in the garden - up close and personal...again!

The garden at Church of Saint Luke-in-the-Fields

New York City

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New York was sunny, warm and full of blooms last week. There were manicured havens of colorful repose, wild patches of indigenous growth and tiny curbside gardens filled with tulips. Flowering trees were everywhere and Central Park was filled with pale white sun bathers and the summer sounds of children. Life returning - on all fronts!

Once again, I too will have a garden to grow and tend. Our new home has a terrific yard - albeit a bit more lawn than I would like - but it is a yard with great potential and, over time, if I have my way there will be much less lawn. There are 2 flowering dogwoods on the side and some very tall maple trees out front. Immediately upon possession of the house 2 weeks ago I began the spring clean up! I uncovered hyacinth, tulips, vinca, hostas, forsythia, iris, peonies and lilies. There are flowering bushes that I do not know (yet) and there are 3 hydrangea bushes that I have already moved to make way for an herb garden by the back door. 

The plan is to expand the one dimensional "row of plantings" that was along the fence and the house to create a real garden of textures - with a small walkway through it. (Someday I hope the walkway will be something other than grass...) I will plant the herb garden, left foreground, at the end of May and finish edging and digging out the rest of the lawn area marked by stones. Then I will begin to add new plantings - shasta daisies, more lilies and tulips (of course), and some taller shrubs and plantings for along the fence. I am SO looking forward to the dirt days ahead - summer mornings spent weeding, planting and planning followed by the sunsetting ritual of watering, gazing and imagining.  (with a cold beer in hand) 

Life returning! 

in the studio - backing up

Woman in hat

9 1/2" x 7 1/2"

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Note to self - do NOT make art promises to oneself while:

1. Completing work contracts you are being paid for.

2. In the process of buying and refurbishing a house.

3. Planning a family vacation.

4. And especially when you are doing all the above at the same time.

Needless to say, trying to be creative and producing 4 new collages a week is not actually happening right now. For the first week and a half I was truly on a roll. But as of right now - I have 6 pieces done and 4 new pieces in various states of "where is this going".  Today I organized my work table and kind of, officially, put them all aside until I return from vacation at the end of May. Hoping that the travels will provide new inspiration, photos, and maybe even some new maps - I am planning to visit some notable flea markets in both Reykjavik and Amsterdam! And, once we are settled in our new home sometime in June - I will actually have real space to use as a studio! 

I guess there will be no more excuses........

on the street - finally spring like

India Point Park

Providence, RI

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The past weekend was our first glimpse of spring. The temperatures suddenly rose, the sky was clear, and the sun was finally heating up the earth and creating that, much missed, scent of dirt and new beginnings. So, of course, a walk through the park was needed - looking for whatever new buds or shoots were arriving as well as seeing all the new dogs and faces that were also out to enjoy a spring time stroll in the park.

On the way to the park one young boy told his mother he did not need his jacket on - "but, I feel so fresh without it".  

He was so right! After being wrapped in sweaters, scarves, and down filled coats for so long - I, too, was needing to feel fresh again. 

The park's paths were filled with joggers, dog walkers, children on scooters or just dizzily scooting along, couples - young and old. The bay was alive with activity -  layers of blue, waves dancing continuously with the sun's reflections and water birds being carried from one shore to the next. There was a herd of swans off shore, at least 12 of them, whose whiteness made them disappear occasionally into the sunlight. There were buds on all the trees and small patches of bright green grass - everything was feeling so "fresh" again. But for me - it is always about the smell. Warm, pungent, and a bit damp, the rich odor of soil mixed with the bright smell of new green growth - it is heavenly, it is spring.

And amid all this beauty - I took a photo of rusted cogs from an old ironworks site that are placed as sculptures in the park. I liked the lines.

in the studio - familiar with a twist

Ty

4 1/2" x 4 1/2"

Digital images printed on charcoal paper

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Just like a good novel the collage process unfolds and reveals itself in its own way. 

