Sweet Pixels

2011

2011-01-15T09:50:00.002-09:00

The New Year! I was fortunate enough to spend Christmas with the Fromage side of the family in Mississauga with trips into Toronto (great city!) Here, my happy and personal contact with the great Henry Moore sculpture outside the Art Gallery of Toronto. I do love traveling, even though at times it was exhausting. I have a deep and dangerous love of the familiar, so busting myself out of that habit was great----even in the short time I've been living in California, I've developed some habit ruts. So easy! Regardless---new faces, new places, new experiences and above all; new art. Always good.

Now on the horizon is my eagerly awaited trip to the Vermont Studio Center for my 4th residency. After just a few months of working a truly CRAPPY job, I am more than ecstatic about going back to the place that seems more and more like my own special haven: a place where I get to do, talk and be art for 30 days, non-stop. I haven't done much art at all in California---the aforementioned crappy job, the unheated shed which I could have made into a kind of studio, the focus on other important projects. It's life interfering, you know? More and more, I begin to understand at a deep level that creating or doing anything truly important in life requires setting aside so many other things that may be short-term important or even just easier to deal with. It's prioritizing on a tectonic level.

Now---a sunny day, a couple of free hours before I begin one of my last few days at the aforementioned crappy job.

It's a new year: Here's to NEWNESS in so many forms! Here's to renewal and beginnings and hope and all that good stuff.

The Job

2010-11-21T20:47:00.002-09:00

Okay---I got a job. It's not my ideal job. In fact, it's not even a really good job---it's not a job I want! Still, it is a job and it's income. I could be very (VERY) negative about the whole situation and complain/whine/bitch about it....but I won't. I've chosen to be optimistic, realistic and even a little cheerful about the whole thing. Why? Because it's temporary. This job doesn't define me or declare my future in any way. It's just a paycheck for a few months. Believe me---it's just a few months! I am already counting the weeks until I get to go back for my 4th residency at the Vermont Studio Center.....

Until then?

Setting up my Ad Hoc Studio (blog post to come!) and.....working.

How about you? Ever have a job you disliked but did it anyway for whatever reason and whatever span of time? Tell me, comrade!

Asking for a Sign

2010-11-11T09:17:00.005-09:00

So, one of the great benefits of moving to a new place is to gain a new perspective, right? You can look at where you've been and who you've been with a clearer eye. When you've landed in a new place, your strengths and weaknesses also come into clearer focus, given that you no longer have your tried and true signifiers to back you up. To say that this move to California has been a reality check is a big understatement.

I had very optimistic, healthy expectations for a new place: new job, new landscape, new adventures, new friends, new things to learn. I've found that not much of those hopes have been particularly easy to attain, however! I've gotten a rude awakening, in many respects.

I've had a difficult time finding a job, and the job I did land isn't spectacular by any means. Turns out that my job skills aren't all that marketable. Turns out that in this job market, I am not that hireable!

I joined a great cycling club, thinking I am a good cyclist. On a weekly basis, I go out on rides with folks in their 50's and 60's sporting heads of pure white hair---and they smoke my ass! Turns out I am not as strong or fast as I thought I was. Also, I found out that my beloved bike doesn't measure up to the roadies, either. (To hell with that though---I LOVE SHEILA.)

I think my suprised disappointments are all the more glaring for being in a new place. There's a greater divide between the positives and negatives, it seems.

This image is all too perfect for my impression of life in California, as I've encountered it!

I think I would be having a lot more fun if I came across a sign like this that would set me up for a job I'd be REALLY good at: wielding a chainsaw against a zombie hoard! (Funny thing, the job I finally got has me at a store where I'll be selling chainsaws...)

So true....

Ants in my ($100) Pants

2010-10-30T10:15:00.004-08:00

Well, I finally got a job interview and spent several hours scouring all the local thrift stores for a good interview outfit. The big stumbling block was pants....I couldn't find any good pants! Truth be told, I am not a woman who wears office clothes. I am a jeans + hiking boots + sweater kind of lady. It was hard to bring myself to try on dress pants, much less hold out any hope that I'd find a pair I'd like.

And why thrift stores, do you ask? I'm sure I've described my inherent frugality before....haven't I? I always shop at thrift stores. ALWAYS. Reasoning: Good clothes, good fabrics, interesting styles, low prices. I've done this as long as I've been an adult. About 20 years. (But who's counting...) It's ingrained in my shopping-psyche to never pay more than $10 for any item of clothing. (The glaring exceptions to this rule are cycling gear and the aforementioned hiking boots.)

Enter the dilemna of dress pants. Nope---couldn't find a good pair at a thrift store. While I found a lot of pants in good condition, not one pair looked or felt good on me. Yes----finally went out to a department store. I spent about 15 minutes in Macy's looking at clothes and realized that a) the arrangement of clothes for display rather than shopping ease (as in a thrift store!) frustrated me and b) I wouldn't be able to bring myself to buy anything there.

Enter REI. I realized that I could buy dress pants if they weren't, you know, dress pants. I understood myself enough to realized that I wanted good looking pants that I'd wear that had other uses! Enter, Mistral Women's Pants, size 6. They fit! They moved well! I could sit in them! They didn't make my ass look like a rotting watermelon! Actually, they manage to make my ass look like a ripe peach. Yum!

Here's what the tag says:
"Soft-shell pants for mild to cool conditions: Water resistant nylon/spandex blend is windproof to 23 miles mph and stands up to rugged use."
"Sleek cut and mobile design: Articulated knees, 4-way stretch and center gusset make movement easy."
"Leg zips: Slide easily over footwear."

(And get this!)
"Perfect for touring castles in the morning and summiting foothills that afternoon."

So----if I get this office job, I can expect to put my shoes on first in the morning, then pants. I can splash cups of coffee in my lap and it'll just drain off. I can wrestle my co-workers on the office floor, because these pants are rugged and will take some carpet-burn. Also, if the windows are blown out by big winds, I can sit there placidly, warm and dry and snug in my expensive pants.

But seriously....
I got them for the job interview.

Did it yesterday.
Check.

Who knows if they helped my job-seeker mojo or not?

I'll keep you updated.

Stretching Myself

2010-10-25T08:05:00.003-08:00

Part of my new California life is improving my health and fitness. I'm doing big rides with the local cycling club (ass-kicking!) and I've joined the local Bikram Yoga Studio. I have always loved yoga, but have never made it a steady practice. Bikram is also known as hot yoga, or hot Hatha yoga. It's a very specific series of 26 postures performed over 90 minutes in a 105 degree room. This type of yoga was designed and perfected by Bikram Choudhury in the 70's. His requirements for it's performance, teaching, and environment are extremely specific.

This chart above is the series---all of which are surprisingly strenuous! This is a body and mind opening practice, but I wouldn't call it meditative, per se. More than anything, it requires great concentration and stamina.

Honestly? It's the one thing that is helping me keep my chin up during my frustrating, demoralizing job search...

I'm finding the classes at my studio that are the least populated----just easier for me to concentrate, introvert and agoraphobic that I am, haha! One brings a yoga mat, towel and water and wears as little as possible, because you sweat profusely during the 90 minute session and you need full stretching capability---no fabric constraints. Getting dizzy and/or nauseus is par for the course. When this happens, you sit on your mat for as long as it takes for you to regain your equilibrium, then you join in again. Some days it happens a lot, some days, not at all.

The poses are the same every session, but the body's ability to do them and reaction to them are different. It's fascinating to me that within these specific, set parameters, there can be so much variation. It also helps that the studio I go to has a big pool of teachers---so far, I've had a new teacher every session. Every one imparts some new jewel of information.

Regardless of my unusually high natural flexibility, there are poses I can't quite do yet, like this one, called Padangustasana. You wouldn't believe the balance this takes! Immense concentration. To see a great layout of all the poses, check out this page.

So...today: Bikram yoga and job searching.

One of these feels positive, constructive, and enriching....and the other does not.

Sculpture Dedication

2010-10-16T06:58:00.005-08:00

Fromage and I went to the dedication of a new piece of public sculpture in Santa Rosa, "Cyclisk," a 5-story tall obelisk made entirely of recycled bicycle parts. Brilliant! It wasn't a huge crowd...inteterestingly enough, the folks there seemed to be a representation of the fringe bicycling society in the area. This fellow showed up, a sculptor named Todd Barricklow, who created this amazing bike naed the Two Penny. When riding, he sits 13 feet above the ground. Fromage and I were most impressed!

Fromage and I, sunny day in California....

The Cyclisk, a detail to show you it's makeup. How ingenious is this?! Love it.

Even more clever is the fact that it is solid, but not opaque, given it's composition. If you stand in its shadow, you get this wonderful view anytime of day. The sculpture graces this rather industrial road in SR...diners, used car lots, discount furniture places and tattoo parlors....and the shiny Nissan dealership, who sponsored the financial funding for the sculpture. The dealership owner spoke at the dedication and I was impressed by what he had to say. Also, the mayor arrived and said a few words! I appreciated the fact that she was rather honest about SR, in that it was a 'city in transition,' and that this sculpture was part of it's improvement and renewal towards a better city.

Else?

Two months here and I still haven't been able to find a job. Talk about stressful! With my myriad, mosaic-like work history, you'd think I could get a job just about anywhere, doing anything. The days of walking into a place and impressing them with your personal demeanor are over, however. All job applications are online. It's your very impressive resume, or you are SOL. Maybe that's been my downfall.... Like I said, stressful. Let me add 'scary,' too.

On a positive note, I've joined the Santa Rosa Cycling Club and have been getting my ass whupped in some 40 mile group rides....18 riders in the pack at one time! New experiences abound! I also joined a local, informal knitting group. When in a new place and without the structured socialization of work or school.....join as many groups as you can.

Wish me luck in my job search. I NEED IT.

The Tree of Life

2010-09-27T09:37:00.003-08:00

A long hiatus in posting---setting up a new life will keep a blogger busy, for sure! Sorry for the long quiet. So many big changes have kept me reeling---and just trying to keep up.

We've landed! We've now been in California for 6 weeks (as of yesterday). We are still climatizing to a new place, new landscape, new everything. Fromage is really enjoying school---excellent, since that is the reason we're here. His concerns that he'd be the only over-20-something in class was unfounded. Turns out most, if not all, of his fellow students in his department are in similar life/age circumstances as he is.

Moi---I'd hoped to land a job right away, but my eclectic job skills keep me looking a little harder. Photo Archivist, anyone? Plant handler? Flower basket assembler? Orchid rustler? Many good skills, just not a place to put them yet. As my wise friend Shannon told me; "Don't fight it! Understand that there is a flow to it all!" She advised me to relax into the new life and not to push it as much....it was good to hear.

I have made one good friend here. Okay, yeah, it's a PLANT...but you knew I'd say that, right? In the photo above, the GIANT grapefruit tree in our wee lawn. This is the reason I named our place "Grapefruit Cottage," as this behemoth has great presence here. Why is it my friend? Every time I go out and do some yard work, the tree drops some fruit for me. I'd say it was just a coincidence....but it's happened too many times for that. The tree likes me.

Just look at all this fruit! I can't keep up with eating it, of course...not that I've tried. Still, it's really, really good grapefruit. (And a few lemons in this collection---the neighbor's tree drops them over the fence...maybe it likes me, too?)

When I walk by the grapefruit tree, I make sure to knock on it's trunk. Just a little rap. Did you know this is the origin of 'knock on wood?' It was believed that gods/spirits lived in certain trees, and to knock on the tree was to invoke the good luck or protection of the entity that lived there. (Can't hurt, right?) Besides---it's such a big, beautiful tree....

Our home in California---Grapefruit Cottage! Setting up California life: so far, so good.

3,135.2 Miles

2010-08-23T08:49:00.004-08:00

After returning from another wonderful month at the Vermont Studio Center (a.k.a. 'Art Camp') I joined forces with Fromage to pack up our house---the next adventure: moving to California! Above is my studio....the dismantling...

We did all of this in just 8 days----packed, stored, tossed, gave away, left... We built this house and lived there for 6 years. Leaving it was difficult.

The studio, gone... Such a strange feeling to walk through my own, empty, echoing house!

We left on 8/9/10....an auspicious set of numbers, I was hoping. We bought this Xterra as the car for our 'new life.' A good choice, for sure! It was a real treat to drive the Alcan in a car that we knew (90% sure) that it wouldn't break down. We took our belongings for an entire year in that 4'x4' Uhaul...not even full! As we were packing, Fromage kept advising me; "Extended camping trip!"

On the road. Since we've arrived in CA, I keep having nightmares about towing a Uhaul around...go figure.

After Whitehorse, YT, we came upon a herd of wood bison 30+ strong! Some of those beasts were so big as to seem prehistoric! I've driven the Alcan 6 times and I've never gotten to see these guys.

All cars pulled over and let these dudes have the road for as long as they needed it...

The Watson Lake Sign Forest---there was a letter box hidden here and we were excited to find it, but upon following the clues it became obvious that the growth of the sign forest had taken out the letterbox. I think the forest is about 50 times bigger than I remember it being last time I was here...2000?

Chetwynd, BC, home of the best dang chainsaw carvings I have EVER seen! It was good to get some art exposure in on this long roadtrip. It took us 7 days to drive from Fairbanks, AK to Santa Rosa, CA. 350-600 miles a day.

Our next in Cache Creek, BC at a very cozy campground---with a pool! Talk about roughing it, right??

Fromage and I, the morning of the last day of our trip.

And now?

Setting up the new life:

House /home hunting,

Job hunting,

Finding a few old friends who live around here (successful x3!),

and figuring out where everything is.

Big city (for us) and lots of traffic and people crawing everywhere. A big change from our old life...

Wish us luck!

It's all over but the shouting...

2010-07-31T08:00:00.002-08:00

Art camp is over. I'm now 4,000 miles away (again) and get to remember and reflect on everything. I can get enormously nostalgic, wistful and sad about leaving VSC... but this time around, I don't think I can indulge! Fromage and I are moving---this week!---and all mental/emotional efforts must be directed towards logistics.

That said, I will miss VSC, my studio, new friends, fun and freedom there hugely. I am always in love with that place...

My third residency for my MFA program, this is the group for our final critique. 5 great people with me in July! Cathy, James, Scott, Liz, Barbara and pictured here---Monica, Susan and Ken, included. ("Looooooooowwww-rez! High Def!")

I finished 9 paintings this month. 7 oil bar on paper (sealed ground), and 2 chalk/charcoal and gesso/acrylic on paper (ditto). All 30"x40" with one 30"x20". I have a few uber-faves already, but time will tell which ones are truly the cream that rise to the top.

I also got to go to Montreal for a few hours with aforementioned MFA peeps. A wonderful city! Too short a time to do a lot of exploring. We were there for an art museum jaunt, and I saw some wonderfully inspiring stuff. This place is one of my favorite memories.

Detail from one of the 2 black and white paintings I did. They were a nice rest from the super-saturated colors of the oil bar paintings. I was a little surprised at how much attention and appreciation these garnered. Folks really seemed to enjoy them.

