Sightings

 

 

 

 

It rained all day today and I thought about bears.

sighting

5" x 5"

mixed media

watching and listening for movement

A pocket full of miniatures, inspired by the rewards of open eyes and ears.  The top one is the piece I consider most successful and I look forward to following its lead.  I am enjoying painting animals again - it has been a while since I have considered them as motifs, and approaching them in this very delicate way is rewarding and giving me inspiration for the days when I can return to a larger scale.    For now, these small works are allowing to continue making while other parts of my life demand attention.  They are reminders for me to watch and listen as I witness and facilitate change.

deer series (all)

5" x 5"

mixed media

Running the darkness in...

Untitled
Mixed Media
5" x 5"

Untitled
Mixed Media
5" x 5"

Untitled
Mixed Media
5" x 5" 

Fall runs in the Puget Sound carry with them all of the poignancy and drama of their transitional place between the naked freedom of a Northwest Summer, and the glittering glow of Fall's monastic sister, Winter. The images of running darkness in - from day to dusk to quiet night - is what inspires much of my work.  Transition. Contrast. What is left and what is taken.  What is found and what is given.  The emotional imprint of moving through the world. 

Here is a little verse I wrote last night after a particularly beautiful run that fed into these tiny paintings today:

Gold leaves, medallion faces
Shine up, whispering the way.
I run the darkness in,
The sun a seam beneath the grey.
The purple sky behind me,
Folds a darting cat into her sleeve- the flashing glow of taillights, a distant orange-red beat. 
A perfect run- 
a gift - a dream.
5 minutes or a lifetime - 
to move, to live, to breathe.

Homage

Untitled
Mixed Media on Paper
5"x5"

Untitled
Mixed Media on Paper
5" x 5"

Fall begins and as the rains start and the days shorten, time expands and the Harvest Moon hangs in the sky.  As I explore this series of miniature works on paper with printmaking, painting and collage - slowly finding the rhythm of making within the rain - core motifs return to speak.  Moon, landscape, bird.  These are the voices of inside.  The voices of always but particularly now - this Fall of large moons, flocking birds, and grey skies striped with the armatures of trees.  Here we are.

Fall into Winter

Untitled
Mixe Media
5" x 17"

Fall

Untitled
Mixed Media
5" x 17"

Welcome Summer

Wake
Monoprint
6" x 6"

School is out and in cleaning out my studio-classroom I enjoyed re-discovering the many demos that I did throughout the year for my wonderful students.  Here is a small monoprint that I had put aside.
It was also wonderful to be able to take home several lovely pieces of work to remember my students' efforts by.  Their discarded proofs are now my happy treasures.  I decided not to return to this Jr. High in the Fall so that I can re-align myself with my long-term goals of arranging my professional life in ways that best support my practice.  The movement of Life continually asks me to readjust and find balance in fluidity and grace.  I love this repeated request and will not stop moving to meet it.  Welcome Summer.

the white crow

Wind, waves, the repetition of trees, inhaling - exhaling.  All of life is pattern and rhythm.  I have found myself since September in a place where studio time is like the white crow or the volunteer Chestnut tree in an ornamental garden.  It is rare and it breaks the expectation of the pattern, but it is still a part of the larger design.  Right now I am practicing gratitude for the abundance of other satisfying work that I have.   My sporadic blog posts reflect this place of plenty and honor my intention to not force my relationship to my practice to remain fixed.  It will change as it always has, as I do, while simultaneously remaining constant and deeply a part of my purest self.

Long Winter Dreams

Long Winter Dreams

Mixed Media

44" x 30"

The mountain chickadees guide our path - up through the fog to the blue sky .

Winter calls Spring

Response - Spring
30" x 44"
Mixed Media

Response 2 - Winter
44" x 30"
Mixed Media
in progress

I am becoming happier with these pieces.  They are getting closer to finding their stopping points as I continue to explore  the idea of  Response.  It is fun for me to consider similar ideas with varying levels of abstraction.  

I can clearly see my own responses to the heavy Winter days of Seattle within this work - the veils of fog  and rain, the glorious otherworldly sunshine at elevation in the Mountains, and the quiet signs of Spring that are beginning to appear.  

I feel all of the space and life beyond my studio walls calling.  My response and homage through my practice is from within, and that response is fueled anew with gratitude each time I step out the door.  Amen.

Up and Running.

Response
44" x 30"
mixed media
in progress

Response 2
44" x 30"
mixed media
in progress

I am fascinated about how one responds - how response might be embedded in intuitive action without our awareness, or how understanding comes after and because of action. Sometimes we listen to the call for a very long time before we respond and other times, the call is still sounding and we are out of our chairs and running fast.

Call and Response

response
44" x 30"
mixed media
in progress

I am feeling my way back into the studio - enjoying gathering some new materials, rediscovering old ones, and combining different approaches.  Sketching, writing, thinking, sitting.  Florence and the Machine was loud today and there may have been some spontaneous dancing with brushes in hand!  This painting still has a longer path to take and I am so excited to help it find its way.

Happy Newest Year!

This has been one of the longest breaks from the studio that I have taken in quite some time.  What makes a giant break happen? Well, for me it was a filling up of my life with all good things that I am filled with gratitude to report.  I accepted a position as a Visual Arts teacher in a private middle school, ran a marathon, had a one-woman show, turned 45, traveled to Cambodia, Arizona and Florida - and now I am welcoming the New Year with a gentle look back and much excitement to move forward.  

Welcome to 2013. 

Back to the studio.

Street view of my show

On the way back to mainland Cambodia from Rabbit Island

Flying above the shores that raised me

Holiday Elfin Magic

 A few years ago, my family decided that we should all start making our gifts for one another.  Granted, my family is decidedly heavy with professional artists, so in deference to the engineers among us, we did not make this a hard and fast rule.  Even as years have passed and some of us have reverted to buying gifts again, I loved the opportunity to mediate on whom I was giving to as I crafted this or that and have made it my own tradition.  Here are a few examples of the Elfin Goodness that the holidays brought forth.  Holiday cards, adornment, and whimsical creations.  Making things is magic with love.

Winter waits.

Winter waits...

12" x 12"

Mixed Media on Canvas

in progress

I am enjoying exploring the structure of branches - remembering waking up inside the Redwood Forest this past Summer and seeing the understory that arched above our tent skylight.  These paintings were all intended as one part of a lager idea but I am finding that I want to rest with them just as they are for a bit - simple, quiet, spare.  I got a fortune the other night from a Chinese dinner that read:  "Stop searching. Happiness will come to you."  Sometimes painting is like that.

...before calm.

After smooth, before calm.

mixed media

12" x 12"

I am working on some small pieces today while I wait to know what is next for the larger ones.