The Dancer

Acrylic on paper and silk, with shells, bone ankh and glass beads. 25 x 32 cm.

Guilty!

Nearly a year after our trial in Grosse Pointe Park's Municipal Court, Judge Carl Jarboe has found my husband (not me!) guilty of "erecting signs without a permit". They are talking about my paintings, friends, not any kind of "signs" that I've ever seen before. The only sign I have on my property is a "Beware of Dog" sign.

Meanwhile, of course, all around me I see campaign signs, Halloween decorations and lawn sculptures, none of which required a permit and no one else has ever received a ticket for their decor or their particular forms of expression. Later, we will see Christmas decorations, including huge Nativity scenes that stretch from one end of the lawn to the other, and yes, painted flat cut-outs with Santa Claus and the Holy Family. What is the difference between those displays and mine? Only the City knows...muhahaha...

We are appealing, naturally.

Criminal Art

The Sieve

This is a painting about offering someone your best - poetry at your lips - and having it all go through their head like water through a sieve. This has been my experience lately.

Acrylic paint on paper, silk and leather with 22k gold leaf. 16 x 25 cm.

Man of Flowers

Basically I did this very fast little painting because I wanted to paint a man, instead of my usual feminine subject matter. It is merely a piece of burned-out velvet silk and two pieces of flowered silk. The profile of the man was suggested by the accidental cut edge of the burned-out velvet scrap, and it reminded me of one of those massive Easter Island sculptures. I painted gold metallic paint into the silken part of the fabric and let the velvet pattern stand.

Years ago there was an Australian film called, "Man of Flowers" (dir: Paul Cox, 1983) about an elderly man who pursues aesthetic and sexual (the two are equated in the film) satisfaction from three things; art, flowers, and the nude female form. He is considered eccentric, lonely, and in need of psychiatric help, until he proves that in fact he is more a whole person than most men.

Acrylic paint on silk and paper. 20 x 27 cm.

The Knight's Tale

I'll upload this video to my blog later, once I get the file from my son. In the meantime, you can watch it here:

The Knight's Tale

I have noticed a great number of Brit Lit class assignments on YouTube. It was suggested in this instance that students upload their work to YouTube due to the vagaries of DVD compatibility. I imagine it is so for classes across the country, and perhaps across the English-speaking world. So you can watch, if you so desire, a multiplicity of artistic expressions (and license) in the interpretation of The Canterbury Tales.

Have fun!

Sea Monsters

Yes, he's a Sea Monster. But he's OUR Sea Monster.

After spending the weekend making puppets and supporting the efforts of the younger set (see; "The Canterbury Tales", below) I was not really ready to get serious at the studio. So I pieced together this not-very-scary sea serpent from scraps left over from other projects. I think it looks a little bit like one of those illuminated manuscript illustrations depicting monsters at the very edge of the known world.

Acrylic paint on paper, leather and silk with very tiny sea shells. 16 x 25 cm.

The Canterbury Tales

When one is a mother, one is called upon to do some unexpected things. My son came home with a project dealing with the Canterbury Tales, which he is covering in his British Literature class.

Teaming up with a classmate, the two boys decided to do a puppet show, running through the entire Knight's Tale segment of the Canterbury Tales. They are in the middle of filming the puppet show this afternoon and will upload it to YouTube once it is complete.

I made the puppets the day before from wool felt, gluing and lightly sewing on costumes, and then painting the faces. I even made a couple of horses, for the battle scenes. And after all, what is a Knight without his trusty steed? The boys have written the script, will film and edit it, and add music.

The cast of characters, among many, includes Theseus:

His new wife, Queen Hippolyta:

And her sister, the fair Emilie:

I will let you know the YouTube address as soon as we have one. Should be pretty good. Due in class on Wednesday!

Human puppets are about 30 cm tall, by about 20 cm. wide, cruciform. A variety of fabric scraps, yarns and trims on wool felt, with acrylic paint.

Mapping Her Contours

A man's silhouette gazes down on a woman's body as if she is a map of the world. Below this scene, a glove is delicately painted with a toile de Jouy scene.

The two scenes are contrasted - the pastoral glove below with the contemplation of a violation above. The man above is capable of treating both Woman and World in the precisely same way; the woman is mapped out according to his plans with longitude and latitude and borders clearly demarcated. The scene below is one of courtship and playfulness.

Acrylic paint on paper, microfiber polyester, leather and tile fragments, with 22k gold leaf. 25 x 36 cm.