I also got in some adventures with my Vermont 'boxing partner. A wonderful time!

A sad farewell day, yesterday. (Was it really just yesterday?) This is Jason Swift (Dr. Swift, to you!) and Harlan Mack at the Schultz Sculpture Studio building.

James Lockhart and Scott Ketchum, both my fellow MFA'ers, great artists and wonderfully funny guys.

Everyone leaving... A wonderful month with fellow artists and new friends! I always leave a residency feeling changed and inspired.

Too bad my art making will be limited for a bit, or I'd put this inspiration to good use. Right now, a new project: moving 3,000 miles south with Fromage for a one-year adventure in California!

Today---one task among so many---car shopping for a good rig to get us down the Alcan. Wish us luck!

Halfway Point

2010-07-17T13:16:00.003-08:00

I'm at the mid-point of my third residency. Art made, friends made, and more to come. Gotta admit I'm a little tired out by the constant activity and busyness, however! I can admit I am homesick for my little house in the woods and my Fromage.

Above, the bed I made in my studio to nap in the afternoons. A quick fix, then back to work.

Breakfast with my art posse here. I've made friends with several fellow low-residency MFA students---fine artists, all.

A shot of my current pallette---all oilbars, all the time! No tools required---it's like painting with big oil crayons. I prep the paper with acrylic matte medium or a thinned gesso. It's not perfectly archival, but it's enough of a gesture in that direction to satisfy my guilt complex about the whole thing.

A painting in progress. I tentatively titled this one, "It All Comes to Fruition." This is a grand departure from the gold leaf/acrylic/fine ink illustration paintings I do in my home studio. Mostly, this VSC work is due to feeling free to do anything I want without the expectations of having to show it...ever. (Although, a few of these are really wonderful, if I say so myself, and I'd like to get them out on view someday.) Above, oilbar on paper. 30"x44". (Unfinished!) Most of my paintings are this size, and I'd like to go even larger. I've done six finished paintings so far. I never run out of ideas. Always a good thing.

In the evenings, it's all a matter of relaxing and cooling off. A group of us often go sit in the river in lawn chairs, sip a beer or glass of wine and watch the sunset and tell stories. This is Jason (PhD!) most recently of New Hampshire. He's a theory and conceptual sculptor who works with wood, felt, sewing and paint, among other things.

This is James, from just down the road. My local contact, as it were. He's also a sculptor---paper mache, primarily.

Our usual haunt. This is the Gihon River which flows right by VSC and is shallow and cool and perfect! We get a good scare once and awhile if a crawdad creeps over our bare feet. Usually, a duck and ducklings are hanging out nearby and we get to listen to the local frog inhabitants groan and chirp from the weeds at the shoreline.

Sunsets have been beautiful here. Each day ends with a lovely cool summer evening. It's a quiet crowd this month, for the most part---serious artists and writers intent on making work, not mahem! Some of the poets get a little rowdy with their favorite drinking game of "Stump" which involves a beer in one hand and a hammer in the other. (I played a round, it's not too dangerous...)

Two more weeks to go!

2010-07-11T11:16:00.002-08:00

An evening view of the Red Mill. Vermont has been stuck in the east coast heatwave this last week. For an Alaskan woman, it's the tropics! In all honesty, it's wearing me out. I need some cool nights to compose myself. My studio and dorm room have been alternately stuffy and sweltering! Hopefully cooler weather is on the way and I can better concentrate on my painting.

An excerpt of a recent 40"x30" painting tentatively titled, "Winter Protectes the Hibernators." Pictured above is one of the Hibernators---in coldsleep, reduced to only it's spiritual mask. I made this painting to channel winter and all it's lovely coolness! I amuse myself greatly, sometimes.

I'm working solely in oilbars on heavy Stonehenge watercolor paper prepped with acrylic gel medium to seal it. Who knows if this has any archival qualities at all.... What I do know is that these materials make me happy right now, and I have no lack of ideas and inspiration when I'm working with them. Gotta go with what you know---you know?

Another critter from a painting that I'll call, "The Truce." It's a rather romantic painting at it's heart which, strangely enough, no one else seems to see. If all artworks are autobiographical, that means that I've just painted myself as a nubile, red-fleshed bunny headed woman with horns. I think it means I like me quite a lot, because this character kicks ass! So entertaining...

So far, reactions to the four paintings I've completed have been rather desultory. I don't need accolades and acclaim to keep working, but a few choice compliments are always enjoyed. I haven't gotten around to many of the other studios to see my fellow resident's work. The slide show this week promises to be very revealing!

Now---to cool off and get back to the studio.

Short on words, long on jet lag

2010-07-04T16:52:00.002-08:00

A good opening for my exhibit this past Friday night. Nice folks who showed genuine interest in my paintings. It was remarkably anti-climactic, considering the amount of stress and preparation I put myself through in these last few weeks!

The gallery with visitors. No sales as of yet, but it'll be up for the whole month, so there's time and luck for that.

The day after the opening I flew on to Vermont to do another residency at the Vermont Studio Center. I've already met nifty people and once again, have an interesting room and a good studio. Jet lag is kicking my butt tonight, given that 7 hr. overnight flight with the seat that wouldn't recline, so no art for me just yet. I went in after dinner and fondled my art supplies, arranged my oil sticks by color, that sort of thing. It really was the best I was capable of! Now---time to get a real night's sleep, I hope.

More soon on how the residency and my work here develops!

"Horizon Line"

2010-07-02T05:34:00.002-08:00

"Supplicant"

Acrylic, gold leaf, acrylic ink

on birch panel

24" x 24"

2010

Announcing the opening of my solo exhibit "Horizon Line" at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art in Anchorage, AK. Wish me luck!

Stuff

2010-05-12T16:39:00.005-08:00

There are big changes that may be happening soon in Casa Eero + Fromage. Packing up, pulling up roots, new horizons and new adventures! All will be known over the next week or two. Regardless of uncertainties, we're behaving as if we'll be leaving. Step #1 is to purge a lot of stuff for a big, fat, juicy garage sale. We've been in our house for five years and although it is relatively small, we've accumulated quite a bit of stuff. (I mean, who doesn't?) Turns out this is a great opportunity to clear the decks. I'm having a great time going through closets and bureaus and choosing stuff to let go of. It's a feeling of freedom---more space, less clutter, less burden of ownership.

Naturally, I've been thinking a lot on this subject of "stuff." It's led me to look at a lot of websites on hoarding and cleaning. I've fallen in love with one BBC 'reality' show I found on youtube called, "How Clean Is Your House?" Two women, Kim and Aggie, are professional cleaners and they are called to help an individual or family clean their totally disgusting, disorganized and dangerously filthy home. It's pure voyeurism, of course! Kim and Aggie first get a look at the house to be cleaned and pick, scratch and sniff at all manner of stains and goo, laughing and gagging all the while. They then teach the occupants how to clean (the UK version of the show is all household products, the US version has product placement, wouldn'tyajustknow...) and the finale is the Big Reveal of the newly clean, healthy and organized house to the homeowners. It fascinates me because I love order and cleanliness---within reason.

I can also admit to enjoy having Stuff---within reason.

(I've been walking around my house wondering what Kim and Aggie would think...)

Most of the people whose houses need cleaning would definitely fall under the catagory of hoarders.

photo from Flickr: Dragonarium

Hoarding is the compulsive accumulation of stuff. The subject of hoarding and hoarders seems to be 'the new black' in the media these days---even Oprah and Dr. Phil are hosting shows on the phenomenon. New names are given this...mental disorder? Social disorder? Stuff disorder? "Syllogomania" is one word. "Disposophobia" is another. Whatever label, it's fascinating. I don't personally know any hoarders, but I know we have some here in our small town. I know people with far too much crap, but that's their business.

Unlike the previous photo, this image came up when I googled 'hoarding.' (Source unknown, but it was attached to some story about an actress who is apparently a hoarder....) I don't think I would call this hoarding, per se. I would call it rather fetchingly organized and pretty. Having some serious OCT (obsessive compulsive tendencies), I tend to think this perfect stacking of cans (labels facing out!) on evenly measured shelves downright sexy.

An interesting art show on the phenomenon of hoarding/saving was by Song Dong (LOVE THAT NAME! YES!) a Chinese artist who created an analytical representation of his mother's 50+ years of hoarding in her Beijing apartment. The exhibit, "Waste Not," was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in NY a year ago. The article at TreeHugger is excellent. I wish I could have seen this exhibit in person.

The article author discusses China's economic hardships engendering the virtue of conservation and recycling in a certain generation of its people. I think the clean display of articles lends a great poignancy to the collection. One has the impression that hoarders tend to live in squalor and disarray, so this preserved accumulation of stuff is rather an homage to his deceased mother.

Strangely, when I googled "hoarder" and the name of the part of town where I know one to live, hoping to find some web images....

I got this picture of Matthew Fox (of Lost fame) and Jimmy Kimmel in the shower together. Hmmmm....

Cliff Diving and Boy Bologna

2010-04-11T11:29:00.002-08:00

An extremely icy spring gave me a good scare Friday night. This is my truck in my driveway, yes, hanging its ass over the powerline cut's steep embankment. Damn. I literally threw my stuff and myself free of the truck since I was terrified of letting my foot of the brake. When heading into the driveway, I engaged the hubs and took it nice and slow---to no avail. I almost immediately lost control and the truck spun a 180. Every attempt to actually drive forward resulted in the car sliding inexorably backwards. I got a kind rescue from my helpful neighbors Nelle and Joe who had big tow straps and a ratchet winch. There was one good sized tree just in range...

No posts for almost a month! I've been occupied with work, grad school, spring, art, etc. etc. etc. All of the usual suspects.

Fromage has returned from his first venture out to Arctic Man and on his way back through Delta Junction, stopped at the market for some Russian goodies. Along with chocolates and cookies with unreadable names, he brought me this:

Boy Bologna! Don't packaged foods usually have a picture of what they're made of?? Haha! It's in a clear plastic, too---that pink color?---that's the color of the food....little cheerful Russian boy colored, I guess. Will we eat it? That's a story for another post.

Sketchbook

2010-03-13T18:03:00.003-09:00

Who doesn't like a peek at another artist's sketchbook? Too seldom do I get to see how my comrades and colleagues keep sketches and notes. Here are a few pages from my current book. I keep about one a year, using Strathmore 12"x9" 100 sheet 60#....usually. These pages are all from this month. Above: ideas for stitched together paintings from other, cut-up older paintings, and some practice calligraphy Klingon in there, too.

Ink drawing ideas for oilbar painting/drawings. There's no way I can get the oilbar very intricate without introducing turps/oils and brushes, but hey...a girl can dream, right? One of these ideas came to fruition, although it took a hard right about halfway to completion and you wouldn't recognise it next to the sketch.

Ink drawing is fabulous for listening to stories or lectures and letting the mind wander while the hand works.

More ideas for cut and assembled paintings. One of these was a fabulous idea---and pretty much fell flat upon bringing it into the real world! Damn! I still want to make the bark pods. How cool are they?

Someone told me I should loosen up in my sketchbook and this is what happened. Step one was to lay down some errant watercolor. Step two was to put on "Naked" by David Sedaris on CD. Step three was to draw away with an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie while stopping to laugh now and then. (I LOVE it when Sedaris reads his own stuff. He's brilliant! ) Beads and braids showed up, but I don't know what some of those other things are. Interesting to see how when I just let go, the overall look is a little....cartoony? What do you think?

So---let me throw down the gauntlet here: If you have a sketchbook, post some pages and leave a comment with a link back to your blog. I showed you mine, now you show me yours!

March Madness?

2010-03-11T12:00:00.002-09:00

All I am doing these days is Art and running at the gym. No, really....it's ALL I'm doing. Here are a few glimpses of my current work---spanning just about every material I have in the studio, I think! Above: recycled painting sewn together, acrylic ink, embroidery thread and beads.

Recycled painting on paper, ink and seed beads. I love this one. Fromage was the first to point out that it has an uncanny resemblance to a bat wing.... It's got a good marriage of Creepy+Funny which is something I always love!

Slice of an oilbar drawing I titled, "Solstice." Lots of deep blues. The 'speaking circle' from a previous series of drawings/paintings made it's way into this one... Very sneaky...

I've also been painting several greenfired plates for the Bunnell Street Art Center's annual Plate Project. It's a fundraiser; I get nothing out of it but satisfaction in a job well done...and the thrill of glaze painting! I love making these things...

Machine parts have made their way into my drawings. I could do endless variations on the convoluted shapes of engines...sexy stuff, lemme tell 'ya. There are a few women's body parts floating in there, too. What does it all mean? I couldn't tell you.

Suffice to say, it's been a good couple of months in the studio, winter notwithstanding. Having a running schedule at the gym has more than helped keep my brain full of oxygen---the hard exercise is making it so much easier to concentrate on projects in the studio. Do you have a similar method for staying sane?

Tolovana 2010

2010-02-22T17:52:00.004-09:00

Betsey, Kimbo and Yukon at the trail head.

Shelter at the summit, now forever in my heart named the Tea Hut.
(Don't recognise this clever shelter? It's a 1000 gal. water tank.)

Eero at the hut...

Access is a hole carved in the side.

Tea party with bacon!

A perfect rest and recharge after three hours of skiing.

In the hut...

If it was a Kiva...?

Beautiful woods on the trail inbound.

Our cozy Frame Cabin. Maybe 100 sq. ft?

My Frommage.

Party in the Log Cabin.

Kimbo, Rachel, Joe, Amy and Tom.

The dinners on this trip were epic.

16 people, 13 dogs...of which only the 6 sled dogs stayed outside.

Marley. The patriarch dog who made the whole 11 mile trek...

albeit with a few naps in the trail, if the stories are to be believed.
(I love Chows.)

Frommage in his finery, post-soaking.

The cold sun at the summit on the way out.

Warm temps around +20 but a frigid, biting wind all day!

4 hours to ski in and the same to ski out. Excellent trail conditions this year!

Happy Birthday To Me!

2010-02-11T13:57:00.000-09:00

~38~

Old and New

2010-01-30T08:03:00.003-09:00

In 1992 I was twenty and getting my undergrad in art a small private arts school in Seattle. This was a school that made a sincere distinction between "high" art and craft... For example, the school had a kiln, but would never hire a ceramics teacher because clay was considered craft and therefore, not real art. The school did have photography, but only black and white (I think for financial reasons rather than aesthetic) and even then, there was still some debate about it. High art was painting, drawing and sculpture. Craft was ceramics, quilting, beadwork, knitting, sewing, weaving, etc. etc.....in short, anything you'd have a chance at making something actually practical with. Haha! No, really---it was a serious art school.....just not a very diversified one.

