Tres Bien! An extraordinary artist~ Michele Lambert

Artist Statement

My process is about the energy in the light, and the color reflected from that light. Space is what is left. I feel the energy of that space and time. I can see it, taste it, and smell it. I experience it with all my senses and get to know it. I approach the subject by painting shapes and dark colors, leaving white space and then refine it until I feel I know it as much as I need to.

I paint from dark to light which is exactly the opposite of what I was taught in art school. But it’s the way I see it and it feels right to me. I like the feeling of getting as deep as I can and coming back out of it with intense bright light, color and definition. By using layers and layers of color it makes the work complicated and rich.

My artwork is like me, it is very simple and direct. I am a purist by nature. I don’t use props, projectors or mixed media. I work only with acrylic and water. I don’t follow any rules, I don’t measure, I don’t have a plan. I have a natural ability to put things into perspective. I visualize it and I paint it.

Everyone has feelings that are unique to them and the art’s job is to bring those feelings forward. If you see my work from the corner of your eye and look back because it makes you stop, draws you to look deeper into it and then look again , if it conjures up a feeling in you, then it’s done it’ job.”

Http://MicheleLambertArtist.com

Like page on Facebook

Www.facebook.com/MicheleLambertArtist

Represented by DREAM, LLC

Contact - Debra del Rio (727) 452 2900

MicheleLambertArtist@gmail.com



Make a Happening Happen! (Dah dah DAH)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0HhHva8ZcY

I wrote this yesterday in regards to a rhetorical question ; "What are you doing to make a happening happen"?  I was a tad bit surprised when some did not understand the question when in essence I was asking them  to create a shift just for today.  Yesterday I was working on creating my own happening.  Didn't know what my outcome was going to be.  What I knew for sure was I had to be about creating the ground work for it to be.

I had to trust that everything that I could possibly do, I did.  And then I had to step aside and let it be.  What ever the outcome was, I would accept it even if it wasn't what I wanted or desired.

One of my students who was here during Mardi Gras asked me how can I teach someone to imagine?  It was in reponse to them asking me what I taught.  My workshop name is actually "Imagination, Inspiration and Other Leaps of Faith"

We all have the capable to imagine.  Some of us have had that skill laid dormant, being educated out of ourselves, been told it is foolish and a complete waste of time etc.

Yet much of what we use as routine today has been because someone imagine, became inspired and then boldly went where no man (or woman) had gone before.

 Sometimes the answer does not come easy or may come ridiculosuly packaged that everyone is telling you don't do it.  True enough you can sometimes fall on your face, get laughed at, feel it is all over.  

But at least you dared to go off the path.

But there are those times you must go so you can grow and then watch yourself glow like there is no tomorrow!

So what are you doing today to create a happening in your life.  Large or small; grande or petite?

Is there something you can create which can bring  a shift in activity, thinking, eating, doing good for others, doing good for oneself, creating a new job, career, passion , thinking or getting an application to go back to school, new hairdo, updating wardrobe, trying something new you always wanted to do, stopping something (at least for today) you want to stop but never really  tried to before, change the color of a room, move a chair from one spot to another?

The happening could be something small or large that you may do to shift your world. It could be as simple as trying a shade of lipstick you never thought you would to, investing in a fund for that trip you've only dreamt about, to packing up as I did & moving across country to a place who is trying to revamp itself or correcting a habit (just for today) or getting your groove on with  no concern for people thinking you are acting foolishly.

True enough you could fall flat on your face... I have many times, but at least I threw the fishing line out there... True enough even in the middle I've question was this wise, smart the "correct" thing to do, but I did it anyway.

Today I made a happening happen. I had a challenge that appeared to be insurmountable. I mean it would have grossly affected my living condition. I had exhausted everything, so I let it be.

Low & behold 3 hours later, it righted itself in a big way! There was also a sidebar ripple, unexpected, that got resolved because of the happening.

If I had not gotten up at 4am went to the fishing pond and threw my line in not knowing if the fish were going to bite who know where I would be right now.  And even if they were not biting at this part of the pond after I threw the line in would I pack up and go home after 1 try or move to another side of the pond?

I move to another side and the fish bit.. 

In a large way...

So whenever you feel like:

Or beating yourself up because it is not where you think it should be in "reality"

Create a happening. You may be a wee bit surprise what the outcome will be when that door opens.  When I "teach" imagination it is primarily a course to allow people to do what is in them all along. You see a 4yr old can understand purple clouds, by middle school they start to question, high school they roll their eyes and by adult hood they say "I am not creative". Yet they create every day.  But the conditioning we get tells us we are not.  People associate creativity, imagination with being artistic.  True enough they are siblings, fraternal triplets however not identical.

As one of the students who is coming out of graduate school this year said "how do you teach someone imagination"? My instant thought was "Oh oh". Guarantee you along the way someone told them to put away the foolishness, get real or get a "real job" "you have to deal with reality". 

