Backing up is hard to do...

With eight of our nine (the oldest couldn't make the April reunion)
You can tell that graduations will be going off like popcorn
in just a few years... the first two kernels have already blown!

Emotions ran the gamut on this road trip. Graduations do that to you, but he's a great kid with much promise... will be fun to watch, always has been! Had a great visit with all three Arkansas g-kids... so proud... so very proud of the whole bunch! (The BIG kids, too!)

Then we headed home with a planned stop at my Memphis gallery. As per my request, they had all artwork ready for me to pick up. Yes, I said MY REQUEST! After checking to be sure it wasn't because of something they'd said or done, they assured me they understood my need to downsize my career. In fact, they alluded to hearing this from others as well... this is a time when many are rethinking their directions.

Simplify... consolidate... downsize... yikes! This is not a stated goal! Expand! Spread out... get your work in as many markets as possible... my mantra for the last 30 years!

But that was then and this is now. I've been giving this a lot of thought and the facts are: creating more and more inventory is not what I want to do for the remainder of my productive, creative years. I will continue to paint but without quite the pressure to please others and with more emphasis on pleasing myself. There are places I want to go in my studio... not big surges in new directions, but something like cleaning out the closets of my mind and making sure nothing has been overlooked. Maybe a little more of this and not so much of that... perhaps there will be more stories to tell as this progresses, but don't expect the boat to rock.

Building a substantial career (meaning attaining way more than I'd hoped for) took off for real as the last kid left home. The foundation was well in place and I was off and running. Now I purposefully begin to rein it in, crank it down, *cruise at a more manageable speed. I still have three excellent galleries and came home to mailbox evidence of appreciation from each.

Never the less, I was choked up as I loaded the car in Memphis... Perry Nicole Gallery is terrific... Nicki and David are really good people!

*To cruise at a more manageable speed: As we do on the highway to save a little fuel/energy, the same applies as time/energy becomes more illusive...

Thumbs Up!

My few 'traveling' clothes have barely made it through the wash cycle and we'll soon be off on a road trip for the high school graduation for g-kid #2 pictured above. He's every bit as fun as this pic suggests. A guy of many faces, into the theater and visual arts, an entertainer extraordinaire! It's fun to watch these kids grow and explore their future possibilities... but darn! I miss the babies!

When did life get so full? Or perhaps my juggling skills have totally rusted. And TIME! Time has simply shrunk! Efficiency vs personal priorities? Umm... if there's a real option I tend to lump into the personal priority category. Like... what do I really want to do vs the dull 'have to do' list. Simplifying is key. Doesn't help that a fav motto is: If not now, when?

More developing on the art front... but that's a story that will wait until after the fact. Again, simplifying is the underlying theme. Back on the other side...

Introducing...

Hiram Williams, 1969

So there we were, our forth day of museum/gallery hopping around mid Florida, enjoying the whole process, but don't ask me to pinpoint exactly where we were (I don't do details anymore, just overviews!) I was immediately drawn to a small exhibition of large, near minimal paintings. You could tell something was there but it would take a couple of seconds to sort out an image... tree paintings were simply two shapely vertical lines with a background of pale flowing strokes suggesting palm frons. Said everything you needed to know about those trees.

Figures in this exhibition were handled much the same way. Wish I'd taken a few candid photos, but I was too busy looking. The alligator at the left is much the same style. The top image is part of a series of figures seen from above.

Linda mentioned that Hiram Williams had been one of her college art teachers. I noticed that he'd written a book and asked if she had a copy... she did and suggested I borrow it. "Notes For A Young Painter" is out of print but available through Abe Books. No need to quote from it as the words I latch on to are meant just for me and my particular puzzles but Painter's Keys has a few quotes. Thanks to Linda for finding this article for me... great overview.

Now... why would someone who is wondering how to wind down a long career be interested in 'notes for a young painter?' Well... funny you should ask... also funny that a young art student from Tulane recently emailed me for an answer (for a paper he was writing) as to how someone without a 'formal' education actually managed to have an art career! Just luck, maybe... or maybe a formal education is merely the beginning... a place where you go to learn how to learn. Maybe I still wish I'd had the advantage of instructors like Hiram Williams... maybe I'm still playing catch-up... maybe there's more... to learn...

Koi

This is the koi pond at the Orlando home of our recent hosts.

These are just a few of the inhabitants... I counted fourteen, could be more or less.

This is just a small crop of one of many photos I took... just as it was, no photoshopping involved.


This is a watercolor by Joseph Raffael, a master of the medium and who's work I have admired since way back when... I think of his koi when I see the real thing... and forget about ever capturing the subject the way he can. But I've never tried... maybe my way might be interesting enough... won't know until...

