Early painting morning, then George Morrison and Wanda Gag @ MIA

After painting at Minnehaha creek with Kat and Robin, and checking the greenhouse plants and going to zumba class, my friend Dave and I went to the MIA because today was the penultimate day of the George Morrison in focus installation. 


"I always see the horizon as the edge of the world. And then you go beyond that." -- George Morrison

On our way to find a bathroom for my friend, we pass a small room with a Wanda Gag exhibit! She's the Millions of Cats (probably her best known art to people of certain ages) artist from New Ulm. Most surprising here were the paintings she did on SANDPAPER!!!!

“Wanda Gag used sandpaper for drawings and watercolors because it was cheap. But it became indispensable when she discovered that light glinting off the raised grains of sand on the sheet’s surface made her scenes luminous and alive—major goals of her art. She rarely made sandpaper paintings as rich and deeply colored as this ornamental castor oil plant. One reason may be that such paintings used great quantities of paint and destroyed her brushes.”

My inspirations from today:
1. Paint with inspiring friends regularly!
2. Try painting on sandpaper

3. Try "automatic" drawing. This was a George Morrison practice when he was exploring Surrealism. Like that kind of writing where you just write whatever comes out of your head for 30 minutes, this is to let your hand draw without thinking about it and to access the creative subconscious of your mind.

Kat's painting classes and the MIA book tours have stretched my brain in the ways of art and curiosity about artists and their inspirations or obsessions.