Solilogy

This is a 9 x 9 section of a 20 x 20 work I am currently working upon, which is part of the Communication series. I have spent several intermittent days building up layers and sanding them back down again. I find I am out of my rhythm with the break for Christmas. I spent the afternoon getting reacquainted with my materials, tools and the current series. Because the new camera isn’t here yet, I put this 16 inch square on the scanner. It’s awkward, but at least you can see something new. Since the scanner is only 9 inches wide, I can only get a bit of the piece. Tomorrow we have another day of family holiday festivities. I hope to be able to work on this piece again on Sunday. This portion has good contrast despite the very limited color pallet. I want to increase the contrast in the rest of the piece.

My friend Jo Reimer has just written a new post on her blog describing when we first met, about 1996 or so. We were in Taos to take a work shop with Sas Colby. It was a Masters class, and I was a beginner. I didn’t let that stop me! I wanted to take a work shop and I wanted to go to New Mexico. So off I went, and met Jo. She kindly helped me all week to figure out what to do, art wise. We also did some sight seeing, taking photos of old doors and adobes. We looked at a lot of art. I would love to get back to Taos. It is a most magical art community and environment. We were at the Mabel Dodge Luan House. We stayed there, ate there and created art there. The keys to our rooms opened the studio door, so we could work anytime of the day or night. Sas read the greatest poetry to us every day, as part of the ambiance. It was heaven.

For anyone who wanted directions to make the little folded art book in my last post , the link is here.

Savory Day

A Happy Birthday

This evening I sat by an open window
and read till the light was gone and the book
was no more than a part of the darkness.
I could easily have switched on a lamp,
but I wanted to ride this day down into the night,
to sit alone and smooth the unreadable page
with the pale gray ghost of my hand.

~Ted Kooser

I love the savoriness of this birthday poem.

Collage Artist

For beautiful art work to look at follow this link to Donna Watson Studios. One of my favorites is a piece called Night. Donna is a collage artist who uses neutral colors, and creates deep texture in her work. I know she will be updating her web site soon, so this is a good time to go see her current work. Enjoy!

Gallery Walk on Date Night

Saturday we went to the December Gallery Walk. My husband and I had a date night, complete with viewing art and talking about what we saw, and meeting artists and gallery owners.We saw lots of intriguing small works, perfect for the holidays. We also had a lovely meal at Galatea Cafe, with candle light, a view of the lights at the town fountain, and other gallery walkers rushing through the rain. We saw the annual and delicious Small Works show at North Wind Gallery. I was especially looking forward to meeting blogger Jeane of ART IT, who was at Artisans on Taylor along with the art she had been blogging about. Several artists were there with their work, and the place was full of energy including live music, champagne, and most of all lots of yummy art. Jeane’s piece just had to come home with me, to join in with some of my work on our holiday mantel. In this photo her art work is the smaller square, along side a piece of my work from my white series. I think of this as my winter white mantel arrangement and Jeane’s piece fits in perfectly. I love her use of dramatic texture, bold use of found items such as glass shards and wire, and her color pallet. Just perfect.

Ongoing Exploration

This image is from an ongoing exploration focusing on using a limited color pallet, mark making and texture. I am thinking about this series in terms of communication. I love the subtleties of neutral colors, rich textures, and “mark of the artist.” I am beginning to use these same symbols and design elements on a series of wooden boxes my husband has made for me. I hope I can successfully transfer from small format to larger. And with the wooden substrate I plan to be able to create even deeper textures. Don’t you just love to make art?