the most collected

it's been a while since i have posted.  i have been kind of taking a much needed break from making art. i think my brain needs a rest so it can catch up on gaining some creativity cells.  i think they were all gone after my whirlwind summer.

i have started some new boxes this week. they are in the preliminary stages, but at least i have started to work again.  no pictures yet.  they are just beginning.

 the antique mall called me the other day (big surprise) to start collecting some box fodder.  turns out all i bought was things made from wood. as i was standing in line ready to pay for my new wooden stuff, i realized that it has become the most collected thing i have.  except for maybe metal objects.  it may be a tie.

anyway, here is some of my wooden object collection.  many of the items are also in other categories, like miniature houses, santos, boxes, and things with drawers.  i have no idea why i love things made from generations of trees, but it all fits in with my love of anything touched, used, and loved by a human.  

enjoy!

tiny wooden box.  someone fixed it with a wire.  love that!!

doll house chair

wall cabinet with added wire mesh shelf.  other wooden stuff on top!

frame.  thanks tina!!

the virgin mary, sans nose

san raphael.  i like to give my santos some bling!

another virgin mary with wooden rosaries

doll cabinet

hand made house for a train layout?  bricks and stones drawn with graphite

junk

i have been on some junking trips lately.  and i have found some good fodder.  some of these things were real bargains, and some i had to pay the price for cool.  the good news is that i am honing in on some ideas for a new series of boxes.  i think (duh) they are going to involve drawers somehow.  i don't know if i will do a box within a box, or just let the drawer be the box on its own.

some great news today.  i went to the curtis arts and humanities center in greenwood village with teresa.  we met with the gallery director there about a show.  turns out that teresa and i will have a dual show in may.  the center was originally a one-room school house back in the day.  there are two rooms on the main floor of the building.  teresa will have one room, and i will have another.  i will be showing assemblage, teresa pottery.  how exciting!!

it's a bit overwhelming, really.  so much to think about.  i know the time will fly, and the next thing i know, it will be may.  so i better start getting the ideas rolling.  and assembled!

Signe and Genna Grushovenko

buff beachgoers

today i went to the cherry creek arts festival with friends tom, linda, teresa, and taylor.  we saw some wonderful art.  i bought a few pieces, one of which is pictured above, by signe and genna grushovenko.  i think it's amazing.  genna paints the backgrounds, and the signe paints on top, letting some of the background show through.  

true story.  a few weeks ago i was at the studio, and was playing around with the notion of using old photos along with the push/pull of an abstracted background.  you have seen some of this work on my blog in recent history.  anyway, i come home from the studio after working on these prints, and start looking at my various bookmarked blogs.  i stumble upon these incredible artists the very next morning, and voila!!!  i find someone experimenting with the same idea!  of course, our work is very different.  i am working in ink with the monoprint technique, and genna and signe are working in oil on masonite, but the push/pull idea is the same.

crazy.

anyway, i saw them at the festival today, and was literally shaking because the work is so beautiful.  i am so very lucky to now own a piece of my own.  my neighbor jane came by this evening and asked me why their painting spoke to me.  i didn't even understand that they couldn't speak to everyone who saw them.  but i told jane that the drawing skills are amazing, that the immediacy and confidence in the brushstroke is remarkable, and the understanding of value is incredibly sophisticated.  

how serendipitous that this would all come together today.  life is always full of happy coincidence, isn't it?  yay!!!

inner turmoil

i made these collages in a sketchbook as an exercise.  the good and bad feelings one has around being a creative person.  

there are two of me.  the one who doesn't feel like a real artist.  the one who doubts. and the other me is the one who celebrates my work, and puts it out for all the world to see.  so how does one find the place in between being a bragger, being vulnerable, and being earnest?

marketing oneself as an artist is difficult.  it's like putting the inside of yourself on the outside for everyone to set their eyes upon.  it's uncomfortable, but at the same time necessary.  one moment you feel all vulnerable...will they like it?  will they think you suck?  and the next moment, you are on top of the world, a cheerleader for your talent and ability to create.  maybe that's why there are so many crazy artists out there.  they can't find the balance between needing to create art, and needing to market it to pay the bills.

today i am in between.  i guess i need to make one more collage to add to the ones above.  it should represent the artist who is situated somewhere in the middle of these two states.  the calm artist who makes work because it is truly inside, needing to come out.  the artist who places her work into the universe, and lets the people decide if it speaks to them enough to want it in their home.

it's on the list.  when it's done, i'll let you see....

taos

i got back from new mexico today.  it is always a constant source of beauty and inspiration.  here are a couple of photos (thanks, tina) to let you see some local color.  the drive is about 4 and-a-half hours from denver, and i always think it's long.  that is, until i get out of pueblo, and the sky opens up my body and soul to another place altogether.

i went to new mexico for the first time about 20 years ago.  and the magic has not faded.  sometimes i feel like this northeastern white girl should feel like a stranger in a place so far removed from my upbringing.  but somehow i feel so at home with the landscape.  so i am selfish, and i soak it in.

here you go:

santuario de chimayo

offerings at santuario de chimayo

rancho de chimayo

san geronimo chapel, taos pueblo

cemetery, taos pueblo