Almost Forgotten

Looking in my shed for a frame and I came across this large collage. All my work has my personal story but this one has strong details...like a prayer remembered. I unframed it and will store it in a better and safer place. It is mostly magazine collage with addition of gold and silver leaf with watercolor here and there.
Still working on a large stitched piece inspired by Bruce Feiler "Walking the Bible".  The piece represents one of the many oases in the 40 year exodus.

TBT on Friday!

Way back to the 80"s on this piece. monotype, collage and soft pastel measures approx. 24"x24" and sold at a show in Sacramento. Today is actually the last day of the last months of the Roy G Biv Day and click on these two sites for more beautiful examples of color...  Jennifer  or Julie  
It has been great to participate in these photo searches and seeing all the other photos of the chosen color as well as to discover new artists!

First Friday Art Walk

This past Friday was our city's art walk with museum and galleries participating. About a dozen places are showing Altogether: Collage/Assemblage so there should be quite a mix throughout! My two pieces in the Art League Gallery are up and they had their doors open as well. I didn't attend...rain was expected and the last thing I felt like doing was parking, hauling my umbrella and crowds...what a party pooper, I have become! I'll take my camera and go over this week without the crowds and take a few shots. Next Saturday the Art League is having a reception so maybe I can get past my lazy butt attitude and get over there...I'll drag Pablo.

An update on the exercise program being reported in the sidebar. I've been pretty steady about going out to the cabana and cycling for 20 min...most everyday. I wear a jacket, listen to both classical music and the sound of the birds in the morning. I haven't weighed

myself but I can tell by my jeans that I haven't lost much if any...oh well!

All the plants have new buds and the weeds are taking off like crazy. I have a brick walkway and those grassy weeds are growing up between the bricks...I need to get my knee pads on and start pulling them before they get too far out of hand. I like gardening and I especially like weed pulling. They are forecasting sunshine for most of the week!

In the studio: I'm working on canvas, adding collage with acrylics. It sure has been a struggle...can't seem to find my way. I'll re-cap next post!

Tonight's movie is "Frozen River". The actress Melissa Leo's performance was an Oscar nomination but the other actresses got so much of the attention. Looking forward to this one.

In the Year of the Wheel

It's a very simple calculation: Add your birthday month to your birthday day and add to the present year. Add those numbers from left to right and the total will tell you your Tarot Year Card. Mine is 10+25=35+2009=2044+2+4+4=10

This is the 10th card of the Tarot deck and this is the second time I've knowingly recorded and experienced my year using the Tarot card as a guide. I like the consideration of an ancient tool used to inform in a modern setting. The year 2000 was quite a year for me, low lows and wonderful highs.

This piece was created in the year 2000 and is mixed media collage, acrylic, pencil , stencil and wood stain on paper. It measures 21"x 21".

According to Mary K. Greer, "With The Wheel of Fortune as your Year Card, you have come to another turning point. From your past experience, you bring seeds for a new direction, but also burdens and obligations. The wheel is the equilibrium of contrary forces, irreversibly set in motion. All in all, this is a fortunate year, in which experience gained as the wheel turns now helps you focus on your new direction."

For me this year is just beginning...so far the lows have been related to stocks and appreciation on my home. Interestingly Pablo and I do not share the same birthday but we share our birthday day and month TOTALS which keep us in the experience of the same year card!

For all of you who share this year as their Wheel of Fortune Year...enjoy the ride!

Evening Tea

A romantic notion of mine...tea brewed on an ancient samovar, served on a hand woven carpet. An evening tea accompanied by sweet dates or figs before sleep and early morning departure back out into the desert...into the unknowable. Our dented and banged up samovar sits in the dining room as a reminder of such times. There are remains of charcoal inside and the brass teapot on top has long disappeared but the spigot still turns and once a year I shine it up with Brasso.

The piece measures 18"x18" and is on a foam core base, acrylic, silk fabric, photo collage. I plan on framing this one and the one before in black wood frames and the lighter ones in natural wood. I have a slide show in the side bar and if you click on the left corner Oasis Series it will show all the pieces together. With the series feeling complete for now, I'm going to play in the studio through Thanksgiving. I'll try out some exercises and revisit techniques so as to guide myself into the next vision. I know I'm pretty interested in continuing squares within squares and I think I'd like to get my sewing machine out again so we shall see out in the unknowable!
Looks like so many will have a white Thanksgiving....so pretty to see the dusting of first snow. Pablo and I will have dinner alone and youngest son will come over on Saturday for his turkey dinner.(he has a remote on "black Friday"as it goes with his job... he is a disc jockey and the holiday sales are ON)) We have had sunshine and the awful winds and fire down south. I lived in LA for six years and we were caught in one of those awful fires years ago... packing the car, the thick smoke and seeing flames on nearby hills. We were lucky and spared but it was an awful experience. I have a site in my sidebar favorites The Big Picture and the photos of this year's fire are heartbreaking.

