EMBODIMENT at Lizzards Art Gallery – A Group Show – Spring 2025

EMBODIMENT

I am happy to be a part of the group show Embodiment at Lizzards Art Gallery spring of 2025.  The four new encaustic paintings that feature the figure, tell the story of how one artist’s fear of deadlines were set to rest by the freedom, joy and artistic wisdom found within the work of poet Walt Whitman. Miracles followed. 

gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me / I think I could stop here myself and do miracles 30″x30″ encaustic, mixed media, gold foil on birch panel ©Natalie Salminen Rude 2025

Artist Statement

Creating art is birth-work through and through, and artwork must move through the laws of creation just like anything else. In a completed piece, there are periods of conception, gestation, labor and birth. In the period of transition, which is the intense, final stage of labor before the delivery begins, one may be tempted to give up and throw in the towel. It’s the most difficult, challenging aspect of labor and yet it is right before the baby is born. The deadline looms. 

Confession: just before a deadline, I usually wrestle with an overwhelming urge to give up and give in to the discomfort of the unknown. My process is very much driven by the unfolding imagery and I won’t always have the final image envisioned, even when near a deadline. But I cannot give up. The artwork is coming. I must focus all my energy on the work that is about to be born. There is no going back.

For the current Embodiment show, the birth of this figurative series was no different. I was laboring intensely for the work to arrive complete while the deadline was fast approaching. Then came “transition” and hopelessness harassed me. But the next thing I knew, the work was there suddenly, and clearly before me. Without realizing it, I had been painting all about the idea of birth and deadlines! The veil was lifted and the imagery was speaking. The figure was the artist, while the floral elements represented the ideas, inspiration and completed artwork that we as creatives labor to bring to full term.

With excitement, I began to research the roots of the word “deadline” (and yes, it’s pretty grim). I wondered how I could reframe this negative motivation? In a world that seems overly driven by fear, hurry and endless “to-dos,” how could I be a change-agent and not a contributing member, driven by a word that casts such a dismal spell? Shortly into my deadline investigations I stumbled upon the perfect counterpoise: Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of the Open Road.” Whitman’s exuberance and zest for life has always resonated with my own spirit and I immediately saw the antidote to my overwhelm hidden within the lines of the poem.

Artists begin by knowing that they need to capture or harness an idea. This conception is paramount to the work they were made to do. (Each line of the poem here are the titles of the four new paintings)

“there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell”

These ideas need time to gestate and grow. Artists must allow themselves time to wonder and daydream (which may appear foolish to many a linear mind). Contemplation and curiosity are also essential, as well as the willingness to finally receive. 

 “pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating”

Eventually the idea will land and come to completion. As they labor to put their work out into the world, they may find the labor long, complicated, or stalling. Here is where they need to ordain themselves loosed from any obstructions or buried fear so that ultimately the work will be given birth. No work can go out from oneself without this step. 

“from this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines”

Ultimately, for anyone who wants to create, one must realize that to produce work means we must divest our ourselves from the holds that hold us. We must find out what they are and do diligence to rid ourselves of them. And when those fears and limits and imaginary lines are let go of? Well, then miracles are possible! Art is born. And deadlines are gently skipped across, like small pebbles on an open road. 

“Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me / 

 I think I could stop here myself and do miracles” 

Contact Lizzards Art Gallery for more information. You may also view my available work at the gallery here.