That One Mark

I've been looking and longingly admiring watercolor paintings. Some of my favorite illustrations are watercolor, and then so are some of my favorite paintings. Enter John Singer Sargent. These artists who nail "It" with one brush stroke or one thumb swipe leave me speechless, in awe. Another one of my favorites is Beth Cavener Stichter. Or this print Jonas and I bought by Jean-Jaques Henner. It's an amazing thing, that one mark- that one perfectly placed, perfectly made mark. Anyway this whole interest in watercolor was sparked by Sargent. I have played with watercolors in the past and in my sketchbook, but I never had a formal lesson in it. So I asked fellow artist-educator Mary Ellen Carsley who teaches drawing and painting at Severn, and she graciously agreed to coach me in watercoloring. 

Here are my first four paintings:

I loved doing them. There will be more to come.

Waxing Poetic

I've been doing a lot of experimenting lately. It's been playful! What an enlightening, refreshing thing to be. I can't encourage you enough to be playful again too!
I always thought I'm not much of a painter, partially because I'm not and partially because I didn't enjoy it. Maybe it was the inferiority complex that's easy to get at MICA in regard to painting. But for whatever reason, I started to be interested in painting again. So I thought I'd try it again, but on my terms.  This led me to encaustic painting. I often use wax on my figures. I love the notion of beeswax and that translucent surface. This just made sense.

The set up:

The attempts:

I clearly have a long way to go, but I'm seeing some of the potentials of wax painting. And I think my recent watercolor lessons will help to inform these paintings. In fact I have a stack of clay slabs just waiting to be experimented upon.

New Directions

I've been embarrassingly absent from this blog for far too long. Now that my first year of teaching is winding down, I thought a post was long overdue. You know how they say your first year of teaching is insanely time consuming and difficult, so much so that the first two years are what weed out the faint of heart? Yea, that's true. Excuses aside, though, I have managed to make some work, which, along with my infinitely patient fiance, helped keep me sane. Much of the art making was sketchbooking and experimenting, which led to the start of a new and exciting direction in my work.

I started to play with fabric dipped in slip, and as I worked I found myself thinking a lot about the people who died. There were more deaths and struggles in my world this year than I think have ever happened to me, and it was apparently weighing on my mind when I didn't even realize it. Fabric has numerous associations- comfort, swaddling, concealing, shrouding, just to name a few. And porcelain, well I used that because it is precious, delicate, fine, pure. When you dip fabric in slip then fire it, the fabric burns away leaving a shell of slip around where it was. And then I realized -BOOM- Memory. This is all about memory. The resulting pieces are memory preserved. So I don't think it was an accident that I was attracted to this method of working.

Here you can see some of my failed experiments. I tried both stoneware and porcelain slips, and it took a while to figure out the right temperatures. As of right now, the best method I have found is use ^6 porcelain, fire it to ^6, with a very slow preheat (the slower the better), and once my pieces got heavier and more complex- give them lots of support.

And I tried some glazing. I'm clearly still working on it. I got a few gems though.

Here's the fun stuff:

 

Then I had this crazy idea to drape the fabric over a human form. (Note for my unacquainted readers: that's not actually crazy because I always end up making art using human forms) So with the help of my fearless fiance, we plaster casted me, and eventually I had a couple forms to play with. Until I broke them. All of them. Only one was repairable. But such is the life of an experiment, I suppose. I did eventually figure out how to get the fabric off the mold without damaging either the mold or the fabric. The bottom pictures are images of the set up I rigged so I could do these experiments.

It's been fun to experiment. There's no pressure, it's very playful, and my students are very curious and almost as excited as I am to see how things turn out. It's also exciting to have this new direction come to my work. It's refreshing, encouraging, and invigorating. I'm glad to have the summer now to log some deep studio hours.

The issue as I see it...

Dear All Political Candidates, Lobbying Groups, and Anyone else who has an opinion,

Just because you believe something, that does not mean it needs to be made into a law. The solution is really much simpler than writing legislation. Just don't do what you don't believe in. If you don't agree with abortion, then don't get one. If you don't believe a person shouldn't marry some one of the same sex, then don't marry such a person. Some one might think like Mitt Romney says, "I believe a marriage should be between a man and a woman." Well that's one thing. I won't give you a cookie for it, but you can think that if you like. I'm going to think what I like. For example, I think you shouldn't be allowed within 50 feet of a camera that will allow you to spout your bigoted views and share them with others, but I'm not going to make that a law because you too have freedom of speech. Don't stamp out personal rights and impede the liberty of others to govern themselves as they see fit. You don't have that right. kthx.

PS Stop idolizing the soldiers and veterans who fought and continue to fight as you say "so bravely for our freedom" if all you're going to do is write laws that limit our freedom, yes, that freedom, the one you are worshipping them for fighting to protect.

Almost Famous

Okay, not really almost famous, but it feels like it. I posted my first video to youtube, and it's already been viewed a few times. haha. Check it out

"Making a Maquette- Clay Figure Sculpture"

I'm in love with my past

I don't write poetry EVER. However, this was an assignment for a class, and I actually like it. I'm in love with where I'm from, who I'm from, and what I've done.


Where I’m From

I’m from the middle.
I’m from the dirt in the garden, red from the clay,
Clothes on the line and hiking to the dam.
I’m from Sunflower perfume and English Leather cologne
during bedtime prayers.
I’m from glue on my fingers and making astronaut cats.
I’m from anything for family,
Spring peepers and blankets by the water,
Late nights on the bleachers.
I'm from bunk beds, diners, and drives,
Caking Fells Naptha on my poison ivy,
Secrets in the crawlspace.
I’m from the muddy water from the river on the Zimmermans’ farm,
The Lord’s prayer and God bless America.
I’m from a very human body,
Chicken pot pie and pork and sauerkraut.
I’m from imperfect relationships, strained relationships,
My siblings are friends, and my friends are siblings,
From the middle.
I’m from Dad’s logic and Mom’s thought.
I’m from a good shot,
Something strong.
I’m from busy hands,
A family with tough hands
And unconditional love.
We have sturdy legs, too.
I’m from the smell of gunpowder and gun oil
And doughnuts in the snow.
I’m from the mass of darkness in my mind.
I’m from the 80-100 rule and many late nights
And clay dust that cracks my skin and covers my clothes.
I’m from lightning bugs and shooting stars and dandelions.
I’m from small schools on hills.
I’m in between the farms and Charm City,
Promise rings and bigger dreams
In a little pond.
I’m from empowerment for everyone,
The pink lollipop lilies in my garden
with pistil and stamen,
My pride as a woman.
I’m from love and loneliness.
I’m from the clay under my nails,
From thinking for myself,
And a strong muscle in my chest.
I’m from the middle.

I'm in love with my past