That year, fall semester, I got it into my head that I wanted to make a quilt. I'd done a little sewing, self-taught, altered some punk rock clothes as a teenager, that sort of thing. I remember getting this very powerful idea for a quilt and having the very sure, very real understanding that if I made this thing, "Good things will happen!" For those of you who don't make art, let me tell you a strange but deeply important truth: When a creative person gets an idea that seems to shout in their head and heart, they HAVE to make it. If they don't, it rots inside of them. These powerful ideas, the real 'singers,' as I call them, lead you on to more art, great art, powerful art....whatever your art may be! Dog mushing analogy here: Singers are your lead dogs of lead dogs. You put them out in front of the team with perfect love and confidence. They will lead you and all of your other ideas straight and true.

So....I began the quilt.

I didn't know anything about materials, but I knew I wanted to make it out of recycled, found fabrics of all kinds. I delighted in going to thrift stores to buy odd fabrics and clothing made of such to cut up. (I also searched my closet---if you look, there is an off-turquoise embroidered vest in there...)

Not having a sewing machine, I did it all by hand.

Not having a work table, I did it all on the floor.

Not having a teacher or classes or even a book about quilting, I made it all up as I went along and I had a FABULOUS time!

I skipped classes at school to work on my quilt. I couldn't tell anyone about it, either. Since I went to a shee-shee arts school, quilting was craft! (Insert horrified shudder.) Not only was quilting craft, quilting was home craft. In current art trends, so many crafts are experiencing a resurgence of use, popularity and respect and I am thrilled with this. In the early 90's, that wasn't the case.

The quilt kept growing and growing and growing. It covered the entire floor of my little apartment. Finally, to figure out where it had to STOP, I took masking tape and lined out borders right on the carpet----this far and no farther! Although I slept on a single bed foam mattress on a 6' sturdy coffee table, the quilt was HUGE. I loved how the shapes and colors combined to such an extent that the quilt, well....was extensive! It turned into something that covers a king sized mattress.

This is something I have great nostalgia about----my artmaking panache at that time. No planning, no fussing, no questioning....just making. I'd get an idea and DO it, and wouldn't worry about....well, anything at all, really.

I made the quilt---finishing it entirely with backing and batting over the course of a couple of years. And good things DID happen! I found an adorable old four poster bed for it to fit on. I slept under it and had great dreams. I snuggled up with cute boyfriends under it and had even more great dreams. I got married to a man cuter than any of the boyfriends, hands down, and it graces our shared, even bigger bed, in the house we built together.

Twenty years later, I still have and still love this quilt. I still believe that it will bring me great things. It's taken a beating, however. 20 years of frequent use shows. I've patched it from time to time, here and there... but the tears, wear spots, fading fabric, bad sewing (I did mention I taught myself) and bad seams have gotten the better of it. I drew some arrows showing some of the damage....and there's damage to almost every patch!

2010. I decided this is the year to finish up a lot of old projects, throw out/get rid of stuff I will never finish, and finally---repair those things that I really love and want to keep. The Grand Quilt is #1 on the list to fix.

My studio, yesterday, applying the first patch. Since I've done other fabric projects over the intervening years (other quilts, too, although none as precious) I have a big box of fabric. I dug through it for good patching material and found a few pieces of the original fabrics! What a thrill! I'm not a packrat, but I do keep important art supplies. (Translation: I am an art supply pack rat.) So....the Grand Quilt will live on for another 20 years with a slightly new, updated face. My fantasy is to always have this quilt, always take a period of time to repair and renew it, and sleep under it when I am old and white haired and stinking rich.

Fini!

2010-01-17T11:43:00.003-09:00

The Lana Seda hat. Made me crosseyed at times, but I persevered!

California Week

2010-01-14T12:04:00.004-09:00

I went to California for a week to visit my good friend and cycling partner Shannon in her new life down there. She introduced me to Cruiser riding!

And my first lemon picking...

I saw some critters...

and some other critters.

We went to a few beaches and saw some impromptu art.

I saw my first blimp!

I did some much-desired letter boxing.

---and taught Shannon (and Luna) about the sport, as well.

I also did some much needed bra shopping...

as well as orchid shopping!

I took home this guy, although a plant not in bloom. Phragmipedium caudatum. I've always wanted a phrag...

And now?

Back to the ice, snow and the daily grind.

-20 here today but the sun is up and giving it a good go to warm the world.

2009 Revisited

2009-12-31T12:13:00.010-09:00

2009 Was a rather interesting year....many ups and downs. Here's my own flashback....

January

-43F at the "Countenance" show opening that I curated.

I found out that my Trooper has a blown head gasket + a warped head. This means my car is officially a lawn ornament.
............................................................................

February

I turned 37.

My best friend of 12 years passed away.

............................................................................

March

My stepfather died.

My mother and father got back together after 30 years of divorce. (?!!?!)

I was accepted to grad school.

Ethan Ivey was born.
..............................................................................

April

Frommage moved out.

I delivered 12 paintings to the gallery for my solo show.

.............................................................................

May

Fromage moved back in.

We bought a new bed.

...............................................................................

June

I bought a 2001 Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle.

Fromage and I went on a 400 mile bicycle tour for our

8th wedding anniversary.

..................................................................................

July

I went to Vermont for my first MFA artist residency.

I met amazing artists and made wonderful friends.

..............................................................................

August

I took a mushroom identification class

and did a lot of (unsuccessful) fishing with Cousin Bill.

..........................................................................

September

Painted my kitchen yellow...at long last!

Took three pickup truck loads of CRAP to the recycling station.

My cycling partner Shannon moved to California...

..................................................................

October

Back to VT for my second residency.

..................................................................

November

I made 17 artworks in three weeks.

..........................................................................

December

Fromage turned 44.

Silas Worley was born.

.................................................................................

December 31, 2009:

Everything is the same, and everything is different....again.

Happy New Year!

Health, wealth and happiness to you in 2010!

Winter work

2009-12-17T11:06:00.003-09:00

Nothing much is happening...and I mean nothing. A little knitting, a little writing, a little job searching! It's the horse latitudes of winter...

I'm helping Fromage with a survey of some property North of town. It's three days of standing in the woods with the rod and prism at -5F. Or, -10F today, it turns out. Boring, but more interesting than reviewing another empty list of jobs I neither want to apply for or can't apply for.

We saw a moose the first day. She merely stood there, ears alert, gazing at us. To forstall any quick and ugly change in temper on her part, we both said "Hi there Moosie!" in bright, loud, annoying voices. Ears flicked back, she trotted off deeper into the snowy woods.

Above, Fromage with the instrument, making notes.

I wear multiple layers, and this great, stained and dirty military down coat. So warm! I haven't figured out the trick to warm feet, however. Yesterday, stomping a trail from one power pole to another, I realized that my feet had gotten cold enough to feel like I was walking on little stumps. Not good, but not really bad---no damage done.

Else?

Just a few days until winter solstice, and we start our climb back into the light!

An invite from my great adventure friend Shannon means I may head down to California for a bit in January. YES!!!

Did I mention knitting? I'm doing a lacework hat that's making me cross-eyed. I do a few rows, then put it down and rest. It has a pattern of climbing leaves, and I think it'll be beautiful.

Winter slide

2009-12-01T15:21:00.003-09:00

I'm getting used to being back home in AK. Okay, okay....I'm sleeping and eating a lot! Haha! No, really---coming down off of the intensity of my November residency has been absolutely necessary. Being at VSC requires a lot of structure to my time, long hours in the studio and constant socializing...that last one being particularly wearing on me. I like me some friends and some people--but not all the time. I've been totally enjoying the quiet and solitude at home. Totally enjoying just having Fromage around and seeing some good friends now and then. My studio has yet to wake up to my return! I do independant studio packets in my months away from school, so I have to get rolling on art very soon. Also, my next solo show is in July of 2010, a scant 7 months away. Time to get that underway, for sure.

Above---the half-finished garden bed to honor my very first motorcycle, a 1971 Honda CB 450. ---the snow tidies it up beautifully! We're down to 4 or so hours of daylight now. I took a nap around 2pm and missed the actual sunlight of the day!

My only productivity this week has been making this hat---knitted with Lion Brand Wool Ease. Yes, yes---I am kind of a yarn snob, and this yarn doesn't actually fit into that attitude! Turns out I'm just that wee bit allergic to wool in most of it's forms...so this acrylic blend stuff doesn't itch. I LOVE knitting in the winter! It totally sastisfies this OCD side of me, too. Curling up on the couch, cold outside, good movie (lately renting episodes of Fringe) and knitting. I do wonder if it gives me a false sense of productivity, however. Siphoning off a little of that creative angst, maybe?? Haha. No worries---knitting can never take the place of painting for me.

Happy December, ya'll. I hope you're each finding some satisfying winter creativity wherever you are.

The month in images....

2009-11-21T09:33:00.005-09:00

Cydney's pallette

Early Riser's Club

Eero's studio: the final showing

Oreen's sculpture

Erin in studio

Beth in studio

Church studio building

Eero's pallette

Happy to have been there...

Oreen's tree

A friend's home studio

My nest for a month...

Nightfall

And now?

Back in AK....

It's -29F.

VSC, continued...

2009-11-13T12:32:00.002-09:00

I went for a long walk the other morning. I'm experiencing some serious burn-out in the studio! This is compounded by a feeling that I've shot my load, so to speak: I've done what I needed to do here, I've done the best work I'm going to do here, and it's all over but the shouting. (Where does that saying come from? Some book or other??)

Anyway---long walk. This is the old electric station at the Gihon River. The treat was to see that chalk? drawing on the concrete retaining wall. Someone had to be adventurous to get down there with art supplies.

I got to do just a wee bit of letterboxing last week! Always so much fun. This one was a series where the boxes were pretty close to each other. 7 in the series and only one we couldn't find among them. I did find my very first, real, live acorn, however! Thrills abound! No, really---I'm a lifelong Alaskan---I've only ever seen pictures of acorns. Seriously!

Here's the base sketch for a drawing/painting (oil bar, again) I titled, "The Pact." 41"x29." I keep doing these twinned women....

This is the almost finished piece. I resolved their hands to be holding each other tightly. The face of the woman on the left wouldn't work and wouldn't work until I finally gave her a small, secretive smile and then voila, she was there. The women on the right side of these pictures always seem to have a lot of attitude....

A week left. Let's see if I can make just a few more pieces....

Making all of the time worth it

2009-11-11T03:02:00.003-09:00

"The Twins"

(Huntresses)

40"x30"

Oil bar on paper

November 2009

This is a new work from this week, done on November 9th. My project is going well---one artwork a day. I've fallen totally in love with oil bars, just a week after totally re-falling in love with chalk pastels. In addition, I'm also falling in love with working BIG, and thankfully still in love with paper, so I can roll all of this stuff up to ship home. The good bit is that I'm not worrying overmuch with framing, showing, selling, shipping, etc. It's very freeing---letting me do any and all images/styles/ideas I want to, disregarding outcome entirely, except for the requirement that I like it!

I'm also getting in a little tiny bit of photography this session. I brought along my super-sexy-fantastic camera, the Canon G40, and I promised myself I could take pix of anything and everything I felt was even mildly interesting. It's good to get back into the habit. Above, nifty patterns. I have a thing about clotheslines....as in, I think they are kind of beautiful and very evocative.

There are kids art classes taught here in one of the studios. This is a big painting left on the wall---don't know if it's a work in progress or what, but my guess is that it's a full classroom effort. The whole painting is so great! Intricate little sea monsters and submarines and big, blobby jellyfish. There are even fish wearing hats and a guy in an undersea cage. Sheesh...I could get a month's artwork inspiration off of this one painting.

One of the best things about this place is the conversation. At any given mealtime, you can compare notes on studio practice, materials use, art methods. Just yesterday, I had a conversation with a printmaker named Amy who told me that when she pulls a multiple-layered print and it comes out perfectly, she'll stop for a moment and clap. Just do a little applauding for the artwork (and herself, I imagine) that this endeavor came out beautifully. She laughed when I told her my self congratulatory act was to step back from the artwork and say out loud, "I FU*%ING ROCK!" Not as elegant or mature as an ovation, I'm afraid....

Just 9 days left here. I can admit to being homesick. There are one or two things here that I will miss so much that I just know I'm going to do some serious crying after I leave! I've reserved a spot for next summer to continue my MFA, so there I go---another countdown to begin!

In the interim.....winter.

Anatomy of an Artwork

2009-11-06T16:45:00.004-09:00

Here is a sequence showing the development of my drawing from

November 5th.

"Into the Horse Wars"

20"x16"

Oil paint bar

The initial sketch in charcoal.

Filling in major areas---focusing on the body armor/breastplate and horse heads.

The faces appear.....

Mixing tones more, and the bowl appears...

The composition is completed and all areas of the image have been attended to. Now for the final adjustments....

Just a bit of deepening of blacks and it's finished.

This drawing came out fast and furious. It's the most compositionally complex piece I've done this month. Today, another oil stick drawing on a similar horse theme titled, "Ride It Through." My task for each day is to find a good idea, most often accompanied by a provocative title, and then jump right into it without a lot of analysis or planning. It's working well, as I have 11 finished pieces as of today.

Tomorrow---a new task. This afternoon I bought a BIG piece of heavy watercolor paper for the next artwork: 30"x40". This is still to be completed in one day! I have a juicy idea in mind, but of course, this could change easily in the morning....

I'll keep you posted....

Open Studios: The Inside View

2009-11-06T03:13:00.004-09:00

Open Studios Night here at VSC: We all wander around from building to building, checking out what everyone is working on. If you don't feel like sharing, you just keep your door closed. Good to see what all of my fellow residents are working on! There is great talent here this month. The following pictures are a few of my favorites....

Wesley's studio---his big charcoal drawings depict bears and bear hunting. Beautiful, if sad and haunting work.

Oreen's sculpture. Found object, junk, ephemera and detritus. I LOVE her stuff. I feel a kinship, since I photographed abandoned buildings for all of those years. Her studio is like a big rusty playground. Great stuff!
Erin Lee Benson---painting the walls of her studio---a full intallation piece. You get this really amazing feeling in there, surrounded by the giant pink critters and yellow, floating orbs. Really fun and slightly unnerving stuff----like I like it. She's a delightful person, as well. Very intelligent and funny.

Liz Hamby: Her table of objects. This type of arranging of stuff really tickles me. She does layered painting/drawing/collages and sands them, then builds the layers up again. She works fast and furious.

Jason's studio with about 75 figure drawings. He's managed to do all of this in 2 weeks, as well as have a few oil paintings underway....and go to all of the evening events and parties! And he's 22. Nifty guy. Very talented.

My studio, yesterday. I'm doing well on my "one artwork a day" project. This type of approach makes me appreciate my ideas differently, as well as work differently. When you don't have a set plan, you have to pay closer attention and keep all of you options open. I'm having a great time with it. I've made art that makes me laugh and creeps me out at the same time. Good combination!

Hard work at Art Camp

2009-11-03T04:12:00.003-09:00

Halloween at the Studio School! Not a lot of costumes, but the ones that arrived were good. This is Jason, pro wrestler artist. I helped him find the knitted ski mask---pro wrestling Vermont style!

A new exhibit in the gallery by my fellow resident Sookoon who is from Singapore. You can see her work at www.sookoonang.com. These brooms are made with hair and have careful braiding at the binding. Really evocative, story-teller, fantastic stuff!

