Compliments?

Moonbeam, 2002, 46x36

I've begun to think of them as "Complementary Paintings"... as in "Thanks for the idea, the inspiration, the compositional arrangement, the colors, the value patterns, etc." What are you supposed to say to such as this? I've had works copied verbatim, or simply borrowed but still obviously mine... and I've had my whole web site lifted and manipulated for use on eBay... especially showing installation of my shows in various galleries and claiming to be the work of some fictitious artist. I'm not going into that today, already my blood is curdling just brushing with the memory.

Actually I just wanted to quickly put up an older work and let the world know I haven't given up blogging, just busy with other things including a family visitor and we've been going through old pics and memories... fun, but leaving no time for the blog. So what painting did the magic pointer select today... one with enough baggage to open the door to that other business... the one where we are supposed to feel honored and complimented when our work is lifted and interpreted in a fashion that would not have left my studio... but fortunately, it doesn't have my name on it. Okay... so why is it okay for me to openly admit to being inspired by Johns or Diebenkorn as I've recently blogged? Maybe because they are declared masters and therefore open game... teachers, you might say. I don't know... I'm just musing around.

Anyway, here's the proud offspring, the painting I just happen to find on the web one day when I googled my own name. The kid had even credited me with the inspiration so I do appreciate the acknowledgement. And yes, somewhere deep inside I think it's okay to be used as a learning tool... but would also offer the advice that one should be selective as to whom he chooses to use as a teacher... what the heck are the qualifications? And I've also received actual thank you emails from artists, pointing me to their websites which contain faintly similar (but incredibly awkward) geometric lines and color grids. If imitation is the highest form of compliment, why do I feel all prickly about it?

The Series Learning Process

Bokusho-Kin, 24x48, 2006

I like that I'm really focused on doing just one thing right now. Granted a request for more and bigger landscapes entered the picture, but that will have to wait. I've had times when I focused on landscapes and maybe created a signature style of sorts, but I sure didn't feel about them the way I feel about the bokushos. I have a number of works in process, some have been labeled 'finished' several times but as I explore other ways to apply the paper/marks with assorted gels and mediums, I must go back and improve' the previous works. And it goes round and round...

(enlarge this partial image to see surface details)

In this piece, kin means quilt in Japanese, the pieces are layered, reversed large squares first, smaller squares on top after plain paper was used as a glaze overall. Lots of faint color glazing and ruled as well as gestural lines applied. The first to define, the second to tie down the small squares which were too distinct without some interference.

I'm finding I prefer using old paintings to raw canvas to begin the applications. The raw canvas is way too pure in both texture and color. I find I can't turn my back on years of textural applications, especially when it adds surprising pentimento in, often, just the right place. I have to go with it. One of the early hopes would be that I could short-cut some of the prep work that has gone into my paintings for years, but it's too much a part of what I do... the work looks cheap and unfinished without it.

I'm working on updating my website to include more recent work with a separate page for the bokushos (and one for the landscapes as well.) Updating web pages isn't nearly as much fun as blogging. On another note, I've made several attempts at reordering the original rice paper I used in France (it's magic!) but they only take charge cards via PayPal. Well, when PP was having all that hacking trouble and I was getting two or three requests a week from bogus companies claiming to be PP, I just began ignoring them. Well... I guess one or two of the requests were legitimate and now they won't let me in since I didn't update, or some such. They can jump in a lake (had to think a minute to clean that up) I sent a check snail mail. Man, that paper better still be magic! I told the Asian propriator about my PP problems. I don't like to be told my plastic is no good at that store! My plastic is GOOD!

My visiting cousin and I will be tripping down to Panama City Beach tomorrow (not my favorite city) to pay a call on an uncle who really is a favorite. It might have been his sailor suit I fell in love with at age 4, but whatever, it's been lasting. See ya on the other side...

The Process Of Giving

Bokusho-Sam, 10x10, 2006

We attended a delightful surprise party this past weekend, given by the two sons of long time good friends. It wasn't hard to come up with ideas for appropriate gifts, a baseball hat decorated with jokes for him, and a painting for her.

A painting??? Well, this gal was very influential in boosting my career back when my fledgling career really needed a boost. She's the kind of person that doesn't just say, "I like it," she buys it! And not through me, but through my first important gallery, thereby impressing my gallery director in the process. And she didn't just buy a few, she is probably the largest collector of my early work, in particular my serigraphs. Their home is a virtual museum of art and artifacts from around the world as they have traveled extensively, courtesy of the USAF, which is how we came to be friends with them many years ago.

Well, due to continued moving around, we parted ways and became Xmas card friends until we happened to move near them five years ago. Frequent lunch dates have helped us catch up and resume our friendship, but they have as much art as they really need and my career did, indeed, catch a breeze and I've priced myself out of the reach of even the most devoted friends. So... yes indeedy, a painting as a gift was in order.

Funny thing though, the painting I'd planned to give was not coming together and I began to get a little panicky about it as the day drew close. The night before the party, I was having one of my restless nights so got up and spent a little time on the computer... then back to bed and still couldn't sleep. The painting kept stirring around in my mind so I got up again, grabbed a small painting I had thought to use as a back up gift, and took it downstairs to the studio. Using it as underpainting, I started arranging, gluing and glazing... would then work on a different piece until it was dry enough to handle again and this back and forth business went on for several hours. The next day I continued the process, using various gels and mediums, some faintly tinted white in order to give a waxy look. I was working with a hairdryer at this time, trying to hurry the drying process. Something was missing, it wasn't holding together compositionally. Thinking about a Jasper Johns work I'd seen on the web earlier, I added a thin red line which made a square. It was just what the piece needed and I could call it finished... about an hour before leaving for the party.

Sam, if you're reading... now you know "the rest of the story!"

The Little Tourist

Spent a marvelous day at the lake house with my visiting cousin plus Daughter and her two girls. Not enough breeze to sail but the girls enjoyed the rowboat and a little swim out in the middle of the lake. On the way home we stopped to view the the new stadium on campus (Daughter is an alumni and Cousin is a grad of the arch rival campus) Youngest G-kid is shown here with borrowed camera... a picture if there ever was one! Note all the bling on her arms... she's never without it. She also chooses her wardrobe, very well, I might add!

Marquee Brag

Tying in with my previous post, the photo and article were referencing a 1984 solo show at the historical Bama Theater which had been beautifully restored. (the link provides a tour of the Art Deco-ish building) The second floor mezzanine was set aside as an art gallery and it was a grand opportunity to be asked to be a featured artist. As luck would have it, the flutist extraordinaire Ransom Wilson, was the featured performer while my show was up and he played to a full house. I understand he perfected the ability to play without a breathing pause by means of some technique that gives me hiccups to think about. But the BEST part is the photo above... my name along with his on the marquee! Okay, it isn't NYC, but I was impressed.

What I sadly don't have a photo of is word that my NOLA gallery has my name on a banner outside the gallery. Man! I'd have driven down there to see it if I'd know in time. The director doesn't do cameras, digital or otherwise. (::geeze::) But she's forgiven for making the effort to persuade people think I'm something special. No checks yet, but it's Hades Hot down there and clients with good taste are not venturing out in that kind of heat, even for banner headlines.

