Labor

Painter   oil/canvas   48 x 24 x 1.5

Labor is a notion that I would like to celebrate in my work. The process of working with one's hands is, in my opinion, one of the most satisfactory things a person can do.....we can lose ourselves in the daily rhythms of cleaning, gardening, repairing and painting, whether a picture or a dwelling. In The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, Thomas Moore says that caring for one's dwelling is important to the soul.....that is, as opposed to hiring someone to do our own "dirty work". I believe that is true. Cleaning our brushes with care is part of the creative process. Cleaning our bathrooms can be equally as satisfying. Two of my sons live in San Francisco where turn-of-the-century Victorian homes abound. These dwellings are often several stories with loads of decorative turned and lacy piece-work. Not an easy job to paint! On a walking tour of the Mission district, I shot photos of a house painter, perched high up on a ladder, seeming almost relaxed in the rhythm of the strokes. "Painter" is the result. I hold this man in high regard. That is the story. "Painter" can be seen at Second April Galerie in "The View From Here".

Dappled and Wabi Sabi

Happy   oil/canvas   10 x 20 x .5

I recently read a few books on the Japanese notion of Wabi Sabi. The three important principles are: Nothing is Permanent. Nothing is Finished. Nothing is Perfect. What a relief! I believe that these principles further the connection to process over product. One of the books was a children's book done in beautiful collage work about a calico cat.....named Wabi Sabi. For me, this whole notion cemented the connection to my appreciation of The Dappled. The French have a notion of beauty called "jolie laide". This translates literally to pretty/ugly. Perhaps this is all tied up with Joseph Campbell's notions of paired opposites.....where the marrow of life can be found. The plastic notions of perfect beauty are discarded in favor of a more honest, more imperfect beauty that can be found just about anywhere we look....any small visual that gives pause. Happy, my friend's calico beauty, died this year after a long happy life. My painting of Happy is a celebration of her life, my friend and a tribute to dappled, to jolie laide and to wabi-sabi.

Things Dappled

Self-Taught   watercolor   12.25 x 9.25

I have long had a great love for things dappled....things with spots, gradations, textures and so-called imperfections. For me, they are gist of life. Painting is a legacy. We painters are choosing to make our thoughts and our preferences somewhat permanent, dependent on the venues where our work is shown. For many years, I have wanted to do a series of work on things dappled and am hoping that my ideas will be realized in the coming years. I often paint to music.....songs by The Red Hot Chili Peppers are among my favorites. Their song "Midnight" is a hymn for me and expresses my thoughts exactly in the lyrics "All along I said I know no enemies. Mix it up until there are no pedigrees". You can hear the song at:

http://apps.facebook.com/lyricsdomain/artist/red_hot_chili_peppers/song/midnight

Pedigrees imply past successes and, I believe, limit growth. For me, living in each moment implies a newness, a reliance only on what is in the here and now. No enemies. No pedigrees. No purebreds.

Things dappled.

Seasonal...

In Their Prime   oil/canvas   16 x 20

My life, as well as my art, is cyclical. The smells, sights, light and sounds of each season influence what I paint and how the work is approached. For the past two weeks, our miniature lilacs have perfumed my studio. Outside on the patio, a hedgerow of peonies has grown so rapidly that we swear we could see them gain several inches in a day. I have painted that grouping several times. These beautiful blooms were given to me by my maternal grandmother Daisy Street. That legacy makes them all the sweeter. Peonies teach us patience as the blooming proceeds ever-so-s-l-o-w-l-y aided by the black ants who eat the wax off of the tightly formed bloom heads. This weekend which is Memorial weekend, several blooms are fully open. My note to myself is to appreciate their beauty and their fragrance in the short time that they are in full bloom. All too soon the petals will be scattered across the brickwork, and their influence only a memory.

Mother Love=Art Love

An Accommodating Curve   watercolor/gouache   27 x  14

Being an artist is tough. Being a woman is tough. Being a mother is sometimes tough, but fills us with a love so great, so big, that it can easily spill over into our art-making. I was blessed with three wonderful sons.....I really do believe that my art-making is so much richer from that deep communion. Just as a great writer uses his life experiences to season his writing, we visual artists do the same. As more and more women are making art, I am seeing the vastness of the experiences that women artists have to offer. Our intuition and our emotions play out in our work. Mother's Day, in my opinion, should also be a celebration of our children, and all that they have given to us. Our curves carry groceries and laundry, as well as art supplies. Our curves sustain our children. My love for these organic curves shows in my work. Hip...hip...hooray! Andrew Wyeth said, "One's art goes as far and as deep as one's love goes". "An Accommodating Curve" was painted many years ago.....watercolor over gouache.

