DC - What's That?

What's that?

Often asked of myself when painting away...

...and sometimes unanswered for months.

'Ladder to the Full Moon' - acrylic on paper, about 8"x8"

My talented friend Carole is the host of this Drawing Challenge.  Take a look at her interesting place for links to lots more artists grappling with 'what's that'.

(inspired by the full July moon sailing over Seattle this weekend)

 

UPsideDOWN: DC (late)

Apologies to Patrice and All DC'ers for my tardy response to the Drawing Challenge.  Life itself has been a bit more topsy-turvey than anticipated since arriving back home last week - totally in keeping with the theme of the challenge, UPSIDEDOWN.

'Moon Rest' - 11"x7.5" acrylic collage on paper

As I review the paintings completed for our July exhibit in Ketchikan, the impact of my relocation from Island to City is apparent in every piece.  Here I see the Alaska State Ferry (upsidedown) at the top floating in the blackness of a winter's end sky, above the springtime cherry blossoms of my new neighborhood.  

The three houses descending in a cloud possibly stand for my little family of myself, Flossy and the Sailor.  I also see the prayers of my daughter and my friends for a safe landing.

Enough for now - thank you to Patrice for the challenge (make sure to stop by her place to see the other players' responses), and happy week to all Readers.

Gifts

Flossy, my parents, Pogo and I arrived home on Sunday.  Imagine my delight to discover amongst the month-high PILE of mail, two envelops from Blogland friends!

From Tiny Woolf , blogging in Belgium, a sweet heart in a striking card and a lovely note of welcome home.

 The heart is reversible...

 ...and hand-stitched all around including a hanging loop.

Thank you, Woolfie Nadine!

The next envelop was one I had been looking forward to.  While I was away, I won the Give Away over at Suzanne's Mostly Threads blog. 

 The rain drop is hand-worked on natural-dyed silk.

Weighted with a coin, it hangs softly as a little cloud when worn.

  

 I have been getting compliments galore - thank you, Suzanne (and Gilly, for drawing my name)!

A final word about gifts - getting back into the studio the past two days has been WONDERFUL.  I was able to swim right back into the flow and completed 10 paintings (begun in April) for the exhibit I am participating in next month in Ketchikan, Alaska.

 Here is a peek at a representative of the group, which are all acrylic collage on paper, 11" high by 7.5" wide:

'Peaks and Valleys' - acrylic collage on paper, 11"x7.5"

Hope your week is going well - I will snatch time to visit around Blogland tonight, as I have been missing everyone!  See you back here on Sunday for the Drawing Challenge brought to us this week by Patrice.

Pingo Ergo Sum

The top line of my To-Do list for last week: 

paint paint paint

Here, have a little peak at the progress:

detail, top left, acrylic collage on 60"x44" canvas

detail, bottom right, acrylic collage on 60"x44" canvas

I hope to finish this work (which will be a part of my solo exhibit next month at the Clausen Museum) tomorrow and Friday, then move back on to the silk project for the new Library here.  

Professor Michael Spafford, my beloved painting teacher and adviser at University of Washington, always made a distinction between a painting being 'complete' and being 'finished'. What do you think?

Spafford also had a sweat shirt emblazoned with the phrase:

Pingo Ergo Sum

which he translated:
I paint therefore I am.

Now that's the TRUTH for this day anyway!

(Artistic) Nature - DC

Although I do enjoy being in close proximity to the Forest and beach and am mostly grateful that I live in splendid isolation here on this Alaskan Island, I feel like I tend to inundate you, Gentle Reader, with scenes of Nature.  Therefore, in response to Tiny Woolf’s Drawing Challenge this week I want to talk about a region of the soul’s landscape – artistic nature. 

'The Nature of Love' 8x6 pigma pen and prismacolor pencil

Artistic nature is a quality all people possess in varying degrees.  It’s the place from which comes our impulse to stop in jaw-dropped awe at a sunset, a rainbow, a rock formation.  Some people, artists, are lucky (and/or tortured) enough to spend much of their time translating such feelings and experiences into tangible form.  

study for large painting, 8x6 pigma pen and inktense pencils

My artistic nature follows a pattern as regular as the seasons.  The first couple of sessions on any new painting or body of work are inevitably torture as I lay down chaos on canvas and endure a barrage of relentlessly negative self-talk to the effect that I have forgotten how to paint, am never going to make anything ‘good’ again, am wasting my time… but then just as surely as the tide rises, something happens in the action of working and I get a glimmer of form, an idea of where this thing I am slashing away at with my animal-hairs-on-a-stick is heading.  Magic!  Soon I am dancing in the creative moonlight, all angst replaced by excitement and pure joy of the making.