The Flip Side of Serigraphy

With all the remembering going on regarding the new/old lake house... there was a dark side too. I was thinking back to the work I was doing at the time and it was primarily serigraphy. I'd made a mark for myself with the medium because no one else was doing much of it, at least on my beaten path, which was mostly juried arts festivals within a day's drive. My first major gallery venture gave me a wonderful springboard into art as a career with serigraphs being my strong suit. Silk screen printing, at that time and at least as far as I knew, was very primitive. I used simple cut stencils but did go into a bit of photo emulsion usage, all oil based as this was before water based inks had been perfected.

At this time, I was also suffering from periodic depression. It would come and go but wasn't monthly so I didn't know where to put the blame. I happened to pick up a magazine that probably saved my life. It included an article and chart of dangerous artists materials... and I learned that I had been literally bathing in depressant solvents whenever I printed. This was about 1985 and they were just beginning to talk about this sort of thing. The depression cycles had become worse, even including suicidal thoughts. Talk about timely information! As it happened, J got an offer he couldn't refuse and we had to sell our "forever" house on the lake and move to NOLA. As you probably know, silk screen posters were everywhere in New Orleans, printed on very hi-tech equipment I could never have competed with anyway. So my printing days were over forever, I was able to quit cold turkey and I had no regrets. Life improved immensely. I can't imagine being in that kind of funk, can't even remember it now.

Pano 4, serigraph, 12x25, 1983

**************************

At a recent b'day celebration for our 6 yr old g-kid, the 11 yr old volunteered to wrap the gifts, make cards and signage... whew! Great value, methinks. After the festivities, all wrappings, etc were tossed into the guest room to deal with later. Today, dealing day, I discover that the big sign was drawn on an expensive, pristine piece of 2 ply rag museum board! I'd assumed it was the back of an old piece of poster board... ha! Guess I'll need to explain the difference to the young artist.

Pentimento

Bokusho/Pentimento, 20x20, 2006

Between PT on my shoulder three times a week and the ever lengthening lake house list of things to do... life is full. I took a few digitals of recent work to look over and decide if finished. The included image is for sure ready to sign, it's the one I showed in progress a few posts ago. I must say, I'm most pleased with the effect on this small one... now to see how it translates to larger sizes. Note the lines on some of the papers... these are original to my first efforts in France when the bare Plane trees worked their magic on me. I like what they add to the piece... must remember that variation. You can barely see the black paint of the sides, I've not done this before but it seems to work on these raw canvas pieces. I will often run the edge of a loaded flat brush around the edges to give a painted line but the sides are most often painted with same colors and style as the front.

We have a new Sunflower, and the promise of a companion Sunfish to go with it! Life is good! We'll put the boat in the water today, down by the dam since we wouldn't be able to manuver it down our hill (a car path will eventually be cleared on the vacant lot but that's no help now.) So J will have to relearn his sailing skills in a quick hurry to get it back to our dock. I mustn't forget my camera!

Sweat Equity = Rewards

We worked like a coupla mules today and accomplished much even if it doesn't show... we know! It's ten degrees cooler on the back deck facing the water, and moreso down by the water... the house sits well up the hill. In fact, we once had a phone ringer installed on the deck so we could hear it from down by the lake... and when it rang, I could actually make it up to the lower level by the fourth ring! I kid you not! Momentum is everything when you're going uphill... never stop to rest... I keep telling myself. I was in my mid forties at the time... my prime! We took out a lot of little weed trees and volunteer shrubs, sprayed the several dozen azaleas for lacebug, didn't remember I'd planted so many and now they are HUGE! Some are on the right in this photo. Pulled out lots of grape vine, honeysuckle, wisteria and other stuff... hopefully left the poison ivy alone. I got my worse case ever while we lived here... and did you know it's quite possible to have an orgasm with no sex involved at all? Serious itching and scratching on your arms and legs will do it. But you don't want to go there! Yes, a bit of work to be done on the steps... which J built 25 years ago... 25 years can do that any one of us, don't laugh!

Tomorrow we're off to look over a used Sunflower sail boat... identical to the one our kids learned to sail. I spent many hours tacking around this lake... hope to do it again. Here I am sailing away... different lake, but same attitude. Our g-kids are going to love this!

Change Of Life...

Meant to take good digitals of recently completed work but didn't get around to it... will have to wait until next week as we have a full load through the weekend. Sort of waiting for an order of rice paper to arrive before starting more large canvases, I've tried several different kinds and really like the paper from my original order best. This is the paper I took to France and I'm still preferring the effects of the brush marks I made on that paper. If they don't turn out right, I may have to go back to France for the correct effect! I can dream...

Tomorrow we close on the house, and will carry a van load of tables, dishes and whatever else we can fit. The weekend is shot as we must tend to other plans... so life comes to a halt for a few days as we regroup and prepare for a new way of dividing our time and energy. This is good. There comes a point where it would be ever so easy to just sit back and watch the world go by... and that is not a good thing. We are really tickled about reowning this house and property and can hardly wait to start making it all that we know it can be.

J sawed the lock off the doors to the storage area on the boathouse and found things exactly as we'd left them! Life jackets, stack chairs, fishing poles and even the push mower. The upside down rowboat in the weeds in first pic is not the one we left behind... I suspect this one is not in the water for a reason. The boathouse is actually on the empty lot that we never sold, but we did leave permission for it to be used when we sold the house. Wow! That's a lot of weed trees and bushes to clear!

White Goods Only

That's the name of the show New Orleans artist (and long time friend) Kathleen Banton is currently exhibiting at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. On enlarging the thumbnails, the telling titles appear... not to be missed. The artist's statement is at the bottom of the page but I hope you'll also read the Press Release which helps to understand the situation a bit more personally. Knowing the anguish, heartache and hardship she and so many others have suffered, I can't imagine how she was able to pull this show together... except as an artist, it probably kept her sane through it all.

We left NOLA in 2001 after fifteen years in residence just upriver. That's longer than we've lived in any one place at any time in our lives. So it is more our home town than any other, even the ones we grew up in. Needless to say, our heart goes out to all our friends who have felt the wrath of Katrina. Our son and his family are still in the area but, fortunately, they are on fairly high ground (relatively speaking) just blocks from the Mississippi River levee. So a new roof took care of his wind damage. But some, like Kathleen, lived in the popular and prosperous Lakeview area which took quite a bit of water. Their stories are sometimes best told through art exhibitions like this one.

Works In Progress

I had a good day in the studio today, was finally able to begin working with the ink and paper on raw canvas... well, prepped with a thin wash of medium but no color at all. This first in-progress canvas uses smaller squares (most about 1.5") but varying the size and grid somewhat. In order to avoid a static look, the horizontal grid lines (or spaces) are regular, but the vertical lines are occasionally staggered. The values are also grouped and not evenly dispersed. As I worked, I pulled papers from several different test batches which offered a slight variation in ink color. That also adds to the interest and negates over-all sameness. I couldn't resist adding one red square... I call that my chop mark, made with a child's alphabet block, in this case, the O. I do hope the ancient Asian artisans know that I have nothing but respect for their centuries of disciplined artmaking, but I so enjoy borrowing from it and playing my own games.