I've been working with chalk pastels for the past week and a half. Running out of a few colors I brought with me, I went to the art store here and bought a few of these. Holy roller....they have changed my life, I think. I have NEVER used such smooth, soft pastels. They make the chalks I brought with me feel like crumbly rocks! These Mount Vision pastels have dense color and layer and blend....oooohhhhh......safer than sex and better than drugs, lemme tell ya.

My ideas are becoming more and more narrative. Perhaps I've described this already, but my project while I'm here is to do a drawing or painting a day. Instead of laboriously sketching and planning out an artwork and making sure it links up closely to other artworks in a series, I am getting a good idea and just going with it. I don't prepare or analyze or plan. It's turned out to be remarkably fun and satisfying! I feel like I'm getting back to something I had lost, honestly. Working with pastels has a good immediacy for this: no tools, brushes, thinners, canvas, etc., etc., etc. It's just my hand and a stick of color. Talk about gratifying. Here at the VSC, residents ask each other over mealtimes, "How is your work going?" I always say, "So far, so good!" It's the most honest appraisal I can give.

Above: a life drawing sketch for a drawing I finished yesterday. The model was very accomodating to my requests for particular poses. She'd ask what the figure was really doing in the picuture and I would describe. "Well, there's a woman talking to a severed head oracle in a speaking circle." She and I and the other artists in the life drawing room would have a little laugh, and we'd all get down to work. Gotta say, I love this place.

Here is the face of the woman---a close-up. The title of the drawing is, "The Speaking Circle (Asking the Oracle)." Funny thing, she turned out to be happy to talk to this oracle....her facial expression happened on it's own. This is what I am getting from not planning everything out: great surprises.....a feeling that the artwork is leading me, rather than me directing it through something like a cattle chute. Haha!

Walking by the river the other day, I found these fish washed up on the gravel bar. I think they're Junk Fish. Not very good eating...

Four Days Into It

2009-10-29T16:04:00.003-08:00

Settling into the second residency in Vermont. This is a view of my studio building---yes, a former church!

My view.

A spot to rest from the rigors of the studio...

My only art supplies when I arrived...had to ship everything else..

A close up of the first painting/drawing I did here... #1. Oil pastels.

My project is to do one drawing or painting a day. So far, so good.

Close up of #3. Chalk pastels.

Close up of #4, more chalk pastels. By far, my favorite of what I've done thus far.

(There isn't a close up of #2 because it's butt ugly. Happens, you know?)

It's been a long day. Tired!

Thankfully, there is a dinner Halloween costume party this weekend and possibly some dancing afterwards! I brought my costume from home: the serious grad student prepared for art school.

Flying East with the Art

2009-10-26T06:44:00.002-08:00

Traveling across the continent to school! I had a long layover in Seattle and got to spend a few precious hours with good friends Joe and Jan. I felt like I couldn't participate properly in conversation---already jetlagged or was it still this lingering flu that hasn't let me sleep in days? Regardless, it was wonderful to see them.

We stopped by The Fetherston Gallery where Joe has been showing for a few years. The large charcoal/graphite drawing on the right is his. Really beautiful work. He and I met back in the day when we were both going for our undergrads at Cornish College of the Arts and I know Jan from my life in Portland. She and I got to know each other in The Fabric Welders Alliance, our quilting group.

Flying on to Vermont, many, many hours later, I got to spend the day with good friend James and his daughter Eliza. She's 12, and I am positive that when I was her age, I was nowhere near as intelligent, mannered and thoughtful. It gives me hope for the future to meet a young person like this!

We went to the Shelburne Museum on the very last day of their open season to see an exhibit of vintage, racing and specialty designer motorcycles. Ooohhhh, you can bet my little heart went pitter-patter at the sight of all these gorgeous machines! In the presence of these bikes, I could feel something in my very soul react. For those of you reading who have known me since the olden days, you know what a unique, meaningful place motorcycles have in my heart.

Unfortunately, I didn't write down ANY of the designer's names.....very lax of me! I'll conveniently blame that oversight on my titanic jet lag. Look at these phenomenal machines! Can you just imagine riding one? Given the distance between seat and throttle, I kept thinking that they were made for large people...or small people with very long arms...

This was the show stopper. The paint detail on the fragile, elegant body panels was amazing. It has 2 engines and the gas tank is inside the rear wheel! And it runs! How it actually rides is anyone's best guess....only it's maker knows, for sure. Being near this bike, it was like being in the presence of a new species. A really fabulous experience.

Also at the museum was a huge, permanent exhibit of handcarved miniature and full size circus and carousel animals. James said that the goats were his favorite, and I have to agree on that one. The carousel animals all had these very shiny glass eyes and many had real horse tails to swish in the wind. A little creepy to go with your whimsy. Just like I like it.

Finally, I landed at the studio center to start my second residency. This is my cutie-cute-cute room! A good omen of things to come, I managed to get a full night's sleep......I think it's been a week. I feel much more myself today, awake and aware, after two weeks of flu-induced mental fog.

I am keeping busy today---getting settled, doing whatever errands I can. My art supplies don't arrive until this afternoon. I carefully planned their shipment: "Send second-day air UPS on Thursday and they'll arrive on Saturday. I arrive on Sunday, so I can get right to work!" What I had not foreseen is that "2nd day air" AK-VT actually means, 4-day air. So....twiddling my thumbs just that much until they arrive....

I did bring my travel water colors (translation: crayola kiddie paint set) and sketchbook, so I am not totally without means of creative expression.

I've already met a few really nifty people. My two fellow Low-Res students here this month seem to be kindred spirits, which is great. Last night at dinner I sat with a sculptor from Singapore and at breakfast I met a writer who is a retired psychotherapist who will be revising a novel while she is here. Great minds and talent abound! I can't wait to see everyone's work.

And speaking of working.....I'm going to get down and dirty with the Crayolas.....

Leaving the Freezing World

2009-10-26T06:12:00.002-08:00

Tanana river view...

I'm heading out for my second residency at the Vermont Studio Center. Yay! I've really been counting the days for the last three months; so anticipating going back and reveling in the art immersion.

Before I left AK, I had to finish several paintings for two shows I had agreed to do: an invitational group show at The Annex, and the 6th Annual Woman Show at The Alaska House. It wasn't a good idea to take up these invitations, as I was working on a large portfolio project for school that took more time and effort than I could ever have planned on. Regardless, I got everything done.

"Song"

18"x24"

Acrylic, acrylic ink, gold leaf on wood

This painting I finished the night before I left....! I hate doing things last minute, but I'd imagined the finishing steps of this piece so much that actually working on it was smooth and trouble free (not always the case). My idea for the intricate drawing was seed images, morphed. I wanted to show a drop seed---one that has appurtenances that allow it to move/fly/fall farther from it's parent.

Of course, when I showed this painting to Fromage, hoping to get a good, straightforward appraisal he said, "Jeez, what's with all the giant sperm?"

Yikes! He's absolutely right, too. Since I'll be in Vermont, I'll miss the opening night for the show this painting will be in......good and bad, seeing as I painted giant sperm. I'll let my commrades and constituents in the local arts scene scratch their heads and wonder, haha!

Next up.....reports from 4,000 miles away.

12 Hours in Photos: Abbreviated

2009-10-18T11:08:00.003-08:00

12 Hours in Photos is a documentary photography blog I've joined. Folks from all over the world (hopefully) take one picture every hour on the hour from 8am to 8pm on specified days of the year. Yesterday was one of those days! I posted the complete set at the site, but here is the half-version. I picked out the best hour images.....

8am: Sunrise view from the balcony

11am: Heading downstairs for lunch

12 Noon: Chopsawing support frames for paintings

6pm: Walking around the garden. The moose ate my sunflowers.

7pm: Driving to the party

8pm: The bonfire.

Work in progress

2009-10-12T07:09:00.001-08:00

It's all I'm doing.

Nifty Stuff

2009-09-29T18:24:00.002-08:00

The Horseman's Star rocking my world again....three bloom spikes this year!

A little cabin down the road that I love.

A drawing that I'm working on---graphite.
I finally taught myself to draw braids properly, and now I can't stop.....

Lemon, butter or banana??

2009-09-18T16:25:00.002-08:00

I've been wanting to do this for four years----repaint my kitchen! When we built the house, I couldn't decide on any colors for the rooms. I felt like I needed to live in them to understand their personalities and then apply paint...

Above, the "before" shot....

And, the "after!" I wanted a warm yellow....something maybe gold with a hint of ochre? A color that would always be warm, and warm us when the world becomes cold and monochromatic in winter. What I ended up with (since apparently, I am unable to understand how paint cards relate to reality) is more on the Big Bird end of things! As my friend Leslie said, "Everyone needs more Sesame Street in their lives." I was a little freaked out by how totally bright this yellow was, but you know, it's just so cute. This kitchen is just freakin' cheerful! I am so pleased with it....and so is Fromage! Perhaps I can continue this madness with my uber-color plan and paint the living room orange so we can live in a creamcicle.

I am actually a rather serious person, so I am imagining that folks may be surprised by this transformation in my house...not serious at all. Just bright and fun. Interestingly, my recent paintings are getting a little day-glo too..... I'll post pix as soon as I work up the nerve.

Getting busy....

2009-09-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

The studio....

Skunked in Valdez

2009-08-31T07:30:00.004-08:00

Cousin B, Fromage and I drove the 360+ miles South to Valdez for a spot of fishing. Above, a view from the Delta River flats towards the Alaska Range.

An old quonset hut I spied in Delta Junction. I LOVE quonset huts and have always harbored a dream of living in one someday....

The interior.... I still love abandoned buildings, so many years after leaving documentary photography. There's nothing like ruined architecture to give me a thrill!

Another view of the Alaska Range, this time from slightly South, right around Summit Lake.

In Valdez, we fished from the dock with a lot of other folks. We saw some silvers being reeled in....but us? No luck. Rain, rain, rain in Valdez....

We camped out the first night and were told that there was a black bear who liked to hang out in the campground and not to keep food in our tents. (Duh.) We told them we were from Fairbanks and they seemed relieved.

We did see the bear later. Fromage and I were walking along the road when it shambled out from between two buildings not 30 yards from us. We stopped in our tracks (me thinking of every escape route to us in the near vicinity) and it shuffled quickly across the road to disappear between more buildings. A car pulled up next to us at that moment and the woman driver said she was going to warn us right when we saw it and stopped. She said, "Aw, he's just dumpster diving."

Cousin B fishing at Allison Point across the bay from Valdez proper. This was said to be a great fishing spot at high tide. You can see the dead, spawned out salmon littering the beach. Still, no luck for us. Cousin B hooked several dying salmon by accident---he called them 'zombie fish'----hooking their tails when he was reeling in. Several fisherpeople had hipwaders and stood in the shallows, the old fish swimming slowly between their knees.

An older carcass....kind of interesting, I thought.

After a night of wet camping and bad sleep, we all opted to get a hotel for our second night. Here, I had to document the ugliest and most offensive arrangement of furniture it has ever been my misfortune to encounter. Cheap hotel, godawful furniture, but a warm, dry night's sleep!

On our way back home sans Cousin B who flew on to Anchorage, Fromage and I stopped to hit a few Letterboxes. Here, I was the first one to stamp this box hidden on a bluff where the old road had fallen into the Copper River far, far below.

And now?

Adventures over for the time being, I'm going to make a lot of art.

I miss VSC...

2009-08-29T20:59:00.001-08:00

The Delta Clearwater

2009-08-22T08:59:00.003-08:00

We did a quick overnight trip on the Delta Clearwater. We had to take advantage of two whole days without rain! Cousin B., Luna and Fromage in the canoe.

Eero in the little yellow kayak....

The Clearwater on a clear sky evening. So beautiful and peaceful....except for that I was starving.

Camp Irving at the 100 year old trappers cabin. Since first seeing this cabin four years ago, I have wanted to stay the night there. Cousin B and Fromage slept in tents....I stayed inside.

The interior. A little worse for wear, but like me, it cleaned up good! I slept on the cot nearest the barrel stove. I woke up during the night and saw the flicker of firelight playing on the cabin walls and felt total contentment. I am not a woman who needs 5-star hotels and any kind of luxury to be happy. Give me an old cabin and a woodstove....and lots of food.

The modern world was here, regardless! Cousin B got cell/internet on his iphone and sent emails. Yes, he found it ironic, too.

Cousin B caught a beautiful grayling right at the size limit. We wanted to put salt and pepper on it before baking it....but alas, no spices in the cabin. We did have Salt & Pepper potato chips however! We crushed some and stuffed the fish. Risky move, but it tasted great.

The grayling, deshabille.

Next day, in the opaque waters of the Tanana River. A faster current here...

Fromage and Luna back at home, tired from the adventure.

Mushroom Hunting: Part 2

2009-08-16T18:28:00.003-08:00

A spore print from the cap of an agaric with white spores. I set it overnight---very beautiful!

I found this beautiful lichen today...

....and look at the intricacy of it's sexy bits!

I met some really interesting folks in my class: Ana, an oceanographer, studying a new find.

This is Mark with an 'artist's conk.'

He's studing biology at University on the GI Bill.

(This picture doesn't do him justice...I think he's something like 6' 4".)

A great fungal infection (?) in a birch. Apparently, there is a type of fungal growth like this which is highly sought after. It is dried and powdered, then sold as a tea in Asian markets. One learns so many interesting things in fungi class....

Our teacher, Dr. Gary Laursen.

A really brillant and funny person!

He is one of those teachers that can make any and every class a good one.

Someone in my class was being a smartass with their collection.....too funny.

Mushroom Hunting: Part 1

2009-08-16T07:08:00.002-08:00

I'm taking a weekend Mycology class: Mushroom taxonomy and identification! We spend two days out in the woods mushroom hunting. I brought my snares, spears and bucknife. Haha! No, really, I geared up for rain and more rain and took along a big woven basket to collect the fungal booty. It is a real thrill to mushroom hunt all kinds of fungi forms: agarics and polypores and slime molds, oh my! Above, the hunting grounds....

My instructor is Dr. Laursen, a very well known mycologist. He is a fantastic teacher and so ethusiastic about his love of fungi. On the first day of class he told us that we'll "pick mushrooms and handle them and smell them and play with them and roll in them!" He makes great jokes, like when discussing the so called "sexless fungi" and what a total bummer that is for them. Dr. L was actually my high school biology teacher and I am so thrilled to see him again! He's only gotten better with age.

One little sweet dude I collected, an agaric, or gilled mushroom. I took along my Canon Powershot A2000. I just got this camera in June before our big biycle tour, and I'm realizing it's limitations. I think it's predecessor, the Powershot A95 was just a better camera, overall. For the 2000, getting it to do the right thing in Macro mode is frustrating.....

A wee coprolitic fungi: one that grows in dung! Interesting note---apparently many of the psychotropic 'shrooms are dung-dwellers.... In this photo: moose nuggets.

