in the studio - a first and a first!

Look Out

antique maps, thread, pencil on paper

8” x 10”

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I finally bit the bullet and entered a juried art show.......

Thrilled to have had both pieces accepted and overjoyed that "Look Out" has sold !!!!

Working on the nerve, and more art pieces, to enter more shows. 

One step at a time.

Hoping that I can get to Cape Cod at some point in June to see the show  -  and maybe add in a visit to see friends, eat oysters, visit the outer cape, eat oysters......

“Call Me Ishmael”

Cotuit Center for the Arts

May 21 - June 29

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Among Islands

antique maps, tracing paper, thread, pencil on paper

13” x 16”

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at table - somethin' is brewin'

Bucket Brewery

Pawtucket, RI

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So many new developments this past month!  

I want to give a big shout out to my husband, Tim, for both his drive and creativity. He is now the "official" blogger for BUCKET'S KITCHEN, the food and pairings blog for Bucket Brewery located in Pawtucket, RI. Basically, he creates and shares food recipes that use Bucket's amazing brews as well as talk about food pairings and such. 

There has been such positive reaction from the brewmasters at Bucket that Tim is now looking at rent ing local kitchen space and working to get his food license, all while perfecting some very special treats that the brewery wants to sell. 

(I don't think I should give away what these are just yet.....)

And.... while trying to incorporate local food and businesses into his writing .... Tim has connected with our neighborhood olive oil store and they are currently intrigued with his infamous crackers!! And they would like him to pursue that as well as some other specialty items.

Tim has also established his own web site, 

the KITCHEN DRUDGE

where he will link all of the Bucket recipes as well as others he is working on

He has also been forced to set up a Facebook page 

(oh, how he hated doing that!!)

But - one way or another .... please follow him and you will get to hear about all those new treats coming!

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on the street - a different perspective

Garden at the Mount Hope Community Baptist Church

Providence, RI

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Warm winds from the west and flowers blooming everywhere. 

A new season has truly begun.

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I finally finished and uploaded the last work for my online class today and although I am saddened to see it end.... it is time to move on. The class has consumed me for the last 8 weeks and I have some new and exciting challenges ahead of me. 

I am designing the costumes for "Ivanov" - the opening production for the 2013-14 season at 

Trinity Square Repertory Company 

here in Providence, RI !!!!

I am both thrilled and nervous by the prospect! And although we do not begin rehearsals until August, there is a lot for me to accomplish before then. 

Like actually designing the play ...... based on the director's wishes, the production will not be a Chekovian 'period piece' and will include a contemporary rock band on stage along with the cast. 

A mash up of looks and time periods - but one that must blend together seamlessly so that the audience believes in the world we are creating. 

A challenge indeed.

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So here's to hoping that designing a show is like riding a bicycle ...... 

in the garden - Oh yes! It's Spring!

new beds for 2014

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It has been a very long, very dark, very cold winter. Did I say long? 

Well, the sun has recently decided to begin to show itself again and the earth is finally beginning to warm up! I can actually go outside for a few hours at a time (albeit with gloves and 2 sweatshirts) and get to play in the dirt. First order of business was to clear 2 new beds alongside the front walkway. Next week I will be receiving the most glorious present - enough hostas to fill the space!! 

Divisions from a great Cape Cod stock of plants I am ready to plant, take care of, and watch them grow.

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In the last garden post I talked about my "winter sowing" experiment and I am soooo pleased to be able to say that there are actually little babies sprouting in the there!! I was very nervous because we have had a LOT of rain and the temps have been quite cold since I put them out. It has actually dipped below freezing a number of nights. But those hearty little seeds pulled through and I'm ecstatic. 

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So, I began my next round of seeds today - coleus and more zinnia, chives, 2 different kinds of small "lunchbox" peppers, and black cherry tomatoes. 

I rigged up a little shelf by the windows that get the best morning sun.  The peppers and tomatoes need to come inside every night - the soil for them needs to remain above 65/70 degrees while they are germinating. So I am being really careful with them. 

portable greenhouses!

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I also added two new blue hydrangea to the front of the house - in the very shady corner. These guys have been waiting for a few months in the cellar waiting for the ground to unfreeze. When I pulled them out today it was so miraculous to see fresh shoots already sprouting! They are SO ready for spring time!!

The clump of light brown in between the hydrangea is a Big Blue hosta that I recently received from another Cape Cod friend .........

I am so blessed.

Here's to friends, warm weather, and beautiful gardens!

blue hydrangea 

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within the familiar - waiting

Beach off of Shore Rd.

Dennis, MA

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We were way overdue for a few days on the Cape. Walking on beaches, both new and familiar, is always good for my soul and well being.  My art class assignment this past week was about time and motion - how do artists explore and represent time? how do we evoke "sensation" in fixed images?

The dictionary says that time is the "indefinite continued progress of existence......past, present, and future regarded as a whole".

