in the studio - facing a new season

untitled

12" x16"

inkjet photo transfer, pencil, and marker on paper

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I have been experimenting with photo transfers on both paper and board lately - trying many different techniques; mod podge, gel medium, Purell, and none of them have been 100% successful - never being able to replicate the effect with each new piece of the collage. Maybe that is the "art"of it? That it is always 'just a little different'? 

I printed pale colored maps for the areas of light and I love the translucent quality that it gives to the skin. Ultimately, I need to be more careful with the map color choices for the medium tone and shadow areas ..... just learning on the job.

But I do think it is worth continuing the experiment - just have to find the right combination of subject, image to transfer.

Continue looking, continue exploring, continue learning.

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It is now officially September - and from years of teaching - I guess it seems like the beginning of the year and the time to start fresh. I found an open figure drawing class at AS220 in Providence - meets every Tuesday evening....tomorrow. Planning to attend at least twice a month to get my eye/hand back in the groove and maybe possibly meet some artists/interesting people. 

Feels like the first day of school.

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at table - a recipe for memories

Apples at the Lippitt Park Farmer's Market

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A Recipe for Memories

1. Take a wooden carton filled with fresh red apples. (seen at the local farmer's market on Saturday)
2. Add the just completed visit from my sister which included a 4 day road trip to see family.
3. Finish with the news of the sudden passing of a friend.
4. Once all the emotions have settled - finish with the promise of remembrance.

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Apple Soup

It was so naive and innocent yet it is truly my first actual memory of food. It  was fresh, delicious, and it was made with love just for me. I do not recall the first time I had it but I do know that I asked my sister to make it for me again and again. I would sit there at the table, patiently waiting, while she prepared this heavenly treat for me.  Finally she would place the bowl carefully in front of me and then sit down next to me. She never made it for herself but she would stay with me and wait while I ate it. 

I remember how delicious it was, the sweet and the tart flavors mixed in every spoonful, the variety of colors in each bowl, how cool and refreshing it was. 

I loved this time together - simple, unconditional, watchful, and caring. Was it the soup I really requested over and over and remember so well? 

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Midnight on a Summer Night

It was an afternoon BBQ with extended family at the start of our road trip. A beautiful summer day sitting around the pool enjoying family and seeing children all grown up. As always, the food was outstanding. Hot sausages and steak tips on the grill, salads, eggplant parmigiana - more food than was necessary but somehow, over the hours, we consumed it all. Table hopping with each course so that we were all sure to get time with everyone - to catch up and reminisce. As the day came to a close one by one everyone left to attend to families or other events but four of us remained sitting outside allowing the sun to set beyond us and the crystal clear night to envelop us.

My sister, our 83 year old aunt, our cousin, and myself sat under the stars till midnight sipping wine and beers. Voices in the dark sharing stories, sharing lives - none of it important yet all of it important. 

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Dinner in a Garden in the Country

The garden behind the little rented cottage was wild with flowers, bees, butterflies and the rich pastiche of summer sounds and scents. My husband and I had driven out to western MA for dinner with friends. We had not seen them in over a year so there was much to catch up on. The four of us sat in Adirondack chairs so comfortable in each other's company - the conversation bouncing between the present, the past, and plans for the future.  Dinner was simple - grilled salmon and vegetables. Well after dark the four of us gave up on the garden and went inside to eat berries for dessert. And then our goodbyes and a plan to get together next at our new house in September.

It is the conversation, the setting sun on his relaxed face, his crisp windowpane check shirt, his laughter and the comfort of our friendship that I will forever remember.

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At table...... Yes, it is the food that might beckon us there but it is something else that keeps us there long after the food is gone and the dishes are cleared. It is then when memories are made and friendships are cemented. 

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Apple Soup

1 - 2 ripe apples (variety dependent on the season)

Cold water

1. Wash apples. Core and dice into 1/2" cubes. 
2. Place in bowl. Add cold water - enough so that the apples are "swimming" and not over crowded. 
3. Sit back, take the time, converse and make a memory.

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in the studio - patterns in a city unknown

"Patterns in a City Unknown"

mixed media collage on paper

4 1/2” x 6 1/2”

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I have been working on a number of pieces about, in, and surrounded by city elements. This piece came together relatively quickly. I had been wanting to include 2 figures in a collage - connected, yet separate and they seemed to come together in this mash up of cities.

I have not been in the studio for the past 2 weeks - visitors and road trips filling up my days, yet the weeks have been filled with inspiration and some new and interesting material findings. While showing off my new neighborhood I discovered an old bookstore and found 2 amazingly beautiful and interestingly colored maps. Then while on the Cape I was directed to a few antique stores and there I found some great antique maps - Lisbon, Dublin, Germany - all of them with terrific colors - missing so much from more current maps. 

Newer maps tend to be practically mono-color..... is it the cost of the ink?

Come mid-week I'm really looking forward to working with some of the new map finds and getting the chance to re-look at some of the works in progress. Eyes rested it will seem like seeing them anew.

Time off can be good.

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in the studio - an august rhythm

“Amsterdam by air and on foot”

mixed media collage on paper

4 1/2” x 6 1/2”

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“In a corner magnetic north”

mixed media collage on paper

6 1/2 ” x 6 1/2 ”

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Two new pieces that I just completed in the last few days. I began them both within a day or so of each other - both very different in what I was trying to achieve and for the restrictions, or lack of, that I established in the process of their creation. 

