Jill Langdon
Artscapes
Thomaston Maine

 

 

Creating art, for me, has always been an expression of freedom. The freedom to paint what I want, how I want, where I want. Ironically, I find my subjects highly interesting in their most natural form.

 

I feel blessed to have been born in a country that fights for its freedom and defends the plights of the human race. Our forefathers had this insight when they wrote the constitution that allows everyone the same freedoms. It is through our own choices that we become trapped in a material world and pigeonholed into only one way of thinking. Freedom to say what I want, dress how I want, behave how I want (within reason) -- I treasure my freedoms and won't let anyone take them from me.

 

Art has always been a form of escape since early childhood. I was raised in the tradition of Catholicism and a patriarchal society, yet I had no male influence at home as my father passed away when I was only five years old.  I found my mother difficult to tolerate when she was home, and as a result, I would disappear into my room for hours to draw. I was a very sheltered child and had very few friends. I went to a Catholic elementary school and was shunned by the other girls at a very early age.  The snobbery and the clique atmosphere stifled me.  I closed myself off from the world.

 

I am still in the process of escaping from a restricting, sometimes over-traditional world, to create a romantic Bohemian atmosphere of beauty, truth, freedom and love within my own mind. I am searching for peace within and I want to share these concepts of beauty, truth, freedom and love with others.

 

Truth for me has been resurrected as a result of a series of lies. The nuns professed a faith where woman stayed at home and raised the children, or went into the fields of nursing and teaching. I was brainwashed into thinking that this was all my life would amount to. After high school, I attended a local "Teacher's College". There I met my future husband and Love was to be mine. My husband has always supported my artistic endeavors. He stayed home with our daughters while I continued my education in Fine Art and later opened my first art studio.

 

The struggle to find my own voice has been a long journey into the center of my being and back. I experimented with line, then progressed into shading and charcoal drawings. Color experiments with pastels were soon to follow, but it wasn't until I ventured into the world of oil paint that my love for art blossomed. The thick, gooey consistency of this medium captured my imagination. My spirit has been soaring ever since.

 

With this newfound love, I have also discovered the beauty that is within. It is this beauty that connects me to others. This is no physical beauty; it is the beauty of a spirit set free to find its own truth and to share its love. If there is a way to transpose this beauty onto the canvas and to share it with others in such a way that uplifts the other person, then I have succeeded as an Artist.