In 2011, I wanted to get creative, I had moved away from oil painting. So I put a sheet of Reeves BFK on the floor and started dripping, splashing, splattering, watercolor paint..then I decided to blow it with a straw… etc! I said out loud, “OK! So, What can I do with this?” Well, I found all these cartoon like characters…and I was intrigued. I just kept on creating and was not to long before I realized that anyone could have fun with what I was doing! I called it splosh work at the time. This past year I decided to read some of my favorite older authors. So I picked some books I had not read by them. One of those authors was a women named May Sarton. I ran across the word shibui in her book. It was a Japanese word. Her reference was to a vase with flowers on her mantle. I soon learned shibui pertained to a lot of things. But when I read about it hoping to define it. I came to feel it described what I found in the art I was creating! Thus, Shibui Fine Arts. In addition to this, when I had began my degree program I was headed for a Masters in Art Therapy. One of my biggest desires has been to help a lot of people! I made my connection with what I could do with this type of art form. I could help a lot of people as it would make a fantastic therapeutic tool! And it would certainly be creative. I have not run across anyone doing what I dubbed as found image art. This describes the process. My next phase was to create my project. It began with exhibiting Shibui and selling it, that goal has been accomplished. The next phase is where I am now, classes with my target groups. These groups make up people who use art therapy. They also include teens and elderly people. For example I was approached by a women about her elderly mother who had Parkinson’s. I can see people who have serious illnesses using it as a tool to become healthier. The last phase of the project is to publish an instructional book, and a coffee table book where the proceeds help those in the target groups by their Shibui Art Kits being paid for. I want the project to expand to help people all over the USA, and I am told they need it in the UK too by a publisher friend. This year I will teach the classes and focus on my target groups. Next year I want to go for a grant so I can turn my garage into a bigger studio space to teach in. I do not know a lot about how to right grants, or whom I could approach to help me with this project. Anyone have any ideas?
Creating Art To Make A Difference
By Pejj Nunes
I live in Southern Maine. I am the owner of Anisette Studios. My website is https://www.anisettestudios.com/ Here you can view and purchase Shibui, sign up for my newsletters, blog, and read articles about Shibui Found Image Art. Patrons get great deals several times a year and special items at times. My site makes it easy to contact me. My primary art form is Shibui Found Image Art. Shibui begins with action art and stems from the imagination. It is like seeing something in the clouds or solving a puzzle. Its creative process has its own rules and requires what I call reverse engineering due to a lack of an understructure and purely out of the imagination. In addition to those who patron me, my target groups are those who use art therapy. I will soon be teaching live. Contact me if you would like to learn live. I use Zoom. I request that although my art, other images, and what I write is now published by me here on WordPress; I do ask you do not to use my artwork, poetry, or the information about Shibui Found Image Art without my permission. I am quite available to make such requests. I wish to share the following: The existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir wrote a book called The Ethics of Ambiguity. In it, she lays out a guiding ethic in response to the philosophy of existentialism. It might be somewhat familiar to you already. She writes, “To will oneself free is also to will others free. This will is not an abstract formula. It points out to each person concrete action to be achieved.” Best wishes to all! Have good times and keep safe! Pejj
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Anisette Studios & Shibui Fine Arts 