The second canvas (both are 20x20) was a change of pace and grid size. Although the canvas is square, there are four rows one way and five the other... the papers are slightly rectangle. Enlarge the photo and you'll see the beginning of the second random layer at the top. The gauzy transparency of the rice paper creates value change and the marks it carries adds to the dialog with the lower layer. I've completed these two layers but wanted to show this step in the process. I'll look with fresh eyes tomorrow to decide how much further to carry this thought.

Varnishing Acrylics

Poppies In Brass Bowl, Acrylic, 18x24,1971

Back in July, Mark Golden of Golden paints wrote about the value of varnishing acrylics and I wrote a reply giving reasons for not varnishing. This morning I happened across his response, which pleased me since there are often strong opinions in this regard. Any nagging suspicion that I might be short-changing my paintings by not giving them that final coat is now irrelevant. (This is the painting I reference.)

Posted by Karen Jacobs on July 25, 2006, 9:26 pm

I'd like to run my reasons for not varnishing. Back in about '73, we had a house fire that did considerable smoke damage. I lost only a few paintings to the fire, and set aside the others for cleaning at a later time. These were my early career years but I did have a few works that were important to me. One was an acrylic done on the cheapest canvas board but it was thick with paint (don't think I'd discovered Golden at that time.) I sprayed it down with 409, rubbed and rinsed with a sponge and that painting is as good as new even today. If there is a slight yellowing, it doesn't affect the overall quality of the work itself. The board is a little warped but that's a different problem. Today, I'm looking back on a really decent career, using mostly Golden acrylics over a highly textured surface (I mix dry spackle powder with gesso.) Not all paintings sell and when I get them back from the galleries, I often find I want to repaint them. To totally remove varnish from all those crevices would be quite labor intensive, so I don't varnish. I have found that GAC 500 gives a nice hard finish, countering any tackiness our humid climate might cause. Enjoying your blog... great service!

Posted by Mark Golden on July 26, 2006, 7:22 am

Karen, Absolutely great comments! Folks here are cheering your response. As we've always discussed with any technique, including varnishing, the first choice is an aesthetic one. Our goal has simply been to try to provide the best information without some sort of spin or sugar coating. I am confident that our materials have been formulated to be as durable and lightfast as possible. I am still very excited about the entire field of acrylic technology and what it offers us as formulators and artists as new opportunities. But I also want us all of us to be realistic about the effects wrought by time on all things. I am hoping we can get some comments here from the conservation community as to how valid they see my crystal ball. Should be fun! Regards, Mark

Ode

Sparky (Wally Torta) has another marathon going, this time for paintings and poems about them (or vice versa.) As it happened, back in 1993 I belonged to a gallery that had the same idea and requested paintings and poems for a show. At that time I was having a love-hate relationship with a bougainvillea I'd planted so it's showy flowers could be seen from our breakfast room, but unfortunately was also too close to a narrow walkway, so the thorny branches (which grew with remarkable abondon) seemed always out to get me.

The painting, 30x40, was an attempt at plein air, something I've never gotten the hang of. At the time, I was experimenting with watercolor techniques with acrylics on canvas. I imagine there is a better image of it in my slide file, but you get the idea...

........................................

ODE TO AN ERRANT BOUGAINVILLEA

Waving wildly in the wind,
Thrusting thorn-laced branches in
The path of one who came to find
A secret known to few.

Not petals here that loudly call
And wrap around what's very small.
Within those three-part brackets hide
True flowers deep inside.

Magenta clusters call me near
To scentless beauty I don't fear
Unless these boughs begin to dance
To rhythms I can't hear.

Go flail your arms and make a racket,
Boast the beauty in your brackets,
Catch me once more and I'll hack it
Right down to the ground!

A gardner knows to trim and groom,
That wild things can't have all the room.
But train? Contain? This plant, not ever!
With threats to prune...it blooms.

Karen Jacobs, 1993

Big Bokusho

I have several bokusho WIP's but this is the biggest one. It's 60x48, painted as a vertical but fits this space better as a horizontal, I'll wire it both ways. As I've been doing since the onset of this series, this is also using an old or in-progress painting as a base. The red, in this case, is all that remains of the earlier attempt and it sort of works but I'm not impressed. I do like the collage portion of the painting, and feel that it could stand on it's own... I rather like the way some of the underpainting seeps through as pentimento. I'll be stretching more square canvases in the future, just using up the stalled, prepainted efforts first. When I do begin with fresh canvas, I won't be prepainting or texturizing, but working directly on the canvas with clear mediums or stains first. Am still trying to shortcut some of the laborious layers out of my process as they very often overwork the piece... I need to think more and paint less. HA! That should be interesting!

A Busy Mind Is A Good Thing

This is my palette... a hinged plastic box with assorted paint pots. A puddle of water in the bottom keeps the humidity up so the paints only need an occasional spritz of water to stay moist. A drop or two of bleach prevents mold. The jars are Nova Paints, the butter cups contain Golden. Lids from large containers of cole slaw serve as individual color mixing palettes. My brushes, not shown here, are quality 1" -2.5" Wooster china bristle from Lowes, a building supply store. But I use a lot of the throw-away types as well. They generally sit in a bucket of water, are cleaned only occasionally and are seldom allowed to dry out.

Funny how it happens... the more involved I become, the busier my mind with everyday problem solving, the more productive I actually seem in the studio. With the eminent closing of the lake house and all the mental baggage it brings, studio work seems to flow smoothly, puzzles are solved, direction is clear. This is not to say I've signed off on a bunch of completed paintings, just that good things are happening. The flip side is that if I slack off, and don't have much on my plate, studio work is uninspired and dead ended. So I deduce that the conscious must be busy elsewhere for the subconscious to perform creatively.

Now, if J should read this, he would question my 'busyness' as I don't appear to be any busier than usual, I just talk a good line. But my mind is in a whirl with details that we didn't expect to have to deal with. Not the money end... that's J's bucket of worms, but how will we use this house, furnish it, deal with it from a distance and the myriad of questions that ensue. Like... okay, we will only subscribe to $10 basic cable since we aren't big TV junkies but do need morning and evening news. How about Internet? Well, for $50-75 a month, I think we will have to do without. Dial-up won't work because we'll just use our cells. I checked for hotspots my laptop might access and seems the nearest one is a McDonald's, can you believe! and not a whole lot more in the area. Would think that being so close (5 miles) to a major university there would be all sorts, but maybe they just aren't listed. Then there's the option of walking around using the laptop like a divining rod, looking for free wi fi.

And speaking of computers... I've been going through old albums of pics taken while we lived in the lake house. Here is my very first 'computer' setup... a TI-99 hooked up to an old b&w TV. That's twenty some years ago, boys and girls!

PS: The plant still lives! Just realized it's the same shefflera we've been carrying around from house to house!

Some Things Never Change...

