Writing and Art-Ways to End a Relationship-and Zelda

Ways to end a relationship. I have been painting to a dvd of the movie "Camille Claudel" lately.. yes it is in French, yes it is subtitled, no I don't speak French and I only occasionally look up at the TV screen. It is about the passion and I guess the dark side. It is about obsession and the goal of keeping that emotion alive and forever reaching toward being a good artist.

So, why would I have that in a title about Zelda Fitzgerald? It's because I think may have rolled around in F Scott Fitzgerald's head constantly. Mental illness is a difficult thing to deal with and F Scott had plenty of it to deal with with his wife Zelda.

Years ago when I was in High School, and I am NOT saying how long ago that was!..lol! I read a book simply called "Zelda". I have been intrigued with her ever since. She died sadly in a fire in a sanitarium. To a young girl in high school that added a drama that created a mystique for my young mind and remains as I said till today.

Zelda Fitzgerald spent eighteen years of her life in different stages of mental illness. Yet, at times she was able to write some of her best work, including her only novel, "Save Me the Waltz". She also painted several abstract paintings. She died in 1948, with her few remaining unpublished works, her last letters to F Scott Fitzgerald, before he died, the last pieces of what had become a pitiful life. Before she died she was in the process of writing a second novel, "Caesar's Things", when a fire consumed the sanitarium where she lived in Asheville, North Carolina. Sad pitiful end.

"It is the loose ends with which men hang themselves."

"By the time a person has achieved years adequate for choosing a direction, the die is cast and the moment has long since passed which determined the future."

"Youth doesn't need friends -- it only needs crowds."

"There seemed to be some heavenly support beneath his shoulder blades that lifted his feet from the ground in ecstatic suspension, as if he secretly enjoyed the ability to fly but was walking as a compromise to convention."

"Mr. Fitzgerald--I believe that is how he spells his name--seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home."

"We grew up founding our dreams on the infinite promise of American advertising. I still believe that one can learn to play the piano by mail and that mud will give you a perfect complexion."

"Oh, the secret life of man and woman --dreaming how much better we would be than we are if we were somebody else or even ourselves, and feeling that our estate has been unexploited to its fullest."

"Most people hew the battlements of life from compromise, erecting their impregnable keeps from judicious submissions, fabricating their philosophical drawbridges from emotional retractions and scalding marauders in the boiling oil of sour grapes. Save Me the Waltz, 1932"

"I don't want to live -- I want to love first, and live incidentally."

"Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold."

"Why do we spend years using up our bodies to nurture our minds with experience and find our minds turning then to our exhausted bodies for solace?"

"Women sometimes seem to share a quiet, unalterable dogma of persecution that endows even the most sophisticated of them with the inarticulate poignancy of the peasant."

~Zelda Fitzgerald.

The image at the top is by Zelda Fitzgerald, "The Queen's Croquet-Ground" "Alice in Wonderland" series

Art knows no boundaries.. hopefully.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
copyright 2008

If you click on the title of this blog, it will go to my Nude Art posted on Barebrush

"Ways To End a Relationship-Ways To Leave a Lover
Love Tests of the Heart-Your Own Must Survive"

Thinking of F Scott Fitzgerald

Ways to end relationships
ways to leave a lover
sifting through
love tests
love poems
lost dreams
stories that must end.

There is no shadow
only a red hue
blood on your pillow
weeping from some strange angel
that used to be you.

Isn't that true?

You got lost inside a void
a black hole of sorrow
forgot your own meaning?

It is time to move on
say the words boldly
and out loud.

Maybe first just to yourself
get used to the sound of the words
leaving your mouth.

Hear them

then embrace them.

Ways to end relationships
feel it
become strong.

Imagine a strength
that thus far
you only wish was true.

Who would you be
If you were that strong?

What would you say?

You can wait but I'll be gone.

You can break but I won't care.

I've been on your side
loyal to a fault
but no more.

I'm sure you'll still be counting on 'us'
But I can't.

So beware
my selfish lover
take care.

Do not leave the light on
cause I'll be gone.

I will not miss the utter silence
of a one sided relationship
one that never saw this coming.

