still lifes - (almost) complete!

We have still lifes!

All 20 x 16." They are mounted to board and the varnish is drying this very moment.  Frames arrived and standing by (whew!)

It was a busy week pushing to get these ready! By Thursday night they were assembled and sitting under weights while the glue dried.

Over the weekend, I saw my family for Father's Day and a very special birthday celebration in Philadelphia. I completed the first bunny collage for my Dad a few weeks ago, but have been waiting to post it so that I wouldn't spoil the surprise.

After wrapping the bunny for transport, I (finally!) worked up the courage to hand print the owl block. (Also, this kept me occupied so that  I wasn't tempted to remove the still lifes too early.)

24 x 20" relief print on gray paper and found book pages, collage

As a permanant resident in the Forest of And, And, And, I, naturally, couldn't just print the owl. I wanted to bring together aspects of the owl drawing from September and the small prints that make up the owl animation from December - specifically, I like the scale and use of text in the tree in the drawing and the palette and use of pattern in the small prints. So, I cut two new blocks for the leaves, but instead of writing all the text, I printed them on pages of a found book. The printed text becomes a varied sort of pattern like veins in the leaves. The owl is printed on gray paper and then heightened with white and gold ink and the branches are drawn on book pages.

I finished the owl just before heading to Philadelphia. Sometimes, I wonder if my love of art is, in part, biological. We made family field trips to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Mutter Museum. I tried to head toward the Philadelphia Museum's famous American collection, but got distracted by playing "skull-scavenger hunt" in the the Medieval and Northern European Renaissance sections along the way...

 (and these are only the ones that I got pictures of...;))

There were other fun things too - a few of my favorites:

a relief sculpture of a helmet with wings, a still life with a squirrel, stained glass,
a parrot(!), tracery, winged figures

Now you may be wondering - were there any owls?
Yes! The building has an owl sculpture perched in the pediment
(I took spotting an owl before entering as
a sign that it was going to be a very fun visit.)

I saw lots of unexpected things,
such as this lovely kelpy mermaid

But the best may have been this - an "ink painting" by Hendrick Goltzius: 

[nerd alert:] "Who are you Mr. Goltzius and where have you been all my life?"

"I love you as much as I love Master P.W. of Cologne"
 (and that really is saying something, haha ;))

I thought this was fantastic! It's ink on gray canvas heightened with oil paint. Having just finished the owl that morning, this palette and technique really struck a chord with me. I think some more research is needed, but it gives me some technical ideas... (hmmmmmm.)

I got some beautiful views of the city:

A wonderful Father's Day with my Dad!

a photo of  Mom and Dad by me :)

tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock

Work continues on the still lifes...

more objects - tick tock, tick tock, tick tock

In the algorithm-ic spirit, this week I

1) finished the object

2) cut them out

3) decided which objects go together

4) determined the final scale (16 x 20" )

5) ordered frames

6) arranged compositions

and after arranging, and re-arranging, and re-re-arranging, the finalists...

Still to come:

1) decide background colors (I'm thinking green, blue, and umber)

2) paint the backgrounds

3) glue down objects

4) add shadows and reflected lights

5) varnish

That list is getting kind of long, so that will be the end of "stage 1"

stage 2:

1) mount to panel

2) frame

3) photograph

4) fill out paperwork

5) deliver

I also would like to add some more insect life once the compositions are set and, fortunately, I found plenty of models at the nearby park:

To get things mostly done by this Thursday is going to be "challenging." Happily, because of the algorithm, the part that concerns me the most (making the objects as well as I can right now) is nearing completion. However, I'm starting to get tired, and I don't want to make any careless mistakes (the gluing and varnishing in particular need a lot of precision - :o .)

I know I'm running out of time, but I can't help walking around outside while the weather is nice. 

Some of what I saw this week - wouldn't have wanted to miss it!

It's funny - everywhere I go, I see still life stuff - this glass skull was on one of my usual walking routes this week.

William Morris: Skull and Bones 8, Glass sculpture (six parts), 1989. Photo by Stair Gallery

It came out of the display window on the weekend...and was replaced with the floral still life painting on the left (ha!). Then, I saw the flower arrangement on the right at an opening at the Plum-Bronson House

I really enjoyed the show, Three Artist at the Dr. Oliver Bronson House, hosted by Historic Hudson, featuring Valerie Hammond, Kiki Smith, and Seton Smith.

Some of my pictures of the show:

Artwork depicted by Valerie Hammond (bottom row, center) and Kiki Smith (top right, bottom left, bottom right)

:)!!! 

Thanks goes to my lovely friend Melissa for bringing me to the show and introducing me to the artists(!!) I was so art-happy that I got a little overwhelmed, and I may have come across as "a little spacey," trying to take in the complex space with new to me artwork, and do, if not a good job, at least not a very bad job, saying hello to people (and also not trip or drop anything) while my mind was saturated with still life-ness (eep.) Having left my camera in the charger (see previous comment ;)), I went back the next day to photograph - for those near Hudson, it's not too late to see this! It will be open again next Saturday and Sunday (more information here).

