Daughter of Man

A little nod to Art History today.

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Daughter of Man
watercolor
8" x 10"

This painting is of a selfie my sister took. It is painted in watercolor on Arches 140lb paper. The minute I saw the image, I knew I wanted to paint it. I loved the hair, the negative spaces and the whites I saw but mostly . . .

The Son of Man by René Magritte

It IMMEDIATELY made me think of the painting, The Son of Man by René Magritte.

About his painting, -which is a self-portrait - Magritte said:  "Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present."

And what strikes me most is THIS statement of his, "Everything we see hides another thing, . . ." 

And that says volumes to me in 2016 on the social media footprints we leave and the lives we lead.

The Twelve Days

Last holiday season, I committed to creating something on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

I worked in paper collage, which is not my normal. But I loved it.

I cut several old watercolors and rearranged, glued, snipped and glued some more. I felt 7 years old again! It was sheer play. The old was re-purposed into something new, one could say.

On each of the Twelve Days of Christmas, a new collage was created. Each day I reflected on the season at hand.

And how it is symbolically portrayed in culture. . As I put together the traditional nativity scene, I thought much about poverty. And then also about the refugee crisis.

Fleeing and the need for shelter. What is it like to live in a war torn country, while we are surrounded by gifts and comfort? How can I even begin to understand?

The rose is a nod to the German hymn Es ist ein Ros' Entsprungen. On that day I thought of my mother and the fun German Christmas traditions she instilled in our home.

They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. The collage above had me thinking of first steps on long roads as new year's resolution season was underway. Mine was to increase my time painting. My productivity did increase but not as much as I had hoped. My inventory is still much lower than I'd like for it to be. And the ideas continue to come faster than I have time to execute them...

Anyway, I've been sorting through the collages this week. I'm actually making a postcard set out of them. I used to collect postcards when I was younger. I had shoe boxes full of them. I loved all the travels they depicted. The thoughtfulness of those who took time out of their vacation to send a note home impressed me.  I wanted to capture this 12 Day Series in that format.

The printed cards have not yet arrived, but I'll post more about where you can find the sets soon.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to creating another Twelve Day Series this year. I have ideas already at work for the theme!

Evelyn Claire

This little one was painted for her mother on her birthday, commissioned by her grandmother.  It's a joy to see the treasure she is and the delight she brings to the entire family!

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The painting is 4" x 4" and completed in watercolor. Then coated in a wax varnish. It's really difficult to give the smallness of these little miniatures justice in digital images. But this one is so cute!

Happy Birthday Becca! I hope you enjoy the finished piece as much as I enjoyed painting it for you!

Vainglory

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It began as I painted the beautiful plumage patterns. The shapes and markings oddly matched the sun spots I have.  We women of 40 years old have been taught they are our enemies. And I thought of the money, time and tangle of emotions we western culture ladies spend on battling aging.

Then I went to visit my grandmother in Germany and I saw the pain of arthritis on a daily basis. And it broke my heart.

Pause. Reset.

When in our society did aging lose its beautiful honor & wisdom? Why would we try to hide and fight against that? Perhaps because it frightens us?

So I am trying to live beyond myself. Learning to recognize which things in our lives give and which take.

Vainglory, I believe you are a thief.

watercolor

19" x 24"

(background hand drawn and painted, ... took FOREVER!)

From Across the Pond...And Looking Back

I recently had the privilege of painting a set of grandchildren for a special friend.

Three of the four happened to be British...The morning I went to photograph the three British children, they had arrived the night before from that long flight.

And it made me think of how excited I always was - as I child to go see my family in Germany. And how that was my normal !   Flying to another country to see family.

I now recognize that as an incredible gift and also how very difficult it is to be SO FAR from family.

So for my friend Jennifer, I hope these little paintings make all four of these sweet grands of yours feel close when miles may make it seem and feel otherwise.

All four have such distinct personalities but I can tell each one of these little ones adore you to the moon and back!