Still Hyped

1983 - Palmetto 3 - Watercolor - 22x30

So good to step outside your usual space... so good to visit artsy friends, soak in new scenes, new atmospheres, maybe even new influences.

I'm a Florida native and have lived in, or know well, most of the state with all it's variations. My special delight was in finding the 'old' Florida, the unchanged, the native unkempt beauty that says so much more than the touristy glitz. It was like going home in many ways. Memories of the flora going way back in time, not just palmettos of my youth but the palmettos I painted so intently years later. Gotta tell ya, they stirred the juices again! The trick would be to tell a different story, not so detailed, much more intuitive. We'll see...

I stood in the Atlantic again! Just waded in and let the gentle waves ebb and flow around my ankles... dipped my hand in the water so I could taste it again. Remembered, again...

Drove by the old homestead (c. 1970) and happy to see it hasn't changed so much (neither have I in 38 yrs, of course!) but sad to see the toll road that cuts through the middle of our favorite water skiing lake nearby... but so it goes...

We toured art centers in Orlando, Gainesville, Ocala, Tampa, St. Pete, New Smyrna Beach and the little town of Sanford. Can't tell you what I enjoyed most... but expect one thing and another to pop up in conversation for a while to come!

Many thanks to Linda and Doug for entertaining so superbly, introducing us to so much and sharing your beautiful home! Annette, we chalk up another great trip! Can we pick em or what? Kaye, so glad you could make it over from Jacksonville to be part of our meanderings! Martha, many thanks for helping us to get to know your part of Florida better... what a fun day! Martha has links to our visited highlights... and that was just ONE day!

Now to re-orient myself back to the norm... where was I???

Charlie's Rose

A clue to my tendency to dwell on the past... I'm a hopeless romantic in this regard, so difficult to toss anything with a thread of family history to it... the kids will have a real chore when time comes to sort through it all!

This is my daddy's white rose. When he died about five years ago his yard was full of beautiful rose bushes... now, I can't grow roses worth dirt but we dug up a couple of the white bushes and brought them home with us... the first year they bloomed beautifully but went downhill after that, finally the root stock took over and it only bloomed wild red roses. Last year one white bud reappeared, this year there are two nice big ones! I'd ceased to fertilize, give extra water or spray for disease... these roses should be dead by now! I can't get rid of them until they stop flowering ... certainly the white ones.

Daddy and I were estranged for over forty years. He was an alcoholic and the divorce came at a time when I was striking out on my own... shedding unnecessary baggage. However, time is full of surprises and even miracles... we eventually found each other again. He'd made a good and happy life for himself and we had a few years where we visited often before his heart gave out.

So here I have this strange and different rose bush that insists on blooming both red and white. I guess I'd better take care of it... it may be trying to tell me something...

(An aside... when Mother died the next year, the white rose was in full bloom. I took a large perfect rose, stripped it of it's thorns and placed it on her heart... there had been love between them at some point... I'm here because of it.)

So now... time off for my fun road trip to Orlando! In fact, my friends have started without me! Wait up, you guys! Will tell all later...

Weaving Grass...

Still in early '80's mode, still thinking about the watercolors I did when we first lived at our lake house... even scanning photos of the period to update my digital database... an on again, off again endless process.

Looking back, I can see the seeds of work to come, the geometrics, the lines, the gestures, though some might disagree, I can see them. My work was searching for a style, I was still trying out every new product that came along, influenced wildly by scores of new ideas in every magazine and with every artistic association.


Some of the comments in previous posts point out how we leave so much behind as we surge forward with our new style and materials, so anxious to be "professional!"... to "make it!"... to be identified with our own personal style. So I did.

I've always loved flowers, growing them as well as painting them. But doesn't everyone? I needed to go beyond flowers. I began to notice that the interaction of leaves, especially elongated leaves offered endless arrangements and that's what I began to emphasize. The way new and old grass blades weave in and out, creating their own directional flow, relationships and compositions. Here are three of the early Pampas Grass series from 1985. They are numbered 4, 5 and 6 and are appx 22x30.


We moved to New Orleans in 1986 and I arrived with growing series in hand. I eventually painted over 50 in just the Pampas series... but as many in a similar Grass Series and lots more in the Bamboo, Palm and Daylily Series. This was a time of tremendous growth for my fledgling career marked by successful competitions and eventual gallery connections.

In 1989, the Pampas Series looked like this... this is Number 28. Then below, one of the last in the series that was still watercolor (I was trying to move the series to canvas with mixed results.) This is Number 47 and painted in 1992. It was specially painted for American Artist Magazine for an article complete with demo views.

