Tenth Anniversary

Yesterday, I delivered “blue jimmies” to the Tannery Row Artist Colony for their tenth anniversary exhibit.  The invitation for this show was extended to all the colony members, past and present so this promises to be a very diverse and insightful show.  The reception is Saturday, March 8th from 5 PM until 8 PM at the historic tannery building in Buford, GA -- everyone is welcome!  The painting, "blue jimmies" is a mixed media collage with a watercolor.

Beneath

Erosion.  The gradual wearing away of land surface materials, especially rocks, sediments, and soils, by the action of water, wind, ice or gravity. Usually erosion also involves the transport of eroded material from one place to another, as from the top of a mountain to an adjacent valley, or from the upstream portion of a river to the downstream portion. Erosion can manifest as a superficial destruction of a surface or more profound damage, even catastrophic destruction.  Erosion occurs naturally and reveals amazing qualities of the earth with a glimpse of the elements beneath the surface.  I am captivated with the rhythmic, subtle, textural and beautiful qualities I see beneath and am working to describe what I see there.  In 2013 I am beginning the series, Beneath.

Off to a New Start

After serving on the Board of the Hudgens Center for the Arts for nearly four years, I have completed my term and have taken a studio at the Tannery Row Artist Colony in Buford, Georgia.  It seems like a very long time since I have spent quality time with myself in the studio and I am thoroughly enjoying it!

I've finished my annual "four seasons" project -- this year they are 10" x 24" mixed media with oil on board.  Spring: Late Snow on Crocuses is posted here.  I've also begun work on a series that I'm titling Beneath which will focus on things beneath trees, dunes, etc.  Lots of erosion can happen!  Starting with small watercolor studies then moving on to larger abstracted mixed media pieces.  There are always projects for the Tannery gallery for the shows we hang there on a regular basis.  Oh, and there are the series of birds in watercolor for my offering of Holiday cards this year.

Busy and happy!

I just received an exciting letter from the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. I have had two works selected for inclusion in their first biennial Booth Artists Guild exhibition. The exhibit will run from May 17, 2011 through September 10, 2011 in the Borderlands Gallery of the museum. I am most pleased to be selected as the Booth is, in my opinion, one of the finest art museums in the southeast. Check out their website at www.boothmuseum.org and see for yourself what they are all about.

The work above is one of the selected pieces titled, Roots in Penland II. It's the right panel of a diptych. I photographed these exposed roots in Penland,NC in the Fall of 2009 when I was there to study printmaking and just got around to painting them. The piece is mixed media on panel with oil paint, handmade papers and dried botanicals.

Greening

The Vernal Equinox 2011. Spring arrives officially at 7:21 this evening and I will celebrate with my annual ritual of balancing an egg on its end. This year, I am celebrating in another way as I am making my printmaking studio green.

Now, let me say that I love my painting studio and have no plans to make environment changes there. I love the smell of my traditional oil painting materials -- linseed oil, balsam, spike and really good turps. That's what my well ventilated studio smells like and that's what I think it should smell like. But my printmaking practices are all going green. I really think making art should be a pleasurable practice and I don't find acid, nasty smells and messy clean up all that pleasurable. After a class at Penland, I started printmaking with glass plates, using them for intaglio and lithograph plates with happy results. My inks were great quality, made with artist's pigments and burnt plate oil. Then I discovered Solarplate and I fell in love with the images that resulted, though still using the etching ink that required solvent for cleanup -- and there always was a mess to cleanup. My first Solarplates were exposed directly in the noonday sun last July and I now have a UV exposure unit in the studio that is much quicker, more efficient and quite consistent. I knew I had to find a better solution for the inks and I've settled on Akua water-based intaglio inks. At first, I was not completely satisfied with the results -- I like a little plate blush and the ink cleaned off the plate too much -- but now I'm adding a soy-based modifier to the ink and am getting a stiffer consistency resulting in a slight blush on the plate. Green is getting good results off my press!

Of course, the naturalist in me seems to dictate my subject matter just as it does for most of my paintings. I can see that presenting my little etchings will be as much fun as the printing process. I'm putting them in larger collage paintings and encaustic compositions -- and even matting some for the traditionalists. Naturalist Press is working in Sugar Hill, Georgia.

Sparkin'

Last Autunm, I started a project dubbed, ArtSparks and I wrote about it herein. To my delight, my rock-star artist friend, Tiffani Taylor, sparked me back! I received two swatches of cotton sateen fabric with Tiffani's bird art and a bonus of two of her French postcards. My challenge now is to get creative about how to use the fabric -- in a quilt, a linen drawer sachet, laminated in glass, in a collage? We'll see.

I am most pleased that Tiffani was inspired to do some sparkin' with her artwork. Since I launched my project, I have been rewarded time and time again by the people I have given my artwork to. I believe that my little etchings have reached the right individuals whether the gift has come from my hand of by being regifted. While I would love to tell some of the stories about the path of the gifts, the stories are really personal and I want to keep them close to my heart. I know Tiffani will encounter old friends and make new ones with her project and that she will be rewarded time after time with her efforts as I have been. Perhaps there are other artists who would like to join us?

About the Other Night

Tuesday, November 30, 2010. Not really a day that most would remember as life altering but to one young woman, it certainly was. It was my honor to announce the winner of the $50,000 Hudgens Prize -- Gyun Hur. Gyun was selected by the jury panel from the finalist show at the Hudgens Center for the Arts in Duluth, Georgia.

The competition had drawn 369 entries from every corner of the state and five finalists were chosen by the jury to compete for the big award. My congratulations to Gyun and the other finalists: Ruth Dusseault, Hope Hilton, Scott Ingram and Jiha Moon.

I always find it revealing to meet an artist after I have become familiar with their work. I can't help but be influenced by knowing the person who created the art. In the case of Miss Hur, I was delighted to get to know her and to hear her speak upon receiving the $50,000. Not once in her remarks did she refer to herself -- she spoke gratefully and with reference to family and community. I see her work with new eyes.