Tuesday, January 27, 2009

faces


this is the first face that i painted in 2006... i didn't like her eyes or hair, which was a dilemma because i really, really wanted to draw faces that spoke to me.

i spent a couple of days learning from anne grgich and took a class from katie kendrick, but i still drew faces with hard stares and the hair! what to do about hair?! any and all hair i drew was a disaster.

finally in november of last year, about two years after '3rd eye girl' above, i 'got' that the eyes don't have to be eye shaped or even the same size. and the hair, well just leave it off!

below are some of the faces that i've painted in the last year. some of them i like a lot, some not so much. one thing's certain though, each one informs the next...


























started this morning...

if you have any helpful hints or special techniques that you use when painting
faces, i'd love to hear them.

XO

Thursday, January 22, 2009

begin anywhere


from
'an incomplete manifesto for growth', by 'bruce mau design'.


pages from last year... i had another idea for starting this post, but when i saw 'begin anywhere' it seemed the perfect introduction...


i've been creating bits and pieces for a collaborative project instead of working in my journal.


much ripping and painting, some beeswax here and there...


and large quantities of gel medium everywhere.


and tree flags... i made tree flags that are waiting to shower their love on east coast trees.


a new kind of tree flag came to me when i was out measuring for the guerilla knit up. i really like these, and it just goes to show how one thing leads to another...


speaking of the guerilla knit up, this is how my first try at the knifty knitter ended up. the pegs filled up with yarn! surely it wasn't that i hadn't read the instructions thoroughly! never!!

heh, well i'd missed the last paragraph that told you to take the bottom loop off every time you reach the end.


twenty-three inches... only three more inches until my first piece is done. i'm going to put it on a tree at the entrance of a nearby national forest campground. along with one of my new tree flags...

yep, begin anywhere...

XO

Saturday, January 17, 2009

knifty knitter


okay grrl, am i a guerilla knitter now? this thing says it will knit scarves, ponchos, and much more. what's that? you wanna to see proof?! i'm workin' on it!


if you're one of the few people who doesn't know about grrl's global guerilla knit up challenge, you can go here to read about it. there's still time to join... i was happy to see today that she's posted a supply list for guerilla knit kits.


glad you didn't leave this item out, grrl. we virgos like to be precise, you know...


parisa, you're the winner! please e-mail me with your address and i'll send it off to you. i like to go to parisa's blog to see tehran through the lens of her camera. and, of course, gaze at her art...


taken last week on our way to the grocery store. hay is big business here. it's a fact that there are more cows in this county than humans. just over 9,000 humans in 3,944 square miles (10,215 square km), and a lot more cows.


i don't think i was actually aiming to shoot this sign, but then again maybe i was. a sign this big in someone's front yard?! and it's lit at night!


my journal, waiting for me...

12/04/07

follow your heart
and see where it might take you
don't let the world outside
there
break you
they know not who you are inside

~ 'follow'
~brandi carlile


listening to brandi carlile today...

XO

Monday, January 12, 2009

beautiful people...


that's what i thought as i read your comments on the gaza post...
thank you, for your comments there and on all posts... i feel blessed.


this weekend i finally finished covering The Book. this is what it looked like in september when i left for virginia.


and here's what it looks like now. the gorgeous fiber-y ribbon that's holding it closed was part of this package from jacky.


a conglomeration of stuff for sure.


here's a pic from last summer (before it was bound)... the only thing that i added to the inside of the book


are pages made from vellum with feathers between them. the book starts and ends with these 'feather pages'.

thanks again to seth for being the inspiration behind this project! i learned a lot and used some of what i learned when i 'built' the journal i'm using now. pages with pockets for sticking stuff in, for instance. each journal informs the one that follows, that's for sure.


i'd like to say a big "thank you" to a friend and fellow artist for a package that i received last week... this isn't the first time that she's blown me away with a package of art supplies, but the amazement factor was especially high with this one. this time she sent me a big box filled with st. amand watercolor paper in all sizes, textures, and colors.


