Photo By Jordan Green
I had so much fun at Kalamazoo’s Art Hop on April 2nd, 2021! The first in-person event in over a year! I cannot believe it. I felt the Arts Council of Kalamazoo did a wonderful job, safely introducing us back to the world! I want to thank them for their kindness, and for thinking of me to be included in the show. It feels good to be back!
I had hoped she would travel around to exhibitions, but now I can only hope she finds a home where she can be enjoyed and reflected upon. Read about the Deer…
Now that my large originals are home, I am able to drop the price a bit! When they are in a gallery I have to share between 40%-60% with the gallery! I spent 3 months making this piece and several months before that conceiving and planning for it! It is made with a LOT of 24k gold and a variety of other materials. Read the story about the Deer, below!
I so believe in omens, whatever name you want to give them. For me, they usually involve animals. And sometimes they come at me in quite dramatic ways, unfortunately. This one happened when I was standing outside my studio in the spring taking a smoke break and enjoying the sun, when a gunshot came out of nowhere. I live in what I would call residential-country. I have an acre and 1/2 of land. There are houses all around and my kids play outside (they were at grandma’s at the time). A police officer then rolls up my driveway to inform me he had just shot and deer on my property. I was taken aback and still in shock. He caught me smoking pot, something that had just become legal in Michigan. So, let’s just put it this way—I didn’t ask questions. The officer left without saying more, and I was left with a body ( I assume the deer had been hit by a car first). I knew I was meant to watch over this deer. This piece was inspired by what I saw over the next few months. I collected fur when that was all that was left, and a few days later an old oak tree fell on where the body was. When I made this piece, I mostly thought about how humans interact with nature. How we impact it with our actions. And how the cycle still wants to happen, even though our impact created a ripple. How fragile nature is. How beautiful and perfect it is. How broken we are.
The deer is made out of the handmade watercolors that I make out of my grandmother’s antique jewelry. It has embedded crystals, moonstones, beads, glass, and a lot of 24k gold. The piece is 3 dimensional. A real cicada husk was embedded and gilded with 24k gold leaf, and the fur of the deer that inspired this piece was used in it, as well. The piece is sealed to protect the organic components. I include a non-static brush for occasional dusting (once or twice a year).
It is 30’’x30’’ on a 3 inch thick, cradled birch panel. I had a white, wood custom frame made for it. The frame is included in the price. The price also includes shipping within the United States. Please allow for a couple of weeks, because I will have to make a custom box for shipping.
My tools and materials are seriously out of control. I make my own paints with traditional and non traditional pigments. So, I collect things to use in my paints. I also have a screen printing studio and I do electroforming. So there’s a lot more going on than what is in these photos. Once I finish organizing (I just moved my studio), I will do a video of the space!
I have been asked so often lately about my materials. I have a really hard time answering, because my material list has gotten rather complicated over the last year. I don’t think I can answer the question in one post, but I will try to start talking about it more here and there, starting now.
I guess today I would like to prelude the question with some background. I was a painter, then I was a printmaker, and now I am an artist. I am an alchemist. I am a witch. And that is how I look at my process and materials.
Oh boy, this writing thing is hard to do when life interferes. That paired with finding writing difficult to begin with, I just don’t wanna do it! But I must. And I will. Because this is kind of important to me.
So, now I am sick too! Sore throat and misery all over. Rose is still sick. Brennan is cranky, but I don’t know. My pediatrician informed me that kids under 2 can get sick 10-14 times a year! And this is the back-to-back season for babies. It’s been rough, to say the least.
I won’t say anything will be back to normal soon. Because with two toddlers, nothing is ever normal.
What is normal, anyway.
Today was just a something day. I had to run the kids to a couple appointments. Far less painting went on that I had anticipated. But, I guess you could say I had a breakthrough moment after finishing this painting on panel. It has been far too long since I worked on panel, and I think I am finally ready to add it to my repertoire.
So, yesterday I sat down and wrote in my journal. After freely writing about my day without a goal in mind, I realized it was a bit too personal to post online. It was just a hard day. Writing was therapeutic, but it wasn’t informative. But then, the dillema! What do I do on those days?! Everyone should be allowed one now and again! So, I decided those will be the “something” days of #my100daysofwritingsomething.
I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend.
Why the moon? Because the moon is something that we all share. No matter where you are in the world, we all live under the same moon. Ever beautiful, like a jewel in the sky, uniting us.
I started painting simple references to moons with my insects, to give the paintings movement and imply environment. In my mind, the insects are all striving to reach one place, the source of light. Striving for the light is something I think a lot about, when painting. To me, all of my insects are either moving towards or away from this light. You decide.
Last year I made a collection of solitary moons, and I can’t seem to stop painting them! Like I said yesterday, it is one of the things I need in my studio at all times. The moon is part of my story, and it is part of yours too.
Fu…dge. Here I am, on my second day, already at a loss for words. So, I will just tell you about my day, which consisted of mostly filling out applications for summer art fairs. Boring, tedious, and nerve wracking because, well, now we wait. No matter what stage you are at as an artist, it is a life filled with highs and lows. And the rejections fricking sting.
I also started a few small paintings of moons. I realized today that I sold every moon I made in 2018. (oops. there is still one!) It is important for me to always have a painting of a moon, a luna moth, a morpho butterfly, and a portrait of my grandmother in my studio at all time. I don’t know why, it just is.
Thank you for all your comments and words of encouragement on Instagram yesterday. It really means a lot!