 

28 yards of silk organza ready to be cut down to size for my library commission

The past two weeks have been exactly like that at the studio as I began work on a couple of new projects including a big (for me) acrylic collage on an approximately 60”x44” canvas for my museum show in November.  Here is a little glimpse of where I left things yesterday at the end of week two.  Still a long way to go, but I am dancing now!

work in progress, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, about 44" x 60"

 Thank you to the extraordinary Nadine for this week's always-stimulating drawing challenge.  Please take a wander over to her part of the Forest for a look at wild Nature through the eyes of some exceptional artists.  Happy week!

silk organza panels piling up on my ironing board

Bright Blossoms and Recent Paintings

The woods have bloomed in earnest the past week under the influence of long sunny days.  These salmon berry flowers behind our house caught my camera eye.

 

I think we can expect a good crop of berries later this summer.  I like to eat salmon berries with shortcake and whipped cream.  They also make a workmanlike jelly if mixed with a stronger flavored juice like apple or raspberry.

Now I want to give you a glimpse of two new paintings: 

'City on the Hill' (working title) acrylic and paper on canvas, approx. 18"x24"

'Fan' (working title) acrylic and paper on watercolor paper, approx. 22"x34"

The spring weather has put these efforts on the back burner as it is now warm enough to dye in my studio!  

I mixed up Procion colors on Monday, after drawing and printing with thickened black dye on dry, soda-soaked cotton for three days.

A big panel, covered with plastic to cure until my next studio day tomorrow.

  I can't wait to get back there tomorrow, but for now Flossy and I are off to the Mighty Mighty Day Job.  Happy day to all!

Details: Fiberactions

Fiberactions Challenge, Color Challenge 9:  Use at least three colors of food in your kitchen
Proposed by Kathy Sperino
Reveal Date ~ May 15, 2013 

A couple years ago I was invited to join an on-line fiber artists group and have enjoyed participating in our bi-monthly challenges.  This time the exercise involved using colors of food as our palette.

I wrote a list and dragged out the scrap bag looking for celery, avocado, pimento, green pepper, red pepper, and lemon.

Then I came across a 'failed' monoprint done on a piece of hand-dyed cotton back in February or March.  The pale overlay of zinc white acrylic reminded me of skim milk.  The image seemed to hold possibilities I hadn't seen when I first pulled the print.

 

 

  Soon I had my scraps assembled using curved piecing techniques, and got ready to machine quilt layered up on two pieces of felt. 

 

'Foggy' 16.75"x11"

The edges are bound with zigzag stitches over rat tail cording. As I finished the piece, I realized that the palette ended up reminding me far more of moldy food colors than the fresh vegetables originally intended!

Over at the Fiberactions Blog today you can see how the other members dealt with this challenge.

Hasten

We have been waiting in winter's chilly grip.

acrylic monoprint on Japanese paper,8"x10"

 Over on Kupreanof, the wolf pack has been howling at the waxing Moon.

acrylic monoprint on Japanese paper, 8"x10"

acrylic monoprint on Japanese paper, 8"x10"

Today the rain is back, and with it, warmer temperatures.

acrylic collage on watercolor paper, 10"x12", work in progress

We hope that spring will...

...hasten.

Forward!

I am stepping forward on a new project as the first month of 2013 closes.  

The only rules: use only the things I have on hand already - spend no money.   

Tissue lame and other leftovers from previous projects litter my work table.

My design is inspired by a Dover book of medieval graphics. 

Acrylic paints and Stewart Gill glitter paint on cardboard box.

Cardboard cutouts will embellish parts of the work.   

Here is a close up of the front of the creation (far from complete at this point).

 

Hope to complete this project by the end of the week.  I will reveal the finished product the first part of March, after the annual local wearable art show.  What are you making today?