completed prophecy

The holiday busy-ness is over and I'm working on cleaning & organizing, catching up on bookkeeping and all that kind of fun stuff - and in the process, I realized that I never posted the final image for "Prophecy of Hope."

This is my largest piece to date - so big I have to beg others for help to transport it - it was shown in the Art of Christmas exhibit at Oak Hills Church in Folsom and is now being stored with a friend. Hopefully, it will make it's way to my midtown studio, unless my friend & his wife decide they can't live without it...

work work work

I love my work, today I finished twenty-three canvases. This morning they all looked like this.

Well, mostly, because I shot this a couple days ago and last night I stamped an insect on a few of them, but today I put on layers of acrylic glazing. Then this evening I added some writing, the description for quercus lobata nee, the Valley Oak, which is the kind of tree they are. So an individual that looked like this

Now looks like this

And I have changed my working title from "Forest" to "Quercus Woodland" which is both descriptive and more poetic.

A couple more panels, I might scan them all, but we'll see - then I guess I'll need to start the process all over on a new batch.

planting a forest

Well, I've been a pretty busy bee but just not blogging it - actually I got so caught up in the creative process that I didn't want to do much else -

I'm working on the Forest, part of a tree show I'm participating in this coming April. I made a bunch of Polaroid transfers for it last week, then the canvases came a couple days ago, smelling like fresh primer as I unwrapped them all. At this point there are 24 canvases and 23 Polaroid transfers, which isn't quite how it's supposed to add up, but I'll get more of both later. I wanted to get it rolling before I dove into all the supplies. Besides, it somehow seems better not to spend it all at once - faulty logic, I know, but I'm an artist, not a CPA, okay?

So I did manage to take a couple photos the other day when I first started laying out the transfers on the canvases -





You can see I'm adding leaves to the mix, too - all different kinds of oak leaves, since the images are different oak trees - I've been handcoloring each of the transfers with pencils, then laying each one on a canvas with the leaves, in a semi-random pattern. The idea is that there will be repeated images, but none exactly the same, each on different paper or whatever, and Polaroid transfers never come out the same anyway. And of course, there are all different combinations of images and leaves.



Today I colored the last of this first batch of transfers & started the collaging, using gel medium. This is all a total experiment for me, so while I wait for the first two to dry so I can see if anything unexpected happens, I'm writing this, sort of working off the excess excited energy. I've got ideas for the rest of it, but I'll wait to tell you and just let the plot unfold...

studio work

So I did manage to get more done the other day but didn't get it into the blog. I managed to do some more coloring, and got my daughter to take photos of me doing so.



Seems I've been needing photos of myself working in the studio, so I figure it's good to have current ones and Deidre likes using my new digital camera that I got for Christmas.



You'll notice that I seem to hold my hands oddly while I'm intently working...



And the fruits of my labor that evening, "Tree Lovers," edition two of ten. I also finished the Garcia Bend piece, maybe I'll get it posted here later.

(If you're curious about what I was doing in my studio last night, you can pop over to my Visions of Heaven blog to see that.)

And then today I've been busy in the studio working on a couple Polaroid transfer projects.



The first project I was working on is a series of florals that I'm calling the Flower Garden. I've got six initial images for that series, that I'll publish as pigment prints. I'll post them here when they're dry and colored.



The second project I began is called the Forest, which will be maybe as many as fifty 6x6" canvases each collaged with one of my tree images and whatever mixed media my inspiration leads me to - it's still percolating but I got about twenty tree images in Polaroid transfers today, which is the start. More on that project later...

easter sunday

April 8, 07
Easter Sunday afternoon
Uncle Butch & Aunt Linda's property in Shingle Springs
warm, no wind, light clouds


some iris not yet budding by the fence

Plenty of birdsong - chirps and twitters - the howling of dogs from down the hill, a horse snorting, a mosquito buzzes near my ear.



The earth is covered in green grasses and wildflowers no more than 18" tall, some taller and slender, some low and crawling.



One of the cats pounces on something in the dry moss on a rock outcropping. A strange long bug with wings lands on one of my drying photos, seems to get a little stuck, but I'm able to blow it off and it flies away.









The sun fades behind clouds for a few minutes, then breaks out stronger again. Birdsong ebbs and flows in the trees all around.

thanksgiving day

Nov 23, 06
Thanksgiving Day
midday walk, sunny, windy



Much to be thankful for this day - good weather to start - a family that waits patiently or then finally leaves me to my own devices but knows I'm quite content to be left to myself at times -


Oak grove catches my eye, my heart. I wave to the family - I'll catch up later.



Flocks of turkeys wander all around, some bigger, some smaller - try to capture some on film with the Izone but bad film keeps me from it -

lost in the forest

Feb 3, 06

11 a.m. Sly Park
Lost Children's Forest



Last day at camp - weather has been all over: rain, sleet, snow, ice, rain again & finally clearing. A scheduled hike through the Lost Children's Forest is usurped by classroom time & lanyard making.



But the sun keeps me out and I venture alone along paths I've visited earlier in the week - becoming a little lost child myself. Sometime before, maby only a day ago, we came down through these woods to build shelters near the stream below.