Don't just wish you could be that strong.
Or one day you will wake up
days will have passed and you will wonder
wonder about your life
time spent somewhere you did not want to be.

It is time...

time to feel your own courage
say those words
that until now you've only wished you could.

Ways to leave a lover?

Some way to end a relationship?

Yours for the decision.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
copyright 2008

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How To Be A Goddess of Art

How do you make great art? Engross yourself in art. When you breathe, know that it is not possible to think of anything else, but your goal in achieving great art and bathing in the passion you know is in your being. Another is to DEFINE YOURSELF.

How To Be A Goddess of Art- Tip One- Engross Yourself in Quotes by Kandinsky


How do you find the goddess of art, the scorpion drawing that defies the critics, ward of the grim reaper that tells you that you are not good enough and you will never be a good artist? How do you paint something great, so that when people walk into the room and see it, they are not sure if they 'get it' , but they cannot stop looking at it. How do you bring your soul to the canvas, clay, metal sculpture, etched glass, even a scrapbook? How do you define yourself as a good abstract painter, or within the realm of realism, impressionism,modern art, portrait or figurative art?

How do you make great art?

One thing to help you reach the level you desire is to engross yourself in it. When you breathe, know that it is not possible to think of anything else, but your goal in achieving great art and bathing in the passion you know is in your being. Another is to DEFINE YOURSELF within that world you long for. Read all you can of the words of great artists who came before you or ones you admire.

Wassily Kandinsky had some enlightening things to say:

"Every artist, as creator, must learn to express what is personally characteristic."

"Every artist, as a child of his era, must express what is characteristic of this age."

"Every artist, as servant of the art, must express that which is characteristic of art generally.

-- Wassily Kandinsky in his "About the Spiritual in Art and Especially in Painting".

Breathe these words in, define yourself, seek out what you know is there for you, grab on to those grim reaper drawings, pictures of cats kittens, whimsical angels, whatever it is you love and then create!

The image is of my painting, "Blue Dress" 24x18 oil on canvas

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ABOUT Kathy Ostman-Magnusen

I paint and sculpt female fantasy art and map fairy tale adventures. I dream of beautiful women on canvas and art of exotic women.

I have illustrated for Hay House Inc.,"Women Who Do Too Much" CARDS, taken from Anne Wilson Schaef's book. I also illustrated for Neil Davidson, who was considered for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing, and several other publications. My paintings are collected worldwide.

Giclee canvas art work, greeting cards and posters are available for sale on my website found in my profile.

Sign up for my mailing list for FREE ART GIFTS suitable for children: Drawings of whimsical angel pictures, legends of mermaids and fairies in art. Tiny angels whisper fantasy art for shrink art, or coloring pages. Also a "Letter From the Tooth Fairy", ya just never know when you might need one!

I am Represented by:

Monkdogz Urban Art, Inc., 547 West 27th Street, 5th floor, New York, NY 10001

ORIGINAL ART may be purchased through Monkdogz

http://monkdogz.com/chelseagallery/artistart/Magnusen/artist_magnusen.htm

Check out my Squidoo for more ideas on finding the goddess or wild scorpion in art that is indeed you: Fantasy Art Woman|Beautiful Women Goddess Art: Fantasy Art Woman|Beautiful Women Goddess Art:
http://www.squidoo.com/kathysart


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PS Check out my house for sale on the Big Island of Hawaii, lowering the price today to $240,000. WHAT A DEAL!!!

More about this house at: http://hawaiianartprintsphotosposters.blogspot.com/


http://www.squidoo.com/hawaiimls


FOYER


KITCHEN

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"Fantasy Art Warrior Women Needed! Artists-Do People Post Your Work Without Giving You Recognition?"

"Fantasy Art Warrior Women Needed! Artists-Do People Post Your Work Without Giving You Recognition?"

Do people find you as an artist because of fantasy art warrior women? Nope, I attribute being represented in New York to my presence on the internet due to writing articles and posting on ezines, mostly Ezine Articles, which is the best. My art in New York, my dream, ANY artist's dream,made real.

Do I worry about people stealing from me?

Yup, cause yup they sometimes do.

and yet...