1. I look at the "cover" - first embracing the concept of what I want to do.

2. Then I imagine where "the story" might take me or I may even try to guess its outcome.

3. Get settled in and start to feel comfortable.... maybe too comfortable.

4. Be jolted into the awareness that nothing is at it seems.

5. Resign oneself to go back and re-look at all assumptions.

6. Allow oneself to be freely taken on the journey.

okay - between step 5 and 6 there is an amazing amount of confusion and frustration..... at least in the collage process.

in the studio - A new challenge

Cosmos

8"x8"

Mixed media, digital images, watercolor, ink and pencil 

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I set myself some new challenges yesterday -  the collage needed to include a hand drawn figure and I wanted to experiment with using different paper qualities; photo paper and Mi Teintes rag paper for printing the images and, ultimately, watercolor paper for the painted figure. 

I began drawing figures in laid out 5"x5" squares just to see which of them might be of interest - whether in attitude or body position. At first my drawing square seemed too small but I began to like how the figures were either truncated or curled up inside. I ended up using the sketch above because she looked timeless, kind of like a Greek statue..... which made me think of ancient Gods..... which made me think of the constellations ..... and ancient maps of the sky! So thus it begins.

The trial and error, the research, and allowing the images themselves to dictate what develops is a very comforting process. The background is a digitally altered photo of a decaying tree mushroom that I took last spring in Columbus. It is printed on photo paper. The shadow figure is a photo of an art installation - clear plastic straws all connected together with white K-NEX (it's a toy) cross snaps  - printed on rag paper. The constellations of Pegasus and Musca (the fly) are from a star catalogue from the 1600's. The rest is watercolor, pencil and ink.

in the studio - Collage A Day?

Mother's Hands 

4 1/2" x 4 1/2"

digital images, ink, and colored pencil on card stock

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Enough with just thinking about all the possibilities, enough with looking for new inspiration!! Today I decided to jump in and make one collage by day's end. It had to be small, use some kind of map image, use photos that I already had, and be completed within 5 hrs. All seemed doable. 

I actually began with 2 separate ideas/concepts:

The first was to print one of my color photos on a map. In order to do this I copied a section of a map on card stock and then ran it thru the printer again to overlay a beach scene photo.  It worked out beautifully as both images were clear and interesting. However, on its own it was a bit flat.

The second idea I had was to work with a black and white close up image of my mother's hands and use it as a base for layering. I basically did the same thing as before, but first printed out a very muted black and white line street map and then reprinted it with the hand photo so all you saw was the veiny look of the streets on her hands surrounded by blackness. It was quite haunting as a photo - but there was no where to go with adding more collage - it was all just about the hands.

So - I returned to all the images I have of my mother that I took in the last few weeks before she passed away and selected one of her drinking from a bowl of soup. From there it just came together. Going back through all my photo files I eventually found the images she needed - flowers and green hostas, a world of sky above and the stability of bricks at her side. Searching, printing, cutting, experimenting, re-thinking - yet it was never frustrating. The entire process was all quite meditative.

I'd like to imagine I could do one collage a day - just to focus myself and try all the ideas swimming in my head. No plan, just experimentation. But, based on current work load, new house etc ....

I'm going to commit to 4 per week. 

We'll see how it goes.

I'm so happy that I jumped in today and even more happy that my mother was able to make this leap of faith by my side. 

Thank's Mom.

within the familiar - Order and Balance

Tools at a distillery in Kentucky

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Hardware stores can be like libraries to me - you can wander through the stacks, pull out something that looks interesting and spend hours imagining yourself doing, or being, something substantial - whether it be as personal as Little Dorrit whose quiet strength helped her maintain her spirit or as lofty and totally unimaginable as building a deck. There's something for everyone!

As we toured the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky this past spring I saw this open workshop area filled with tools. The mix of textures was a cacophony of noise - the various steel surfaces, the chain link fence, wooden boxes, coils of wire, layers upon layers of parts and colors. Yet, in its own way it was all so orderly and balanced. The room was actually quite dark but the wrenches were  hung so beautifully and they caught what little light there was and gleamed.  It was so satisfying to look at and I felt like I had been invited into some inner sanctum, or the belly of the beast.  

It made me wonder a lot about tools - and hardware stores - because less and less people actually use tools like these. There is less equipment that requires them. Will they all end up in antique stores?