Flights of Fancy

From the Greeks, to the Maori, to Native Americans, the World is filled with legends of Birdwomen. Sirens, harpies, and sharp-tongued, grasping, snatching women - to encounter a Birdwoman was never a good thing, and always potentially very dangerous.

“The Siren waits thee, singing song for song.”

-Walter Savage Landor

This Birdwoman spreads her wings, while her Sisters perch in the corner above. She took only four hours to do today, from collage start to painted finish, as She is quite small. 16.5 x 25 cm.

Acrylic on silk and paper, with 22k gold leaf.

Kid Gloves

This really was a one-day painting. I did it today, from 10am to 3pm.

Still on a musical theme, a Lady curls around a piano. Her legs are Music and the notes, Abalone, again. A white-gloved hand spills money into her lap. So she becomes a kind of Danaë figure.

Gloves have an ancient symbolism, particularly white kid gloves. They are seen in Masonic rites. A glove thrown down is a challenge. A Lady gave one of her gloves to her Knight before a tournament to show her favor. And "kid gloves" treatment is always the gentlest.

An interesting site about gloves, their history and symbolism, and some beautiful hand-made examples: Estrella Gloves

Acrylic paint on paper, with silk, leather, wool, abalone and "pearl" button. 25 x 32 cm.

Endlessly Rocking

I am involved in a fundraiser for the local art association, which takes place this Sunday. In this instance the fundraiser takes the form of a chair auction, in which each artist receives a chair to refinish or restore, usually artistically. The chair can be functional as a chair, or it can be deconstructed completely and end up bearing no resemblance at all to anything one could sit on.

I received only an interesting chair fragment for the chair auction. Immediately I thought I should do a wall piece in assemblage form. The stanzas from Walt Whitman's poem, “Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking” kept coming to mind. I determined to make a piece essentially illustrating this poem. The three main characters in the poem are a young boy, and a mockingbird. The Sea is also a character which communicates a message in the poem. The bird nests with its mate on a beach on Long Island, which Whitman always referred to as its Indian name of Paumanok.

The fragment of chair I received was the back of the chair with legs. I scavenged an old wooden rocking horse for parts such as the rockers and the head of the horse, because a chair can also have rockers, and I attached them to the chair. Therefore, there was a connection between the chair as a rocking chair and the childhood toy as a rocking horse. So one could see the beginning and end of life as well, I thought.

In the course of the poem, one day the female of the pair fails to return to the nest and is lost forever. The plaintive calls of the male and the sense of loss in his song cause the boy to wish to learn to be able to communicate this loss, and all losses, to others in the form of poetry. It is a coming-of-age poem.

In order to make the chair into an illustration of the poem, I carved a bird from basswood and gilded it with 22k gold leaf. The bird perches on one of the rockers.

The young boy is painted into a “window” in the back of the chair.

And the Sea is depicted as all around, endlessly rocking, and endlessly whispering.

Bidding begins at only $35.-

I include a link to, Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking , for your pleasure.

Principles of Music

Okay, so this painting took two days, instead of one. My days are a little shorter once school starts, and sometimes things need drying time. But you'll forgive me.

This painting started out with very little plan. Only some pieces of silk fabric with flowers and horizontal lines. It reminded me of sheets of music and so I collaged some 18th century reproduction musical papers, cut out a heart in chamois, and sprinkled some tobacco and tea here and there. Small bits of abalone shell made up musical notes across the page. I added a cork paper canoe and some muskrat fur to give it a sense of period. Still, it was missing something...

Rummaging around in my collage supply I found a card from a local guitar store, advertising a course of lessons. It consisted of a photo of a guitar with just the center sound hole and some strings and frets. It was the kind of thing you'd find hanging on your front door when you arrive home - there was a space for the doorknob. I attached this ad to the side of the entire piece and placed one of my gel medium cast coins on the hanging hole. So now I had a "pay the piper" idea going. I painted into the center hole of the guitar a woman undressing. Her garter has already been loosened (a broken string?) More coins and a lover's portrait in the center of the heart and the piece was complete.

Play on...

Acrylic paint on paper with silk, leather, fur, cork, abalone shell, tobacco and tea. 27 x 43 cm.

A Glimpse of the River Beyond

In spite of the renewal of intense activity surrounding the start of the school year, I actually have had time to paint. And, in fact, to return to some "one day" paintings. I will post them here as I photograph and scan them.

This painting was only really a half-day painting, as it is quite small - only 16.5 x 25 cm., and composed of very simple elements. A shepherdess lifts her head over a dry landscape to catch the sight and scent of a refreshing River beyond the desert which surrounds her.

Acrylic paint on Arches paper, with cotton, silk and beads.

