Stargazer

I love the way this watercolor turned out. But I wanted to do more; just didn't know what I wanted to do. With the digital editing process you can play with a lot of ideas without worrying about destroying a painting that can take several days to accomplish. You can also do more than one thing to it.

For example: my stargazer in my signature stamping style

 

 

Or I can do a little wishful thinking and turn it into s piece of graffiti that looks chalked or sprayed instead of water colored.

I wish graffiti were as creative as this in our town instead of the
raggedy tags we get when the kiddies think no one is looking.

 

It doesn't take long at all to alter your own art. And like I said.... you don't worry about ruining it with experimentation.



Visual Treats: Chihuly Persians

I am not sure what I can really say about this next set of photos from my vacation.  I am glad that we decided to get expensive food to revive us for the rest of the viewing at the Sculpture Park. If we had not then we would have missed the awesomeness that was.

ME: (stumbling and nearly lethargic) Where is the café?
ROOMIE: (staring straight ahead and pointing at the wall markers) It says this way.

[The low ceiling is dark on such an overcast day. Feels like a cave.]

ME: I'm dying. (eyes flitting shut as body temp has risen to an alarming degree)
ROOMIE: We should have had more coffee or breakfast.

[Suddenly the ceiling height rises, sunlight fills a pool of tile on the floor, attention shifts from body pain to....]

ME: OMG!!!!!!!!

IT'S A CHIHULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I frantically dug out the camera took this shot then walked into the café proper. And what did my wondering eyes behold?

 

 

 

A ceiling full of Chihuly Persians. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would get to see these in person. The visual feast that is his murano processed glass is something that you just have to see in person. A Tacoma, Washington native and resident near Seattle, Dale Chihuly brings color to the art scene in more ways than one. His work is shown around the world. If you are a fan of the show Frasier then you have seen Dale Chihuly's work already.

 

I snapped tons of shots of the ceiling's rainbow assortment of Persians. And after six hours of near non stop photography I killed the batteries with the last photograph. I would have to buy more batteries to finish the indoor gardens.

 

I could wish for sunshine all day long. I think it would have made everything in the park stand out more. As it was we had overcast skies and there is little that I can do about it. What I like about his work is that it is radiant in spite of its surroundings. There is just no mistaking a piece of his glass for anything else.

These pieces found themselves somewhat better lit by virtue of artificial lighting. The one shot that I wish I had gone back for, no matter how sore my feet were, was the shot underneath the chandelier. How I would love to have laid under it to look up into that medusa form and feel smothered by light.



 





Progress 2012 Christmas Card Design

So the guord houses are on hold until I get this finished. I'm shooting to be finish by the 21st so that I can take advantage of a coupon at moo and have some Christmas cards printed. At this stage I am about 16 hours in. I know. But I've been lax in my practices for too long. And this vacation is about 3 days longer than I really needed and I needed to really stretch. So... here we are stretching.

watercolor on bristol paper

I've let my facebook friends know that I am taking orders. The deadline is the 21 November. That is when the coupon expires. 3.00 each or a dozen for 20.00 You can find me on facebook and leave me a messege with the pertinent information. Pay Pal will be quickest.

The final painting I hope will be done tomorrow. And another picture will be up either tomorrow or Monday showing the final product.

Courage

Necessity being the mother of invention or maybe innovation, I used the Twinkling H2O of Starry Night to add the greys to our bird friend.

They are watercolors that have mica powder in them so you get the best of transparency and glitter without any of the mess. And the best  part of the H2Os is that the effect is very subtle. In the picture it looks grainy and not smooth. But that is the glittery watercolors. It looks like much better in person.
I added the grey to everything but the pantaloons.

Crows, grackles or whatever name you give them are irridescent in the sunlight, glittering with a radiance that seems too good for the cheeky little sca vengers. And I was terrified that adding darker colors over the jewel tones was going to destroy what I started. But it has turned out so well!

I also used the H2Os to draw out the claws and finish the talons. As the painting is drying the colors are deepening. I wonder how many layers of the Starry Night it will require to get the right effect.

Then the next step will be to finish dressing the bird. (pun intended) I had thought that I would do some sort of a belt. But I'd rather skip it and make a collar with a gem in it. I'd been thinking gold. Silver would be the best choice though. To keep things a bit dark and mysterious, I think.

Art & Life

This week, being the birthday week, I treated myself to some nice things in the kitchen. Lamb shoulder for one. And these precious, sweet mangoes for two. The local grocer had them for a 1.00 each. So I got three. The pit is so large there just isn't that much on the inside.
And when I got home I saw that Mango Sunrise from a few years ago....

Art meet life. Life meet Art.



