Black and White: The Yin Yang of Colors

Neither Completely Black Nor White 1
Leslie Avon Miller
mixed media collage
5 x 8 inches

My art is created intuitively as I seek to visualize and share this very moment on the continuum of time, just as it slips into the past.


Yin and yang energy are in constant motion and cause everything to happen.

The Nature of Things 1
Alan Bates
45 x 45 cm

From the Dockside series. Alan explains the resources that informed his work in this series; the jangle of boats, slipways, boat sheds, wharves, and old rusted hardware lying in shipwrights yards provided the colours and textures which held my interest.

Yin and yang are the foundation of the universe.

There Are Many Different Sounds
Mirjam Pet Jacobs
mixed media

The art I make is slow art. It is a response to the fast moving, technical, impersonal age. I make unique objects, created with dedication, passion and love.


Yin and Yang are two parts of the whole.

Burnished Double Walled Bowl
Jane Perryman
Saggar fired
23 x 19 x 19 cm

For many years my work has investigated the vessel through traditional techniques of hand building, burnishing and smoke firing. Recently I have developed ideas which allude to the timeless vessel form as well as referencing contemporary urban structures such as buildings, walls, and bridges.

Yin is not completely black.

Tiny Treasure
Noela Mills
ink and mixed media

My art is now almost entirely consumed by the concept of "wabi sabi" - the Zen Buddhist philosophy of finding beauty in things old, worn, incomplete, imperfect and common place.

Yang is not completely white.

Virtues Undiscovered
Bridgette Guerzon Mills
encaustic
6 x 6 inches

I am drawn to the inherent beauty and spirit of the natural world, and my artwork is a personal dialogue that reaches into the stillness of that spirit. Through both imagery and medium, I create organic pieces that speak to the cycles of life, growth and decay, memory and the passage of time.

Yin and yang cannot exist without each other.

Completion
Donna Watson
hand painted rice papers and small scroll
12 x 12 inches

I view my work as an ongoing process of search, and self examination. I am interested in the passage of time, and what remains.

Together yin and yang form the harmony of the opposites.

Dieties and Divas by Janet Jones

College study by Leslie Avon Miller

There must be as many ways to depict the human figure as there are humans. I am always drawn to abstracted figurative work. I find edgy work most intriguing. Janet Jones has done a figurative series of very unique Deities and Divas. Janet explains her series below.

Titania by Janet Jones

Several years ago an American friend living in Japan sent me a Japanese paper doll in the style known as ningyo, and this may have been in the back of my mind when I began this series. I'm sure I was also influenced by local museum collections of Oceanic and African sculpture, ethnic textiles and historic costumes, as well as natural history museum exhibits.

Cassandra by Janet Jones

I sculpted faces and hands in white clay, and folded papers I'd mono-printed or collected, then added small objects, bones and insect specimens. I've presented them in black shadow boxes that look like specimen cases.

Leda by Janet Jones

While Janet and I were discussing her series, she filled me in with more interesting facts about the birth of the Deities and Divas.

Nemesis by Janet Jones

Here is the back story on the Deities and Divas; I'd wanted, as I say on my website, to make some little costumed figures mounted in shadow boxes, after a Japanese tradition, but when I had done a few they looked like paper dolls, and I decided the ladies needed a little edge. I'd heard of a shop in Berkley, across the bay, called the Bone Room. After a fascinating visit I returned home with little baggies of tiny bones, one labeled by the staff "most of a rat." On the way home I stopped for coffee, and the young woman in the shop asked "How's your day going?" I said fine, and her next question was "What have you done so far today?"

I ask you, how often does this happen in real life?

Oracle by Janet Jones

Janet has just started blogging. Her blog is called Foot Notes Odds and Adenda to the web site of Janet Jones. While Janet is not taking comments at her blog, you can easily contact her via her website. Janet's website is a showcase of innovative art which is unique and captivating. Thanks Janet, for taking part in this series on figurative art. And welcome to the blogging community!

