Faculty art inspires

I was surprised by this warning on the door of the FSU Museum of Fine Art. Inside, the greeter told me they post it occasionally, when a show might contain provocative art.

The FSU art faculty show suddenly got more interesting.

I enjoyed everything from a glittery snake on the frame of a mammoth oil (Mark Messersmith) to old signs cut up and reconfigured (Kevin Curry). But I was most pleased at Carrie Anne Baade's collage Parthenogenesis of the Muse. Baade has a community instinct; you may have seen her work at local art festivals. She created this collage upon a print of an earlier work that a female ancestor of hers created many years ago. This aunt was hyper-talented, winning a top art prize in Illinois, but then marrying a farmer, never to make art again. A trajectory many can identify with … although farmers are in a decline.  Baade builds  upon her aunt's foundation. And guess whose work seemed (to me, at least) the show's most provocative, perhaps inviting that warning on the museum door? Baade's. Go see for yourself.

Progress of Waiting

Mark Messersmith

oil on canvas

detail, below

 Open Come In

Kevin Curry

reclaimed signage

How to re-size digital images

My husband used to have this round thing on his desk; he called it his 'round to it. The joke was he'd never get around to doing certain things, so he filed them under the round thing.

For much more than a year I've been intending to learn to resize digital photographs, because shows and publications have specifications. Today I forced myself to watch this how-to video by Gloria Hansen. She is my new hero! Clear, pleasant, no hype. Of course, I haven't actually done it yet, but the video is a start. Save the link for when you get around to needing to resize your digital images. 

The Dream We Carry

The Dream We Carry: Selected and Last Poems by Olav H. Hauge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love poetry but had never heard of Olav H Hauge until about 10 years ago when I read The Dream We Carry, the poem, not the book.  I love it so much that I have written it inside my medicine cabinet in the bathroom, so every time I reach for the toothpaste or the deodorant I must first glance at his magic words. It begins "It's the dream we carry/ that something wondrous will happen/ that it must happen…" Later I learned that this poem was recited (did Hauge himself say it? I don't know.) at a Nobel Prize ceremony.

The title poem is so buoyant that I was surprised to learn that Hauge suffered mental anguish, at least in the early part of his life.  In the introduction  to this collection of Hauge's poems, Robert Bly tells us Hauge married an artist when he was 65, and it sounds as if he thrived from then on, until he died at age 86 in the same Norwegian village where he had lived all his life, farming just three acres and writing poems. His poems are brief and simple and deep.


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Painting feels free

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I start with fabric. When I don't, it feels free. I want that freedom in my fabric pieces. So sometimes  I start with paint. This weekend I  had fun with paint, paper, print, masking (You lay down masking tape, paint, and then remove the tape.) and -- yes - glitter!  on 20" x 16" watercolor paper and some plain  Kona cotton.

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Detail, painted cotton

Detail, Valentine

Valentine in mind, 1

Valentine in mind, 2

Painted cotton

Notes from Lesley Riley's artist success webinar

This closet looks organized to me. The bulletin board has my work plans.

To-do list for Florida SAQA entry

I could not find my notebook on how to be an organized artist. It has notes I'd taken while watching Quickstart Your Art Business ASAP: An 8-Step Artist Success Action Program, an Interweave webinar featuring Lesley Riley.
When I did find it -- under a pile of other books --  I couldn't find the right pages. Since the notebook was almost full already, I'd just skipped around, writing notes in all the empty spaces. But now I think I've made sense of it: here are highlights:

1. Schedule time. Use every five minutes to move yourself forward.
2. Have visual reminders, with clear goals. Say I want to do ____ by ____.
3. Seek your style. 
4. Define what makes your art special and love that.
5. Create a social media presence; choose at least two outlets:  blog, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube … 
6. Face your fears; common ones are about (lack of) money and being unsure of one's talent. 
7. Plan your work.
8. Market your work. Don't be shy. 

I'm not going to tackle all eight just now, but Lesley Riley has already led me to itemize steps  I have to take to complete my projects. For instance, I've got to learn how to manipulate the pixels before I can send properly sized photos of my work to SAQA.

As for #8, marketing -- I'm somewhere between Lesley Riley and my favorite artist, Agnes Martin, who said, " I paint with my back to the world." 

As Sweet as Honey

As Sweet as Honey by Indira Ganesan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars




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New collages with Mistyfuse

This week I tried a collage technique from an Interweave blog. The method uses the lightweight, double-sided adhesive Mistyfuse instead of glue or gel medium. It leaves a slightly cloudy film on the finished piece, which is not necessarily bad. I like the way it faintly obscures type and gives a dreamy effect.

First, I cut up 140 lb. watercolor paper to sizes that fit my two bases of wood. That left some other smallish papers. Then you do this:

1. Cover the papers with watercolor paint and let it dry (above).

2. Arrange bits of fabric and paper on the watercolors (below).

3. Put a piece of Mistyfuse on top of that, covering the whole collage.

4. Top this with larger, more recognizable dominant forms. You can see that one of mine was houses.

5. Another was a kind of valentine (below). A third featured three gold spirals. 

6. Cover with another piece of Mistyfuse.

7. Top with parchment and iron gently. Flip over and iron on the other side. The Mistyfuse disappears, leaving a slightly cloudy film (below).

8. Finish with a frame.

Or use PVA glue to attach it to a wooden block base.

Or attach it to a card. 

Spiral detail

10 things about 2013

St. Marks Lighthouse
Dec. 31, 2013

Here's  my list of 2013's  bumps and blessings. All year long, when something changes me I write it down. I'm an ordinary woman observing the marks in my life, and no doubt missing many. 

1. My quilt Hope was accepted into a national art quilt show, Sacred Threads, near Washington, DC, last summer.
2. The art quilt group Sew Arty is thriving, with members being acknowledged -- and recognizing ourselves -- as serious artists. There are 60 artists on our email list. All have taken steps large and small to make our world beautiful in 2013.
3. For the first time, there was an art quilt section in the annual Quilt Show at the Florida Museum of History. 
4. I meditate kind of regularly now. I want to reclaim my spirit.
5. I'm finally loosening my tight worrying mom grip to take pleasure in my sons as independent men.
6. I bought a big granite mortar and pestle to grind fresh spices. 
7. My hair is getting shorter… maybe neater… and my closet is nearly empty … got rid of useless clothes to make more room for earrings.
8. Photos abound.  Instagram, tumblr. … even my iPhone takes high quality pictures. Last week I saw people taking videos and selfies after Christmas Mass in Jesu Church in downtown Miami. A sign in the new Perez Art Museum Miami admonishes no "professional" photography, please. Which implies all else is OK.
9. We discovered Atlanta is not so far away, and we joined the great High Museum there.
10. C. put duct tape over the camera lens on his iPad so nobody can see into our house -- it's a symbol, not a fear. Yet.

"If you stop thinking and rest, then a little happiness comes into your mind." -- Agnes Martin