Miles to Go

12" x 12" Mixed Media on Wood 

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep."

  -- Robert Frost

Her Kind

Her Kind

by Anne Sexton

I have gone out, a possessed witch,

haunting the black air, braver at night;

dreaming evil, I have done my hitch

over the plain houses, light by light:

lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.

A woman like that is not a woman, quite.

I have been her kind.

I have found the warm caves in the woods, 

filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,

closets, silks, innumerable goods;

fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:

whining, rearranging the disaligned.

A woman like that is misunderstood.

I have been her kind.

I have ridden in your cart, driver,

waved my nude arms at villages going by,

learning the last bright routes, survivor

where your flames still bite my thigh

and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.

A woman like that is not ashamed to die.

I have been her kind.

This is one of my favorite poems by Anne Sexton. I think I may have even used it before in an art piece. There is a recording here of her reading it. I love to hear poets reading their work! *sigh* Anyway, I was inspired again by the poem (It hangs above my work table along with a million others).

I have never tried drawing with a calligraphy pen. This was my first attempt. Thanks to Misty Mawn's class I'm trying out new ways to draw. The hardest part was trying to figure out how to hold the darn thing and getting it to make some marks. I kept dropping it. Yes, I'm clumsy but that has nothing to do with it.  ;-)  I finally got the hang of it (somewhat). It's the final week of class and so far I think this is my favorite. This is mixed media week and anything goes. That also goes for this painting. Anything and everything went onto it: inks, stamping, paint, collage... whatever I could fling, throw and paint onto it. Fun! 

I'll be leaving this weekend to visit my friend in Ohio. One week in Columbus! Yay! Can't wait to get going. That means another trip to Blick Art Supply. I've been making a list and clearing room in my car trunk.  ;-) 

This is also my entry for Paint Party Friday (and I'm a day early!). Tomorrow be sure to stop by and check out all the other entries. Have a great weekend everybody! 

Changing Direction

Mysteries, Yes

by Mary Oliver

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous 

to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the 

mouths of the lambs.

How rivers and stones are forever

 in allegiance with gravity

while we ourselves dream of rising.

How two hands touch and the bonds will

never be broken.

How people come, from delight or the

scars of damage,

to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those

who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say 

"Look!" and laugh in astonishment,

and bow their heads.

I am trying out some new ideas in my paintings. Thus the title of the post; and it fit the painting as well. ;-) For this new year I thought I'd experiment with some different themes and see where those take me. I'm wanting to grow in all areas of my art and I'm also taking some workshops to help with those goals. This is also my entry for Paint Party Friday. It doesn't happen often but I'm a day early! 

Heal

I Want 

by Mary Oliver

I want to be

in partnership

with the universe

like the tiger lily

poking up

its gorgeous head

among the so-called

useless weeds

in the uncultivated fields

that still abide.

But it's okay

if, after all,

I'm not a lily,

but only grass

in a clutch of curly grass

waving in the wind,

staring sunward: one of those

sweet, abrasive blades.

This is my (late) entry for Paint Party Friday. Check out all of the wonderful entries from the other artists. You won't be disappointed! 

Feeling Like Alice...

"Because it feels like I have just woke up

In a world where down is up

And up is a long way from here..."

Lisa Mitchell, Alice in Wonderland

This just about sums up how I've been feeling lately: upside down! Can't seem to get it together no matter what I do. So I painted a girl with her head all messed up; just like me.  ;-) Actually, I do sit with my head tilted like this a lot. Hmmm... could explain a few things. 

Anyway, this is my entry for Paint Party Friday. I was also inspired by the song Alice in Wonderland, by Lisa Mitchell. I've included that as well. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'm off to visit your blogs now! It may take me a few days but I intend to get to you all. Big HUGS!! 

Circus Girl

I'm back from vacation and slowly getting settled into my routine. I had a fantastic time visiting with my friends and just soaking up all the fun in my hometown. Of course the time went too fast and I was sad to leave (as always). I'm planning another trip in November so that will keep my spirits up.

Katie Kendrick's class has ended and I really enjoyed it! She's a wonderful teacher and I'm eagerly awaiting her book that is coming out in January (I think). This is a mixed media piece I just finished using a background I did from Katie's class.

