Referred

I am enjoying a new blog, Tackad, that I found through Art Propelled, another favourite blog of mine. I highly recommend both blogs. Check both out, you won't be disappointed.

Today I'm focusing on Tackad. This blog is truly a treasure trove of artist sites that have been sorted into various categories. Of course, I love it because the categories are ones I'm very interested in- language based art, text in art, circles/dots etc. I especially liked the most recent post about collage artist Rex Ray and his work. His story is interesting. Check it out on Tackad.

Tenacity

Messages 3, 5 x 5, mixed media collage

Poppies of every variety inspire me. They are repeated content in my work. I love the vibrant colours, paper thin petals and curving stems. They move and lean into the wind in precarious positions. One wonders how they stay upright. I think they are one of the best examples of tenacity in the floral kingdom.

New work - Postcard series

In my Postcard Series I think I have found a format that will serve me well for many years. I like to have something to revert to when I am working on a larger series which I classify, rightly or wrongly as" more serious." I always grade what I create on a continuum that ranges from serious and worthy to fun and frivolous. At the back of my mind every time I create something , I question its worth in the larger scheme of art that is created around me. I often wonder if other artists see their work in this way. Perhaps it comes from my teaching background where everything is constantly assessed. I know that there are times this constant rating is affecting how I see myself as an artist.

These images will be part of my Reading a Garden series too. I'm attracted to the idea of sending postcards from places you visit as a way for loved ones to participate in the experience. What they receive is the result of several selection processes. The original place photographed was created through a series of decisions by one or possibly many people, the photographer who created the postcard selects views from many available, from these some are chosen for reproduction. The sender of the photograph selects from those available in one store or gift shop and further refines the visual information by adding comments. Each step along the way is a form of "reading" a place. I think the postcards fit in very well with the Reading a Garden theme.

In an early post I wrote about one of the magnolia trees found in Birr Castle Demense and I'm still thinking about it. The combination of realism and abstracted backgrounds is a challenge but I think I pulled it off.

New work - Postcard series

Postcard Series, Venice #2 (2009) mixed media collage

Postcard Series, Venice #1 finally has a mate. I completed this several days ago. Number 3 is almost completed. I obviously did not photograph these pieces under the same conditions because the gold I used is the same in both collages. Believe it or not the horizontal line is parallel to the bottom of the board too. It's my photography skills. Isn't it terrible when you have to explain your work because your technical skills with the camera are so poor they make a verbal explanation necessary?

Postcard Series, Venice #2 (2009) mixed media collage

New work - collage

Postcard collage Garden #1 (2009) paper, acrylic on board, 4 x 6 in.

When I am in a garden I often think about the "goings on" I cannot see, the new growth, the minerals in the soil helping out, the roots, and of course the constant decay. I am trying to capture this process abstractly. This is my first organic attemept.

New work - Postcard Series

Postcard Collage #1 Venice (2009) paper, acrylic on board 4 x 6 in.

My postcard collages are moving along well. Several weeks ago I re-organized all my travel photos and as I sorted and filed images it was like a flying trip through different places. The experience left me with a bombardment of visual snippets of colours and textures. It was a synthesis that had nothing to do with the emotion or memory of the place. I found that very interesting because so much of my work revolves around the passage of time and memory. This was a much simpler visual response that I decided to act on.

This experience occurred at the same time I wrote about For Carrie 1907 and the follow up post about evolving ideas in art. This collision of ideas resulted in the postcard collage series. I am continuing to refine my original thoughts about how this series will be organized. Right now I'm creating groupings of 3 (e.g., Venice #1, #2, #3) and will display them in this way. They are on 1/4 inch birch plywood and will be backed with another piece of word on the back that is 2 x 3 inches and 1/2 inch thick which will hold the hook. I wanted them to stand out from the wall for viewing purposes and I also needed some consistent way to hang them evenly as they will be displayed in grids. I plan to create a jig (living with a carpenter) to ensure they are all backed and hooked exactly the same.

I'm also creating a series of postcard collages from the gardens at Birr Castle, just ot keep my mind on that project as I take this little detour from my usual work. I want to stop thinking about what I'm creating and just create. I feel the sheer joy I watched on childrens' faces for years - I'm having fun!

New work -collage

Postcard collage #1 Asian (2009) 4 x 6 in. on board

I just wanted to play around with various papers while I was on my brief summer home visit. Collage is very portable in such situations. I have a large box of paper ends left from previous projects. I just dump the contents into a garbage bag and away I go. This is an unlikely colour scheme for me because I rarely use orange and as a matter of fact orange is my least favourite colour. I have to admit it was just right to complement the black Asian flavoured paper left over from the endpapers of a journal folder I made last year.

I plan to create a whole series of postcard collages that are influenced by the cultures of various countries I have visited or enjoy reading about. It will be fun to share these experiments with you in the coming months. While I love the colour and texture of these small studies, and making them relaxes me and frees my mind and invites playfulness into my practice, they serve a more important purpose; they give me ideas new larger work.