now you have to understand that i LOVE (insert 5 million exclamation marks here) st. armand watercolor paper, and it's not easy to find. i was beside myself with joy!! and that's a peter beard dvd there - lynne's art nirvana in a box! thank you my friend! oh the journals this paper will make!


now i'd like to pass on some art goodness that was given to me... as you might remember i won issue #5 of 'pasticcio' in a drawing on sarah fishburn's blog; i'd like return sarah's kindness by passing it on to the next person. if you're interested, just leave a comment saying so ~ i'll put everyone's name in a hat and draw a name later in the week.


besides finishing The Book i've been trying to find my groove for a collaborative project that i'm part of. as you can see the art table is full, so there's no room to actually do art on it. i improvised with a giant clipboard that i had stored away. i've since cleaned off the table and started working on smaller pieces. yep, trying to find my groove...

'freebird', 1/11/o8

the one and only painting i've done since i posted last...

and what about that moon?!!

XO

Thursday, January 8, 2009

for gaza



Instant Karma's gonna get you
Gonna look you right in the face
Better get yourself together darlin'
Join the human race
How in the world you gonna see
Laughin' at fools like me
Who on earth d'you think you are
A super star
Well, right you are

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev'ryone come on

Instant Karma's gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
Ev'ryone you meet
Why in the world are we here
Surely not to live in pain and fear
Why on earth are you there
When you're ev'rywhere
Come and get your share

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
On and on and on on and on

~ John Lennon
Instant Karma


'the messenger', 1/07/09


XO

Sunday, January 4, 2009

exploring this house

exploring this house ~ jan. 1 - 3, 2008

sometimes i just paint, la la la, for the pure joy of it, but most of the time i paint and glue until the image says "done"; right brain understands the message, i smile (sometimes for a long time : ) and think about the next painting! this page was different in that a very specific image was trying to come through, and it took a couple of days for me to get out of the way and let it come in. the boots... i knew the boots were staying, but beyond that i was clueless. i tried different things...


layer 2, nope...


i woke up on the third morning knowing that i was supposed to look in an art book for an image to put in the upper right corner. i immediately found this and scanned it so i could resize it to fit the page. it's a painting by titian, representing zeus (who's transformed himself into a shower of gold) raining down on danae, with the nurse catching the golden dust. danae has been imprisoned in the tower by her father...

yes! exploring this house of conscious and subconscious, male and female, linear and spacial. the here-to-fore hidden is pouring in... well, that's my interpretation of the golden dust!

several times i wanted to just tear this page out - remove all evidence of the struggle - but the dalai lama was on the back side! in the end, of course, i was very happy that i hadn't. sheesh. art as a metaphor for life...

eugenia, the sparkly arrow, and the silver nugget ~ jan. 3, 2008

painted later in the day... mercifully, this page was not a slow process. i took the pic at an angle to try and get the mica to show up.


this book is one of the many things transforming my world right now. catherine shainberg founded the 'school of images' in 1982 in new york city. from the website:

In line with our predecessors, The School of ImagesTM's work is experiential. The practice is pure Kabbalah (Kabbalah means "receiving"), in that one "receives" from their inner gazing. Thus, the brand of Kabbalah taught at SOI is not an arcane, difficult system to access, but an exploration of the imaginal field whose language is common to people of all denominations. The imagery exercises practiced at SOI are peerless tools for instantaneous vision, transformation and healing.

i highly recommend it...


and finally, this...


two (maybe three) days later the sun is shining on the the crystals again so i grabbed my camera for another shot, but wait, where'd that plant come from? i ask jim if he's been rearranging the plants... no, he says. wow, this plant is growing away from the light so it can swing over and hang out with the crystals, and it's covered quite a distance in just a few days to do so! this is one of the most beautiful sights i've ever seen!


an altered version... please help yourself to any of the versions if you'd like!

beautiful week to you!

XO