"Before I die let's draw"

One of the last things on the list Steve wanted to do was visit Dave Gaudette's Front Range Boxing Academy and draw the boxers sparring. Out Pearl Street in a quanset hut, we sat among punching bags and racks of jump ropes at the edge of one of the rings. Steve was ecstatic. Standing and drawing and chatting the whole time. He is at the edge of the watercolor.
My watercolor on map isn't for sale.
The sketches are Steve's. What I think is really interesting is the way we approached the subject- I drew contour lines of the outer edges and Steve stripped the fighters to their inner core of muscles and bone. Outside in and inside out...ain't art great?

Colorado Cats

Painted and drawn on map, 9 x 9.75 inches
Went for a long hike in the foothills, up a canyon, across creeks. The Conti-Carilli family provided snacks and imagination. Little Mo was collecting for a fairy fortress. The magic was everywhere. Bea was hoping Delilah wouldn't become mountain lion food. It can be a cat-eat-dog world. You never know what the next turn will bring. The massive skies (which we do not have back east), puts your body in ludicrous perspective.

Star Peak Stables, Colorado

A little rest in the mountains- painted on a Colorado road map. With each switch back leaving the plains below me, I felt myself lifted up to the bliss of sky and rock. I was able to soak up new country music, ride a horse, eat massive amounts of pancakes, and swap stories with my God daughter, God son, and good friends from college. My muse is in those boots.

Heart beat and Steve

So, in Colorado I hung out with Steve. He looked great. I painted him on a Boulder city map, with his twig tea and his long distance chess game. Behind him is a sketch of one of his grandest, deliriously lovely paintings of the range with Eldorado canyon at the bottom...and a poignant carefully painted smudgy spot where tradition has it climber's ashes are flung. So will his be flung. On another day I painted his art table, and so snuck in another peak at a mountain painting. Flatirons? The heart monitor strip weaves through out the picture. Steve says he won't miss his body- he thinks of it as just a vehicle and that soon he will move into another, less painful form. But I will miss his body- especially the way he stands with his feet splayed out when he takes a long look at something, the way his hands firmly orchestrate in conversation, and the way his eyebrows raise as he waits for his point to hit home. I'll miss his laughter, which often follows, and the long mischeviously-drawn out stories that ramble and slap you with the punch line.
I wish I were better at trusting Time, and able to graciously accept settling for memories. I hate that Time marches on. I want to ignore the new weaknesses. (I left out the oxygen tubes, tanks, the medications, etc) I've always hated saying goodbye, and I want to do this well and I don't know what the hell I am doing! Will the maps, the monitor strips, any of it help? The daily painting does help me slow down and commit to find symbols for each day...
Both pictures are 9 x 9 3/4 watercolor and pencil and ink with maps and collage on paper. Not for sale.

So much to do- lists

SOLD
Collaged To-do lists, watercolor, and pencil, 9 x 9 3/4 inches

Fencing Heart

painted on wood cut out
Heart matters. Have loved seeing friends, the foothills, the campus... and yet I miss my boys, my home. Fly home from Denver tonight...

Intimate Obit

SOLD
PAINTING on a map, with collage
I am going to take a break from the blog for a little while because I am not feeling centered, or strong enough, to know what to share anymore. Or really, what to paint, either. I will be back soon- thank you for your patience.

Oar

I am so lucky to have such wonderous friends. And I get gifts! Over coffee yesterday Michael G. gave me an oar- with eyeballs and shards of glass- to see and cut through anywhere! So I don't need to be so lousy with directions...Or lost. I feel armed and ready. I am heading to Colorado in the morning. May not be posting as regular for a while, as I am traveling light- without the laptop, there's enough baggage in my soul!

Lazy Sunday friends

It's a lazy day- I'm practically in my PJ's. I read the whole NY Times in one sitting. There is, somewhere around here, a penned list of things I "should'a done" but I can't seem to locate it. Max watches TV (the Daytona 500) and Bruizer watches me. It's sleeting outside and I don't think Spring will ever arrive but I feel in my gut that Monday will get here soon enough.

