another creative frenzy

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-19T10:09:00.001-08:00

I have this HUGE painting that used to reside over the sofa in my last apartment. When I moved in June, it just wasn't right at all! So I finally got out the gesso and painted over it. This is my tribute to autumn.

Guitar in Blue

2011-11-19T09:52:00.001-08:00

After a rather dry spell, my paints have come out once again. This is a rendition of Dad's guitar done in blues for my sister. Now she won't have to steal mine.

Dad's guitar

2011-01-30T13:57:00.000-08:00

One of my fondest childhood memories is of my father strumming his guitar and yodelling. One of my most cherished possessions is this very same guitar. Yes, I admit, I am the envy of all family members and I fear that if I should leave my home unlocked and close my eyes, certain siblings might try to pluck this from my grasp. I hope that this painting of Dad's Guitar will help the others enjoy the beauty. And no, I am not giving up the real thing. This painting is for you, Dad.

Spirited Intersections

2010-11-09T21:49:00.000-08:00

Hi there. Well, I have actually been playing with paints again. I know all my fans have been waiting with bated breath. Recently I took the first in a series of watercolor workshops in Bellingham, presented by my longtime friend Lois (you can thank me for not calling you my oldest friend!). She totally inspires me and it's fun to experiment with a medium I have not used in many years. I wanted to play with mixing colors and overlapping images, so here is my toast to lives that intersect.

Newspaper... not just for lining birdcages anymore.

2010-06-14T21:11:00.001-07:00

Ever since my first Design class at CBC, I have been in love with newsprint as a design concept. I had actually just cut out these shapes to help plan the positioning of the birds in my other bird piece. And then the newsprint pieces looked so forlorn just sitting on the counter top, begging to be made into art, too. What's a girl to do? I did stop myself at this point and decided that any more birds would get just too creepy.

Flock of Birds

2010-06-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

Our new apartment is calling for some new artwork for the walls. The bedroom is done in bright orange (for those of your who know me.. this can come as no surprise). I made some curtains out of some great IKEA fabric with birds all over it. Taking from this theme, and all the while trying very hard not to turn it into something Hitchcock-ian, I made a couple of wall pieces. This is a bold graphic design done in black and white (even thought the background photographed as rather gray).

Radishes on my mind.

2010-04-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

I attended a training on "Supporting Individuals with Autism in Employment" this week. When the doodles overtake the note-taking... what does that say? I've been a little obsessed with the radishes (and I don't even like to eat them) this week. But, hey, where did that eggplant come from?

Back in the saddle again.

2010-04-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

Now, admittedly, my Radish Art ("Of Mice and Mushrooms") might not be the dramatic re-entry into my art blog that some of you might have come to expect from me. But, they do make you smile, don't they? And it means that my creative process is back at work. It's true, I have been decidedly absent from my blog in the past few months. Not that anyone has asked for a written excuse from my mother (who is certainly smiling down from her perch in heaven as I write this), but (and here is the excuses section) there were the holidays, a trip to Thailand, the excitement over a new grandson who is due to emerge in the next few weeks, the current grandsons that always liven up my life, moving to a new apartment and ... did I mention I met a boy? We could just title this "Melanie in Love" and everyone would understand.

So... we needed a companion piece to join my Big Tomatoes on the new dining room walls, so I set out to find inspiration in the produce department at my local friendly supermarket. I found this little bunch of radishes that spoke to me. I did some photo work with them and made some sketches. Then I carved them into mice and mushrooms. I know there is a painting somewhere in the radishes.

Pear Sketch

2009-11-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

I did a little sketching a couple evenings ago. My fascination with the pear keeps resurfacing. I think I gravitate to the pear because it is so human in it's curves. I'd really rather be drawing the human form, but find it intimidating. Whoa! I believe we have just witnessed a creative breakthrough. I should be drawing people. I'll see what I can do about making that a less intimidating process. Any artist model wannabees out there?

Experimental Art

2009-10-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

Just a little something I threw on a canvas this week.

Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water.

2009-10-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

Another mermaid appears. This is actually an older piece that has been hanging on Amanda and Rob's wall for years. On a recent visit, I snapped a photo to include here. This is a watercolor on silk. I love the way you can chase the color around on the fabric and yet, it still totally has a mind of its own and the end result is whatever the painting wants to be. So much for the power of the artist. Several years ago this was my medium of choice. Not sure why all the ingredients have gone into the bins and into the cupboard. Perhaps this will inspire me to bring it all out.

