The rest of the 30 collages

I thought to share the remainder of last months collages.  I am thinking to continue on with the direction I fell most in love with.  I fell for the quite groups...I am really into exploring what shakes me up the most which is: "Enough"  where that point is in my work.  I am interested in stripping down to the "simple breath, the origin, the infinite space in openness"  all of this requires a lot of constraint and trust on my part-constraint of habit, habits that want to fill in all the space to be "enough", habits that want to work fast and furious. Trust; to trust my own affection towards the work is "enough".  Today I was lucky enough to be visiting with my neighbor who is also a painter.  We we're talking about her work in the morning at her studio and later in the day about mine at my studio.  I think as an artist that no matter what your subject or artistic investigation may look like, it always comes back to being the artist themselves. 

 

  

More Abstract Collages

Collage 13

Collage 14

Collage 15

Collage 16

Collage 17

Collaging Away!!!

Collage 1

I started a collage challenge-I joined my friends Facebook group 31 collages in 31 days.  I decided to join so I would practice a small daily creative something.  Admitedly at first it felt stiff and silly.  I felt as though I was just regurgitating material, uninspired and meaningless.  I was almost thrown off the horse.  But...but...but then all of a sudden (as does happen!) something tiny and exciting started happening out of the seemingly banal.  In fact the one collage that was doomed to destruction was the miracle worker...and I'm off and running with bells on my toes! 

I also saw that it is part of the process to start where I am familiar ("the banal, the old, flat..") and just to keep going through until the process leads to "what if.."

I am thrilled to be playing, I am thrilled to be fully immersed in an exploration that I don't know the meaning of yet?  I am fully in for the collage ride! 

You can go backwards below with the collages and see the progression.

collage 2

collage 3

collage 4

collage 5

collage 6

collage 7

collage 8

collage 9

collage 10

collage 11

collage 12

New Studio Visits

New Work (Oil Paintings)....Titles coming

We're All Dirt
Mixed Medium (Dirt, Collage, Oil)
16" x 20" (10 pc)

Attached
33" x 22"
Mixed Medium on Wood (Fabric, Oil, Acrylic)

Crazy Quilt
5'x5'
Mixed Medium on Wood (Oil, Graphite,Fabric, Encaustic)

This week I had my first studio visits (in my new studio!!!). The first was with a curator followed by an artist/friend. It was a great time for me to get some feedback with the new work-which some is complete, some just beginning and in general the beginning of a new body of work....

I think one of the most obvious changes in my work in the past two years is that I have incorporated more "ideas" and personal elements in to the work....slipping into what others may call conceptual art. Whats funny for me is that I don't really know what the difference is in my own practice? I consider myself a visual artist, moving between mediums and forms to express what wants to be expressed....painting, drawing, sculpting, video, performance....a freedom of expression. Perhaps critics and curators want categories of creation to narrow in on specifics....does it matter that my eyes are blue when determining who I am as an artist? I suppose in some way that help classify me.......Classified "classy".

Needless to say I am very excited about new showing opportunities that are ahead!!! And the other great news is that paintings arrived in Italy in time for the show!!

This painting is in its first incarnation (well actually 3rd-but I havn't published the other resting points)-needs a lot more loving time. I thought it would be fun to show it in process.

Worship

Worship
a. Flowers strewn outside of the castle of Princess Diana when she died
b. Muslims Praying in front of the temple in Palenstine

Prayer Bomb
a. Children praying on the 1st anniversary of Pearl Harbor 12/1941
b. School Children have a bomb drill 11/1951

Field Flowers
a. Jim Jones suicide at the Peoples Temple
b. Poppies of the field (Palestine Lillies)

I want to share some recent collages. These I actually made about a month ago, which now seems strangely time appropriate with the royal wedding and the death of Osama Bin Laden.