Beautiful fungi growing on a birch trunk. I only took a small piece of this growth. I didn't wan't to disturb the beautiful overall form! This has GOT to go in a painting, someday....

Tiny little guys in the leaf litter. These dudes are the decomposers of the forest floor.

Back at school, our combined collections laid out. With Dr. Laursen's guidance, we separated everything into family and genus. Most of what we had were agarics, and we further separated those by spore color. We made spore prints and agar cultures from sterilized chunks of mushroom cap. Very nifty stuff!

Today, it's back out in the field. Our hunting ground is a camp about 30 miles out of town. It's been raining nonstop for a week! Excellent mushroom weather.

An altered shot of the collection papers. You know, I can make art with ANYTHING.

Letterboxing Eero Style

2009-08-12T17:36:00.002-08:00

The Lady Ninja and I went out and planted a new letterbox.....

A very beautiful and quiet place....

...and for all it's gantrys and catwalks, trapdoors and machinery;

surprisingly hard to find a good hiding place!

The Smoky Clearwater

2009-08-06T12:09:00.008-08:00

Snag in the Clearwater channel.

A blissfully quiet and still place...

Fromage and I went out canoeing on the Clearwater Lake near Delta Junction. Too smoky from the terrible forest fires right now to float the entire river. Plus, we got a late start....

Fromage and the moose in the water---a cow with two calves. She was eating water reeds and they stayed on the marshy shore, bleating to her to return.

We were paddling along back to the landing in the evening when we saw a strange object far off in the water. With the smoke, it was hard to understand---a kayaker? A small a canoe on the other side of the lake? Suddenly I realized it was actually very close and it was a swimming moose! Only his head, stubby antlers and ears were above the water. I shot this video, and you can get an idea of his speed and strength. Perhaps it doesn't come through clearly on the audio, but Fromage says, "Eat your heart out Michael Phelps!"

Young swimming bull. We didn't get any closer. He was at a disadvantage in the water and I didn't want to scare OR antagonize him.

Beautiful trees in the channel. I told a friend recently that this river float is like a six hour zen meditation.

Eero on the river.

The Blogosphere: My 300th post

2009-08-06T09:04:00.003-08:00

Having a blog is a funny thing---public diary, and all that. What to say that is personal, but not really private? What to share with friends and family you know are reading, but also what to share with the many strangers who may stop by?

I've made a few friends in the Blogosphere, as we call it. These are people I've never met in person, but with whom I share great similarities and interests. Leanne, from Art and Life is a fellow artist whose art I love and we cheer each other's good ideas along. Bike & Beer is a cyclist who lives a continent away from me. We once traded cold weather cycling gear (hers) for a big salmon (mine)! We've yet to meet in person!

I also keep in touch with people I know and love who live far away from me; Brilliant Lite, Bugheart and Red Doors, to name a few. Since I live near the Arctic Circle, 'far away from me' is pretty easy to accomplish....

There is one person whose blog I've been reading for almost two years. A fellow bike rider who goes by the handle 'Fat Cyclist.' This is Elden, a man with a passion for bicycles and his family. Hard working, a good writer, clever, and funny as hell. Elden's written a lot about bikes and life in the cycling lane. Elden has also written a lot about his wife Susan's long and difficult battle with cancer. He's shared so much of his life in this---all of what his family has been through. He doesn't just talk about how hard it is---he's fought it with an amazing determination in whatever way he can. Fat Cyclist bike jersey sales all go towards the Lance Armstrong Livestrong cancer foundation. Elden has set up numerous fundraisers, raffles and contests in which the entry fee is a donation to cancer foundations. He's created whole cycling teams and groups around the country to give support towards fighting cancer. This guy is fiercely dedicated. He's raised literally hundreds of thousands of dollars that all go towards cancer fighting efforts.

I'm so sad to read this morning that his wife Susan died yesterday, August 5th. Hell, I've been reading along with Elden for two years and I feel like this guy is my friend. I just broke down and cried. My heart goes out to him and his family.

I don't know if there's a way to 'fight' cancer. The cells don't care----they'll take what they want no matter what. I have friends and family with cancer right now.

All I know is that this guy whom I've never met has really impressed me with his honor, fortitude and heart. You can read about him....he's Fat Cyclist.

The blogosphere is a consensual forum to share our lives, stories, projects and opinions in whatever form. (Hey, being an introvert, I totally love it.) It's a sad day for someone I've never laid eyes on but care deeply about.

My sincere condolences, Elden.

Home Again

2009-08-01T21:13:00.002-08:00

Back home in Alaska! I spent most of the day riding the Lady Ninja around, getting the lay of the land again. After a month away and so many new experiences, everything seemed just that little bit different. Above: the Tanana River with a heavy layer of wildfire smoke which is covering the valley right now.

My driveway. Once again, total privacy and quiet---sorely missed!

The fireweed tells us that summer is just about over---the blossoms have almost reached the top. It's been a summer filled with beautiful new places and friends that I'll never forget.

People, places and Art at VSC....

2009-07-25T11:10:00.007-08:00

My spartan room here at the Vermont Studio Center.

Working in my (HUGE) studio.

Sean's demon. He's a brilliant technical artist.

Scott's book. A fellow text lover.

Sean and Neal.

Barbara. Beautiful pastels artist and fellow MFA student.

Cheryl. One of the artists I admire most here.

James' birds. An intricate and clever project.

Sabrina, who makes art with anything and everything she can get her hands on!

Michael's sculptures, tools and weapons: all made from one piano.

My studio: finished works.

James and Scott laughing---which is what they do everytime they're around each other. These guys are my best friends here at 'art camp.'

Bill, metal sculptor extraordinaire.

Natalia the Canadian.

Cathy, also a fellow MFA student.

Less than a week left here in Vermont! The time here has been amazing---I'm so glad I'll be coming back in a few months. This whole experience has been just what I needed. Now...off to the studio.

4000 Miles From Home

2009-07-18T15:17:00.003-08:00

"Rubicon"

24"x24"

Acrylic and gold leaf on birch panel

2009

I'm in Vermont at the first of six month long residencies for my graduate program. With a new place, friends, influences, landscape, smells, plants, etc., much new art is being born. Above, my first finished painting here. Very different from the ones that have come before it.

My studio----HUGE. I have a view of the back yard and garden, the river, and the sculpture studio yard and garden on the other side of that.

My studio building.

My window is the one in the middle of the middle. The first day I got this space, a GIANT moth was sitting on the outside of the windowscreen. Grey body, orange feathery antennae, and whitish circles on the outsides of its wings......and big as a bird! I thought it was an omen.

Two weeks gone and two weeks left. This is a pretty amazing and precious experience for me. I'm kind of falling in love with a few of my fellow artists and their work----did I mention I am here with geniuses? Yes, it's true. One of my favorite artists here on sheer brilliant creativity alone is Cheryl Coon. Check her out.

Time to check out if they've got the sculpture pit bonfire going....

The Golden Circle, Part II

2009-07-08T15:15:00.005-08:00

Me and Sheila on the road.....

Heading over to Haines on the ferry.

Fromage at the summit.

Eero at the summit. There couldn't be a picture of us together, because there was absolutely nothing to set the camera on up there in the high country!

The tour went through Alaska, Yukon Territory and British Columbia. I got a stamp in my passport at one customs crossing. I've had that dang thing for years and this was my first stamp.

Sheila at White Pass---elevation 3,000+ ft above sea level. The day from Carcross to Skagway was brutal: 50 miles climbing into the pass into a hard headwind. I don't think I've ever had a more difficult day on the bike. We were wind and sunburned and exhausted when we finally arrived in Skagway. Every mile was hard won. All day, we thought about cheeseburgers, fries and Guinness.....which was dinner! It was a good reward.

Camping at Mosquito Lake......not as bad as it's name implied.

Refueling in Skagway. Hearty breakfasts were a must on this tour!

Fromage. Looking a little worse for wear after our previous days struggle up through the White Pass.

A funny sign we saw near Kathleen Lake. Get it? Bed and Breakfast!

And now....

I have to do a post to tell you about where I am currently: about 4000 miles from home!

Golden Circle Bicycle Tour

2009-07-03T22:16:00.004-08:00

Fromage and I drove south to Whitehorse, Y.T. to do a 400 mile bicycle tour. Here, at the Alcan boundary marker. There's a letterbox hidden near here that I've been looking forward to finding for years....but alas, it was missing.

In Whitehorse, fully loaded and ready to go! We fitted Sheila with front and rear racks/panniers while Fromage tried out the BOB trailer.

Fromage on the highway to Skagway. There are MANY pictures of Fromage from this viewpoint!

Hey, I look pretty good in this picture.....!

Myself, Sheila, and our location in the world...

Sheila, fully loaded! I love self-supported bicycle touring. LOVE IT. And, I love Sheila. She did great and it was a pleasure to ride her all day for a whole week through beautiful mountain country. Bicycle touring puts cycling, backpacking and camping all together in one package. Since I've done a fair amount of all three, this tour didn't seem too much of a stretch for a first time out. The good bit is that we used just about everything we brought and didn't lack for anything at the same time.

I went a little overboard on what I see as the bedrock essentials and brought too much coffee, bug spray and toilet paper. But hey---you run out of any of those three things and you get miserable in one way or another---am I right?

One of the nifty stops we made our first day was at Robinson's Roadhouse---noted as a historic site but not overly preserved, if you know what I mean. These train tracks were merging back into the wilderness...

An old cabin at Robinson's----so beautiful! When I'm at places like this, I always think, "Johnny would freakin LOVE this place!" He is my fellow abandoned building searcher from the old days. As it is, Fromage and I stayed awhile for lunch and exploring.

Fromage and Eero.

At Carcross we sat here overlooking the vast lake and ate ice cream and drank coffee. Stores and towns are few and far between on these roads, so we stopped at almost every one to eat, get water, have a treat or a rest. One great thing about bike touring---you can eat everything and anything ALL THE TIME, and it's all used up during the days riding. Plus, everything tastes better, so you want to eat twice as much. Heaven.

At our first camp. Mountain House Beef Stroganoff......mmmmmmmm.

I kept a logbook of this trip. Day One: 60.042 miles.

These flowers were at our camp off the road near Tagish Lake. Still have to look them up for identification. Their small twists of blossoms were by almost every roadside we biked. I now wish I'd taken more pictures of the amazing roadside flowers----there was an incredible variety, especially some unusual plants near the mountain passes on the Haines Highway.

When I'm not riding my Ninja...

2009-06-21T14:47:00.006-08:00

A good bicycle ride yesterday with Fromage and friend Chris visiting from Alabama. 58.1 miles out to Chena Hot Springs...

This was the maiden voyage of my new camera---a Canon Powershot A2000IS. I'm so, so sad that my old Powershot A95 finally died, after 5 years of good times and good pictures! And damn! I miss that fold-out, swiveling viewscreen....

The new camera has a 6X zoom, however, so now I can catch images like the one of this owl, hanging out on a branch over a stream about 200 ft off the road. We also saw three moose---close enough to the road that I didn't pause to take pictures...

Fromage finally got a camera, so there will at last be a few pictures of me on our adventures!

Another accomplishment: my first knitted sweater. I made this ensemble for my friend Dena's new baby Ethan. The yarn is Lionbrand Cotton Ease. That stuff rocks my knitting world.

And here's the big chubby dude in his new hat. Can he get any cuter??

The Little Fist is back in action

2009-06-16T20:39:00.001-08:00

2001 Kawasaki Ninja EX250R

My new best friend!

I am a Reader

2009-05-31T10:14:00.010-08:00

I read voraciously. I read every single day. If I'm upset, or sad or confused, I'll sit down for a bit of a read to calm down. If I'm happy or excited or content---I'll do the same. I need books like I need food, and for those friends out there who are familiar with my metabolism, you know what I'm saying is significant.

My first memory of reading is of sitting up in bed, my back resting against my pink painted, wicker headboard with the big letter "E" on it. I must have been about six years old. I had a colorful illustrated book about undersea explorers propped up on my knees. The background was of deep turquoise water with all manner of fish, seaweed, and sealife depicted. I vividly remember the feeling of looking at that book and "reading" and being indescribably happy......me, in bed with my nightstand light on (also pink) and my book! It was a totally blissful moment.

Reading is very important to me. I never go without a book somewhere in my day. I need to read myself to sleep, as it is often the ONLY way to shut my mind up long enough to drift off. If I am getting towards the bottom of the stack of books, I make a trip to the library....I can't afford to run out of reading material----ever.

Image from http://www.insideadog.com/ which sports the quote:

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.

Inside a dog, it's too dark to read.

-Groucho Marx

I once had a boyfriend who, in a gesture of intimacy, asked me about my reading. I should've been awakened to the fact that our relationship was going sour by my immediate unwillingness to share my love of books with him. Reading was my business! My bastion of solitude. He didn't really care anyway, and given his vicious sarcastic bent, I just couldn't set up my love of books for his ever-seeking targeting system of insults. (I do remember once, with this same boyfriend, laying in bed reading before sleep. I was reading, "Conan the Defiant" and he was reading, "The Origin of Conciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.)

The best book I have ever read in my entire life is "Housekeeping," by Marilynne Robinson. I read this when I was 18 and it was so beautiful, poetic and perfect. I cried when I finished reading it. I save it for special occasions.....and allow myself to read it only once every few years.

My sister and I once went on a 5 day, 32 mile mountain pass hiking trip. I had brought 3 paperbacks, feeling that they might get me through the week long trip. On the last night out on the trail....I was out of books. Lili had only gotten half way through her book (an Agatha Christie novel) and I begged her to give it to me. Of course she refused! I then reasoned with her; since she had already read half the book, she didn't need that first half, did she? and convinced her to tear the book in half so I could read the beginning.

I ususally keep an even balance of fiction to non-fiction. Once, I felt like perhaps I was spending too much time in other people's fantasies and decided I should go on a month-long "Fiction Fast." I thought long and hard about how I would get through a month like that and promptly got a really, really bad stomach ache. And bagged the whole idea.

My current reads:

Et tu?

Getting out into the world

2009-05-26T09:49:00.008-08:00

Summer is here! Last week, somebody or something somewhere flipped a switch and the warm season arrived. Leaves on the trees, green grass, sunshine everywhere. We made it through the sensory deprivation of winter.....mostly intact. Above: Fromage.

Amy and Shannon. We dug out our mountain bikes this time.

I'm thinking a smaller, lighter camera would be a good thing for these on-bike shots! My poor camera....it's falling apart. Body panels are coming off and the camera only works when it is tightly taped together. I tend to do this: hold on to things until they are totally falling apart. My car is in this state, too, as a blown head gasket and 140K+ miles necessitates a new engine....or not?

I'm in this interesting period of life where everything is wearing out at once. My camera is failing, my car is kaput, my beloved cat of 12 years died, I've decided this is my last season at my job and I split the ass out of my favorite pants. Big and small, changes are here.