To be continued...

1980's Redo

Archives - 1986 - Hydrangeas - Watercolor

I am aware of a certain phenomenon developing but I don't know quite how to judge it. I'll attempt to sort it out here.

J and I were born in the late '30's... we've had a good life full of fun and adventure plus the usual dips and surges. But for the most part, luck and timing were with us and we weathered a lot through the years. Three kids and their families we are super proud of add to our joy of life, but you knew that. So... I guess it's expected that at this stage of the game we would be content with our memories and just coast, right? Maybe take cruises like several of our friends and relatives? Ummm... doesn't seem to be working out that way... other than an occasional art or swim meet trip, road trips usually just involve family. So... here's what's evolving:

First there was the repurchase of the little lake house we lived in back in the '80's...

Then we found the exact same little sailboat on eBay that we'd enjoyed on that lake...

And then, Lo! a ski boat enters our life again! After much $$ thought, we figured it a bargain not to have to self launch every time we wanted to go out (a good hour of energy waste!) so we arranged for storage at the same marina we'd used years before... that's a good looking wake! Just needs tubes, skis and g-kids!




Do you see a pattern here? We're reinventing ourselves... moving back in time 25 years! (Heaven help us if the RV camper bug resurfaces! But that's where I firmly draw the line!)

Now... here's the ART connection... during that period of time we seem to be recreating, I was involved in two mediums... serigraphy and watercolor. I've no desire to screen print again, but I keep seeing subject matter in watercolor! I want so much to be able to control a deep clear wash again, to layer and glaze, to splash and bloom, to work around negative shapes, to bring a subject to life without detailing it to death... not on canvas, not geometrically abstract, not by not by my usual proceedures. Watercolor doesn't just happen, though the best look as if that was the plan... a good watercolor is the result of hundreds of previous efforts that came before. It's a thought that's hard to shake... stay tuned...

Stimuli...

Road trip coming up! Will be meeting up with a few e-friend artists in Orlando and Tampa next week. Much more on that as it happens... just know that I really need to get out of my shell for a few days. Been thinking thoughts that are not conducive to good production in the studio... the familiar dip in endorphins resulting from lack of stimuli. Time to get out among artists for good talk and sightseeing with an artistic bent. Gotta get a rush going that will show results in the studio. It's worked before, I know this is the medicine I need. Too much sameness dulls the senses and mine are beyond dull these days...

Spring is doing a good job in these parts... when it's not sending tornados and micro bursts thundering across our landscapes. We're thinking it was a micro burst that picked up a full grown oak out of our back woods, gave it a twist and threw it down against a few others. Take a look at the stump it left:

That was no push-over, that was a pull up with a twist!

I'm off to spend the day at the lake... a minor R&R along with a bit of oak tree pulling and twisting myself... hundreds of sprouted oaks from a HUGE acorn crop... coming up all over my few cultivated areas. This is the result of our drought last summer... the attempt to reproduce in the face of danger... spring bloom was outstanding this year (same need to reproduce) and now the pollen is suffocating! The weather, however, is beautiful... I'm off...

Blog Award...

Thanks to Daphne for giving me the Arte Y Pico blog award. I very much appreciate the thought but am mostly just happy to consider her a faithful reader and correspondent. Daphne's quite a work of art herself, demonstrating grace under pressure on a daily basis. We could all take a lesson.

Blog awards are a nice touch, a way to recognize those with which we somehow feel connected. I read more than my share of art blogs I like but could never sort them into an award priority listing. So... since I'm not a very good game player, I'm going to let it pass. I appreciate but can only say thanks.

Spending The Kid's Inheritance...

A case could be made for questioning our good judgment these days... above you see the latest toy in our arsenal of tricks to entice kids and g-kids to visit often. We've been a family of water skiers since before the first two kids were in school (Obama's age would qualify him to fit right in with our kids, btw, maybe that's my soft spot...) They learned to ski early and when the third kid came along, he was riding in the boat with hardly a pause.

Our repurchase of our 25-yr-ago house brings this all to mind because our little lake is too small for skiing but a larger lake is only 15 minutes away. A handy marina stored our old boat and fork-lifted it into the water for us as we arrived... talk about service! Well, long story short, the g-kids are now of an age to learn to ski and the old man found a local (old) boat on eBay... and the rest is history repeating itself, marina and all! Let's hope it's more fun than headache...

If you've wondered where I've been, well... it's spring and there's stuff to be done. Plus a bit of babysitting while business has had daughter out of town. Routine has been up for grabs of late but that keeps life interesting...