I was born to labor over my work. No way can I create a short cut, it always looks unfinished. How I long for the simple gestural line that says it all... the single stroke that demands no more. No idea why I must go over and over the same space until it resonates assuredness, but might as well face the fact that it will always be so. Thought I was on to a simple method of expressing myself with the ink and collage simplicity of a Zen composition, but it just isn't to be. There will be layers involved, glazes, gels, infusions of marks and accidentals... until it begins to stand on it's own and begs to be left alone. So be it. This image represents one of 24 sections of a w-i-p. The base is a textured canvas with a final coat of a soft orange. Then 24 squares of reversed ochre bokusho marks, then a layer of ricepaper... which made everything way too subtle so now I've added these little reverse ink squares. Something's still missing, but I'm really enjoying the newest addition.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On a lighter note... we bought our old lake house! It's ours again, after a twenty year absence. We can hardly wait to bring in the tree people to selectively clear our view of the lake. I remember standing with my mother on the deck one evening. We'd been talking about my lack of interest in fine jewelry and such... don't know how it came up, but I remember showing her the sparkles from the moonlight on the lake and saying that those were my diamonds and they couldn't be matched. Well, anyway... we think we'll have fun fixing it up, should be a good investment if the University stays open and the lake doesn't go dry. This will make a terrific second home and give us a lot of projects to keep busy (and fit) with. I think I'll designate the little studio there to watercolor. That's a large and special part of my past as well.

Blog Intentions

Matrix 1, 24x20, 2005

Thought I'd take a minute and outline what my intentions are in writing this blog... not that they won't change because the original intention is a far cry from it's current direction. First the title... where did that weird nomenclature come from and what does it mean? Blame Duane Keiser and his painting a day blog. I discovered him about the time I got a bug to return to realistic oil painting (don't ask... ) The goal was 100 small oil paintings on the order of Duane's work. Ummm... after a couple of dozen I realized my eyes and hands might eventually be persuaded to perform in such a manner but I began to wonder why I would want to. So that petered out and the blog began to morph.

In researching art blogs, I found a preponderance of sketching blogs, lots of other painting-a-day venues, all kinds of art focus groups which weren't my thing, and a few serious artists recording their studio and career experiences, which is what I wanted to do with my own writings. But most of these are early or mid career artists and I felt that I wanted to review my career... look back to where I've been and document a few thoughts as I recall them, possibly showing a connection or path to where I am today. There's no rhyme or reason to the way I approach this, but I try to mix it up by showing new work along with old and not dwelling too much on personal or family happenings, though that contributes to an artist's life as well.

I try to upload an image with each post and it may be current or something relevant from the past that might or might not tie in in some way. Yesterday's grass painting was a number title, for instance. I feel these old works, so different from what I do today, tell more about who I am than the current work ever could, plus I get a kick out of paying homage to a few old favorites. BTW, my website features most of the recent work, but it's more static than this blog (which is much more fun to update.)

Titles

Grass 30, watercolor, 30x22, 1993

And the old bug-a-boo of titles raises it's ugly head again. I'm finishing up four more of the ricepaper/collage/bokusho paintings and am strongly tempted to continue numbering them rather than trying to come up with novel one or two word titles. I've numbered series work before, sometimes numbering into the 50's and 60's and I swore I wouldn't do that again. But geeze! Naming a work that is descriptive of some element or references it in some way without being cliche is darned hard to do on a continuing basis. Man, I've dipped into Shakespeare, Greek Mythology, foreign words including Latin botanicals and Japanese numbers... I've researched Tartans and named a whole season's worth of paintings after them... I've combed the dictionary and made notations whenever I come across anything title worthy, made a file of intellegent words and included definitions and pronunciations just so I wouldn't embarass myself. But how easy it would be to let them go forth without that crowning glory. Why not let the date be the title? Except that I tend to finish a bunch on the same day (okay, who would know if I spread out the dates?) Sighhhhhhh..... okay, I think I'll do this: I'll continue the Bokusho numbers for awhile longer and add a one word title to it... like "Bokusho 9 - Reversi". Then if I can't think of a title it will just be a number. Until a better idea comes along. BTW, and FYI, a gallery director once told me that the title she was most tired of seeing was "Reflections."

Remember my T-shirt project with names? G-kid had a 'meet the teacher and classmates' morning in preparation for school starting soon, and she choose to wear her name shirt "so everyone would know how to spell my name correctly!" Libi, by the way, means 'Beautiful Blue Jade' in Chinese... but you probably already knew that.

The Past Is For Sale...

Weird! Really strange and different! We deposited the g-kids at Son's house, spent the night and left for home the next day. As we were leaving the old neighborhood (30 min upriver from New Orleans,) we drove by the house we'd lived in for 15 years and sold in 2001. We do this from time to time just to see what's the same and what's different. This time... a For Sale sign! Okay... we're not interested in buying, but it was a great house with many fond memories. We'd added the studio of my dreams over the garage and a lap pool and fish pond in the back yard. They were good years and my career developed to professional level during that time. But that was then and this is now.

. . . . .

So several hours later and an hour away from home, we decide to visit property we still own on a smallish lake near a college town. We'd once owned a house there (pre NOLA, 1981-1986) and had purchased the lot next door but never built on it or really had any plans for it. We just didn't want anyone else building on it. Well, donchaknow the old house is up for sale also! Since it was empty, we parked in the carport and peeked in windows, walked down to the lake noting that the landscaping is still all my doing, but has grown rampantly, needing only some thinning out and TLC to return to it's earlier promise. It's obviously not seen a gardening implement since I left, and it's surprising that the woods haven't reclaimed the azaleas, etc that grew near the boathouse J built himself. From what we can tell from glimpses inside the house and the realtor pics on the web, very little has changed inside either. This is an A-frame with walkout basement which we'd finished when we first bought the fixer-upper twenty five years ago... my same wallpaper upstairs and down, same window treatments. It's been on the market since early spring and once again, it's a real fixer-upper...and a possible bargain. We plan to find a realtor and view it, thinking it would be cheaper to buy the old house than build on the empty lot next door. We don't plan to move, just thought to create a vacation home of sorts... we love being around water and after our recent lake reunion with the family, our thoughts have turned to such possibilities.

I can see us spending three or four days a week there, reclaiming my old studio space, renewing old friendships as there are a few still in the area, but mostly, enjoying the lake... maybe a rowboat, canoe or such. We'd had a little Sunflower sailboat at the time and how I enjoyed tacking lazily back and forth, up and down the mile long, narrow lake. Who knows... might get to do it again...

Traveling Weekend

Another Wrinkle, oil, 30x40, 1981

Tis the end of our annual week with the NOLA girls... that week after their camp is over and school has yet to begin. We'll drive them home tomorrow, overnight and make the return trip on Sunday. We used to just drive one way and fly them home via Southwest Airlines, but since Katrina there is no direct flight between our cities. I understand NOLA is trying to convince all the airlines to return to prestorm schedules because it's really hurting lots of tourist and conventions plans which depend on convenient flights... not just grandparents doing the shuttle back and forth.

