New work

I've been slowly but surely making progress on several pieces on my worktable right now, including a fairly experimental piece incorporating a packing tape photo transfer. It's a technique I picked up in a recent workshop and I like the transparency of it and I wanted to find a way to highlight that transparency in a new work. After a little playing around, I hot an idea for suspending it in a shadow box. The piece I was working with was finally at the stage for adding the transfer today and I'm pretty pleased with the results - it looks just as I envisioned, which isn't always how things work. I've still got some more to do to the whole piece, but here's a shot of it as it sits on the table now.

Today's Table Shot

I've had to concentrate on other aspects of work, like getting a new syllabus together for classes (which start in a scant week and a half!) So I haven't been able to attend to the works in progress or go house hunting... Sometimes the Worktable taunts me.

Likewise, my 'dead stick garden' (so named by my brother Joe) beckons me to play. Soon...

Try Again

Got the new wood doll house yesterday, but it's really too big for the 'Rooted' base... Guess I'll have to do more shopping...

Garden Seeds

Sometimes inspiration comes when I least expect it. Though usually my art starts with photography, sometimes it starts somewhere else, like while I was gardening recently. Ok, so mostly I was cleaning up from my serious lack of gardening, but that's gardening, right?

Anyway, in my cleaning up, I emptied a pot that once had a living plant and uncovered a really interesting rootball. I instantly knew it was destined for something besides the green waste bin, so I put it inside on the kitchen table, to keeps dogs from chewing it up before it could fulfill it's destiny. At some point shortly after that, I realized that it was destined to become the root structure for a house. We often talk about "putting down roots" when we talk about our homes, so this just seemed like a natural illustration fort home series.

Pretty soon I was going through my collection of wood houses that I've been building and found the perfect house, then I envisioned a structure that would simultaneously house the roots and support the house. Not being quite that handy with woodworking, I took the project to someone who is very handy. I'm so grateful to Phil the Wood Guy! (without Phil I would be lost...)

So Phil built a structure for my roots, doing just what I had envisioned but somehow I had envisioned too small and now my house is out of proportion, so I started looking att houses again but nothing was quite right. Wouldn't you know that a quick eBay search produced a little wood house of the perfect proportions? What could I do but put my bid in? As fate would have it, my new little house is now on it's way and I'm one step closer to putting my vision together.

Here' a couple photos of the rootball in it's frame and the too-small house. I'll be sure to post more as this process continues.

Walk of Faith

June 1, 2012

midday
trail along Dry Creek
from Walerga heading east

 walking with the dogs

Right before I started my walk today, I came to the realization that I will be leaving my midtown gallery space in thirty days. The last-ditch effort to make things work differently had failed and while I am sad to end a chapter in my life, it is by no means the end of the story. I know that God is the ultimate author of my story, and I'm trusting that what could seem like a setback is only the start of something new - so I went on a walk of faith.

It's not like I haven't been on this path before, faith is a familiar way for me and I am looking forward to each new step as a chance for adventure and discovery. When I first stepped out of the car I found a butterfly at my feet - a reminder of resurrection and the promise of new life - I was reminded again and again by the many butterflies that flew across my path along the walk and several fuzzy caterpillars heading for their next meal and ultimate metamorphosis.

The path changes a little from season to season but the main forms of it remain, so it keeps a familiarity to it - Today is a warm day, warmer than it's been and we're not quite acclimated yet, but the shade on the dirt path keeps is bearable.

We were offered a very close look at a large alligator lizard - over a foot long overall - staying still for a photo. The tired dogs hardly noticed, so I got them past and gently nudged the lizard off the trail to relative safety.

A stop at the creek side gave the dogs a chance to cool off in the water; Moey unexpectedly laid down in the shallow edge, then was refreshed enough to move on.

Nearly back to the car, I looked up and saw a new addition that I had missed on the way out - a special provision for unknown birds - like Matthew's reference to sparrows, I am reminded there will be provisions made for me, too...

(The day's catch.)

Valley of the Moon

Took a photographic day trip yesterday with one of my shooting buddies, Wendell Minshew, over to the Sonoma Valley. I'd been enticed by the scenery recently when delivering artworks to galleries in Sonoma and Healdsburg and couldn't wait to get back with a couple cameras and some time to just wander around.

