visions

This is actually what I just posted on the Visions of Heaven blog, but it's what I just did today, so I figured I'd put it here, too. To see the whole Visions of Heaven blog, go to www.heavenartproject.blogspot.com.

I spent a couple hours in the darkroom today, printing what I'm now calling my New Jerusalem Palms series. I've shared my journal pages of two of the four pieces already, so I'll share another today, then the uncolored prints (which are drying right now) and finally the finished pieces.


This is the page complete with overlay and miscellaneous notes. The Scripture I'm basing this image on is John 14:1-3, "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am."


My first thought coming from this verse was of a long driveway lined with palms leading to a grand house, like can be found here in the Central Valley. Actually finding what I had in my head proved to be a challenge, and in looking for palms for other images in this series, I found my rows of palms and then thought I could overlay a small image of a home, or an architectural sketch but then realized I already had found an image of a mosaic map of ancient Jerusalem which portrayed buildings, bringing to my mind the idea of a home with many rooms, almost like a city...


So I created an overlay based on the mosaic to use with the palm trees and also create another visual reference to Jerusalem. Of course, the images never work out quite the same in the darkroom as they do in my journal. In this case, the image of the palms was too busy when the overlay was completely over it, but I like the effect on the wide black border around the image, so I cut a hole in the overlay to allow the palms to come through more readable.

It's really exciting for me to have all the pieces come together after messing around with them. This whole conceptual process is new to me, but I'm finding it rewarding in a whole new way.

midmorning

10.15.07
midmorning
Dry Creek in Gibson Ranch
cool, breezy, "chance of rain" light clounds (wind from the north)
sounds of the creek gurgling over a fallen log
a fishing bird of some kind flies up & down the creek



Seems like things aren't going to be easy today. The first exposure I made of this tree, I found my film rollers frozen together with guck & had to clean them - lost that piece of film altogether. The second exposure I could have sworn I focused but apparently not.



Exposure number three was not aligned properly - half onto one sheet of film half onto the next,



giving a double exposure effect for number four.



Today, five times is a charm, then I rest the coated positive under the edge of another & end up with this final -

Not eager to stay in that spot longer, I wander down creek, plenty of people wandering here today, too, most enjoying each other's peace.




Finally I find another spot to take time in - this time it's just routine issues of shooting into the sun that I have to contend with and it only takes two exposures.



I'm sitting on a sand bar, mostly dry now but apparently wet not long ago when it rained this past week. The creek in general appears to have run a bit higher then.

As I've walked, I've found that under nearly every oak tree is a mess of fallen acorns. Apparently the squirrels and birds can't work fast enough to collect them all, though I've seen a couple working at it. As I sit, I regularly hear the sound of falling acorns, cracking as they hit wood, crashing through dry bush, splashing into the creek.

accidental discovery

Today wasn't so much a creative day, but I found one of the most wonderful art galleries ever, completely by accident. The plan was for the kids & I to go have lunch with Scott in Grass Valley, where he's working these days, then spend some time this afternoon at the Empire Mine. Some of the trees are starting to turn and with the kids out of school this week, I thought it would be a good thing for all of us. Unfortunatly, it decided to rain today, so hiking around in the woods just didn't seem like so much fun.

So I convinced my young teens that it would be fun to go to Nevada City and wander around the old town there, poke through some shops and by the way, maybe find an art gallery or two. As providence would have it, the parking spot I managed to work my way into was right in front of an art gallery. I'd never even heard of it before, but it was raining & it looked like as good a place as any to duck into. The sign on the door said Mowen Solinksy Gallery, and immediately the work inside began to draw us in, deeper and deeper.

Besides all the inviting artwork, I began to see work from artist's that I recognized and very much respect. Carol Aust, a friend of a friend, has some wonderful figurative paintings there in her rich pallette, including paintings on the center pages of books that just blew me away. Then some photoraphs pulled me to them, and I saw the work of Steve Solinsky, which seemed familiar to me, both the name & the work. I'm a little slow sometimes, so it took me some time to realize that Steve is a fellow member at Viewpoint and had work at the KVIE art auction that I recently helped at. I also saw work from Huntington Witherall, whose work is going up at Viewpoint this month.

By now even my teens were enjoying themselves and we spent a serious amount of time pointing out interesting artworks to each other. Deidre and I both really enjoyed the mixed media constructions by Teresa Eaton, the textures and earthy colors of her woven looking works with boxes in the center reminded me of finding treasures in my grandfather's garage. Phillip and I found a couple watercolors with such intricate details of dotted patterns on an intricate fish's scales, that we were thoroughly impressed with the time and talent such work required. The colors were vivid and bright and the overall effect was stunning, but I forgot the artist's name.

