Memento

Please click on the title of this post to see a selection of images from the past month or so. It was a belle epoch.

Kebbel Villa - atelier

I've settled into the cellar of the Kebbel Villa, which is a printmaking studio. Maybe Kris Iden and I will have the chance to work together since she lives in the region? It is an idyllic site with a pheasant that visits Heiner Riepl's window every morning, mating snails outside the door and a nesting albatross on a chimney top outside the Oberpfalzer Kunstlerhaus.

This morning it looked like it could swoop down and take a pilgrim or two as a pagean rite of passage...or the season... it is a special German Catholic holiday today and I've yet to find someone who can translate exactly what holiday it is or the significance of the birch saplings that are cut and used to decorate so many of the shrines the pilgrims are led to.

In the meantime every Schwandorfer in town is drinking the local brew and eating bratwurst in the biergarten next to the Church. If only Harry were here...

progression

I've been on a quest... trying to finish new work for a show at 1708 as well as some new small work to take to Miami. I would like to show the work on the left at 1708 but I think it might exceed the size limitations.

All four works are around 20" x 20", acrylic and flashe on linen.

I sold the one on the end over the past month so it might be the right time to show the others. This series was created around Palm Sunday of 2006 while working on a residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts.

Walking the Line on Deadline

a peek and a boo?

Preview of Coming Attractions

I don't know if I'll have time to update my website before this show of new work opens on September 28. A limited edition catalogue has gone to press and is available for preview above via pdf files. Anyone out there interested in ordering one please drop me a line. "Walk the Walk" features an essay by Howard Risatti and is 27 full color pages in a limited hard cover, edition of fifty. $49. plus shipping.

another countdown

"Shelf Life" mixed media on paper mounted on panel
10" x 10" 2006

It is time to pop the clutch into 5th gear. We are on the cusp of another season and from that point it's hard to find time to breath... but I must be careful with my words since my husband is on the war path to banish overused euphymisms. He's more prone to jump on sports related usage and if anyone questions him he just suggests that they google "season kick off."

up and coming

Day is done, gone the sun. As the days drag on during this 100 degree heat we watch the clock waiting for relief and embrace the quiet as time to prepare for the business of September. I hope the painting above anticipates this season with the bittersweet optimism of August.

Walk the Walk opens on September 28 at Plant Zero.

Waiting for the Rain

left: currently untitled version of a soon to be finished drawing on panel utilizing mixed water based media with mica and charcoal.


It will be 99 degrees tomorrow. If I were in a different place I'd go to the Byrd during the afternoon since there will be a film festival. We've seen Shrek the Third. It was fun but not even close to the original Shrek in originality. I guess they've used up all their good ideas? Anyway - it was certainly worth $1.99!

I'll be holed up in my unairconditioned studio. If it were in France somehow I'd get through it with few complaints. Here, well, old habits die hard. I am working through the heat - as well as close to 40 new drawings. It should be a busy, if sticky weekend.

Present Tense

The byline "pondering art and its possibilities" has been particularly relevant of late since I am preparing for a show that will open in October. There are several bodies of work I haven't shown here so I am in in the process of "framing" the show conceptually and literally - and thinking about what to include and what will need to be made to pull the show together.

Everyday my journal work is scanned in my "lab" so I can see the pages in digital sequence. It's difficult to balance it all... time in the studio, lab, garden, classroom, etc, etc... in the meantime it is compelling for me to see how the work changes after very "natural" looking watercolor, gouache and collage on mulberry paper is viewed on a backlit computer screen. It's a different medium, different aesthetic, etc.

The sunflower drawings were inspired by an August 2006 residency at Moulin a Nef in Auvillar, located in southwestern France. If you are curious to see a few more scans just click on the title of this post. Translating the interior world of a journal into work that is meant to be seen in a more public realm is as challenging now as it was when I was an art student. Believe it or not it took many years for me to feel comfortable inviting people into my studio on the hill...