And I guess that is the thing with me right now. I need the art. We all do. To live in the dreary blandness of poverty is to condemn oneself to it forever. Each ray of hope that we can give ourselves and each other is a bit of hope that helps us pull ourselves out of whatever quagmire we find ourselves in.

As was said, "Art washes away the dust of everyday living."

And as I heard recently, "Blogging is graffiti with punctuation." So if this be graffiti.... scribble on!

Italian Vase

This was one of the ugliest things I ever saw on my Gramma's shelves when I was a kid. After grampa died, this vase and various other knick-knacks came to live at our house. And I always thought that it was ugly. For the life of me I could not figure out how my mom thought this had any value but it was on the shelf of very expensive things that she thought would appreciate in value. So when did that all change?

sculptural vase

I think it was right around the time that I got into my own place and started my own business. My tastes started changing as I read Country Living and Victoria Magazine. I always loved the tea cups that gramma collected on the dumbwaiter that served as an ocassional table in the living room. And I liked the flowered porcelain box on the oval coffee table. But not this vase... not until I started to read about how difficult it can be to work with sculptural porcelains. But it was still kinda hideous.

Then I got away from the lace and frills of hardcore Victorian decorating into something more modest and balanced. So when mom died and I was left with an empty apartment Dad said I should start making it more homey. It was too sterile an environment for him to feel like visiting. And that was one of the first things I grabbed. Dad didn't like it much so he didn't mind. I'd started to find watercolor fascinating because the work in the stamp store took some of the fear out of the process. And so this was one of the first subjects of my full sized (meaning not A-2 card size) pieces.

Bavarian Blue



Bavarian Blue

 I love this piece. The locket was once Gramma Ada's and had a small fluer-de-lis that it used to hang from. I couldn't see using it in it's original brooch form so... this is the reformat.

Keeping everything in shades of blue and brilliant silver, I combined seed, facets and silver beads with the two blue stones. The blue stones are denim coral. What a surprise to find those in a little shop in Honor.

This is inspired by the wonderful region of America that I live in. Michigan is surrounded by beautiful lakes and I am fortunate to be close to Lake Michigan's shore. But I've also lived under Superior's unpredictable rule. The water will keep me here. It is hard to imagine living anywhere else.

Mancuso Wear

Nick Mancuso is one of my all time favorite actors. He was Ray in an 80's show called "Stingray" that Stephen J. Cannell produced. Ray is right there with MacGyver in the "try-to-save-the-world-one-person/situation-at-a-time" hero category. Truth, justice and the personal way brings home the lesson that we are all our brothers' keepers. And the car is just plain smokin'!!!

Besides acting, Nick Mancuso plies many trades. Back in May or April he had a gallery opening in NYC to show case his paintings. Yes... the fastest way into my heart is to be a fellow creative type. The paintings are very organic, emerging from somewhere deep inside. I have to admit, it one were to attempt to critique them with traditional art as an institution jargon, I couldn't do it.

I react first to his use of color, then the main image and then the movement in the paintings. I am certain that the symbols I can't immediately classify mean something to Nick on a personal level. I don't know that they mean to me the same as they would mean to anyone else. His style is a little like Chagall but the view is more focused and not the panoramic scope of Chagall. That is about as coherent as I can be with the jargon. I just want to stare at them all day long, drink in the monochromatic paintings in pinks or green and swim in the blues.

I feel shifts in my energy patterns when I look at the monochromatic series. Some of the others are energetically jarring, like he was at war within himself as he was working on some of them. I can't look long at those. Some of the paintings make me feel angry, but mostly they remind me of the things I used to be interested in... the places I could get lost in for long Summer days as long as I had access to my encyclopedias.

Some might call it primitive abstraction. Some might be derisive and call them junk. And the most jaded would maybe say "Well what else is a retired (God I hope he isn't) actor gonna do?" I admit there are a few I don't get... I can't get a beat on what he might have been experiencing at the time of the painting. But I still think that this work is exceptional. My heart has hurt so much in the last six years or so that I wondered if anything other than the dark operatic styling of Carl Orff could touch me, make me feel. But Nicks work makes me feel. I feel it in my heart. I feel it when the corners of my mouth lift a little. And I feel Lake Michigan lapping at my toes with a light southern breeze skipping across the water even when I am miles from the lake. Anyone who can make me feel that is indeed my greatest hero.

And, now some of his paintings are silk screened on wearables. They are available at his website Nick-Mancuso.com. It isn't his site, it's a fan site that he frequently encourages like RDAnderson does his. So now you guys know what to get me for Christmas/Birthday/Thanks for Being a Friend/Get Well gifts.

A link? I could, if I knew exactly what I was doing. How about I just put him on a blog list?
Okay. He's on a blog list.