Slice of Time

Slice   oil/canvas   4 x 4 x 1.5

Most of the time, I am back and forth between 2 or 3 paintings. Problem solving is difficult work. But putting some distance between you and the work in progress is a great thing......it allows you to see the work with new eyes, in a new way, in a couple of days. This distancing is difficult to pull off, but quite necessary. Often, I am so involved in the work at hand that I can't stand leaving it at the end of the day to return to my "normal" life. Over-involvement is not good in painting, or in life. When this happens, I pull out a tiny, tiny canvas and just paint something at hand. Those small paintings are calming and reaffirming. And they just take a small slice of time!

Artist Time

Early...a sketch

Artist time is commonly referred to as "whenever". I'm afraid that there is some truth to that stereotype. I spent at least half of my life being late. After some not-so-nice results from my tardiness, I have resolved to mend my ways. I didn't think about the fact that it was rude to others......I didn't think about the stress that it would cause others. For me, it is the direct result of my tunnel vision. I love living in the present moment, and I seem to be able to experience a bit of flow in whatever-the-present-task. The notion of not concentrating on the immediate is a bit foreign to me. And planning out little blocks of time and limiting my time in each block was abhorrent. Well....here I am....the new me. I now try to adhere to the little blocks of time and try to estimate the time each task will take. And, most importantly, my whole life is organized to try to allow my painting block the maximum of time. O.K. That being said, my fixation with being on time has been overdone. I was an hour early for a meeting in March. Red Dot Project is housed in an old press building in Cleveland....it is constructed a bit like the old 1950's school building. When I realized my error, I sat down on the cement floor near the entry where early spring sun was streaming in. I drew my own shoes and allowed myself the time to really consider all of the shadows and all of the subtleties. It was March 17, as I am wearing my shamrock socks. The session was a treat. However, I was happy to move to a comfortable chair when the meeting started....one hour later.

Admiration for calves like bowling balls

Calves like Bowling Balls...a sketch

I am always equipped to sketch wherever I go.....it helps to pass time and, most importantly, it helps me to learn about life. Most of the elite runners at any race have similar body types....compact, slim with no body fat and a kind of "lightness". Heaviness just doesn't go as fast. The George Washington Parkway race was a veritable smorgasbord of body types: old ladies pacing a fast walk, overweight people with their trainers urging them on, kids of all ages, and parents pushing strollers while running. These folks are an inspiration to all. They don't fit the mold, yet that doesn't hold them back. Wow....profound. After the race, I was lucky to see an unlikely runner stretching his legs as he leaned against a railing. His shoulders were oh-so-broad and his calves were the size of bowling balls. He was almost as wide as he was tall. During those brief moments, I loved this man and I loved his effort.

Breakaway

Breakaway   watercolor   19 x 27

This past weekend, my husband and I broke away from our routine to travel to Alexandria, Virginia to watch our son run in The George Washington Parkway 10 K race. Breakaways are important.....as they help you to increase your tunnel vision to take in events and experiences that wouldn't usually come your way. They inspire and they help me to reconsider and reevaluate. I always leave home dragging my feet, however, as my mind and my body prefer to follow the usual path, to stay within the boundaries of "familiar". I witness this phenomenon even in my painting classes, where artists typically sit in the same chair, and observe the class with their comfort zone. We seem to become protective of our space go to great lengths to avoid the uncertain and the unfamiliar. The rewards, however, of breaking away are exponential. Seth had a great race and I was inspired by each of the 7200 runners there who braved the 90-degree heat to prove something to themselves. I am tired this morning but hopeful that some of those visual memories will filter into my subconscious and make my work more human and more genuine. I want to experience something new.

Copyright

Earlier in my career, I signed on with a print company who asked for exclusive rights as well as the copyrights on the work that I did for them. I was so happy to have work, that I willingly signed on the dotted line......for five years. Granted, the work is schmaltzy......cutesy.....whatever....that is the nature of mass printing. The company was successful and growing. I received a paltry percentage. In fact, 4 of my prints were featured one season in the Spiegel catalogue for $49.95 each. I received less than $100 from that exposure. The company is now bankrupt. My prints are all over the internet, on stitcheries and on puzzles. I have even seen them on the Baghdad Museum website. I receive nothing. I suspect that the income generated from my prints, and the prints of many other artists, is being used to pay off the company's creditors. I certainly sent in all of the claim forms to the courts in that state, but am doubtful that the outcome will represent any positive income for me and my family. So, I guess that the moral of this story is NEVER NEVER EVER GIVE UP YOUR COPYRIGHTS.