I managed to use up some of my waning supply of Polaroid film and I got some nice shots with my Nikon, too, but I am still amazed by what I can get with my iPhone. (Wendell was impressed, too.)

We drove in a few circles, around Glen Ellen, into the Jack London State Park, back around and out to Highway 12, up and over the ridge toward Napa and finally headed home when the light was waning.

While I'm not entirely dis-interested in historical displays in museums, sometimes the view outside is more appealing.

At the Jack London State Park, a mesquite against light grasses caught my eye.

Part of the ruins of Wolf House.

A moss covered old oak.

Grave site of pioneer children

A peek into a neighboring vineyard at the state park.

Old barn near Glen Ellen

Kunde vineyard along Highway 12

Last light falls across Walnut Drive

Down to the wire

So between classes, gallery admin work and getting new galleries, I've been squeezing in the time to work on the shadow box artworks for the upcoming 20/20 Show at the Kennedy, which I need to hang in no less than four days.

Right now I've just finished the painting and the varnish is drying in the boxes - and the twigs I'll be putting inside. Here's a couple boxes with the collection of what will be inside, at least to start with. Usually I add a little more, so that will have to all come together, then the finish work, getting them photographed and finally hung in just a few more days...

Nine in process

I'm working on the last nine shadow box artworks for the 20/20 show coming in May. I've got a little more than a week to get these finished! Here's the basic game plan, ready to start the first layer of collage.

Nine to go

Finished up the batch of ten shadow boxes I had been working on for the 20/20 show, so now I've got nine left. Here's a shot of them on my studio wall, nowhere else really to store them...

Making progress

Almost done with the color on this batch of ten art pieces for the upcoming 20/20 Show...

Next ten

Working on my series for the 20/20 art show coming in May - I've got nineteen days left to create nineteen small artworks! Here's how the next ten are starting on my worktable...

Before & after

A week or so ago I was starting to rework a piece and deciding where to stop - this is what it looked like when I first declared it finished last December:

After working on new things & getting bolder about adding more found objects to my work, I decided to keep going last week and finally stopped when it looked like this:

Now there are a couple other pieces back in the studio, starting to get reworked...

First of twenty-ish

Getting close to finishing one of my first Nesting Boxes. On my walk with the dogs today I found this tiny nest in a couple pieces, then realized it was perfect for this artwork! I'm thinking of it as a little gift from God today...

Next up

Starting on my next series of artworks (for the annual 20/20 show at the Kennedy Gallery), calling them "Nesting Boxes." Each piece is an 8x8" shadow box, half 3" deep and half 2" deep. On display in May so it's time for me to get rolling...

 

Additive process

After working on several new shadow box pieces, I was looking at a piece from December hanging on the studio wall. It suddenly seemed very empty and I realized that it needed more in it. (I also seem to remember that a close artist friend said something like that to me at the time, but it was already being exhibited and I figured I'd just apply the concept to new work, which I have.) So I started adding to the pice and this is where it's at right now, much better, maybe finished, but I'll live with it a little longer before I decide for sure...

A little collection

I've been saving a few bird's nests for a while now, I told a photographer friend he could use one, now I have to decide which one...

From top left, there's a swallow's nest, a robin's nest, maybe another robin', then a bushtit's and three I have no idea about.

Studio time

Spending some time in the studio, while my daughter does a little art class homework, too...

Next up

Making progress on the shadow box artworks on my work table right now. I'm the features artist at the Kennedy next month, so I'm trying to get our a few new pieces before I start on this year's 20/20, which I am VERY excited about!

Last night I finishes one of the pieces I've been working on and just need to put hanging hardware on another. These three are in process on the table and there's another in process in my mind...

 

All lined up

Getting a chance to work this morning and making progress on the pieces on my worktable. From left to right, I'm thinking of calling the first one 'Time to Come Home' and I'm really liking the little mannequin, so I'll have to find more of those. The next one might get called 'Somewhere' but I really don't know, it's certainly a process. Then maybe 'Words of Wisdom' for the next, for the fortune cookie fortunes in it. Finally I think it'll be 'Road Map Home' and I'll have to tell that story later...

Holding pattern

Had a busy week last week, got a fair amount done, but now I'm itching to get back to the work table and being called to get other things done, like paying bills and prepping for class... Meanwhile art in progress calls to me from the work table.