Studio Life

It's A Juggling Act 

Calm Before the Storm

30 x 48

Acrylic

3000.00

It's busy in the studio.  The 'balls are in the air': Completing the painting shown above, creating a few bold jewelry pieces, communicating with a various designers about commissions then working on the sketches and approval for those commissions, sitting at the computer to complete administrative tasks.  These are the 'balls' that I juggle, and it's all about use of time.  How best to use it to accomplish what needs to be done and what I want to get done.  I have just been notified that another of my paintings has been selected to become Street Art Banner in Kings Beach, CA.  It will be photographed and printed on special material which is appropriate for outdoor elements. More juggling of time.

Dat so la Lee with Eight Digikup

48 x 36

Acrylic

6000.00

In this time period of political awareness of women and their accomplishments I am particularly pleased to have one of my Native American Woman portraits selected.  This portrait of one woman represents the many who were part of a group who learned an art form from their mothers, passing down cultural history, artistic vision and then innovating to take utilitarian containers into an art form.  Dat so la Lee was a leader among basket weavers, known as the Queen of the Washoe Basket Makers.  It is an honor for me to have this painting selected for a Street Art Banner and it is a great way to bring honor to Dat so la Lee and her contemporaries who created emblems of heritage and statements about cultural evolution through their art form.

Dat so la Lee with Eight Digikup

48 x 36

Acrylic 

6000.00

It's a busy time in the studio, the juggling continues, and all those balls remain in the air.

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Artistic Expression.

Story Telling With Art

Peace War-War Peace

40 x 40

Mixed Media

3200.

The art of transforming ourselves with make-up and masks, a universal art form that existed long before we applied pigments to cave walls or boards or canvases has inspired a new series of works titled Hidden Identities.  This is the second in the series, Peace War-War Peace.

Detail of Peace War-War Peace

Once again I approached the canvas with an idea, the idea of representing opposing themes of Peace and War.  You may ask why?  What inspired this theme?  

The day I completed the first canvas in this series, Yellowhammer Dreams, I stood at my kitchen sink cleaning brushes and saw out the window a scattering of feathers on the lawn.  Apparently a dove had given its life to a larger creature.  Because the previous work utilized feathers I was out the door to collect these distinctly marked beauties.

Detail of Peace War-War Peace with Dove Feather.

Immediate thoughts that the dove represents peace filled my mind, causing the opposing thought of war to surface. I recalled that within my recent research about tribal face and body painting I had read one theory that Plains Indian Warriors frequently used a hand print on their faces to symbolize success in hand to hand combat.  The artistic brain started to fire.

Detail of Peace War-War Peace

Back into the studio, blank canvas onto easel, layers of paint applied with drying time between, more layers of paint, allowing the pigment to become thick and cracked, a texture that is reminiscent of how these materials dry as a result of movement of the face and body.  I cut and scored through the layers to add texture and line, then painted my hands and pressed them onto the canvas,  added raffia and the dove feathers.  Over a period of several days this work came together in an intuitive way, inspired by historical face and body painting, telling the story of Peace and War.

Peace War-War Peace

40 x 40

Mixed Media

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Delores Patencio Again, Still, Another.

Started a New Larger Canvas.

Yes, a portrait of Delores Patencio and it is giving me fits.  Into every artist's life a bit of doubt, frustration, anxiety and anger will fall. And here it is.  Arrrgggg.  I am ready to paint over the entire thing, or take it off the easel and go back to the cactus triptych I started and have not completed.  Ok, yes, this is incomplete, lots more painting to do. There will be details, high lights, low lights, etc.  However I am not sure about this beginning.  

The other day someone mentioned to me they do not like to see my work until it is finished because they don't understand where I am going and hesitate to make a judgement.  Oh boy, I am constantly making a judgement about my own work, and that is where the doubt and frustration come in, not all the time, but certainly with this painting. 

I could procrastinate and keep myself away from the easel, but in all there is to do is return to the easel and continue.  

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It's Good To Be Conflicted,

Or is it?

Do you remember earlier this week I posted about sketching for a new painting and having indecision about exactly what to begin next because I had two very different ideas swimming in my head?  After completing the last Desert Plant painting I planned to move forward with another, however I made a trip to the Palm Springs Art Museum to see the Diebenkorn exhibit (click HERE to visit PS Art Museum site with info)

                 Woman on a Porch
                  Richard Diebenkorn

and while there wandered into the Western/Indian exhibition section to see if there were new items being shown.  Sure enough, there was a great, yet small, basket display and I was introduced to Guadalupe Arenas, a Cahuilla, who lived and created in the Coachella Valley during the late 1800's into the early 1900's.  

Basket woven by Guadalupe Arenas

This woman fits perfectly into my Indian Women Portrait Series, so of course I was captivated and began to research her life and work and sketching for a painting which would represent her.

I settled on a composition but I am having problems finding photographs of her and since I want to know what she looked like to make a more accurate representation, and since I want to begin a new painting immediately, my decision was made.  The easel will hold a Desert Plant painting for now while I continue research on Guadalupe Arenas.  That conflict resolved.

Back into the sketch book to face more conflicting situations. Which plant and which composition?

 Barrel Cactus with side or top view?

 Fence Post Cactus?

Some composition of Prickly Pear?

I found myself drawing one and another and another Prickly Pear composition adding in large, flamboyant flowers much like that in the previous painting, shown below.

Prickly Pear Blossom

40x30

I believe these conflicted feelings were resolving themselves. Next step was to 'live' with the sketches for a few hours and after selecting one, paint a small canvas board.

Sketches with small canvas board painting.

These canvas board paintings allow me to work out color, movement, high and low lights as well as my satisfaction with the composition.  OK.  All conflict resolved.  Was it good to be conflicted?  Not sure, but I do know it is good to have a canvas on the easel and pigments in the palette, all ready to go.

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Making Valuable Use of Time

It's Important to Take Down Time

The baskets begin to take form

I just read an article published by Scientific American, titled Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime.  Click HERE to go to the article.  Basically it tells us we need to take time away from our work to nap, vacation, rest, all to recharge our mental energies, enthusiasm for what we do, and our creativity.   It's a long read, but a good one.  Think I will go out for a row on this spectacularly clear, calm fall day to recharge.  How about you?

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