Relief

Architectural Rosette   watercolor

I guess I am attracted to all-things-handmade, especially things that are carved from wood.....or even those molded in iron.....or things pressed into copper.....or...........let's just say that I like relief work. Painting one of these objects is a wonderful exercise as we learn all about 3-dimensionality on a flat painting surface. Those parts that are closest to the light source, and to us as viewers, will have a lighter treatment. Those parts that receive the least light will be the darkest. And then there are the areas in-between, whose rising and falling make the image believable. Old architectural pieces offer much in the way of painting relief, as do kitchen molds, egg cartons and muffin cups. Hopefully, we will be able to translate what we learn into the topography of the human figure, a still life painting or a landscape. An even more challenging task would be to render some abstract marks using our findings.....to watch them rise and fall from the painting surface. Awesome.

William Morris

Daisy Tile   watercolor/gouache   6 x 6

William Morris has been another inspiration for me, especially during the years that I designed greeting cards. The swirling patterns of flower shapes and leaves are both flowing and mathematically designed. The father of the arts-and-crafts movement, he promoted simplicity as a reaction to the overly-ornamented and sugary-sweet decor of Victorianism. He believed that beautiful things were in accordance with nature. Much of his wisdom was borrowed from the Japanese, including his use of restrained color so as not to tire the eye. His designs and fabrics are timeless. William Morris is Wabi Sabi. He found value in the uncomplicated.

Quick Draw

Quick Draw - Laura

This past Wednesday evening, our art club program was a quick draw. We all took turns posing for various gestural drawings for 30 seconds to a couple of minutes. It really was such fun....thanks to Akron Society of Artists programs chair Jana Volkmer! The speed helps to get to the heart of the matter right away....for me, it is the gesture line that holds the pose, that imaginary line, a curve, that mimics the energy of the figure. Lines go this way and that. I don't really strive for accuracy here....just energy. What fun! For this session, I used China markers as they glide so easily across the paper. I was prepared with several, as they wear down rather quickly and are quite the sticky-wick to unravel. Other artists used charcoal pencils and shorty pencils. We used lots of paper as well.....paper well-spent. Working quickly also helps me to work slowly as well....later on in the drawing.

Ntozake Shange

i tried to love her fiercely   oil/canvas   48 x 24 x 1.5

If we are open to the universe, we can be inspired by our intake of all kinds of ideas: music, books, people, acts of kindness and events. Those small inspiration-bites hit me like a brick....make no mistake about it.....my right brain underlines, italicizes, and makes bold any notion that speaks to me personally. When my children were smaller, I was fortunate to complete one or two paintings during a calendar year. I read inspirational biographies of women like Alva Myrdal whose diplomatic career took off after child-rearing. Such is poetry of Ntozake Shange, an American poet who speaks to women and African-American women in particular. At a time when I was struggling so very much (more than now), trying to begin a career after my children were in school, I read her words: "i found god in myself/ and i loved her; i loved her fiercely". I needed empowerment. I needed to love myself. I needed to hear the words of Ntozake Shange. The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve Annual May Members Show opens May 1 with a reception from 6-8:30 pm and runs through June 4. The gallery is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are: W, Th and F from 10-4 and Sat from 12-4. The Artists Archives is located at E. 123rd Street in Cleveland in the same neighborhood as Cleveland Institute of Art.

Wabi Sabi

Self-Taught   watercolor   12.25 x 9.25

One thing leads to another....and so goes my reading which inspires my thoughts which, I believe, deepens my work. Robert Genn's newsletters are a great source. Recently I was introduced to the Japanese notion of wabi sabi through The Tea Collection , where my daughter-in-law Laura is a designer. The books are piled up on my reading table ready to ingest. I guess I have always leaned toward these notions without realizing it. Wabi Sabi is a complex idea that celebrates the richness of imperfection: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. It is about achieving a balance between action and stillness. These thoughts originated long ago when the tea ceremony evolved from a status-ridden and lush event to a more simplistic one, nurtured by accessories that were available to all people. Wabi Sabi is autumn. Wabi Sabi is a chosen non-materialistic way to live....a poverty of sorts that distills complexities into essences. For me, very complex, yet oh-so-meaningful. The lessons are poignant. The lessons still anxieties. Wabi Sabi.

