New Year

For me, the New Year begins in the Autumn, when a new school year would start. I would have a new, fresh notebook and pencils, a new outfit, a new teacher, new subjects and a different mix of classmates. It was always an exciting time for me because I enjoyed school and being in the flow of learning and meeting new people. I love that time of year. I usually found ways to incorporate art into most subjects, especially science and social studies. If it was an assignment in biology I would include drawings (horses, of course!) I remember drawing all the different types of clouds for a science report. If it was a research project I would make a cover for my report and include a visual collage. I wrote a paper about Australia, and I made the Australian flag for the report cover. I researched England and asked my Dad to make a wooden cut out (like a puzzle piece) of the island country and mounted it on a wooden cover complete with tiny little hinges. That one was my design and his work. (Thanks Dad!) So for me the New Year in January is more about a time for a little rest from all the holiday busyness. A personal day. A little gift of time. Hopefully, I will get to create some art! Happy New year to all of you!

At the Virtual Tart site of Dale Copeland there is a new on-line collage exhibition by Laura Lein-Svencner of Darien, IL, USA, called Crow Count. Her series is in a limited color palette, and includes words, images, textures and shapes. I think this series is great work. Dale invites a different artist each month to put on an exhibition. I signed up for late 2010. I don’t have a clue what I will be making then, but I am excited about the possibilities!

Check this out

Over at Rebecca Crowell's blog She has just posted a discussion of how much a full time artist earns per year, and other facts about the life and times of working artists. If you go to read this, scroll back on her blog and find the movie that shows her working in her studio. Great stuff. She is a very kind person too, so do feel free to leave a comment and let her know you stopped by.

Collage! Collage! Collage!

I just love collage! After a day of painting I sometimes sit in the evening and make small collage on my lap. These are between five and six inches square. I gather and sort papers by color and get started. Some of the papers have been used in the studio to remove paint or apply paint in the larger works. I sort, place, consider, move little pieces around and begin adhering the papers. Sometimes I take them back to the studio for an application of paint. That’s how I got the little black marks on some of these. Sometimes I draw on them. I love to do that, but I am a little unsure of myself in that regard. An attitude of play might help me out with that. These collages may eventually be destined for the International Collage Exchange for this coming year, 2009. I like these just the way they are, but maybe I’ll add a bit of pencil work for fun.

Today Mary Ann at Blue Sky Dreaming talked about a statement of intention for her new art direction for 2009. I am inspired by her discussion. Each year I pick an aspect of design to focus on. Textures come easily to me, and are a natural area of strength. I love shapes but I could really be more assertive in this regard. And I have worked on color; particularly the aspect of value and contrast even in my high key work. I have added mark making to my focus. I have room to learn more on all of these areas, but I am enjoying playing with shapes. That little curve at the top of the gray and white stripes is part of an arch from a stencil. I like it a lot. So I will continue to play with adding more assertive shapes. I’m currently working on my communication series which is all about connection. I will continue to do so. Connecting with all of you via my blog and yours has been a lot of fun, and has provided lots of inspiration too.

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.

Origami Birthday Book

This little book measures less than 2 inches tall. It was made by my friend artist Rita McNamara. She tells me that the page folding automatically creates a no glue, stitch-free binding. Inside each pocket is a diminutive tag and tiny antique postage stamp. On the left of each spread is a Chinese fortune, including “something special is coming your way.” I think this petite book is something special indeed. I feel fortunate to have such a lovely gift from my artist friend.

These are the last photos taken with our digital camera. I was dutifully doing a load of laundry yesterday, when I inadvertently threw both laundry and the camera into the filling washing machine. Ouch! I tucked my tail and hung my head as I told Kurt last night what I had done to his camera. Sweet man that he is, he has asked me to get him a photography magazine so he can research the replacement.