Resurrection

Resurrection

14x19

Mixed Media

This piece reminds me of the hand of God reaching down to rescue us mortals and pull us into the portal of paradise, where we once again meet our spiritual selves and continue our journey through the creative universe.

African Series

Blue Madonna

Mixed Media

12x24

I Dream Of Africa
Mixed Media

12x12

Beginnings of a new series. The inspiration came from a visit to the new Modern Wing of the Chicago Art Institute. While walking to the new exhibit hall, we passed a wing of African art. After snapping several statues and masks, I hurried to my studio and began working. I am moved by ethnic imagery and hope to bring that haunting sense of primal glory alive on these canvases. Both these pieces are for sale. For information, leave a comment.

Click to view more detail.

Blue Heron

This blue heron has been visiting and fishing in our pond for the past two summers. He is beautiful.

Why do you never see two of them in the same area? I assume they are very territorial.

This beautiful creature will make it into one of my pieces. I'm just trying to get a good picture of him. He's very cautious and won't let me get too close. He's also the reason I went out and bought a camera with a 10X zoom. I try to remember to carry it with me every time I walk Max, in the hopes that he's there and that I'll be quick enough and quiet enough to get a good picture before he walks away. I don't wan to get so close that I scare him off. I did that once and based on his long, lone cry, he was not at all pleased, however, the fish that escaped his bite were quit pleased since they were able to swim for another day.

He needs a name.

The Blessings

Here is a series of three collage paintings I did a few months ago, The Blessings.
Each collage is 8x8 canvas with finished sides. I am happy with the way these turned out.

One of the materials used in the first and third collage is recycled laundry softener sheets. They create an unusual texture when painted. And they abosorb a lot of paint, so I found spraying them first helped the paint go on smoother and the paint went further.

One and three came together quickly, the middle one has lots and lots of layers. One of the great things about collage painting is that you can cover it up until you get it right or sometimes you just have to toss it away.

Exquisite corpse sale

Like the Pointer Sister's song, I AM SO EXCITED! My exquisite corpse #1 / Watching / Fantasy / Kitty Couture are sold. I'm excited about the sale, but I'm also excited about the person buying the pieces. She loves the arts and is a collector, so I feel confident these pieces are going to a good home.

Someone asked me if I have mixed emotions about parting with my art, since it's a part of me and my answer is, no. I want my art to be a part of other peoples' lives and loves. And if I really fall for one of my own pieces (kind of falling in love with one's self), I can always choose not to sell it.

The other day, while walking my dog, Max, I wrote this prayer:
Open my heart.
Fill me with love.
Fill me with grace.
Fill me with wonder.
Let me rest in the nothing.

I'm thinking about making it into a wall piece.

Exquisite Corpse #1

Questions Surround Body #1

Close ups of each canvas are below.

This is a project I got involved in with the Midwest Collage Society. All members were invited to do an interpertation of either a head, torso or legs. I got so carried away with the theme, I did all three parts.

The idea stems from a game the Surrealists used to play, each artist drawing a portion of the body on a piece of paper which was folded into thirds. After the last artist finished their body part, the paper was unfolded to reveal a composite human.

The show will be at the Bloomingdale Park District Museum from July 11 through mid-August. I'm excited to see what my fellow artists have created.

If you would like more information about any art you see on my blog, leave me a message.

Exquisite Corpse #1 Head

12x12 canvas

Watching

Exquisite Corpse # 1 Torso

12x12 canvas

Fantasy

Exquisite Corpse #1 Legs

12x12 Canvas

Couture Kitty

Exquisite Corpse #2

Questions Surround Body # 2

Close ups of each canvas are below.

Exquisite Corpse #2 Head

12x2 canvas

Guy Noir

Exquisite Corpse #2 Torso

12 x12 canvas

Archie in Love

Exquisite Corpse #2 Legs

12x12 canvas

Joker

Max as Art

I am almost finished with my Exquisite Corpse pieces, good thing, too, as I have to drop them off to the Bloomingdale District Park Museum on Saturday.

For those who don't know what the Exquisite Corpse display is, it started as a parlor game where artists would fold a piece of paper into thirds, the first artist would draw the head, fold it over and hand it to the second artist to draw a torso, the second artist would fold it over and hand it to the last artist to draw the legs. Then they would unfold the paper to discover the "exquisite corpse".

Our Midwest Collage Society decided to use this theme for our upcoming show. Initially I was just going to do a head, but then I got into the "spirit" and ended up with 3 heads, 2 torsos and 2 sets of legs. Over all I am really pleased with my "creations". I will be posting pictures soon.

