Be the Light



    Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~ Marianne Williamson

Corn 2016


Corn No. 49 from 2012

Just when I thought I didn't have anything more to say about Corn, I was asked to participate in a three woman show come January 2017.  I was asked if I would be interested in creating some new Corn pieces for the show.

I said yes, all the while thinking I'm done with Corn, why am I saying yes?

Well it turns out I'm not done with Corn. The subconscious wants what it wants, and it was clearly wanting Corn.

Yesterday I managed to purchase the stretched canvas upon which my new pieces shall be mounted, and for a really good price.


Upon that purchase all sorts of imagery of finished pieces popped into my head. This time I'm going for a more earthy approach, using actual soil, clays, ochers, and earth pigments in combination with indigo, rust, and natural dyes (yes I'll be dyeing with corn husks, leaves, cobs, etc, with just a touch of digitally printed fabrics that lends to the modern digital tech age today's farms are becoming!

Stay tuned!!!


Looking Back...

Shroud No. 1
Cotton Fabric
Natural Dyes
Rust
Time
Air
2002


I started out with several yards of white cotton fabric that I wrapped around a pile of leaves, twigs, stones, etc. into what looked like a swaddled child.


And there it sat, for a couple of months, in a rusty wheel barrow filled with rain water and vinegar.


And then it lived on my concrete driveway for a couple of months.  


The fabric bundle unwrapped.



Detail of the marks, stains, etc. 

Color Studies


Color studies for a tomato.


Creating color studies has been long, boring, and tedious... then again mixing paint can be exciting.

It can also be terrifying when you realized you just wasted a large amount of expensive watercolor paint to end up with a color you don't want.  So make sure to put a swatch in your color studies swatch book, and note which colors, proportions, brands, etc.,


I remembered that I had fresh on the vine tomatoes in my kitchen...


In the end color mixing and creating all of those swatches has become well worth the effort.  The last time I did any serious color studies, that involved mixing my own paints, etc., was a good twenty plus years ago.

If you've never mixed colors before I highly recommend doing so, there are plenty of color mixing books available in the art book market to help get you started.

Color


I've finally hit that point, the one where I can no longer remember which colors are in my watercolor palettes so tonight I made a color map in a notebook for future reference.


I made maps for the first three palettes tonight, and as I was doing so I started wishing I had one of those huge palettes, the kind that holds 36+ pans. I have gobs of tubes of paint that are never used because there's no room in my current palettes for them to live.


My latest acquisition, a Pima watercolor palette.  The colors are numbered so it's hard telling what the actual colors are, am hoping I will find out someday what they are, I like them they're bright clear colors.

On My Table


Sulfur shelf fungus harvested some fifteen years ago now, displayed on a very old silver plate platter which serves to catch any bit of detritus that seems to fall continuously from the fungus.


Otherwise known as Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sp.)

Run, don't walk, to buy this book it's beyond delicious!!!

Back in Decemember I decided that 2016 would be about focusing on studio practices, improving rusty skills, and in general creating more artwork.


Which lead to the purchase of several online classes, books, art supplies and more.  Now if I could only remember what I learned from my Illustrator and Photoshop classes, sigh.  Sometimes I swear my brain is a sieve. 


I ""highly"" recommend these four books, and two more books that will be arriving this week!

60 Days of Birds


The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

Join me starting April 1st! 

The challenge takes place in my FaceBook Group, I will post a PDF filled with 60 days of Challenge Prompts.  

If you participated in past challenges I sent a daily newsletter.  There will be no newsletter for this years challenge.  I will be posting daily to the FaceBook Group instead. 

Finding Oneself


Or maybe this post should be titled giving myself permission to do what I love!  I've started digging my collections out of my office and wet studio and bringing them into my design studio, you know the place were I create!


There's this meme that has been circulating on Facebook that says, essentially, the things you spend the most time doing, that's your passion and that's where we should focus our energies.  Well my passion is nature, gardening, hiking, collecting natural items like shells, bits of bark with lichens on them, rocks, bones, flowers, seed pods, and more.


And art supplies, I love to collect and use art supplies!


And plants!  This spring I will start amassing native prairie plants that love shade and will turn my front and side yards into prairie gardens!


It's been almost three months since I planted the terrariums, and they are thriving! 

More Bins


WIP Bins. Charcoal and conte on watercolor paper.

The past two months here have been short of horrific when it comes to the digital world.  My website is still down, have no idea why it's experiencing a 503 error, and the internet here at the house has been sketchy at best.

But, today we gave up after trying to do another firmware update on the older modem and two hours later we finally decided it was time for a new modem.  Nirvana!  Internet Bliss!!!

Have a good one!