Craft

October 10, 2013

Starting Here

solitary room 

“You Reading This, Be Ready”

“Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life.

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?”

– William Stafford

I took this image a few years ago.

Its a ‘space’ I created with foam core, tape and dollhouse furniture.

If I let my mind wander a bit, I can almost imagine its a room in the Olson House in Cushing, Maine.

July 14, 2013

Atomic Ranch

midcentury

Still playing around with acrylic paints and mediums.

I’ve mostly been painting on paper (printmaking) and a paper for acrylics that I found – not sure which I prefer yet.  I found the acrylic paper in square format – which I like – but it has a definite canvas texture (which isn’t bad) but I’m thinking I prefer the smooth surface of the printmaking paper so far.  I’m still using both for now though.

Also, today, I started a painting on a cradled panel (that’s been primed for acrylics).  The super smooth surface accepts the paint readily and its especially nice if you like to use a brayer to apply paint.  I’ve been having issues applying paint to paper using the brayer – so this was a nice change.  The painting is still ‘in process’ but maybe I’ll have something to show soon.

I completed a few others (on paper) over the weekend…’Atomic Ranch’, above, is one of those.

June 11, 2013

“I’d like my crayons back, please.”

skycastle

“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you, ‘I’d like my crayons back, please.”

–Hugh MacLeod

While waiting for the encaustic medium to ‘melt’ I got distracted by the tubes and bottles of acrylic paints nearby.  Three hours later…

May 17, 2013

and…Something New

my pressMy new etching press!

Adventures in printmaking!

You’re getting in on the very beginning of this journey – this is all very new to me – and I’m not quite sure where to begin!

December 3, 2012

And the countryside…

CountryScape

I used the credit card as the painting tool on this print also.

When I get inspired, I work really fast.  I’m not sure why – maybe I’m afraid the inspiration will leave as suddenly as it arrived.

Anyway, this was a very spontaneous process – and a lot of fun too.

I highly recommend it!

December 3, 2012

I painted the town with my credit card

CityScape

Literally.

How to Paint the Town

1.  Apply encaustic paint to HotBox.

2. Grab a credit card.

3. Go crazy.

Credit cards make great paint spreaders!

I call this print, “CityScape”

October 20, 2012

Coming Alive

“Don’t ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman

This is my first attempt at painting in the Flora Bowley style…

not done with it yet.  12×12 on canvas.

September 30, 2012

Painting is just another way of keeping a diary – – Pablo Picasso

So, its still raining…and I extended my ‘exercise’ by working on more collage pieces today.

I guess its true that most of the art we make is a self-portrait in some sense of the word …but I just never really thought about it in the literal sense so much.

This piece was inspired by a model in a catalog who looks nothing at all like me – but three people have already asked me if this is a picture of me.

Isn’t that interesting.

Making the model resemble me in some way was definitely not my intention, nor could I have pulled it off even if it had been, I’m not a realist painter – I’m barely a painter at all!  And anyway… this collage uses the actual image of the model – I only embellished it a bit!

I guess the expression of some part of me must have come through somehow.

Art is so cool.

September 29, 2012

Running with Scissors

And paint, and paper, and glue.

It rained most of the day.  I think it rained most of the day, just about everywhere today…and I decided to stay indoors and entertain myself by seeing what I could come up with by using the supplies I had on hand.

This collage is on 9×12 watercolor paper and I was inspired by a clothing catalog and various ephemera that I keep in (multiple) boxes. I can’t throw away anything that I think may have some artistic merit (i.e. almost everything) – the hardest part was deciding on what to use.

But I was glad to have the choices I had on hand as it made me realize I don’t always have to run out to buy (yet another) tool, book or art supply.

The words came from a poem by Mary Oliver…by I dissected it and pieced it together a little differently.

It was a good exercise.

September 12, 2012

Purple Rain

I’ve been giving names to all my Encaustic pieces lately.

Usually this process is very spontaneous and I never have to think about it for very long. Its almost as if they name themselves.

“Purple Rain” was one of those times.

(created after the wild fire outbreak in Colorado this summer)