Fright Week (month)

Shocking   mixed media on paper   34.5 x 22

"Shocking" is a mixed media work on paper that I enjoy so much during October, fright month for me.  For the past several years I have set up my own film festival at home during which I enjoy thrillers (especially the psychological ones), mysteries and a few flicks of the horror genre.  I am certainly old enough to recall films wound on large disks and stored in metal canisters...the kind we watched in school that would inevitably break, spin around incontrollably and cause interruptions in the story, chaos in the classroom and anxiety on the part of the instructor.  Those little sprocket holes on the edges of the film were the inspiration for this border design which was carved on a linoleum plate and printed onto the paper.  I shot photos of some family members and friends and had ever-so-much-fun arranging and drawing them on the paper.  One of my favorites is Cheryl, on the very bottom.  She was at that time our town postmistress. I am in the upper right with hands completely covering my eyes.  Too frightening to look.  Shocking.  Such fun.

Fright Night...

Shocking   Mixed/Paper   34.5 x 22

I am a mystery-lover.  After all, isn't making a painting somewhat like solving a giant mystery?  Each October, I have a bit of a film festival for myself....mysteries, thrillers, haunted houses and the like.  Things that go bump in the night.  Things that jar us away from the day-to-day, the status quo that can become ever-so-monotonous.  When I hoisted the work "Shocking" onto its notch on the wall recently, I was reminded of how much fun it was to create this work.  I assembled photos of shocked and surprised friends and family:  my friend Concepcion, friend Brian and his two sons Oscar and Casper, son Seth and friend Cheryl who for many years, ran the now-defunct Brimfield Post Office.  Cut linoleum blocks printed onto the paper's surface provided the "look" of a film strip.  (which has indeed become an antiquity) The work continued by arranging faces and drawing with pastels in my favorite spooky colors.  I tried to keep a vague darkness going on....as if these were faces in a darkened movie theater.  My friends had fun posing for this work, I think.  And I had a great deal of fun making it.  "Shocking" is the title.  I am slightly hidden in the upper right hand corner.

Shocking in Columbus...

Shocking   mixed on paper   34.5 x 22

This week I was cleaning Swiss chard for our pumpkin lasagna when I discovered a small snake in among the greens. Shivers. I poked at it for several minutes with the end of a wooden spoon to see if it was still alive. Then the awareness.....a coiled rubber snake that had been put there to send shivers up my spine by my one and only........Rick. Never a dull moment. The whole thing caused lots of giggling. I love it!  'Tis the season for shocking.....and it always surprises me how subjective the notion of shocking is! Don't get me started! In October, I usually have a personal film festival of films of my choosing designed to create shivers. "Shocking" was designed originally for the "Fresh and Spooky" show at Summit Artspace. I thought of how shocking is totally personal. Some are shocked when a toilet seat is left up. And some are still not shocked when watching autopsies on television for entertainment. It was fun to create the appearance of film with linoleum printing under and over the drawing. Models for my work were: friend Concepcion; friend Brian and his two sons Oscar and Casper; friend Cheryl of the Brimfield Post Office, son Seth and myself up in the corner. 

 

“Shocking” has been included in The Online Visual Artists Registry Juried Show at the Columbus Main Library from Nov. 9 until Jan. 3, 2010. Location for the exhibit is: Columbus Metropolitan Library, Arts and Media Division, 2nd Floor; 96 S. Grant Avenue in Columbus. The exhibit is open during library hours: 10-8 Mon-Thurs; 10-4 Fri & Sat; 1-5 Sun

Call 645-2ASK or visit www.columbuslibrary.org for further information

Fresh & Spooky

Shocking   mixed on paper   34.5 x 22

I usually paint what I want to.........that's part of the freedom catch in being an artist....and....that is what separates fine art from commercial ventures where everything is dictated to you with the mass market in mind. Trust me on this. But earlier this year a call came out from Summit Artspace, our community gallery, for the "Fresh and Spooky" show juried by extremely creative and whacky teacher and artist Mark Soppeland. I love Halloween. I love spooky movies. And, I love candy corn. So I went about creating a piece specifically for this show in the hopes that my work would get in. The "Fresh & Spooky" show is on exhibit from October 3 - November 8 at Summit Artspace in Akron. I can hardly wait to attend the opening this Friday, as artists of all kinds were dragging in artwork of all kinds at the take-in. "Shocking" is my effort.