Savanna Redman

Silk Painting takes my art in many directions, from tropical seas to ancient ruins of the past. It is a process I enjoy, and like most of my creations, the vision of the painting comes to me in a medium that will best bring the dream forward.

That process I can't explain....Dreams

All true art must help the soul realize the inner self.... True art must be evidence of happiness, contentment and spirituality of its authors." – Gandhi

Creating artwork has always been a part of me -- it is the way I see and the way I express myself. It is my challenge, my path, my calling. To not paint is to not breathe. I use the Serti technique, using a water-soluble Silk Resist, and enjoy the rich depth of color that I find with Dr. Ph. Martin's Spectralite paints. I control the paint tightly for detail or allow it to flow and layer to create beautiful washes. My silk paintings are primarily framed as artwork or sold as fine art Giclee prints. However, I have created eveningwear and men's dress shirts that have been laundered several times and still look great. Dharma is my #1 source for silk and fabric paint, not only because of their great selection, product information, and helpful hints, but also for the great group of people working there.

There are fragments of time, which glue themselves into my mind with their perfection. I get a feeling for that moment that my existence is exactly as it is supposed to be. The feeling seems to wash over me like a soothing wave. I'm never certain of the source, but I'm moved by the rocks, sand, trees, flowers, or the wildlife, and when I know I am an element in their world rather than them being part of mine. In these moments, I feel I am a prism for them, and my desire to create is a required extension and a magnification of the light and reflections of their world that surrounds me. My work begins with the process of dreaming. I cannot say that my dreams are of the average kind. I travel to new places, I meditate, I draw and paint, I dive, and I have conversations with people from the past and with things that do not generally speak. My dreams are a place of magic. Remove the velvet covering of reality and see what floats beneath. In my dreams I ask my wiser self childlike questions: what is the tree saying, what does the flower see, if I could breath under water how would I be different, or can I paint the stories a dolphin tells me.

My dreams tell me stories filled with images so clear that I feel I have experienced it. But then real experiences spill over into my dreams and add to the catalogue of thoughts and images. Once, when I was hiking predawn down the jungle path to temple 5 at Tikal (to arrive at the top of the temple in time to see the sunrise and hear the rainforest come to life), I was a foot taller than my Guatemalan guide and was catching some rather large and elaborate spider webs in the face. I stopped inches short of a very large spider - caught in my light at eye level. His web was spotted with drops of rain from a shower we had had only moments earlier. I held him in the light to admire his stripes and coloring, and the amazingly large and detailed web he had created in the few hours since sunset. Then what caught my eye was that the web looked like a perfect music score that spiraled out from its center, the glistening drops of rain being the notes. I decided his named was Mozart, ducked under his web, and continued down the trail, leaving him to continue his work. That night in my dreams, he was humming a tune as he created another web, and the jungle nightlife was following his melodic score. I have never known a more beautiful and soulful spider. This, children, is why some artists do not do drugs. Some of us see things that are not really there… on a daily basis.

The painting was named Mozart, I never explained why. I overheard a comment at the show from a viewer, "Why would anyone hang a big painting of a spider in their home? That is just macabre and creeps me out." I walked away, poured a glass of wine and thought, that is why I paint for myself; I saw him as beautiful and amazing, and she saw him as grizzly and threatening. Later, I felt recharged when I discovered that a musician had bought it.