Bernie Berlin is Coming!

I was so excited when I read on Bernie's blog that she is coming to Massachusetts. My daughter and I are going to the Boston area Sunday to take her class on altered books! I am beyond excited!!! I love Bernie's art and her book on art cards. Plus, I have so much respect for her amazing work rescuing dogs and cats. And altered books?? Well.... I can't wait to see what she has for us in that regard.

May Basket Swap

It has been raining and gusting and even snowing some here today so I have blocked it all out by working on my May basket swap that Keri (Artsy Mama) is hosting. So far I've painted little eggs and wooden "pots" made a bow and played around with several other bits and pieces. Daughter Jess is also participating in this swap so it has been fun to brainstorm with her. My swap partner is Natalie. I've explored her blog a bit and I'm anxious to learn more about her and her art. The whole swap group has a Flicker group as well where people are posting pics of the progress on their baskets as we go along. Great fun. Wonderful of Kari to host this!

Festive Banner

I have my fingers in so many pies! I realized today that I never posted a picture of my Easter banner. It's not heavily embellished as I made it around mid-night on Easter eve but it brightened up the fireplace.

Sick-Amour

Artist and art professor, Joel Tauber has a video installation about his guerilla gardener efforts to save an old sycamore tree in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl. Go Joel !!!

Wonder what would happen if every blogging artist and gardener out there sent him $10 to expand his efforts and /or flooded the city of Pasadena with letters supporting Joel's proposal to further protect and care for this tree ? The power of the internet!?

Philip Johnson's Glass House to Open!

I am really excited to learn that Philip Johnson's Glass House as well as other buildings on the surrounding 47 acres will open to the public beginning in June 2007. Located fairly near to me in New Canaan, CT I am definitely going to put this on my list of "must do" this summer.

Palm Sunday Art Piece

Here are a few shots of my completed and installed art piece done for Palm Sunday at First Church of Hadley. Yes, it really is the first church, established by the people who settled Hadley, Massahcusetts, on the Connecticut River, in 1659. That's early for the U.S. of A. The current building hails from 1810.

The piece depicts Jewish pilgrims entering one of the Jerusalem city gates for the Passover Celebration, as Jesus did on Palm Sunday. Inside the gate however, awaits not a celebration, but the "jaws of death." In the distance, there are storm clouds and vultures overhead on one side, while 3 mountains (Trinity) out the other side. On the stormy hillside are 3 crosses. On the sunny hillsides there are flowers, a flock of sheep and one lost sheep with a shepherd approaching. A white dove overlooks the entire scene. The piece is made from multiple pieces of wood, layered with paint & papers. The pilgrims are made from swatches of fabric shaped with heavy gel medium. The mouth is recessed 1.5 " in a black shadow box.

The 7 little "memory boxes" in front of the art piece are embellished with glittered designs and each contains some item to recall an event that occurred during holy week: a piece of bread for the last supper, flowers for the garden of Gethsemane, silver coins for Judas's betrayal, a branch with thorns for the crown of thorns, nails for the crucifixion, an empty cross for when Jesus was taken down, dead and buried and lastly, a stone for the tomb that was sealed with a boulder. The boxes were opened by 7 children during the children's messgae where I spoke about the very difficult and sad week that Jesus, his family and friends had between Palm Sunday and Easter/ Ressursection Sunday. It is my contention that when we focus in on what occurred this Monday -Saturday, then Easter morning has signifcantly more meaning for us.

This is the first time I have done an art piece for a church service and where I had the oppotunity to explain it to an audience.

Sneak Preview

Here are a couple of shots of the Palm Sunday piece I am working on. Things are in a very preliminary stages, each piece being only in step 2 or 3 of a 12+ step process. Curious? Check back later this week for more.

Palm Sunday Installation

I'm working on an art piece for my church on Palm Sunday. I have the idea sketched out and have the actual piece started. It will be a mixed media piece, about 2' by 3' on wood, all related to the happenings of Holy week. There will also be 10 little memory boxes, each holding some item that reflects some aspect of the week's events. Yikes, I'm a bit overwhelmed with the thought of it; I have a lot to do. Pictures forthcoming. Check back later this week.