I'm also taking a class from Jane Davenport called Supplies Me. It's an awesome class. I confess to buying many art supplies and then once I get them home, I'm not quite sure what to do with them... Jane is an admitted art supply hound and she shows you exactly what to do with all of those supplies!

This week we are experimenting with pastels. I've never used them before so I thought I would try Jane's technique and see if I could do a figure in pastels. This girl just popped up. I've had a poem in my head called The Circus Watcher, by Mary Jo Bang and I was thinking about that as I was sketching, so I guess this is my Circus Girl.  ;)

Thank you all for your kind thoughts on my Aunt's passing and on my last painting. They meant very much to me. Big HUG to all of you! I plan on catching up with all of your blogs this week.

Playing With Graphite

After a long, dry spell I'm slowly working my way back into the studio. This was an experiment with graphite powder and acrylics. Fun, but messy. ;-) I'll be doing more with the graphite. I'm still mixing it with other media and playing. I saw these lines in a poem called Statuary by Katherine Larson and was inspired:

"The late cranes throwing 

their necks to the wind stay

somewhere between

the place that rain begins

and the place that it ends

they seem to exist just there

above the horizon at least

I only see them that way

tossed up

against the gray October

light ... "

I also took a tumble down the five steps that lead into our garage while I was unloading groceries from the car. Yes, I landed in a big pile on the concrete floor. My knees and wrists took the brunt of the fall so it could have been worse.  I'm on the mend now. I haven't fallen in a while. It always scares me when I do. No broken bones, just many bruises and a swollen knee.  :(

The Summer stupor has started to wear off and now I'm beginning to feel the energy that always seems to accompany the beginning of Fall. It's about time! I have a few things in the works and hope to have something to share later this week. 

Ghosts

Playing with layers again. Torn papers, tissue paper, collage and paint. Then scratched into the layers after that. Loving the work of Jeanne Bessette lately. Thank you, Micael, for sending me the link! This is my current obsession: figurative abstract. Even hubby likes it! ;) So I may be doing a lot more on this theme. We'll see...

Alone

Here is my entry for this week's Paint Party Friday. I'm posting it early because I don't know how long I'll be able to access my blog. I've been locked out of Blogger for the past three days. I couldn't access my own blog or comment on anyone else's. That made me very unhappy, cranky and many other things I won't go into... So while I can still sneak in here I am posting now. ;)

This piece has so many layers on it I lost count. Fun! Tissue paper, paint, ink, rub-ons, stamps, everything within reach went onto the canvas. It also helped me to use up some of those supplies I've been neglecting. Make sure to check out all of the other entries at PPF tomorrow. The party seems to get bigger each week!

A Turbulent Girl

"And there's a

turbulent moon-ridden girl

or old woman, or both,

dressed in opals and rags, feathers

and torn taffeta,

who knows strange songs

but she is not kind."

--from In Mind by Denise Levertov

This is my painting for Paint Party Friday. I've been working on it all week. I could not get this poem by Levertov out of my head, particularly this verse. Once again I've done a mixed media piece. This is on a 12" x 12" panel. It's close to what I had in mind. This girl has been haunting me for a while now so I had to get her out of my head.

The painting is inspired by the poem In Mind by Denise Levertov. The beginning of the poem talks about a different type of woman. One who is "fair-featured...very clean without ostentation." Well, I wasn't feeling much from that. But I LOVE the poem. After I read the part of the poem that I reference above, I started to get another picture in my head and that is what haunted me.

I've had a few reference photos in my files for possible "models" to use for my turbulent girl. I didn't want a pretty girl. I wanted someone who "is not kind" as the poem says. Someone you would probably avoid if you saw on the street. She and I have been wrestling all week...anyway, I think I finally have her out of my system. Now maybe I can move on to other things.  ;)

The Ledge

Ledge

by Kay Ryan

Birds that love

high trees

and winds

and riding

flailing branches

hate ledges

as gripless

and narrow,

so that a tail

is not just

no advantage

but ridiculous,

mashed vertical

against the wall.

You will have

seen the way

a bird who falls

on skimpy places

lifts into the air

again in seconds --

a gift denied

the rest of us

when our portion

isn't generous.

