Postcard from Me to You!

How about me sending you one of my postcards? These are new cards I had printed up for a mailing in connection with a little local show this month. If I understand the send-a-way rules....I'll take your name when you comment and place it in a hat. Next Friday I'll pick three names and post them so each one of you can email me your address. I like receiving postcards and I hope you feel the same way!

I have no new completed work as it is the week of our High Holidays and there hasn't been time for studio work. 

Migratory disc

Clay disc, plastic charm, fabric and yarn. approx. 3" diameter.

I felt I needed 'send off' pieces to begin my new migration series. It seems to me before snow blowers and air conditioning many of our ancestors  regularly knew, for their very survival, they needed to pack up and move to a better feeding ground, a place to return to each season. Did we have the same migration instincts as geese and other migratory beings? NOTE: please, suspend all logic at this point in post. Could migratory implants, discs be found in the bones of our ancient kinsmen? What would they look like? Would they be heavily marked with information, maybe images or maps? In the name of art making, I have begun creating these images with inherent DNA, using an assortment of materials. In early Oct. BFF Deena and I have scheduled a clay/date but this week I'm exploring the materials at hand. Today I found an unopened bag of DAS pronto clay. The instructions are limited in English so I'll need to experiment. I've wrapped cloth, made marks and embedded things while the clay is still wet. I am hoping when dry the clay will allow me to paint, silver leaf and glue stuff!
Loving the idea of early migratory implants, amulets, discs, or talisman that will represent an ancient time when we noticed the change in light and air and moved on!

Has anyone worked with DAS pronto clay?

Uncovering Treasures

I have spent the week in deep cleaning mode. Rediscovering this Tapies book, a Klee and three other treasures has been a nice reward for such a big cleaning project. I plan on mailing the Klee book to my brother-in-law as he favors Klee and the book contains high quality prints that will be perfect for framing. It was such a pleasure sitting in my pristine space turning pages in this book. Looking over my well ordered space with my big plastic containers with lids gave me such a pause for pride until I realized I had neglected to label the contents? gasp! It will be chaotic around here when I start back to work!

This next week is about framing....not my favorite activity. I'm just about finished with the five pieces for the little showing and because I have all the tools out on the work table, it has  been requested that I frame a couple of posters for my son...actually his suggestion! Will also write an artist statement (my statements rarely make sense?) business cards in holders and deliver a press release...and then back to the studio!

I have changed my subtitle of the blog to "Autumn Migration" in honor of these next months of new work. I looked up migration in the dictionary and connected to words such as to wander, roam, rove, sojourn, changing directions and temporary stay as they reflect my feelings about stepping into new work. I also looked to my well worn list of what pulls me to express and listed there are  sacred vessels/sacred rituals, oasis/ways to find rest, directions and seasons and my love of planets, stars and moons to name a few. Not sure about materials I plan on using (if I can ever find anything in these boxes?) but I know I will begin writing, researching some of the latest discoveries and Hubble photos, rereading the stars and planets mythology I love so much and then migrate to a place of art making! Sounds easy enough? I was telling a friend, my work is my play.

Isn't Autumn a wonderful season...there is beauty in each season but I am partial to fall. Your favorite?

"Hope Deferred"

16"x16", Rives BFK, acrylic, stencil, collograph prints, oil pastel, water based inks.

What about those hopes, wishes, wants and prayers unanswered? Deferred, I believe. So many times I have expected results according to my timetable...Kronos time measured in hours and minutes. I've come to realize the really important  wishes and wants evolve from Kairos time. The time of meditation, the gentle flow allowing us to be in the moment much like art making, reading something wonderful...unhurried, unaware of a ticking clock. I have placed these vessels in clock towers and in catacombs of sorts. Letting them stay in place, far from disappointment and regret but rather undisturbed and in a deferred place.

This piece ends my 'pull' into Sacred Vessels...6 pieces at this time and I'm sure I'll return to creating  more  vessels as they are  an inexhaustible resource for me. Beginning now in September I'll be framing and preparing for a small local showing. My other challenge for Sept will be a deep cleaning and reorganizing of the studio.I don't know how I will sort through my collage boxes...maybe just buy bigger boxes?

As my New Year begins here in the autumn, my focus is on the year behind and the year ahead...a rich and beautiful place...Autumn Migration.