Earth, Fire, Water, Air

Earth, Fire, Water, Air by Mary Hoffman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have loved this book ever since I taught elementary school; telling the story of existence through the elements makes it somehow unifying, and Jane Ray's art reveals eternity in tiny pieces. I bought it for 1 cent on Amazon, and I'm going to keep it forever.


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Watching the Impressionists

The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sue Roe views the Impressionists as you might observe a flock of birds -- individuals, yet often interdependent as they struggled to redefine art. Roe''s binoculars don't let us get too close; we end up taking notes on quirks that differentiate these remarkable souls. I'm the nosy type and am glad to know the artists' problems, families, and inclinations as a reflection of their time and place, But it was kind of boring, a trudge through time behind a flock of artists who together altered our vision.


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Large life

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Catherine started with ambition and intelligence. Fate and a scheming mother landed her a rather creepy husband, who was destined for the Russian throne. He preferred his dogs, so Catherine had lots of time to read and embrace the ideas of the Enlightenment. Eventually Empress Elizabeth died, as did Catherine's husband, and Russia toppled her way. From then on I needed a map as I read. I especially liked learning about Crimea. Catherine wrote and wrote, so there are lots of quotes. Robert Massie tells a smooth and sympathetic story of a magnificent life.(less)


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Notebook: Kind of real

I draw faces, but they don't resemble actual persons. That is, until I drew the poet Carolyn Kizer. This kind of looks like a photograph published after her recent death.

Kind of Dick Cheney
I drew it while watching TV

Kind of Clark, above and below

Notebook

At Mass Saturday I sat behind a man with a head so linear, so taut, that I had to draw it. I saw the back of him only; even his ears were muscular. Oh, well, I had no paper or pencil. I must try to draw him from memory. Now, don't ask me if I also remember the readings or the sermon, because I was mostly paying attention to the lines in the faces around me. I have found a place where people sit still.

Halfway to 100 faces

When I told myself I'd draw 100 faces, I thought maybe yes, maybe no. But it turns out I love the landscape of faces, and am already past drawing 50 of them. It's fun.

City Hall Watercolor Show

I like messy art (the good kind of messy), and that includes watercolor. 

Here are some of my favorites from the juried show of 37 artists in Florida and Georgia now at City Hall.
Now you know my bias, but you'll find work in many styles. Enjoy it all 8-5:30 Mon.-Fri. on the second floor of City Hall, 300 S. Adams St. The show runs through Nov. 3.

Hidden Water
Nina Allen Freeman

detail
Painting on the Old Fishing Boat
Lee Albion

The Enchantment
Lynne Kroll

Art with fiber references at FSU Tallahassee International

Summer
Marie Bergstedt of San Francisco
2 pieces (52" x 16"  -- right --  and 40" x 12 1/2")
mixed media relief
(lots of buttons)

If you want a look at what's happening in art now, see the 29th Annual Tallahassee International juried competition at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts. There's work of artists from around the country and a couple from Canada, including video, amorphous sculpture, photography, painting, and more. A few works used fiber. Hurry, because it closes Oct. 5.

Summer, details
above and below

Adhesive Bandages
Elizabeth Mesa-Gaido of Morehead, Kentucky
10" x 20"
hand-dyed and folded organza hand-stitched to linen, digital photography and manipulated Cuban government document and heat-transfer printing

September Sieve

I love being bombarded with information. But then ... how to absorb? how to organize? When to cry stop?

I used to have journals made of paper, but not now. Last month whenever a word or idea or quote struck me I copied it into the day in i-cal. That's them, below. Perhaps they make no sense, but that is how my attention works. Many are from the NYTimes, Art Daily, and other art sites. Quotation marks and references are scant. But they all went into the sieve that is my mind, and some will stick. Maybe you can have fun with this technique too.

• Line. artists may work with line to precisely render contours or as calligraphy on the drawing’s surface; apply touch to build tonal values or erase edges; and use traced marks to suggest elements of an imagined topography.
• Indeed, I am not sure that I can grow as an artist until I can bring myself to accept that I am one. -- Anne Truitt, sculptor
• Marlene Dumas (Cape Town, South Africa, 1953) is considered one of the most significant and influential painters working today. Her emotionally charged paintings and drawings address existentialist themes such as eroticism, grief and shame while frequently referencing art-historical motifs and current political issues. Her work also reflects on new possibilities meanings that painting can still have today, in an era dominated by visual culture.   artdaily.com
• should stop hiding who I am for fear of shocking people. He says the best way to stand up for my principles is to actually live by them. (don't remember where I read this ... )
• Lilt and Twinkle
• painting-as-writing (or, as the Abstract Expressionist progenitor John Graham called it, “écriture.”)
• unhelpful
• “We can approach our lives as artists, each and every one of us,” he said. “It’s a choice people have. You don’t have to make houses the way people always have. If you choose to, you can make every action a creative act.”  Rick Lowe
• finding my own voice came as a result of practice, focus, solitary work, and devoting myself to themes that captured my heart.  --  (not me, someone said this and I love it.)
• What vegetable couldn’t use a blast of garlic and ginger and a hot pepper or two?
• If a woman wants to do substantive work of any kind, she’s going to be criticized. Education is about growing bolder and larger.
• When I take pictures I think about nothing.  -- Issei Suda