"Stop dreaming"

"Stay real"

"You'll never to that"...

"Come back to earth"...

All the while using tools that someone told THOSE creators to "put away all that foolishness"; "get real" etc.  They may not see the that

1. because we are condition not to.  Imagination allows one to dream... Dream allows critical thinking.  Critical thinking allows.. well you should know the rest.

"Hey life look at me, I can see the reality...Cause when you shook me, took me out of my worldI woke up, suddenly I just woke up to the happening....
One day you-re up, then you turn aroundYou find your world is tumbling down...I was sure, I felt secure, until love took a detour...Yeah, riding high on top of the worldIt happened, suddenly it just happened...
I saw my dreams torn apart, when love walked away from my heart"

Lyrics by Holland Dozier & Holland 

It happened to me & it could happen to you...

Then:

I woke up, suddenly I woke up

The Happening...

 Dah dah DAH!

Dey Nile

©08

When I was a little girl probably no more then 9,I loved doll houses. I never was a fan of playing with dolls but I loved doll houses. I would spend hours rearranging the furniture, those little plastic miniaturized versions of furniture as well as the ones painted on the inside walls. I was bound and determined somehow I would find a way to take those pieces painted off the walls so I can really make the place House Beautiful or worthy of HGTV. Of course it never happened, but what I know that it did helped me stretch my imagination and creativity to become what I can do best today. But clearly then, (though I know ones would forgive me), that I was in denial. but what would a 9 year old girl know about denial?


But today, as a full board certified grown woman I know as probably the majority of us do, on some level when we know we are in denial of something. Today while in my head I think I have a wonderful voice and could sing like Patti Labelle or Minnie Riperton, the reality is my voice is more like a wildebeest in heat then either one of these divas. Please understand I am not being cruel to myself. I've recorded my voice and when you roll over and fall off the bed in laughter, you know that it is pretty bad. There are a few tunes I can do a decent job on, but the reality the chances of my getting a recording contract are slim to zero.


So I am not in denial of my skills. But it does not stop me from singing out loud, I am simply merciful to others that when I do I am completely alone. My denial would come if I decided I could try out for American Idol or some other show and even after I am told, saw the video, dogs start to howl, the car alarm goes off and people fled the scene to continue on this path.

All the heart, soul & belief in the world is not going to change what is.

And so we should consider that about being in "Dey Nile" (and I am not talking about the river in Egypt). At some point or another we have done it as truth can indeed be painful and especially if it is something that we want so badly to be if we are getting something out of it that we need. But most of us do not spend our entire lives in denial, setting up scenarios, events or people causing trouble, pain & disappointments in ourselves and others because we have held on to a belief system which probably in the beginning was not true or even if it was that we no longer are at.


But sometimes there are some of us who hold onto the lie for dear life as we see it as all we have, even when the denial is killing us literally, figuratively or spiritually. And we end up creating conditions that would pile up that belief. I would suspect that at one time or another we've all done it even when no one else knows & if the only person we are impair is us. There are some who expend tremendous energy & thought into this joint, a party with no guest and even the host wants to leave.. But we can plug it up, reject and redirect that energy to having a magnificent soirée replete with impressive food, splendid music, brilliant company with lofty conversation if one chooses.


However those who thrive and live to being martyrs are bent on finding where it doesn't exist, scenario of attacks or people out to get them because they have this huge reservoir of necessary suffering they need to keep filled first because they believed the lie & secondly, they may not know what else there is to do. Though to the contrary there is so much abundance it could fill us up for several lifetimes.


Now don't mistake, I am a board certified dreamer. I think it is wonderful to indulge in creative license. But I do know when I am living in the moment, in reality and know the difference between the two. But then you see others (and it appears to me the ones who are hurting the worst) pride themselves in dealing with "reality" when their reality very well could be a lie, of being in denial. And somehow their saying they "only" dealing with reality is said with a certain amount of piety and that reality is painful and one must suffer. But reality is also a beautiful thing & does not have to hurt one lil bit.

And I will take the risk here to venture that sometimes denial can be a protection particularly when there has been far too much audio graffiti. When you were assailed as a child denying your beauty and humanity, or as an adult when people howl, harm and hurt with all sorts of things that can be indescribable, denial can be a buffer and a protection to keep you breathing and functioning until you can clear away the suffering.

To a point.

Then denial can end up being that albatross, an anvil that will drag you, hold you down imprison you. It can deny you of your humanity and a whole wonderful world that can nourish and give provisions that you may not know are there until you face yourself. And then discover that facing you can be a absolutely wonderful place and a wonderful person to be.

So when you see yourself floating on a barge down the Nile eating grapes or as the 9 year old me happily engaged in rearranging the painted wall furniture in the doll house, know that one day you could be a extraordinary human being or in my case a pretty good artist and designing the furniture in real life that used to be on that wall.

Now how cool is that?

All rights reservedJHM08 ©