clear skies

Nov 30, 07
9:30 a.m.
JFK High School
Clear skies - cool - high only predicted 57 today
no wind - sun feels good

Just outside the classroom -
Can hear black birds in tops of nearby leafless liquid ambar trees.

(Near black oak tree:)
Green grass still on the ground here - watered lawn - a few dry brown leaves where two months ago were scores of acorns, -



much fewer leaves on the tree than before (9-25)

We move to the Quad - most of the deciduous tree are bare now - several seagulls roost on the top of the library building.




Black oak

a little mess

And you thought your workspace was messy...


This is what my work table looks like getting ready for the
Visions of Heaven show, pieces strewn about -


and freshly completed. (This is my drawing table, not so messy right now.) This final piece is called "The Whole Earth Sings." It's a four panel work that I'm not entirely sure how I'll display it yet, but I'm sure that will work itself out shortly!

playing catch up

Catching up on studio work -


This was actually finished before the Crocker Festival - part of the Visions of Heaven show & my Tree Stories project - Tree Story #43: Things We Cannot See.


And this is actually wet with watercolors on the drawing table as I type, the last piece that will make it into the Visions of Heaven show, deadline next week! I call it 'The Whole Earth Sings.'

Stay tuned for more deadline work - I've still got to get work framed & new pieces done for possible publication, all in the next two weeks - nothing like creativity under pressure!

festival time

My booth at the Crocker Art Museum's Holdiay Art & Craft Festival, this past weeekend:



Empty...



and then busy!

Had a great show, now I need to get back to work for the next event, Visions of Heaven.

painted

Amidst all the framing & matting & miscellaneous preparations for the Crocker Art & Craft Festival, I managed to paint a piece for Visions of Heaven, now waiting for more layers of color...



Another Heavenly Tree Story: Things we cannot see...

busy busy

Busy getting ready for the Crocker Holiday Arts & Crafts Festival



coloring Polaroid transfers



work table as I mat the colored Polaroid transfers

heavenly work

Mustard seed tree story of heaven, to which I added colored pencils and oil pastels - finished, I think -

overlap

Finally got to painting one of the prints I made in the darkroom last week - this is the wet mustard seed heaven tree story, part of both Tree Stories and the Visions of Heaven project -



a little funny how the two projects have overlapped some, I printed another overlap, too - I'll try to get it painted tomorrow after more darkroom work - a few deadlines are looming all at once.

overlay

(a little something I put together in my journal today, will reference it for future darkroom work)

garcia bend

Nov 9
Sacramento River - Garcia Bend
morning - warm, clear, couple light clouds, slight breeze



The sound of a huge flock of blackbirds floats across the river - making what few birds are over my head seem nearly silent.



Water flows past in ripples, the wind gently pushing with the current. Yellow and brown poplar leaves litter the small sandy beach at my feet. A single leaf floats down the river like a tiny boat.

Fri Nov 2

Fri Nov 2
about 9 a.m.
Garcia Bend - Sacramento River
clear sky, no wind, cool
just before my field trip with Kennedy H.S. students





I take a quick look down by the river - several fishermen are launching their boats.

Later, with students:


reeds & dry grasses grow on the levee banks



Listening to bird sounds - so many calling out in the trees - little chirps & tweets, louder wa wa wa -

freshwater clams here & there on the wide beach - river is lower than the last couple times I was here

under the weather

Been a little under the weather, but here's what I was doing this weekend, when I felt better -



The latest from the heaven project with wet watercolors on my drawing table - though it's more often used as a painting table, but whatever -

And then the final images, after layering pencils over the dried watercolors -


River of Healing #1, a diptych with


River of Healing #2



And then


River of Life

There's lots of content in these images, which I'll be posting on the Visions of Heaven blog soon. Probably. ;)

Sat Oct 27

Sat Oct 27

digging around in my film stash to find film for the Mio, I discover a couple packs of "SX70" film - maybe Time Zero film? When I went to load up my SX70 - the camera - I discovered that I had film in it already - hmmm, no doubt all outdated but worth trying out -



Canna leaf out front - guess I'll play with the SX70 until the film runs out -



Then decided to draw on the piece of film I accidently ejected from the camera - oak leaves and acorns collected on recent wanderings.

river of life

Worked in the darkroom yesterday, so I picked up my prints today. Working on the Visions of Heaven project & got three images printed.