I have a newsletter that I attribute my efforts in article writing to its membership. I have noticed that when I am not writing articles the flow of new subscribers goes down. I am 'Artist of the Year" in a little town in Ohio. Too cute! My images were used to promote the efforts of a non profit supporting mothers with AIDS. That happened, because of my internet efforts that I feel comes directly from my article writing.


Fine art paintings reproduction, poetry, things you write, pieces of your soul get stolen, so bring out the fantasy art warrior women, and.. and... do what?

Yes, it definitely happens, people snatch what you write, paint, sculpt or whatever and post it on their own site without giving you credit... 'sometimes'. I have seen some of my artwork, articles and poems especially, used w/o my link or name.

Ewwe! YES that makes me stinkin' mad.

Yet, more often I have seen things I have written or artwork posted on sites that 'DO' give me credit. People contact me directly and ask me for permission as well. I would not blame it on article writing though, thieves can find you anywhere online, if you are active at all. It can happen wherever you post, be it on your blog or profile on MySpace or Facebook ... anywhere, it's the nature of the beast, the beast being the internet.

You can do one of four of things, or actually you can do the top three. I guess it depends on your energy level and just how mad you are because you can also do number four:

1)

Scream profanity and jump up and down and tell everyone you know.

2)

Contact the thief directly, tell 'em they need to give you credit for your poem or article or fine art paintings reproduction or whatever.

3)

Report the stinkin' thief, call out the troops! Bring in fantasy art warrior women or the dragon!

4)

Ignore it and move on.

I choose the latter, unless I find a site that is excessive. I expect to see my work posted on unknown sites, because they found me on an ezine, Much more often, than not, they not only post my name and url, but even my information from my posted resource box. It is all what makes that wheel turn that finally leads to me, or you.

As an artist, or anyone for that matter, trying to stand out is tough, as you know. Article writing is the one tool that I rely on, that aids in causing my shining star to say I am here.

When I check my stats for my main website, the numbers are 'substantially' greater when I write and post on ezines, than when not. I see the difference about a month after I post 5-15 in any given thirty day span. My goal it to do more. It is best to get on a roll with article writing and create a steady flow of them.

The number of reads you get also depends on the keywords you use within your article. You don't want to write something that no one will read do you? Good keywords, remember that!

Another advantage of writing articles for an artist, is publicity you never dreamed of. I have been approached by several different interest groups needing images for their particular event or cause. Oft times however, these have been non profit groups, yet they have been causes I have felt proud to help. It's all adverting. Other contacts result in authors wanting illustrators.

The thing is, if you are not out there on the internet for fear of having something stolen from you? 'You are not out there!'

I get url clicks from my articles. Other things can happen for you because of article writing and posting your artwork online. Contacts made with you that you never imagined. Try it and see.

Can people steal from you? Yup. Does bad stuff happen in life? Yup. But more often than not, good stuff happens, the sun comes out and the sky is blue and you won't need your fantasy art warrior women unless they are on canvas,paper or you are sculpting or writing about them.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
copyright 2008

The image is of my painting, "For Isa" a 18x24 oil on canvas


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ABOUT Kathy Ostman-Magnusen

I paint and sculpt female fantasy art and map fairy tale adventures. I dream of beautiful women on canvas and art of exotic women.

I have illustrated for Hay House Inc.,"Meditations For Women Who Do Too Much" CARDS, taken from Anne Wilson Schaef's book, published by Hay House. I also illustrated for Neil Davidson, who was considered for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing, and several other publications. My paintings are collected worldwide.

Giclee canvas art work, greeting cards and posters are available for sale on my website:

http://www.kathysart.com

Sign up for my mailing list for FREE ART GIFTS suitable for children: Drawings of whimsical angel pictures, legends of mermaids and fairies in art. Tiny angels whisper fantasy art for shrink art, or coloring pages. Also a "Letter From the Tooth Fairy", ya just never know when you might need one!

I am Represented by:

Monkdogz Urban Art, Inc., 547 West 27th Street, 5th floor, New York, NY 10001

ORIGINAL ART may be purchased through Monkdogz:


http://monkdogz.com/chelseagallery/artistart/Magnusen/artist_magnusen.htm

Check out one of my Squidoo Lenses too!

