anonyrrie

Ready for a Change - I'm Moving my Blog!

2007-08-03T20:44:00.000-04:00

It's August, and I feel Autumn sneaking up on me. That's not a bad thing, as it's brought me to a very introspective place where I am evaluating and rearranging, discarding and adding. Change is on the hot breeze, and it feels good. Most of the changes are invisble, settling in my attitude about things with which I've become disenchanted... If I keep doing what I'm doing, I'll keep getting what I'm getting... but some of the changes are visible. To start, I have moved my blog over to typepad... same name, but a fresh beginning. Please visit me there... you are among those things I don't want to change!

anonyrrie (http://anonyrrie.typepad.com)

See ya!

Mushrooms

2007-07-30T20:22:00.001-04:00

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.

Sylvia Plath (1932 - 1963)

Tabula Rasa

2007-07-23T10:52:00.000-04:00

I Don't Know Yet
36" x 48" x 1" ~ acrylic/mixed media on wood panel
I won't have much to show here for a while. This week I will be working on my painting for Susan's book, and that will be top secret... no sneak peeks! Then I'll start my big painting, which will be one of five (the other four will be smaller) I'm doing for a show in November at The Insiders/Outsiders Gallery. It will be based on a drawing I did a while back. I'm really excited to see it rendered in paint on such a large surface, but I am a bit nervous about the size. This is the largest I've painted since college!

Anyway, in the meantime, I thought it would be fun to show some of the pictures I took of Jol making this magnificent cradled birch panel for me. Although it is a pretty simple undertaking compared to making the amazing guitars he designs, I am so delighted with my tabula rasa... my painting is off to a great start before even being touched by a brush!

Jol started by cutting four 8' pieces of 1" x 2" poplar into mitered-edged sections for the frame and supports. He did this in his shop at home, and then we took the pieces to his guitar shop to assemble the panel using the equipment he has there. After glueing and stapling the frame and back support together, he cut the 1/8" thick birch plywood panel to size and glued it to the frame.

Then, the whole thing went into the Membrano, a vacuum press table with a thick membrane cover that, when closed, suctions airtight to the object inside to work as a clamp while the glue dries.

In it goes!
We left the panel in the Membrano overnight, and then came back the next day to trim it and sand it.

trimming the edges on the table saw (above)
before sanding the back, front and sides (below)

Jol's meticulous attention to detail
It turned out beautifully! The top, sides, and back are perfectly clean and smooth, and the panel itself is strong and well supported. I have not been able to find pre-made wood panels larger than 18" x 24", so I am so appreciative that Jol is able and willing to make these larger pieces for me. It's things like this that are among the myriad reasons I love him so much!

Discovering Now

2007-07-13T18:03:00.000-04:00

Wallflower
!6" x 20" x 1" mixed media on wood panel
Diamond Road

When you're lonely
When your heart aches
It's gonna take a little time
To make it to the other side
When the night falls
When you're stumbling
It's gonna take a little time
But everything will be just fine
So don't miss the diamonds along the way
'Cause every road has led us here today
Life is what happens while you're making plans
All that you need is right here in your hands.

- Sheryl Crow (1962- )

Too often we forget what's good in the present, focusing only on wishes for the future and putting conditions on our happiness. Yet there is so much richness to be discovered when we slow down and value what we have... here and now.

What's happening here and now (okay...and in the future...)

I have five paintings at The Insiders/Outsiders Gallery in Cornwall Bridge, CT
going on a short road trip to New Hampshire where Jol and I will meet up with Susan and visit her gallery*, and then on to Vermont where we'll stay for a couple of days on Lake Champlain
excited *to see Andrea's seven paintings and ten drawings (she does amazing, beautiful work, and I can't wait to see some of her larger paintings "in person") in artstream's Summer Splendor show
starting my painting for Susan Tuttle's North Light book that will be published next year
a solo show and demo in August at The Flatbread Company in Canton, CT
in a holiday show in November and a solo show in May at the Insiders/Outsiders Gallery
trying to paint despite incredible performance anxiety!
and by the way, pretty much everything on my almost completely updated website is for sale!

Connect... Camouflage... Amused!

2007-06-25T17:17:00.000-04:00

Amused
8.5" x 6" ~ found objects assemblage
Although I alluded to eventually showing a finished shoe shrine as the "after" picture of the pile of stuff I posted last week, that's not the way it wanted to happen. I did come home from Michael deMeng's workshop with an almost-finished shoe, but I just wasn't loving the way it looked. The problem for me was the shoe - I really wasn't very successful making it look good. There were so many incredibly creative and beautiful finished pieces at the end of the day, but mine wasn't one of them. Even so, the workshop was a totally fun experience, and I learned a lot of cool techniques. In addition to being a uniquely talented and inspiring artist, Michael is also a gifted teacher... his directions and explanations are very clear and easy to follow, he has a silly sense of humor, and he's a super nice guy. If you ever have a chance to take a class with him, don't hesitate! I'll post some pictures soon...

Anyway.... the next day I disassembled the shoe and started from scratch with the idea that I would simply follow my muse wherever she chose to lead me. I used several of the found objects I originally had on the shoe along with some other bits and pieces unearthed from my many boxes of junque. After playing around with this and that, I came up with a concept I liked and just went with it. I connected the parts with wire and liquid nails and epoxy, and then camouflaged all the various elements - some metal, some plastic, some fabric - with layers of paint to make it look old and grungy. I'm really happy with the way she turned out... in fact, I think she is an incarnation of my muse! All in all, it was a fine weekend!

What have we here?

2007-06-21T20:09:00.001-04:00

Well, if you guessed that it's a "before" picture of a shoe shrine, you'd be right! This is just some of the stuff I've been collecting in anticipation of Michael de Meng's workshop I'm going to this weekend. I have been so completely fascinated by his work ever since I came across it through someone's blog (can't remember who it was, sorry) ... enchanted by the way he creates such wonderful mystical grungy beautiful art from junk. He seems to have his own special brand of alchemy that elevates the mundane to something sublime (although I find a good dose of humor there as well) ... so I am headed north to the Boston area to see what I can learn.

Check out Michael's book, Secrets of Rusty Things - Transforming Found Objects into Art... you'll see what I'm talking about. And... stay tuned for the "after" picture!

Subject to Change - Opening Reception

2007-06-02T07:55:00.000-04:00

I want to thank all of you who stopped by my blog to wish me good luck for the opening of my show. I didn't have a chance to respond to everyone, but please know that your warm thoughts and comments meant so much to me! The opening went well, with a pretty good turnout despite the fact that it was Memorial Day weekend and many people weren't around. Below are a few of the pictures Jol took at the beginning and end of the evening. We were both too busy chatting away for most of the night, so that's really the only time he remembered to take pictures.

The Spotlight Gallery in the Gallery on the Green is a small space on the second floor, next to the larger upstairs gallery. This is the wall that you see when you come up the stairs. Thanks to Jol and his handy laser level, everything was lined up and spaced evenly. The image below is of the wall to the right.

Many people were curious about the various textures and treatments I use in my paintings, and I had a such good time explaining my process to them. This painting, Tiny Sky has already sold!

I was completely blown away when I saw these two ladies ascend the stairs... none other than JB and KJ! My heart filled with joy to think they made the trip to see me and my show. Big, big hugs to both of you...thank you!

Although this painting, The Vine is not for sale, I wanted to show it. I still plan to do a tattoo series, but on a smaller scale. This one took forever!

I also wanted to show Daydreamer, another painting that's not for sale. It's Jol's favorite, so it will stay with us.

It was a fun evening! When it was all over, I felt like a little girl after a dance recital... the only thing missing was going for an ice cream soda. I just went home and fell into bed! Thank you to all my friends who stopped by the reception... it was so wonderful to have you there. The show will continue through June 24, so if you are anywhere in the area of Canton, CT, please stop by!

The Ephemeral Paradise of Summer

2007-06-01T12:08:00.000-04:00

Harbinger ~ 18" x 24" ~ mixed media on wood panel
Butterflies

Frail Travellers, deftly flickering over the flowers;
O living flowers against the heedless blue
Of summer days, what sends them dancing through
This fiery-blossom’d revel of the hours?

Theirs are the musing silences between
The enraptured crying of shrill birds that make
Heaven in the wood while summer dawns awake;
And theirs the faintest winds that hush the green.

And they are as my soul that wings its way
Out of the starlit dimness into morn:
And they are as my tremulous being—born
To know but this, the phantom glare of day.

- Siegfried Sassoon (1886 - 1967)

This is the last painting I did for my show... and I just posted a few photos from the opening reception.

Lasting Impressions

2007-05-25T13:09:00.000-04:00

All's Well ~ 18" x 24" ~ mixed media on wood panel

Shy Greeting ~ 16" x 16" ~ mixed media on wood panel
Lasting Impressions

Look at the slight valley of the horse between haunch and shoulder,
recalling its rider and the low hills between. Form never forgets.
Though they are free to be real horses not obscured by work,
not pull anything, they must think hard to do nothing but remember
their lovers to run the low hills and dream and eat up green landscape.
He thinks of her and the way part of him still sinks down the cushions
when he's gone. A few remembering shapes linger till the foam or feathers
take a deep breath and remember what they were. If he comes back soon
he may not be quite missing, indentations rising as if still getting up.
When he leaves he feels her still on him, a loving cinch like the feel of hat,
the hat gone.

- Allan Peterson

Cars were once known as horseless carriages. Although many people ride horses for recreation, there are also many places around the world where horses and other animals are the primary mode of transportation. These two paintings are based on some small acrylic studies I did a while back, and I actually used transfers of my original horse images in these new works. They are part of my show, Subject to Change, which opens tonight.

Subject to Change

2007-05-20T19:13:00.000-04:00

I haven’t been around much for few weeks, but I have a pretty good excuse. I’ve been spending all my time painting for my show (the opening reception is Saturday), and save for a few final details - varnish, hardware, cards, catalog - I’m just about ready! I’m showing 15 paintings in all, and I must say that I’m happy with each one.

Focusing on a specific goal – in this case my first solo show – has reaffirmed the pure joy I feel when I immerse myself in creating art, and has also allowed me to experience the magic that happens when I have a plan and a concept for a body of work. I found working in a series to be empowering and synergistic… each new piece seemed to grow out of the one before, and I still have so many “unborn” paintings waiting their turn! And what’s even cooler is that I could feel when it was time to move in another direction, so I am actually showing two mini-series –one figurative and the other landscapes. The show is called Subject to Change, an apt title in so many ways.

My next projects include finally getting my website up and running and investigating more opportunities for showing and selling my work. I’m also looking forward to summer and uninterrupted art time… time to create those imagined paintings, take workshops with three very different artists and explore new techniques… I can’t wait!

My show runs from May 25 through June 24, with the opening reception on Saturday, May 26 from 6 to 9 p.m. Stop by if you're in the neighborhood! More info here.

Soaring

2007-04-29T18:55:00.001-04:00

Soaring
18" x 24" x 1" mixed media on wood panel

Caged Bird

Some believe there's somewhere in the brain
that senses minor fluctuations in the Earth's
magnetic field and uses a sort of memory
of that to travel the same route year after year
over thousands of miles, over open ocean
on moonless, clouded nights, and a built-in clock
that, save for weather's influence, tells
when it's time to go. But they utter nothing
of thwarted dreams in birds' brains, how
a few cubic feet near the ground, however
well-kept and lighted, however large it seems
around a small bright bird, is like a fist
closed tight on feather and bone, how, certain times
of year, the bird's heart races as if to power flight.

- Matthew J. Spireng
(originally published in Inspiration Point from Bright Hill Press and Out of Body from Bluestem Press at Emporia State University)

I am posting yet another not-quite-finished painting. It's a large version of a small painting I did for one of the Journeys books that passed through my hands many months ago. Although the colors and values look different, in "real life," it's actually quite close to the original painting. I just stink at taking photographs of my paintings!

From elation to misery and back...

2007-04-21T17:58:00.000-04:00

Tiny Sky
24" x 30" x 1.5" mixed media on canvas
To the Reader: Polaroids

Who are you, austere little cloud
drawn to this page, this sky in the dream
I'm having of meeting you here?

There should be a word that means "tiny sky."
Probably there is, in Japanese.
A verbal Polaroid of a Polaroid.

But you're the sky, not a cloud.
I'm the cloud. I gather and dissipate,
but you are always here.

Leave a message for me if you can.
Break a twig on the lilac, or toss
a few dried petals on the hood of my car.

May neither of us forsake the other.
The cloud persists in the darkness,
but the darkness does not persist.