There may be another visiting relative this month... meaning a firm studio schedule is still in the distance, but next week should see a few paintings wrapped up. They're just hanging in there, waiting for a final touch to tell the story. Sure had hoped to have more of the new series finished at this point. It's been a fun week, though.

The Art Market

W Series 5, Serigraph, 1981

Do you ever look around you and wonder what you are doing in the middle of this art ocean? Since my addiction to the Internet I am so aware of the vast numbers of "artists" out there, I have to wonder how so many manage to survive. The competition is overwhelming... and a lot of it isn't even very good! Did I mention that I'm not fond of crowds????

J and I visited a lawyer's office the other day, entered the lobby and viewed a large, abstract diptych... a very mediocre piece, weak and unimpressive. Upstairs in the office waiting room, more run of the mill stuff including one large canvas that I strongly suspect came from a Holiday Inn mill sale. Turns out one of the lawyers is an artist (isn't everyone?) and included her forged wire sculpture (looked like a Larry Bell stick figure take-off.) Anyway, there was much discussion about "art" and I asked if they knew NorDys Gallery (my local rep) and no, none of them had heard of the gallery which is one of the better wall spaces in this town! Though only five years old, it's received lots of good publicity in the local papers and radio, but these moneyed, cultured, educated uptown people drew a complete blank! This just blew me away.

I'm thinking there must be a very small percentage of qualified (having disposable income) customers who actively seek art to buy. A VERY small number. This midsize southern city features at least 6-10 impressive galleries that seem to be on sure footing... and they share a microscopic database of clientele. And there's the recent announcement that another Fortune 500 company will be leaving the city... leaving only one where there were six just a few years ago. Ummmm... this doesn't look good for local sales. I'll be a featured artist at Lagerquist Gallery (Atlanta) in Sept, perhaps I should beef up my inventory and plot some strategy here...

Reversi

No real time in studio this week, but am in and out on one pretense or another, and have had several opportunities to look at work in progress with new eyes. This piece was discussed a week or so ago and has had several layers applied in the interim. The surface is good, love the soft effect of the bleed-through, but there's something missing. It will come to me, and it won't be much... hopefully just enough. I've started another, looking for the same bleeding but the process is not written in stone and new variations happen each time I try to repeat a previous step. This is good... too much predilection is not.

So far, pre-teen cultural involvement has included basket weaving (I fail!) hooked yarn pillow completion (she did 95%) guitar lesson reconnaissance (trying to keep her interested until lessons can resume,) summer reading assignment completion (such a good reader with so little interest!) and instruction on making abstract marks on rice paper squares. (Ummm... it must be harder than it looks.) I'll be challenged to keep this up for the rest of the week, but it is a fun change of pace!

Home Again

Returned home to learn of the death of an early art mentor... someone who made a big difference in my artistic self confidence... someone who gave me artful responsibility and said "Yes You Can!" when I was doubtful. I'll talk more about her another time, but right now I have some thinking to do.

Also returned home with 9 and 11 yr old g-daughters, one will be in Y camp with her cousins this week, the older will be my helpmate... maybe I can be her mentor in some way. It's going to be a very full week.

On a lighter note, I made magic with the Home Depot paint machine in NOLA... the kids had mistakenly picked out a caramel wall color but the new carpet called for something more along the lines of milk chocolate... so I asked the young girl* at the paint counter if she could add some purple to the paint... but, that will change the color!... yes, I expect it will. Turned out her idea of purple was magenta and now we have an orangish hue. Could you add some blue? Sure... she sez, with a puzzled look. Perfecto! A lush milk chololate that makes your mouth drool when you walk in their bedroom room. And I thought I had no color sense! Plus my new daughter-in-law thinks I'm a genius!

*Remember, the New Orleans Metro work force is seriously suffering since so many left for other areas, so I wasn't dealing with a lot of experience in this dept.

Juxtaposed

Juxtaposed, 42x48, Acrylic/Linen, 1993

Here's another turning point. Part of the Track Series, this time on canvas... LINEN, tadaaa! Hey look! There's a Bokusho flat in the middle! Who knew? And note the ruled lines here and there. I traded eye texture for the real thing, but one could note that I'm sort of moving back to visual texture... or not. I don't know what I'm doing, it all remains to be seen. Is fun to find a few roots to tie the decades together.

So I'm off to NOLA tomorrow (a half hour upriver from the Crescent City, actually) I love these visitations, this return to a place where my professional work all came together. I put in my best time there and after years of earlier prep, it all began to come together. It will always be home, fifteen years qualifies as the longest I ever lived anywhere... besides, it's New Orleans... it needs to be loved right now.

I did get my cortisone shot this morning, the doc answered a lot of my questions and I should be good to go for the 5.5 hr trip. Will get some rehab or PT when I get back and plan to start regular trips to the Y again. I don't mean for this blog to stray far from art issues, but when you can't sling your paint around, the interference is definately art related. That includes the pull of the garden and the time outs for extended family. I'll bring two g-kids back with me for a week so art prioities will take a serious shift.

Discovery: I can track new exhibitions at my favorite museums and galleries... actually any website that updates... and Blogarithm.com will notify me each time they update that page. Just subscribe with the URL from the exhibition page and never miss another special show. I use both Blogarithm and Bloglines since they do different things, the latter requires RSS feeds and the former doesn't... the latter updates frequently during the day (and whenever I hit the refresh button) and the former updates only once a day via email. So together, they are a good source for all I think I need. I'm aware that these sort of details change frequently and I'm probably outdated even as we speak, but what else is new? BTW, having mentioned that I was trying out Co.mments the other day, it's great! I'm lovin' it!

See you on the flip side, may or may not have access.

The Flip Side...

So there I was, sorting through stacks of ink smeared rice paper squares, looking for a combination of values that would work best on the canvas I planned to use... ummmm... waitaminute! This looks interesting, but it's the back side of the square. Whoa! This is perfect! Raw material for just what I've been wanting to do... very soft, whitish kind of thing. The image above shows the darker 'right' side and the others are evidence of my new find. Stay tuned, this is looking very promising!

After some delay, I finally got an appt with an Orthopedic doc. The shoulder is doing fine except when I forget and hike up my jeans too fast, or try to tie my apron behind my back, or take off a t-shirt over my head... after a few moments of shooting flames I'm am fine again. I'm actually getting pretty good using the mouse with my left hand since the whole right arm tires so easily. I' m glad to get an appt before I leave for NOLA Thursday, wasn't looking forward to a one-handed drive, and J won't be able to make the trip.

Speaking of aprons, here's the one with the most longevity, a prize winner (literally was part of the prize) from a student exhibition at New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts. That was waaay back in time. But I love this apron... even painted my name tag on for those painting times when identification is a plus.

Earth Sculpture

Over the years and through many gardens, I've left my mark. Dirt under my nails is as common as paint smears and comes as naturally. I've moved tons of dirt, relocated small trees, thrown my back out digging fish ponds, moved flower gardens from here to there and back again on a whim and loved every sweaty minute of it. When we moved to this rocky terrain five years ago, this hillside was barren and eroded. Our porch and kitchen window looked out on it and it was not a pretty sight. Fortunately, J has become a fine carpenter in his retirement years and doesn't mind taking orders from the designer (moi!) Together we put together a series of floating decks which are lifted from the zig-zag bridges of Japan (supposedly, the evil spirit chasing you can only go in a straight line and would therefore fall off.) The floating look really kicked in when all uprights, including the supports under the decks, were painted black. The ivy suffered and died back during construction, but is beginning to recover and will stand in as our water under the bridge. Raised beds and pots satisfy my need to dig dirt... and is much easier on the back.