Second Tomato

2009-09-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

This is number 2 in a series of tomato paintings. Kinda strange subject matter for someone who does not eat tomatoes. But they are so ripe and voluptuous, I can't resist them as art. I still have one more tomato painting in me, so stay tuned for #3. I love these colors.

Pedestrian Art

2009-09-07T17:05:00.001-07:00

"One warm summer evening, a most dear gentleman and I were visiting a local art gallery. The juried offerings were quite varied. Some pieces caught our attention and delight, others not so much. Some were actually quite mundane and not very exciting at all. My comrade-in-art-appreciation made the observation of the exhibits:

"It's so ... pedestrian."

His comment stuck with me as I pondered the whole idea of art being pedestrian. Before I knew it, I was obsessed with turning pedestrians into art."

Yes, I made a book. It was so much fun. I carried my camera around with me constantly and I painted, I collaged, I sketched and I wrote my first Haiku. I was rather obsessed, to say the least. The book is available for your perusal ( the first 15 pages of the 30 page book anyway) at www.blurb.com/books/793607

For Esmie, with love

2009-09-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

This was my first painting. In light of the untimely demise of my wonderful red beetle this past spring, I have renamed this in her honor. Please forgive me, Mr. Salinger (is it plagiarism if I spell the name different? And don't add the squalor?). Esmie is greatly missed and has been replaced with a baby blue convertible VW Bug, but she will always be remembered. And I have Esmie's vase in the new car (Gypsy Rose Lee... she likes to drive with her top down!) Back to the painting. People have seen this painting hanging over my sofa for years and suddenly will realize that it is cars, not just an abstraction of my favorite color pallette.

Paper Man

2009-09-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

This study in white is all done with paper, scissor and glue. Now that I am looking at it, it makes me want to do more of this.

The saucy wench

2009-09-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I did this piece in an Art Class. It was a study in blind contour drawing, where I was not allowed to take my eyes off my subject while completing the drawing in one continuous line. My subject was this sweet 17 year old and somehow she came off so "saucy" in this pose. After the outline was done, the piece was completed with colored pencil. I love the cheap plastic ornate frame (yes, PLASTIC. I know... hard to believe... it looks so elegant!)

Twins, almost

2009-09-07T16:16:00.000-07:00

Recently, I shared with my optometrist (and dear friend) my art blog. She was rather taken with the painting of Tears made with the found broken glasses. And she wanted to commission me for two more. As luck with have it, I just happened to be in the market for some glasses (unbroken, please). So the barter system kicked in. It was fun to try the design with my favorite orange colors. And I had a good time with the eye-brownies. Thank you Conni!

Is it a fruit or a vegetable?

2009-07-23T21:52:00.000-07:00

The tomatoes that gave the ultimate sacrifice several months ago are now immortalized on canvas. It took more than one try. When I first painted the tomatoes, it just didn't feel quite right. I thought it was the background, so I kept repainting the background. It still wasn't right. So I got out my new favorite tool, my digital camera, and began snapping shots. Suddenly one of the shots jumped out at me and screamed, "This... Right here. This close up portion of the painting. This is what the painting should be." And so ensued the complete rewrite. I got out the gesso and covered the image that had so become a part of my daily life for a couple of weeks. Within hours, the new and improved tomato emerged. Exactly as it was meant to be all along.

It now hangs in my dining room. When I finished it, I just had to go out and buy new dishes, just to match. Bright orange.

Floating

2009-06-23T22:44:00.001-07:00

Sometimes a painting just arrives. In my head. At the strangest time. Even when I have other plans. One morning, as I was waking up, this was here. In my head. As plain as day. I knew exactly the shape she would be. And of course I didn't have any canvases that would do. Being resourceful, I recalled seeing a large moving box abandoned in the lobby. (Not to confuse you... the box was not actually "moving," it was intended for packing and moving.) You might recall my penchant for "found objects." Within minutes, the moving box had given up it's mundane career and was on its way to becoming ART. I don't usually paint on cardboard, but one must be resourceful. And the texture was perfect.

Back in art classes, every teacher impressed upon me the importance of layering the paint. Now, I always questioned the need for that. If you know what you want to paint, why not just get it right the first time? I learned a lot about layering in this piece. I painted what I thought I wanted. It was wrong. So I painted the next layer... also not quite right. It took several attempts to get all the parts right. And all the under layers were an integral part of the final effect. Call it what you will... Layering just means making a few mistakes so you can get it right on the top layer.