- Chase Twichell (1950 - )

This painting has had a least four lives, and throughout each incarnation, my mood has swayed from elation to complete misery. I started it in February, thinking I would paint it in a style similar to The Vine, very flat and decorative. I got as far as painting part of the background and the body of the figure with a koi fish tattoo. And then it sat, because I just wasn't feeling the love, and I started getting really involved in a series of paintings for my upcoming show. When I finally returned to it this week, I thought I'd just soften the background and continue the tattooing process, adding cherry blossoms and leaves. But it wasn't to be.... and thus started my bipolar week.

I will spare you the details of how and why I completely changed the background twice and the body about four times. Suffice to say, my emotional state went up and down with each success and each failure. What I had thought would take just a couple of days, ended up consuming my entire week, but I'm so glad I stuck it out and brought my vision to fruition. All that remains now is to complete the white ink detailing in the hair, and I'll be done! The hardest but best decision I made was to cover the koi fish and go in a softer direction. Although that pretty fish that had taken several hours to paint, once it was gone, I felt liberated. I know it will return when the time is right!

Message (Illustration Friday - Fortune)

2007-04-15T13:40:00.000-04:00

Message
16" x 16" x 1" mixed media on wood panel

Happiness

There's just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.

And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,

that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.

No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.

It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.

It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.

- Jane Kenyon (1947 - )

'Scuse me while I kiss the sky...

2007-03-25T20:42:00.000-04:00

Kiss the Sky
16" x 20" x 1" mixed media on wood panel

Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don't seem the same
Actin' funny, but I don't know why
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky

Purple haze all around
Don't know if I'm comin' up or down
Am I happy or in misery?
Whatever it is that girl put a spell on me

Purple haze all in my eyes
Don't know if it's day or night
You got me blowin', blowin' my mind
Is it tomorrow, or just the end of time?

- Jimi Hendrix (1942 - 1970)

I've been hearing this song in my head, on the radio, and from Jol's guitar for weeks now, and it inspired me to do this painting. It's not quite finished, but if you look closely, you might spy the song lyrics in the pattern of her dress, along with a few other "hidden" things.

Hide and Seek and Finding Home

2007-03-04T17:35:00.000-05:00

In and Out the Courts of Time
16" x 16" x 1" mixed media on cradled wood panel
'Tis but hide and seek we play
In and out the courts of time.
- George William Russell (1867 - 1935)

This is the painting I am showing in an upcoming exhibit called "Word-Art," which explores the synergy between writing and the visuals arts. When I received the prospectus for the show, I immediately thought of how wonderful it would be to work with a poet whose work resonates with me in a very real and meaningful way. This poem, which inspired the painting, so beautifully explores something I think about often - "the irregular circle of life" and finding the way home.

The Irregular Circle of Life

You'd have to say the beginning
starts when you
first notice light,
squinting your eyes
strained in the first minutes to make
sense of voices
set in those bobbing circles
that want you to know,
and try to reach you from within.

From the beginning your turns are
every which way, depending
on how hard you hit the walls
and how softly you bounce off them.
The same bobbing circles protect
or abandon you during those bounces.
It makes a difference
because the hardest bounces don't heal well
and the soft ones push you forward.

They spiral and build upon eachother
until maybe when you are twelve
you smoke a cigarette or
sneak that candy bar in your backpack
and that's another beginning
because you have begun
little deceptions you can call your own.

In those moments you know
but can't describe the sweetness and light
you will revisit for all of your life.
In those moments
you decide
the shape of the circle--
the vessel really--
that will carry you home

Some of your turns
are as wide as every possible outcome
and others so narrow
you squeeze by,
your breath compacted so tightly,
that when it cannot expand
you know you just have to move
or you will be in that space forever.

The day your boundaries blur
and you find yourself drifting--
on that day another beginning
carries you to the spot where
destiny meets opportunity.
And there you are,
wondering again
who wants you to know,
and why it matters.

When you grow up,
by some standard anyway,
your circle may be closed shut
so your community and beliefs
are safe and firm.
Or by then you have had
the misfortune, if it is that,
where little point a and little point b
fail to reach each other.

When that happens
you are born again,
again noticing light,
and squinting your eyes,
straining in the first minutes to make
sense of voices
that want you to know,
that want to reach you from within.

And at that moment,
if you are lucky enough,
the irregular circle that lacks a beginning
and lacks an end
and fails to protect,
this circle that is broken --
this irregular circle--
becomes a portal for
every step you will now take,
for every mystery and
every vision
that every person
who ever loved you
will tell you
if they could
is the truest straightest way
to guide your way home.

- Karen Jasper

Almost Abandoned

2007-02-21T18:06:00.000-05:00

She Walks in Beauty
10" x 10 " x 1" mixed media on wood panel
This painting was giving me so much trouble that I came close to gessoing it over. But I really liked the background, so I put it on my dresser against the mirror (that's where I put unfinished work that I want to think about), and looked at it for a couple of days until the solution revealed itself. I'm glad I gave her a second chance!

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

- George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Illustration Friday - Defying Gravity

2007-02-17T13:54:00.000-05:00

Witness - 10" x 10" x 1" mixed media on cradled wood panel
Sometimes gravity settles into my spirit and becomes an ever-strengthening pull of self-doubt that can keep me from soaring beyond my fears. I find then, that instead of feeling grounded in something real and solid, secure enough in myself to venture outward and onward, I am held back by those inner voices that, for some strange reason, want me to stay put. I always come out of these little episodes of the cosmic blues, usually by reconnecting with Nature, looking at beautiful art, reading some poetry, and then messing around in my studio.

How do you defy gravity?

Witness

I saw that a star had broken its rope
in the stables of heaven--

This homeless one will find her home
in the foothills of a green century.

Who sleeps beside still waters, wakes.
The terrestrial hands of the heaven clock

comb out the comet's tangled mane
and twelve strands float free.

In the absence of light and gravity,
slowly as dust, or the continents' drift,

sinuous, they twine a text,
one letter to an eon:

I am the dawn horse.
Ride me.

- Liz Waldner

Moving Forward

2007-02-14T15:52:00.000-05:00

This is a detail from a large painting (24" x 36") I've been working on. I've decided to do another tattoo painting, loosely based upon a drawing I did over a year ago. It will look something like this sketch:

The tattoos will include the koi fish, which symbolizes "courage, the ability to attain high goals, and overcoming life's difficulties" (tattoo symbol), cherry blossoms to symbolize both the beauty and fragility of human existence, and swallows to symbolize homecoming and rebirth... all concepts that have a great deal of meaning for me at this point in time.

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope today - and every day - brings you the opportunity to give and receive love.

Weird Tag

2007-02-07T12:33:00.000-05:00

little unfinished doodle in my new hand bound sketchbook
Okay...once again, I've been tagged...twice, in fact... by both Kathy and by Random York. It's the 6 weird things about me meme, and frankly, I'm stumped. I think I've spilled all the beans I want to spill in the many lists I've compiled in response to being tagged, and even though I am often called weird, I don't have a never-ending supply of odd behavior and quirks to share. Nonetheless, I will attempt to comply, mostly because my taggers are such fine, talented bloggers! What follows is a very random, sort of edited-stream-of-consciousness (which means it isn't really stream-of-consciousness) list of stuff that may or may not be weird.

I recently discovered that I have begun the shrinking-with-age process. I'm not pleased about this at all, especially since I have always taken pride in my lofty (physical) stature and excellent posture. So, I am going to continue to claim my previous height, in much the same spirit as some people insist on celebrtaing the same birthday year after year.

I keep the ashes of three cats in the same cabinet where I store the wine. This kind of freaks some people out, although I don't know why. They are in tightly-sealed tins!

I spend more money on art supplies and books than on clothes. I actually don't think this is weird. I'd much rather buy new paints and brushes, or books on fun stuff like Japanese tattoo art, than have a handbag that costs more than people pay for housing or groceries. I think that's weird!

I don't play cards, board games, watch American Idol, Oprah, Nascar, or the Super Bowl. And that's just the beginning. I can't even look at the meat and poultry sections in the grocery store. All I see are dead naked animals. I also feel sorry for the lobsters in the tank at the fish counter. At the checkout, I create entire lives for people based on what they put on the belt. By the way, this is a great fiction writing exercise... go to the Grocery List Collection, find an interesting list, and then create characters and a scene around it. That's the kind of stuff I do for fun!

Let's see... did I ever write about eating ants to impress my fellow campers at day camp (it didn't work), going to tea at the Plaza in bizarre, vintage costumes (a somewhat regular pasttime my friends and I had when I went to college in NYC ages ago), or believing I could hurt the feelings of my dolls if I thought bad things about them (that was either garden variety projection or the beginnings of my delusions of grandeur)? I guess I could go on and on, but none of this is really weird. I do think, though, that I've gotten more than six things down, so I'm going to stick a fork in it and call it done. There. Done! OUCH!

FInally, I'm going to change the rules of this game to allow for self-tagging! Tag thyself and let me know. Share the weirdness!

Lovely Hearts

2007-02-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

Grow Together and Sunset Swans
I have sent these two paintings to be part of the "Lovely Hearts" charity exhibition put on by artstream gallery to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Artstream is donating their portion of the proceeds to the charity, and I have decided that I will donate my portion as well.

Both pieces are 6" x 8" acrylic on canvas with light cherry stained wood gallery frames. They, along with lots of other really wonderful "Lovely Hearts," are available for purchase at the artstream online shop.

Illustration Friday - Sprout

2007-02-02T19:08:00.000-05:00

February: Thinking of Flowers

Now wind torments the field,
turning the white surface back
on itself, back and back on itself,
like an animal licking a wound.

Nothing but white--the air, the light;
only one brown milkweed pod
bobbing in the gully, smallest
brown boat on the immense tide.

A single green sprouting thing
would restore me. . . .

Then think of the tall delphinium,
swaying, or the bee when it comes
to the tongue of the burgundy lily.

- Jane Kenyon (1947 - 1995)

mixed media painting on 10" x 10" x 1.5" canvas - one of two paintings going into a show called "Altered Egos." You can see the other painting here.

Inspire Me Thursday - Portrait

2007-02-02T19:03:00.000-05:00

This lady is one of a pair ( the other one is here ) of mixed media paintings that are going into a show called "Altered Egos." She's not quite finished - there's a bit more that I want to do with the background - but I thought I'd share it for this week's Inspire Me Thursday topic. I have no idea what to call her... any suggestions?

(mixed media painting on 10" x 10" x 1.5 " canavas)

edit - Here's the finished version (I named her Testarosa), which I just dropped off at the Gallery on the Green for the show that opens Saturday, 2/10. If you're in the neighborhood, drop by the opening between 6 - 9 p.m. .... I'd love to see you!

Illustration Friday - Superhero

2007-01-20T16:35:00.000-05:00

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Maya Angelou (1928 - )

(4" x 5.5" mixed media on wood)

Illustration Friday - Peace

2006-12-22T18:39:00.000-05:00

Real Peace

Down all the years I've wanted
a peace: not a cessation of war
nor a foul boredom instead-
foetid air dead in an old jar;

rather a translucent-as-water peace,
peace like the silence of books
or blue endlessness beyond cloud-fleece.
The peace that gives beauty her looks,

makes every flower modelled of light;
is like but is not a snowscape nor
cowslip days of spring, but is in sight
the moment I open a dream door

into the loved orchard of words...
In a breathless garden where
images and love live and quick birds
flit, beyond reason is real peace then.

- William Oxley

(6" x 8" acrylic on canvas - This is inspired by a photograph I came across somewhere that I can't remember. The scene touched me... glowing deep and warm, the two swans united in a still peaceful moment before the sun went down...)

I've been...

2006-12-20T20:36:00.000-05:00

...by Ginger to make these lists of four, so here goes (with a few slight variations):

4 Jobs I've Had

publishing assistant in the sub-rights department at Doubleday
first mate/cook on a charter sailboat
fitness instructor
English teacher

4 Movies (I'm glad) I Could Watch Over and Over (because I show them to my students each year)

The Shawshank Redemption
Empire of the Sun
Dead Poets Society
Forrest Gump

4 Places I Have Lived

Larchmont, NY
New York City
St. Thomas, USVI
Canton, CT

4 TV Shows I Enjoy

Desperate Housewives
Miami Ink
The Soup
Project Runway

4 Places I Have Been on Vacation

Canada
France
US & British Virgin Islands
California

4 Places I Would Love To Visit

Italy
England, Scotland, Wales
Pacific Northwest
Southwestern United States

4 Websites I Visit Every Day

The New York Times
weather
Google
a whole bunch of blogs

4 (only 4?)Favorite Foods

fruit
dark chocoloate
almonds
pizza

This meme seems to be making the rounds along with several others, so if you want to make your own lists of 4, consider yourself tagged! Let me know so I can take a look.

