Well, hasn't it been sometime since I have posted on the art blog.
I am moving down the road in brain cancer treatment. Obviously this takes up most of my focus currently. I am seven months out from my initial craniotomy and have my first MRI tomorrow after Gamma Knife in January. If you want to catch up on this you can go to the Caring Bridge Journal.

I currently have two paintings at the Workhouse in Lorton in the "Women Made" exhibit.



Almost all of the New Mythology paintings have sold and I have three commissions waiting on me, so I'll be back at the easel soon.

Upcoming Exhibit

My next exhibit "Modern Mythologies" and will be hosted by the Howard County Center for the Arts. The shows hangs from November 4 to December 16. The opening reception will be held on November 11 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. This show pairs my New Mythology work with the life-sized, figurative sculptures by Maryland artist Sarah Wegner. Here is the HCCA website.

For more information, call 410-313-2787 or email beth@hocoarts.org.

Somaphony Launch Party

My friend, Nate Lewis of Somaphony is proud to announce Open (he)Art Surgery. The Somaphony Launch Party!

Please join Somaphony for an unforgettably funky evening as they officially launch into the District!

Somaphony is a clothing & art line based out of Washington, DC that combines elements of music & anatomy into surreal designs. If you are in the D.C. area, go and support art.

Visit the Somaphony website.

Terry Dixon Reenslavement Revisited at Caton Merchant Gallery

My friend, Chicago artist Terry Dixon has an exhibit in Manassas VA:

"Telling that slavery did not end with the Civil War,Terry Dixon presents a body of work depicting African-Americans being forced to work for free from 1865 to 1945. His work is created through abstract digital images with acrylics, oil pastels and inks. Terry Dixon lives in Chicago where he continues his artistic discipline. He is as associate professor of computer arts."

The show runs from September 8th - October 26th. His work is remarkable, so go see it if you are in the area.

Paper and Paint

My daughter Nina gave me a lovely sketch/scrap book made with banana fiber pages. I love the speckled natural color of the paper. I really want to spend more time drawing, I used to be really good about keeping sketchbooks. Funny how once kids came into the picture, that sort of slipped away. I want to get back in the habit of drawing for the sake of drawing and not just when I want to design a quilt.  

I like the way the drawings look on this paper, but I found that it is not the best for paint. I think it's too absorbent and soft, so it is not as easy to move the paint around on the surface of the paper. I persevered though, using opaque watercolors to paint the images.

I will end this post with todays Oprah siting. Mayor Daley held a press conference outside to announce that he renamed the section of Carpenter street between our loft building and Harpo studios "Oprah Winfrey Way".

photos taken from my 5th floor balcony

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On the easel....in the studio

My painting time is still rather effected by ongoing, but improving neck and shoulder issues. Still at two physical therapy appointments a week, so painting hours are still cut back to 15 to 20 or so hours a week. Twenty is a good productive painting week if it happens. Even as I sit here in front of the computer I can feel my neck begin to burn..fun times.

This afternoon there was a short stretch when I became unaware of my physical issue and realized that I had six paint brushes in my right hand and two in my left. This is a great sign of the rhythm of "being in" a painting. A nice change from squirming and adjusting to relieve the pain.

I have about twelve to thirteen paintings lined up for the next New Mythology show in November. About half are done and another half are either started with paint or in my mind. I have sold several of the series' paintings, so I have work to do, but I don't need to really start wrapping up actual painting until August or so. Let's see what sort of magic happens until then...the state of the studio today is a fantastic mess with paintings in various stages of completion.





"Newton" on the easel...coming along beautifully....


...and Reuben, my giant snoring dog....who is totally worthless, apparently.

Where have you been?

There is one more trip for us yet to come this weekend in a string of summer travels. I have been away from the blog so long I had to actually sign in!

Let's see how much I can get to before Thursday. I am starting a new painting on a new ground. Canvas has been my ground of choice, but in a new effort to expand the work I will be using Ampersand gessoboard.

On the easel and coming to completion....



In the works:

New Painting on the easel....

On the easel:



Mice. Not sure where the mouse imagery is originating, but there is something compelling about their innate ability to go unnoticed and generally influence an environment underneath the surface......I think of Galadrial's words:

“Even the smallest person (or "creature" in my economy) can change the course of the future."

On the easel

"Red Bellied Woodpecker"
5" x 7" oil on panel

Small oils

More neck and shoulder problems lately. I am (slowly) working on adding to the "New Mythology" body of work and small oils count. My hope is to have 20 or so of the panels for Artomatic, but they are flying out the door. As far as I know they are still looking for a building for the 2010 show.

I have to say I love being a home owner. I enjoy repairing, updating and painting..nesting. We are getting settled, painting walls and endless trim, working in the yard and dreaming up cool things to do in the house over the years. And patio furniture comes Wednesday......yee-ha.

If you are interested in a 5" x 7" framed oil, just say so. Here are some new ones.


