"Dancing Thoughts"

(unavailable.....4" x 6"....Mixed Media on 140 lb HP....Mounted on Masonite)

"My thoughts dance in rhythm to beauty." The quote makes perfect sense if the definition of dance is any kind of rhythmic movement applied to things other than physical dancing.

I feel as though I'm dancing from one table to the next in my studio between glass work, mixed media, oil paints and lettering. What can I say...except that I am easily bored!

In this piece, I began with a cropped section of pouring medium which is very reminiscent of marbled papers. For that reason I like to combine that look with old book pages and rice paper. I like to go back and forth laying down the text pages and rice papers until it all looks very well integrated.

And of course, I am experimenting always so I added more pouring medium on top of the text pages just to see what it looked like. (The jury is still out on that one.) And so it goes with the nature of experimenting. You simply must try a lot of different things in order to see all of the possibilities. Since art is a visual discipline, most of us need to see unusual combinations of design elements in order to decide whether or not to add them to our repertoire.

So my encouragement today is to look at a lot of art, do a lot of art, and you will eventually have a wonderful "artistic voice" consisting of all of those elements and textures you love. The important thing is to keep at it every day. If you work full time, it is much harder, but if you have a designated place, you will soon find yourself slipping away to that place for a small retreat each day. How exciting to have opportunities to be creative and share our gifting with others! And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Peace and Simplicity"

($50.00.....6" x 6".....Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord)

"Peace washes away the clutter of life with simplicity." Have you noticed that clutter and general chaos disturbs the spirit of peace? By tackling those troublesome areas of life with simplicity, we can all have peace in our environment which will contribute to peace in the spirit.

This is an entirely experimental work in preparation for a larger piece. It was inspired by a photo of the sky that I took yesterday. I happened to be driving at the time so I pulled over and whipped out my iphone. Obviously, it is not a realistic interpretation, but a lot less blending than I was seeing with my eyes. It was meant to be an abstract piece with all of the emphasis on design.

I began with orange as my first layer. It was quickly followed by white with a tint of the blue added. The dark blues were then added followed by the process of adding a bit here and there of all the colors until I was satisfied with the texture and directional lines. Notice that the striations of light gray in the top segment are at a slight diagonal. The tinted white in the middle also has a slightly diagonal tilt while the bottom is straight. Slight diagonals in bands of color will always add more energy to the piece. 

The center of interest is in the middle band of colors where you see the darkest gray and very bright orange as well as more texture with piles of paint added in that area rather than smooth blending. The word "simplicity" is also inscribed into the paint in that area with the quote following in the lower bands of gray. 

Because the lettering at the bottom seemed to look contrived, I deliberately raked by palette knife over a part of it (deconstruction) to break up the surface tension. All in all, I am pleased because it is abstract with lettering. And that has been my goal for a long time.

However, people who do not like total abstraction will need to check out my other work. Hopefully, I can strike a happy medium as I go along. This is what experimentation is all about. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Impulse"

($40.00....6" x 6"....mounted on a 1/8" depth clayboard panel)


"Impulse supercharges momentum." I am sure that everyone can recall a time when an impulse to do something was so compelling that it needed to be done immediately. If it was a good impulse, you seized the moment and had a good outcome. However, if it was a negative impulse, the outcome was quite different and only caused a problem. Another quote comes to mind...."Seize the day.....or Carpe Diem!"

There are many impulses in this piece. I am still playing around with the timing of pouring medium. After the pour, it is good to manipulate the colors by running a fork through them in a zigzag fashion. If too much water is present, the marbling effect may disappear, but if you wait for (5) or (10) minutes you can still effect the directional pull of the color with a plastic fork or cut up credit card. (Use tools that can be tossed.) In this piece I did some gestural writing. Much of it still blended too much, but you can see the evidence of some of the strokes in the green portions and in the bottom left hand corner.

Experimentation is the name of the game when exploring new mediums. I am also exploring different papers. This one happens to be 300lb HP watercolor paper. It is a preliminary study for a larger piece. Working on these smaller pieces gives a quick study of many approaches. Just something to try or think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Stairs of Life" (sold)

(sold)

"The stairs of life unfold one step at a time and no one else can climb them for you." So often we only notice how others are progressing in life. The reality is that it is does not happen through osmosis. Each person has to be willing to climb the stairs of opportunity and focus on their own gifts and abilities.

Today's piece was created much the same way as yesterday's posting so I will not repeat those steps. However, there is one more additional element added that looks like a piece of collage.

The vertical lettering was typed on my computer and then printed on the Arches Text Wove after I completed the monoprint with Walnut Ink. You could also scan sketches you've created or any other line work and print it in the same manner. It does greatly enrich the surface without adding too many elements. And some of you are like me and have sketches and odd pieces in notebooks or journals that could easily be scanned to include with just the right photograph.

The cool thing about printing over a monoprint in this fashion is that you really have no idea where it will land in the final printing of your photograph over all of this background stuff. It is just another "spontaneous" technique that surprises you with its random placement. So let me reiterate again that if you want a spontaneous look, you will most likely be able to achieve that by using spontaneous techniques. So as you experiment and observe things happening in your studio, keep your eyes wide open for this type of process. Most of the techniques I've learned have been learned by just "messing around" with materials. These are just more things to try or think about.