As of late I have found that I enjoy having a number of different pieces going at the same time, each in a different stage of development. It gives me the opportunity to look at each piece with a different set of eyes and I can choose which to work on by what mood I am in, what I feel like tackling that day. I like that - it feels less constrained and allows me to be more open to serendipity.

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Beginning to find a rhythm to my days and weeks - I need that. I am spending a few hours every day in the studio - sometimes fully productive and sometimes not but all good and worthwhile time spent. Lots of exploring, trying, failing, and learning! Original ideas sometimes pan out exactly as planned and others take all together different routes and end up somewhere new and interesting. Maybe that’s why I love to work with maps as my base ..... each takes me on a journey. 

in the garden - life and death

I found the robin’s egg mid June lying beneath one of the oak trees in the yard  - fragile and smooth it was almost stepped on by a red sneaker and then just as quickly averted being a tasty treat for a dog. 

I held the egg close.

I wondered if the mother had pushed it out - knowing possibly that the egg was not fertilized? Could it have been by dropped a squirrel racing home with dinner? Or simply the winds of the nite blowing it out. 

No matter..... no longer in the nest it will never hatch.

We have seen 2 broods of our robins since the egg finding. The ones that made it.

When allowed to venture out of the nest, the hatchlings scurry after their parents -mouths squakling and open for food. They are well protected and cared for.

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Hiding in the garden lilies sat a tiny sparrow making noise all morning. I watched as it stumbled, tried to fly, and then retreated again into hiding. It was clearly in distress. Other sparrows lighted on the fence and the tree above him. They answered each of his calls.

The morning was filled with an operatic duet of suffering and hope.

The protecting birds stayed with him all morning. They scared away the nosy squirrels, and they dive bombed the neighborhood cat - both of whom saw this as a great opportunity. The birds took care of their own.

By early afternoon it was quiet and I went out to the garden to bury the sparrow.

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The robin’s egg sits by the window looking out over the side garden. Still smooth, still perfectly blue.

in the studio - experimenting with transfers

Contours

5" x 7"

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The heat has made it almost unbearable to be in the garden so, in ernest, I finally got back to the studio to work on pieces that I had begun before the move. My organized self created a list of "TO DO's" - and I dutifully fell into line.

A few hours into it and I finished one map collage that had languished in a closet for at least 4 years. It was finally done .... and it was less than inspiring.  I really don't like it - so it is back in the closet where it belonged.

At that point I told my organized self to take a nap...... 

Then I put the To Do list away and allowed my time in the studio to flow organically.

I pulled out my notebook, looked through old sketches and the many ideas of things I had noted to try that had accumulated there and pulled out different kinds of maps I had been fascinated with. I began with experimenting with ink jet print transfers. Trial and error**,  impatience and not quite having the correct mediums not withstanding, I did successfully transfer a colorful contour map print on to a smooth clay board surface using Mod Podge as my transfer medium. The Mod Podge held on to a very thin layer of the printer paper making the colors look milky white so I had to carefully wet my finger and rub off the excess paper. I then added a thin layer of gloss acrylic gel medium to help enhance the color. Once dry I added a contour map of a female figure.

I am very satisfied with the look of the transfer and the possibilities that the technique holds.  I will be experimenting more with this.

**One of my trial/errors resulted in the non-transfer of an antique map print that tore apart - leaving me with absolutely beautiful, delicate and shiny ripped pieces of a skin pale map. I have saved all the pieces.

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work in progress

20" x 20"

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Also began a new piece using a navigational map of the Dry Tortugas. I have been looking at the face in this map for a long time! And, while perusing my notes I found the perfect "eye" in my sketch book that I had drawn from a Raphael painting while visiting the National Gallery in DC a few years ago. 

I want this piece to be about light and shadow - althou I am finding that it is very difficult for me to add black; I keep erasing it back to gray, should the whole left side of the piece be in shadow?; incompleteness - I want to be true to the map itself, so how much color or line is too much?; connections - does the baby distract? should the baby be closer to the adult?

Lots to work through - but, as long as I don't make a list I think I will get there!

within the familiar - another trip to Småland

Parking Area

Ikea, Stoughton, MA

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There is a 285 square foot display home in Ikea that I love. 

Every time I go there I visit it and wander thru my little "house" imagining my life within those "walls". Quite liveable, so contained, peaceful even. I get impatient when other people are wandering in there too, looking thru my cupboards, exploring my bathroom..... none of them really wanting to make the commitment to the space, they're just browsing. 

 I have needed to re-think what possessions would make the cut in order to live there - whittled it all down to the most important, the most practical, and the ones that contain the most memories. No need for 3 sets of dishes or the case of wine glasses. No need for clothes that I haven't worn in over a year. 

It can be done.  

I would want to make a few modifications. Maybe I could sacrifice one row of storage for wall space to hang a favorite art piece.  A fold out desk/work space would be nice and I would definitely want a little porch - out my imagined front door - and some space for a tiny garden. One needs to be honest about what is really important in their life.

Getting one's life to fit in 285 square feet is a good exercise. It forces you to think small, forces you to decide what you really need to live, forces you to think about the future. It frees you.

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