Illustration Friday - Helpful Daydreams

2006-12-15T15:59:00.000-05:00

Daydreamer - 24" x 24" - acrylic on canvas - work in progress based on the drawing
We all daydream, perhaps spending one-third to one-half our waking hours moving in and out of a series of short waking dreams that usually last only a few minutes. Yet in a world so focused on productivity and achievement, slipping into that fuzzy place between the conscious and subconscious mind is often perceived as a self indulgent waste of time. Universal as it is, we hide our moments of diurnal reverie, like some naughty pleasure, from employers, teachers, friends, and family lest they think we're slacking off, not paying attention, or avoiding reality. Daydreaming has certainly been given a bad rap, but in fact, its benefits far outweigh any of its negative aspects.

Henry David Thoreau once said that "our truest life is when we are in dreams awake," suggesting that there is much to be gained from allowing ourselves to follow our muses into the land of imagination and possibility. Sigmund Freud studied the benefits of daydreams, and contemporary research also indicates that daydreaming helps individuals in a variety of ways, from managing conflict to boosting productivity and creativity.

Daydreaming is a practice that has served humankind well since ancient times. In the third century BC, the great mathematician Archimedes solved the mystery of the gold crown , which King Heiro II of Syracuse believed was tainted with another metal, by daydreaming in his bath. And although many of us believe that creative daydreaming is the exclusive domain of famous inventors and artists, it has begun to regain its status as a problem solving and creative tool in the workplace where guided imagery and daydreaming are used, with much success, to generate fresh, innovative ideas.

I know that most of my best ideas come when I let my mind wander. It's like the walls come down, allowing words and images to flow through my head where I can capture them like slippery fish in my net of consciousness. I dream of paintings, places, conversations, the past and the future, problems and solutions... really anything that wants to rise to the surface... and so many of these little dreams find their way into the things of which I am most proud.

How have your daydreams helped you? I'd love to know!

Illustration Friday - Invention

2006-11-26T18:31:00.000-05:00

To the Reader: Twilight

Whenever I look
out at the snowy
mountains at this hour
and speak directly
into the ear of the sky,
it's you I'm thinking of.
You're like the spirits
the children invent
to inhabit the stuffed horse
and the doll.
I don't know who hears me.
I don't know who speaks
when the horse speaks.

Chase Twichell (1950 - )

(acrylic & photoshop)

Illustration Friday - Thanksgiving

2006-11-19T20:38:00.000-05:00

I wasn't going to post anything this week, but driving home late this afternoon, I passed a huge flock of turkeys who were foraging in the undergrowth on either side of the road. I was able to get several quick pictures of these impressive creatures before they ran for cover into the woods. I imagine that if they were to give thanks, it would be for being left to run wild instead of ending up on a platter.

Our Thanksgiving menu (which never includes turkey) will probably be something like this:

~ winter squash soup with fried sage leaves and peppercorn pecorino
~ spring greens with artichoke hearts and greek olives
~ some kind of delicious crusty bread
~ wild mushroom risotto with potatoes
~ fennel and brussels sprouts with toasted walnuts
~ cranberry and orange relish
~ pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream
~ Mer Soleil California Chardonnay
~ espresso by Jol...yum!

I hope everyone - those who celebrate this holiday and those who don't - has a lovely week. I'm going back into hiding so I can get all my paperwork done and have the long weekend free for painting and such.

(photoshop)

Illustration Friday - Clear

2006-11-11T14:23:00.000-05:00

What We Need Is Here

Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.

Wendell Berry - ( 1934- )

(16" x 20" acrylic on stretched canvas)

Illustration Friday - Smoke

2006-11-03T20:12:00.000-05:00

Wistful

WISHES left on your lips
The mark of their wings.
Regrets fly kites in your eyes.

- Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)

(an ancient charcoal and pastel drawing from a high school art class)

Illustration Friday - Wind

2006-10-31T16:39:00.000-05:00

Moving Forward

The deep parts of my life pour onward,
as if the river shores were opening out.
It seems that things are more like me now,
That I can see farther into paintings.
I feel closer to what language can't reach.
With my senses, as with birds, I climb
into the windy heaven, out of the oak,
in the ponds broken off from the sky
my falling sinks, as if standing on fishes.

- Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)

This is a return engagement of an image I posted about a year ago. I decided that if I played around with the colors a bit, I could submit it to Penelope's Black & Orange Contest, and with the windswept mane, tail, and hair, it would also suit this week's IF topic.

Happy Halloween!

(Illustrator & Photoshop)

Illustration Friday - Ghost

2006-10-22T08:33:00.000-04:00

Trees in the Garden

Ah in the thunder air
how still the trees are!

And the lime-tree, lovely and tall, every leaf silent
hardly looses even a last breath of perfume.

And the ghostly, creamy coloured little tree of leaves
white, ivory white among the rambling greens
how evanescent, variegated elder, she hesitates on the green grass
as if, in another moment, she would disappear
with all her grace of foam!

And the larch that is only a column, it goes up too tall to see:
and the balsam-pines that are blue with the grey-blue blueness of
things from the sea,
and the young copper beech, its leaves red-rosy at the ends
how still they are together, they stand so still
in the thunder air, all strangers to one another
as the green grass glows upwards, strangers in the silent garden.

-D.H. Lawrence (1885 - 1930)

The sky changes so quickly here...from acid blue with the trees glowing neon in the late afternoon light, to grey with huge rushing clouds that stampede fiercely across the hilltops. Autumn is Nature's give and take...She gives so much visual beauty that one can't help but feel an inexplicable joy, but that joy is tempered with a sadness as each rainstorm and gust of wind denudes the trees and brings us closer to winter...when we will join those bare ghosts as they wait for the return of green.

(acrylic on 6" x 8" canvas)

Illustration Friday - Trouble

2006-10-09T21:41:00.000-04:00

Storm Warnings

The glass has been falling all the afternoon,
And knowing better than the instrument
What winds are walking overhead, what zone
Of grey unrest is moving across the land,
I leave the book upon a pillowed chair
And walk from window to closed window, watching
Boughs strain against the sky

And think again, as often when the air
Moves inward toward a silent core of waiting,
How with a single purpose time has traveled
By secret currents of the undiscerned
Into this polar realm. Weather abroad
And weather in the heart alike come on
Regardless of prediction.

Between foreseeing and averting change
Lies all the mastery of elements
Which clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter.
Time in the hand is not control of time,
Nor shattered fragments of an instrument
A proof against the wind; the wind will rise,
We can only close the shutters.

I draw the curtains as the sky goes black
And set a match to candles sheathed in glass
Against the keyhole draught, the insistent whine
Of weather through the unsealed aperture.
This is our sole defense against the season;
These are the things we have learned to do
Who live in troubled regions.

-Adrienne Rich (1929 - )

The trouble here is not having enough time to paint and read and interact as much as I would like, but somehow I did manage this painting.
(acrylic on 12" x 16" canvas)

Illustration Friday - Change

2006-09-16T13:03:00.000-04:00

self-portrait, circa 1976

Everything comes and goes
Marked by lovers and styles of clothes
Things that you held high
And told yourself were true
Lost or changing as the days come down to you...
- Joni Mitchell

Changed since 1976: older, wiser, don't smoke (the delusion that it looked artsy and cool didn't last very long), self-supporting

Same as 1976: hairstyle, weight, head full of questions, tendency to daydream

This is, of course, the abridged version.

Illustration Friday - Farm

2006-09-09T12:19:00.000-04:00

As Summer into Autumn slips
And yet we sooner say
"The Summer" than "the Autumn," lest
We turn the sun away,

And almost count it an Affront
The presence to concede
Of one however lovely, not
The one that we have loved --

So we evade the charge of Years
On one attempting shy
The Circumvention of the Shaft
Of Life's Declivity.

-Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

(work-in-progress: acrylic on 18" x 20" gallery wrapped canvas)

Illustration Friday - Safe

2006-09-01T16:53:00.000-04:00

To a Waterfowl

Whither, 'midst falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler's eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along.

Seek'st thou the plashy brink
Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink
On the chafed ocean side?

There is a Power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,--
The desert and illimitable air,--
Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fanned,
At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere,
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end;
Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,
Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest.

Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart.

He who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright.

- William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

(acrylic on 11" x 14" gallery wrapped canvas)

Inspire Me Thursday - Paints

2006-08-25T08:15:00.000-04:00

I just did this painting yesterday for my pages in Daniel Davis' Journeys book, Engine. He asks each Journeys artist, "What is the 'Engine' that motivates you as an artist? What keeps you going? What drives you to create?"

I am driven by my need to create images that express and reflect the emotions my experiences and surroundings create within me. Whether art is in the form of words or pictures, it is an imageable translation of experience, sensation, perception, and emotion. Thus, I feel a certain kinship with the English Romantic poets, who, from the mid 18th century to the mid 19th century, derived much of their creative inspiration from Nature. Reacting against the precepts of order and control manifested in the dominance that science and industrialization had on humankind, the Romantics instead turned their outward gaze to Nature, and their inward eye to the spirit.

William Blake, considered to be the first great English Romantic poet, responded to the assualt of industrialization in the contrasting perceptions of society he depicted in his Songs of Innocence and Experience. He was followed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, who moved beyond Edmund Burke's assertion that "terror is in all cases whatsoever . . . the ruling principle of the sublime," to depict Nature as a healing and spiritual force that could redeem the soul. The next generation of Romantic poets, George Gordon, Lord Byron; Percy Bysshe Shelley; and John Keats, continued the artistic process of finding one's individual poetic voice. Many of the ideas and ideals expressed by the English Romantics were later incorporated in the philosophies of the 19th century American Transcendentalists, notably Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and in turn have contributed to the more contemporary "back to nature" movements.

Our world today is filled with many things that leave us as individuals feeling impotentent and fearful. Although it has been noted that the harder times are, the more creative and innovative art becomes, many people feel crushed by the overwhelming predominance of negativity. I believe it's necessary step away, become more sensitive to ordinary experiences, and find one's personal sublime as snapshots of the myriad moments that comprise our daily lives. There is always some beauty everywhere...

It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever... it helps me remember... and I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in. - Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) in American Beauty

(acrylic on paper)

Illustration Friday - Match

2006-08-20T14:24:00.000-04:00

This that would greet -- an hour ago --
Is quaintest Distance -- now --
Had it a Guest from Paradise --
Nor glow, would it, nor bow --

Had it a notice from the Noon
Nor beam would it nor warm --
Match me the Silver Reticence --
Match me the Solid Calm --

-Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

(acrylic on 18" x 24" gallery wrapped canvas)

Illustration Friday - Play

2006-08-11T10:59:00.000-04:00

I bet with every Wind that blew
Till Nature in chagrin
Employed a Fact to visit me
And scuttle my Balloon --

- Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

These are the pages I did for Beth Berst's Journeys Book, The Story of the Cadmium Yellow Balloon. The theme of her book is playful; there is a yellow balloon, and where it goes and what it does it up to each artist who continues its journey each month. Although this topic seems lighthearted, it's also metaphorical. Our own lives, like the "life" of a balloon, are subject to so many variables. Beth puts it so well in her description of the book: "A balloon can be fragile, just like people. A balloon floating in the sky can easily change its path, just like our own lives. One minute you are simply floating along, and suddenly stormy weather can disrupt your life. Or the winds change and you find yourself in a whole new direction. Life is uncertain. Just like the trip of a balloon."

I wanted my balloon to soar freely over beautiful open land, and as the wind played with its path, it would attract the attention of a goldfinch who was building her nest. She'd see the string as a perfect piece to weave in among the twigs and bits of feather and leaves, and the balloon itself would mark the nest and stand guard over her chicks. I'm hoping that when the baby birds leave their nest, my balloon will be once again be released into the air to continue its marvelous journey...

(micron pen/watercolor)

Illustration Friday - Capture & Inspire Me Thursday - Black & White

2006-08-05T14:31:00.000-04:00

She captured his imagination from the moment he saw her. Gathering flowers in a sunny field with the breeze gently lifting her hair to glint in the sun, she was so much the image of blossoming life that Hades knew he must have her for his own. One day, driven to action by his fierce desire, Hades charged in his chariot through a gap in the earth, and seized the terrified maiden. Thus Persephone, the beautiful daughter of Zeus and Demeter, was brought to the realm of the dead where she became Hades' bride and the Queen of the Underworld.

