... it is just plain fun for me and it is wonderful to have yet another chance to share it!

 Event: Portraits of Passion
The Sanctuary on Penn
 701 N. Pennsylvania St.  Indianapolis, IN 46204
Friday July 5th 2013 6-11pm

 Live music with the HoosierTones Danceband and Troika!
 

Full Many a Glorious Morning Have I Seen
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
Prints available on Fine Art America

Controversial Stuff...

Since I started this sharing my experiences through paintings I have received hate mail from religious extremists for my work.  What steams people up is that I create both religious paintings as well as works that celebrate sexuality.  These messages make me feel that I am being asked to be silenced. I feel that I am being asked to not speak the honest truth about what it is like to live in a human body.  

So I am go on record and make a statement here.

I believe that the human body is a sacred object.  

The divine energy that propels all life forward pushes us to love and lust in that messy act of creation.  Ethically speaking as long as you aren't hurting someone else through abusive coercion I do not view any act of sexuality to be 'wrong' or 'right'. One of the main purposes behind art is to be a vehicle for expressing inner emotions and desires, things that we can't always put into words.  And although it often makes me feel exposed and vulnerable I throw all of my messy honest truth into my paintings in the hope that it will bring comfort to others... in the hope that you will see yourself reflected in it.  Then we will transcend the petty differences that keep us apart.  We will be united. By depicting the beauty of the human body and nature I am celebrating what I see as the divine spirit.  In the words of the Roman playwright Terence, "Nothing human is alien to me."

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful,
for beauty is God's handwriting.

-Emerson

Several of the paintings that have been targets of negative criticism will be part of my art show this Friday.  I welcome you to join us there:

Event: Portraits of Passion
The Sanctuary on Penn
 701 N. Pennsylvania St. Indianapolis, IN 46204
Friday July 5th 2013 6-11pm