"Tree Swallow"


"Mourning Dove"

If you have an specific animal in mind as a subject, I can do that for you, too.

Finally.....back at the easel....seriously.

Last week my attempts to return to painting failed. Most of you know that we have been packing, moving and unpacking...and settling. I gave myself permission, in hand with well-trusted friends, to spend more time "nesting" here in our new home in Fredericksburg. I love doing handyman kinds of things and our place needed just that (and more...) I also spent several days painting the kitchen. For whatever reason every wall and every piece of trim in this house was painted antique white, all except for the ugly blue wall on the cathedral stairwell. So, you know, being all about color, I felt I needed to get at least one room painted.

I had breakfast with friend and fellow artist Elizabeth Seaver yesterday. I was greatly encouraged to talk with a comrade and I have gotten back to it this week. And, after six weeks away, it feels great.


Almost complete....putting in the details....


5" x 7" oil on panel


5" x 7" oil on panel

At the Easel

"Black Swan"
7" x 5", oil on panel
$250, framed

The last week I have been taken out by a pinched nerve in my shoulder. I feel like I have so much work to do and with such a painful, time consuming incident, I have to say I got a bit depressed. It seems for me this is going to be an issue related to my work, so I have to find ways to do whatever I can to keep flare ups at bay. Laying on an ice pack for days on end is rather frustrating, but I did think about those who deal with chronic pain without much relief and wondered how they manage whether it is because no one has found an answer to their pain or they live in a place without medical care. Within a few days of a visiting my chiropractor I was 100%. That day was today and this painting is finally done thanks to Dr Mannino.....

I just read that Artomatic is probably going to be pushed back to the fall. Gives me more time to paint.......

Happy Christmas......

I am sure many of you got as much snow as we did over the last few days. Being socked in, I have had plenty of time to cook, which is really just a thinking exercise. As Christmas and the close of the year approach, I stand in my studio, thinking about the paintings created over 2009, wondering about how well I executed each, where I can improve and concocting new ideas in my mind. I plan to follow this frame of mind through New Year's Day. I have about five paintings in early stages, but, if you have known me long enough you have figured out I tend to start painting after painting as the ideas are just too big to sit on. They seem to carry with them birth pains and I can so nothing about it. They are coming to be. But I commit to finish those waiting as soon as I am back to the easel the first week of January. A New Years' resolution of sorts (...we know how those tend to work out....)

At the close of 2009, a grateful thanks to each of you for encouraging and challenging words, for supporting me in a myriad of ways in my life as a painter, a life I would not have without your presence.
Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and a blessed New Year to each one of you.

Women Artist

The interesting current letter from Robert Genn at the Painter's Keys.

"Dear Artist,

Last night I was giving a short talk and signing books at one of our local art clubs. I happened to notice no men were in the hall. The club has many male members, they assured me, but apparently they don't come out on rainy nights. Not to listen to me, anyway. I wasn't crestfallen--I was being sociologically informed. I've always noticed the 80/20 split in these organizations, but I knew the full-female thing was just around the corner. Anyway, it was a combined lecture and holiday-season windup, the shortbread was good, and no one asked me to dance.

If you don't mind, I'm going to lay some statistics on you. Of the 82 new people who signed up for the Twice-Weekly letter yesterday, 56 were women. That's 68%--which pretty well mirrors our current ratio of 67% women subscribers. Maybe this means females might be more willing to listen to males than males are. If true, one wonders what percentage of males is willing to listen to females.

Yesterday, among the people buying my new book on PayPal, 65% were women. Funnily, more men paid by check-in-the-mail than women. One might conclude women are what social scientists are now calling "early adopters."

Fact is, women are more into growth, self-improvement, networking and learning than men. In a recent UNESCO study, more women than men got university degrees in 75 of 98 countries. This goes for most professions with the exception of engineering, computer science and math. Some fields are being overwhelmed with women. The vet school in Guelph, Ontario, for example, reports 80% of current grads are women.

The fact that boys lag behind girls in school is well known and not peculiar to our times. Studies show that as early as grade nine girls crave learning more than boys. Apparently the boys are now lagging later and later. The new statistics might be alarming to some. Roles may be reversing. Are men going to be stay-at-home-daddies while the women go out into the world and slay dragons? Is breeding going to grind to a halt? Are women going to be all the doctors, lawyers and artists? And by the way, do men just not want to listen because they already know it all and need to get on with it?

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "It's not ridiculous to say women will have the upper hand in a way they haven't in the past." (Economist Ross Finnie, University of Ottawa)

Esoterica: The "demographic bomb," as it's being called, may have its short term benefits, but the longer picture is not so rosy, particularly for Western cultures. If women are busy building empires, where will the new customers be coming from? One more statistic and I'll shut up and get back to my easel: In my four top galleries it looks like 27% of living artists represented are women. Ten years ago it was 24%."