Made good time in the studio today, but nothing worth documenting as yet. Lots of drying going on, I think I'm on track.

Miscellanea

Span 1, encaustic, 18x18, 1999

Playing with a new blog toy called co.mments which is supposed to track comments made on other blogs... all I have to do if I want to follow a particular blog's comments is to click a link on my bookmark toolbar and the program will do the tracking. Click on another link and I can review all blogs that I track. Since trying this out on Sunday when even the most dedicated bloggers seem to have a life elsewhere, it will take a few days to get the hang of it. But I figured with the popularity of blogs, there must be a comment tracking program out there somewhere. This one seemed to get the best reviews.

For those interested in more info on my encaustic setup, etc, here's a page on my site that gives an overview of the history as well as pics of my studio gear and links to suppliers. The page also links back to a sampling of my work with wax and I'm happy to note the enlargement glitch has been fixed. The above example also references the bridge series I talked about earlier.

Been researching torn rotator cuffs this morning... seems that could well be my problem though I can't recall trauma in the area. It's keeping me from the gym so my whole system is beginning to deteriorate. Will beg for a cortisone shot today... got to get over it because more demands as an active grandparent are in store... meaning a trip to NOLA to pick up a couple of g-kids and bring back for a week. The things I'll do to spend a few days in that city!

But that's not until Thursday. Will hopefully wrap up several paintings this week... well, a couple of them at least. They're beginning to ripen to the point of smelling, which is what happens when I keep messing around without an exit plan. Why do I do that? Why can't I be satisfied and move on to a new surface instead of using the whole arsenal on the work in progress? It's always been a problem... need someone else to declare that it's finished and get it out of my sight!

Encaustics

Etude 6, 18x18, Encaustic, 2000

I'm remembering a medium and process I had to give up because of the physical demands, this image is from a serious run at encaustics a few years back. The fever lasted about three years and I'm pleased with the body of work I managed to do, considering I had no instruction except that which I could find on the web, and most of that was pretty tacky. RFpaints was and is a fine source of info and probably can be credited with the raise in popularity of the medium. I was a step ahead of the curve... it was a time when I even had to explain to my galleries what it was all about. Joanne Mattera was gathering examples for her book and my slides made it to the last cut but didn't get the brass ring for publication. I should push myself more. I have to say, there was nothing exactly like my home-grown technique in the included work. Oh, well.

My method included repeatedly scraping the layers of wax with single blade razors in a subtractive manner, gouging ruled lines along with random implements, adding another layer and doing it again, and again... very labor intensive but the results were most satisfying. I'd like to get into wax again at some point, but I'll have to come up with a totally different technique since my hands will no longer allow that kind of abuse. Not that I'm complaining, I'm in pretty decent shape. But rather than fight with what I can no longer do, I try to make adjustments and focus on what I can.

My challenge, should I decide to accept it, will be to find a personal way to reveal the magic in the medium and retain my personal stamp. That always seems to involve layers of one kind of another, I've got to simplify the technical end of things if I expect to follow through to any measurable degree. But don't hold your breath... I won't start heating my crock pots of wax until winter has a firm grip on my part of the world!

Observations

Watching Dennis Hollingsworth paint for an upcoming show in Barcelona... didn't know his work before, and it's way different from the images I found via Google, though the difference is in the details that were hidden from me in the small images, I suppose. Very lush, very rich, very-very! Fun watching the process of this show.

In my own studio... well, good thing I'm not prepping for a show! But I am enjoying the slow pace, moving in inches, thinking between actions and lots of contemplation. A good bit of time and a lot of other stuff has happened since I had my last surge of inspiration, and I'm needing to get back in the groove before I lose all momentum. Not that this is a bad thing to lose as it would just mean there wasn't enough sticking power to the series to begin with. But I know I've turned a corner and doubt that I'll be returning to the status quo.

I still want to work large but my shoulder isn't allowing me the gestural freedom I've had in the past, so I plan to continue to work in bits and pieces of collage, hoping it will add to the whole in a way that satisfies me. I guess it's bursitis, will wait until a regular check-up to verify. I expect there will be a series of one 'itis' or another to deal with at this stage of the game... that's okay, no biggie. Will just have to look for work arounds.

Blogger doesn't want me to add a photo at this time... and I had one ready to go, so be it.

The Reality Sets In

Welcoming With Water Balloons

One of the realities of gathering great experiences is that they are often very difficult to share. Just as I learned (or re-learned) after my month in France, that my friends and loved ones had a very short attention span for listening to my many adventure stories... our oldest granddaughter, Lauren, is now experiencing the same lesson. "But-But-But... a whole year in Belgium! It's changed me! I'm so different now because of it! Why aren't they interested?"

We had a long talk...at least I could identify with her and share the disappointment. I assured her that she would meet people who would be interested, those who have been and those who plan to go. Stay in touch with other exchange students as they are probably going through the same transition. She will understand better later, after her life is full of here-and-now stuff to talk about. She will understand as she stifles a yawn when someone else is relating their personal adventure. She will remember to be a bit more attentive, because she knows what it feels like to try to share the high that comes from another time, another place.

It's not that her family doesn't care, they read her blog and fielded her phone calls, worried about things they could do nothing about but gave her the confidence to handle situations as they arose. But now they have more pressing matters to deal with... like the demands of college preparations, encouraging the focus of a whole new lifestyle, helping her build the foundation for her future. But I know... I remember... the door to all those memories just won't shut that easily. That's okay, it becomes a very special hidden jewel to hold very close. Some of the best experiences are like that.

What-a Family!

One word... exhausted! No, one more word... contented! We had a great family reunion, had lots of fun both here and at the lake where we wore ourselves out with boating and water fun. It was worth the exhaustion for sure, we all got to know the new additions to family (half of the blue shirts) and it we're happy campers. It will take a day or so (and a dozen or so wash loads) to get back into art mode... I do look forward to returning to a productive routine. BTW, 19 yr old cousin Lauren was welcomed back after a year in Belgium with a big sign on front lawn... with a bucket of water balloons hidden behind it... the younger cousins were all over that plan!

The Why of Journaling

The following is lifted from today's Robert Genn newsletter and addresses a concern I see repeatedly on many artist blogs about the 'Why?' of this blogging or journaling need we seem to be addicted to. I wonder myself and Genn's comments are as good as any:

"The writing of notes, letters and journals is good for creators. Writing is learning. Writing shares joy, delight, triumph, struggle, disappointment and disaster. The free exchange of ideas and processes helps us to think about what we are doing and where we're going. This mutuality is part of ourself-education."

This certainly isn't the final word on the matter... that will be attempted on the follow up answers that he publishes on the next newsletter. But most of you knew that... doesn't everyone subscribe? Well, a bunch, anyway.

