january 21

01-21-15 "hide and seek"
01-21-15 “hide and seek”

The “paper” this time is a piece of APT yellow silk or silk-wannabe (10″x10″). The first pass of acrylic paint I liked, but it wasn’t quite enough. The second pass, adding the magenta, was a disaster and I thought I had “ruined” it. So I quickly did a third pass adding more cerulean blue and Indian yellow. Amazingly enough that seemed to redeem it for me.

The little blob in the lower right happened on the first pass. I had put a piece of matboard underneath the material to catch the ghost images again. My scraper slipped right off the edge of the smaller matboard and created the lovely little blob. I considered cropping it out of the photo—and I have that version as well. But the little blob is growing on me, too.

This is sometimes how it goes in the studio. Did I settle? I hope not, but I’m not really sure. I am moving on. And sometimes that’s just what I need to do.

january 20

01-20-15 "surface"
01-20-15 “surface”

This is a scraped acrylic painting on matboard, 9.5″x7.5″. One of the paints had a little drier consistency, so that resulted in an interesting surface texture in some areas. The matboard seems to have absorbed more of the other two paint colors—although in kind of a splotchy pattern, which I actually like. This may get a poem written on it at some point in its life.

january 19

01-19-15 "mlk day of service"
01-19-15 “mlk day of service” —SOLD—

After most of the day coordinating Imagine Enough for Everyone for the MLK Day of Service, I had only enough energy for this—a 2.5″x3.5″ colorful rendition of a great quote by Dr. King. (Ink, watercolor pencil, and colored pencil.) But my favorite quote of the day was by a tiny little girl; her mother helped her spell, but the words came from the girl: “Love can help people!” I love her heart drawing, too.

01-19-15 "love can help people"
01-19-15 “love can help people” (by a young girl attending Imagine Enough for Everyone)

january 17

01-17-15 "icy edge"
01-17-15 “icy edge”

January thaw! I took this photo at the end of our driveway and zoomed in closer on the computer. I am scheduling two photo posts this weekend due to MLK Day of Service prep. I love how extreme close-up photos reveal a new visual world.

january 16

01-16-15 "raspberry ridges"
01-16-15 “raspberry ridges”

I thought this fabric was silk, but now I’m not so sure. It may be nylon. It has interesting ridges in it, and is another American Players’ Theatre costume material swatch. Swished some acrylic paint on it to see if it would create a nice “ghost” image on the paper below it, like the silk did. Not really. So, I’ll try again with silk some day soon. I like the ghost images almost as much…but they’re pretty light and don’t show up on photos very well. 3.5″x10″

january 15

01-15-15 "happy birthday"
01-15-15 “happy birthday”

Block print with water-based ink; 3.5″x2.5″

*Sigh* There are many, many things I would change about this little block print if I could glue pieces of the block back on. So many things are “wrong.” But, in the end, this daily practice of creation is what is important. I say to myself. Over and over.

So, I offer this for today, Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, with the realization that his life and mission are so much more important than my feelings about this flawed piece of artwork. And I will try again to do better—in confronting injustice and embracing the PROCESS of creating change…and artwork.

january 14

01-14-15 "jesters"
01-14-15 “jesters”

This piece began with a tangle of silk threads. After collaging them onto this paper (5.25″x3.25″) I pulled from a watercolor sketchbook, I added three colors of thinned acrylic paint. I remembered to turn on music this afternoon while I worked—good idea.

january 13

01-13-15
01-13-15

Here is a small little block print using water-based ink. I carved the image this afternoon from a piece of soft block (can’t remember the brand name). 2.5″x3.5″

Printmaking is not yet intuitive, and I’m not sure it ever will be for me. Today, I didn’t start carving with any pre-conceived notion of an image or even a theme or idea….but once I carved it, that’s how I saw the image. Then I inked the block and printed the paper, and suddenly the printed image is all backwards from how I “saw” it and how it’s “supposed” to be! Makes the (much more complex) prints my Aunt Vicki has done over the years all the more impressive to me.

january 12

01-12-15 "play in the woods"
01-12-15 “play in the woods”

I was looking through some material scraps that I bought a couple of years ago in Wisconsin. They are pieces of material that were used in theatrical costumes by American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin. We go there almost every year to see Shakespeare or another delightful play in an outdoor theatre (or a time or two in the “new” small indoor theatre on their grounds).

In the pile of material, found this piece of dark brownish-taupe silk, and decided to see what happened when acrylic paint is scraped over it. This is the result.