Friday, June 24, 2011

Moving Target as a recurring theme

The beauty of getting to be a certain age is that you can start to see patterns. Or maybe I am just slow and it has taken me this long to see that what I painted years ago, I will paint again. I'll paint it now.
6 x 12 x 2 inches acrylic and collage headlines on canvas.

I am trying to get organized, to make sure everything is inventoried and signed. So I spent the day in the barn loft studio and uncovered an unsigned and unfinished piece from maybe the year 2006. I could call it Bleak Vision, like the headline in the lower left says...
It reminds me of Lydia, my hen who has been de-feathered and let loose by Bruno. Missing for the last two days, she might be naked and hiding so I whisper her name near the neighbors bushes hoping to hear her coo forth... meanwhile I carry a bucket of her orange feathers... saved for an art project? And I throw scraps of peanut butter and jelly and lettuce at the door to the coop.
I feel like a moving target as well. The lists aren't getting any shorter, but the halls are filling with boxes and bags. Progress seems painfully slow.
Another Painting- called: Issues, from 2008... begs the question:is the naked hen a recurring theme? Last night I dreamt I was unclothed and frantically trying to pack the trunk of my car with bulky fragile things like lampshades... and people were everywhere, so at the same time I am trying to hold a towel to my front for modesty's sake.
I feel tired just writing about it!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Inspired by Bruno




I've started a fiberglass dog for the Harlem Valley Chamber of Commerce. It's Super Dog Brainstorming Super Dives... I want it done by the annual local dock diving festival, July 9 and 10.
So it is not finished yet...but soon. It is one of the last commitments I have to follow through on before moving away. I sure will miss the back deck, and all the green, and Bruno.
Bruno, originally from Miami, now lives in New Orleans with my son. He has been visiting for the last month and, as his "grandmother" I have had his company while my sons are out of the house all day at work. He is a sweet and smart dog. (They will never suspect how much he has stolen my heart.)

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

If I could live in a diorama





I'd live at the Peabody Museum. The one in Cambridge has been my favorite since childhood tours of the dusty displays transported me to faraway places and times. Last week Michael and I went to the Peabody in New Haven- his favorite museum. Rudy Zallinger was his professor in art school. We spent hours lavishing attention to details of the great murals and displays. Perry Wilson is my new hero. He was an amazing illusionist and his work is as fresh today as it must have been in the 40's! His Northwest Connecticut diorama looks contemporary and so much like the home of my soul. The North American murals are amazing as well and I appreciated studying the Everglades and his Florida scenes. I want to paint my future bedroom ceiling to look like a tropical forest canopy. And then turquoise walls!

Monday, June 20, 2011

MidSummer Nights dream

The weather held off and faeries descended the valley over the weekend! Cait Johnson is an energetic and inspired director.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Moving out of here...CAR FOR SALE

1964 Karman Ghia Volkswagon Convertible has been stored in a barn for 19 years! Time to let it go and move on... about 97K miles, very little rust because the majority of road time was in Colorado. Great memories could be yours. A perfect fit for the cool new you?
Now...the painting, mixed media on wood panel, measures 6 x 8 and may be more affordable. Inquiries welcome!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Moving out of here...CHAINSAW

Taking out the dead wood and transplanting the new hopeful trees. It all gets put on the list. This small painting, measures 5 1/2 x 8 inches, and took more than one day because I find the process of adding the metallic leaf requires a lot of down time. So, before I know it, I am out of the studio and lost in the proverbial woods!
What would I do without a chain saw?

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Moving out of here...

Tool series...
I envision the matches, a broom, a chainsaw, a paint brush, and a suitcase as part of the essentials, leading me one step at a time towards the door...
Is there a trick to photographing metallic leaf?

mixed media on wood panel
about 8 x 6 inches...

Friday, June 10, 2011

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Another year burning

bright. I shouldn't complain BUT, oh well... just feeling in the smoke of a new age. Burned a lot of things I didn't need any more. And avoided candles on the cakes.


acrylic and imitation gold leaf on wood 8 x 6 inches.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Another Study in White: my bathroom

I allowed myself this exercise after actually painting the walls of the room white, (but I have yet to paint the trim). Documenting my bathroom was more challenging than I thought it would be. Seems there were very few angles that could capture all its spacious charm. I was unable to fit in the painted cabinet doors or the vanity cabinet or the checkerboard floor or even the plants up on a high ledge. And then there was so much white! But the final composition is zoomy, no?