Graphic Grass

Grass Border...linoleum block print

I am working on a large mixed media painting of a tricycle and wanted to have some simple graphic-looking grass at the bottom. Painting it on resulted in visual confusion. So I carved a small linoleum block to print it on. The marks were made with a 5.0 calligraphy marker that I twisted as I moved upwards from bottom to top, thus making the marks gradually thinner. I found that the negative spaces were as important as the marks themselves here. I wanted the spaces to be intriguing and playful as well. Painting is almost too direct at times.....i.e. one stroke is almost too bold, too important, too direct. Sometimes the printing medium is what I crave.....that secondary application of pigment that doesn't quite cover everything, leaving a bit of background peeking through. Pure bliss. And, I might add, a fun foray into something different.

Saturdays

daisy stamp...carved from eraser

Saturdays are my days to break my weekly routine. Saturdays are for yard work, errands, framing, catching up on details and making small bits of art just for fun....no grand paintings or drawings.....just bits of creative experimentation that may lead to something down the road. IDEAS. This past Saturday, I attended a wonderful two-hour workshop on printing lead by Susan Mencini. Susan lead us through the process of conception, carving and printing from plastic erasers. Pure fun. There were a dozen or so artists present...each one turned out a marvelous stamp. We used Speedball lino-cut tools and juicy water-soluble markers for printing. What a wonderful way to add to Saturday fun. Each exhibit at Summit Artspace offers many such Saturday afternoon forays into creative fun....just a taste, just a bit of what could lead to something bigger. If you have some free Saturday afternoon time please visit: http://www.summitartspace.org/

Enthusiasm

The word enthusiasm comes from "en theo".....which translates as "God within". I have to agree. Enthusiasm, for me, is defined by an infectious, childlike joy. Ah, if we could only approach our daily work this way! We have the choice to approach our work in this way. The L-brain way tells us to approach our work in progressive steps, always prescribed by "the other", orderly and rule-ridden. This way creates self-doubt and invites containment and criticism, as "someone's" rule has always been broken....ad tedium. If we approach our work with a childlike joy lead by the R-brain, the lotus of control moves to self....we create our own rules, solve our own problems and liberate the creativity within. Tough stuff. Yesterday, I watched a small video with what appears to be an inner-city choir singing "The Eye of The Tiger" by Survivor and lead by their guitar-playing teacher who has enthusiasm to spare. The spirit and lack of inhibition by the students inspired me for the day....the week. 

Painters' Post

Tortoise...a small watercolor sketch

Another source of inspiration for me comes in the form of Robert Genn's twice weekly newsletter which is sent to my email box. He is a wonderful writer and touches on subjects that often speak to me. He has composed another site called "Painters' Post" which includes inspirational articles from around the world that may be of interest to painters. My time is limited and valuable so I need to get to the marrow ASAP. Yesterday I read an article by Germaine Greer that piqued my interest. I thought about her ideas the entire day. You can the site at: http://clicks.robertgenn.com/painters_post.php . Today I chose an article for reading that dealt with slowing down.....perfect. Taking things at a snail's pace has its advantages. I become both the tortoise and the hare during my days and weeks. In order to have timeless creative hours, I become a hare with everything else. Laundryvacuuminggroceryshoppingpostofficemealplanningcooking........
..ahhhhhhh..................p*a*i*n*t*i*n*g. Off to work now...................in order to slow down.

Dylan-esque

Rock Stah   oil/canvas   30 x 24 x .75

I absolutely love getting twinges of interest from information that flies freely in my direction. Inspiration abounds from the least likely places. Music, lyrics and rhythms are my favorites. My son Nate plays guitar and is a Bob Dylan affectionado.....he reads Dylan's words and studies his music. This past weekend he shared with me an interesting Dylan-fact. It seems that Bob Dylan strives to play each of his songs differently each time.........Whoa............that is profound for me. That makes each song, each work, original each time. He avoids the lull of sameness. Lately, Dylan has been into changing the rhythms of 4/4 songs into triplets. That certainly is a way of spinning off into a fresher "newness"! Thank you Nate! Thank you Bob Dylan!

