Carla Golembe

When Life Hands You Lemons

Carla Golembe — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 18:04:09 +0000

You know the saying “When life hands you lemons make lemonade,”? Life has been handing me a lot of nasty lemons lately and it has me thinking of all the things one can make when life hands you lemons. Lemonade, yes, but what about lemon sorbet or lemon meringue pie? There’s limoncello, lemon cake and lemon frosting to name a few. Each has its own flavor and nuances. Then there are times when you’re just hit with a tsunami of lemon juice and all you can do is ride that wave and try to keep your head above the tide. Not so easy to do. I’ve decided to visualize the lemons in my life as a perfectly chilled lemon drop martini with a sugar rim. Delicious with a soft little buzz. I’m painting hope. Life is difficult for many of us. Don’t drown in a tide of bitter lemon juice. Sit back on a bed of roses, raise your sparkling glass and drink it down. To life, to joy and beauty, creativity and love.

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The Passage; symbolism of time

Carla Golembe — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 19:01:17 +0000

I’ve been thinking about time and mortality lately. Our world has been hit with the pandemic, so many shootings and climate disasters. In my personal world it seems that I, those I love and their loved ones all are aging and many are going through health issues. My time in the world is no longer infinite. My painting is called The Passage. The imagery is symbolic. A woman stands in front of a sandy shore and a river. The shore represents the sands of time. The river is the river Styx from ancient Greek mythology, the river Charon ferries souls across when they leave this life. There is also a lyric by Steve Winwood “time is a river rolling into nowhere, we must live while we can and we’ll drink our cup of laughter”.

The woman holds a lotus flower with a candle in it. The candle, as in “out, out brief candle” but also the flame of the soul. The lotus is acceptance of what is to come. Originally there was going to be a clock on a wall but it became both a moon and a clock. The phases of the moon are like a march of time, especially in the lunar calendar. The sky has orbs and marks and glows, luscious color, nothing defined. It’s the great unknown of what comes after and I wanted it to be beautiful and mysterious. The woman is both the guide and the one being guided. She is vulnerable and strong, radiating compassion as she ventures/guides into the unknown. In my personal iconography roses are symbols of thoughts, dreams and wishes. Roses entwine throughout the painting. My Hebrew name is Shoshanna, which means “rose”. I thought a lot about what the time would be on the moon clock. I’m not at midnight or even 11. But I don’t feel secure with 10. I chose 10:40 because it allows for possibility. Time is flowing on. How much is left remains a mystery.

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The Most Difficult Painting I’ve Done

Carla Golembe — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 14:34:53 +0000

“Sisterhood” is a painting from my heart, It is, perhaps, the most difficult painting I’ve ever done. For a while I’ve had it in my mind to create a painting that shows the bond between a variety of women and celebrates inclusiveness. Having made many 12” x 12” paintings of one face, each varying in skin and hair color, the challenge became how to combine them and achieve a flow of color harmony that looks balanced and works overall. What colors can I use for hair and for skin and what colors will work in the background to unify the nine faces and make them pop? How do I create a flow that looks natural, not contrived? I decided on brown, ochre, and peach for the skin tones. After experimentation the black, magenta, and purple worked best for the hair. It was important to stagger the colors. Originally the background was sparkly dark blue but that overwhelmed the faces. I’m happy with green patterning and red and purple flowers that are evocative of landscape or bouquets. The visual image and the message it conveys are what I wanted to achieve.

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Art can help to heal the heart.

Carla Golembe — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 15:30:17 +0000

Art can help to heal the heart but I wish it could heal the whole world. I create imaginative dreamscape paintings. They tell stories. Sometimes they come from my imagination, mysterious and whimsical. Sometimes they relate to things in my personal life. Other pieces come from my reaction to things that happen in the world. This painting is called “Flowers of Freedom” and it was inspired by the braveness of the Ukrainian people. Like so many people, I feel helpless in the face of wars, violence and pandemics. I’m a creator of contemporary stylized figurative acrylic paintings. That’s what I do. I’m not an immunologist, or a warrior, a law maker, a world leader or a scientist. These last few years, as world events find their way into my work, I wish I could make life on planet earth better. Then I have to remember that art can help heal the heart. What I can do is do what I do best and put it out there, wrapped in hope and beauty.

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Joy and Pain(ting)

Carla Golembe — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 16:52:23 +0000

It’s a new year, the beginning of the third year of the pandemic. Here we are in another spike with a new variant raging. Over the last two years we have all suffered losses and a great deal of stress. Once again, I find myself not interacting with anyone except my husband and the cat who has survived into 2022. As the spike goes down and Omicron recedes, I know I’ll see my friends again in person and appreciate them more than ever. We’ll drink wine and laugh and talk. I’ll go places other than quiet nature preserves and treasure each moment. Hopefully I’ll travel. But meanwhile…. What has sustained me since March of 2020 has been painting and teaching art. I’ve created a large body of work and much of it is the best I’ve ever done. I’ve learned to adapt my teaching to Zoom and have grown as an instructor as I share my love of painting and all things art related. The classes have become a community that reaches across time zones and into one another’s’ studios. Painting is, often, joy. Sure, it’s frustrating and often a struggle, but those times when you go down the rabbit hole and you’re in harmony with the muse are magical moments. Someone recently asked me if I make digital art. I don’t because I love the process of painting. I love mixing colors and making marks, the touch of the brush to canvas, breathing life into imagery. In my classes I love helping others discover their abilities and creative selves. Sometimes it’s difficult to get motivated to create, especially during hard times. But perhaps that’s the time we need to do it most with no expectations or judgement except to allow the process of making something to soothe your soul. Make anything! Use art supplies, words, sounds, movement, plants, food, found stuff. Don’t worry if it’s “good”. Let go of that and experience how creating something can bring a sense of peace and fulfillment.