I had an incredible vision of inspiration during a yoga pose-child's posture, which lead me to these images. As I was laying in the posture, which is all about surrendering with your head bowed to the floor, I felt myself covered in grace. I saw grace. This vision had me looking up other images of 'surrender' which before you knew it had me looking at dead bodies. There was something so beautiful and haunting about the body without the breath of life strewn on the ground....and when I told my husband what I was inspired by and what I wanted to paint-I think he got a little scared and said "Enough with death, just paint flowers again"...which inadvertently was the clue to the connection and these images....because for me there is nothing different from us (humans) then the flowers of the field...which reminded me of the scripture about being like the Lillie's of the field( I was raised pretty fundamental christian FYI) When I tried to google search it what shocked me was the same scripture had 18 versions in English with 8 parallel translations...some where trying to persuade one to understand exactly what type of Lilly the scripture was speaking of -which they argued was a poppy in Palestine, others just said grass of the field...etc. etc. and we wonder why we fight? But anyway here is one version:
" If that is how god clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith?" Matt 6:30
I think what is so powerful about these images is the connection about worship, faith and the similarity between what are complete opposites...and that ultimately we are all fighting and wanting the same thing-to be blanketed in grace "oh we of little faith" perhaps its more like "blind faith" that doesn't recognize that we are all flowers of this field on earth....

In Grace

In Grace
8.5" x 11"
Collage, Pastel

Sacrifice the Cloak

Sacrifice the Cloak
collage 14" x 18"

I'm kind of stuck on fear right now...today I was thinking that courage is the transformation of fear....like you rub two fear sticks together-or the friction of staying stuck in a form that's not authentic drives you to question what you are, and you wonder what happens if you just????? Next thing you know you started a fire out of your fear; and that is courage.
I don't know...its like the chicken and the egg...what comes first? Again back to yesterday-perhaps neither is without the other.

On another note-I've decided to make collages for a bit...as a warm up into whatever is next artistically. I think collage is like a visual poem-pulling images from the unconscious and within minutes you have a picture of your thoughts, dreams, ideas, feelings...its a very fast and informative fix.

Twins

Blinded, fear walked out with courage
Collage Photo 9" x 14"

Today I was just thinking about what my fear looked like?
I think it looks like myself-perhaps a bit childish sweet and crazy. Like a child throwing herself in my way to trip or stop me in my tracks so I don't dare fail. This Fear child doesn't want me to get hurt feelings or hurt anyone else.
She wants to be felt.
I realize now that she likes it when I listen to her, then give her a hug and take her for the walk by my side, in hand. She doesn't go away, in fact she has always been with me. No matter where I go, she is there.
However so is her twin sister Courage. Courage is so much quieter, usually not in front of me but behind me, gently nudging me forward.
I think the two are one...non existent without the other.
How would I feel courage without feeling fear? Is courage any less painful then fear, or fear any less beautiful then courage?

New projects, musings, imagery....

Stag Goddess
Collage, nail enamel 14" x 9"

I am playing with some imagery, illustrations of current thoughts and places in my mind, writing a lot too...it all feels funny to put it mildly, but this is where I am right now...


Lame Deer

Is the deer my spirit guide now?
Staring at me with his bloody mouth,
tongue lagging out, terrorized,
as everyone watches him smash
his face into the chain link fence
over and over and over again.

Can he not see the fence, or feel the pain?
Does he think it will give if he smashes harder?

Bleeding his eyes graze my soul,
and I feel his.

He didn't know where to go.

I saw him again yesterday,
leaping across my path in the meadow.

Daughter in the deep water
Collage, twine, magic marker 8" x 10"

New Work

Balance (For Now)
60" x 72"
Acrylic Latex Paint, Wax Pencil, Golden Charm with Safety Pin

(detail)
I finished this painting the other day. I have been hesitating to post this piece and the one below, which was completed 2 months ago. I have been hesitating because I am curious myself about the direction of my work, and quite afraid of critical reception. My own voice being the loudest. I feel a bit uncomfortable, the space in these paintings is new to me. However, I am choosing to breath into this discomfort without doing more because that is precisely what I am working with inside myself, taking the moment to pause before reacting to vulnerability in groundless space.


Shell 1.
Gesso, T-shirt, Dirt,
24" x 30"