Equinox

Maiden   mixed/paper   19 x 13.5

I am very mistrustful of words. Dominant cultures have altered meanings and implications throughout time to suit their need for power. Words are used to empower and to diminish. OK. We have to use them to communicate....right? I guess that I appreciate and am more likely to trust those who measure and use fewer words. Visual communication is subjective. It is quiet. The word " pagan" is a perfect example. It used to imply "of the country" or "rustic".....a person who lives his/her life in an intuitive way, according to the seasons. Somehow along the way, the word has been tainted. Spring's renewal of energy is a wonderful feeling. I have been watching the unfurling of our ferns. The unwinding of the frond is unmatched in beauty. Its implications are numerous. Pure rhythm. "Maiden" was drawn with soft pencil. The ferns were printed afterwards.

Windows to the Soul

Morning Balcony   watercolor   20 x 10.5

For as long as I can remember, I have ascribed human characteristics to buildings. Maybe everyone does. Maybe I have an overactive imagination. Maybe Disney movies have been permanently cemented in my brain. Fantasia, etc. Brooms that dance and doors that converse. Maybe that explains my fascination with windows, doors and rooftops, second only to my love of painting the human figure. I guess they could be hair, eyes and mouths. Whoaaaa.............whatever. The neighborhoods we live in tend to be fairly homogenous. And the dwellings we live in seem to be regionally homogenous as well. Visiting other areas of our vast country or other countries gives us a welcome new perspective. We discover differences that are beautiful as well as functional. Two of my sons live in San Francisco where the weather is perpetually mild. There are no air-conditioners hanging from windows and no need for storm windows and doors. The beauty of these structures is more apparent, more visible. "Morning Balcony" is just one example. I look forward to doing more.

Tension

Precarious Stack of Vintage Bowls   watercolor   12.5 x 9

Tension is definitely an emotion we can all relate to. We can identify tension in sounds and visuals. Tension causes us to pause....at least, that is my take on it. Tension in paintings very often relies on diagonal lines.....those that are momentarily suspended between the vertical (active) and the horizontal (passive, restful). My husband loves photographing the tension of broken tree branches in the forest that have become lodged in the crooks of other trees. We all know that eventually they will fall.....but when? Fences and telephone poles are often more interesting when they stray from the vertical. They become more active and break up the status quo. Robert Genn's twice weekly newsletter of today refers to sterility versus fertility and he lists ways to "shake it up", ways to pull oneself out of the familiar. His list mostly involves ways for the artist to change her/his approach. I would like to add "painting stacks of things" to the list. Stacking is always interesting to me....a piling up of varieties into the grand vertical format. "Precarious Stack of Vintage Bowls" was a lesson from my watercolor class. The values of the white bowls have been exaggerated to bring up the drama and to hold up to the strong dark background. What will happen next? I am involved.

Day Tripping

Wendy Park(Cleveland)  oil/canvas   20 x 16 x .5

Cleveland is an hour's drive from Akron and there are so many places to view and appreciate art. My fellow artist Mina Huang really enjoyed the current exhibition at MOCA...superlight, a digital display and Christian Wulffen's "It is, It is not". Mina is an engineer by day and so appreciated this cutting-edge, technology-based art. These exhibits are in their final week. My work is represented in the annual exhibit at Artist's Archives on the east side in the University Circle area. Fellow artists Mitzi Lai and Trisha Kaman, also members of The Akron Society of Artists, both are represented in this exhibition.

May 1-June 4, 2009
Artists Archives of the Western Reserve Annual May Members Show
1834 E. 123rd Street, Cleveland 44106
Gallery Hours: Wed-Fri 10-4; Sat 12-4
Public Opening: May 1, 6-8:30 pm
For further information, call 216.721.9020 or visit www.artistsarchives.org

Sweet...

Judy Gaiser...a sketch

The other evening at our club critique (Akron Society of Artists), I noticed several artists sketching throughout the long evening. It really is possible to watch and listen and sketch at the same time. It made my heart go pitter-pat. Great stuff. I have found that people, for the most part, return to the same 2 or 3 positions repeatedly. So........it is possible to start a sketch then to pause until that subject returns to that same position. Attentiveness. I have known some artists to go absolutely haywire when the model changes the pose even slightly.....even when a piece of hair falls into another position. The resultant reprimand seems to make the model stiffen. The energy is killed. My preference is to take what the model gives to me freely.....sometimes the later subtle shifting is even better. Staying attentive gives you what you need. The results are rarely perfect but always energetic and honest. Our president Judy Gaiser is one sweet girl!