Saving the day

Italian Gold, 2008, 24 x24 in. mixed media on canvas

I love the cities I've visited in Italy, especially Venice. In the evening, as the light changes, the surfaces of buildings and streets take on a beautiful patina. You might think that you would notice less in this light, but I found myself paying attention to subtleties. Windows, doors and cobblestones form repetitive grids basked in light. Flowers in window boxes take on the massed shapes of floral Victorian wallpaper. It's a wonderful world. I want to create more work to go with this first piece. Windows, doors and walls play a prominent role in many of the reference photos I've collected during my time there.

But... this painting had a long gestation period. It sat around my studio for three years trying to find an end. With the layers and layers of papers, text, gel and paint, it had the same problem the paintings I'm currently attempting to save had - way too much information for one painting. It was about something totally different than what it finally became. I did not think to take a photo before I changed the work. Blogging was not part of my life then.

One of the dangers of collage for me is the enjoyment I get from physically manipulating the materials. I just keep adding and adding to the point where everything is a jumble. I made several attempts to finish this work by using transparent papers and adding glazes to simplify the composition. That helped a little, but the final solution came one day when I looked at it and realized I had to do something drastic. I mixed three very dark glazes and started brushing. In twenty minutes, three years of waiting ended.

What's your inspiration?

I love the landscape of Newfoundland. It changes constantly with the weather and seasons. It can be harsh, silent, raging, colourful, drab and a hundred other adjectives. Even thought I have this close connection to place, I rarely paint landscape. I think it goes back to having an intense relationship to it, and never feeling that what is produced actually lives up to the ideal in your head.

For me, when I am away from a place I love, I think about it often. I am most at home in the landscape at my summer place in a small outport (fishing village) three hours from St. John's. Our house is on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, so the sea and all its elements feature prominently in this landscape. I can sit on my patio and just observe the world moving in front of me. Sometimes these thoughts are recorded in words which later may translate into artwork.

Reflection

sun sparkles,
pin pricks of light agitate,
calmness escapes
through broken patterns,
surface celebrations,
marked by ebb and flow
of life rhythms.

It is the sensual appeal of landscape that I most respond to- the sounds, smells and visual aspects. When I try to paint landscape realistically, I produce very boring work. This is the scene across from our patio as pictured above. I have seen it in hundreds of guises, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot do it justice. This piece was created from memory for my husband. (Yes I do have a mauve wall in my summer home! I love purple in all its guises.) Almost all the rock in the area is "pink"slate. I can't get away from the colour.



This is a recent collage (10 x 30) of the same scene created again from memory and completed in three hours. I had fun doing it, I didn't feel I was creating a great work of art, and I think it does capture all elements of the landscape. Go figure! It now sits in my newly renovated bathroom, whose colour scheme is inspired by the same landscape. The moral of the tale... lighten up and have fun creating.

Regeneration

Hope

In my previous post I explored one side of life in the garden, the idea of transience in nature as a symbol of our own mortality. Mary Buek's comment to the previous post highlights another theme inherent in every garden, that of regeneration and hope. Nature moves through all its phases in a methodical fashion, immune to our impatience. Spring is nature's reward for waiting through the slow crawl of winter. When my garden sheds its white wrap and shoots appear, my energy level rises and my spirit is renewed. I long for spring.

Seeds, seed pods and bulbs are constant reminders of new life in a garden. I see them as life recyclers. Through my art, I've explored this renewal in various ways over the years.

Wishful thinking # 7 (2007) 5 x 5 inches, mixed media collage on board

Promise (2006) 8 x 10 acrylic on canvas


Awaiting spring (2005) 5 x 7 acrylic and coloured pencil on canvas

Passage ( 2004) 5 x 15, acrylic on canvas

Attachments II

I just looked at Lisa Dahl's work on Dear Ada (and left a comment) and that got me thinking about the whole idea of house and home which is a theme I am very interested in. There are so many images that bring me back to my roots and the environment in which I spent my formative years. Objects have the ability to transport us to another time. When I'm not exploring the many themes inherent in gardens and flowers, I seem to explore the same themes through objects and place.

This work explores family attachments and place. This is what's left of a structure on my family's land that has special meaning for me. While bolts served to attach the posts of this house, as objects they cause me to think about other attachments I've had in my life.

The bolts are wax castings of the actual objects painted with oils. The image is a photo transfer into encaustic over fiberous paper.



Wallpaper and textiles have power as memory prompts. If you respond to this work with familiarity you are definitely a certain age. While I consider this colour scheme very garish now, it was the one that was in the first home we purchased and began our family. How I lived with it then I can't understand. My leanings now are toward more serene environments.

This wallpaper sampler was created as part of my Remnants series in 2008. The technique is photo transfer collage, built up wholly of photo transfers into gel skins and torn to create a composition that is then enhanced with acrylic paint. The shots were taken in a house in a community where I spent many of my summer holidays. We now have a summer home there. Connections abound in our lives.