It has been a great Spring Semester!  These are my final projects.

This is my Sculpture 1 Final Project.  "CAPTURED THOUGHTS" is made of Steel Rod and Yarn.  It measures 38"w x 46"h x 8"d.  

This is a detail of "CAPTURED THOUGHTS".

These three Oil Paintings are my final project for Seminar 1 this Spring Semester 2012.  The first is 30"x 40".  

The second Oil Painting is 48"x 48".

The third Oil Painting is 24"x 30".

Sculpture 1 Project 3

This is my PLASTER SCULPTURE. It is about 7 feet long x 5 feet wide x 7 feet tall, and I'm guessing about 200 pounds! This was not an easy project!

This sculpture expresses my belief, "We should reach out to children regardless of the difficulties that may arise. Sharing old memories to create new memories, and building relationships is certainly worth while."

Sculpture 1 Project 3

Seminar 1 Project #3, March 2012

Shimmer Stutter Space

(Descriptive Statement)

Layers of oils applied to the canvas by brush, knife and torn cardboard, working from darks to lights, then back again. Trying to achieve depth of space, shimmer and stutter. These paintings are loose interpretations of the repetitious pattern of my water bottles.

I applied new layers and glazes to tone down the color palette. I am not so sure these feel completed to me.

(Poetic Statement)

This common, everyday product, found everywhere, abandoned, left behind as waste. When collected and assembled into large groups, the empty water bottle becomes something to be admired and appreciated.

The repetition of the object becomes an intriguing pattern of material with an iridescent quality, as the light reflects from their surfaces and passes through the material of one bottle, then another. The shimmering, repetitious pattern is like no other, unique unto itself.

I love the idea of finding something intriguing about something that others pass by, or discard.

Weekend in East Tennessee

We spent the weekend near Dandridge, TN on Douglas Lake in East TN. We bought new fishing poles, . . . but we took mine back, cause it didn't work!!! While we were there, I shot a few photos with my phone of some fabulous clouds after the rain. So beautiful.

There is nothing like a cloud. You can't touch it or hold it. They are always changing, and are never the same. The thing I like most is, no one can mess them up! Anyone can appreciate a cloud anytime, anywhere!

Seminar 1 Project #2

For this project we were to "MOURN THE LOSS OF TWO BLUE BIRDS." I admit I did struggle a bit with this concept. During critique, it was said that I took it to literally.

Oh well, I enjoyed painting again. I chose to paint the blue birds in a super simplistic manner, using as few brush strokes as possible. I laid them in a repetitious grid. I love working with multiples.

I decided to just leave it simple. I do love minimalism. Well, critique is a blur. I'm not really sure how it went over, but I am ready to move on to the next project.

A few more photos from Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park, Southern California

This is a Joshua Tree.

A trip to Joshua Tree National Park, California

Wade & I flew out to Palm Springs, California last week for a convention. While we were there, we went to Joshua Tree National Park, in the desert of Southern California. This is where the very unusual Joshua Tree grows. The rock formations are AWESOME!

Sculpture 1 Project 2 Shrine of Memories These are my “Virginia, River Rocks.” They are precious to me. I love these rocks. I love everything abo

Shrine of Memories

These are my “Virginia, River Rocks.” They are precious to me. I love these rocks. I love everything about them. Each one is completely unique from the other, in color shape and size. To hold each one in my hands, feeling the texture or smoothness, the weight or lightness and the coolness of the stone, slowly taking on my warmth, always stirs me inside.

I have always collected “Rocks”. As a small child, I could search for hours, looking into the waters of any stream, creek or river I could get near, for those beautiful, treasures that brought great delight to my soul. I was fascinated at the power of the water to polish these rocks into smooth rounded stones that felt so nice in my hands.

I have bowls and boxes of rocks. But, of all of the stones I have collected, these are some of my most precious. It is because of where they came from.

My mother, whom I dearly loved, was from Virginia. As a child, our family would travel from the big city in New York, to the gorgeous country of Virginia to see her family, my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We made this journey every other year for our summer vacation, which we all looked forward to.

This trip always included the entire extended family trekking through the woods on a footpath, in the mountains where my uncle lived, wearing our swimsuits, sneakers and caring our towel around our necks. There was a beautiful rushing river near his home, through the most amazing forest of tall majestic pine trees that smelled like nothing else in the world. We would swim for hours in this river, (or pretend we could swim!). These were some of the best days ever.

I collected these rocks from that river, on my last visit, as an adult, after my mother died. I haven’t been back. I don’t know if I will ever return.

I built this wooden, shrine like structure, to hold and display these stones that represent so much to me; the land of my mother, memories of my innocence, peaceful family times, and the beauty of nature and all things good.

First Project 4 Seminar 1

This SCULPTURE is 54" high x 45" deep x 88" long, constructed completely of the same brand and size of water bottles.