Spirits

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Acrylic paint on small boulder, nestled in red lava rocks.

Departure

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.”
-William Shedd

The Long, Hot Summer

It has been a hot summer, with too many large-scale projects that don't lend themselves easily to blog photos. And I've been lazy about keeping up with my photography and writing. But here are two of my most recent projects. The first is a new outdoor painting of four horses, designed to hang on my garage wall. (Get it? Horsepower..?) It has a much more narrow companion piece which is an abstract of manes and tails. I'll show them in place once they are hung.

The second project was for a neighboring young man who wanted a large, meaningful tattoo to cover an older tat which he had outgrown, emotionally. He had a pretty solid idea of how it should look, but could not execute it as a drawing in order to show it to the tattooist. So I helped him out. Never thought I'd be designing tattoos, but fresh from this one he is already thinking about the next one. I guess I'm in business, so to speak.

Sorry, Ladies, I cannot compromise the gentleman's privacy, so his identity, which is displayed across his (well-formed) shoulders, is obscured in this photo. I gotta do what I gotta do.

Oh, yes, the work of art (the horses) is 36 x 80" (91 x 203 cm.)

Hollywood Comes Here

Governor Jennifer Granholm signed a tempting tax incentive bill to encourage filmmaking in Michigan. It is, in fact, the most lucrative package for filmmakers in the nation. (See Editorial )

The result is that offers are now pouring into Michigan and there is hope that this will create a new industry for the state.

In my little corner of Michigan, the result is that Clint Eastwood has set up shop for the making of "Gran Torino", a quiet drama about a Korean War veteran who attempts to reform a Hmong teenager who covets his prized car. One scene was shot in a medical center half a block away from my house, during our Saturday farmer's market. (It wouldn't surprise me to see some candid shots of the crowd somewhere in the movie.) Other scenes are being filmed in other locales in and around my neighborhood.

This is attention to which we are unaccustomed. Grosse Pointers have traditionally desired privacy more than film fame. But bad economic times have changed a lot of minds about this, and as it turns out, it's really a lot of fun.

There's Gold

There's gold 

in the hills 

of California. 

 But, my son, 

there's God 

in the alleys of Detroit. 

 - Jackson Solo (Poems of Jackson Solo ) 

The Detroit Industrial Gallery and The Heidelberg Project, outdoor art installations by Tim Burke and Tyree Guyton. Winter, 2007, Detroit, Michigan. (The Heidelberg Project ) 

Tim Burke

Tim Burke

Tyree Guyton

Tyree Guyton

Tyree Guyton

Tim Burke

Tim Burke

Tyree Guyton

Tyree Guyton

Swell

The more things change...

(John Biglin in a Single Scull 1873-74, oil on canvas by Thomas Eakins, courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut)

... the more they remain the same.




(Rowing class, Belle Isle, Detroit, July 14, 2008)

Summertime...

I dream a lot. I do more painting when I'm not painting. It's in the subconscious.
- Andrew Wyeth

The Face Under the Lilies

I was clearing the edges of the garden in preparation for staining the new fence yesterday. Under the wildly overgrown day lilies I ran across this tiny painting I did a few years ago and which has been out there ever since, in all kinds of weather. The day lilies, which have flourished under my abusive neglect, had completely hidden it.

It was painted onto a smooth piece of limestone which I found buried under the old driveway when I had that removed. It seems that there was some kind of garden patch, or arrangement other than what we see there today. Old aerial photos of the neighborhood show some differences as the area changed and grew.

I like the way things look when they are a bit deteriorated. Mine is the romantic affection for ruins. Worn, faded and chipped and even weed-whacked, this Blue Lady is better than the day I painted her and propped her up against the old fence.

I Heart My Sailor

Wright Angles

“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.”

- Frank Lloyd Wright

Photo: Self-portrait in a window of the Robie House, Chicago.

Very Democratic Primaries

I only use three primaries, so the nice thing is I can't have favorite colors.

- Chuck Close

The Explorer

This painting was produced in one day, although I did prepare the faces ahead of time. The faces are made of mashed paper and glue, blended together in a blender and then hand formed to make the two faces. They are very lightweight, but quite deep in dimension. The green-blue face stands out from the surface of the painting to about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm.) The black and gold face is somewhat more shallow.

It depicts a nude woman, toward which a ship sails as if she is a new continent. Chances are taken and die are cast, on board and off.

Acrylic on paper, 6 1/2 x 10" (16 x 30 cm.)

Silver Lake

This is my latest outdoor painting. It will hang on the opposite side of my garage door from the Native American family.

