Open Studio

Things I am loving right now:

Thai massage

stir fried greens with fried garlic

tropical heat

outdoor markets

dilapidated buildings

swarms of motor scooters with girls riding side saddle

lotus flowers and orchids everywhere

tuk tuks

really friendly people

Just a quick post to show a newly finished piece.  This is the 28″x28″ panel I’ve been working on.  It took some different turns than the other, small white pieces.  It had different needs and challenges that demanded different problem solving.  This picture looks blurry to me (though the original did not), but if it were sharper, you’d be able to see the texture of the opaque white paint that is on the surface.  I used a tiny brush, with small, dabbing strokes to produce the halos around the roses, and fill in others.  It was very slow, and I thought it might be a bit like working in fresco would be.  Painstaking.  I also experimented more with my white ink pen, and like the fine line drawing that can be achieved in the wax.  Again, very slow, but worth it.  This painting pushed me in some new directions, and I am enjoying discovering different ways of handling the wax, and making marks.  It is a mysterious and infuriating medium to work in…. one must keep her sense of humor and adventure intact!

Okay, so It’s not all beeswax and canvas and painting around here.  My kids and some friends went to an anime convention this weekend in San Jose, and we spent some quality time sculpting with- hairspray!  They dressed up as characters from a favorite video game, in all of their dramatic, weird glory….. we had a lot of fun.  

My daughter, Allie, is devoted to her own drawing, so it was great to visit the “artist’s alley” at the convention, and see artists sketching, and look through the sketchbooks that they often had out on the tables.  I was extremely impressed with some of the work I saw there.  So much talent.  

Ian and I also went to the San Jose Museum of Art and saw the “Robots” show, which I wasn’t expecting to enjoy nearly as much as I did.  I especially enjoyed the work of Thomas Zummer, Michael Mew, and Jeff Soto.  

So, after much over stimulation, we are settling in for an evening of watching Juno in our PJs and eating decompression food- aka ice cream.  mmmmmm……….

More new work:

Three more little beeswax pieces….

A few influences have come together, along with my own ideas, in these works.  More recently, I’ve been reading  Heather Smith Jones : Art Space.  She does amazing work with the most elemental of materials- paper and a needle.  By piercing the paper in patterns, she creates white on white textural pieces that are really wonderful. She’s got an etsy shop where she sells small watercolor and piercing works on paper. When I saw her work, I wondered if it would work in wax.

 Another influence was seeing Tara Donovan’s show at the Met in February.  I had read a little review of the installation before I went, and promptly forgot about it, until I walked into the room, and fell madly in love.  We spent quite a while there, and I lay down of the floor and just enjoyed it. 

The whole thing was made from mylar tape.  Again, such a simple idea, and so, so beautiful. Each little loop of tape gathered light and reflected it back in odd ways, creating a glow.

 A third influence has been some pieces I saw a good 10 years ago, but have stuck in my head.  A gal I went to school with at UCSC, Reed Danziger,  showed me some works on paper - I think they were graphite, oil paint, and ink on paper, embedded in layers of varnish.  Something about the stark black on white compositions intrigued me.  Again, the simplicity. I was doing huge, messy, expressionistic landscapes at the time, and the quiet intensity of those paintings struck me.  I couldn’t find any links to that older work, but you can see her work from last year on her website.  Quite dazzling.

And there you have it.  Another piece of my process.  As a visual artist, I’m constantly influenced by things I see, or read, different ideas.  Then they incubate a while.  Some things stick with me, some evaporate and are forgotten.  And sometimes it all comes together in something new. 

So….back from New York.  Took me a few days to recover and feel like myself again. There was not a lot of sleep to be had, and I had many firsts:  Knoedler Gallery opening, Korean food, Karaoke (!), The Strand bookstore, nighttime gallery hopping in Chelsea. I stayed with wonderful friends, and met some great people. Sensory overload!

 I adore the City, but I’m also really glad to be home again.  We are very close to San Francisco here, but I swear you would never know it. 

Winter here is austere and beautiful.  I’ve been walking in the late afternoon with Milo (my dog) since I got back, and it just -anchors- me.  I’ve also spent some time in the studio…

Here is a nest in progress.  I’ve got a xerox drying on there.  I’ll rub the back off to transfer the image, and it will be close to done.  A little tweaking, a little embroidery…I really like this one.  I’ll have to tell you the story of that nest in a future post.

 And, yes, that IS Ian in the background. Ah, the joys of the trampoline!

Just dipping a toe into the oceanic bloggosphere……..more to follow.