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Reworking Paintings

Carla Golembe — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 16:35:05 +0000

Sometimes paintings need to be revisited. A painting isn’t done until it’s done. Often, when I think a painting is almost finished, I hang it in my home and live with it. Looking at it outside of my studio I notice little things I want to tweak. The painting may go back and forth between a room in the house and my studio several times before it’s complete. Occasionally I require a lot of time to see what a painting needs to become fully harmonious. The painting accompanying this blog shows the image on the left…how the painting looked as it lived on my wall for over a year, and, on the right. how I tweaked it. It took me a long time to figure out what I needed to change. A lot of the areas are subtle, a couple are more obvious. I reworked the arms and hair on the upper mermaid, thinned her tail and popped the contrast on both mermaids. I added the cascading starfish to balance the strong horizontals. In addition, I lightened some areas in the background and made the color stronger on the small fish. Now I’m happy with it.

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Painting From the Heart

Carla Golembe — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 21:01:16 +0000

The inspiration for this painting was a day that I spent with a friend a couple of months ago. The big surge of Delta in Florida was finally waning, and we decided we needed a day to relax and just be. She has a dog and I have a cat. I went to her house (without my cat) and she and I and her dog hung out and talked and drank wine in her beautiful yard. It was lovely. This painting “To Friendship” came from that day. As I was working on it, I realized that it could be about any of my friends with dogs. And then I realized that the painting was, more than anything, a tribute to friendship, to all my women friends near and far. My women friends are my sisters and time spent together talking, laughing, sharing stories and confidences is a treasure. In the painting I changed the drinks to martinis because I love the shape of martini glasses. She and I don’t look like these women, nor do the cat and dog look like our particular furry family members, but that is the joy of creativity. We take from life, filter it through our personal muse and see what evolves.

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When a Painting Tells You What It Needs to Become

Carla Golembe — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 15:12:43 +0000

Recently I started a painting of a woman with her fist raised, eyes open and glaring. I was angry and frustrated about some things and decided to express those feelings through my art. The painting was still in beginning stages but it had a direction. Then, we had to say goodbye to our sweet 22 year old cat, Zoe. She was very old and starting to suffer. It was her time to cross the rainbow bridge. When I kissed her goodbye, I whispered that she would live on in my art. I was thinking of all the books and paintings she’s been in, whether as a featured muse or a little cameo. But when I began to work on the painting again it transformed into something else entirely. It became about love and letting go. The fist turned into an open hand releasing a butterfly, the woman’s eyes closed and many features of the painting changed. Zoe’s spirit is the butterfly. The woman is at peace. Those changes were a conscious decision, although I felt the painting talking with me, telling me what it needed to be. As I worked on it I became aware that this painting is about letting go of many losses and that it is about not only my own losses, but loss in general. Most of us have lost loved ones. My husband and I have lost our youth and aspects of health that we took for granted. We all lost a year of our lives due to the pandemic and many of us lost people to it. There are lost hopes, dreams and opportunities. Along with loss comes sadness, regret and, often, anger. And, while I feel those things most of the time my work brings out the best aspects of myself. I’m very grateful to Zoe and to the muse for guiding me to create this painting and for helping me to feel acceptance, if only for a time.

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Where Does My Inspiration Come From?

Carla Golembe — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 16:48:19 +0000

Sometimes ideas flow easily, just waiting to get out onto the canvas. At other times I want to paint but I don’t know what to paint. That’s when I start putting down colors and marks and allow the painting to dialogue with me. What emerges can be a surprise. For me, inspiration can come from anywhere; travel, interaction with friends (or, in the time of Covid wishing for these things), the state of the world, my hope for a better world. My imagery can be somewhat literal, from something I’ve experienced, or can be a manifestation of something I wish for. There are times when I don’t even realize that a variety of things in my life have become undercurrents that contributed to a painting until that painting is complete. I did this painting, Soar, when I was recovering from traumatic hip surgery and total hip replacement. I broke my hip 3000 miles from home. My husband and I felt alone and scared…until we didn’t. The caring of my doctor and the hospital staff was a lifeline as were the friends who kept us connected to them with messages, calls, cards and flowers. The friends of friends who lived in the area and came to visit even though they didn’t know us were the kindest people. We spent 5 days in the hospital and then a week recovering at a beautiful lodge before I could even fly home. The lodge staff rearranged their bookings to give us an ADA room when they were fully booked. People who worked there dropped by to visit with little treats or just to talk. I can think of so many acts of love and kindness that happened on that trip. It was the best of humanity and we felt so cared for. And so, this painting emerged. She is soaring through the sky, arms and heart open, strong, protected by love and compassion. Healing light shines on her hip. Every painting I do has a different story behind it. We all have stories. How we interpret them as artists is what make each of us unique

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Creating a Fold Book

Carla Golembe — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 21:19:32 +0000

We all have stories. Each experience, emotion and adventure, each person or place we’ve encountered or imagined, unfolds though our personal take on life to create the stories we live. A fold book is a creative way to use images and/or words to address what we would like to express. Fold books are intimate. They can be created with a variety of media; gouache, colored pencil, marker, inks, collage, watercolor. They fold up to one square or rectangle but open up to be displayed as a long, double sided work of art. They have roots in manuscript illustration or story books. One thing I love about fold books is that they are, at the same time, one work of art and several works of art that flow into one another to create a unified whole. Like a Mobius strip, they end where they begin, the cover is also the last page. A fold book takes the viewer, as well as the artist/writer on a magical journey. The combination of words and imagery powerful, touching minds, touching hearts.

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