Fantasy Art Woman|Beautiful Women Goddess Art:

http://www.squidoo.com/kathysart

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"Divorce Brings Sorrow and Regret - My Advice to Men Who Dream Only Their Own Dreams"

Divorce or breaking up brings so much pain, sorrow and regret. I have been down that road before. What could I have done differently, I have a long list. What can men do to save their relationship? I also have thoughts on that, the biggest one being about our dreams.

I always think, what if... what if.. I had done this or that; gone to school more; been encouraged, when I was little, that I could do something. Hindsight has led me to this spot in time of regret. Yet I am now loved by a man, who encourages me everyday, to reach my own personal potential and find out what my dreams are. He believes in me and I am soothed by that.

Women seem to hope that men will read their minds, they don't.

I think men have a hard time noticing the fact that women need a stroke across their foreheads, the words, "I love you", spoken often and with tokens that say so. Tokens can be just cuddling at night, and being told that their sparrow is beautiful; being made to feel that nothing in this world is more important.

Let your sparrow know she is appreciated, for who she is,

and who she might become, if encouraged in finding herself in her own dream.

Not your dream... no,

the dream of your sparrows.

A sparrow who's wings might be clipped, for whatever reason, need to be restored. That is what love does.

A sparrow who has lost her ability to fly, might need to be lifted up to the light, to see that the view goes on forever and it is hers to have. No matter their dreams are not the same... we all must have the brilliance of believing we can fly on our own, within the parameters, that each and every one of us, must define, for our own selves.

Live this moment and feel the breezes on your skin, look across the room and bring your sparrow a token of your love for her.

Encourage your lovely sparrow to 'find out what HER dreams are'. That is the greatest gift that anyone can give.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
08 August 2008
copyright 2008

I am represented by Monkdogz Urban Art, New York

http://monkdogz.com/chelseagallery/artistart/Magnusen/artist_magnusen.htm

"Connecting With the Spiritual Artist Inside - Wassily Kandinsky Felt the Colors and So Can You"

Feel the colors and you will know great art.

Wassily Kandinsky has been credited with painting the first abstract. So who was Kandinsky and what motivated him in his art? As an artist I am always trying to understand that question, what motivated this person, within the context of visual or spiritual exploration? What made this man to get up in the morning and decide to paint or sculpt or write? What gave him the inspiration needed to do art despite failures, despite the ups and downs of a complicated life? Who are we within that realm?

I am not really all that interested in the 'how to paint' lessons, mix this color with that one and you will have a great shadow or whatever. I am more interested in what song was in the artist's heart. Who were they? What happened when they felt let down and how did they rise again?

Art is an experience of the heart and I want to know what made that heart beat in some of the masters or crusaders of different art movements.

Oft times we gain insight into artists by things they were quoted as saying.

"Feel the color" ~ Matisse

Ahh that simple quote saying soo much. I confess to saying it EVERY single time I step before a canvas. It isn't about how to mix two to three colors together to get this or that shade of blue, no, it's about connecting spiritually with the colors and the emotion you hope to spread on the canvas. Be it a slather or tiny brush strokes, ya gotta 'feel' it, to paint it, to generate any kind of passion at all.

Wassily Kandinsky, born in Russia in December 1866, passed on December 1944. Kandinsky was one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. So, what did he 'think'? What moved him?

The artist didn't start painting till he was 30. He went to art school, Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, spent some time teaching art, left Russia for France when the Nazis took over. He then became a French citizen. Now, that's a life! Emotions must have abounded in his veins throughout the havoc of World War l. Who was he in all of that, what did he paint and what did he have to say?

Kandinsky learned the how to's, yes he did, and then he moved away from it in a search for 'Inner Beauty", it was a search for fervor of spirit, and a deep spiritual desire that was to Wassily Kandinsy an inner necessity. His passion evolved into a longing to understand color symbolism and psychology. Like Matisse, he FELT the colors, in other words.

At the age of 30, after viewing Monet's "Haystack", Kandinsky felt confused yet overwhelmed with the possibility of seeing more than the obvious impression viewed to anyone. I think... he FELT the colors.

