Glenda Freeman's Gallery!
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Glenda Freeman's BioThe daughter of an African-American military father and Thai mother. Growing up in both cultures has shaped my life and my art. My work is both a reflection of my beliefs and an integral part of my Buddhist path, but also it is the product of my life experiences. I work in the floor to get close to my work, mostly using my hands or painting straight from the tube. I believe that “Art at times should complement the space, other times it should dominate it, but always enhance it.” My work emphasizes freedom of emotional expression, technique and execution. My art is created by practicing the Buddhist teachings of mindfulness, it is the combination of "bare attention" and "clear comprehension." The purpose of mindfulness is to overcome sorrow and lamentation and for the end of pain and grief. Mindfulness allows one to see things as they really are. Meditation combined with painting has given me the opportunity to heal from past experiences and begin anew. As I enter my meditative state I begin to see a myriad of shapes and colors sporadically throughout my mind. I apply the visions upon the canvas without anticipating the end result, not knowing what is being created. I paint on the ground because it allows me to be one with the canvas. Every painting is one of a kind, none are created the same, my techniques vary just as my emotions. Artist Statement: Learn and Profit from the Experiences in Life Here I sit as my pen begins to romp across the paper; I look back on my life and find a notable paucity of achievements and memorable experiences. For once, I feel complete with warm feelings and heightened self-esteem. I have chosen the road of an artist, - a choice requiring hard work and dedication. While my journeys have caused me pain, it has also taught me responsibility, independence, and survival. In the course of these painful changes, I have learned that the secret to successfully achieving a goal is perseverance. I continue along my journey knowing it is worth the risk and heartache, for one day it will all be rewarded. The most significant experience in my life has not been a single event, but my young adult years between the ages twenty and thirty which I spent working as a waitress at my mother’s restaurant. Fortunately, working as a waitress is a varied routine, with an interesting group of customers: white and black, Asian and Hispanic, doctors and lawyers. Over the years I have watched with interest the arrival of customers’ new cars, new babies – and new dogs. Being a waitress has helped me to look beyond the surface of people who are different kinds of achievers from those I encounter every day. It gave me a true sense of what it means to make the most out of very little. While discovering the strengths of so many different kinds of people, I also discovered some of my own strengths. I discovered my ability to respond to physical as well as academic challenges. I realized that I am able to depend on my own inner resources. This discovery of my own strengths and my ability to endure came as a revelation to me. Being a waitress has taught me to be thankful for what I am, and not for what I have. That joyful and fatalistic acceptance of whatever life holds, has shaped me into the person I am today. The final test of our lives will not be how much we have lived, but how we have lived, not how tempestuous our lives have been, but how much bigger, better and stronger there trials have left us. Not how much money. Fame or fortune we have laid up here on earth, but how many treasures we have laid up in Heaven! Megiddo Message Glenda Freeman's Gallery |
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