Now - about those backgrounds... :P

Phase 3 redux - develop thoughtful algorithms

Still life flowers - check ;

My first roses of the season bloomed! Not unlike the way I end up dressing like whatever I'm working on, I put vases of flowers all over the house (next to my bed, next to my desk, on the table). The result is that I ate, slept, and breathed the theme: "flowers in a vase" all week.

phase 3 redux - develop thoughtful algorithms

This week - working on elements for vanitas still lifes. 

mixed media, life-sized

cut out and photographed with black velvet in the background

I was asked to participate in an upcoming still life show at Thompson Giroux Gallery next month. I love still life, and I'm excited to be part of the show!...I also need about 3 new paintings, so I instituted the emergency schedule and have been at work on these by 6 am most days. That should help, but in addition to the quantity of time, I'm testing a tempus fugit project theory concerning the quality of that time. In the spirit of phase 3 and designing thoughtful algorithms, I'm trying to build it the smart way. 

Tempus Fugit Project algorithm:

1) don't panic; it's not life or death (haha - since these are memento mori, that's a little funny, right?) 

2) review information and identify relevant criteria (these need to be painted still lifes, medium to large scale.)

3) obtain the necessary materials (the paper is arches oil paper, and I was lucky to find enough of it locally at sketch :). The paint is golden high flow acrylic.)

4) put away unnecessary stuff in studio/ studio clean. (on-going)

5) determine subjects and research as necessary. I studied Dutch and Spanish 17th century still lifes for a project last spring, so I feel ready, but I also looked at some of my favorites online.

6) collect and/or photograph objects.The skulls and flowers come from my house, but other things, like a baroque candlestick, for example, I photographed last week on my field trip to St. John the Divine. I'm still searching for a good shell...

The algorithm was helpful in getting started, but I'm also looked at the way I'm painting the still lifes. I want to make them in a way that shows how I see them. I see still lifes object by object, so instead of gathering everything together and  developing the whole painting in stages, I'm going to paint it object by object, finishing one thing, then moving to the next. So I listed the elements critical to a vanitas still life (skulls, flowers, fruit, then a selection of candlestick, shell, shiny object). I'm working on similar objects at the same time in order of importance (skulls, then flowers, them fruit, etc.)  

I think this is a good approach for me because it allows me to "batch" similar objects. It's more interesting for me because I get to examine the variations in two objects of the same type and appreciating the tiny differences between them. Then, I cut them out. When I have enough objects, I'll arrange them. I can photograph, look at the compositions on the little screen, adjust, repeat until I have a composition that I'm happy with. Then go back in with the shadows and reflected lights.

There's another aspect of this experiment - both the material (golden high flow acrylic) and the support (arches oil painting paper) are relatively new, becoming available in the last few years. I love new materials :) 

Hmmmmmm.

the cut out sections of the paper are from the skulls

This is about 6 layers in - charcoal, gel medium, grey pencil,/white pencil, black acrylic, white and grey ink, color pencil

This is in the "gray +" phase, before I start applying thin layers of color paint.
(I don't keep track of the number of layers of paint, but for the skulls I used 4 pigments - black, white, yellow and green. For me, that's the minimum for an object that's in color (balck, white, warm tone, cool tone.) There are probably about 8 - 12 layers, with some areas being more dense than others.
 The flowers are a collection of objects that combine to make a unit
 (each blossom and leave is like a distinct object), so it will have many more layers of paint. (eep.)

a nice droplet :)

The bouquet on the right is from my yard, but I didn't have any roses blooming yet,
so I "needed" to get myself a rose ;)
Feline Assistant Jr. approves -
 doesn't she look like an adorable, feline Ferdinand?

Books, Prints, Cathedral and more

A very busy week:

my finished book :)

  final session of Pop-up case book class at

   the Art School of Columbia County !

Class Picture -  Pop-up Case Books, Spring 2014
class  - me,  Tom McGill, Mary Young and Beth Thielen (instructor)

my second book

Used the new book-making techniques to assemble the bunny collages

I made a visit to St. John the Divine in New York

Xu Bing's giant phoenix sculptures
I missed seeing these at Mass MOCA, so I when I heard they were being reinstalled
in the cathedral,  I thought - field trip!

 Added bonuses!

Keith Harng altar piece surrounded by
grisaille stained glass (!)

Winged figure with giraffes  (!?!) - that's a new one for me

getting ready for round 2 of medallic engraving in June

The Philosophia needs a top - 3 possibilities

I kept working on this - especially on the interaction of the fingers, book, sleeve and leg.

Attended a print workshop at Zea Mays on pronto plate printmaking with Nancy Diessner.

practicing for the upcoming vanitas still lifes

This workshop was a fortuitous last minute addition. I was really happy with the photopolymer class I took with Nancy two weeks ago. Photopolymer is a good solution to some of the issues I was working out, but, after learning more, I realized that there were actually several distinct issues and that I really wanted to learn pronto plate printmaking too, a non-toxic lithography on polyester plate. A spot opened up at the last minute and voila!

I redrew a favorite from etching

One can never have too many parrots

Para -art news:

Openings in New York City and Hudson:

Me, once again dressing not unlike my work
(red pattern shirt, big collar, hat)

"Truppe Fledermaus and The Carnival at the End of the World" by Kahn and Selesnick at Yancey Richardson, NYC

Celebratory visit to the plant store

I looooove seeing all the pretty colors...

...but all I want to keep are shades of black
(not unlike my wardrobe actually)

Feline Assistant Jr. helping in the studio
(practicing to be a mime :P )

Feline Assistant #1 helping with laundry