This painting is a memory of an actual evening on a northern lake which was painted by Nature entirely in pink and silver. I was alone in a canoe in the middle of the lake and a Canada goose traced a long-reaching, but delicate V ahead of my boat. It was a completely peaceful evening. It made me think more about Finnish myth than Native American, but the land is actually quite similar and was settled by Finns. However, this was definitely a goose and not a swan.

The painted spirit figure at the head of the canoe is called a manboard. Some Native people who built (or still build) birchbark canoes install a manboard, although far from all canoe builders practice this. Sometimes they are painted to resemble a spirit figure - the spirit of the canoe and a guide on open waters.

There is a great deal of metallic silver and gold paint in this piece, which makes it quite difficult to photograph due to the highly reflective surface. But it will look good in changing outdoor light.

Acrylic on marine plywood, 48 x 80" (121 x 203 cm.)

The Garden

I can finally answer Mark's request for more pictures of artworks in place in my garden. The rain has stopped. It is hellish hot, but I have the pictures...

Here is a closer look at the Allen Miles sculptures in my front garden. I think they work quite well with the house, which needed the tall pieces on either side of the front walkway. I have all that industrial anthracite coal and railroad ties as the background. The Miles sculptures incorporate old farm plow blades, steel reinforcements normally used in concrete and any interesting piece of discarded metal he can find. So they go well in such a landscape. In the case of my two sculptures, he has used a horseshoe as a base for a spike upon which one can skewer a treat for neighborhood animals (in this case, a piece of dried feed corn.)

Here is another of the two pieces. I love the sunburst shape of the plow and always try to incorporate some echo of it in any painting I place up front. With the possible exception of the new "Sweetie" painting. But later this summer I have another painting which does have lots of sunflowers.

I did find this old rocking chair in the alley (actually, I find a lot of stuff in the alley - like most artists, I am a scavenger.) I painted it phthalo blue and sculpted a face on the back, then gold-leafed it. It works well as an accent piece on the front porch and I can wait for the mail in perfect comfort.

Next we move into the back garden. The first thing you see is this 4 x 8 foot painting of a Native American family in a birchbark canoe. This is a depiction of a family which might have lived locally about 100 years ago, in period clothing. The Allen Miles sculptures I have here are made of an exhaust manifold from a motorcycle and blacksmith's tongs. This forms the body and beak of the heron. The reeds and cattails on the right are made of cedar and twisted metal and they have turned a lovely weathered gray and rust. I found the pieces of polished green-black granite in the alley - a remnant from one of my neighbor's home improvement projects.

The Mexican family you may have seen in last year's Lac de Vie site is situated currently in my back garden, along the fence, which bars an alley from view, but not from socializing. When I get a chance I will stain this fence dark brown, like I have already done on my deck.

On the deck I currently have this African man who has a woman on his mind. You can see her right in the middle of his forehead. The reason she is there is because I began another painting of a completely different subject, and then decided against it. As I was painting it out the only thing left was the woman's face and I decided to keep it. We sit here a lot in the summer with friends and neighbors, under a nice tent and striped cushions. It's quite the oasis.

That's the garden tour for now. Later things will change as it is always in evolution. Come over any time. Share a cool drink. Talk to your heart's content, deep into the night.

On Your Mark...

This post is for Mark, who wanted to see more outdoor art. It is pouring with heavy, soaking rain this afternoon so I can't take any pictures of the outdoors paintings and how they work with the metal sculptures.

So I thought I would sort of do some film commentary. Evidently, there is a movie out there called "Sex and the City" and it is based on a television program of the same name. I've never seen the program, because I don't watch tv and I won't go to the movie, Apparently it involves a lot of women with fancy shoes and a lot of problems, and it sounds pretty boring. And in the art world, shoes serve an entirely different purpose than the shoes in that film.

Here is a picture of my shoes. I've had them for about 15 or 16 years. The shoes have held up unbelievably well, probably in part because they were made in Italy and not in China. Considering that I have worn them in the studio and during all my gardening and landscaping projects for all that length of time, they are remarkably clean. They fit very well and they are very fit. They are exercised daily along with the dog, in all kinds of weather. I have given them the very rare shoe blackening, which covers up some of the paint splatches, and when they've been very, very good, they receive a new pair of laces.

Really, I find them very beautiful as shoes. Much more beautiful and far more useful than any of my high-heeled shoes and they are never so mean as to pinch. They have lived a life that most shoes would envy, if only they would admit it. They are an artist's studio shoes and I love them. They've got character.

Artistic License

Painters and poets alike have always had license to dare anything! We know that, and we both claim and allow to others in their turn this indulgence.

- Horace