We also found really amazing wirework, and glass and I saw lovely pieces by my friend Joseph Bellacera as well, which Dee also happened to be drawn to. We were like little children in a candy store - oh look at this! every step of the way. If you ever find yourself near Nevada City, it's more than worth the time to visit this lovely gallery. I even found their website (www.mowensolinskygallery.com) but it's not near as good as going there.

new for smith

Last night I finished framing all six new pieces for the Smith Gallery, here's "California State Palms" ready for the frame:



Now all six are ready to go - I'll get them out to Smith Gallery & then you can see it all on the walls there.

cathedral

Finished the last piece for Smith Gallery today, "Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament". Painted it yesterday, you can actually see pools of wet paint:


And finished with pencils today, harder to see the new color strokes, unless you look very carefully in the trees, and you can see new color in the rooftop to the far right:


Always more impressive in person, and then more so matted and framed on a gallery wall - which will all be done in less than a week.

studio work

Busy yesterday with more painting & coloring, among other things, like going to the grocery store.



Waiting for watercolors to dry on shot of the Crest Theater in downtown Sacramento.



Deidre takes a shot of me putting pencil detail onto the Crest. This is one of the pieces that will be at Smith Gallery by the end of next week. I picked up matboard & frames this morning, need to finish one more piece, then put it all together!

still wandering

Expanding the scope of this blog to include studio shots, comments on what I'm working on, whatever - still wandering, of course.



Here's what it looked like at my drawing table earlier - right after I finished painting this piece of City Hall - part of my Sacramento Landmarks series that I've been working on. You can see the watercolor 'films' that I used all stacked on top of my painting box.



Same piece a few hours later, added a significant amount of colored pencils after the watercolors dried. I might add some oil pastel later, I'll have to study it for a while then decide. Next I'll have two more pieces to finish, then mat & frame six works altogether by about this same time next week so I can get it all up on the walls of Smith Gallery for Second Saturday.

Art under deadline!

quick shot

Sept 25, 07
9 a.m.
JFK Highschool
Quick shot in the quad before class.


10:30 a.m.
warm sunny clear blue sky - slight breeze from the north - quiet during classes on campus



Green lawn under oak tree covered in fallen acorns, not many caps - most are still clinging to branches. Sitting under the tree seems could be somewhat dangerous as it occasionally lets loose of more acorns, thudding to the ground. Just a couple fallen leaves.

downtown

Sep 19, 2007
Downtown Sac
11 a.m.
clear skies - cool, light breeze to gusty - high only predicted for 70* today

Happened upon City Hall, not like I knew where it was before, now I know it's at 915 I Street.



I wander across the street to the Wednesday market at Chavez Park - smells of barbeque and other foods - plenty of people. Sun begins to feel warmer -



a peek of city hall's clock tower


I walk a couple blocks over to 11th & K - Cathedral Square according to the light rail signs - to get the view of the cathedral I really want, I have to come into the seating area of the Ambrosia Cafe - not many are there right now to disturb -


Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament

I wander around some more, find a long line of people to get into the Crest theater, not sure what is going on there, but this near to the Capital, there is almost always something political brewing.



The sun plays hide and seek behind the clouds & gusts of wind come to let us all know fall is coming - even though we could hit 90 again next week -

Sept 11, 2007

Sept 11, 2007
almost 10:30 a.m.
Levee on the Sacramento River
near Garcia Bend
warm, sunny, hazy from smoke from Moonlight Fire in Plumas County

Fish jumps in the river, birds cheep and chatter in trees nearby.



Sitting on rocks in a clear part of the levee, I've got a Kondos-like view of the levee on the opposite side.



Away from the water's edge, everything is dust dry, a fine powder coating sits on top of the rock hard earth of footpaths. The "cotton" from the cottonwood trees combine with dry leaves to find purchase in straw colored dried grasses.



A bright chartreuse bush leans out over the river, its roots fed by the water in contrast to dry brown bushes and grasses around it.


Tree story on the levee - the remains of a ladder and rope swing for adventurous swimmers.

A symphony of bird song plays in the canopy overhead, it's too difficult for me to discern any certain call, but then I see and hear an individual performer just over my head. A black phoebe calls out and displays his wings, signaling something of importance to others of his kind.

Back at the park I see several yellow billed magpies - a good sign. I have noticed a decrease in their numbers, no doubt due to West Nile disease.

front garden

Sep 9, 07
2:30 p.m.
front garden
warm, pleasant, slight breeze

little birds chatter near, jays squawk in the distance -
time to weed and clean up the garden -

6 p.m.
little breezier, cooling off

cleaner looking garden

walking with Peggy

Aug 20, 07
10:30 a.m.
warm
JFKennedy High School walking with Peggy

trees outside classroom - how to identify?
bark, leaves, growth pattern


overall upright growth, some branches droop down

Quad - birds singing - trees


inside small quad by office -


different view inside "office quad"

Lots & lots of trees on campus, we wander all over, I try to i.d. trees, Peggy gets a little work done meeting other teachers. I think I found some kind of hawthorne tree by the dance teacher - maybe between E & F wings? I wasn't paying close enough attention...

noonish, warming



Out front I try to take a shot to color later - having exposure issues, just my internal light meter is a little dark today.





A row of large trees lines the front sidewalk, gives cool relief right now and frames the front view. The shade/sun combo are a tough exposure mix for my brain today - but I finally get it right -

walk to mailbox

Aug 17, 07
4 p.m. walk to mailbox
pretty warm, clear, no wind

I suddenly notice - pink tree, purple tree.


my tree is the green one