This is "River of Life" - contact print with an overlay of a map of where the rivers that are mentioned in Genesis could have been, and how they point to a potential site of Eden. Heaven & Eden were both referred to as "Paradise" suggesting that Eden could now be in Heaven...





This pair is a diptych, "River of Healing", again, contact prints with map overlays depicting rivers connected to the location of Eden. The overall size of each of these images is about 5" x 6".

Now I have to add some color!

little cool

Oct 22, 07
morning
Shingle Springs
little cool - clear - predicted high in the 70's today - no wind

Friend of a friend's home - out with plein air painters today for the first time in a long while.


Driveway leading up to the house, surrounded by oak woods -

Wandering around the property - the vineyard is past it's prime, leaves turning and grapes waiting to be harvested. A cow's lowing travels across the little valley. (I think it's called French Creek Valley.)



The ground is fairly dry - a little moisture from recent rains has encouraged fresh green grass shoots under the vines -





Farther down the hill, I hear lots of little birds in the nearby trees - see a couple sparrow types in the vineyard flitting about, others look more like some kind of fly catcher, no doubt finding insects about - as a bee buzzes by my head.



It's gotten warm enough to shed my jacket, a welcome light breeze brushes by.



Wandering all around the edges of the vineyard, back up to the top of the hill.



Sitting under the arbor, relaxed, chatting with artist friends about art, business, life - watching the light change on the hills on the other side of the little valley.

We take break for lunch, then I wander off a little farther.



The charms of quiet 'country' roads still exist - this would fit in the 'crazy woman in the middle of the road' series.

A car comes just as I snap the shutter, then I walk to the side - the car actually stops & the driver kindly asks if he can see, too.

While I sit to pull the print & scribble, the resident horses come to see what I'm up to, watching me over the fence.



Wandering back across the road for my next shot, a young dog on a walk with her mistress is a bit concerned about me as well, until she's allowed to smell me and see I'm alright.



On my walk out, the auto drive sees me again and wishes me well...


Technical Post Script: most of these images appear to be overexposed, which happens to be true of the positive Polaroid prints only. The particular film that I'm using, Polaroid PN, is a bit quirky exposure-wise, and the photographer can basically choose between a perfectly ptinted positive or a negative worth printing from. For myself, the negative is the ultimate goal, so the positive prints in my journal often appear very light - that just assures that the negative has all the detail it needs to print a wonderful darkroom print, which is my ultimate goal.

something new

In between house cleaning & laundry today, I managed to get a little production time in. I've been working on these Polaroid transfer art plaques. I start with small DaVinci boards, which I paint black, then collage a print from a Polaroid transfer onto the black board. It's a small decorative thing that I can sell for very affordable prices ($29 for a 6x8" and $39 for a 8x10".) Being on a budget myself, I want to be able to offer small affordable works of art.

My original Polaroid transfers had been filling that niche, but were actually undervalued; now I can sell them for more - probably still somewhat undervalued - but I like the idea of something for everyone's budget.



Anyway, these art plaques are fun & I pair up each image with an inspirational word that fits the piece, like the two in the front here are "love" and "joy."

wet mini series

More studio work today - and last night -



Wet watercolors on the New Jerusalem Palms mini series (and here you thought that was only on tv.)



This morning, I was working on two things at once - actually alternately, but saying at once is more impressive - in the foreground you can see the new Polaroid transfer wall art plaques I'm working on for a couple venues and back on my drawing table I'm doing the pencil work on the New Jerusalem Palms quartet.

By noon I've already finished the New Jerualem Palms, so I'll share...


My Father's House 1/5


Heavenly Homeland 1/5


City of God 1/5


Times of Refreshment 1/5

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.