Transplanted

Degrees of Ripeness   oil/canvas   30 x 10 x .5

We had a beautiful holiday weekend that included visits with siblings and nieces and nephews that we rarely see....our family has been scattered across the country....in California, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. I don't that is so unusual these days. We share history with these relatives, so it is always wonderful to touch base and find out where life has been taking them. "Degrees of Ripeness" will be going home with my wonderful sister-in-law Ann Hutchinson Jenkins. She recently lost a pet of many years and I think that she was able to relate to the chaos I felt as I painted this work in a mid-July heat wave in my garden last year. I was definitely trying to make some sense of things. And.....as I also found out this weekend.....tomatoes don't grow well in Louisiana, her home, as they crave the cool nights and warm days of other climates. I am happy that my painting will find a home in her kitchen and will be a bit of a connection between us. Paintings are like children....we are always relieved when they find great homes.

Spring Equinox

Easter Basket   watercolor   12 x 9.5

Seasonal flow is reflected in my work, and probably in the work of most artists. I am stimulated by what I see around me and how I feel. We are lucky here in Northeast Ohio as we are treated to a veritable smorgasbord of weather and temperature conditions, each sliding into the next without too many drastic changes. A new season brings a new way of feeling, dressing, traveling and cooking. Plus, the seasonal changes allow for a multitude of still life subjects. I cannot conceive of painting a summer scene in the winter....it just won't happen. For me, any unrealized seasonal paintings will simply have to be put off until the next year. I enjoy the flow of it all. For our last painting session in my Kent Community Education class, we painted Easter baskets. We had all manner of exciting elements, as participants enthusiastically contributed from their collections. I like the light going through the jelly beans.....makes them more magical. The foil wrappings on chocolates are so beautiful to me....the folds as well as the patterns. Our back yard this time of year is usually foggy in the early morning....our children spent many Easter mornings searching for eggs in the fog in their pajamas. This memory triggered the memory of a wonderful watercolor artist Catherine Anderson  whose mystical watercolor landscapes are achieved by multiple subtle washes of color. Her work gives me that "Easter feeling".

'tis the season

Bunny Girl   watercolor/gouache   13 x 8

'Tis the season of the rabbit. I love them. What's not to love? They are soft and fluffy. They are herbivores. They don't bother anyone. They are gentle. To me, they represent the yin, the feminine side of nature. "Bunny Girl" was painted oh-so-long-ago but remains one of my favorites and I really don't know why....it just speaks to my soul. This young girl, whose name I have forgotten, is holding the rabbit in such a maternal way, a loving way, the way in which I wish we would all treat each other. My watercolors range from expressive to dark to strong to mistaken to gentle. I guess watercolor speaks softly so well. I really do love rabbits. Especially the chocolate ones.

Just Drawing......Not

Centrifuge   conte crayon   26 x 19

Tonight's meeting at The Akron Society of Artists is a program where all artists bring drawings to share.....it's called "Just Drawings". Drawings are exciting, bold (for the most part), and devoid of unnecessary distractions such as color and texture. As a result, they speak simply and honestly. For me, drawings often have more heart and soul than the paintings that evolve from them. Draw, draw, draw. And, since we often treat drawings as a "practice" art, a lesser art, we are often freer to experiment with them. A winning combination. I have lots of awesome drawing tools, and have even set up a different art box in which to house them. My favorite pencils are: the shorty (after years of being unable to get replacement leads, my friend Tom Mullins gave me some from his secret stash); an extremely wide one with a wooden barrel brought from Germany by my friend Shirley Blake; and the newest, another wide from Duluth Trading Company with a metal barrel, a gift from my friend Susan Mencini. Add to that: conte crayons, charcoals, china markers (thank you Sally Heston), and vine charcoal, the medium of choice of my idol Zhoaming Wu. Just Drawing? I think not.