My obsession with drinking clean water, led me to the realization of the “Plastic Waste” I was producing. Research of “Plastic Waste” opened my eyes to the horrific situation of our waterways, rivers and oceans. Top research scientists of our nation report that we are running out of clean drinking water fast. Beaches across the globe are covered in “Plastic Waste.” This “Plastic Waste” is killing fish, birds and other sea creatures, by entanglement and ingestion.

The orderly manner of the grid like system of color, pattern, number, texture and materials, reflects that of the orderliness of society, government and the legal system, all which turns a blind eye to this chaotic, seemingly uncontrollable problem.

The fluid and organic movement of the empty water bottles, mimics the oceans currants that move the “Plastic Wastes” across the globe.

I wanted to use these simple every day objects, that I was producing as waste, and create a beautiful, organic shape, with movement and luster, to bring attention to an everyday, everyone issue, that needs to be addressed more effectively.

First Project 4 Sculpture

This is my first project for Sculpture Class. We had to create a box with no nails or screws. I chose finger joints to hold my box together. Wow, not so easy! It measures 5"h x 4"d x 16"long. I thought it would be nice to hold some paint brushes.

Boxes are super hard to make, keeping all sides perfectly squared and even! When you see a beautiful handmade box in a shop, what ever they are charging for it, it is worth it!

Did I mention, they let us use POWER TOOLS!!!

Pages from my Drawing Journal 2011

These are a few pages from my Drawing Journal. The first pages are WATERCOLOR, COLLAGE and INK. Just having a little fun.

The second image is also WATERCOLOR, COLLAGE, PENCIL DRAWING and INK. If you click on the image, you may be able to read my silly poem!

The third image is WATERCOLOR and INK. Just doodling.

A Few Pages from my Sketch Journal of 2011

I had never worked in COLLAGE, so I thought I would play a bit in my journal.

These first pages are COLLAGE and PENCIL DRAWING.

The second image is WATERCOLOR, COLLAGE and the WINGS from the LOCUS that invaded our Spring. I found them to be quite beautiful.

The third image are two pages with PRISMACOLOR MARKERS of an image I saw at a winery in Sanoma, California. I loved the vivid colors and the simplicity.

Posting some older work

This is one of the first pieces I did in "Multiples." It is acrylic on canvas. Each mark was made with the same colors and physical movement, causing them to appear similar, yet, upon closer inspection, they are all completely different.

This is a detail of the TEXTURAL LAYERS of OIL PAINT.

This is an OIL ON CANVAS. Layers of Oil applied, by torn cardboard, finished with a grid of OIL GLAZE, completely applied with a cardboard square STENCIL.

Printmaking 101, Fall Semester 2011

This is a Screen Print and Oil on Canvas, of Paul and David. Printing on a stretched Canvas proved to have its own challenges.

Most challenging is, the Silkscreen is not attached by clamps to the table, to insure its stability. That left it up to me to hold the Screen COMPLETELY STILL, as I pulled the Acrylic Ink across the image, on to the canvas!

On this canvas, I played with layering mixtures of OIL, GAMSOL, & GALKYD OIL, along with some rubbing and sanding. I was pleased with the result.

Printmaking 101, Fall Semester 2011

I absolutely loved Printmaking!!! We were given such freedom to explore and create, make mistakes, and try to produce interesting work in this fabulous new medium! Printmaking has opened up endless possibilities, and a world of potential, just waiting for me!

This is a "Silkscreen" of John, Acrylic Ink on paper, 18"x 24". The PROCESS was amazing! From editing the photograph in Photo Shop, printing the image on to ACETATE, burning that image on to the SILK SCREEN, then learning to apply the ACRYLIC INK to the screen . . . just soooo. After hundreds of trys, I got a handful of nice prints!!! It is tougher than it looks!!!

This image is a two color POLYESTER LITHOGRAPH of Rikiya on Paper, 14"x 17". I did a line drawing with a sharpie on a frosted polyester, applied an oil based ink by roller, layed paper on top of the image, then HAND CRANKED the image through a PRESS!

This image was an earlier experimental Four Color MONO PRINT on Paper, 18"x 24". Floor Wax is applied to a frosted polyester sheet, oil ink is rolled on to the sheet, paper placed over the inked image, then HAND CRANKED THROUGH THAT PRESS! The process is repeated over with each color and image. The possibilities are endless!

January 9th, 2012

This is my 3rd successful piece in my "Magnification" Series, Oil on linen, 24"x 48", completed in 2011. I just hung it over my fireplace and I am enjoying it!

I came to relize that I enjoyed the close up, or magnified, edits of paintings, whether my own, or those I took in museums during our travels. So, I gave myself permission to begin creating layers after layers of oils, applied mostly with torn pieces of cardboard. Sanding, scraping, and reapplying glazeing of oils, were all a part of this delightful, experimental, thearapudic journey. Each canvas is unique, and the exploration and lessons learned are never the same! I look forward to what will happen next!