Portia by Janet Jones

In my last post on figurative art many of us commented that we would like to turn the pages of Noela Mills' Fabric Book of Life Drawings. Kindly, Noela has taken images of each page and posted a link on her blog, Wabisabiart.

Turandot by Janet Jones

The first image on this post is a study I did for my series called Brown Paper Bags and Rust. You will be able to see the series at Dale Copeland's site beginning August 1st.

The studio update is very exciting- the projected move in date is this Saturday! The floors are painted, and the floor trim is ready to go in. I understand strong men will be here this weekend to move the heavy items like my framing tables and desk into the space. The lightening is full spectrum florescent which still needs to be hung. While the window trim won't be installed yet, I don't think that will take long and I am feeling great anticipation. I am staying calm until it actually happens, but i. c.a.n.t. w.a.i.t!

Thanks for visiting! I hope you enjoy Janet and Noela's work as much as I do.

Expressive Figurative Art

Empty-handed I entered the world. Barefoot I leave it. My coming, my going -- Two simple happenings that got entangled.
~ Kozan Ichikyo

And between coming and going? Make art!




Continuing with the blog post series featuring figurative art I present here life drawings by Australian artist Noela Mills. Noela’s blog is called wabisabiart. Her blog features creative experimentation and a whole spectrum of her own art from jewelry to collage and from paintings to textile art.




Noela’s life drawings are oh so exquisite, using sensitive line, powerful shape and a splendid color palette. These drawings were part of the International Collage Exchange this year, but unfortunately I didn’t get one of them! Noela has also used life drawings to construct a most intriguing artist book. Oh, how I would love to hold that book and turn the pages! Noela is an innovative artist, who loves textures, color and shapes, so of course I feel we are kindred spirits. Noela tells us about her long time love affair with textures here.




When I was about eight years old, I went on a school camp. I borrowed my mother's bellows camera and took photos of rocks, bark, patterns in the sand, reflections, and only one or two of people. My love affair with texture had begun. Over the next fifty years, I explored all avenues of life and the visual arts, becoming an art teacher, a traveller, a ski instructor, a mother and eventually a professional artist. My art is now almost entirely consumed by the concept of 'wabi sabi' - the Zen Buddhist philosophy of finding beauty in things old, worn, incomplete, imperfect and common place. I work with rust paint on canvas, barbed wire in jewellery, antique kimono silks in scarves and teabags in almost everything. My personal mantra is HONEST, SIMPLE and NOBLE. I still take photos of rocks, bark and reflections.























I am a devoted fan of artist Robyn Gordon. You probably know her blog, Art Propelled. Robyn curates delicious on line art exhibits of all kinds including collage, paintings, textiles and anything else that strikes her keen artistic eye. Opening a new blog post at Art Propelled is like opening a birthday present in beautiful kuba cloth wrapping tied with native grasses and decorated with seed pods. But Robyn is best known for her own wood carvings. Robyn takes figurative art and totems to a whole new level. I am fortunate enough to have one of Robyn’s small goddess carvings. It has a place of honor on my windowsill alter of inspirational Very Cool and Arty Things.










Robyn’s carvings make statements about her love for her native Africa and art and her deep sense of compassion. Robyn’s reply to the question “What story are you telling with your art?” follows.



I suppose I am telling the story of my life in South Africa. The niche carvings hold objects that are of the land (pebbles, bones, cowries, driftwood etc.), symbols of Africa (beadwork, arrowheads, tiny stone carvings), symbols of my British ancestry (silver teaspoons, Minton china shards). The totems "speak" of the legends that have been passed down from one generation to the next. The patterns, objects, symbols are all of this land. No matter what tribe we belong to we who were born in this country belong here and make South Africa what it is.




















I am so thankful for the art blogging world. From my little town in the Pacific Northwest of the US I can experience the art, the creative explorations, musings and processes of artists from around the world. Thank you Noela and Robyn.