in the studio - scattered

leaves waiting to be collected

Providence, RI

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Like the leaves that are quickly mounting up and blowing around the yard today I am feeling ever more scattered. The last few weeks have found me beginning new projects, tossing them aside, picking up something new … completing some things, but more often than not just staring at them. Lost. 

Thinking I need to go back and look at pieces that were working for me - point of view, subject matter. Hopefully I will find the new path.

in the garden - planning ahead

Dried zinnias and seeds

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It looks like we will be getting our first overnight frost later this week.

Over the past month I have watched my new garden begin its slow pull back into winter dormancy. It is as beautiful and captivating a process to watch as the bloom on the other side of the calendar. 

Last bursts of color from the cosmos, dahlias, coneflowers, and foxglove. 

Final waves from the last tall blooms in the lilies and hostas. 

A glorious shout from the red leaves blanketing the dogwoods.

In this newly quiet garden I will rake, mulch, and prune. 

Time to plan for next year. 

in the studio - photo collage

"Child as Man"

8 1/2" x 11"

digital photos on vellum, digital photo on map, mixed media collage on paper

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Have been experimenting a lot with the printing of photos onto vellum and loving the ethereal quality of the image and being able to layer them to create depth. I decided to try a portrait collage done using only  images printed this way. It was an interesting challenge to select only photos that related in some way to the subject matter, but also photos that would help create the right values for the skin tones and shadows. I did have to adjust the color quality before printing many of them - trial and error. For the background I wanted a texture so I created a repeating image from part of a photo and printed it on a 2 color topographical map.

I feel there is a lot to explore with this technique and have begun 2 new pieces that I am slowly working my through.

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on the street - birthday by the sea

View from the Cliff Walk

Newport, RI

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"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water." Loran Eisley

I have lived on or near the ocean most of my life. 

It’s force, it’s calmness, and it’s rhythms are part of who I am. 

I recall it’s sound when I need to relax, I picture it’s open vastness when I need to understand the world, and when I walk along it’s shore I am at my happiest.

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self portrait - 10/08

Newport, RI

within the familiar - end of season

a change of seasons

Eastham, MA

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it has been over a week and yet there was still traces of sand in my shoes this morning 

like a gentle poke quietly reminding me of

five brilliant days and star filled nights 

each one easily rolling into the next

each day signaling the last of the season

in each grain of sand I have purposely saved a snapshot to savor at a later time

an autumn sky’s color reflected on the surf

the cold steel sharpness of a just opened oyster

a crisp breeze that carries the familiar briny scent of every day

and the simple joy of just being

and with each step I shall begin a new journey every day

in the studio - city musings

"and you think you know me"

7" x 7"

digital photo prints on vellum, marker, mixed media collage on paper

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I am fascinated by the buildings in a city and the patterns that they create as you walk. Looking up, there are layers of architectural styles and layers of shapes all pointed at different angles that totally shift as you move through them. And then I imagine what it must look like from above - all the structures set on their own map of intersecting streets, grid lines; the ways in and out of the city. 

 And within this ever changing structural collage are the human beings adding their own ephemera ..... trying to find their way.

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I wanted to experiment with a collage built in layers using my photographs. After some experimentation I found a vellum that gave me the right amount of transparency and was also a good quality to print on. Putting some restrictions on myself I wanted to use only photos I had taken in NYC over the past year and have all the images be black and white. Once I found the underlying map it gave me a unifying motif as well as a direction for color. I think I will use this transparency/layering idea more.

within the familiar - graffiti

graffiti "participation" wall

Lippitt Park, Providence, RI

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A graffiti wall had been set up for the music festival. Cans of spray paint, markers and paint were supplied to whomever felt the urge to express themselves. Over the course of the day children, teens and adults all took stances on either side of the wall. Layers upon layers of individual moments each one hiding the last - constantly changing.

I took this picture around 4:00 - the sun filtering through the canopy of trees softening the edges. The layers suddenly had depth and the balance of colors sang out to me.

It stood still for just that moment.