A few scenes from the first day...

at Open Studios '08.

Open Studios-- less than 24 hours!

inspiration

These are all pics I've shot over the last month or so in the yard, or on walks... assembled in a fast photoshop collage. You will no doubt recognize some of them in the little abstractions below. While the shapes were suggested by things in the immediate visible world, I like that they can become suggestive of things both much smaller and larger...

I was trying to remember a Picasso quote I've liked; what I remembered was: "I don't imitate nature, I work like her". A google search (of course) took me to his full quote, which follows.

The papier collé (collage) was really the important thing...one of the fundamental points about Cubism is this: not only did we try to displace reality. Reality was in the painting...We always had the idea that we were realists, but in the sense of the Chinese who said, “I don't imitate nature; I work like her.”

(click on this image to enlarge it)

small abstractions

I spent most of the winter & spring (well aside from that Burning Man deal) working abstractly, experimenting and generally having a good time. As you may (or may not) remember, in early winter I was doing small paint & collage pieces on paper. After a hiatus during which I did lots of other work on paper, I decided to continue the small pieces, but on wood panels (prepared by my lovely assistant). As you can see, the results were very different.
More of that intervening work will post soon.

bees & birds & botany

...a couple more paintings inching towards completion.

When Tony and I moved to Sonoma County five and a half years ago, we asked ourselves how the change (I had been living in a warehouse studio in an industrial neighborhood of Berkeley) might affect our painting.

We're much closer to nature--& our new place allowed plenty of space for me to indulge my urge to garden. As the garden grows, so ever more wildlife is enticed to visit, and is gradually showing up in paintings as well. Plant forms have long been there.

Some of the plants in these pieces-- mullein, honeysuckle, castor bean, and chickory, derive from a book entitled 'Common Weeds', though we grow most of them in the yard. I'm reminded of the quote: "A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered", attributed to Emerson.

over on Tony's side...

Here's Tony workin' away at the other end of the studio, having fun with some smaller pieces... The one he's showing at the Sebastopol Center Preview Show appears at right.

Tiffany Bozic Film

Here's a beautifully filmed little piece (by Todd Bell) about Tiffany Bozic, and one of her paintings below...
via Juxtapoz online.

"cerulean warbler"

Open Studios coming up means a time for revisiting and finishing up pieces started perhaps some time ago. This little piece was started in October of last year.

For the bird I used as reference a photo from a series of 1897 magazines bound together in albums, and passed down to me by my mother from my grandfather's collections. I can't help but think how different the context was for the reader of these magazines in their day. Tucked into the books are articles on birds clipped from newspapers, and a handwritten list of bird names and sightings.

The painting is done on a bit of embroidered fabric, collaged onto a small canvas. The insects are recent arrivals on the scene.

(top image scanned right from the painting; below it is the whole piece; at left, pages from the magazines)

now showing @...

I have a small display of paintings (6 pieces, mostly 'stripe' series) up in a beautiful new architecture/design office in downtown Sebastopol, where friend Ken Berman's work is also on display. It's right around the corner from Screaming Mimi's (a local ice cream landmark), and a block or two from the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. I was tickled to see that a couple of the paintings show up here, in the background of Lars' card. (and Lars seems like a really nice guy, if you should need any architectural services!) Show organized thanks to Leslie of Frame of Mind! (one of Ken's pieces is seen to the right.)



Over at the Seb Center (as we like to call it) the preview show for Art at the Source is up, so that visitors can see works of art in person as they chart their course of art-viewing, catalog & map in hand.
There will be a reception with plenty of artists milling about this Friday-- er, tomorrow...

Rauschenberg R.I.P.

“I usually work in a direction until I know how to do it, then I stop. At the time that I am bored or understand — I use those words interchangeably — another appetite has formed. A lot of people try to think up ideas. I’m not one. I’d rather accept the irresistible possibilities of what I can’t ignore.” RR.

it's coming: Art at the Source

Yes, mark your calendars, it's coming around again-- another round of Open Studios, and a chance to visit during the peak of the bloomingest season in our yard...
May 31 & June 1; June 7 & 8.

I know it's been pretty quiet on this page, but I'll be starting to input more images as this event nears.
And better yet, if you can, come see the work in its native setting!

(above is the card I put together-- inadvertently matching my background color here quite closely. And if you click on it, you'll see some works in progress, BIG)

Emerging

Both Tony & I were honored to be nominated for this year's 'Emerging Artsits' of Sonoma County Awards... along with several of our friends! And although none of us made it to the final three, we'll be participating in this 'Emerging Visions' event on Saturday, in downtown Santa Rosa.


Stop by & say hello if you're in the neighborhood!

frozen in New York

Love this.

via Maryam of My Marrakesh, just for the beauty of it.

A lighting shop in Istanbul.

"Close Calls" at the Headlands

There's a reception for this show on Sunday, which may even be a rain-free day. So if you've been getting the cabin fever, a trip to the Marin Headlands is an excellent cure. (Tony & I watched the sunset there a few weeks ago, magnifique!! Just what the doctor ordered, and even walked out onto the Golden Gate Bridge, like true tourists)

CLOSE CALLS: 2008
Opening Reception: Sunday Feb 3, 2-5 pm
January 13 to February 25
Where: Headlands Center for the Arts
944 Fort Barry Sausalito, CA 94965

Visit the Headlands site here for a slide show of much of the work in the exhibit. There's also a good description about the show found here.

Here's our view on the GG Bridge near sunset. What you can't tell about the little bridge image on the card above: it's a photo of a bridge made in jello, with christmas lights. Yes, jello.

currently loving this

little gouache painting by Julie Evans, an artist I just discovered online. It's small-- 12 x 12". An American painter, she learned techniques of Indian miniature painting on one of several trips there. And apparently, she creates some of her designs on a spirograph. Remember spirograph?

Remember this one?

Scanning back through my archives for a little personal, year-in-review, I am reminded that I started this painting last January. Somewhere along the line, it got put on Indefinite Hold, as other things seemed more interesting, or more pressing. But I've started up on it again, and as so often happens after a long break, it's now been easy to make big changes...

amidst storms, work continues...

visiting other studios...

For today's Studio Views, I send you over to sfgirlbybay's interview with Scott Yeskel of LA.

'Cause we love photos of paintings just leaning around, and because he appears to go back and forth happily between painting abstractly, and... not so much.

Curating the Burning Man Show...

I've alluded to this a few times here, and activities around making this show happen at the SRJC are really ramping up.

Bringing Back the Fire:
Art & Community at
Burning Man & Beyond
... will open February 21/22 at the new JC Gallery.

It's been... alternately exciting, challenging, frustrating, and exciting. So many things I would do differently if I had known then what I know now... but I know the fun part is coming up!!

Now the show has it's own blog!
(photo above, steve fritz: Celtic Forest by Laura Kimpton & Co.)