Friday, August 1, 2014

Pastel Artist Jymme Golden Practices Art and Mindfulness


Jymme Golden uses pastels to draw and paint landscapes, nature-based still lifes, and birds and other animals, saying that these natural subjects “draw me in as I create and re-create what I see and experience.”

This will be her second LoLa art crawl, and she will be showing in the Minnehaha Professional Building, 3960 Minnehaha Avenue, where she has her massage therapy practice. After last year’s blistering heat during LoLa weekend, she is eager to point out that the building comes with “air-conditioned comfort and lovely bathrooms. Woo-hoo!”

She'll be sharing her space this year with polymer clay artist Laura Burlis and mixed-media book artist, me.

Minnehaha Falls

What inspires/informs your art?
I find inspiration, solace, renewal and unending fascination in the natural world. This can be in my own back yard, the city streets and parks or out in the “wilds” somewhere. I feel lucky to live in Minneapolis, a city that within its borders has amazing wildlife and copious numbers of lakes, rivers, creeks, wetlands, woods, etc. I’ve seen bald eagles, hawks, foxes, coyotes, deer, loons, and many other creatures within minutes of my home and occasionally in my own inner city yard. I walk, bike and snowshoe around the city and get to observe wonderful things.

Superior Sunrise

Then there are the drives out of town that bring me to favorite places like Lake Superior and the North Shore, Minnesota prairies and woodlands and the inspiration for my first pastels: Crex Meadows Wildlife Area in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. There the fall colors and waterfowl migration make me swoon.

Fair Fowl Firsts dyptych

My return to drawing and painting is very much tied to my spiritual practice including mindfulness meditation, which I have been practicing since 2004. Paying attention to things as they are and seeing that everything changes, always, everything is impermanent, strongly informs my life and my art. When I am working on a drawing or painting it is a practice of mindfulness.

Farmers Market Bounty

What do you like about LoLa? Why did you join?
Once I returned to painting, and I realized my office was located on a main artery for LoLa, how could I resist?  It seemed meant to be.  I also live within the LoLa boundaries but on the far west side near Sibley Park.

Superior Mergansers

Are you planning anything special for the art crawl?
May I repeat: air-conditioned comfort!, nice bathrooms!, drinking water, and possibly more.  Last year I did a give-away drawing each day, which I will repeat, giving away cards, T-shirts and giclee prints.  Last year I didn't have a demo per se but I put my sketch books out and people really seemed to like looking through them so I will repeat that.

You can see more of Jymme’s artwork on her website, and follow her works-in-progress on her Facebook page.



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