(micron pen on bristol/photoshop)

Illustration Friday - Clean

2006-07-28T21:07:00.000-04:00

Natural Music

The old voice of the ocean, the bird-chatter of little rivers,
(Winter has given them gold for silver
To stain their water and bladed green for brown to line their banks)
From different throats intone one language.
So I believe if we were strong enough to listen without
Divisions of desire and terror
To the storm of the sick nations, the rage of the hunger smitten cities,
Those voices also would be found
Clean as a child's; or like some girl's breathing who dances alone
By the ocean-shore, dreaming of lovers.

-Robinson Jeffers (1887 - 1962)

(acrylic on 6" x 8" stretched canvas)

The Vine - She's Finished!

2006-07-28T14:18:00.000-04:00

I acually finished this a while ago, but wasn't able to get a decent photograph. This is pretty close to the right color, but not perfect. I found this project very challenging and at times, very frustrating. I'm still trying to get comfortable with acrylic paint after so many years, so I've been learning and relearning as I go. Now that I've finished this, I think there are some things I'd approach differently when I eventually do (yes) another version. In the meantime, below is the naughty poem from which I derived the painting's name.

The Vine

I dream'd this mortal part of mine
Was Metamorphoz'd to a Vine;
Which crawling one and every way,
Enthrall'd my dainty Lucia.
Me thought, her long small legs & thighs
I with my Tendrils did surprize;
Her Belly, Buttocks, and her Waste
By my soft Nerv'lits were embrac'd:
About her head I writhing hung,
And with rich clusters (hid among
The leaves) her temples I behung:
So that my Lucia seem'd to me
Young Bacchus ravished by his tree.
My curles about her neck did craule,
And armes and hands they did enthrall:
So that she could not freely stir,
(All parts there made one prisoner.)
But when I crept with leaves to hide
Those parts, which maids keep unespy'd,
Such fleeting pleasures there I took,
That with the fancie I awook;
And found (Ah me!) this flesh of mine
More like a Stock then like a Vine.

-Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674)

Illustration Friday & Inspire Me Thursday - Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

2006-07-22T14:41:00.000-04:00

The topics for this week's Illustration Friday (Opposites) and Inspire Me Thursday (Child's Play) challenges serendipitously came together when I started to thinking how some animals are portrayed in myth and literature with either positive or negative attributes, usually depending on the cultural context. The wolf is a perfect example.

Wolves, as predators, have historically been perceived by humans as mysterious, cunning, and dangerously bloodthirsty. Yet as an archetypal symbol that's both negative and positive, the wolf represents the union of opposites. Although in many mythologies and religions, the wolf is considered demonic and destructive, there are as well many examples of the wolf as the protector-companion. For example, in the Middle Ages, the ancient idea that men could be transformed into werewolves, half-human, half-animal creatures who roamed the streets at night and feasted on humans, became a widely accepted belief, attributing the transformation to the devil. Yet in Classical mythology, the wolf is the companion to the goddess Artemis, and it was a she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus, the founders of ancient Rome.

The opposing images of the wolf appear in literature as well. A large body of folklore attests to the negative image the wolf has attained throughout history; an image that has in fact caused the word "wolf" to become a metaphor for wily humans (usually men) who prey on innocent, helpless creatures (usually women). Fairy tales such as "Little Red Riding Hood" bring the creature and the metaphor together in a story with a moral: "...young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf." In contrast, the Russian Folktale, "Prince Ivan and the Grey Wolf", shows the wolf as a loyal friend who helps Prince Ivan achieve his goals and live happily ever after.

In nature, the wolf is a keystone predator, and as such, is an important part of its ecosystem. Prior to the 20th century, however, the wolf had been almost hunted out of existence in the United States and Europe, as it was erroneously perceived to be dangerous to humans and livestock. Fortunately, ecological research has caused more people to understand the importance of predators in the natural order, and there have been efforts to reintroduce the wolf to its former habitats.

(acrylic on 10" x 10" stretched canvas)

Check out my article on Andrea Pratt of Colouring Outside the Lines and her really outstanding art. If you don't know about her work, you're missing a wonderful experience!

Surface and Symbol Outside the Lines - The Art of Andrea Pratt

2006-07-19T14:02:00.000-04:00

Epoch - acrylic - 48" x 48"
I have always been intrigued by the work of archeologists. Meticulously sifting through layer upon layer of dirt and rock, they dig into the ages of the earth, uncovering artifacts that allow us to learn more about the evolution of human cultures, and connecting humankind through the discovery of common archetypal motifs.

When I entered the blogosphere a year ago, one of the first people I "met" was Andrea Pratt, the Canadian artist whose blog, Colouring Outside the Lines has since become one of my daily reads. Although I always delight in her generous servings of sharp humor, astute commentary, and introspective exploration, it is her truly extraordinary art that draws me in each time I visit. In its presence, I find myself playing the role of the archeologist, reading the narrative her painted artifacts reveal.

Ms. Pratt's work immediately calls to mind Oscar Wilde's assertion that "all art is at once surface and symbol." Employing a brilliant palette of saturated, jewel like colors, rhythmic patterns, and symbolic motifs in her signature "flattened and segmented picture plane," her paintings seamlessly embody an aesthetic, intellectual, and emotional communication that marries the concept and process with product, providing the viewer a rich opportunity to experience her work on these multiple levels. And although the viewer may be satisfied simply relishing the visual experience her art offers, looking beneath the surface of Pratt's work yields even greater satisfaction.

Tide - acrylic - 48" x 48"
Pratt's most recent series, Primal Landscapes, shows a stunning synthesis of the techniques, motifs, symbols, and themes she has explored in previous series. Working in a large format (48" x 48" and 36" x 36"), Pratt continues her examination of time, growth, and life cycles in the layers of earth and sea through her use of pre-Columbian motifs and symbolic imagery and patterns related to the cyclical nature of life. These motifs and patterns are consistent with the multiple levels on which Pratt's art can be experienced, functioning both as literal cues to the landscape and each painting's visual narrative, as well as symbolic keys to each painting's underlying concepts.

Ms. Pratt uses a layered approach to structuring each painting that physically manifests her conceptual vision. She begins with an underpainting of strong colors in a palette complementary to that of the finished painting. This layering of complementary colors allows Pratt to reveal some of the underpainting in the outlines of forms, or as gradients within her patterns, thereby increasing the brilliant luminosity of the final colors. She continues by stenciling and stamping various images, and using conte to draw in other elements that will be painted by hand. She then moves between painting in the conte images, working in the background colors, and adding patterns to various planes of color. The finished painting seems to glow from within as the viewer's eyes move from symbols of death to symbols of rebirth and ripe life, all to the rhythmic drumbeat of energetic repetitive patterns. This beautiful vision of life is eternal, sublime, and inspiring.

Cultivation - acrylic - 48" x 48"
Andrea Pratt "started drawing before (she) could remember," and drew daily throughout her childhood, receiving a district scholarship to study art at the University of Victoria. However, after graduating with a BFA in 1983 she "began a long hiatus from making art regularly," working for many years first as a photographic lab technician and then as a teacher. In 2001, Pratt made the decision to return to her life long passion and become a full-time artist. Since then, she has built an impressive portfolio and CV, showing her work in both Canada and the United States, and winning several awards.

Visit Andrea Pratt's website to see her latest work and previous series. Contact Ms. Pratt for information on availability and/or location of paintings for purchase at andreap@dccnet.com.

Pratt's art is also available through her blog, Small Art, where she sells small paintings ( 8" x 8" x 1.5"), and as limited edition giclee prints at Art For All of Us, where she is an inaugural artist.

Daily doses of everything Andrea Pratt can be found at her blog, Colouring Outside the Lines.

Illustration Friday - Sacrifice

2006-07-18T20:14:00.000-04:00

Sacrifice

Those delicate wanderers,
The wind, the star, the cloud,
Ever before mine eyes,
As to an altar bowed,
Light and dew-laden airs
Offer in sacrifice.

The offerings arise:
Hazes of rainbow light,
Pure crystal, blue, and gold,
Through dreamland take their flight;
And 'mid the sacrifice
God moveth as of old.

In miracles of fire
He symbols forth his days;
In gleams of crystal light
Reveals what pure pathways
Lead to the soul's desire,
The silence of the height.

- George William Russell (1867 - 1935)

(acrylic on 9" x 12" stretched canvas)

Edit 7/19 - I posted my IF a bit late, because among other things, I was working on this article. It's a "must read" for those of you who do and those of you who don't know about the exquisite art of Andrea Pratt. Take a look!

Almost finished...

2006-07-14T13:46:00.000-04:00

All that remains is the background, and then she's done! I still haven't gotten the hang of properly photographing a painting outdoors, so the background seems to have a blue cast even though it's still white.

Below is a detail of some of the tattoos. I drew them on with a micron pen, painted them, and then added outlines and the very fine linework with ink.

Illustration Friday - Skyline

2006-07-08T12:25:00.000-04:00

Theoretikos

This mighty empire hath but feet of clay:
Of all its ancient chivalry and might
Our little island is forsaken quite:
Some enemy hath stolen its crown of bay,
And from its hills that voice hath passed away
Which spake of Freedom: O come out of it,
Come out of it, my Soul, thou art not fit
For this vile traffic-house, where day by day
Wisdom and reverence are sold at mart,
And the rude people rage with ignorant cries
Against an heritage of centuries.
It mars my calm: wherefore in dreams of Art
And loftiest culture I would stand apart,
Neither for God, nor for his enemies.

- Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

(photoshop)

Progress

2006-07-06T18:20:00.000-04:00

She's ready for her tattoos! I built up several layers of glaze on top of the blue underpaint, working from a warm putty color to a final glaze that is a mix of iridescent white, a touch of acra crimson, and a bit of iridescent light gold mixed in with a lot of glazing medium. This gives her body a warm tone and a really nice sheen (which is a bit exaggerated in this photo due to the lighting). Although it's hard to tell in a photograph, her hair also has metallics in some of the strands. I want the overall effect to be lustrous and opulent.

Inspire Me Thursday - Body Parts

2006-07-06T06:45:00.000-04:00

The torso counts as a body part, right? I know I'm late again posting for this week's challenge, but I've been working on this lady all week! It took two days to do the hair alone. She's not going to be blue forever...this is just her undercoat. I've already put on a couple of thin lighter flesh tone glazes over the blue, which will come through as shadows in the darker areas. Once I finish getting the body just right, she'll make a visit to the tattoo parlor to get her ink done. The final stages will involve putting color over the textured background and then texturing and painting the sides of the canvas (gallery profile) to make a "frame." I'll post more pictures along the way.

You can see the first stage here.

Edit 7/6 - And you can see the next stage here.

Illustration Friday - Sticky

2006-07-01T20:26:00.000-04:00

Windswept Hair = Hairspray
Hairspray = Sticky

This is a very old pencil drawing from college quickly doctored in Photoshop. I know it's a stretch, but I'm too into working on my painting and a few other projects (including my new website with fun things for sale) to do what came to mind for this week's topic. If I find time later this week, I'll do a new illustration.

Inspire Me Thursday - Open Studio

2006-06-29T08:56:00.000-04:00

This week's Inspire Me Thursday challenge is to "create anything you would like and share it with us, along with pictures of where you created it." Since I did a "show and tell" about the process of turning a small drawing into a large painting for this week's Illustration Friday (you can see it here), I thought I'd continue with a few more steps for IMT.

In order to get the proportions correct, I wanted to see my original drawing scaled to the size of the canvas for the large painting. To do this, I opened the small file in Illustrator and changed it into a vector drawing. That way I could resize it to 24" x 36" without losing the sharpness of the lines. I then printed it in tiles, taped them together, and attached the poster to a bulletin board. I used the poster as a model for my sketch on the canvas. I have to say that I found drawing such a large figure very intimidating...I haven't done this since college art classes! The sketch took me all morning yesterday.

My next step was to gesso the background and put in texture as I did with the small painting. I discovered that I didn't get enough texture this time with one coat, so this morning I mixed gesso and gel medium and applied another thick coat. I used a plastic fork and a mechanical pencil without lead to put patterns into the goop...you can't see it yet, but on top of the stucco effect, I etched in vines with leaves. I think it will look really nice when I put color over it.

My studio is a small room that doubles as my office, so it's very crowded. Although I really like having the couch there (so my kitty Jezebel can keep me company), I would much prefer a work table and shelves. The table on the right is actually my desk which has two monitors (23" and 17"), a scanner, speakers, books, etc. I really don't like putting paint stuff on it, because I'm afraid it will get on my screens. Anyway, the couch will be moving to a new location as soon as we tile that area, and...I'll have a new and improved studio!

