Almost every summer since I was 16 I have worked at a summer camp on a lake in the Adirondacks. It is that time of year again & to camp I will go. Some would say I should never take a day away from the studio, but I say it is crucial to my process to go & observe the world for a month without thinking about its translation to the page. It brings me back to my work refreshed & with new eyes. So with that dear friends I will say TTFN, happy Friday & I'll see y'all in July.
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Occasionally I want to crop one of these paintings, because I feel that one section is more successful than another. And while it might be more alluring & interesting there is always something that stops me from cropping the image. Perhaps it is because there is something more subtle, but still informative in the "boring" section. Things are still transpiring to be captivating & I must be patient with those quieter sections of the painting. I do the cropping digitally, but it would be easy, perhaps easier to do it with the tangible object too, just a tear of the paper. While the overall image might not receive that adulation of others, & some might straight up call it a flop, "patient looking is rewarded."* Happy Monday Y'all!
*A college professor, Bruce Herman, wrote this in the gallery book for my senior thesis & the phrase stuck in my head. ** These thoughts are directly influenced by things I saw transpire over the weekend i.e. be kind to your fellow travellers. The work I have been admiring lately by Stella Maria Baer & Lorraine Loots is round. As someone that has spent the majority of the past decade exploring stripes it is interesting that the work I like looking at is round. I am in the camp of artists that believes in making artwork you, yourself want to live with. So there is the distinct possibility that I will be exploring these pebble shapes for awhile, or perhaps I just enjoy looking at them & have no desire to create them. Only time will tell, so stay tuned. Happy Friday Y'all!
This painting has a lot less of the salt detailing, but still manages to convey the topographical qualities that I find intriguing in this series. What is it they say about steering a boat? Small course corrections are all it takes. The same is true in painting. Just a little less, a little more of this or that & the result is entirely different. As always I am sure there is a broader more moral lesson to be learned in this as well regarding our actions & words to each other. Things to think about & paint about. Happy Tuesday Y'all!
Most mornings I read an article or two in The New York Times before I start work on the blog post for the day. This gets my brain engaged & raises my cognitive awareness from nil to semi-cogent. This mornings article A Passage to India about Isla Van Damme a.k.a. Loulou reminded me of Karen Blixen & her stories, most notably Out of Africa. Both of these women have a strong sense of place that is clearly reflected in their work. While my 20's were spent in a distinct peregrination, I am now coming up on four years of living in one place. Shocking especially as it is a place I never thought I would live. And by never I mean the thought NEVER crossed my mind that I would be living on an island off the coast of South Carolina. However I am thankful & think that these current Aerial Views are a direct result from living here & spending time immersed in maritime forest & tidal waterways. Yay for the Lowcountry! Happy Friday Y'all!
Birds in flight are remarkable. They soar & undulate. Riding on currents we can't see. Falling to the ground & at the last minute catching that invisible draft & remaining aloft. I was camping this past weekend & enjoyed watching lines of pelican soar overhead. Happy Tuesday Y'all!
I made this painting with the intention of using it as the background for a text-based piece. But when I saw it I knew it was finished just the way it is, so no text. That is the thing about working with salt, it is unpredictable. I thought that I had thoroughly & evenly distributed the paint across the surface, but as the deep blue lake in the middle clearly establishes I had not. The salt reveals deeper nuance in the materials. Happy Wednesday Y'all!
Still working on the correct ratio if I am only using the Winsor & Newton paint. There is no cracking, but it also lacks the dynamism & vibrancy of the two companies' paint in tandem. So I am faced with the dilemma of non-archival art, that can theoretically survive for a long time (just not tangible forever), but certainly as pixels as long as we have computers. Or make work that can will not degrade over time, but might not be as good... Well when I write it out like that, there is a clear winner. Thanks blog for helping me figure things out. Always make the better work! Happy Tuesday Y'all!
Yesterday was spent experimenting with the Hydrus Watercolors. As you can see from the image above they seem to crack, rather than bleed. I am uncertain as to the cause of this, but will, of course, be conducting more experiments. Happy Wednesday Y'all!
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