Cleaning up the Desktop

I've been determined to streamline and clean up my personal computer's desktop. I'm also sorting through old pictures and images. And boy, the memories.

Here's a few.

Sophmore year of High School. 1992 Ms. Plaxco's Class. Katherine Hudson sat behind me. And I loved this acrylic painting assignment. Image was taken out of some torn out magazine ad, I think... But seeing it takes me back. I remember lipstick colors, AP European History, some of the best of friends and the sense of independence only a driver's license can provide. (Side note: Katherine and I went to see U2 in Concert in Birmingham, AL on a SCHOOL NIGHT! - Now as a parent, I think twice about that. But an interesting fact: my now husband was also at that concert.)

Collage, Acrylic, 1992

Friendship. I have some of the greatest of friends. And this was painted in celebration of that.

Talueek, watercolor and ink, 2007

And then this one. I painted this for a friend based off of Psalm 23. This one makes my heart still for a moment. She showed me goodness, strength and love when I most needed to see that.

Psalm 23, watercolor, pencil and ink, 2007

And this one is so strange to me. It's bright and colorful but it was painted as I waited for some of my mother's test results to come back during her battle with cancer. I felt as if my family was navigating through uncharted waters without a map or destination that could be seen nor understood.

Fluid Utopia, watercolor, 2018

Asian Girl in the Middle, watercolor, 2008

What Color are You?, watercolor, 2008

Lyrics of Lascaux 3, Watercolor, 2008

A Black Tie Affair, watercolor, 2007

There's No Place Like Home, watercolor, 2008

The Homeplace, Watercolor, 2008

Consider the Sparrow, watercolor, 2013

Relentless Prayer, watercolor and acrylic medium, 2015

On #100Days

"Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind."  -Nathaniel Hawthorne

I followed the trend. #100dayproject

On Instagram, these people committed to a 100 day project. I felt this would be a brilliant way to commit to practicing art and it would instill good habits. Tiffany Thomas being the most inspiring with all her beautifully captured abstract paintings.

I recently also read that Khaled Hosseini would wake up EARLY in the morning to find the time to write his best selling book, The Kite Runner and still tend to his day job.

That balance to find time for creating (aka sanity) and still tend to the chores of the day is so ... so... desired but yet so difficult to attain. For me there was/is so much to paint and learn! And knowing that time is one of our most valuable assets, I wanted to use and claim it, not squander it.

So I committed to 100 studio mornings.  And it has proven to be so much more than simply time for creating and good habits.

Things I learned these 100 days:

• posting for 100 days is really difficult - especially as my subject matter began to be paintings that were not for the entire planet to know about -many a random studio object became the center of the post
• perfection is a time and energy warp and those Instagram editing options and filters fuel the need to capture everything just right. ugh. I gave up on that after a while.
• I do LOVE a #hashtag. I'm still not sure why and most days I want to #watercolor in every language possible
• I'm a better artist in the morning than I am late at night. I blame my 40 year old eyes. Hello reading glasses.
• I wake up easily without an alarm clock because I am waking up to something I enjoy
• I like and need to be completely ALONE in quiet spaces often-so finding time to paint early in the morning, helps prevent my being a troll the other hours of the day.
• I have learned why I make art and what it is that I am after in the process
• I discovered new things to study and explore
• This quickly became a sacred time for me. Time for praying, meditating, pondering.

All to say, I have loved the process though there were times in the midst of it, that I was ready to be done with it. Mainly because of the posting aspect and not knowing what to put out there.

Here a look back at my first little full of energy and good intention filled post beginning the process. It feels very long ago! Now, I have only two days left. It has increased my productivity, my drawing skills have improved and I've learned a new thing or two about watercolor as well.

A few years ago, I learned to love watercolor from Tom Herzog. He encouraged our class then to commit to painting or drawing each day for at least ten minutes. I get it now, why that is so important and I completely agree.