Okay, back to parboiling and prepping for the big eating marathon.

Calvin And Golden

Don't you miss Calvin and Hobbes? Especially love it when the artist/illustrator/creator inserts himself into the storyline.

Mark Golden's blog (yes, THAT Golden!) discusses the use of house paint in our arsenal of creative media... and the bottom line is that we don't need his permission. That's good, 'cuz as far as I'm concerned, too many rules ruin the game. He asks if certain changes to the work over the years would be okay with us, and I'm good with that as well. If my surfaces are about anything, it's the replication of age and it's layers of use and distress, so be it. Now, I won't go so far as happily allowing chipping of the paint, which I suffered through at one time and then swore off oils for a good ten years... but that had nothing to do with house paint.

I hear you asking, do YOU use house paint? Ummm... well, now that I've backed myself into this corner, yes, I'm guilty of gathering the $1 pints of Oops paint at HD when I like the color, and using it for the first couple of layers... I like the way it goes on, I can be extravagant with color and gesture... it's only underpainting and Golden Paints need not worry, the next dozen layers are all pure GOLDen.

I will be very surprised if I find time to add to this blog again until next Wed. Should be rushing around right now but just taking a needed sit-down break. Will soon be headed off for my third grocery gathering in minutes, the gang begins arriving late tonight, more on the morrow. Lots planned including a couple of days at the lake with rented cabins and boats, trying to recapture an earlier generation's fascination with waterskiing... seems most of the g-kids are ready to learn. Those were good days and I can tell J is missing his old boat and RV.

Interviews

Sphere 4, 2003, 10x10

During my tenure online, many opportunities to spread my art around the web have dropped into my inbox. Not all have been mass mailings basically wanting my money, some have been quite appropriate to building one's artistic reputation. I think one of the best cyber interviews I experenced was conducted a few years ago by Austrailian artist, Dion Archibald. Dion is the energy behind the website, Art Quotes, and who also produces Art News Blog, a " selection of visual art news, art reviews and art related stories online." I've long enjoyed receiving Art Quotes via email (two art related quotes, three times a week) and the whole site is interesting to browse.

An earlier cyber exhibition opportunity happened along in 1999 when sculptor Christopher Ray invited me to submit a number of works for his site collection. Thought there was no interview involved, he wrote a glowing review of the work which had me pretty full of myself for some time!

Categories

Magnolia 5, 1988, 22x30, watercolor

Sorry 'bout that previous really long entry. One of the stipulations I set for myself when I started blogging, is that I would keep my entries short and to the point. Well, I blew that one!

New challenges are what it's all about and a dilly dawned on me a few days ago when I decided I needed (wanted) to create *Categories*! Well, Blogger doesn't offer that option, but I learn from the vast network of blogger resources that it can be worked around. Categories are a filing system of sorts, for old posts that might be worth referencing down the road. It will take some time for me to iron out all the wrinkles, but my stats show that people are beginning to plow though them already... hope they aren't terribly disappointed. Like attempting to keep my posts brief, I need to cut back the list of categories as well.

Morning Creature Comforts

It's another summer dawn and I've made my habitual web rounds with mouse and monitor, wondering why this satisfies me so. The body is at rest but the mind is scrambling around, demanding exercise... I'll try to be more physical later, I promise. I check mail but there is little of interest except my morning dose of NYTimes and other breaking news sources... oh, how disheartening the news is. I go through periods of intense attention, then have to ignore the world situation for awhile, just to clear my head of the whole mess. My favorite 'lists' are now read online rather than having all those messages drop into my inbox folders. Much easier to keep up with prolific email that way, each post comes with the first three or four lines and you can easily tell if it's worth opening to read further or if it's just another confirmation post making conversation ('Me too!' 'I love it!' )

Then the blogs, handily delivered by Bloglines with a click... they will be refreshed throughout the day as I grab breaks here and there and read new entries to my subscriptions as they come online. A hodge-podge of mostly art, but varying widely as to temperament, experience, style and such. I keep adding more with another easy click of a button on my tool-bar... how simple life can be. The intention is to unsub to those less interesting after reading a week or so, but blogs have their rhythms and like life, interesting comments come and go. Not all are kept up on a daily basis so it works out to easy reading. I find it interesting to pick up on the rhythyms of other artist's lives, most so different from my own, some enviously so, others just amazingly so. To read how their careers are progressing... or not, to offer comments... and I try not to be guilty of the above confirmation posts, but I guess that's what conversation is all about. I do find blogs have much more to offer than lists, however. You can pick and choose who you want to listen to, and avoid disagreements, for the most part. That's the beauty of blogs.

My Yahoo.com ... the portal where I keep links to all my favorite comics. There are some I've been following forever, as I love that I don't have to depend on the local newspaper to provide them in a large enough format that I can actually read them. They seem to get smaller every year, and it's not just my eyes telling me so. I've read "For Better Or For Worse" since the kids were little... and mine as well. We've grown into grandparenthood together, they are my friends neighbors. But I find new fun comics as well... Chickweed is nothing but a hoot and I love the way it's drawn, same with Ballard Street. So many more, but those are tops. I put the link to France Photo A Day in with the comics so I don't miss those pics. There are news and weather feeds, my calendar and local TV listings, links to many of my personal bookmarks including blogs. Nice to be able to access all this from any computer with a connection.

And as it gets close to 7am I'll make coffee, heat a bowl of cold cereal in the microwave (33 seconds is perfect to take the chill off the milk and bring out the flavors... I mix several kinds of cereals and dried fruits together for my personal concoction.) We both prepare our own breakfast and lunch, I cook a proper meal most evenings. Our tastes are just very different and this works very well. We even grocery shop separately because we know what we need. Back when he retired, I thought it wise that he be able to find his way around the kitchen and a grocery store for those times when I'm traveling alone, so he learned (with some distress) how to cook his eggs just right and does an envious job, making my cereal seem much less appealing. I like left overs or slab sandwiches eaten on the run, he doesn't... preferring foods like hot dogs and canned corn beef hash (gives a good imitation of dog food!) so our habits have evolved to a most satisfactory arrangement.

Studio time is usually in fits and starts, I can't seem to sustain long hours of standing and working no matter how exciting the current process. I've developed that habit over the years due to nearly always having a studio in my home, and at a time when there were kids or parents coming and going... the major multi-tasking years. Art had to fit in the empty spaces. You'd think that as an 'at home mom' that I would have had all the time in the world to create... but not so! Creating also involves home, family, garden, and a myriad of other entities... all part of the process.

Didn't mean to outline a diary, but this is my comfortable morning rut. Sometimes a bit of a bore, but then it's up to me to add some spice to the mix. Time now for me to take my coffee for a walk... check the pots, see what needs a little creative attention.

Art Festivals, Pro and Con

Oak Park Festival, c. 1982

Tis the season and several blogs are discussing the pros and cons of outdoor art festivals, including Allison and Lisa. These blogs happen to be referring to the same Denver affair, but looking at the quality of artists involved, it appears to be an example of the norm across the country. My own thoughts, based on experience of about ten of my earliest career years has to do with timing and goals.