The Wedding Invitation

T

This was a collaborative creation for sure. I painted and collaged the imagery and Pablo wrote the text. My dear friend Deena photographed and combined our efforts on her computer and worked her magic creating these 4"x9" invitations which fit perfectly in a packet type envelope. On the back of the invitation were two easy to follow maps for out of town guests. She used a program that created a jagged edge on the painting which I think looks great. I believe I was expressing young new love, the robes for me, signified the patchwork of memories and the wine for celebration. In the original you can make out the cardboard, nude drawings and favorite cloths and lace in their robes.The covered heads represent ritual and the moons are for cycle of life. Tomorrow is our anniversary and we will celebrate with a great dinner out! Also tomorrow I will post Pablo's Wedding poem. I'm surprising myself with this blog and all my sharing. Not like me, I'm usually content to reveal through my work...words, expressing in words to the big world is new to me! Never too late!

Can't seem to enlarge the invitation enough to read the text so here is the second paragraph.

You are invited to join us

when we marry the one

we laugh with, dream with,

and deeply love.

We have chosen to continue

our growth through marriage.

Shelter Me

Although I wanted to create more abstract pieces, I seem to be working out oasis as a metaphor with more imagery than I had expected. I had such pleasure putting this canopy (chupah) together using scraps of trims and lace with photo collage. I was married under a beautiful chupah but I think there was a little wish to have created my very own....now I have...at least in collage. This piece measures 18"x18" on a foam core base, potato print, added foam core, lace, acrylic, pencil, colored pencil, soft pastel and photo collage. I have two more large pieces and they are a little more abstract.

Pablo and I had our own journey yesterday, it was an hour drive through the mountains, crowded freeways to our destination...IKEA. Yes, with our cart rolling we picked up Lingonberry jam, mustard sauce, Swedish meatballs, dishtowels , picture frames and a new bread knife. We finished it all off with two $1 soft ice cream cones! On the picture frames...they carry a couple of sizes of square natural wood and black frames...perfect for these foam core pieces and the frames include matt and glass. My clever Pablo bought me two lovely grey metal mesh waste baskets for my computer area and work table. A long hard drive but Oh, the shopping!

I Just Want to Go Home!

That title is code for I want out for a time, a place to close the doors on current reality...to find comfort of sanctuary, restful sleep, good food, safety and natural beauty. I've mumbled or sometimes screamed those words when situations have been overwhelming such as my hospital stay in April. This has been the prayer for all time, our human desire to barricade the cave opening, tie the tent flap or move the ladder from the tree house...time out....a universal need. These first few pieces have become the literal journey to the oasis using the ancient desert themes. I know as in the past the imagery will eventually evolve into more abstraction. The "Little Night Journey" is collage, potato print on foam core. It measures 8"x8". I like the darkness.
Change of subject: I am thinking of beginning the HBO series of "John Adams". I have heard good reports and I believe it has won several awards. Great change of pace, history ,drama costumes etc....I need to separate myself from the nightly news shows that repeat and repeat the days political activities. Could there be anyone that is still undecided?

Thank My Lucky Star!

Sacred Vessel Series

My neighbor and friend (she owns two of my pieces) called the other day to bring over a friend visiting from NY for a studio visit. We had a great time and Richard decided on these two prints. This one on the left is a gelatin print (yes, Knox gelatin) with pencil and acrylic paint and ink. It measures 18"x18" framed and the title is "Baptism of Dreams" The second one, on the right also measures 18"x18" framed and is a gelatin print. It's title is "Faith, Being & Necessity". It has collage, pencil and soft pastel. I shipped it off to him via UPS and he sent me a note to say all went well and he is very happy! I am so awful at marketing, I wish it all could be this easy.

Pablo is out of town and I'm working on new work...what a fine mess I've made...I will clean up late tomorrow. I'm also eating all the foods he doesn't like...eggplant, sundried tomatoes...I'm really putting on the feedbag...I have trouble with limits sometime!ha

A little explaining:" Making Monotypes "Using a Gelatin Plate by Nancy Marculewicz was a book that began this series. I have been a printmaker for years but was looking for a cleaner, less toxic way to make monotypes and the fun of using my cooking talents (boiling gelatin)with art making! The direction of the series Sacred Vessels came about after brain storming with my friend Deena in various coffee houses around town. It was extremely helpful having a direction when working with a short lived element such as gelatin. We worked together one evening making the plate and another evening printing our drawings of vessels. I can tell you, Pablo came home to a floor covered (drying time) in monotypes! We later developed these images at our own studios but it was great fun having one another for the basic production.

Evening prayers

This is the last piece using machine stitching collage, silver leaf, stones, wire and acrylic. I will always come back to the subject of the human and divine connection but not in this way with these materials. I'll come back later to this process when it feels I might have more to develop, otherwise to continue would feel like manufacturing rather than fresh in my hands and heart. There are 9 pieces in the set, each measuring 4"x4" and they can be hung in a variety of ways. The silver leaf is left shiny and two pieces have angel images. The printing is copy of code used in the Cosmic Call to nearby stars.
What's next? I've looked over my notes, poetry, folders of saved papers and I've signed up to be a client in a creative coaching program by Eric Maisel. The coach I've been assigned, lives in Missouri and so far we have sent email introductions. We will conduct our coaching client relationship via email for the next several weeks. The new coach will get the benefit of hands on experience coaching a working artist and I, working artist, hope to reap the rewards of support and direction for my next creative journey. I'm looking forward to this so much...!