spring journal 2018

spring


I am grateful to live in an inspiring setting - beauty and wonder in every season.

 

spring

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.
—Proverb from Guinea

 
 

 

awaken

If winter is for dreaming, spring is for action.
It is a time when we ignore the impossible.

This new year has been a time of cleaning house (office/studio/all-the-above) to make room for creating with momentum. And that momentum has begun...

 

fifty days of painting

permission to paint

 

On Friday, March 9, 2018 I began a personal challenge to paint almost daily for seven weeks.

My theme is simply "Home. Working in watercolor (a new-ish medium for me) I'm truly amazed at how much I've gained by painting small and frequently.

Read more...


 

 

spring studio show invitation

fifty days of painting art show and sale

You are warmly invited to visit my studio art show and sale

  • Saturday April 28, 10AM - 8PM
  • Sunday April 29, 1PM - 5PM

 
The apple image at right is watercolor on Arches cotton cover, 6 x 8 inches.

 

 

 

I'll have original art and some reproduced artwork priced from three dollars and up. Come purchase a one-of-a-kind heirloom gift for your loved ones. And I am always grateful for your support of me in the arts.

The sale is in my home-studio on the north shore of Offut Lake,

at 4137 116th Avenue SE, Olympia WA 98501

 

 

 

 

artful living spring 2018

Click here to see photos of home and studio and lake and gardens ... the pleasant parts of my life as an artist.

Lest you assume my life is entirely charmed, I'll admit that I had bookkeeping and taxes due like everyone else. But who want's photos of those things? Just sayin'.

 

spring cleaning

For Christmas, I asked (myself) for a clean and orderly workspace. I didn't get it done for Christmas, so I decided it could be my birthday gift too. The cleaning, removing of carpet, building of new storage...began in winter and continued into March. Read more...

 

 

 

dye-painting silk workshops

 

 

experience silk painting in a lakeside studio

Consider a silk painting workshop for yourself and/or as a gift.

ease

At the age of eight or nine, my twin nephews painted a beautiful dragonfly silk. To this day it is one of my favorite silks, likely because children create freely and without inhibition.

the dyes do the work

Dye-painting silk in the serti method is something most anyone can do. The richly colored dyes migrate through the silk weave creating lovely patterns. A very "forgiving" medium, these dyes won't make muddy color. Even if you mix up a brown, the silk's sheen will create a metallic bronze version of your brown.

In a friend's words, "dyes in silk is like watercolors on steroids."

 

 

last may

In May last year, my studio was graced by four talented and inspired ladies. None had dyed or painted silk before, yet they all created beautiful silk artworks. Click here to see photos of this beautiful day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

last april

Click here to see photos of a studio day in April.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

july 2017

Click here to see photos of a previous summer silk workshop.

 

 

 

 

classes info

Click here or on the "classes" tab at top to see upcoming classes schedule...

re-invented

Always improving the creating experience... I've revised my silk class size to three to five (max) students. And because the excitement of creating, the learning, and standing can become physically tiring, I've split the day into two days:  Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

exhibitions

  
 

come to the table

Come to the Table, features thirty-five carefully selected works including everything from historical pieces by Albrecht Durer, to modernist work by Jasper Johns and Sadao Watanabe, to fresh contemporary pieces created by CIVA-member artists. My artwork "Because We Can't Eat Rocks II" is included among the thirty-five artworks in this travelling exhibition (since 2014).

Click here to see the show in Boston.
 

 

 

 

select commissions

 

 

silk-in-glass commission

I'm pleased to announce my first completed installation of silk laminated within glass. The artwork fills the spaces between open trusses of a residential interior. The photo at right two of four panels. Click to see more.

 

 


Land and Sea Passage

As students, faculty, and visitors enter Gilson Middle School in Valdez, Alaska, they are greeted by a vibrant suspended mural--over 26 feet wide. Read more...

 
 

 

Macroscape Slides

Three new glass artworks resembling over-sized microscope slides measure two feet high by six feet wide. Each artwork is uniquely created in mouth-blown art glass laminated onto dichroic float glass. They are installed in the Margaret Murie Life Sciences Building at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
 

  

 

Illuminated Passage

This suspended mural of dye-painted silk measures over 300 square feet. For Liberty Middle School in Spanaway, Washington, it depicts junior high years in a metaphor of a river passing through a canyon.
I love it. It turned out to be all I hoped for and more. Read more...

 

 

Experimental Image Glass

I continue to collaborate with Seattle glassblower Jim Flanagan to create gently abstracted imagery within colored glass. Click here or on the photo at right to see our most recent sheets of blown glass (and scroll down, as the newest work is near the bottom). 

 

 


Tree of Life

Commissioned for a thriving church in the town of Dunwoody, near Atlanta, Georgia.

 

 

 

 

Discovery

This mural in dye-painted silk was commissioned for Katchemak Bay Campus of Kenai Peninsula College of the University of Alaska. Discovery was installed in Homer, Alaska, in June of 2012. Read more...

 

 

Generations: Incubation

Kenai Peninsula College etched mouth-blown glass public art installation

Click here to read about Generations.

Here is a link to KPC installation photos

 
 

 

 

studio and story

 

 

 

 

2011 nest images on cotton paper

Click here to see photos of ten images completed in January 2011

 

 

 

stone impressions - watch the art-making process on video

People often ask me how I create a stone lithograph. It's hard to explain in words so I have a short video that shows the process.

Click here for photos and video on stone impressions.

 

 

 

silk rivers

These river silks were inspired by and modeled after the beautiful Fremont antique glass we used for the Kenai Peninsula College installation.

 

 


flowering

My Grandma's name, Florence, means "to flower" as in the sense of a blossom. And 2012's flowers were an explosion of color. See photos in her memory...

 

 

 Be silk scarves


Links...
gallery of Be silk scarves
significance in Be-ing
silk care
displaying silk

 

 

past journals