Word Nest

Sometimes my mind just jumbles with a mess of words (worries and musings) and I swirl them about and make myself comfy.
paint, ink, collage and paper

Baggage

Lighten up can be an aggressive command for someone with lots of baggage. 9 x 9 3/4 inches, ink, watercolor, collage on paper

Veiled installation...wait for 4/2/08

John Haas my welder buddy came to help move the mural this morning. Dad plowed behind the barn and my husband even followed along! We finally, after years, got the art to the station! Now the unveiling will be on April 2. The union guys secured the work to wall and floor and predicted it wouldn't last the night with vandals...I left it there with a heavy feeling in my chest. I just have no control over what happens next. I hope the world is a better place than those guys think...
I have to think positive! That's Ben Krevolin of the Dutchess Arts Council with me. He was a huge part- the paper part and the cheer- of the project.

Just don't have the heart

SOLD
for valentine's day.
9 x 9 3/4 inches
collage and paint on paper

Tea Pot with Traveling Birds

SOLD
9 x 9 3/4 inches, collage, paint, (even glitter snow paint) and ink on paper
This is a cabin fever piece...everyone came home at noon yesterday and we've hunkered together for the ice storm that has us virtually locked in all day today. The teapot is one that was for sale at Harney's Tea Shop in Millerton. It's covered in a variety of bird drawings. I've collaged the whole surface with tickets, stamps and reciepts donated by my french uncle who lives the cultured life in Paris.
Oh...to travel there today!

Baby Nest

I guess I am in the throes of loosing my babies from the nest...the teenage years- pangs of heart-ache salted amid moments of crisis and memories of easier times. Everyone in the nest has to reconfigure the fiction of themselves, and identify with a new mirror. Inks, acrylic, collage words, map, photo. 9 x 10 inches. $100

Heart NEST #2 and #1

sold, both! Thanks.
paint, ink, collaged map of California (hardly readable: sacramento/ san jose) on paper, 7 x 5 inches and the other 8 x 5 in.

Heart NEST #2

SOLD
paint, ink, collaged map of California (hardly readable: sacramento/ san jose) on paper, 5 x 7 inches

HEART NEST 3

SOLD
Collage, paint and ink on paper...actually a valentine for old friends...6 x 5 inches

Heart Nest #4

SOLD
Here is a variation on the theme. mixed media bout 7 x 5 inches

Bird's nest with poetry

I had an unexpected window of time today, so I actually worked on several art pieces- more than just my daily painting. I even started some valentines! This nest is a collage of paint and the poetry by Frederik Siedel (Cosmos) with maps of our national parks. This is the time of year that birds start to find their mates. This is the time of year that poetry resonates with me...the land is barren and we retreat to our hearths, curl up and dream. SOLD

Searching

Let me be honest about these pug painting/drawings. When I was with Jen, in her apartment, everywhere I glanced, the apartment was decorated with pictures of fawn pugs. Her black pug, named Ozzy, was loved by everyone on the campus, so it was natural that everyone was sending her pictures, mugs, calendars...and so on.
After Jen died I heard her voice for a couple days, maybe even a full week. Now I don't hear her anymore. I have gotten a little frantic. Then, while walking my pug, named Bruiser, I had a startling feeling that Bruiser had been with me all along, in the apartment, staring out from mugs and calendars, and drawings. Could he be my angel?
My friend John says Jen is visiting him in his dreams. So perhaps she has left me and moved on to be helpful to others. I am going to rest from the search. I truly get it: that not every question will be answered. The best I can do is to just keep showing up.
watercolor and pencil with ink on map
about 9.5 x 11 inches

Ian Daniel has arrived

New Life! The birth of my nephew Ian.
His lungs are still watery, He has traveled far, and arrived early so he struggles to emerge, survive. It brings us joy. I am in awe of the cycle. I am in awe of all angels.
Ink doodle with watercolor, words of thought, and Texas Map.

Pug between Song Bird and Night sky

about 10 x 11 inches watercolor pencil andpen on paper.
The dog is faithful, the bird is hopeful and the stars in the sky mark Time. I think I am starting to feel better.

Puppy Nap

SOLD
Sleep on it. (heal)
If you could bottle bliss. (hope)
Where is the lightening bolt? (learn)
This is a doodle- watercolor, ink, and prismacolor pencils. The date is wrong- I thought it was only the 2nd of february. Must have lost a day somewhere. I imagine our dreams laced with treats while mining the spirit.

Puppy solace

10 x 11 inches ink and watercolor on paper
I think silence is a gift. My pug is just there. He looks concerned and he looks right at you. And he waits.
I am tired. Spent two days at each of my sons schools, in conferences about their grades, their futures. Sometimes the mind gets on overload and the only solace comes in the form of a faithful quiet friend. AND the doodles of a pen with a push of pigment in pools of water.

Chair with water drops

ink and watercolor 10 x 11 inches