Good Times

Did you grow up in the 70's like I did? CHIPS, the Dukes of Hazard, the Love Boat...Good Times?
Remember that J.J, played by Jimmy Walker, was a young aspiring painter? Do you know that the amazing neo-mannerist paintings used on the set and credits were created by Ernie Barnes, the football player turned painter? I didn't realize he passed away this past Spring.
Here is his website and here is a CNN video tribute.



c. Ernie Barnes
"Sugar Shack" (used in the intro of "Good Times")

Countdown to opening day.

I am always amazed when a painting moves so quickly along, without a hitch. It does not happen often for me, so I am basking in the wonder that is the "Shepherdess." She seemed to come along like magic. Meant to be.

Craig and I went to visit family over the long weekend and by Sunday, I was beginning to mull over the FCCA and NVFAA shows which both open in a few weeks. I have hardware to hunt down, varnishing to do, more promotion as well as working on the reception food and drinks. Some of the paintings are so new that they will get no more than a coat of retouching varnish.
So, all that to say I am pretty much wrapped up with painting and won't be back at it in a focused manner for awhile.


On a very cool note, the Van Gogh museum is displaying Vincent's letters alongside paintings he is speaking about in those letters.

Today's Painting

These little birds are so delicate. I used the goldcrest, a European bird, for most of the detail, but changed the markings some. This is evolving in that magical sort of way created things can....one stroke at a time.

Art?

Why is it that often I read an artist statement and come away from it feeling like "what??" Why is that when I look at contemporary art and mostly feel I just have been exposed to an expression that exists solely for the purpose of uncovering self-mania, obsession, and often, perversion? (I am in no way speaking about art that addresses hard issues.)
Anyone but me? Can anyone explain?
Can anyone be an artist? Is art really in the eye of the beholder? What makes a piece of art last over generations?
I realize this is as old a question as "what in art...."

On the Easel: Phobetor

It is really difficult to photograph these dark paintings in various stages. I am afraid to take it out to shoot because it freaks out my neighbors. The paintings, I mean. Not for everyone, I get it, people.

But I am really excited about where this is going and you can get the general gist from a less than optimal image. Looking for moths now, that will be emerging from the cocoons.....is it synergy, or something more sinister?

Canvas book

Last month I made a canvas book after seeing Jane LaFazio's segment on Quiting Arts TV. Jane used artist canvas as a base for a mixed media collage. I have not worked much on canvas and thought it would be a lot of fun to try using it as a base for a book.

I bought a yard of canvas at the art store and tore it into two 12" x 24" strips and two 6" x 16" strips and painted a coat of Gesso on each side of the canvas. Gesso creates a surface to paint on, so all your paint doesn't soak into the canvas.

Next I put color on each side of the canvas, so I would not be working on blank pages. A blank white page can be so intimidating. I also collaged some paper images onto the pages with gel medium and stitched a couple pieces of painted canvas to the pages.

Then I stacked the pages together and sewed them together on the sewing machine. I found that my Janome was not happy sewing through the layers of canvas, but the Bernina plowed right through four layers of painted canvas with no problem.

This book was not meant to have a theme, just be a place to try new things, new techniques and randomly add things, a continuous work in progress.
This page has a paper bird from wrapping paper in the upper corner and a painted bird in the bottom corner, painted with textile paints. The patterns and text were printed with thermofax. I had never printed with thermofax screens before. The images printed a little more distressed on the bumpy surface of the canvas. But I love the layer of texture. I can see why so many people love working with thermofax screens.
The photos of the women, here, on the cover and the back of the book are from acetate transfers using matte medium that Lesley Riley gave me. The one on this page was transferred onto a piece of buckram.

The cicada drawn on the red fabric and the patterns drawn on the leaf were made using a ruling pen. This was a great tip from Melanie Testa, I had forgotten all about ruling pens. I used to use them all the time years ago for inking things. I have several of them that have sat unused in a box for the last 20 years. I even have my dad's ruling pen and drafting tools that he used in his days as an engineer for the Navy. I am thrilled to rediscover the ruling pen, it is a great tool for drawing fine lines with paint or thickened dye.
In Jane's QATV segment she also used stencils to add more visual texture to her collages. When I was at Blick I saw a set for $2.99 how could I resist? I numbered my pages with them using the number as a design element on each page.
I drew the bee on the page with a permanent brown pen and painted it using transparent glazes of textile paint.
This center page has a thermofax print on a piece of wool felt and a scrap from the fabric I made to create the apron I posted about a couple weeks ago.
On page 12 I sewed a machine felted fabric collage.
On my last page I sewed a pocket so that I could keep things I want to add to the book in the future.

This book is still far from finished, I am planning to keep adding to it indefinitely.

It has been a fun experiment, canvas takes paint so differently from fabric. You can push paint around on its surface and pick it up again with a cloth making interesting textures in ways that you can't on cotton fabric. I also like the body the canvas has for book pages, flexible, yet sturdy. I can see a lot of ways one could explore using canvas for books.