Collaborating

I'm not really sure how it happened.

But I am starting a collaboration in clay.

Minneapolis ceramic artist Kyle Osvog and I have been tossing ideas back and forth for months, trying to build things that showcase his forms, and incorporate my linocut prints.  The learning curve has been steep, especially for me.  Paint and printing inks are one thing, glazes and underglazes are a whole different beast.  I have had failure after failure.  Ugly glazes, uncooperative transfers, and stuff that just blew apart, fell off, or simply stuck together.

But things are starting to work a little more often than not.  

So, I'm going to keep trying.

You can see a bunch of available work in my Etsy shop, and more work will be coming down the pike soon.  Take a look HERE to see what's available, and consider purchasing a piece to keep the process moving forward!  These won't be going on the road to any major shows soon, so if you want one, the Etsy shop is the place to go!

And have no worries, the paintings will still be coming, but I think the crossover from one medium to another will be interesting to watch.  Thanks for checking in!

A night's work

I've been a little quiet lately. The dessert blog takes more energy than you'd expect, and I have a thousand excuses just like that one if you have time. But the thing is, I've had a lot of time off between shows, and I'm working towards building a new body of work. Nothing like that is simple. I've been sketching, and scribbling, making models. Having brilliant ideas and hating them the next day. And a for few days I've just settled down and done a little work. Tonight I carved a funky damask pattern into linoleum so I can use it stamp-like in an upcoming painting. Assembling the elements, getting ready for a big push. And I don't think I will know I can do it until it's done.

Chicken and Prettybird

Chickens! I have to tell you I am really having fun with this. I have been bringing linoleum block prints into the dress paintings for a few months now. Printing them directly onto the canvas. But the more of this I do, the more I want to do. Now, I'm printing them onto rice paper, and collaging the paper onto the paintings. All these chickens will be in the background of my newest piece, "Good Egg." I've just started it, so I have a way to go, but I'll post when it's done...provided I don't completely mess it up on the way!

But in the meantime, here is a piece that I finished last week, "Prettybird." I love how this turned out, and already have plans for more. The background is a collage of lino block prints, the little yellow bird, ( a pine warbler I think) is painted. And the little halo of seed beads is stitched through the canvas.

A good start to the week!

A new "Wallflower"

If you've known my work for very long you'll know that I often revisit my titles. I've done a few different versions of "Wallflower." This is the latest. Washes of pink covered in lino cut flowers.

And a little closer. Sometimes I just like to make them pretty.

"Wallflower is 40" square.

Finished?

The question of when a painting is finished is more of an issue than you might think. Standing in front of the easel the little voices in my head get quite chatty. One is shouting "quit now, less is more" another says, "you didn't spend nearly enough time on that." "You could push that a little further" is met with "Whoa, quit before you screw it up!"

This was an interesting piece in that respect, because I was happy with the background and was working on the china, a little highlight, a little glazing in shadows, a few dabs of magenta in the roses. I turned around and looked at the piece and WOW! I loved it.

But was it finished?

I'll back up a bit and tell you what is going on in this piece. The background (as I call it, or the parts around the dress) is a collage of ads from the late 50's. On top of that is a block print of a repeat pattern of circles. The circles are woven together, and sometimes they shift and turn into flowers. I was happy with this red pattern, and how the greys in the background gently move your eye around the piece.

I didn't actually have a plan of what to put on the dress at this point. But on my "bulletin board full of crap," (others have beautiful names for this, memory boards, idea boards, dream stations...whatever) I saw a catalogue cover with a painting by Peter Plamondon. It is a huge painting, of a collection of white bowls, some upside down, one filled with white eggs, it's a beauty.

As a side note I was in a Gallery in Chatham on Cape Cod this summer and saw a few of his original works, simply stunning, google him!

But what truly struck me was how that composition would carry the repeated pattern of the circles from the background onto the dress. But I didn't want to copy the idea to the point that I made it look like the piece I just saw. So I pulled out what I have, china. Lots of china.

Without digging too deeply into my head, I have decided that my china collection is becoming a metaphor. It is in a cabinet and in boxes, I have collected it since I was about 12. It has moved with me at least 12 different times, and sometimes not made it out of the boxes before it was moved again. The china has become a reminder that the future I thought I would have as a child is nothing like what actually is. Not necessarily a bad thing by the way!

So I laid out the cups and saucers, and photographed them from above. I painted from the photo. So this is where I was when I had the "holy smokes, this is looking great" moment. I dug through my button collection and laid out the hula hoop shape of buttons (yet another circle) and stitched them through the canvas.

Then I let it hang on the wall for a few days. It wasn't finished.

The only thing the finished piece has, that the earlier version didn't, is the shadows under the saucers. I liked how they floated on the red background, but once I stitched on the black buttons it became more obvious that I needed a little more black in the composition to pull it all together.

One of those push pull moments of a painting, everything you do means you may have to do something else. To balance it out, to make it work.

So this is it, finished. She is titled "Enough." 40"x40"

Dream Sweet

"Dream Sweet" is my newest experiment with linoleum block printing in the background. Damask and floral patterns were carved into two different blocks, then "inked" and "printed" in the checkerboard pattern. I use quotation marks, because I used acrylic paint for the whole process, not the old oil based printing ink I used to use in my lino prints on paper. I did apply the paint with a roller, but the printing process was more like a stamp, or even a potato print. Kinda loose, rubbed down with fingertips rather than the trusty wooden spoon.

The dress was a donation from an artist friend, thanks Joan! A beautiful turn of the century cotton baby dress, or perhaps nightgown. It has beautiful details, netting, and embroidery, tiny little pleats. It needed little work from me, as it was lovely to begin with.

The "stars" are little freshwater pearls, individually stitched through the canvas. Dream Sweet is also stitched through with a dusty blue embroidery floss. I chose a primitive childlike hand for the words this time, if I do it again I may try a type that looks a little more formal. Such is my life, already trying to figure out how to make the next one better before this one is even good and dry.

I am sure this will hang in a baby room somewhere, and hopefully become a treasured memory. One of the fun things about making little baby dresses is knowing that my piece is the beginning of a new art collection! And I'm all for nurturing new art collectors!

24" square $695