Learning to Love Brown

Jennifer   conte crayon/pastel   19.5 x 25.5

If you asked me a year ago my least favorite color, I would have said brown. I am not sure why......only that I have had the same response my whole life. The same for seafood....I just don't like it. Although, I believe that we are all entitled to our likes and dislikes (after all, that is what makes us individuals), I don't think it hurts to occasionally re-test our beliefs. They change. We change. When I was a kid, all of the days of the week had colors - that is how I thought of them. Saturday is brown.....well, that is a good thing....right? Well, I am starting to enjoy brown....especially in artwork. Thanks to Conte and Winsor and Newton. OK. But I still feel uncomfortable wearing it.

Permanent Collection

Blink....pen and ink

tattoos

Serious artists have a portion of their resumes dedicated to permanent collections. It goes without saying that there is prestige associated with which institutions, businesses and individual collectors appear under this category. But what about tattoos? Pretty permanent. Pretty serious. I mentioned a while ago that I was doing line-work for a couple of tattoos....one for a friend Zach and one for my son Nate. Zach chose a meaningful quote for his. The calligraphy was rendered using a copperplate nib on fairly rough paper. The quote was then blown up in size in order to increase the imperfect and aged quality of the writing. That blow-up was then reduced in size as a template for the tattoo artist. Nate chose an owl named "Blink" that resides at Quail Hollow in Hartville, Ohio. I worked from a photograph and worked many editions in order to get the line-work just right....it was difficult as just a few changes seemed to alter the overall appearance in surprisingly striking ways. The owners of the tattoos seemed to be much more relaxed than me. At any rate....the art lives on.

Values tell the Story

Sand Dollar, Starfish, and a Stone with a Hole in It   watercolor   6.75 x 8

We can easily use values to help purvey a mood. Values that all hover toward the lighter end of the scale emit "lightness", romanticism and a lack of seriousness. Those are my interpretations. Beach condominiums are filled with prints of such artwork. Of course, vacationers are vacationing FROM seriousness and responsibility, so these pictures work quite well. The mood is set for lightness and fun. Also, there is so much light in the South and at the beach, that a higher drama picture with darker values is simply not possible. Light is everywhere. I find that most watercolor painting students love these kinds of paintings. I think that these works represent the quintessential watercolor in so many ways. It also could be that these very students leave their responsibilities at home and at work and want to have fun at painting class. O.K. I am all for that. I much prefer works that convey both darkness and light and a resultant feeling of the interlacing of both the darkness and the light, the combination of which makes life so ripe and so genuine. But I guess that it doesn't hurt to leave the responsibility at home now and then.

And speaking of brown.....and coffee...and ink...and Wallace Stevens

Oranges and Wallace Stevens

This morning I awoke at 5:30 am and there was no possibility of returning to the sleep. So I brewed a big pot of coffee and enjoyed more of "All Over Coffee" by Paul Madonna. What a poet! What an illustrator! All of the drawings of San Francisco surrounds and neighborhoods are done in sepia ink. They are enchanting. He is a perceptive and poetic artist.....how often the two seem to reside! He deftly explores and describes the human condition and, in doing so, helps me to accept my own humanity. Paul Madonna, his words, his thoughts and his beautiful brown drawings have inspired me!
The browns are all there for us to love...the umbers, the sepias, the siennas and the coffee.....they seem to bring us so close to the earth. I need to break out my bottle of sepia ink and my new sumi brush.

Between Drawing and Painting

Twosome   watercolor   14 x 10

I have found that many people who sign up for painting classes want to skip the drawing part. Too bad. Most of the errors that occur during painting are the result of drawing errors. I guess that drawing doesn't seem as fun.....what with no colors to choose from and no medium. I don't feel that way at all, as both drawing and painting involve visual problem solving....I am indeed in love with the process. It is THE TIME SPENT IN CREATING that spins my fan. There is always a half-step, a compromise, so to speak, between the two. Painting with one color allows the artist to experience the medium and solve value problems, without the extremely complex notion of color. After all, it really is value that tells the tale. I have found that the browns work extremely well as their built-in value property is quite dark, thereby having the capabilities of spanning the entire value scale. Not only that, it is pure unadulterated fun. Try it.....you'll like it.