The casual observer might note that many of my mermaids have reddish hair. That's because my daughter Amanda is a mermaid, too.

Lady of the Sea

2009-06-23T22:17:00.001-07:00

I love mermaids. A lot. Okay, you might as well know, I AM a mermaid. This realization came to me in the Caribbean; St. Thomas, to be exact. I was snorkeling for the first time, floating on top of the water, gently splashing my fins, at one with the fishes. It was pure magic. So, given my natural aquatic background, it makes perfect sense that mermaids are a recurring theme in my artwork.

This fiber mache piece was a class project in Whitney's Drawing (and everything else) class at CBC in 2001. It is much like paper mache, but 3 dimensional. This was also my first attempt at air brush. The piece was entered in the Juried Art Show. It didn't win any ribbons.

Rooster

2009-06-01T16:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes inspiration just happens and sometimes it is a melange of thoughts and experiences. My computer sits in my bedroom, the open window overlooking a tall lilac bush, filled with little birds. A few weeks ago, I was in Bellingham eating breakfast with Amanda and Callie at the Old Town Cafe (Very yummy food) and they had a exhibit of paintings of birds. I was mesmerized. All that, mixed with my love of chickens (I know, kinda weird), brought me to this painting. I loved the way the paints mixed on the canvas emerged into a vibrant result. Once I sat down to paint, I was finished in less than 3 hours. I feel that my "style" is emerging.

Thank you to all my friends and family who encourage me in my creativity. I always say that "what I lack in talent, I make up for in enthusiasm." A special thank you to my mentor Whitney; he taught me so much and had such an amazing influence on my life. He died too young and I will reference him occasionally in my posts.

I promise, Emily, I won't turn into one of those strange old ladies that just paints birds.

Tears

2009-06-01T16:02:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I tend to pick up strange things. Odd treaures in parking lots. Stray animals as a child (I can't believe how many of them that actually got to stay). And we won't even go into the other gender...

One day as I was leaving work, I noticed these glasses, all smashed next to my car. My first thought was, "Oh that poor person, I hope they had an extra pair." My second thought was, "Oh what can I make with them?" Then I saw the broken lenses, laying there like tears next to the frames. I knew they were meant to be "Art."

Rocketship

2009-06-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

My grandson Henry turned 1 in March. His birthday party theme was rockets. So, what would any good Nana do? Build him his very own rocket. I took very sturdy cardboard and cut out the shape, forming a 4-pronged stand to keep it upright, cut 3 large holes so people could get their picture taken looking through the holes, as though they were actually IN the rocket! It was a great design challenge to create and construct. A hit at the party and it now lives at the boy's childcare center. Yes, it was a lot of aluminum foil, and NO, you can't look at the back.

1 tomato, 2 tomato, 3 tomato... no more

2009-06-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

Off to the grocery store for inspiration. I gave myself the assignment of finding "something" to inspire me at the grocery store. Just think of all the visual offerings, a medley of shapes and colors. A veritable delicatessen for the senses. My original intent was to find a beautiful flower for inspiration, but was drawn to the produce department. I found these gorgeous, succulent tomatoes on the vine, brought them home and proceeded with a photo shoot.

After well over a week, my daughter looked at me (yes, with that look only a daughter can give to a mother who might be going a little crazy) and informed me that it was time to throw the (only slightly) rotting tomatoes away. I had to agree. I had so hoped to finish the painting while the fruit was still in attendance. But I have my photos. In keeping my time frame somewhat chronological, the shopping and photo shoot took place in mid-March.

No, the painting is not finished yet. Not even started, actually. But this is all part of the process and I am committed to putting paint to canvas. I just keep getting other inspirations and they just seem to elbow their way and crowd to the front of the line. Stay posted for my progress on this one.

The Pear

2009-06-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

Last November, after several years of inactivity, I pulled my art supplies out of storage and began painting again. This was my first foray back into the world of color and brush strokes. I chose the pear because of the organic roundness of the subject. I like the heaviness that speaks of an elderly woman settled joyfully into her life, content and welcoming. Or a younger woman, pregnant with new life. Whatever the age, the pear is very female.

The final painting hangs on my wall next to one of the framed sketches. A pair of pears.