how we work....

My son was old enough to go to art summer camp this year.  I am not sure who was more excited.  I just found his projects in the craft closet as I was looking for something else; one of which was a bean mosaic on cardboard.  When we were viewing the class work on the last day, there was quite a variety of approaches and styles, and I asked him how he made decisions about his image.  He said, "I just look at it and glue a bean down, then look at it some more and glue some more beans down."  I asked if he had an idea of what he wanted to look like before he started, and he said no, that he just "kind of did it."  It was all I could do not to laugh out loud.  That is exactly the way I work.  It almost always has been.  There hasn't been a sketch for a collage drawing, embroidery or doll in 20 years.  I make it because I want to know what it looks like.  I keep lists of ideas/physical attributes, and then I just start.  Once i have made a decision, that informs the next decision, and so on.  I would probably get myself into a lot less trouble with the work and its installation if I could think things all the way through, but I have yet to change the way I work.  I think that quality of "being there" with the work is important for me.  Apparently it is for my son too.     

First day....

of Drawing 1 at RCTC.  26 students.  New easels, tables and supplies. We spent the morning reading the syllabus.... hopefully the big art words didn't scare them off. I have spent many years as the teacher, but I still remember my first drawing class at RISD with Michael Yefko.  He smelled like coffee and cigarettes and wore his hair in a ponytail.  It was a seven hour studio once a week.  It was heaven.  He gave us our supply list at the beginning of class, and sent us to the RISD Store to purchase everything.  We had an hour, and the bookstore was the world's best playground.  I bought tools I knew nothing about and had never used.  We came back up to class, and Michael had set up a still life of pots and bones.  We had a 24x36 inch pad of newsprint, and we started drawing.  I had never drawn that big, and it was the smallest size I drew on all year.  We came back the next week to draw the model....another first for me.  I don't remember much about the model, but I remember making a gesture drawing of the model with compressed charcoal and it was a revelation.  I loved gesture drawings.  Longer drawings found me getting fussy and caught up in particulars while I lost sight of the whole.  Gesture drawings were this wonderful process of discovery every single time.  I still think there is nothing more beautiful than that feather-like mark of compressed charcoal swooping across the page.  I hope I can help my students find what excites them about their own drawing.  Discovering my drawing during that freshman year was one of the best moments of my artistic life.    

An old friend...

I was recently in Ft. Collins, Colorado visiting my family.  My son, Dodo (my dad) and I spent several hours in Science Museum playing with all sorts of cool things.  As we were leaving, I saw a building with the words ART CENTER, across the street.  We decided to stop.  The building was the home to two different galleries: the Poudre Studio Artists and Galleries and the Center for Fine Art Photography .  The Poudre Studio Artists and Galleries were closed, and all but one gallery at the Center for Fine Art Photography were in transition.  We did see a lovely exhibition titled "Black + White 2013" and I had a moment to speak with the director.  We talked about the center, it's history and upcoming exhibitions.  She handed me a card for an exhibition that would open the day after I left, titled, "Leigh Anne Langwell: Photograms: Life Illuminated." I looked at the card and was delighted by what I saw.  Leigh Anne and I had been in the same incoming graduate class at the University of New Mexico so many years ago.  She is exhibiting the most lovely, spooky photograms I've ever seen. The work is ethereal and quiet.  If you are in Ft. Collins, please don't miss it like I did, and if you can't see it in person, check out both the Center and Leigh Anne's site.  Congratulations Leigh Anne!

Have you seen....

the paper collages of mixed media artist, Mary Delany?  Neither had I.  My dearest friend recently showed me a book on amazon.com featuring her work.   The Paper Garden: An Artist Begin's Her LIfe Work at 72,  by Molly Peacock, and it is unbelievable.  After the death of her second husband, in 1772, Mary began creating botanical multi-media collages.  She created nearly a thousand in the next decade before her eyesight failed her.  The illustrations are so intricate and lovely, they will take your breath away.  I've only had the opportunity to look through the digital images online, but the book is going on my  birthday wish list.  I hope you will enjoy her discovery as much as I did.