Art Every Day

Sorry for the lack of art lately. Been sewing like crazy–clothes, draperies, etc.

Actually I’m writing this post out of pure gratitude. My life is a miracle right now–new attitude, new relationship, new body.

Since events that began in March, everything around me has transformed. I’m happier, healthier, thinner (and sexier!) than I’ve been in 20 years. My relationship with my husband of 25 years is completely changed–I now have the marriage I have always wanted. I’m even wearing my diamonds again (now that they fit!).

NO REGRETS. Just plain old relief and gratitude–what a wonderful place to be.

At some point here I’ll post pictures–if I can stand still long enough to have one taken.

I’ve been working on a triptych, doing some studies. I really love Lempinski’s women, so this is a study based on on of her paintings.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of doing a ‘quick draw’ at the We Art Women benefit at the VAC. I had a great time, talked to a bunch of people (had a hard time actually getting my print done!). And Randy was there interviewing again, so here is the video he took.

Got my first cover! Guess I’m a ‘real’ artist now .
This is a Viscosity Collagraph, e.v. What that means is the plate was collaged using organza, carborundum, acrylic medium, cuts in the plate, etc. Then I did an intalio wipe with a greasy black ink, and rolled over the top with red and yellow non-greasy ink. When you pull a print like this, you just don’t know what it’s going to look like, so every one is different (thus the designation ‘edition variable’).

My DH took me out for World-wide pinhole day yesterday and taught me how to use a pin-hole camera. I must say, I think I did pretty well!

Here is the one that he uploaded to the Pinhole Day website (I’m number 1223!). I took this one lying on the ground, looking up at the Boise State sign- -a ‘worm’s-eye view’!

Here’s one of the bridge over the river by the Anne Frank Memorial. If you look closely, you can see the ‘ghosts’ of folks that were walking over the bridge during my 8 second exposure.

Looking over the side of the bridge–big shapes that become abstracted.

And finally, looking up into one of those beautiful flowering trees. The blurry parts are because the wind was moving the branches–this one was a 6-second exposure.

I spent yesterday in the company of 3 other women artists working on a project call ‘The Exquisite Corpse’. Let me say in advance that I’m inspired and humbled by all of our combined talents–can’t wait to do this again!

The basis of the project is you start something (could be a painting, a poem, a short story–anything creative) and then you hand it off to someone else who adds to it. There’s almost no rules (like if you paint something, the next person can paint over it, around it, through it…), but when a ‘theme’ is started, the next artist tends to be inspired by it and carries it on, modifying and taking it to new places.

Here is my ’start’ for the project–I’ve been studying the tarot card ‘Death’ (it’s all about transformation and metamorphosis, not necessarily physical death), so I started with a typical symbol of that card–a skeleton. This is 14 x 18 inches, the skeleton is troweled on modeling paste, dried, sanded, and with several acrylic washes over the top.

And here is the final product, the ideas of each artist added in and around the starting image. Pretty impressive, no?

To see all the other projects along with pictures of us all, please visit Marianne’s oh-so-active blog–here’s the entry for The Exquisite Corpse.

Part of the goal for these projects (as I found out once I got to Marianne’s!) is to put them in the We Art Women silent auction. I don’t think that Pam is going to part with hers, and honestly, don’t know if I can part with mine either! We’ll see…I figure I’ll frame it up and decide in a week or so.

Ok, maybe a little less.
Last week I had my first opening at the Basement Gallery here in Boise, and a fellow artist Randy Miller took a video of me talking about my prints. If you follow this YouTube link, my portion starts at 4:55 into the video (not that you should zoom ahead–you can watch a couple of my fellow Boise artists in those first few minutes).

Had my first opening in a gallery, the Basement Gallery here in Boise. It was very crowded all evening and I had a wonderful time. Thank you so much to my many friends in Boise who came down to see the show. In this picture you see me on the left and the Gallery’s new owner Jane Brumfield on the right. Behind us on the wall are my prints.

Here’s the final print for my vineyard set of Watercolor Monotypes.

Here’s a couple of new prints I’ve done–planning to put these in the We Art Women show this year. I have one more to print that will complete this set of wine related images. All are approx. 6×8 inches on white Stonehenge.