Just last night we came through in the dark - at one point following the ghostly outline of the hikers in front of me by the pale light of the moon alone. This morning a whole new vision of sunlight streaming through the trees - birds singing where only the distant stream had been heard before.



"Grandpa Doug" - a 500 year old douglas fir we had been introduced to last night - I'm so pleased I found him again. Much too big around to hug, his branches home to many animals too high above my head to see.



The cabins here are named for the most common trees & animals around. Girls cabins are Black Oak (ours), Insence Cedar, Douglas Fir & Manzanita. Boys are Rattlesnake, Raccoon, Fox & Porcupine. I'm pleased with myself for being able to spot all the trees but I have no hope of spotting any of the the elusive animals.

science camp at sly park

Jan 31, 06

Sly Park - 11 a.m.
at Science Camp with Dee's school group -



Arrived yesterday morning - cold but not snow-cold - began to rain & kept up till late afternoon/evening when a little slushy show fell but not the nice powdery kind. Froze overnight so there was plenty of 'black ice' on the paved road and some good slippery spots around camp. The sky is clear and the sun breaks through occasionally - maybe in full force soon.



Been busy with camp activities, including kitchen duty for breakfast this morning - took a break while my group hit the rock wall in the gym - looking forward to a good hike this afternoon.


Out hiking with Sara
1:30 p.m.



This part of the forest, near the ranger station has been allowed to experience small cleansing fires, clearing away the undergrowth and allowing more wild flowers and other kinds of small plants to flourish.

A little farther down the path, Sara shows us an artesian well, about ten feet across, nearly a perfect circular shape. She easily finds a small frog residing there and shows him to us all, resting in her hand.



We hike five miles in total, up to the lake, full up & spilling over, and back again, the trail often following a cut in the hillside.

family gathering

Sept 25, 2005
At mom & dad's - family gathering - manipulating Polaroids is for me like knitting or needlework for others -


the forest out back - I remember when these trees were first planted - not much more than sticks in the ground - hot sun baking where now it's fully shaded.


Rabbit's foot ferns among the rocks.

empire mine

Oct 14, 2003
Empire Mine State Park
Grass Valley
after noon
warm - 70's, clear and sunny

Hiking along "Hardrock Trail" with Lisa and her kids and my kids - everyone has at least one camera...


Orlean's Stamp Mill Foundation with golden tree

from self-guided tour map: " This foundation supported a stamp mill that was powered by a water-driven Pelton wheel. The mill crushed ore from the Orleans Mine until about the turn of the century when it became unprofitable." guess that says it all...


Crossing Little Wolf Creek Bridge

Stopping to check out the creek, lots of picture taking all around. Phil & Dee "point" out a hawk's call. Dee reads to me from her journaling:

"Gentle winds, trees, broken twigs, cries of a hawk, the gentle gurgling of the creek, a loud 'huk! huk! huk!' of a strange bird flying overhead. Wasps are drinking. Flies and gnats fly everywhere. Still, it's a very peaceful place, full of nature. Ferns cover the ground. The deepest part of the creek is about a foot deep."


Little Wolf Creek Bridge

Low light forces the camera into a long exposure, slow shutter speed, so motion soft image is my only choice. Too much going on - kids, etc. - makes it hard for me to concentrate.

Rock tossing has become the favored sport, the mom in me is trying hard not to worry about someone getting hit. They really are having a good time and discovering how icy the water is.

From the guide: "The streamside environment of this creek is being restored to a more natural condition. Non-native blackberries, Scotch broom and other shrubs are being replaced with plants that belong in a stream environment."


Little Wolf Creek Road
"This road was built for trucks that carried waste rock from the Empire Mine to road construction sites to the Southwest."

Lots of walking through warm dusty trails, through sand tailings and over waste piles - huge piles of gravel - then back along the road, which makes mothers very nervous, back along the outside stone wall and into gardens surrounding the cottage.



garden path

Inside the stone walls, plenty of lawns keep it feeling cooler. Children, tired but rowdy, are ready to call it a day.

August 31, 2003

August 31, 2003
Late afternoon
very warm

Took a drive over to James' and Janet's proerty - some day a retirement home will be here... wandered around and talked of plans, admired views.



This cluster of trees marks the property line at one point...

Back at Butch & Linda's I set off to wander again. Little cousin Edie wants to come along, so I sit down by the naked ladies to wait for her to put her shoes on.

Edie takes me for a walk and shows me the creek through the gate and just off the property. This is her grandparents' house and she knows her way around pretty well - as well as any 7 year old would. But I think Edie took me through poison oak... I was watching her instead of watching out for that.

We wander back onto the property. Edie finds her little brother's long-lost hat and her own long-lost doll. We camp out on the same big rock outcropping I stopped at yesterday. I let her shoot a few frames on the Izone, I shoot a couple with the Land Camera.




"Grandma & Grandpa's Woods" hold high adventure: Edie climbs a tree to fetch an old light switch plate made of clear blue plastic and adorned with silver glitter. Old treasures abound here, even hung on a nail stuck in a valley oak.

The light is fading - I'm guessing it's time to head back, probably dinner time or something -