In the positive, there is new to replace the old. We bought a new bed, I'm starting graduate school, I have money to buy a new (used) car and I went out and got a new pair of favorite pants. So.... despite the upheavals of saying sometimes very difficult farewells to things in my life, friends, favorite tools, ways of being/acting/thinking/feeling..... I am accepting all the new. Do or die, right? Sometimes it feels that way.

On the art front: I pick up my show this week from The Alaska House Gallery. Reviews from friends and fellow artists were good overall. I sold 2 paintings to a local writer. Even though I know better, I always hope for some kind of BIG epiphany or experience from a show. Something like selling most if not all of the paintings or being noticed by a major reviewer/gallery/collector which will lead to "greatness," whatever that may be.

I think it's an expectation that the outcome of a show will equal the intensity and work building up to a show. This is not the case.

I once had an artist friend say that manic depressives aren't attracted to the arts; manic depressives are made by the arts It's the stress, expectation, hopes, anxiety leading up to a performance or show which afterwards, becomes a let-down, an acceptance of reality, a letting-go of idealized fantasies. So it goes. I know there are artists out there who will disagree with this (feel free) but I see some truth in it. And this is my blog. So there.

Enough.

The sun is shining and I'm going to go out there and get in it.

Ta.

Where I Work

2009-05-13T06:37:00.003-08:00

Spring is here, but the days are still chill.....

Work is ramping up to the crazy busy selling season...all of three weeks long.

Seven seasons at this job. I think this may be the last. I feel 'done.' Also, I feel the need for year-round employment, health insurance and (gasp!) retirement benefits. Just another change amongst so many happening in 2009......

Delivering the show tomorrow...

2009-04-27T19:30:00.005-08:00

"End Result"

Mixed media on birch panel

12"x12"

2009

I love painting roots!

Partial view of "Thrice"

I'm delivering the paintings tomorrow and the opening is on Friday.

Wish me luck!

Getting Ready

2009-04-19T08:45:00.002-08:00

"The Favorite Day"

12"x12"

Acrylic, gold leaf on birch panel

2009

The opening of my solo exhibit fast approaches. I'll be showing 10 paintings, all acrylic, gold leaf and acrylic inks on birch panels. It's a smaller gallery, so I'll be showing smaller works. Most of them are 12"x18" and 12"x12." I like working in this small (for me) format---the things I say in the paintings tend to be more subtle and...well, cute, to be honest.

It's been hard going to put this show together. I've had a lot of things pulling my attention away from the studio. There have been a lot of big changes in my life in the last three months. One would say this could be fodder for new work, but the changes haven't yet traslated into the lexicon of painting images. It takes time, you know....as does everything.

The problem I am encountering on all fronts is that I don't know where exactly these changes are taking me. I'm the kind of person who likes a plan, a list, an understanding of the where/how/why of things. I don't like uncertainty, because I don't know where it will land me. I also am unnerved by not knowing the best course of action.

I have many options and many decisions to be made over the course of the short Alaskan summer.

To leave you on an optimistic note:
After this show is up and opened and all is said and done... (and the snow has melted that much more)...I'm going to spiff up Sheila and start bicycle commuting to work again! Team Sharima is going to start up our summer riding! We may also add a new member, if he's serious about getting a bike.......(I really hope so!)

In the Green

2009-04-04T10:24:00.002-08:00

Back to work at the greenhouse: my 7th year??

I feel pretty fortunate to have a job where I get to be around plants and soil all day. It's April, the landscape here is still covered in snow despite the sunny days. It was only +6 at my house this morning. In the greenhouse, it's +70, I wear summer clothes and get to dig around in the dirt. All good.

Work creates a good schedule for me. Suddenly, my free time is very, very precious! Any and all free time this month is spent in the studio working on paintings for my next show, "Search and Secret" at the Alaska House Gallery opening on May 1st. Just a few weeks away! I'm making quite a few small paintings, 12"x12" and 12"x18" for this exhibit. The gallery is small and, well, bigger paintings take a lot longer to complete. So....

These paintings are all oriented around very carefully drawn plant images. I took a botanical illustration class last year and realized that much of my art had already been heading in that direction. This series of work is exploring ideas of incremental change: small movements making up larger transitions. I am fascinated by how smaller parts make a whole, whether physical, emotional, events, personalities....

Most of the paintings have gold leaf and all of them feature repetitive images: nails, seedheads, branches, roots, etc. One painting I did last week rocks my world. I was surprised by this when I finished it----a pretty good idea turned into a rockin' little painting! Let's just hope for more of those in the next 3 weeks!

I have uninterupted time to concentrate on art this weekend. Oblio died two months ago now, and my husband has moved out temporarily.... so my little family of three is just down to me. Me and the paintings and the orchids. Funny (or honestly, NOT so funny) that the orchids and art don't give much back these days. It's interesting times. So many things are changing that it's hard to know where to put my emotional energy. For instance, my step-Dad died just a couple of weeks ago and my parents got back together....after being divorced since 1979! Talk about strange....

Did I forget to mention that I got accepted to graduate school? I start this July in a low-residency program in Vermont----I just bought my surrealistically expensive plane ticket today. Holy moly. (Thank goodness it'll be tax deductible at some point.) Anyway, yeah----graduate school. I've been thinking about getting my Masters of Fine Arts for about.....8 years now. Seriously! I remember thinking about it when we lived at our first rental cabin in 2000/2001. Scary how long it takes me to make a decision, sometimes. I sent off my application for this school on my birthday this year, Feb. 6th. Since I sent my last student loan payment off on that exact day two years ago, I figured it was a good benchmark.

Life is taking a lot of new directions right now. I just have to try and keep up.

Superheroes, and other forms of creativity...

2009-03-22T13:24:00.004-08:00

Fromage and I went to a nifty birthday party last night thrown by our friend:

Kimbo, a.k.a., Super Birthday Girl....

Safety Man was there. He did some party directing with glowing batons.

I think the star of the party was Fromage, revealing his secret identity:

Captain Crock Pot!

Here is the Captain hanging out with the mean, clean machine, Jani Tor.

I got to channel my alter ego: Green Thumb! My super power is to make things grow and encourage fertilizing (ha ha). Unfortunately, there were no houseplants at the party to commune with, nor did I get the chance to get into a squirt bottle fight with an evildoer.....alas.

Getting down the root level

2009-03-21T11:34:00.002-08:00

A new painting, almost finished. The working title is, "It is Never Lost."

I'm working a layer of white ink drawing in behind the black inked areas. Tough going....I can't pre-draw in these shapes because any other materials darken the white....

Gold leaf rings in the underneath. Why? Still thinking about that.

Else?

I have a scant 5 weeks before this group of paintings is due at the gallery.

Yikes.

Plates, finished

2009-03-11T13:48:00.005-08:00

So I'm supposed to be making paintings for my show in May but it's hard going. As I posted previously, Bunnell Street Gallery sent me some plates to decorate with glazes for their annual fundraiser---these are the last 2.

Above, titled "Good Fortune"

A detail of the center. If you can't read it, the ongoing, multiple fortune says things like, "You will find money, Your pants will never be too tight, Everyone will laugh at your jokes, and Your children will all be geniuses." I mean, there's some real good fortune, right? The things that are important. I am so funny....

This last plate had me stumped. It had 3 areas where patches of porcelain had been added onto the surface of the plate and the exterior edge was uneven. It was blobby and organic, so I went with a soil theme. The porcelain blobs, I made into dahlia tubers with surrounding grass. As you can see, the title is written on it, "The Secret Life of Tubers" cuz I'm so damned funny. No, really!

Detail.

Whatever the glazes are, I love 'em. Nice slurry paints to work with.

I kind of wish I could get more plates, they're so fun to paint. I know that it's just a means of procrastinating on working towards my next show, however. I am a gold medalist procrastinator.

Else?

It's snowing.....again.

Plate project

2009-03-08T15:25:00.003-08:00

The Bunnell Street Arts Center invited me to participate in their annual membership/fundraising Plate Project. I just got a box in the mail of the green fired ceramic plates and multiple film canisters of glazes. Above: the initial sketches.

The work table in full swing. The plate got a coat of apricot orange with a deeper, mandarin orange around the edge.

Orange. Can't get away from it.

The fortune cookies are left bare, so they'll be bright with only a transparent glaze before firing. Sadly, I didn't get any yellow glaze!!! This omission is creating some surprising challenges for me.

The finished plate. The other two I get to paint are different shapes: one with folded corners (got a plan for that one) and one with blobby additions to the surface (totally bamboozled with that one...).

The ribbon around the top will fire out as a soft rose pink and says, "It was everything I had hoped for, and I'll do it again."

This phrase was a struggle to figure out, since most of the phrases and sentences rolling around in my head these days are somthing like, "I will miss him until the day I die" and "Maybe, when I die, I'll have it written into my will to have our ashes mixed together" and "Oh my God, I better get my ass in gear and do our taxes."

My current favorite image....endless permutations available.

Beautiful Art

2009-03-07T08:25:00.005-09:00

This painting is in a bus shelter across the road from the public library. I see it every time I drive out of the library lot and wonder at it. It's mysterious and beautiful, naive, magical.....I just love this painting. Artist? Unknown.....

These days, I am trying to accept good things as they come. I am pretty wrecked over Oblio's death....more about that in another post, perhaps.....so I am making an effort to realize when good things are right in front of me and acknowledge them. When I left the library yesterday, here this was, where it always was. I'd never gotten out of the car and examined it too closely. It was snowing and the wind was whipping around, but I slogged through the drifts in front of the bus shelter to record this beauty, at long last.

Too many things are slipping away these days. I have to try to catch them, if I can.

Here is a close up of the Lady. I didn't realize she had a little flower until I had taken the photo. Someone drew her face with ballpoint.....but they did an amazing job, don't you think? And just marvel at the shape of her head....

Her two companions in the photo---the elk (?) headed man and dog. And Elkman is holding a plant? Something growing out of the ground? Notice he has shorts on, too. Clever.

Notice in the first picture that there is a winter/summer division between these characters, the demarcation point being the tree. (Tree of Life?) I can only see these characters as archetypes of some kind.....

What do you think?

(Johnny, I already know you love it...but tell me anyway.)

March....

2009-03-07T08:23:00.000-09:00

In some parts of the world, it's spring.

Making Art

2009-03-02T10:33:00.002-09:00

The current scene on the worktable...

Background of Alizarin Crimson, and a facsimile thereof with cadmium red and burnt umber. Gold leaf applied.....so, so carefully! Then a titanium white overpainting. I love a really flat white ground.

In progress----the nails are drawn on with FW Acrylic inks and a fine point steel calligraphy nib. (Glutton for punishment, yes.) I sketched in the spacing and composition for the nails with willow charcoal. I counted the lines after figuring out their final arrangement: 111. Lately, EVERYTHING in my paintings has given me auspicious numbers, even when I don't plan it or anticipate it.

The funny thing is that I don't particularly 'believe' in numerology or astrology or just about any "-ology," for that matter. Still, the strange confluences of numbers in my recent paintings lead me to believe that something is going on.....

Close up. I laid paper on the surface so as not to smear or damage the surface while doing the drawings. I could draw 10 or so nails, then would rest my eyes and hand.

"Birthday"

12"x18"

Acrylic, gold leaf, ink on birch board

2009

Finished last month and sent off to the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center for the "Reflections on Alaska Statehood: the 49th at 50" exhibit which will be up for 5 months.

Speaking of auspicious numbers, I counted the nails on this piece after it was completely done and found 36----my age!

I have a solo show opening in May at The Alaska House Gallery. I figure I need 12-15 paintings for this show. So far, so good. I have a lot of ideas: always a big plus! The days and nights are evening out, here in the far North. What this means for me is an awakening of my mind and spirit and a sudden, strong and wonderful renewal in my ability to be creative.

Tolovana 2009

2009-02-24T15:08:00.002-09:00

I think the trip to Tolovana is now a tradition with the same group of people we went out with last year. The shot above is the trail just as we were starting out. Beautiful sun glinting in sparkles off the four inches of new snow, rabbit tracks, great quiet. The shushing of our skis through new snow on a day like this is another one of my visions of heaven. Fromage took a little video...I'll have to post it and show ya'll.

Tea on the trail. Fromage and I always bring the same tea on trips like this. For our 10 years together, it's our 'adventure tea.'

The trail conditions worsened as the day wore on. 4.5 hours of skiing to reach the springs. At one point I had a cussing fit at my skis and at another, after doing a full face plant at what felt like 30mph into a snowbank, I had a good, little, pouty girl cry. Good thing I was alone and no one was around to see me! Good friends and good alcohol were waiting as soon as I walked in the door of the cabin, so all was well in the end.

Fromage on our bunk.

Shannon, my cycling, skiing and adventure friend.

Part of the gang, hanging out at the Cedar cabin. I wish I'd taken more pictures, but sometimes it's hard for me to have the camera around. I think that I spent too many years taking photos....always looking for an art shot or always looking for an image to save. Sometimes, I just don't want to 'save it for later,' you know? Sometimes I just want to live in the moment.

I'm finding that the only way to ease my heavy grief over Oblio's death is to spend a lot of time with good friends. The hardest part is first thing in the morning. As soon as I wake up, I remember that he is dead, and the loss is born all over again. It's hard to be at home, too. Everything reminds me of him. For the last 2 years of his life, I spent most of my time with him----working seasonally and also working in my home studio, we were always together. I made a small photo album of every image of him I could find. I let myself look at it once a day. He was something like my familiar, and definitely one of my best friends. I feel like part of my heart has been cut out. A friend pointed out that I had a great emotional focus on Oblio, and now that he is gone, all that love and caring and attention I centered on him is cut adrift and has no place to go. She told me this after I described my sudden and irrational affection for a woodpecker which has been visiting our porch woodpile every day......

Time to get back to the studio. I have a new painting in the hopper that I will title, "Timeline." LOTS of intricate black ink pen work.

Oblio

2009-02-10T07:28:00.004-09:00

Oblio

1990?-February 9, 2009

My best friend for twelve years.

I am heartbroken.

Yes, he was very old and frail. Yes, it was his time.

It still hurts unbearably.

My Birthday

2009-02-06T11:57:00.003-09:00

My 37th birthday today.... See the streaks of grey at my temples? They seemed to magically appear in the last 6 months! I am rather entertained by them, since they're a little 'Bride of Frankenstein'....

Two years ago, Fromage gave me this beautiful Dendrobium for my birthday----which is blooming again exactly 2 years later! The buds have been waiting to open, just today, just for me.

Fromage's gift this year is Frog Woman. We saw this soapstone carving at a gallery awhile back and I LOVED it. When Fromage gave it to me, I sat down on the couch and closed my eyes. He put the package in my lap and it felt like a bowling ball...heavy! I knew exactly what it was!

The more I gaze at her, the more detail I find. I'll have to get ahold of the gallery owner and get her provenance....I'm sure she has an interesting history. I looked at her for a good 10 minutes before realizing there was a faint dot pattern on her forehead suggesting a tattoo or tribal marking. Also, her cleft chin is actually a vagina!!! (How cool is that!)

She is fabulous and I love my Frog Woman.

Already, it's a good birthday.