For me  - the ocean is time.

The beach laid out in front of me is time.

Is that because I see them as a symbol of time? Like a clock or a fossil?

Or is it because I watch their movement - waves, tides, wind blown sand - which evokes the passage of time?

Or am I creating for myself a visual narrative and thus telling a story? Hence, time.

Or is it all three? 

And that's what makes the experience so powerful for me?

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in the garden.....finally the smell of dirt!

My first winter sowing experiment

March, 2014

Providence, RI

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Needless to say I am getting quite antsy to get back into the garden! Over the fall and winter I was reading a lot about winter sowing, a mini greenhouse germination process developed by Trudi Davidoff about 15 years ago. There are now many web sites about it and many devotees - especially in the colder zones where we have such a limited growing time.

Anyway I decided to try it out - some seeds, some soil, and a little help from mother nature ....

how difficult could it be?

I put out my first containers today. It has finally become reasonably temperate and I felt that I was safe to do so.  I have read that a lot of people begin their winter sowing in January and February and just let the seeds decide when to germinate. Not sure I am that desperate to get my hands in the dirt ...

My first containers are:

Zinnia - I had harvested seeds from last year so we'll see if that experiment was worthwhile

Greek Oregano 

Creeping Thyme

Garlic Chives

Dill

Over the next few weeks I will be adding:

Coleus

Black Cherry Tomatos 

Sweet Pepper Mix

Staro Chives

Winter Squash

Pumpkin ... (I miss my Columbus pumpkin patch!!)

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And, yes, opening that bag of garden soil today and breathing in its pungent, rich smell was a slice of heaven for me. 

in the studio - portraits

Case of American frames

Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

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I visited the American Wing at the Met in January. I had not been in that wing since they renovated and reopened in 2012 and I was blown away by it. Needless to say I did not see all of it - as I now accept my 2 hour (okay sometimes 3) limit of museum viewing before my eyes and brain are overwhelmed and I need a break! 

My favorite gallery was the Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art. 

Wow!

It is a visible-storage facility - that you can wander the aisles of - that displays more than ten thousand works of American fine and decorative art. Objects are arranged by material (paintings, sculpture, furniture and woodwork, glass, ceramics, silver, and metalwork) and within that by chronological order. Amazing.

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I was also taken in by the miniature portraits and the colonial era portraits - both often done by “itinerant” (love that!) artists. Seeing all the portraits told me that I needed get back to the figurative form again and, luckily, after feeling quite stuck it helped me to get back into the studio!

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I wanted to experiment with portraits and play with multiple collage techniques and see where it led. So far I have finished 5 of them and have a new one started. They are not great - but I have learned something from exploring and finishing each one. It is a very interesting journey and I am not sure where this experimentation will take me ... if anywhere. But I am really enjoying it and having fun!!

 

Woman in Market Place
8"x10"
Cut paper collage on Illustration Board

When looking at a lot of the early Colonial portraits many of them showed crackling - I am sure from age as well as the quality of the paints used. I actually liked the texture that gave the faces - kind of like a landscape.  

So for this piece I wanted to try and create a portrait as if it was an aerial view landscape. 

Futurist Man #64
8"x10"
Cut paper collage on Illustration Board

 Sticking with the cut paper theme I wanted to try a portrait of a man in an early colonial pose .... 3/4 view, hands in foreground, head in background. However, I had just read an article about the exhibit at the Guggenheim, "Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe". 

I didn't know anything about the futurists but looked up some of the painters and decided to try this one in that style. Why not?

Pieces of a Woman
4"x6"
Cut paper on clear acetate film

Just an experiment working on acetate.

Map Study #2
5"x7"
Antique maps, thread, pencil on kraft paper

Both of these next ones came out of the same idea - to collage a map in the portrait and to somehow incorporate stitching as well. I actually began #2 first and began by tracing a sketch that I had done a few months ago. Once the sketch was on the brown paper I then laid in the map pieces and stitched them down.
Then I got lost - and was not sure how to proceed......

That's when I took the original line tracing and began to play with it. I actually drew the map lines on the front of the drawing and I used colored pastels on the back of paper.
I sprayed both sides with fixative and then put a coat of acrylic medium over the top. The colors are a bit diffused and it has a parchment quality to it.

I did finally get inspired to return to the original map with the stitching and worked through that.



    

Map Study #1
5"x7"
Graphite, pastel, ink on tracing paper. 

 

Today I began this new one. I wanted to try more with the maps/stitching technique. But wanted to do in on canvas and probably use paint and other elements.
It is about 11"x14".
I didn't have any canvas so I took part of an old black canvas curtain and since I also didn't have any gesso or white acrylic - I used yellow. Remember - its an experiment.
Definitely not sure where this one is headed.

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In the immortal words of Al Swearengen ....
"Every step a f*cking adventure".