(February 1st) Tonight, I am just happy to be back in my studio.
(January 31) My husband told me to not talk about the weather anymore, but it’s freaking cold! I have to apologize to the people waiting for packages this week. Mail services is limited because of the temperature. I also haven’t had child care all week, so my communication hasn’t been the best. I hope to catch up when my husband is home this weekend. Thank you for your patience.
It’s going to be -11 degrees tonight. Ugh, I hate it. It was a great day though, because I spent it dancing with my babies. Now I am in my studio painting and planning projects. Still catching up from being sick. It will probably be a long night.
Oh my goodness, I have been bad about getting things up on the blog. I have written in my journal every day for the last 22 days. Turns out, my writing is a lot of half-finished paragraphs and random thoughts. All good stuff, but not for blog content. So here I am, talking about nothing, again.
Someone suggested I paint a snail, so here we are! I have always wanted to paint a snail. I don’t know. I read this story to my daughter and there is a snail named Gail. I know they are pests to some, but aren’t they interesting and magical too?
Painting is not just jumping in and painting, and voila!, it is a masterpiece. Any artist will tell you, there is a lot of prep involved in each project before it is made.
I start by finding a subject. I have a collection of specimens, and if I don’t have an actual specimen, I will spend days scouring the internet and looking through my book collection. I also take a lot of photographs for source material. I need to have a good feel for the subject, and I need to be able to visualize what the subject will look like in the painting. This takes research.
I like to say that I am a little like Larry David. I don’t like to write the script down before I start. An important aspect of my process is improvisation. I have to be able to visualize the subject of my painting before I start. But once I start, I respond to the piece with intuition to create the external composition.
Then the fun starts. Painting and adornment with 23k gold leaf. I will do some process videos in the near future and go into more detail about that soon!
Today was just a something day. But at least I painted this luna moth.
We are buried under snow right now. Well, not literally. But it is snowy, and cold, and miserable. While painting this, I thought of glistening snow surrounding a crisp fallen leaf. I tried to find peace it. It made me look out the window and reflect on nature. I thought about how my children look at the world with fresh and wondrous amazement. My use of glitter is meant to imply this innocent way of looking at the world.
I mustn’t forget that the world is glorious.
I inherited my grandmothers very large collection of costume jewelry. For the last several months I have been using the damaged beads and odds and ends in my handmade watercolors. The green bead on the bottom came from her collection and inspired the luna moth above.
Am I better? Am I worse? I don’t know. I have always been bad.
My brain just thinks visually. Impulsively. I have always made art with my intuition. Writing is not like that. It’s planned, it’s ordered. There are rules. Bear with me while I figure mine out.
I am kind of having fun though, figuring out my words. So thank you for sticking with me.
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.
These pigment prints are printed on handmade paper that I make myself. They will be shipped in 2 weeks time from ordering. If you need something by a specific date, email me and I will try to speed up the process.
The 11’’x14’ and 17’’x22’’’ are statement pieces! I have to recommend one of those. But I want to make prints affordable, so I have smaller sizes. Please note that detail is lost the smaller the print. This is a limited edition pigment print on handmade paper. Based off of my painting the Nest.
Prints are signed and each one is one of a kind due to the nature of the handmade paper.
Prints can come matted and ready to fit in a standard size frame.
5’’x7’’ / 8’’x10’’ Double Mat
8’’x10’’ / 11’’x14’’ Double Mat
11’’x14’’ / 16’’x20’’ Mat
(New!) 17’’x22’’ /24x36’’ Mat
Statement for the Nest:
First, there was the Deer. A painting that was inspired by an incident that involved a deer that was shot on my property, and the subsequent months that followed, watching the animal return to the earth. When only fur was left, I collected some, but left most of it. The day after I collected the fur, a giant oak tree fell on where the body once rested. Months later, in early spring, the pandemic had started and I spent more than a month inside. Scared. Finally, I forced myself to go outside and explore the woods. And that is when I found it. A bird had made a nest out of deer fur! The Deer’s fur. This piece was inspired by the feelings I had at that moment of discovery.
Using a variety of techniques, I create artworks that explore themes of natural history, historical occurrence, memory, and cycles. My materials are found and handmade—my most precious material is my grandmother’s antique jewelry that I crush and use to make handmade watercolors. This piece also includes rubies, emeralds, 24k gold, deer fur, geodes, and glass.
View the original: https://youtu.be/1aG3WBkRUIk