My Space

9 x 9 inches stretched and painted canvas.

I finished this right before M. moved in with all his stuff. He even brought his Xmas ornaments!

It is a commemoration of the 77 days I was alone. I spent a lot of it in this chair. I did a lot of thinking, a little writing and I even spent an hour watching snails crawl on the patio pottery. It was a time of space and room for contemplation.

I am ready now to live with someone. Though I love periods alone, I don't need to be an island. I always loved having a family home. So it is nice, on this day, to be creating that again, in a new way.

Class act

Palmer Trinity school celebrated our grandparents today and everyone got to see the art that might grace their fridges soon enough.

Meanwhile I am thankful for having a job, for the creativity of my students, and the honor of having space of my own ... the classroom.

Tomorrow I hope to make it safely to my folks and join them at the table as to do anything else wouldn't make it "thanksgiving".

Flamingos in Paradise

Trying my hand at printmaking, I can't help but celebrate the parade of pleasures currently at hand.
The skies, the foliage, the birds and my emotions defy a simple cut and inked shape... there is a need for exuberant color... sparkle, and fantasy...
November in Miami is something special.




These are not for sale. I created each of them as offerings and gestures of gratitude. They are about love.

My heart looks like a time bomb

but it isn't going to explode anytime soon. I am. of course thrilled to have a love life!!!!

OK, where is the painting?

These are a few

early
works on canvas ranging from 8 x 8 inches to 10 x 14 (?) inches

Back on Dailypainters.com!

My official self-inflicted time off is over and I am happy to be posting and painting often enough to return to membership status on Dailypainters.com. Miami brings a whole new visual language to the palette. The days are filled with inspiring stories of my students, my colleagues, and exposure to world class events...
So what have I been up to since the last posting? Hmmm. A day at the beach. A road trip to the Keys. Another day at the shore, more art walks at the Falls district, a couple evenings spent car shopping, one or two movies, falling into a wood paneled floor to ceiling stacked book store (Books and Books), eating fabulously, ... just enjoying life and the thrill of everything being so darn good!

Miami scene and be seen

Just recovering from a Friday night studio party at the Bakehouse, between the Design district and Wynwood. 70 artists opened their studios for the evening as a fund raiser for the organization. Walking from studio to studio, I was full of excitement for the energy and the variety of work. The Bakehouse is a communal studio building for midcareer and emerging artists. There is a lot of work that, by it's very nature, speaks of exploration and materialization. Nothing was too light or pat. A lot of the work spoke of struggle. There were paintings of giant beetle bugs, portraits of the president, renderings of wigs with a Victorian era curio cabinet feel, cartoons and graffiti, installations of braided steel wool, and burned books under glass. One artist sewed photographs into a bed quilt, and then used the same photographs in 20 other installments. The studios looked like laboratories and then again... many looked like living rooms! (Artists know how to disguise a sows ear.) It was interesting in that you could see the background and formative environment to a piece that would fit nicely into your own living room. Hopefully many sales were made.
Feeling a bit snobbish... the next day I could barely recall a work or an artist that held my interest past the initial exposure. Of the few that did...there was an artist professor doing fine pastel renditions of geological treasures... a guy with a great sense of dark humor doing collage paintings of houses with hovering black clouds...and a woman doing lovely pastels of palm fronds and mangoes... and a guy doing wild surreal botanicals with his feet ("floor-als") and imagination. Those pieces showed great design, techinical skill AND an ability to carry through to a natural conclusion. As a result of all the parts being put together with grace and care, there was hope for the spiritual side of an art factory. I look forward to seeing more...

What's behind the art?

Is it hot air or inspiration?
I'm going to a couple big art parties tonight and looking forward to seeing something that will be inspirational or... at least intriguing. The headlines for the weekend say "Sex, drugs and Art walks" and that makes me feel quite forelorn. Does it have to be worded so? Is it just low pandering hype? There is definitely a gallery putting on an exhibition in the design district called, something like, "sex, drugs and provacative words ". The roster includes Nan Goldin and Damien Hirst, etc., etc. Sigh.

I just finished up a sculpture assignment in my mixed media class that was the second part of a two part assignment. The first part was pure abstraction- a focus on line, plane, form... and I will share those photos soon. But the second part was abstraction of a literal motivation. Each kid was given a different word to work with. As they created their literal renditions, they were encouraged to work with an intention greater than themselves. The successful work became iconic in that it served as a doorway to inspiration rather than as an end product.
C. made a camera and inside the cardboard object she pasted quotes and images of what she wants to see in the world. M. made a bed with sewn pillows, mattress, and kitty cat. Under the springs she glued in words about her dreams. A foreign exchange student made a fish out of water to illustrate "ocean" and her place at the moment. One student was asked to illustrate God. And that is another story I'l share another time.
The point is... there is art that is inspired, and there is most of the other stuff.

Eyes on the art room

Sometimes the easiest way to break into paint is to use the cheap paper, and work no smaller than a football. This way you avoid getting tiny and "precious" and there is no fear of wasting the good stuff. (But it all turns out to be good stuff!)

17 Alchemists and feats of Clay

Here are some sculptures just out of the kiln, made by my upper school hand building class.
Funky, funky!
There are ballerina slippers and world hiking boots, mouse shoes and duck feet, football cleats and shoes to kick squids in...
As this is my first semester teaching ceramics, I am relieved the work survived the kiln and that the glazes actually changed from dull pastels to brilliant glass. Such wild alchemy!

Figures of Class

I am so glad I moved to Miami to teach these kids. They are taking everything I offer, everything I bring to them, and learning! Working with proportions and light, perspective and some fore-shortening, my students made great strides in painting what they see, knowing what they were looking at, and playing with the idea of a figure and ground.

That's me with my bag (by me), and the rest are by kids in 8th to 12th grade. It is a sampling--- I have 37 painters in my class!

Tomorrow we are starting the proportions and details of the face.

Gaining Perspective on Halloween Candy

This is what my middle school class did with their candy. Acrylic on canvas.

Mosaic eggs

A lesson in creation, destruction and salvation