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During the covid quiet I found myself making very small paintings out of scraps. After awhile they became addictive – I just couldn’t wait to get to the studio to see what combinations of scraps were there, waiting to be discovered and composed. This one is Shift Poem #24, mat size 16 1/4 x 32.”
Here’s Shift Poem #29, 16 14 x 21″. The title Shift Poem reflects this time of change on the planet, with seemingly endless crises and disorder in all of our lives. The poems are intended as little antidotes to the unease of navigating daily changes, offering intimate spaces of contemplative harmony.
This is Shift Poem #32, matted to 16 1/4 x 18 1/5″
This summer Friesen + Lantz Gallery in Sun Valley, Idaho, is featuring my exhibition “The Healing Garden.” In this installation shot, “Dragon Flying with Broken Wing” hangs in the alcove.
The show includes work from the 2014-15 Elegy series as well as more recent paintings. You can see the catalogue at FriesenLantz.com, or if you happen to be in gorgeous Idaho, the show will be up until August 2nd.
“Stitching Clouds to Sunlight” was commissioned by clients at Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho. At 48 x 70″ it is definitely the largest watercolor painting I’ve attempted. As always with a commission, I made 2 paintings so the clients could choose, and here is the other one, “Sky Garden.”
SMINK Art and Design has opened a new show titled “Unpacking Paper” that includes some of the small paintings I composed in the last year. These were such a pleasure to make and I’m glad to be sharing them with the wonderful Smink sisters!
Aquarius #6, watercolor and thread on layered Yupo paper, 41 x 40″
For this painting I have gone back to a format of alternating painted strips and empty space (unpainted paper). I wanted to allow for both maximum chaotic movement and, simultaneously, the restraint of geometric order. The painting is one of four that were created for a commission from SMINK Art and Design in Dallas.
River/Flow/Chart #7
I’m pleased to announce that Gebert Contemporary will be exhibiting three of my River/Flow/Charts in a group show that opens Friday, July 15. The other featured artists are Udo Noger, John Nelson and Keiko Sadakane. Please join me at the opening reception from 5 to 7:00 or come by the gallery this summer. Gebert is on Canyon Road (behind Chiarosuro) and there is parking – though don’t count on it for the reception.
In just a week I’ll be at the reception for my show at SMINK in Dallas. Jennifer Smink asked me to make something really big for the exhibition, and here it is – Water Chart – about 53 x 64.” It was a great challenge to work on this scale, especially because the supports (foam core and mat boards) had to be specially ordered and everything took longer than I expected. Getting the whole composition to flow and connect and to balance depth with expanse presented new problem at this size. There are multiple dimensions to perceive here, not just height and width but layered depth, as some squares are three layers deep – hard to convey, really, in a photograph.
The reception will be next Saturday evening at SMINK, 1019 Dragon Street, Dallas. Please come by if you are in the area. sminkinc.com
People often ask me about the translucent “paper” I use. It’s called Yupo and unlike Mylar, has the ability to hold water-based media on its surface. Lucky for me, Yupo became available in this country in 1996, so when I was looking for a transparent surface for watercolor, a friend was able to recommend it. Interesting that I had to find a new “space-age” product to use with the age-old medium of watercolor. Yupo has a shimmery, silky quality that doesn’t come across in reproduction. In the above painting, Psekas, I have overlaid four sheets of Yupo, each painted with a slightly different hue of gold circles. If you look closely, you can see where the sheets overlap, or don’t.
Yupo is archival, which means it is not supposed to change over time, it doesn’t out-gas any toxic fumes, and according to the manufacturer, it is “tree-free” and 100% recyclable. Not that I want anyone to recycle my paintings!
Aganippe #1, watercolor on Yupo, image size: 35x36 in.
Welcome to my blog. I’ll be writing about my paintings, my art practice, and posting images of work as it gets made.
The series named for Greek nymphs (and one for a local river, Tesuque) mark my emergence from about four years of illness, when I could paint only sporadically, and my personal focus was on healing, if I could focus on anything at all. In another post, I plan to write about the gifts I gleaned from that illness, but now it’s time to talk about painting. These are watercolor on Yupo “paper,” a translucent sheet recently developed specifically for watercolor. Brushed on Yupo, the paint does not absorb into the surface, as it would with regular paper, but remains on top to dry, and as it dries, it moves over the slick plastic to pool in any low areas, just as river water will pool in deep places. This pooling is beyond my control, altho I have begun to learn how to guide it a little.
I have come to these paintings through experimentation and noticing, and following the thread of my interest. Obviously, I’m interested in natural processes, especially how they interact with obstacles, in this case, the painted-on circles. Paint pigment carried in water demonstrates its own process very visually, and has so many counterparts in the natural world: rain puddles, food stains, kitchen spills, bathtub rings, pools left as a stream dries up in dry weather.
My process seems to me to embody the essence of allowing. A grid of circles is painted on the paper, and the paint is allowed to flow. What a yin way to create! Water with earth (pigment), the yin elements in Chinese tradition, suggests nurturance, support, flow, change and healing. Water supports life by allowing it to flourish. So these paintings are indicative of my personal healing, and offered to the world as spaces for healing, inspiration, and spiritual support. They are as beautiful as I can make them. They present a balance between structure – the grid of circles – and fluidity.
Like the Chinese, the ancient Greeks associated water with women. Each one of their streams, springs and wells, even their wet marshy places, had its own female deity, a Naiad, a fresh-water nymph. The Nymphs were personified as lovely young women, some with powerful healing or oracular abilities. Aganippe presided over a well that was sacred to the Muses. She could inspire people who drank her water. Eupheme was also associated with the Muses as their nurse.
Eupheme #1, watercolor on Yupo, image size: 35x37 in.
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