Illustration Friday - Rain

2006-06-23T13:10:00.000-04:00

The First Rain

The first rain reminds me
Of the rising summer dust.
The rain doesn't remember the rain of yesteryear.
A year is a trained beast with no memories.
Soon you will again wear your harnesses,
Beautiful and embroidered, to hold
Sheer stockings: you
Mare and harnesser in one body.

The white panic of soft flesh
In the panic of a sudden vision
Of ancient saints.

Yehuda Amichai (1924 - 2000)

This is a painted version of the pen drawing I did for Tattoo back in March. I've had enough of rain and dreary skies, so I am using this to illustrate how, after the rains, the fertile earth becomes lush with growth, celebrating in all its glorious colors!

I have decided to translate the Tattoo drawing along with some of my other smaller drawings into large paintings. It's been a very, very long time since I've done anything larger than 11" x 14", so before actually putting this lady on the 24" x 36" canvas that awaits her, I wanted to play around with background texture and colors, and think through the kinds of changes I will need to make in a larger, all paint format. I printed the original drawing out on watercolor paper, and then put down the background texture. Although it doesn't come through accurately online, the background has a stucco-like texture that I created by scratching lines into wet gesso with a plastic fork. I then painted in the figure with acrylics and made a few "repairs" to the linework where necessary with a micron pen. To finish, I put the background colors on with a sponge and my fingers. I rather like this as a small piece (9" x 12"), so I'm thinking I'll use this pre-painting process for each work I want to make into a big painting...it's a great way to test my approach, and I end up with a small painting as well!

Edit 6/29 - You can see the start of the big painting here.

Illustration Friday - Dance

2006-06-18T12:07:00.000-04:00

I finished up at school on Friday afternoon, walking through the doors with the idea that I would immediately begin all the wonderful projects I had put on hold for so long. But by the time I got home, exhaustion had begun to set in, and by Saturday morning I felt completely drained. Nonetheless, I tried to create the image I had in my mind for this week's IF topic. I sketched and erased and sketched and erased over and over until I finally admitted that it wasn't going to happen this time. So once again, I offer you some blasts from the past...

The image above is from one of my high school journals. It was done in traditional pen and ink. My younger brother Matthew, who was a very little boy at the time, named it "Of People, Nature, and Pictures." The image below is a doodle from one of my college journals, and if you can't read the words, they say "Do you wanna dance?" I used some kind of fine line pen and markers.

So, if do wanna dance, I hope it's with joy!

Illustration Friday - Jungle

2006-06-10T11:16:00.000-04:00

I don't have time to work on a new piece this week, because I am in the midst of grading papers and finishing up the school year. So I guess it's appropriate that I post this silly drawing I did when I was in high school. I drew it with some kind of fine line pen, probably a rapidograph, and then added the color today in photoshop.

Illustration Friday - Portrait

2006-06-04T18:57:00.000-04:00

Robert Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess," which is loosely based on events in the life of Alfonso II d'Este, fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533-1597) employs the concept of portraiture on several levels. The Duke, whose first wife Lucrezia died in 1561 after they'd been married for three years, addresses an envoy who has come to negotiate the Duke's marriage to the daughter of the Count of Tyrol. Stopping before a striking portrait of the young and beautiful Duchess, the Duke takes the opportunity to paint a verbal portrait of his late wife. Ironically, it is through the Duke's description of his last Duchess that the reader discovers even more about the Duke's true character.

Throughout his monolgue, the Duke denigrates his first wife, whose "heart ...[was] too soon made glad...too easily impressed," suggesting that she was a shameless flirt who did not appreciate his "gift of a nine-hundred-years- old name." Yet as the Duke continues his harshly negative portrayal of the Duchess's character, an image of the Duke as an arrogant and jealous man who was both enthralled by his wife's beauty and infuriated by his inability to control her spirit begins to emerge. When the Duke relates how, frustrated by the Duchess's indiscriminate warmth and smiling demeanor, "[he] gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together," the reader realizes that the Duke was responsible for his wife's demise. This disclosure concludes the Duke's discussion of his last Duchess, and he then returns to the business of arranging for new marriage with another young woman.

Confident that his self-portrait as a nobleman of wealth, power, taste, and intellect places him in a favorable light, the Duke uses his verbal portrait of his last Duchess as a warning to his new wife. Although she may be a thing of rare beauty, the Duke see himself as "Neptune...taming a sea-horse," and will stand for no less than complete submission.

(micron pen, watercolor pencils, and acrylic on 185 lb. watercolor paper)

Journeys - Spirit

2006-06-03T22:26:00.000-04:00

How does one just let go and allow images to fill a page without planning, without questioning, letting only one's inner spirit guide the way? That is the challenge Leeza presents each of the Journeys artists when we receive her book, Spirit... we must create art spontaneously, directed only by the spirit within.

I had a hard time doing this. I was so daunted by the prospect of working without a plan that I actually stalled and stalled until this morning, even though I've had the book for weeks. Nervous as I was when I finally sat down to work on the two-page spread, I remembered how energized I felt when I created mixed media pieces for the Inspire Me Thursday's Senseless Art and Five Senses challenges. I decided to take a similar approach of abandoning expectations and just going with the flow of energy. I chose colors that appealed to my mood and then proceeded to make a great big mess all over my work table. I gessoed the pages, stamped in texture, rubbed in colors with my fingers, sponged them around, removed color with alcohol, collaged the horse, scribbled with water soluble pastels...adding and subtracting until I felt like I was finished. I thoroughly enjoyed the process, and I even like the product.

(acrylic, water soluble pastel, and collage on 140 lb. cold press water color paper)

Illustration Friday - Cake & Inspire Me Thursday - Word Art

2006-05-27T16:57:00.000-04:00

It's almost June, and the big wedding season is upon us! Soon the curtain will come up on the glorious pageant that's been months, even years in the planning. The bridezillas have made it through buff bride boot camp and are happily flexing their toned triceps in the mirror. Ah...perfection! This big day is just the beginning of a perfect life where the stakes are always high; but it's well worth it, because she who dies with the most cake wins...

I am doll eyes
Doll mouth
Doll legs
I am doll arms
Big veins
Dog bait
Yea they really want you
They really want you
They really do
Yea they really want you
They really want you
But I do too
I want to be the girl with the most cake
I love him so much he just turns to hate
I fake it so real I am beyond fake
And someday you will ache like I ache
Some day you will ache like I ache
I am doll parts
Bad skin
Doll heart
It stands for knife
For the rest of my life
Yea they really want you
They really want you
They really do
Yea they really want you
They really want you
But I do too
I want to be the girl with the most cake
He only loves those things because he loves to see them break
I fake it so real I am beyond fake
And some day you will ache like I ache
Some day you will ache like I ache...

"Doll Parts" by Courtney Love

(mixed media & photocallage)

Inspire Me Thursday - Abstract Art

2006-05-21T08:15:00.000-04:00

Hurray for Misty and Melanie! On top of coming up with all kinds of fun, exciting, and inspiring challenges each week, they've now set up a new and improved site for Inspire Me Thursday.

This week's challenge was to create a piece of abstract art...not easy to do without ending up with a great big mess! I decided to just choose a few colors and go where they took me. I ended up with this Martian garden done in acrylics and gel markers.

Illustration Friday - Sorry

2006-05-20T13:22:00.000-04:00

"I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union"

- from "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns

(mixed media - acrylic, collage, crayon on 185lb. cold press watercolor paper)

Illustration Friday - Angels & Devils Revisted

2006-05-18T05:44:00.000-04:00

This is the almost completely finished version of the drawing I posted below. I might add some texture and lighten the background a bit, but overall...I'm much happier with this softer version.

(micron pen/watercolor pencils/gel markers/acrylic)

Illustration Friday - Angels & Devils

2006-05-13T22:46:00.000-04:00

Jonh Steinbeck wrote in Chapter 34 of East of Eden, " I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one, that has frightened and inspired us... Humans are caught – in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too – in a net of good and evil... A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well – or ill?"

The battle between good and evil within one's soul (psychomachia) was the main concern of medieval allegories, a tradition that originated with the Bible commentators of the early Christian era and continued on through the High and Late Middle Ages. Although these allegories appeared in diverse forms, such as the poem "Psychomachia" written by the Latin poet Aurelius Clemens Prudentius in about 400 A.D., the morality play Everyman, and Dante's The Divine Comedy, written between 1308 and 1321, all were ulitmately concerned with ars morendi, or "dying well." The moral lessons upon which these stories were built were intended to help their audiences lead a good Christian life so they might die in a state of grace. Although taking on many forms and appearances, the battle for one's soul and the desire to die with an unblemished record, continued through the centuries as a prominent element in literature and the arts.

Even in our modern world that has become increasingly secular, the concept of psychomachia continues to be a pervasive theme, most certainly because it is such a basic and compelling topic for human consideration. Many of us might say we've moved beyond good and evil, but still find ourselves playing referee between the angel on the right shoulder and the devil on the left shoulder. Steinbeck concludes chapter 34 with his apt explanation: "[In] the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil... evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue is immortal. Vice always has a fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is."

(micron pen/ background done in photoshop)
5/18 edit - the finished version is posted above

Illustration Friday - Fat

2006-05-06T08:49:00.000-04:00

Think back on your school days...the friends, the foes, the laughter, the tears (and so on...play your Senior Prom theme song in your mind; it'll help get you in the mood). Think about all those kids you made fun of, or the kids who made fun of you. We were pretty quick to put others into categories, weren't we? And...if you've been to a high school reunion or two or three, it's always interesting to see how everyone has turned out.

Below is a return post from last August that I think is fitting for this week's topic. It's written from the point of view of one of those mean girls from high school who hasn't changed a bit, and when you get to the bottom, you'll see how it fits this week's topic.

Renion Tour 2005

Dear Lulu,

Wow...it's been a long time since I've written, but you know how it goes. I've been so swamped...between work and the kids and my book club and my Master Gardener classes (to name just a few things)... well, time just seems to fly by. I hope you and Humphrey and the kids are all doing well. Give them my love and some big hugs and kisses!

So, you're never going to believe the weird things that have happened over the past few months! Justin and I have gone to a few "nostalgia" rock shows...they're so much fun...and at each show I've managed to run into someone you and I knew from good old Waring High School, home of the "Smoothies." I was pretty floored the first time, but it actually happened four times. Too bizarre!

Remember Wren? You know, that skinny vegetarian hippie chick who used to always say, "You're lucky you're organic" every time someone missed the trash can? I saw her last winter at a Tom Jones concert! Okay, before you start laughing, I'm just going to tell you that we only went for the laughs. Really. But you know, he was good! And he had an excellent band. Anyway, I practically sat on her lap trying to get into my seat. Yep...she was sitting in an aisle seat in the same row as us. She's divorced and teaching yoga at a health club, still doing the vegetarian thing, and way into all this crunchy stuff like meditation and aromatherapy. But check this out...she was dressed in this tiny black pleather miniskirt with fishnets and stretch pleather boots, and she was wearing a dog collar! I kid you not. She made a point of telling me that the skirt and boots were vegan, but the dog collar? Do they even make vegan dog collars? So, Tom played all his old favorites like "Never Fall In Love Again" and "Deliah," and when he began "What's New Pussycat," Wren jumped out of her seat and started bumping and grinding her way down to the stage, twirling a pleather thong over her head! I'm assuming it was pleather, because I didn't see her for the rest of the evening to ask. What a scene! Along with the usual women hurling sexy lingerie at Tom, there were grandmas throwing industrial strength bras and girdles, and even some guys throwing their underwear. Whoa! Well, I did exchange numbers with Wren, but I haven't heard from her.

The next concert we went to was Judas Priest. They're back together with Rob Halford for their Angel of Retribution tour, so we just had to see them! You know us...we're into "Breakin' the Law," ha ha... Anyway, we were getting into the parking garage elevator, and this woman who looked like a groupie was running towards us, dragging some guy with a mullet and a beer belly, yelling, "Hold the door! Hold the door!" I was thinking (to myself, of course) "WTF?" until I realized who it was... you guessed it! Roxanne! How many times did we run into her in the girls' bathroom while she was sobbing hysterically about how she was going to break up with Billy and rip the hair out of some girl he talked to in the cafeteria? I always wondered how she could cry like that and smoke cigarettes at the same time... Well, she didn't break up with him - she married him! And they have two sons who are also married, and one of them just had his first baby, a little girl. Guess that's what happens when you get married right out of high school, huh? She's hasn't changed a bit either, unless you count the boob job, the tattoo (butterfly on the right breast...I wonder if she got that before or after the boob job...wouldn't the needle puncture the implant?), and the hair extensions. She's been making goth jewelry and selling it at the tanning salon where she works.

