Julia Schwab: a wonderful, vibrant, earthy, stylish (I first remember her years ago at Richard Freeman’s Yoga Workshop studio clad entirely in turquoise) Boulder, Colorado artist whose colors are as bold as her thoughts. We walk, many a morning (when I can wake up, in time) when she and her puppy walk past my house, on the way to the park, and my big puppy starting yelping and squealing and barking and whining, wanting to go along for the romp. 

So, after months of blearily walking the pinks and blues of early morning parks in Boulder, I thought it’d be the least I could do to share a taste of her wonderful work, and teaching (she teaches workshops in the bright, cheerful studio behind her bright, cheerful home on the northwest end of our University Hill. ~ Waylon Lewis, ed., elephantjournal.com

Current Thoughts

via Julia Schwab

A colorful t-shirt converted to a pillow, shown off with delight in the first video, bears a slogan I love:

“Art—Break the Rules. It’s for Your Own Good.”

Well, this is an essay dedicated to that proposition; re-stating that rules and authority grow from the inside out, that art can and will embrace rule-breaking; and last, that this endeavor is really enlivening. I came by this urge last week as Henry Miller met JJ Rouseau. A real battle of the bands on nature and creativity.

Henry’s stand: just do it. JJ’s? Natural laws govern...for the rest of their conversation, go to Julia’s site!

The statesman insisted that we heed the inherent structures, albeit they are of nature and unfettered, but structures nonetheless. 

Never afar can mean a moment away, a fractional micrometer. Delight is coming. Paint like wild—see what comes, feel the energy, meet your emotion. Break the rules; it’s for your own good!

An old Buddhist saying is “she who knows does not tell and she who tells does not know.”

Art is a fearless process that bridges the essence of this adage into a visual personal map. I have discovered some ways to find my inner location through my painting, meditation, yoga and life practice:

• Keep it short
• Be spacially aware
• Connect to the unabashed intuitive child
• Remember to breathe
• Regard dogs with the same love you would a human
• Find truth and inspiration in nature
• Feel your feet touch the earth
• Allow primary colors to feed your limitless imagination
• Transcend the dialectic

 

Welcome to a sample of my collection of well-loved images, formerly strewn along my walls. I have cleaned up my scene and now delightedly share.