Tonight, we're off for a sushi dinner party with a few friends. I'm thinking of bringing frog woman to show her off....

I've had the flu for two weeks but I am FINALLY getting over it. Nasty stuff.

Also today? I am sending off my application for MFA studies. Yes. I. Am.

Too long talking/thinking/procrastinating over it. Time to just do it.

Meticulous By Nature

2009-01-28T10:44:00.002-09:00

Okay, here's a subject I've been meaning to blog about for awhile but was too.....shy?....to talk to people about it, much less toss it out on the internet for all and sundry.

I am a record keeper. I am a list maker. I am also, more and more, becoming an analyzer of said records and lists. This is a good thing!

The bottom line is: I love financial records. Yes, I'm an artist, and yes, I love spreadsheets. These behaviors typically illustrate the use of very different parts of the brain. Often, the creative person is "right brained," the organizing, analytical person is "left brained." So...I guess I get to brag that I'm "whole brained." I'd love to brag that I'm "Big Brained," but I don't think I quite deserve that moniker.....not yet, anyway. I'll work on it. Promise.

Anyway---back to my big reveal: I love keeping financial records. In 2008, I recorded everything my household spent and earned in a series of monthly budgets. Yes, I wrote down everything, everyday.....and enjoyed it. I have a spiral bound notebook that I keep all initial records in pencil. At the end of the month, I compile the info and enter it into various spreadsheets (just Excel, no special software) dedicated to income, utilities, debt payment, savings, etc. This month, the first month of a very promising new year (fingers crossed with such good intentions!) I got to compile 2008 into a full dossier to analyze what had happened---what came in, what went out, what the bottom line is.

It was so fun and cool, I can't even describe it. The photo above is a partial shot of the most important page----the spreadsheet where I got to put in each months expenses, dedicated by account, and then add it up. (And I color-coded it----can't leave the artist in me out of it.)

The dossier is a three ring binder, with intro analysis pages of what we did right and what we can improve on, money-wise. Thanks to a finance class I took last semester, I learned how to formulate income statements and personal balance sheets, so those are also in the book. The really neat part? Doing it ALL again in 2009 and then comparing the books in January 2010. It will be SO COOL.

I haven't been able to show anyone my dossier. I mean, I've tried to talk to a few friends about it...testing the water....and usually I get this look...like I'm talking about the intricasies of sewage treatment processes. Seriously! They give me a look like I'm just a little crazy. I don't reveal our numbers or talk in pure money amounts (except for the other half of Team Sharima, she understands, or is, at least, willing to listen) but I outline what I've done. So far, haven't found any kindred souls.

Any kindred souls out there?

The nifty thing about having this information at hand is the viewpoint I've gained:
We don't make a lot of money and we don't spend a lot of money, and we live really well, regardless. I can now say I have irrefutable proof that we know how to work hard, be frugal, be sensible, and are ass-kicking DIY'ers.

And now....on to something more pretty and lighthearted.....

This is a Cattleya 'Secret Love' that my sis found abandoned in an office where she works. I've been nurturing it back to health for about a year. The reward: this lush, fragrant blossom. At around noon, this flower wallops out a perfume scent you wouldn't believe! Then it quietly goes back to just being good on the eyes. My first cattleya...

A close up in a rare patch of sunlight. This winter has been damned cold and frequently overcast. Today? Sunny, but the temperature plummeted to -21 F overnight.

2009, Truckin' along....

2009-01-19T13:45:00.004-09:00

I found this quilt in a dumpster about 2 years ago----(read my original post about it)----it's a simple square and border pattern, but has hand embroidered names all over it. Amazing find! With a little internet roaming, I found the church it originated from, as embroidered on the central panel. I emailed them that I'd found something with their name on it and asked when the Rev. Mark Elliot D. D., Rector had been at their church----1949-1974, they wrote back. (His sweetly awkward embroidered name in white...no doubt he sewed it, himself!) The secretary who intercepted my email was really excited to hear from me, so I sent pictures and a description of the quilt, the day I found it and it's current condition-----a little wear and tear, but easily repaired by moi. Haven't heard back yet, but I'm waiting. How cool is this!!??

A hiatus from the blog lately as there isn't much to report. It seems that I share the phenomenon of recovering from the trials of 2008 with many people! Here, on the eve of a new and very hopeful presidency, I and many others are taking stock of Life, the Universe and Everything.

Good luck, Obama: you're going to need it!

He's inheriting problems that have had thin patches put on them since the Clinton era.... He has his work cut out for him. I wish him wisdom and fortitude in the next 4 years. Heck, I wish it for all of us.

And a report from the frozen north?
The cold weather finally broke! After weeks of -40F and colder, it soared to +45F and all the snow slid off the roof, melted, iced.... Crazy bi-polar weather (little joke there, ha ha). Needless to say, I've been skiing my ass off, taking advantage of any and all digits on the plus side of the thermometer. For a few days, it felt like we'd all been let out of prison!

I'm working on paintings for a show in May---pix to come at some point, sure.

I'm working on taxes.....hmph.

I'm watching a fat bud on my rescued Cattleya turn a lovely shade of lavender and plump up in preparation for it's grand opening-----so exciting!!!

And?
Old cat still alive. Check.

Gonna see my pregnant friend Dena in a few weeks----she's like the budding Cattleya; plump and in preparation for her grand opening----again, SO EXCITING!

Trying mightily to keep my head and heart out of the black depression that engulfed me this winter. Check......

2009-01-02T10:25:00.002-09:00

I had a terrible night's sleep. I gave up at 4am, stoked the wood stove, fed the cat, read a lot....

Finally, I realized that I just needed to WALK....to breathe some fresh air and get my limbs moving. At -32F, this seemingly simple idea takes some consideration. I bundled up and went for a sunrise (9:30am) 2 mile stroll.

Can you tell I'm smiling for the camera?? LoL!

Hopefully, I get get in a nap this afternoon so I can be a little more alert for the opening tonight at Well Street Art Company.

Everything is on schedule at the gallery and the weather has warmed up a bit (it's all relative at this point) so all I have to do is figure out what to wear....yikes.

2008-12-31T18:34:00.002-09:00

I spent some time at the gallery today getting a good look at what came in from the artists in the Countenance show. Although there was an incredibly wide variety of materials present in the masks, they all seemed to fall into one of three catagories: creepy, serious or funny. The trick in arranging the artworks for the show was in NOT having too many creepies in one place, or funnies taking over an entire wall, etc. You get the idea.

My very favorite was an abstract mask sculpture by Hanna Stevenson. I'll have to post a picture of it sometime. It's so damn beautiful!

The gallery folks agreed with me that we shouldn't expect much of a crowd at the opening. The partial solution to this is to have a closing party at the end of the month, as well. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate then.

Speaking of weather, the lowest temperature I saw on the reader signs around town was -43. There is heavy ice fog all over the valley and visibility is down to a quarter mile, I'd say. This is a shot outside the gallery lot, 4:00pm.

This cold is surreal!

Regardless, Fromage and I are going out to meet some friends at the local watering hole for some New Years festivities. The Golden Eagle Saloon always has fireworks and a giant pot of moose stew on the woodstove to share on this night. I don't like bars as a rule, but this one has a specific kind of rough charm. Everything is made of plywood and dogs were only recently banned from hanging out indoors (they got into too many fights). A lot of miners hang out here, so there's a friendly, dirty, hairy and very Alaskan crowd all the time.

Happy New Year, everyone! May 2009 bring you the best of whatever it is that you hope, search, dream and work for.

Ta,

Eero

2008-12-30T10:00:00.002-09:00

My show opens on Friday---my year-long curatorial project! "Countenance" will be around 25 artists showing approximately 35 masks. My aim in creating this exhibit was to get artists of all kinds, materials, styles, etc., to make a mask. My initial name for the show was "Making Faces." Ha ha! The gallery owner poo-pooed it because he said that the serious mask artists in the area wouldn't participate. Ah, well.

Personally, I love masks and am fascinated by their appearance in just about every culture in every period of history. Being in Alaska, there was some initial reluctance to approach this subject, as the artform of the mask is seen as the property of Native Alaskans. Regardless, I set a date and got a gallery and the idea was born.

I invited almost 100 artists---my initial plan for the show was to be BIG; 100+ artworks, all hung salon style so that the gallery would, literally and figuratively, be a crowd of faces! Quite a few artists (to my total surprise) declined the invitation, saying that they had no interest in making a mask. (Huh!?) Also, many people were booked up, art-wise, at this time of year---others said they'd be out of town.

So----it boils down to these 25 or so. The interesting thing I have learned from previous curating efforts is that people will say they're participating and that their work is done, ready to go, ready to hang.....and then they just never show up. I never know the true aspect of the show until opening night!

This Friday the 2nd is it: the opening party. Sadly, I doubt there will be much of a turnout. The temperatures have been cold in town. For the last week, it's been -20F to -40F. There is no end in sight at this point. The forecast for Friday boasts 'highs near 40 below.' Needless to say, who is going to venture out to look at art? My only hope is that people will be so stir-crazy with cabin fever that they'll need to get out of the house, you know?

It's been a difficult year for me. I haven't been able to devote the time, energy and passion towards this show as I had hoped and planned. I just didn't have it in me. I guess it's just as well, since the timing of the show, the weather and dearth of artist interest were against the idea.

Still.....
The show must go on.

Frozen River

2008-12-26T12:35:00.002-09:00

Fromage and I went for a walk down to the river. In his surveying of some nearby property, he found this old car hidden in the woods and sunk into the snow. I couldn't get any exterior shots of it because too many trees had grown up around it and snow blanketed everything.

Fromage in the new Steger Mukluks I bought for him.

The frozen river. Not enough snowmachine trails to make skate skiing possible. This spring, I'd really like to ski the 50 river miles to the nearby village of Nenana. I've had friends that did it in one day! Fromage thinks it would have to be an overnight with snowcamping. Could be a great adventure! I could really use one...

Eero in the snow. The landscape was shrouded in a constant snowfall. One could see the far ridgeline, but only dimly. The temperature was around +5F that day...

I've not made any color corrections to these images! The light really does get blue at sunset around 3pm. We are gaining daylight now, past the shortest day of winter solstice: a whole 3 hours and 40 minutes of daylight. We're gaining over a minute a day, back towards the hectic 3 months of summer daylight.

Honestly, for all the novelty of this landscape and it's dramatic seasons, I REALLY would like to live somewhere with more balanced light and darkness. I've realized that I make a lot of art in spring and autumn---the only times I get to experience bright days and dark nights. Funny, eh?

I'm doing something right...

2008-12-14T10:29:00.004-09:00

Watering the orchids on Friday the 12th. I did a detailed inspection of everyone in the Herd and found tiny bloom spikes forming on 3 phalaenopsis, one oncidium and one dendrobium!

Sadly, I also found a fat, mature scale hidden in the leaf fold of the cattleya. I've managed to keep the infestation in check, but I've never been able to totally eradicate them. I'm leery of using insecticides because the orchids are so sensitive....I don't want to hurt them.

Bad close-up detail...

Mature scale look like brown chitons. Simple version: they mature into a cap that holds hundreds of wee progeny that under a microscope, look like creepy little jellybeans.

I had a moment of pure joy when I found flower buds on the cattleya!!! This is a plant that my sister found abandoned by someone at the offices where she works. She gave it to me to foster, and after many months, it began to show signs of recovery.

It's cattleya 'Secret Love.' I get to look forward to somthing like this!

Since we can't go to Hawaii this winter, I'll at least get SOMETHING tropical in my life.

Getting Back Into It

2008-12-07T15:49:00.002-09:00

I am beginning to feel better and get out from under this black cloud that's been hanging over me for a couple of months. And what does this mean? Getting back into art. Above, a self portrait during a rare moment of actual daylight.

Real sunlight coming through the window onto my painting, "Spun." We're down to 4 hours and 9 minutes of "daytime." Officially, there is 6 hours and 50 minutes of visible light, but that includes a dim glow on the horizon that lasts for a long time around 10am and 4pm. I'm sitting at my desk looking out at such a thing: the skeletal poplars are silhouetted against an orange smudge over the ridgeline while the rest of the world fades to black. The temperature has been falling all day. It was +5F this morning, and now it's -2F. I had hoped to get out skiing today, but I spent the whole day doing this......

I've found that when I have a block in getting into "serious" paintings, I can still pick up brush and color or whatever, and still get in the groove of working. Recently, I've been continuing work on a book I made at Penland in 2007. Somehow, working in the format of individual pages is the perfect thing to ease myself back into artworking. Artworking is REALLY important to me and all kinds of stuff is wrapped up in it: personal, past, future, business, finances, fantasies, hopes, wishes, friendships, decisions, you name it. Sometimes, it's a little overwhelming to approach. Books are a gentle immersion. Each page becomes a small, intimate work.

The class at Penland was "Artist Bookmaking" with Laura Wait. We painted with wheat paste acrylics and created stacks of large, quickly painted papers which were then cut and assembled, the point being to 'illuminate' the books with surface design, writing and image after the book had been created. The coincidental combinations of the painted pages after assembly was beautiful and really fun---we never knew what we'd get.

I've been working on one of the first books I made, now titled, "Concatenation." To concatenate is 'to connect or link in a series or chain.' Awesome.

This is the cover. On many of the pages, I've painstakingly outlined painted and stenciled images with white acrylic ink and a very fine calligraphy nib. I love that opaque white...

That arching gold line is my concatenation. As this book was made in the summer of '07, I was at the height of my infatuation with The Shape. I worked with The Shape as a symbol of specific thoughts or memories, which one links naturally with other thoughts or memories to create new understanding. Also, the Shape represents an individual---how connections between them are fundamentally creative of so many things.

Working on this book was revisiting a old friend...the Shape. Still rocks my world to draw that over and over. Can't even explain it. The Shape is visceral. It's down deep.

The book open to two pages. The flow of red dots and white Shapes was pure, random accident.

The larger background Shapes are another happy accident. I deepened the black background, created the calligraphic script (a non-language mark-making. At Penland, we called it Klingon.)and also detailed the red dots. I did try for a continuity within the book with repeating colors and marks.

This is one of my favorite spreads. The yellow is REALLY vivid. Some of the preceeding pages in the book are darker or more subtle, so when one turns to these pages, it's as if the sun has suddenly come out.

The book has 40 pages. Many of my classmates made smaller or thinner books, and now I know why they did that.....they could finish their books in class, not a year and a half later. Still, I plan to send images of this book to Laura and share my success in completing it.

Winter blossom

2008-11-17T14:48:00.002-09:00

The lovely paphiopedilum fully open. She's so undemanding. A lot of flowers have flash and a style that demands a certain kind of attention and regard. My girl here just is what she is----complex and unique with no baggage. She's got a great, quiet dignity.

Sometimes, when my orchids bloom in winter like this, I feel apologetic that I can't also provide them with a wasp or fly or some kind of insect to crawl around on them, at least imitating pollination. I think they'd like the massage, you know?