In the meantime, I offer you the latest picture of our dog, Max. My husband took this picture with his new iphone. Doesn't he look like a piece of art?

Play On Words

When I emailed this piece to my mom, she answered most enthusiastically, "I just love this!" Which is not her normal reaction to my work. Since she liked it so much, I framed it and gave it to her. And when I visited her a couple of weeks ago, it was hanging in a prominent place in her living room.

I hated working on this. I'm not much of a still life or landscape artist, and when we were given this assignment in a workshop, I dreaded working on it. But, I did learn from pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, and have come to appreciate this piece more. I call it, "Asian Pear". If you click on it, you may see the Chinese writing inside the pear.

Poem

As I was taking my dog, Max, for a walk this morning, I thought that Mother Nature didn't get the message that it's supposed to be Spring! I could have used a pair of mittens. I saw fathers, (yes, dads) standing on the streets, waiting for the school bus to pick up their precious offspring, arms crossed with sweat shirts on and the kids were hopping up and down, trying to keep warm. So, in keeping with the weather, I wanted to share this poem, which I wrote for my mother in March, 2006, for her birthday:

Breathing the starched crisp morning air,

a bird's song sings me up into the face of the aurora blue sky,

and I see the beginning of another season is here.

Minature buds shyly show themselves

safely captured on the limbsof winter's strip tease bare trees,

calling out the end of this bitter birth cycle.

Rejoice,

they seem to say,

soon the sun will warm us into life, again.

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The piece above I call OZ, and when you look closely in the upper right window, you can see my dog, Max. Just like Toto, wanting to find a way home.

Tribal Girl

Last week I attended a papermaking class. Here is the result of my work. I call her Tribal Girl. The size of this piece is about 4x5 inches. We made the paper from pulp, rocking the pulp onto a screen and then couching (from the French word "to sleep" and pronounced "cooching) the paper onto a plexiglass board that's covered in cotton and attached on the back with duct tape . Then you lay a screen onto the very, very wet shaped pulp, begin to pat it dry with a dry sponge. Each time you go over the paper, you apply a little more pressure, until it's really compact, but still wet. At this stage I used a stamp to impress this profile onto my master sheet three times. It takes about a day to really dry. As an experiment, I tore one image away from the other two and used several different acrylic glazes to paint the image and bring her out, as the original paper is white. Final steps were edging the piece with a combination of Van Dyke Brown and Sap Green Hue, then sealing it with matt medium. I'm happy with the results and look forward to making more of this interesting paper.

Peace & Harmony Series ll

These mixed media collage paintings range in size from 8x8 to 12x16. First line: upper left (12x12), next (8x10) next (8x17). Second line: (8x8) and (12x16). I was drawn by this image of the Buddha. I think this series turned out well.

Parallel Universe

I call this piece, Parallel Universe. Its about 17 x 24 and it's done on rosin paper, which is what professional house painters use to protect floors when they are painting the walls. I like to paint my own frames, and last year I was working on a frame that was too big for my table and needed to take it to the floor. Wanting to protect the floor, I laid down a pretty large piece of rosin paper. One thing led to another, and over several weeks I began to brush, spatter, & throw left over paint onto the rosin paper, getting some very cool results. This is only a section of the entire piece. I cut this from the main piece, added a silhouette and transfered the positive image over the silhouette, covered it with cheesecloth. I like the piece, I like the fact that it's not straight. Here it's just pinned to a piece of foam core.

Now I always have a piece of rosin paper on the floor. So far I have covered 3 sheets. It's interesting to see how my color palette changes, over time.

What is art?

Had dinner with a good friend last night and the subject of art took up much of our conversation. He has represented some well known Chicago artists and one thing he said , " true art tries to create a new visual language". I thought that was very profound. I went to bed thinking about it, and woke up with it.

I keep a journal and try to write in it every day. This morning I wrote:
- As a form of my inner dialogue, I want my art to be stimulating. Really, i have no clear vision as to where my art is taking me, but i am loving the journey. Free to be free, that's the hardest thing - something is in me and i'm trying to help it come out. I feel it's there - i feel its presence- it's not the Ego, the Ego stops and judges the creative process - it makes the hand stutter-once the Ego is silenced, then i believe, true creativity emerges, that's where i want to be-silence the Ego and let my creative energy take over-that's the struggle. The Ego removes the playful fun-it calculates, therefore, it stifles spontaneity. I want my art to cast a spell on the viewer-captured-entraced-enthralled. Being in a community of artists, I see many of us struggle with making art & a lot of that struggle seems to be around our inability to simply enjoy and relish in the ability to create. We worry too much that our art is not "good enough" which I believe is the Ego, getting in the way and limiting our access to that nebula of creativity we all possess.