I know you're probably thinking this is pretty outrageous, seeing both Wren and Roxanne within the space of a few months, so you probably won't believe that I also saw Rhonda at a Beach Boys' concert. The Beach Boys' show was really fun! It was held on an outdoor stage on a warm summer night...just the perfect setting. We brought our wine and picnic dinner (there's this awesome gourmet place near us that makes special take-out dinners for the outdoor shows) and were having the nicest time until I heard someone behind us hissing at her husband. She was saying something like, "Just don't make a fool of yourself! It's fine if you want to dance, but don't wave your hands around! I don't want anyone to think you're drinking too much." You know me, I had to check that out! To tell you the truth, I wasn't really that surprised to see good old "Soccer Rhonda." Remember how we used to joke about how well she protected her "goal"? What a priss! And there she was in all her glory: pink polo shirt with a little embroidered frog, madras bermuda shorts with a whale belt, pearls, a perfect french manicure, and that hairdo. Why doesn't her hair ever move? She looked really embarrassed at first, but then introduced us to her husband, Tripper. He's some big executive at an insurance company or something. Funny, but by the end of the evening, he was dozing in his seat while Rhonda was tastefully doing the twist in the aisle. Some things never change, right?

Then last weekend we went to see Eric Burdon and The Animals, which was probably the strangest of all the nostalgia concerts we've been to. The Animals might have been playing, but the audience was more like The Zombies...weird looking creatures who looked like they rose from the dead, raided a thrift shop, and decided to have a night on the town. I really wish I had a camera, because you'd never even be able to imagine some of the outfits. Just to give you an idea...there was this girl (who looked kind of like a man) wearing a leather vest that lit up across the back and blinked the words "Atomic Pam" walking around with another girl who looked like a roly-poly Tonya Harding wearing what appeared to be a pink and white ruffled skating costume. I was having a great time looking at everyone, and then I spotted a short, round woman who was wearing a skin-tight leopard print one-shoulder dress with fringe and clearly without underwear. Yikes! I kept looking at her, because I just couldn't figure out what she had been thinking to wear something like that, and also because she looked very familiar. OMG! It hit me...it was Maude, you know that really shy girl we used to call "Tarzana" because she reminded us of an ape with her long arms and short body? Lulu, I think we damaged her for life! Now she's dressing the part! I'll be honest...I just didn't have the heart to say hello to her. I still feel bad for all the teasing we did. And I'm still waiting for that lightning bolt... Not!

So there you have it. Pretty incredible, isn't it? Have you run into anybody lately? Write to me soon and tell me what's going on in your life.

Love,

Sandy

(micron pen and pencil)

Illustration Friday - Under the Sea & Inspire Me Thursday - Digital Art

2006-04-28T20:20:00.000-04:00

Bones

Sling me under the sea.
Pack me down in the salt and wet.
No farmer's plow shall touch my bones.
No Hamlet hold my jaws and speak
How jokes are gone and empty is my mouth.
Long, green-eyed scavengers shall pick my eyes,
Purple fish play hide-and-seek,
And I shall be song of thunder, crash of sea,
Down on the floors of salt and wet.
Sling me . . . under the sea.

- Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)

(photoshop)

More under the sea stuff from previous IFs ...Depth (illustrator) and Sea (micron pen/colored in photoshop). Click for larger image.

Illustration Friday - Robot

2006-04-22T23:27:00.000-04:00

The blurred line between reality and illusion with regard to what makes a being human is a primary theme in both Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ridley Scott's loose 1982 film adaptation, Blade Runner. Both works portray a dystopian future Earth (in the original edition of the novel, the "future" is 1992; in later editions and in the film, it is 2021) where humans who haven't elected or been permitted to emigrate to off-world colonies live in crowded cities and suffer illnesses and mutations caused by radioactive fallout.

Among the incentives to emigrate to the off-world colonies is the service of androids (called "andies" in the novel and "replicants" in the film). Made of biological compounds and endowed with intelligence and implanted memories, these androids are virtually indistinguishable from humans, except for their inability to feel empathy with life. Nonetheless, many androids escape their off-world slavery in search of freedom and the opportunity to live as humans. On Earth, bounty hunters known as blade runners are employed to detect and "retire" androids who are considered extremely dangerous because of their strength, cunning, and lack of emotion.

The central issue of what makes a being human is developed in both works through the characterization of the protagonist Rick Deckard and the various androids with whom he comes into contact. Among the most poignant expressions of this question comes in the film after the replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) saves blade runner Deckard's (Harrison Ford) life and then dies at his programmed time. Deckard muses, "I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before. Not just his life, anybody's life, my life. All he'd wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there and watch him die."

What makes us human, if not those eternal questions?

(photo collage)

Illustration Friday - Spotted & Inspire Me Thursday - Vernal Equinox

2006-04-17T09:04:00.000-04:00

Spring has arrived in New England - finally! Daffodils are blooming, the trees have wonderful little green and red buds all along their branches, and the birds are making nests and starting families. All is well in nature...

I chose to illustrate the Scarlet Ibis for both the Illustration Friday and Inspire Me Thursday challenges. This beautiful bird is one of the thirty-three ibis species, an ancient group with fossil records that date back 60 million years and historical references that date back 5,000 years. The ibis was sacred to the ancient Egyptians, and the Latin name ibis has Greek origins meaning "religious worship, sacred bird." The Scarlet Ibis is a tropical species known for its elaborate courtship rituals ( most certainly an avian rite of Spring) and the lovely spotted eggs it lays.

(micron pen, acrylic, and collage on canvas paper)

Inspire Me Thursday - Series

2006-04-12T18:43:00.000-04:00

Edit 4/17/06 - I finshed this acrylic study a few days ago for the pencil sketch below. Now that I have an idea of composition and colors for two large paintings, I'm going to get started.

I want to do a series of paintings inspired by the images and feelings evoked by James Wright's beautiful poem, A Blessing. Its sound, its figurative transference of imagery, and its meaning lull me into a blissful peace that's almost impossible to describe in words. The last three lines send a thrill of joy through me...

Above are a pencil sketch and a rough acrylic study (each about 4" x 9" on canvas paper) for two of three larger paintings I plan to do. I am also experimenting with colors I don't usually use, in response to Leeza's color challenge to try working in colors outside one's comfort zone. I'll post all three finished studies as soon as I get them done. In the meantime, please savor this poem...

A Blessing

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.

- James Wright (1927 - 1980)

Illustration Friday - Speed

2006-04-08T11:22:00.000-04:00

Once again, Fortuna spins her wheel in my favor. I had thought about taking a break from Illustration Friday this week; I've had so much going on lately, and I've been backed up trying to meet both personal and work deadlines. But as it turns out, I am able to use the drawing I did for this month's Journeys book project (this month I had Debbie Weber's Energy as Movement book) to illustrate Speed as well.

Sometimes the energy of the universe seems to move around and through me with incredible speed. My senses become overloaded between processing the information I need to function in the practical world, and channeling the inspiration I need to create art. But when I can still myself and just let this energy flow, it's exhilaratingly beautiful. The experts seem to agree:

The energy of the mind is the essence of life. - Aristotle

There is more to life than simply increasing its speed. - Mahatma Gandhi

What kind of scale compares the weight of two beauties, the gravity of duties, or the ground speed of joy? Tell me, what kind of gage can quantify elation? - Ani Difranco

This drawing is intentionally very busy to convey the feeling of energy, speed, fragmentation, and elation.

(micron pen & prismacolor markers on 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper)

Illustration Friday - Spring

2006-03-31T20:29:00.000-05:00

Vernal Sentiment

Though the crocuses poke up their heads in the usual places
The frog scum appear on the pond with the same froth of green,
And boys moon at girls with last year's fatuous faces,
I am never bored, however familiar the scene.

When from under the barn the cat brings a similar litter, –
Two yellow and black, and one that looks in between, –
Though it all happened before, I cannot grow bitter:
I rejoice in the spring, as though no spring ever had been.

-Theodore Roethke (1908 - 1963)

(micron pen/colored in photoshop)

Illustration Friday - Monster & Inspire Me Thursday - Monochromatic

2006-03-25T16:29:00.000-05:00

The Gorgons of Greek mythology were so hideous that the mere sight of them would turn anyone who gazed their way to stone. They were, according to the poet Hesiod, so frighteningly repulsive to the senses that they "were not to be approached and not to be described." Medusa, the only one of the three who was mortal, was born beautiful with a head of luxuriant, shining hair. The lusty Poseidon took a fancy to her, and disguised as a horse, seduced her in the temple of Athena. Enraged, Athena transformed Medusa into a monster whose most common portrayal shows her once beautiful hair as a mass of writhing snakes.

Medusa

I had come to the house, in a cave of trees,
Facing a sheer sky.
Everything moved, -- a bell hung ready to strike,
Sun and reflection wheeled by.

When the bare eyes were before me
And the hissing hair,
Held up at a window, seen through a door.
The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead
Formed in the air.

This is a dead scene forever now.
Nothing will ever stir.
The end will never brighten it more than this,
Nor the rain blur.

The water will always fall, and will not fall,
And the tipped bell make no sound.
The grass will always be growing for hay
Deep on the ground.

And I shall stand here like a shadow
Under the great balanced day,
My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind,
And does not drift away.

- Louise Bogan (1897 - 1970)

(9 x 12 - micron pen/colored in photoshop)

3/26 edit - I am also submitting this for the Inspire Me Thursday challenge to create a monochromatic piece. I had originally planned to do this completely in shades of green, but somehow a bit of greenish-orange sneaked in...

Illustration Friday - Feet

2006-03-18T11:05:00.000-05:00

In poetry, the term foot refers to the basic unit used in the scansion or measurement of metrical verse. A foot usually contains one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables. Certain poetic forms require not only a specific kind of meter, but also a set number of feet per line. Shakespeare, for example, wrote his plays and sonnets in iambic pentameter - five feet per line, with each foot comprised of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.

The Muses of Greek mytholgy are goddesses who preside over the arts and sciences, invoked by poets and musicians for inspiration. Although there were originally many Muses, the Greeks favored nine: Calliope (epic or heroic poetry), Clio (historical and heroic poetry), Erato (love and erotic poetry), Euterpe (music and lyric poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (eloquence and dance), Terpsichore (dancing and the dramatic chorus), Thalia (comedy and pastoral poetry), and Urania (astronomy and astrology). Each Muse had a paticular object associated with her art. Erato, the muse of lyrical love and erotic poetry, is usually depicted with a lyre.

In his poem "On the Sonnet," John Keats writes about the poet's attempt to reconcile the demands of poetric structure with the pure inspiration of the Muses:

If by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet
Fetter'd, in spite of pained loveliness,
Let us find, if we must be constrain'd,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To fit the naked foot of Poesy:
Let us inspect the Lyre, and weigh the stress
Of every chord, and see what may be gain'd
By ear industrious, and attention meet;
Misers of sound and syllable, no less
Than Midas of his coinage, let us be
Jealous of dead leaves in the bay wreath crown;
So, if we may not let the Muse be free,
She will be bound with garlands of her own.

(ink drawing/collage colored in photoshop)

Inspire Me Thursday - Senseless Art

2006-03-14T21:16:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday's inspirational challenge was to create art by purposefully avoiding the use of our five senses...a tough one, indeed! This took me all week to do, as I worked on it here and there between other things...and here's how it happened:

Vision - I usually have a very clear idea of what I want to draw or paint, and I spend many hours visualizing it in my head. I picture what supplies I'll use, and I even imagine myself in the process of creating. When I do sit down to create something, I have a plan and I build from that. This time I had no picture in my mind, and my words to Jol after dinner last Thursday were something like... "I'm just going downstairs to slap some gesso on a canvas." From there, I started playing with colors and textures by pulling out random tubes of paint, trying different stamps, smearing with a sponge, and so on. When I felt done with the background, I just put it away, returning over the week to do different things as they happened.

Touch and Hearing - I avoided having any desired outcome, so I felt free to mess around with different materials. I decided that I didn't really care what I ended up with; I was just playing. I have to admit that I had to work on the inner critic a bit; it's hard to avoid that voice, especially since I worked without background music.

Taste and Smell - Hmmm...well, I wasn't eating and I wasn't thinking much about smelling anything. I was just concentrating on not concentrating!