He wrote of the experience:

"That it was a haystack the catalogue informed me. I could not recognize it. This non-recognization was painful to me. I considered that the painter had no right to paint indistinctly. I dully felt that the object of the painting was missing. And I noticed with surprise and confusion that the picture not only gripped me, but impressed itself ineradicably on my memory. Painting took on a fairy-tale power and splendor."

Kandindky experimented with colors and moods, before he reached a style of abstract, that took in the 'feelings', of the colors, he chose to fill his brush with. In art school he learned theory, but in life, he learned how to express those colors that thrived within his psyche.

Painting becomes an extension of the artist, when done well. That is, to me, what art is all about, feeling the breath of an artist because they chose to admit to feelings and then released those passions onto a canvas, a song,a piece of stone... whatever.

My muse is music and the neighbors hate me for it. Kandinsky would have been a good neighbor though, because he understood the value of music within the realm of the spiritual artist. Spiritual defined is; relating to; affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. Kandinsky at times used musical terms regarding his works, calling some of his most spontaneous paintings "improvisations", and gave explanation to more elaborated works calling them "compositions".

"Concerning the Spiritual in Art" is a book originally published in 1911, by Wassily Kandinsky. Every artist and/or lover of the arts, should make sure this powerful book is a part of their library.

Read some quotes by Kandinsky.

Read them... then feel them.

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"The true work of art is born from the 'artist': a mysterious, enigmatic, and mystical creation. It detaches itself from him, it acquires an autonomous life, becomes a personality, an independent subject, animated with a spiritual breath, the living subject of a real existence of being."

"Color is the key. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano with its many chords. The artist is the hand that, by touching this or that key, sets the soul vibrating automatically."

"The more frightening the world becomes ... the more art becomes abstract."

"Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential."

"All methods are sacred if they are internally necessary. All methods are sins if they are not justified by internal necessity."

"Each period of a civilization creates an art that is specific in it and which we will never see reborn. To try and revive the principles of art of past centuries can lead only to the production of stillborn works."

"The artist is not a 'Sunday child' for whom everything immediately succeeds. He does not have the right to live without duty. The task that is assigned to him is painful, it is a heavy cross for him to bear."

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These words... these spiritual words by Kandinsky, go beyond art. They offer a bridge to your imagination, in whatever creative form you choose to express it in. I encourage you to 'feel color'. As abstract as this sounds, you can even feel color within the song of a bird that visits you in the early morning, that one voice you often listen for? Hear it and take in the colors of the day. You can feel the spiritual in art in ways you had not realized before, just try it.

Take these emotions home to your heart, embrace them and let them fly in some artistic way in your life. It is just that easy and just that hard.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
copyright 2008

The image is "Passages" 48x36 oil, gold leaf on canvas. It is from my "In Search of Klimt" series, thus the Gustav Klimt connotations.

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ABOUT Kathy Ostman-Magnusen

I paint and sculpt female fantasy art and map fairy tale adventures. I dream of beautiful women on canvas and art of exotic women.

I have illustrated for Hay House Inc.,"Women Who Do Too Much" CARDS, taken from Anne Wilson Schaef's book. I also illustrated for Neil Davidson, who was considered for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing, and several other publications. My paintings are collected worldwide.

Giclee canvas art work, greeting cards and posters are available for sale on my website:

http://www.kathysart.com

Sign up for my mailing list for FREE ART GIFTS suitable for children: Drawings of whimsical angel pictures, legends of mermaids and fairies in art. Tiny angels whisper fantasy art for shrink art, or coloring pages. Also a "Letter From the Tooth Fairy", ya just never know when you might need one!

I am Represented by:

Monkdogz Urban Art, Inc., 547 West 27th Street, 5th floor, New York, NY 10001

ORIGINAL ART may be purchased through Monkdogz

http://monkdogz.com/chelseagallery/artistart/Magnusen/artist_magnusen.htm

Check out my Squidoo Lens about Kandinsky: http://www.squidoo.com/kandinsky

I discuss more about my exploration of creativity and spiritual fulfillment in art.

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