Sometimes we don't have a lot of options to choose from and getting accepted into the best festivals possible at least gets you and your art out there and circulating... maybe even winning a prize or two. And... art is placed in front of people who probably would not make the effort to look for it elsewhere, and helps educate them in the appreciation department just a bit. My forte was primarily serigraphs at the time and I taught a lot of curious people what screen printing was all about. Even argued with some who insisted on buying the original... sigh! Even as a neophyte artist, focused on my own development, I learned a lot of what I know from other artists and their products. Especially, appreciation of fine crafts as art... wow! A bonus was the experience of actually talking about your work to interested, and not so interested customers. Even a glance your way, maybe a double take, maybe a slowing down to look a little closer, served to tell you something about your presentation.

Having said that, as far as I'm concerned, BTDT! I have little desire to visit many festivals these days. It's probably as much my distaste for the *crowd* thing as the déjà vu factor. I've done the little ones such as local art club gatherings at a strip center, to the big juried affairs that draw name artists from across the country. I wouldn't trade anything for those years, they were a ladder of sorts to climb when there was no other option out there. But I wouldn't pack up and do it again for anything either. Gallery contacts were made and I grew from there. Never did like to push my own work anyway.

T-Shirt Fonts

I have renewed respect for craftspeople, illustrators, calligraphers and all those who are somehow ranked on a lesser level than *fine art*ists. I've 16 T-shirts to decorate with names of family members this week... and I don't do this sort of thing very well. Oh, how I envy those with the imagination as well as the technical skill to produce cute, memorable and highly photogenic fonts. Sighhhh... back to work.

Other Possibilities

Field Tree, 14x11, 2006

Since this whole bokusho/ricepaper/ink thing came about because of trees, a natural morphing into other possibilities is also going on in the studio. The image here is of a tree that at least six other artists will recognize as it was a lone sentinel in an open field near our quarters at Cat'Art... doubt that any of us came away without at least one photo of this windward beauty. Wish I'd taken many more.

In an earlier life, about five-six years ago, I was heavy into encaustics, and still hope to get back to them at some point. But would also like to create some waxy looking images without the wax... and I think that happened here. The manipulated photo was printed on rice paper, then applied to a small canvas. Lots of layers of various gels and mediums, some tinted with ocher or white, and a few landscape and gestural lines... and here ya go. Now to figure out how to use this technique on larger canvases and that's where the real challenge is. Since I only have a standard size printer, I suspect I'll be printing large squares and piecing them back together in some fashion. Will have to depend on daughter with her monster camera to get some good high res tree pics for me.

I've never had a desire to do collage as most do it. I want my paper additions to the canvas to be part of the paint, not sitting on top with cut or torn edges unblended into the whole. That's someone else's art... not mine. I've used commercial rice papers and liked the effects possible, but began to notice the same papers used in other artist's works. Immediately decided that I would have to make my own paper designs for collage, so there you have another root cause for these procedures.

Sizing Success

It was as much fun as playing with wet t-paper can be... quite labor intensive without a proper drying rack and the wet rice paper was tricky to handle. But I swiped about 50 squares with the solution and placed each (oooh so delicately) on the floor to dry, only tossing about a dozen (with proper four letter blessings) into the trash if they folded back on themselves and became hopeless. I have a hand- me- down commercial berber carpet and wasn't afraid of sticking, but still felt a bit of relief when they dislodged easily this morning.

Then I set about making marks on some of them, but marks can't just be marks... there's art to be made here and although I've no intention of following the Asian sumi-e masters with long hours of contemplation (on their knees, yet!) I do need to give it a bit of thought if I expect anything special to come of this. My normal procedure is to keep layering until I like what I see... but that defeats the original motivation... that of moving on to some new kind of process... hopefully a more direct method of making art. You'd think after some 40-odd (mostly odd) years of attempting, I would have a better handle on what's going to happen when I put brush to paper or canvas. Guess if I had all that figured out, I'd be looking for something else to do.

Sizing...

Comments indicate interest as to how I'll go about sizing the rice paper, so that prompts this post. Since there are so many interruptions this weekend/month/summer that thinking about it is about as much as I can accomplish, why not? Will probably simply coat the paper with watered down acrylic medium, perhaps tint it in the process since I want to try some monochrome interpretations of the same process, that would be a good start. I've done this before, but it was on sized paper... results should be similar. Fortunately, my art making process encourages less-than-perfect effects so I won't have to worry about variations that occur. I just need to worry about getting it done!

Our Independence Day celebration will be a simple cook-out with daughter and g-kids... the big family reunion is not until mid July so we're saving our energy for that. My job is to be sure there's food for all for four days... yikes!

Back To Square One...

Well, phooey! Opened a new shipment of rice paper, thinking it the same as I had before but apparently the other was sized and this isn't. And boy! Does it make a difference! I think it's not only the sizing, but just the fact that all rice paper is not created equal. I'm using the very same sumi-e ink but it's not reacting the same at all ... even on remnants of the original paper. All that wonderfulness I was delighted to discover is nowhere to be found.

Well... I will have to use the paper in some other fashion, start from scratch and make new discoveries to replace the ones that went :::poof::: in the night. I'm knee deep in rice paper in the studio... not in the mood to order more at this point. 'Waste not, want not,' I keep hearing my grandmother whispering in my ear. Rats!

No More Road Trips

It was a good trip, a chance to get to know the Memphis gallery owners/directors a bit better since I've only been with them a year and we're still learning about each other. He and she are very nice people who said nice things about my new work and promptly paid me for two biggies recently sold. Turns out they have a bit of a mentor in a well established decorator, an older gentleman who seems to have taken them under his wing. They both worked for another well known gallery in Memphis until about five years ago when they split and started selling out of their homes. He advised them to open a shop near his and they seem to be doing very nicely, even moving to a much nicer spot in the same building. We stopped by his shop to see one of my larger paintings displayed with traditional furnishings and accessories. I seldom get to see my work displayed other than in white wall galleries and this was very special. Apparently this has lead to more interest in my work... sort of a mark of approval for those who need that kind of assurance when decorating. I'll just hold my breath...

Glad we made the effort to travel on to Little Rock to see oldest son and family. Love their new house, it was smart of them to downsize a bit, but their lives are run, run, run as with most families with kids in sports. A bonus was watching our 16 yr old grandson play in a tennis tournament and win the match. (It's his older sister that I met in France for a few days in April. She returns home next week.) Missed out on a softball game for the younger g-kid, but couldn't make them both and we'd seen her play last year... she's a very talented catcher!

It's good to have new work spread around and all inventories updated. Sure glad I'm not responsible for selling the stuff!

Moe Brooker

Quick before I shower and head out, I found this review of a teacher and mentor for a brief period of time... just long enough to get some really good info stuffed into my head. A way to think about art, to process it, to make it my own. This happened at a formative time for me as I was searching for the meaning of abstraction and desperately needing a 'how-to'. Moe Brooker generously provided all of that. There are plenty of times when I really could use another shot of abstract adrenalin... wish I could see this show!