So, do I like what I ended up with? I'm not sure.... To be honest, I prefer to have the pleasure of the thought process that comes before creating, and I love the energy I have when I am conscious of my choices and my senses. Nonetheless, this was a cool challenge that stretched me in another way. Thanks, Misty and Melanie!

Illustration Friday - Tattoo

2006-03-10T20:56:00.000-05:00

Tattoo

Tattoo tattoo
Some things fade some never do
Like the names of me and you
In my skin indigo blue
Tattoo tattoo
Waving boys in navy blue
Whalers sailing home to you
Scratched in scrimshaw tusk and tooth
Tattoo tattoo
Some things fade some never do
These lines of love to you
Tattoo tattoo
The verse of life is blank I think
We fill in in invisible ink
It comes to sight, it surfaces
When held up to the light of love
Tattoo tattoo
Carney girls in summer suits
Local boys in leather boots
Diagrams of derring-do
Tattoo tattoo
Tattoo tattoo
Some things fade some never do
Like these lines of love to you
Tattoo tattoo
Like the names of me and you
In my skin indigo blue
Tattoo tattoo

- B. Walkenhorst

(micron pen on bristol/background done in photoshop)

Inspire Me Thursday - Five Senses

2006-03-07T21:44:00.000-05:00

This week's Inspire Me Thursday challenge involved using all five senses to create a piece of art. I have to admit that this one really did challenge me, because I was totally out of my comfort zone. I don't normally mix media beyond using some paper collage here and there in a drawing or painting, so even getting my hands on "stuff" was a challenge! Anyway, here it is (although it's much darker here than "in person"):

Sight - I was surrounded by paint on a palette, pretty paper in a basket, drawings and paintings in my studio, many books, and my fat cat Jezebel snoozing on the sofa. Lovely. The idea of sight is also included in the pieces of mirror in which the viewer can see pieces of herself.

Sound - I put iTunes on shuffle ( I randomly recall hearing songs by Morphine, The Isley Brothers, Sinead Lohan), and I started to create using a small piece of scrap maple from Jol's guitar factory. You might say that the whole piece is grounded in the idea of music! I then took an old plastic compact and smashed the outside case so I could get to the mirror. Noisy! I ended up with shards in various sizes, choosing those that I could use as the rays coming from the eye.

Touch - The whole experience was touch! I felt the grain of the wood. I created texture in the background of the base coat of paint using a series of leaf stamps. I rubbed layers of paint on with my fingers. I gingerly handled the broken mirror so I wouldn't cut myself. I used paper in various thicknesses and textures. The finished piece is dimensional with smooth, rough, hard, and soft surfaces.

Taste - There are five coffee beans on this! I painted them gold and used them as the centers of the "flowers."

Smell - The coffee beans smelled wonderful....

Illustration Friday - Insect

2006-03-03T18:11:00.000-05:00

"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough."
- Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

Work in Progress

2006-03-02T20:40:00.000-05:00

Today I came across a fascinating post that accompanies Kelly's very striking self-portrait, in which she ponders the whole concept of photographic self-portraiture, wondering if it is "self-aggrandizing or self-expression." Although I am not going to summarize here what she wrote (because I think you should visit her inspiring blog and read her thoughts in her own words), I want to share my thoughts in response to what I read.

I have always drawn or painted self portraits. Sometimes I do it intentionally, as in the illustration I posted below. Yet even when the subject isn't meant to be me and doesn't really look like me, there's something in its aspect and demeanor that is clearly mine. I too had often wondered if this infusion of my "selfness" in so much of my art was a sign of egocentricity or simply a mode of personal exploration through visual expression. We are all egocentric creatures to a necessary degree, but I have come to the understanding that the ego-driven practice of drawing myself, intentionally and unintentionally, has been a way to get closer to myself, accept myself, and love myself for all the things that are revealed in the process of creating the image. Although it's about me, it's not much more than a reaching out for some kind of contact with things inside that I can't quite find the words to express. Ultimately, though, it is an image and an impression bound by its moment - ephemeral and open to so many interpretations, especially when viewed out of the context of its creation.

Above is a painting I have been working on for the past few days which is far from being finished. It's called Vernal Equinox, a personification of the Earth awaiting Spring. It isn't meant to be me, but...

Illustration Friday & Inspire Me Thursday - Tea & Me

2006-02-25T13:56:00.000-05:00

I am in the process of getting some work together to exhibit in a show called "About the Earth" at a local gallery - finishing up a painting and printing some pieces so I can take them to be framed, so I had to do a quick one this week. In fact, this is blatant double dipping - it is a self-portrait for this week's Inspire Me Thursday challenge, and it has a tea motif (that's a Camellia Sinensis behind me, and I'm holding a cup of tea) for Illustration Friday.

This was created by throwing together a little bit of everything - acrylic, collage, marker, colored pencil, and some photoshop.

Connecting the moments

2006-02-23T10:03:00.000-05:00

I'm five. It's early April, a watercolor day with the grass long and yellow from a winter under snow and the sky full of grey-blue clouds scudding along the horizon. I stand on a small rise in the back yard wearing nothing except a few of my mother's silk scarves knotted at my shoulders and waist to make a little tunic. My mother is hanging laundry, sparring with the wind that snaps the sheets from her hands as she tries to fasten them to the line with wooden clothespins. There is just a hint of warmth in the air. Light and playful, the wind asks me to dance, so I raise my arms and twirl into the breeze, the scarves fluttering against my body, lost in the pure sensation of the moment.

Im sixteen, and it's the spring after my January graduation from high school. I've driven to the country instead of going to the college art class I signed up for. I feel guilty about skipping class, and upset that I have been doing this on a regular basis, unable to explain it to myself and afraid to tell my parents why I feel so awkward in a college class. I kick my way through the needles on the pine forest floor, pondering my plight and my uncertain future. Suddenly, I find that I've come out into the open at the top of a sweeping, grassy hill. The sun is shining through intermittent puffy clouds, a hawk glides across the sky, and my heart starts to lighten. I lie down in the grass and close my eyes, feeling the coolness of the earth press its fingers into my back, loosening my tension and calming my anxiety. It happens slowly, almost imperceptibly, but I begin to sense the motion of the planet beneath me, and I am lulled into a state of perfect peace. I've found my "spot," and I know things will be just fine.

More moments through the years....climbing a Vermont mountain on a fall day when the air is sharp and the leaves burn against the acid blue sky....riding with my friends in a red VW beetle along a twisting road on the north side of St. Thomas listening to The Pretenders....holding my son for the first time and having no words to describe the feeling....silently sharing a song across the miles, separate but completely together... the first kiss with my truest love... moments here and there, then and now.

Bliss comes in moments...learning to connect those moments brings the realization of happiness.

The above illustration is acrylic, collage, and marker on paper. It is the piece I did for the February pages of Sylvia's Subconscious Dreamscapes book which is one of eight traveling artbooks for the Journeys project.

Inspire Me Thursday - Tiny Flowers ATC

2006-02-22T20:53:00.000-05:00

I had no idea that something this small would take so long to do! My hat's off to all you prolific ATC-ers! Anyway, here's my feeble attempt at Misty and Melanie's Inspire Me Thursday challenge. Check out their site for links to more ATCs.

-acrylic and marker on cardstock

Illustration Friday - Song

2006-02-17T21:31:00.000-05:00

Last week's snow is almost gone, revealing mud, rotted leaves, and the tips of small green shoots pushing tentatively through the earth. The promise of spring is a welcome song to me...

Spring Song
- Paul Laurence Dunbar

A BLUE-BELL springs upon the ledge,
A lark sits singing in the hedge;
Sweet perfumes scent the balmy air,
And life is brimming everywhere!
Is Spring, Spring, Spring!

No more the air is sharp and cold;
The planter wends across the wold,
And, glad, beneath the shining sky
We wander forth, my love and I.
And ever in our hearts doth ring
This song of Spring, Spring!

For life is life and love is love,
'Twixt maid and man or dove and dove.
Life may be short, life may be long,
But love will come, and to its song
Shall this refrain for ever cling
Of Spring, Spring, Spring!

Overwhelmed...

2006-02-16T09:23:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it feels like there's too much to do, and too little of it being what I want to do. I find myself craving time and space to unclutter my thoughts and focus on the things that are important - I want to spend relaxed quality and quantity time with my sweetie, I want to bring to life all the images I have swirling about in my head, I want to just be able to breathe in the air around me without feeling like the other shoe will drop at any moment. That poised "shoe" hovers over me throughout the day and into the night. It saps my energy. It makes me toss and turn and lose hours of sleep. It makes me doubt myself. I start to see only what's wrong and not what's right. I try to fight it.... and I lose. How can I learn to let go, to ride it out, to trust it's simply part of a cycle that will bring me back to equilibrium?

edit 2/18 - I submitted this to Penelope's The Best Advice I Ever Got project. Now, I'm just trying to follow it! Check out the other submissions - lots of good advice!

Illustration Friday - Simple

2006-02-10T19:53:00.000-05:00

What could be more simple than a hug and a kiss? Sometimes that's all it takes to make everything better - from a scraped knee to a broken heart. In fact, research shows that affectionate contact with a romantic partner in the form of hand holding and hugging greatly reduces the effects of stress. In a 2003 study, researchers found that couples who spent ten minutes holding hands followed by a twenty second hug not only had lower heartbeats during subsequent stressful situations, but also had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and higher levels of serotonin and dopamine, neurotransmitters associated with pleasurable sensations.

In honor of St. Valentine's Day, I offer you some photoshopped Hugs and Kisses with nods to Robert Indiana and Andy Warhol.

Illustration Friday - Chair (almost finished)

2006-02-07T21:21:00.000-05:00

For Phase 4 of the series below, I decided to make a print of my original and experiment with colors. I colored this with prismacolor markers and did some shading on the skin with faber-castel colored pencils. I think I will just put in a light watercolor wash for the sky and the dress. I don't know if this is actually what I want to do with the original, so I suppose I can just keep printing copies and playing around!

Illustration Friday - Chair

2006-02-04T17:25:00.000-05:00

I was inspired this week by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres' Grande Odalisque to create a luxurious reclining figure, but in an outdoor setting. Above is the first pencil sketch I did before starting the line details with micron pen.

The term odalisque refers to a female slave or concubine in the harems of the Middle East, especially in that of Turkey's sultan. The odalisque was a favorite subject of many 19th and early 20th century artists, who were intriqued by the exotic sensuality of the imagery they associated with the East. Artists such as Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres painted many representations of indolent odalisques, and Henri Matisse continued this tradition into the 20th century.

This fascination with the Orient is also evident in the other arts of the time. Poems such as Kubla Kahn by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley depict great Eastern rulers of yore, while tragedies such as Salome by Oscar Wilde, the opera Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, and the musical The King and I by Rogers and Hammerstein all depict Eastern characters and themes.

The above illustration shows my almost-finished pen work. I may add some detail in the dress and background, and then add color with a combination of marker, colored pencil, and acrylic... after which I'll post the final piece.

2/7 edit - I posted the almost-finished piece above.

Postcard Swap

2006-02-02T17:40:00.000-05:00

These are some of the postcards I will be sending out for the Postcard Swap organized by Christina. I did some recycling to create them – I printed pieces of old illustrations, collaged them onto colored cardstock, and added some doodled patterns to finish them off. I'm happy with the way they turned out - although I did multiple versions of the same design, each one is a little different.

I want to take a moment to thank all of who have stopped by and left me such encouraging comments. It means a lot to me. Creating art makes me feel vulnerable, and sharing it always has the element of risk. I get so immersed in what I'm doing that by the time I post it, I can't see it objectively. The feedback helps me step back and see things through the eyes of others. Thanks so much for your support!

Illustration Friday - Glamour

2006-01-28T13:07:00.000-05:00

New snow, clear sky, sharp cold, the hoot of the owl, and the elusive red fox... nighttime in the winter casts a magic spell in all its glamour.

- gel marker and collage on paper.

Illustration Friday - Black Cats and Hepcat

2006-01-20T18:16:00.000-05:00

This is an oldie, done several years ago when I was first learning Illustrator. Admittedly, I haven't gotten a whole lot farther than these basic shapes and patterns, but that's probably because I don't use Illustrator that much. I'm posting it because I haven't any time this week to work on something new... I'll be spending all weekend working on the Journeys book project. Even so, I've always liked this because it honors two very special black cats I've had the pleasure of knowing.