This is my painting for Paint Party Friday. I tried a new technique that involved LIGHT molding paste; something I've never used before. I loved the results it gave for the background. Unfortunately when you add water it reactivates the paste. I don't think that is true with regular molding paste.  Anyway, I wasn't familiar enough with the medium to paint over top of it without "messing up" my background once I had it the way I liked it, so I had to improvise. I painted my bird on watercolor paper and collaged both the bird and the branch. So this week it's a mixed media piece! Be sure to check out the other artists tomorrow. The entries grow each week and there are some awesome artists out there!  ;)

Sudden Flight

This is my painting for Paint Party Friday. It's 12" x 12" mixed media on panel. I'm getting it posted early! It's a tribute to my mother. Her birthday is April 2 and she would have turned 71. She died suddenly seven years ago April 4. I am now able to view it like a sudden flight. One day she was with us and the next, she was gone. I wish I could have said goodbye but at least we had talked on her birthday a couple of days before.

I try to do some kind of art piece each year in honor of her birthday. Even though Spring is here, the colors seem a little muted right now. I usually cheer up and get in the flow of things after the first weeks of April have passed. So for right now, the girl in the painting is dressed for Spring but not quite feeling it...

Be sure to check out all of the participants for Paint Party Friday tomorrow. Last week there was a big response! It's fun to check out the blogs and see what everyone painted.  :)

Scarred

This painting was in response to an art prompt by my good friend Rabbit. The prompt was actually a music video by Christina Perri singing the song "Jar of Hearts" (great song!). There was so much inspiration from that video alone...I just started playing around with paints and papers and ended up with this.  :)

So while I've been working on this and having so much fun with it, I should have been working on my next painting assignment for my class...it has me totally stumped and I'm now looking for something else to use as an excuse not to start that painting... That's not totally true, but I am scratching my head over the assignment. Happily, my sister is in town visiting and I can put off thinking about it for a few more days at least.

If I can't come up with any other ideas, I wonder if my instructor will let me use this as my painting...may be worth a try!

Taking Flight

11 x 14, Mixed Media on Canvas

Heavenly Whispers

This is my finished painting. I wanted to have it completed by April 2. My Mom would have turned 70 on that day and I try to make one piece of art dedicated especially to her each year since she passed away. I can't believe it's been six years...still seems so recent.

This painting was yet another stretch for me in the watercolor medium. I used both watercolor paints and pencils for her. I like the blending that you can get with the pencils and I find the paints to still be a challenge. I wanted her to have a stylized look; not so much a "realistic" color to her face.

The surprising thing was a note that was left on the painting yesterday morning. Hubby wrote such a sweet, encouraging note to me. It just made my day and made the painting that much more special.

For finishing touches, I added some tulips from some decorative napkins and then used a palette knife to lay down a heavy layer of acrylic paint. Finally, I sprinkled on some mica flakes to give it an ethereal feel.

This painting is dedicated to my Mom, Phyllis Carolyn Storer, who passed away much too early at the age of 64 in 2004. I love you, Mom and this is how I feel everyday...wondering about how it must be for you in Heaven right now! :)

Stairway To Heaven

Here is the finished painting. After several stops and starts I think it is now finished for good. I decided to make it in memory of my Mom, who I know would have liked it. Hopefully she can look down from Heaven every now and then and know I'm always thinking about her. :)

There is a lot of texture to this one! Suzi Blu had us piling on the media in this lesson. Let's see, there's a bunch of modeling paste, some water soluble oil pastels, three different colors of Liquitex inks, colored pencils and lots of paints (these are just the things I can remember). I didn't have the Light Modeling Paste that Suzi called for, so I had to go with the regular. It's not too bad. I like the way it took to the inks, oil pastels and paints.

Here are a couple of closeups to get a better view of all that texture:


It was my first time working with the Portfolio water-soluble oil pastels. They take a while to cure (I found out the hard way). But any "mistake" only lends itself to the aged look of the piece, I think. The intent was to give her an aged, fresco-like appearance. I put some modeling paste on her face in certain spots and all over her "hair". This was definitely an experiment in how to work with the media. I have to say I LOVE working on the wood again. Good thing hubby has cut up a bunch of different sizes for me. ;)

Overall, I like the way she turned out. I used my standby favorite colors again: blues, purples and some pinks. Ooh, plus the Golden's Interference colors in Violet and Blue. I want to take a bath in that stuff. LOVE it!!

I'm working on a couple of different journals right now: the Goddess Journal plus a new book and theme that really has me excited. Will post images from both books soon.