I know it's just Monday, but I want to reflect on the past week nonetheless. Signs of spring, a nice Easter weekend, drawing on eggs, alfalfa sprouts, a kitty food scoop I made in clay class, garden seedlings, Tom getting drinks from our fish pond, Matt making yummy dinner, sketchbook time, homemade cinnamon rolls, cactus blooms, and cats, cats, cats. All four of our cats make an appearance here. So, bits of what's going on around here. I hope it's lovely where you are. Thanks for stopping by today. :)
New prints and paintings in the shop
I just added some new favorites to my shop, including two new abstract fine art prints available in various sizes, two oil paintings, and just a few original works on paper. Go take a look!
Optical Echoes, a new collaboration
There was a time when I was greatly involved with online collaborations with friends and artists, most of them being between 2008-11. Some of you, whom I've known for years, may remember Noticing Project, Noticing Project {2009}, Echoes | A Collaborative Journal, What Remains Inside, Inspired, the Cup & Saucer Collective, and Tend. Then other than writing Water Paper Paint in 2009-10, there was no real reason that I can recall that this stopped, other than you know, life.
So when Tiel contacted me recently about a new project she was cooking up, I thought, "fun!", and was interested in being part of something with artists whom I have not yet worked. The project is called Optical Echoes and is comprised of six women artists, who take turns making a two dimensional work in any media, in response to the previous piece. Tiel kicked it off and my piece below is the fifth response. The ones before (and after) this can be seen on Tiel's blog, though soon I think the project will be housed on it's own site. Also, the works can be seen on Instagram under the #opticalechoes.
I'm looking forward to seeing the project develop and how the works will pick up strands from those before, like a running sentence. Each of the artists are greatly respected and immensely creative across disciplines. The participants are: Tiel Seivl-Keevers a painter and illustrator from Brisbane, Queensland-Australia; Cathy McMurray a painter and weaver from Portland, Oregon; Katherine Wheeler a ceramic artist from Bendigo, Victoria; Leslie Keating a textile artist in Melbourne, Australia; Lari Washburn a painter and textile designer from Wicasset, Maine; and myself from Lawrence, Kansas.
Here's to new collaborations with creatives near and far!
Sketchbook Wednesday
in sketchbook
A small collection of my recent sketchbook entries. The first one is from today, with the written thought, "If a painting's title could be a sound." In the second one (top right) I set up a color exercise by continually adding to one color, rather than hopping about the palette to whatever color I chose. So essentially, color + color + color, and so forth. This process made some muted values and tints that perhaps stretch a bit beyond my norm. And in the bottom right entry, sometimes I like to simply look at an object and draw it, in this case, flowers to beckon spring.
Pastel play
Last week at preschool we got out chalk and artist's pastels for the children to use and it lit a spark in me to dig out my old tackle box of pastels. So on Saturday, I did just that. (Sometimes I have to do things right away when I think of them, or it passes me by, or I get distracted, or instead do what I am supposed to be doing, which was finishing my taxes.) But anyway. So I found some drawing paper and spread out a little space on the floor. It's been many years, probably at least a dozen, since I've drawn with pastels. I like their softness, and something about them reminds me of gouache, and the loose dirt of New Mexico. Strange associations, perhaps. In recent weeks, Saturday afternoons have become a time when I allow for experimentation and exploring. It's exciting and reaffirming to do this. Also, I've been making some wood spoons, stirrers, and hair pins from scrap wood that my husband has. Sometime I'll show you those.
Your homework: Give yourself permission to do something different and play.