Swamp and I came together in a karmic moment on the east bank of the Hudson River one spring morning in 1978 when I rescued him and his sister from being hurled into the river by a couple of boys. Both kittens were tiny black puffballs, the boy having the distinguishing trait of six claws on one front foot and seven on the other. I found the idea of a black cat with thirteen toes very appealing, so I kept him and named him Swamp, because with those feet he would never sink, even on the soggiest terrain. I gave his sister to a waitress I knew from the Empire Diner, where I used to have Sunday brunch. She named her Butch for her own particular reasons. I had Swamp for many many years, and took him with me on my adventures. He and my other cats, Wanda and Willie, even moved with me to the U.S. Virgin Islands, living first in a house in the mountains and then later on a tiny, uninhabited island a quick row away from the boat I called home. He spent his old age residing peacefully with my parents, and in his true mystical fashion, went off one day to die in the woods.

The other black cat was Oscar, who belonged to Jol. He was named after Oscar Wilde because of his flamboyant personality and his graceful movements. Oscar was an outdoor cat and an accomplished hunter with a taste for the unusual... Jol once witnessed him devour a bat! Oscar died a few years ago, and now shares closet space with the ashes of Willie II and Romeo.

I've had many cats that I've loved over the years, but below is a picture (manipulated photograph) of my favorite and the one I love best... the Hepcat.

Illustration Friday - e is for effulgent efflorescence

2006-01-15T09:28:00.000-05:00

...and it's also for e.e. cummings, who wrote about Spring:

o sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting
               fingers of
prurient philosophers pinched
and
poked
thee
, has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy
          beauty     . how
often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and
buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
     (but
true
to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover
          thou answerest
them only with
                     spring)

- ee cummings (1894 - 1962)

(acrylic and marker on canvas)

Illustration Friday - Sea

2006-01-08T12:31:00.000-05:00

Seafarer - Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982)

And learn O Voyager to walk
the roll of earth, the pitch and fall
That swings across these trees those stars:
That swings the sunlight up the wall.

And learn upon these narrow beds
To sleep in spite of sea, in spite
Of sound the rushing planet makes:
And learn to sleep against this ground.

Water is a primeval symbol, suggesting formlessness, primordial chaos, the unfathomable, union and transformation. It is also associated with birth, fertility, purification, and refreshment. Portrayed either as the ocean or the sea, water is an integral component of most religions and mythologies, one of the four elements essential to life in traditional western philosophy, and an archetypical symbol in psychological and dream analysis.

In many religions and creation myths, water in the form of the ocean represents the beginning of life on Earth, the place from which land arose and life originated. In Jungian interpretation, water images are part of the collective subconscious in which we remember our origins of life in the oceans. To see the ocean or the sea in a dream often represents the idea of delving into the subconscious to reveal the deepest and most hidden emotions. As a subconscious symbol, the ocean is generally interpreted as a boundless place representing the way in which one can get lost on the mysterious journey through life, whereas the sea with its more defined boundaries can be interpreted as symbolic of a more planned and secure journey across one's life. In astrology, the water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces) are people who tend to be flowing, flexible, oriented toward harmony or union, intuitive, and deeply emotional.

The illustration above was done in pen and colored in Photoshop.

Illustration Friday - Flavor

2005-12-31T12:06:00.000-05:00

No time this week for something new, so I pulled this gal out from my files. She's 100% digital and changes flavor with just a touch. Go ahead... try it! Happy New Year!

Illustration Friday - Holiday

2005-12-23T21:34:00.000-05:00

We have decided to take a holiday from the holidays this year and simply enjoy having some time off to be together and see a few friends and some family. No tree, no mall, no traffic, no overeating, and no big bills in January. So in the spirit of my non-holiday cheer, I am posting a non-holiday drawing. I recently bought a set of Sakura Gelly Roll metallic markers in different colors, and this is the first doodle I did with them. I'm looking forward to having the time this week to start some of the drawings that I've had in my head. That's one of the best gifts I could get...time to draw!

I want to wish all my wonderful friends in the Land of Blog a very happy and healthy holiday season, and all the best in the new year - Peace, Love, and Happiness to you and your loved ones.

Illustration Friday - Imagine

2005-12-17T10:47:00.000-05:00

I have always loved imagining what life was like in different times and places. What would it be like, for example, to time travel and visit ancient Egypt and be able to see the architecture and art that I've only experienced as photographs in books? Many years ago, I had the privilege of taking a course on ancient Egypt taught by Bob Brier, a well-known Egyptologist. It was a little bit like time travel as he shared his knowledge and passion for a culture that existed so long ago. These drawings are from a paper I wrote and illustrated on ancient Egyptian costume.

The ancient Egyptians were very concerned with aesthetics, and it is natural that this concern pervaded their costume. Their garments were of usually made of woven linen that varied in texture from very thick to almost transparent. When ornamented, garments were either dyed or painted in colors such as deep warm purple, indigo blue, dull madder red, dull apple green, and dull yellow-orange. In ornamentation, the Egyptians used their favorite decorative motifs on everything: temple walls and ceilings, tombs, furniture, jewelry, and clothing. The two most frequently used details were the lotus and papyrus put into varied geometric patterns and colored rhythmically. The drawing above shows the goddess Isis wearing an elaborate hawk headdress.

The most characteristic piece of ancient Egyptian jewelry was the pectoral. This drawing depicts a pectoral from the 12th dynasty (1991 - 1783 B.C.). It was made of gold inlaid with carnelien and lapis lazuli.

Lady and gentleman in festal costume of the New Kingdom (1570 - 1070 B.C.)

left to right: figure with the hawk-feather headdress of Isis, princess, prince

Music was an integral part of the ancient Egyptian lifestyle, whether played in temples, at the banquets of the rich, or in the ranks of a marching army. The musicians themselves had little if anything distinctive about their dress, with the exception of the royal harpists from the tomb of Ramses III (1194 - 1156 B.C.). Here the harpist wore a voluminous New Kingdom robe that fell loose but was rounded off at the bottom to prevent its trailing on the ground.

Illustration Friday - Surprise

2005-12-10T13:29:00.000-05:00

Apparently with no surprise
To any happy Flower
The Frost beheads it at its play—
In accidental power—

The blonde Assassin passes on—
The Sun proceeds unmoved
To measure off another Day
For an Approving God.

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)

drawing/collage - metallic markers and micron pen on white and black bristol

Playing with color

2005-12-05T21:04:00.000-05:00

I want to thank all of you who have left such kind, thoughtful comments and fascinating observations on my illustration this week. I am always incredibly honored to receive the feedback from this group of talented and creative people. I am often asked how I've created a particular illustration since I don't usually add that after my other commentary. I guess I don't want to ramble too much... Anyway, this week, the talented, witty, and always informative Jeope said that it would be interesting if I were to "dish on the process more often," so dish I will!

The drawing above is the original version, done with a micron pen and markers on bristol. I used a little bit of water on a brush to bleed the edges along the hair. I scanned it and then put in the background and a little bit of highlighting on the face using photoshop. I turned it blue for the illustration below by adjusting the hue and saturation and changing the background. Very simple!

Illustration Friday - Blue

2005-12-02T21:43:00.000-05:00

In the darkest part of the night
Blue shadows conjure you
And at the brightest height of the daylight
Sometimes I blink 'cause I think I see you
Dreaming like you do

- Joni Mitchell

Throughout history, color has been used for its ability to evoke emotions and symbolize ideas. Although many of qualities associated with colors vary from culture to culture, some connotations also suggest deeper, archetypical sources. An examination of the history of color can thus yield insight into both cultural identities as well as human psychology.

The color blue is universally associated with the sky and the sea, suggesting heaven, infinity, serenity, wisdom, devotion, loyalty, and openness. Blue has been significant in the religious beliefs of many diverse cultures, often thought to bring peace or to keep evil spirits away. In many cultural mythologies, because blue is associated with sky and water, its symbolism extends to the heavens and of the primeval floods. In both of these cases, blue takes on a meaning of life and re-birth. In dream analysis, depending on the context of the dream, the presence of blue may symbolize either clarity of mind and a spiritual optimism for the future or melancholy. Because color has so much connotative power, artists and writers often go beyond its representational value in order to express and evoke emotions and concepts.

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. - e.e. cummings

Illustration Friday - Small (phase II)

2005-11-29T21:13:00.000-05:00

Well...this is as much as I'm going to do on my mandolin lady, at least for now. I decided to play around with coloring her in Photoshop until I determine how I want to treat the original. I may want to leave her black and white, or go into a more organic, vegetable palette. It's fun to see how many different personalities a drawing can have, but at this point...it's time to put it away for a while. Thanks so much for all your comments on the first two versions below. I really appreciate the feedback!

Illustration Friday - Small (phase I)

2005-11-26T20:22:00.000-05:00

I may not have time to finish this drawing (I've been working on it all day), so I thought I'd post what I have now and then update it later. I started with a pencil sketch and then put in the details with a .005 micron pen. I still have to add the background and then add color with colored pencils and markers. That should be at least several hours of work.

This illustration is in honor of the mandolin, a small short-necked eight-stringed instrument, a descendant of the lute that dates back to 18th century Italy. In the United States, the mandolin has enjoyed popularity since the 19th century in a variety of musical genres...from classical to blues, country, folk and rock music.

Although the mandolin as we know it is several hundred years old, lute-like instruments appeared as early as 2000 BC in Mesopotamia. By the 7th century AD, this instrument developed into a folk lute known as the oud, which is still used today in its original configuration in the Near East. The oud was introduced to Europe via the Moorish conquest of Spain (711- 1492), and to Venice and the rest of Europe through coastal trade and the returning Crusaders. It is from the oud that the lute emerged.

The first lute appeared in the 13th century, and as early as the 14th century, a miniature lute, or mandora, appeared. The mandora, in turn, developed into the madolino, and then came to be called the mandolin in early 18th century Naples. The Neopolitan mandolin had a deep pear shaped body, an oval sound hole, four pairs of strings, and was tuned like a violin.

The mandolin became popular in the United States during the 19th century with Italian immigration, and by the turn of the century, mandolin ensembles toured the vaudeville circuit and mandolin orchestras were popular in schools and colleges. The mandolin continued its evolution during the 1900's with various design changes which included a carved top and flat back.

Reasons to be thankful...

2005-11-23T17:49:00.000-05:00

I have been blessed with so much in my life...the love of a man who has given my heart its true home, the joy of seeing my son grow up with strength and integrity, a quirky family of individual snowflakes, a home in the country with lots of windows to see the woods and sky, good health and physical fitness, opportunities to grow as a woman and an artist, and an indefatigable trust in the bounty of the universe... So many reasons to be thankful...

Jol my love
Daniel my son
my mother Ellie
my father Carl who watches me from heaven
my two brothers, three sisters, two sisters-in-law, two brothers-in-law, two nieces and six nephews,
my sweet animal friends Heidi, Jezebel, and Samantha
my friends far and wide ( I miss them! )
my students and colleagues
my blogland buddies who inspire and encourage me every day...

Have a safe, healthy, and happy Thanksgiving!

Illustration Friday - Free

2005-11-20T11:51:00.000-05:00

Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.
- tagline from The Shawshank Redemption

micron pen and photoshop

Illustration Friday - Strength

2005-11-12T19:02:00.000-05:00

In the tarot deck, the eighth card is Strength, or La Force, and is typically illustrated with a gentle woman who dominates the fierce lion. When dealt in an upright position, this card signifies the virtue of fortitude and the power of love – along with determination, generosity, energy, optimism, resolve, and reconciliation.

Although some claim that Tarot originated in ancient Egypt or with the Hebrew mystic tradition of the Kabbalah, the oldest surviving Tarot cards were made for members of the Visconti family, rulers of Milan in the mid-15th century. The typical tarot deck consists of 78 cards divided into the Major Arcana (Latin for key) and the Minor Arcana. Similar to playing cards, the Minor Arcana is divided into four suits: Swords, Batons, Coins and Cups.

Since the Medieval times, tarot cards have been used both for games and as a means for divination. Later, the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) found a certain significance in the imagery depicted in the Tarot whereby the various cards might represent the fundamental human and situational archetypes embedded in the collective subconscious. Thus, in more recent times, the Tarot has also been employed as a psychological tool.

You can read more about the Tarot at Wikipedia. This version of Strength was done with micron pen, markers, watercolor pencils, and a bit of photoshop. The sun is "on loan" from the Speechless illustration.

Good Karma

2005-11-11T08:26:00.000-05:00

Below is the text of an email I received this morning. I'm not one to pass along chain mail, but I really liked the message, so I thought I'd share it here.

This is what the Dalai Lama has to say for 2005. All it takes is a few seconds to read and think over, and then pass it along.

Instructions For Life

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's:

Respect for self
Respect for others
Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is often a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone each day.
9. Open arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situtation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.