This little girl is helping to keep my spirits up (a losing battle, unfortunately.) Introducing Masdevallia 'Angel Tang.' Can you just believe that name! It's as cute as she is! What I've so far been unable to photograph is the soft little hairs all over her uni-petal-----(sepal, whatever---botanists, don't correct me!) at a certain angle, they blush this amazing purple color. Seriously vivid. Kind of a neon violet. Angel Tang has her little surprises. I've been keeping her by my bed lately....I lay down and just look at her. Helps a bit.

And now for something completely different.....
My Halloween pumpkin, frozen solid.

Soon enough, some lucky moose will come by and crunch it down. Moose LOVE frozen pumpkins. I've seen two moose actually fight over a frozen pumpkin, bodyslamming each other away from it! This was in our cabin in the swamp several years ago. They actually bodyslammed into the cabin a couple of times, shaking the structure. Moosequake.

Me? Life?
Just trying to survive winter at this point.
No energy or inspiration.
It's called Seasonal Affective Disorder.
It's supposed to be -20F this week and we're losing 6 minutes of daylight every day. We're down to just under 6 hours of light. The first and last hours of that are a dim, drawn out sunrise and sunset of half-light.

I think I need to go out and buy myself one of those expensive S.A.D bulbs......

Or a trip to Hawaii.

Update, in general....

2008-11-02T08:33:00.002-09:00

1. I got a new job. I'm the Branch Manager for the new Alaska Geographic bookstore. OK pay, not so OK benefits....we'll see how it goes. It's a job, you know?

First things first; we have to build the store.

2. I made Ratzones again! Can anyone out there think of a more palatable name than that? It's a rodent, it's a calzone, it's........

A close-up of the cutest one. He's wearing a little hat. I ate him.

3. Three paintings in the annual juried 64th Parallel show. Someone said I'd gotten an Honorable Mention, but there were no tags indicating that...

Many good comments on "Tempest" (red painting on the left). At my solo show back in May, this painting garnered only curiosity as to my motivation for painting it----not all that positive. Goes to show you that if a work doesn't 'do well' in one scenario, take it somewhere else.

4. Lastly, a new bud on my Paphiopedilum. She's months ahead of schedule, but hey, I'm not in charge! This just tells me that she's happy and she loves me.

I've tucked all of the orchids in their plastic-wrapped shelf unit for the winter. This way, I can give them tropical temps and humidity while the rest of the house is dry and chill.

With the orchids this year is my Echium pininana; needing the light and moisture to be happy, as well. This guy has a lot of names: Tree Echium, Tower of Jewels, Pride of Tenerife, and Giant Viper's Bugloss. It's about 10" high now, but maybe in three years, it'll be at it's full, glorious and blooming height of 12-14 feet. Fun!

Horseman's Star

2008-10-17T11:07:00.002-08:00

Yes, it's winter.
Yes, it's only +2F outside my front door today.
Yes, the car is plugged in and there's a fire in the woodstove.

None of this matters to the beautiful flower which is gracing my studio this week! A friend brought some bulbs back from Hawaii last February and gave them to me, knowing I was savvy with the green, living things. (This happens more and more often as my reputation spreads for having a talented Green Thumb.) Their stipulation was that if the bulbs grew and thrived, they'd want one back, and I could keep the other. Of course, said friend had no actual idea what the bulbs were....

They could report on the beautiful orange color, and that was it. No info on leaf shape, petal shape or number, flower shape, etc. I had to just wait and see what the bulbs would give me.

I've nurtured the bulbs for months, tucking them in with my orchids. This is the gorgeous result!

I began doing research once the flower buds formed. Tricky business..... Bulb like a Hyacinth, leaves like an Amaryllis, buds like a Daylilly. The Amaryllis lead was the best one, that and via a marathon googling session, I stumbled upon a blog where the writer linked Amaryllis with a post titled, "Naked Ladies and Hippie Ass Trims." (Who would've thought?)

'Hippie ass trims' is the convenient pronunciation for Hippeastrums, a genus in the family Amaryllicdacea. I'm no botanist, but I'm doing pretty good with the research! The Greek origin of the genus name translates as, "Horseman's Star." I think that name is just beautiful.

Hippeastrum puniceum, which seems to be what these bulbs are----from visual comparisions of pictures online, only----is also known as Barbados Lily. Another sexy name.

One bulb is blooming beautifully, the other seems to be along for the ride at this point.

In the deepening winter days, these blossoms are a bright sun.

My World

2008-10-15T10:42:00.002-08:00

It's been snowing off and on for three days. Temps this morning were +18. We've had the woodstove going for about a week now: Winter is really here.

To inaugurate winter, Team Sharema put on skis and went out for the first ski of the season. We'd been at it an hour, skimming along on not-completely-snow-covered trails when Shannon asked me, "Is there a reason that your poles are so different?"

I looked at them and realized that one was my pole and one was Fromage's......three inches difference in height, different color, different basket, you name it! I was so excited about skiing, I didn't even notice... (Fromage thought this whole incident very funny when I told him...)

My fellow Alaskans in the Blogosphere are talking about winter (and skiing!):

Alaskan Girl

Northern Flux

Red Doors

Winter up here heralds a totally different way of living daily life as well as a different focus on projects and goals. This winter I'll be spending a lot of time in my studio, preparing for my May solo exhibit at The Alaska House Gallery. Also, I'll be working (!) and hopefully skiing my ass off whenever and wherever possible.

What are you doing this winter?

Team Sharema: 58.1 miles

2008-10-01T06:53:00.004-08:00

Starting out!

Temperature: +32 F

Around mile 30----snow flurries! Fun to ride through. Quiet and beautiful.

Shannon rides through the snow. There were flurries on and off all day and more snow on the ground the closer we got to the springs. We were lucky that it melted on contact with the road---no ice for delicate road tires....

...but there was glass (or something) for delicate road tires! Fixing our one flat....mine.

Shannon's feet started to get cold, so she put on her DIY overboots made from a pair of fluffy fleece socks her mom sent her. You can't tell in this picture, but the socks have little paw prints all over them. Totally cute, funny and according to Shannon---very warm!

Celebrating the half-century mark!

Shannon's first half-century.

The finish line: Chena Hot Springs! After this, we drank beer, soaked in the outdoor rock pool and ate dinner.

Amy and Tom. They were at CHS to celebrate Tom's birthday.

Not pictured is Fromage: our drop-off and pick-up man. He met us at the Springs and drove our tired asses back home.

And now?

More rides?

Maybe we can sneak in some frosty mountain biking...but this morning, the world is covered in a couple of inches of snow.....this might be IT: winter has started.

Farewell road biking until next spring.....sniff.....

This is the day to get crazy.

2008-09-27T07:44:00.005-08:00

Temperature upon waking: +31F

This is the weather forcast where I live:

Now
Flurries are now occurring over the Fairbanks area will last through 9am. No accumulation is expected.

This is the forcast for the rest of the day:

Mostly cloudy with scattered snow showers...possibly mixed with rain in the afternoon. Highs 35 to 40. Southwest winds to 10 mph.

And this is what I'll be doing for 60 miles today!

The good part is that my cycling friend Shannon and I (a.k.a "Team Sharema") will be ending our day here:

(That's me on the left.)

Check back for a post after the adventure....

The Power of Small Things

2008-09-17T12:28:00.004-08:00

Coprinus comatus

a.k.a "Shaggy Manes"

Everyday on my way home I've checked on the progress of these Shaggies busting their way through the pavement. They're in the divider on a 4-lane highway.

Gotta love the power of this seemingly small, fragile lifeforms!

Gotta love 'em sauteed with butter and garlic, too.

(Don't worry, I didn't pick these guys. I just admired their hard work.)

Good days of Autumn

2008-09-13T07:52:00.002-08:00

A 36 mile ride with my friend Shannon the other night---we got to enjoy a spectacular sunset! An auspicious evening---my last day of work for the season. The end of summer for me, officially.

Riding and shooting at the same time---not easy, but really, really funny.

After a hiatus following my Homer solo exhibit, it's time to get back into some art making. Two months off is enough. I am so inspired by the paintings of Jeanie Tomanek! Beautiful and evocative.

Up North

2008-09-01T10:25:00.003-08:00

Fromage and I headed up North to visit a friend at their mining claim. This was the vista for miles and miles---rocky tundra and beautiful fall colors.

The two Waynes at the mine.

Fromage and I headed out on a four-wheeler (a.k.a. ATV) to explore the countryside a bit and have a cup of tea somewhere...

These are boots of Eero---kicking back in my element.

Eero.

Fromage.

The Waynes were generous to offer us some of their tailings---we found some great flat rocks for landscaping projects I'm working on.

So, now it's September....

August was for garden harvesting and food collecting/storage.

This month is for firewood hauling: gotta oil up the chainsaw.

Harvesting

2008-08-23T10:07:00.003-08:00

Due to the predations of hungry ungulates, Fromage and I have had to create an extensive barricade around our garden. At first, I thought that the chicken wire quonset hut fences would be enough....but no! Next, I thought that 'out of sight=out of mind' might apply to moose, so I covered the fenced garden with rowcrop fabric....but they sniffed it out. Third step was to surround the garden with any and all manner of materials we have sitting around in our yard---ladders, plywood, wheelbarrows, extra fencing, lawn chairs, etc. You get the picture. The end result is a bunker that neither moose nor ourselves can penetrate without immense efforts! Added to this, we hung bells, chimes, windchimes, and tin cans all over the inside of the fences: if the moose so much as BUMP the structure, there is an unholy racket and we can chase off the animals.
So far, we've chased off 5 moose in 3 nights. "Chasing" is euphemistic for 'running outside in our pajamas/naked at 3 a.m. screaming our heads off and throwing rocks.' Surprisingly, it's been a real bonding experience for Fromage and I, as we're united in the struggle to protect what's ours! Needless to say, our sleep hasn't been that good for a couple of weeks. We wake up every night to phantom bumps in the night. Once, we both woke up to what we thought were munching noises. But we never did figure out what it was or where it was coming from....

Here is another view. Not attractive at all, but very, very serviceable. Plus, it's only temporary.....only until I finish harvesting the garden. An olympic feat, at this point....

In addition to about a hundred pounds of garden greens, I've also been berry picking. It's a bumper crop year for crowberries and cranberries, but so far, blueberries are in short supply out there on the hillsides... Above, crowberries. They are described in the local berry guides as 'insipid,' meaning that they are edible, but not enjoyably edible. Usually they are collected to be used as an extender or filler in combination with other, more sweet and juicy berries. Myself, I like them on their own.

Lowbush cranberries!

I've taught myself to do canning this fall. Special thanks to my mother-in-law for giving me her extensive stock of old canning jars and the big pot to do the hot water processing baths in. So far:

Indian Pickled Cauliflower
Napachinni relish (Napa cabbage + zuchinni)
Rhubarb chutney
Cranberry marmalade (the best!)
Cranberry Goo (a failure of either syrup or jam = goo. Still tasty on toasts in the morning...)

I love canning. It is SUCH a thrill! Especially fun is listening for the "tink!" of the lids making a proper seal when the jars are cooling.

And last but not least, a self portrait with cabbage. We had 2 OS Cross cabbages---about 5-7 lbs. each. We shredded them and salted them, packed them in a bucket and are awaiting our first batch of sauerkraut. What this means is yummy 'kraut all winter, but currently we have to live with the vinegary-fermentation smell in our kitchen for 3 weeks....

This is the time in AK when everyone is preparing for winter in one way or another. This is also Caribou and Moose hunting season. Fishing season is just winding down. It's time to harvest the garden, pick berries, make preserves of all kinds and haul A LOT of firewood.

I am reminded of a great photographic essay book, "Upterrlainarluta: Always Getting Ready. Yup'ik Eskimo Subsistence in Southwest Alaska" by my friend and local artist, James Barker. That's what I feel like these days of Autumn.....always getting ready.

The end result?

A lot of food for winter. Check.

A good way to take a couple of months off of painting. Check.

Homer, Alaska solo art exhibit....and adventures!

2008-08-08T11:26:00.003-08:00

I spent 11 days traveling to, in and around Homer, AK. Ostensibly, the trip was for my art exhibit, "Growth Cycle" which opened at the Bunnell Street Art Center on August 1st. I went down to Homer a week early to have some time to play and adventure.....

I met up with friend Leslie and we did an afternoon of rainy but wonderful sea kayaking. We got to hang out with some very curious seals...

We kayaked in and around Halibut Cove, which were the perfect, placid waters we needed for the day.

After Leslie left back to Anchorage, the weather changed dramatically. I got to have an entire week in Homer with gorgeous sunlight! I did my first solo sea kayaking overnight trip. 50% wonderfull and amazing and 50% scaring the shit out of myself when I partially capsized the kayak. This is the view from my tent....

I also found some amazing and beautiful new plants! The climate is a lot different than in the interior of Alaska. This plant I yet have to name.... I did find beach greens, oyster leaf, ghost plant, campanula, wild geranium and mimulus. I also got to identify and taste several varieties of edible seaweed. I am just amazed at the quantity of wild food there was to be found and collected in that region. Dulse, ribbon kelp, clams, oysters, mussels, crab, halibut, salmon, beach greens, etc. etc. Late one night, while driving to an erstwhile camping spot, I also saw a really good sized moose. Yes, impressive to see, but also another food source. The coast is really a rich environment!

I also did a bit of hiking----in and around the cove I kayak camped at. Bears had been spotted on these trails, so as I hiked I sang, talked to myself (loudly) and banged a small stick against an empty Nalgene. Good for the bear to hear you coming. A startled bear is an attacking bear....

I couldn't stop marveling at how lush the undergrowth was. Moss, ferns, clover, blackberries, and cow parsnip everywhere. Just amazing and beautifully green.

The art opening was a success---friendly people, a professional gallery, and an easy process to hang the show. Here is a view of the opening night spread----very good presentation!

I am sharing the gallery with sculptor Wendy Croskrey who is the head of the sculpture department at University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Our work blended well together. I had some concern about this, since my work has changed from abstracted botanical forms to definite representational drawing in the last year. We had many good comments about the overall look of the exhibit. No sales so far....but I can always hope for some as the show continues until the end of the month. I'll have these paintings posted on my website soon.

Another view of the show. My paintings are acrylic, acrylic inks and gold leaf on birch plywood. Wendy's work is aluminum, cast elements, and resin.

While I was playing in Homer, interior AK was beset by unrelenting rain. On the 600 mile drive back North, I stopped and took this picture of the town of Nenana, still mired in the floodwaters of the Tanana and Nenana rivers. (In a recent news article, I read that the new school in Nenana has been spared from the flood so far because it's slightly raised foundation puts is just 8 inches above the water line....)

Parts of my town have flooded, too----houses close to the river just a mile from my own house are still in the floodwaters of the Tanana River. Fromage and I walked down there two nights ago----roads transformed into waterways and canoes are the mode of transport to some peoples front doors. We are fortunate to have built our house far enough up the hillside...

And now?

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry.

I'm home from my travels, I have to haul a lot of wood for winter, harvest the entire garden and find a job.....pronto.