Recent Endeavours

I have not yet done this week's C of C challenge. Lots of collections around my house but how to chose one, what to do with it for the challenge, how to depict it, I keep going round and round. Hopefully something will jell. Meanwhile here are a couple of other recent endeavors.

C of C Challenge: Inspire

I have been diverted away from doing my art by other life demands... the new semester began at the University and I am teaching 2 classes... but I am back! Yeah!

I am inspired by so much of what I see in other's work; two things I am longing to try when I get my official art space set up are female icons and little shrines in Altoid tins. Meanwhile tho, I have been recently inspired by all the beautiful Valentine projects I am seeing on the blogs. So, I pulled out some supplies and tried my hand at it. I plan to surprise a few folks with these in the coming week.

Cabinet of Curiosity- Prompt #3

The Cabinet of Curiosity Prompt #3 was based on the idea of dreams. Not the night-time ones but the ones that encompass things we dream of doing or accomplishing.

This time of year is when I starting dreaming of the warmer, longer days of Spring when I can get my hands back into the dirt and the perennials begin to show their heads once again. This year I am also dreaming of the things I have planned for the new gardens I have been establishing: the water feature, the expanded beds and more.

Here is the 4x6 collage I created with this dream in mind. I'd love to just wander down the path, enter through the tiny gate and wander into this dream.

Cabinet of Curiosity- Prompt #2

Prompt #2 for the challenge was "Curiosity"

(( Sorry. I scanned and re-posted this. It is properly rotated on my hard drive but not here and no matter what I do I cannot get it to rotate horizontally))

The challenge was to create a piece using a several step process. In this challenge the steps/ process and sequence was determined by drawing word cards with directives, such as "paint' or "pen" or "paper." I found this was a real challenge for me b/c I usually create my pieces beginning with one idea (picture, word) and flow from there spontaneously. I also ended up with a piece that is fuller and busier than what I usually find myself doing. So, I have mixed feelings about the outcome. That being said, it was a good exercise for me to stretch, and to seek ways to integrate many steps and processes into one piece. So, here is the product of what was truly "experimentation" for me.

I chose the word "Create" as my starting point and my inspiration piece (colors etc) was a picture of a bouquet of pansies. I included a picture of Luther Brubank fairly predominantly. He embodies the word create; he is responsible for the hybridization and proliferation of the Shasta daisy in the late 19th century.

The words on the 4 x 6 piece (in case you cannot read them in the digital pic) are:
"Create" "a five day conversation piece." And: "diverse, interesting, experimentation prevents decay."

Cabinet of Curiosity #1 - EXPLORE!

Something new for me: I am going to try my hand at an art blog challenge - Cabinet of Curiosity. I am a week behind but here is my response to the the first prompt: Explore. This is a 2 piece card set (4x6 each) based on old photos and maps of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -- dissected and re-configured and then embellished. I had the opportunity to explore there, for just a couple of days, many years ago and just maybe I will return to explore some more. If I do I would like to more exploration of the beaches (hence the emerald sea reference) and the botanical gardens.

This is a digital pic of my piece, as my scanner is not set up at the moment. The pic doesn't capture it all... the chalk embellishment for instance, just doesn't come thru. Hopefully it will give you the idea.

Experimentation & more.....

This weekend I've been doing a bit of experimenting, making backgrounds for a new tryptic, painting tyvek and also working on an item to be donated to the auction for pups and mew-mews (see previous post). Here's a quick look-see for you. Let me know what you think. I find myself moving between a wide variation of styes from folksy to more edgy. I have also been with making my own stickers using Baird's tiny Xyron & making circles cut with my new Fiskar's circle cutter, as you can see.

Still Creating

I've been working mostly on a 3D piece. It is a wooden purse that I am collaging inside and out. I have in my mind to send it to Bernie Berlin for the art auction to support her dog and cat rescue "A Place to Bark." She has some expensive surgeries coming up on a few of the pets. There's a link to her page if you want to see what I am talking about.

Meanwhile, here is another 4x6 piece I made recently, entiteld: France, inspired by some old maps I had on hand. And another entitled: Angel, inspired by... hmmm... some piece of art I viewed somewhere during the holidays I think.