pomegranate

I love pomegranates. Love to look at them, love to open them, love to drink the juice (especially with champagne) and eat the seeds. Love that they are so many shades of red all wrapped up in one powerful little ball. Love that they are bursting with so much magic.

Pomegranates are an ancient fruit (learn more here) and show up throughout history representing fertility and rebirth - particularly in the Greek myth of Persephone (remember that one? Persephone is kidnapped by Hades, and her mother Demeter goes into mourning and shuts the whole world down. Zeus intervenes but since Persephone was tricked into eating six pomegranate seeds while down there, she can return, but must spend 6 months of each year down under. Hence winter.)

I've been planning this one in my head for a while, twice I have bought the prettiest pomegranate I could find at the store and brought it home, only to watch it slowly shrivel and get tough before I had a chance to paint it. So last night I finally seized the opportunity.

Pomegranate, acrylic on canvas. 36 x 36" 

This photo was taken with my phone, which is not ideal and certainly far from perfect. But hey, this is me trying to document more!

As always, if you are interested in buying this piece or commissioning something, drop me a line.

profiled!

I was lucky enough to be featured in Lake Highlands Today. Read more!

Abstract color exercise: six persimmons (on strings)

Another color exercise assignment - this one painted from a written description of Six Persimmons, a 13th-century Chinese painting that is widely considered a Zen masterpiece:

And again, my work is much different, as it should be, since this is really an interpretation of an interpretation:

Six Persimmons (on strings). Acrylic on canvas. 11x14"

I love this piece. Somehow those stems just wanted to go up further. I think it helps ground the composition. What do you think?

PS: it just feels so good to paint again!

Abstract color exercise: Rothko-ish

I'm thrilled to be taking an abstract painting class for the next six weeks. If nothing else, it is an appointment to paint for a few hours every Wednesday. Sort of like how you could go to the gym by yourself and work out, but it is so much more effective to pay a trainer - then you HAVE to go. 

Plus, I love assignments. Something about having constraints to work against/within. Limits to push. Instant focus.

This was a color exercise to paint a piece according to a description of another piece - Rothko in this case. Rothko's work is mainly known for being soft fields of saturated color, sometimes painted/washed directly into the canvas, soaking into the fibers. 

My interpretation is, of course, a little different. I too love saturated colors, but also love texture and movement.

Abstract color exercise. Acrylic on canvas. 18x24"

thoughts on the new year

I love the idea of a new year. I love Christmas, too, but there is something about getting done with everything and making a fresh start. I try not to make resolutions but to make goals instead.

Last November I was fortunate to be invited to my friend Sarah's house for an evening of (wine and) creating vision boards. I'm so glad I did this. Basically we all talked and had some wine and flipped through old magazines, tearing out words or images that spoke to us. Then we put them all together to create a personal vision board. I love mine - maybe I'll add a photo of it.

The timing was just perfect - right before the holidays got so crazy - and it really helped me focus my thoughts as we closed out the year on where I want things to go in my life.

I came away from this evening knowing that I want to:

• Take more pleasure in my life. Enjoy things more. Do more things that are worth enjoying. Have the glass of champagne. Put on the lipstick when I'm just staying at home. Find and create beauty and savor it.
• Adopt a more French attitude toward pleasurable things - they are good for you and you shouldn't feel guilty about them. Vacations, good food, date night, "me time" - simply enjoy them. It's sort of the whole point.
• Tune in to the things I would really like to change but may have just gotten used to.
• Enjoy my children.
• Paint more.
• Play with fabrics and colors that I love.
• Get better in the garden. Creating food out of sunshine is an everyday miracle.
• More glamour. Hold myself to a higher standard of beauty. Take the time. Be worth it.

Around the same time, I ran out of business cards. I used to have three different ones - one for my role designing and creating handmade clothing, one for my role painting wedding dresses, and one for my other role as a web content specialist. I am proud to wear many hats - most creative people I know do more than one thing, and do it well. But still, this made me uneasy - I was feeling a little boxed in. (How's that for irony - feeling boxed in by three different roles?) But the truth is that none of these highly focused hats really fit me completely, because there is always something else I'm interested in. That was the day I started this blog, and my new cards simply read "Artist, Designer, Writer". I knew that one thing I want to do this year is simply create more work - paint more, write more, create more.

My youngest child is two, and can do a lot more by himself than when he was a baby. I'm feeling like there is just a little more breathing room in my life. Room to do a bit more.

I have a friend who is a very talented artist. I was so rooting for him when he quit the day job and tried to make a living making art. And I was dismayed this fall when he had to try to find another day job. It is so tough out there - you really need a patron. I have this, in a sense, and I am so fortunate.

I am energized and this is an opportunity I must not squander. Not many get it. The kind of flexibility I have in my life right now must be put to good use.

I've played around with some specific goal ideas (love the idea of this poem-a-day challenge), but at the same time not sure that a daily/weekly deadline is the right approach. But then again, maybe it is. I'd love to hear ideas on how people set their creative goals. Measure output : X number of ___ every ___? Or just force yourself to sit down and work for X amount of time every ___?

pen and ink house drawing

Another fun commission for the holidays. I was asked to commemorate a house in sepia ink. The finished piece is about 18x24". I photographed it before it was framed - it looks much fancier now.

I haven't done a pen and ink piece on this scale for a long time - I forgot just how much I like doing it. Love the obsessive quality of the ink and the sense of danger. Someone asked me what do I do if I make a mistake on something like that - well, since it is ink, I would have to start all over! 

All those wedding dresses (white dress drawn on white paper) gave me a good perspective on how to handle all the the white brick - too much detail and it doesn't look white anymore, too little and it just doesn't register. I end up basically drawing the shadows. It is more important how the different areas (light and dark) relate to each other to register the contrasts and scale.

This is a beautiful house in real life, I am happy with how it turned out on paper too. 

(And oh, those shingles!)

(I fuzzed out the homeowners' names and address along the bottom sidewalk - that's not a real smudge.)

wedding dress painting - vintage suit

I was commissioned to do this piece before the holidays and I absolutely love it. I do a lot of wedding dresses and baptismal gowns, this is one of the more interesting outfits I've done in a while. It was worn by the grandmother of the recipient. Couple of thoughts:

• I am in love with the cut of this suit. The jacket is like a perfect S-curve. 
• From a painting perspective, it was fun to do something with more ink and paint to it - I usually do a white dress on white paper. You don't exactly get to throw down the color for that, so even though this was in greys and blacks, it was fun.
• I like how the silver ink pops.
• Hats!

One of my new years goals is to document my work better. Probably the last 10 pieces I have done have gone undocumented - I get so excited to deliver the finished piece that I just skip it. And then of course regret it later.