Childhood Moments

The three dancers skipped over the hardwood floor of the gallery, pretending to catch fireflies. They reenacted childhood, creating through their choreography moments of joy and wonder. I was there showing two of my collages as part of the show The Artist’s Childhood. Each of the exhibiting artist showed work that represented a window into their past. I showed my pieces Blueberry Queen complete with princesses, witches and toads and Recipe for a Fairytale with wolf and moon and dreaming child.

My two-year-old niece Ellie was there representing childhood first hand. She was mesmerized by the dancers and sat quietly throughout their dance. After, however, she was happy to grab my hands and flit around the dance floor. “See my tutu,” she said grabbing on to her tulle skirt.

The dance brought me back to the days my grandfather would walk us down the dirt roads by his schoolhouse, jars with punched lids in hand, and allow us to catch the lightening bugs with glowing rumps. It was like catching enchantment in a jar. But these were only memories of childhood, hidden but close to the surface, easy to recall. The next evening I spent a moment in childhood, touring the realms of imagination with Ellie.

After dinner she insisted on visiting Best Buy, entering the store with the declaration “Let’s check out what I want for my birthday.” She then ran down the car stereo aisle, pressing every button and turning every dial. She stopped at every camera instructing me to “say cheese” as she lifted one eye toward the lens. She made me say “cheese” at each and every one.

Then we hit the painted circle in the middle of the store. “This is my swimming pool,” she declared, getting down on the floor in her pretty green dress, hiking it up and exposing her pull-up.

“I think it’s a store, Ellie,” I said, “you should get up,” feeling like I at least owed her parents an attempt at keeping her off the germ-ridden floor.

“Nope, it’s a swimming pool,” she declared. “Wiggle, wiggle,” as she kicked her legs and moved her arms, swimming on the dirty floor.

“Let’s do yoga,” she said next, reaching her hands to the sky. Soon she was leading customers and staff in downward dog. “It’s a swimming pool,” she said again, dropping to the floor. And, it didn’t end, not quickly anyway. And, in those moments she stole me from the adult world, away from the realm of responsibility and memory in which we remember childhood from afar. Better than any magician or any choreographed moment, better than any picture or recipe I could concoct, she whisked me into her world of spontaneity and freedom where there were no stores, no dirty floors, just endless depths of possibility waiting to explore.

Postcard

A couple of months ago I received an email from one of the workers at the St. Augustine Humane Society in Florida. It seemed she owned a pug named Lucky and had stumbled across one of my greeting cards featuring Waffles while cruising the Internet. The Humane Society was looking for an image for the postcards they send out to their grooming clients and they wanted to know if they could use my image of Waffles stopping to smell the roses, so to speak. I have been looking for ways to help humane societies and rescues and found this a wonderful way to do so. I granted them rights to produce a card. Last week I finally got to see the result when the postcard arrived in the mailbox. I hope to get it framed and hang it in my office.

Scenes from Class

I had my third encaustic painting class tonight. We started with photo transfers on to a wax surface. You basically apply a xerox print to the wax, which you burnish and then use water to theoretically remove the paper and keep the xeroxed image. I say theoretically because it can be a tricky process and my tiger lost it's head and a lot of it's limbs in the process. You can see some of its stripes.

I prepared another board by pasting one of my digital collages to it. We will be working with that next week. I also gessoed a second board to create a smooth polished surface also to use next week and concluded the class by playing with wax on paper.

I think this wax on paper image will make a great collage background. Here are some more scenes from the class:

Something New

Over the last year my photographs have been chosen for two Healing with Arts shows at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at DHMC in Lebanon, N.H. At the last show a fellow artist told me about a four-week class on encaustic painting or painting with pigments mixed with hot wax. We had discussed this before because we were both interested in introducing new elements to our art. The digital collages I make end up being 2-D prints of my work, but I am always interested in introducing 3-D elements and texture to see what they add to a picture when it is once again scanned and compressed into a 2-D image. I thought wax might be an interesting option.

The class has been a lot of fun in spite of the fact that I've had to relax during the learning process, something that is not easy for me to do, and be willing to make mistakes. The first night we took a square wooden board and covered it with wax and experimented with various techniques to add texture, carve into the surface and to add stencils. Our teacher taught us two different stenciling techniques to add decorative designs to our pieces and I, of course, chose to add pugs. As an aside, the instructor noted that she was very impressed that I could create stencils of pugs on the spot from memory (oh, how little does she know!)

For week two, the instructor suggested that we bring in some of our own images that we wished to use in our encaustic works. I brought in several of my photo collages.

She taught us two dipping techniques for covering the image with wax and then had us experiment by using some other materials she had in her studio such as Papilio Metallic Transfer Paper and Saral Transfer Paper. We also used National Geographic to transfer images to our work.

I used the Papilio Metallic Transfer Paper to add gold scarabs to my waxed-dipped collage and the Saral Transfer Paper in white to combine two images from National Geographic, placing them at the bottom of the piece.

While working on the image in class I already began to formulate some ideas for what I wanted to do with it when I got home and could experiment in Photoshop. I knew I wanted to keep elements of the original collage such as the colors and feel, but that the new elements were more of a distraction than a complement. I loved, however, how the bottom portion of the image looked. I decided that I would cut it out either literally or in Photoshop and then put it on a new background. Once I got it in Photoshop, however, I began playing around with blurring the background and adding new elements to the image. I had originally planned on waiting to sew on the wax, which has an unique feel and appearance, before manipulating the image in Photoshop, but I couldn't wait and ended up really liking the result. I used both the image of my waxed-dipped collage and my encaustic painting on wood, merging them in Photoshop to create a more textured background. I then began experimenting by adding photographs I have in my "materials" folder in Photoshop. I am far from finished as I want to still print the piece out and experiment with thread and paint and drawing and may even change the piece further or create a whole new one as I progress in my next two classes, but wanted to share with everyone what I have done so far. The instructor is supposed to teach us how we can set up our own encaustic studios or workspaces, which I hope I can do (You need a space that is well-ventilated) because I like the texture it adds to the collages, but also think I could produce some interesting traditional pieces as I learned the techniques better. I'll continue to post pictures as the collage progresses.The friend who introduced me to the encaustic class often prints  her work out on aluminum and I am considering doing so with this piece when it is complete.

For now I'm calling it "Prayer."

Peeps!

The older we get, the younger we realize we are. Some call it young at heart or spirit, but I think it's just a truth. This past winter I had the opportunity to teach my first poetry class at Harvest Hill Retirement Community in Lebanon, N.H. During the course of the class, one student, a priest, wrote a poem about creating a diorama from Peeps. I had never heard of the tradition of shaping those pastel Easter chicks and bunnies into something new, but I have learned it is quite commonplace especially in Newport, N.H. where there is an annual Peep diorama contest. My student, I mentioned she was a priest didn't I, became absolutely giddy at the thought of ripping the long gummy ears off the bunny peeps. In the past, I believe she won.

This was not the only moment of childlike glee expressed in my class. The same priest and her friend, a very proper English woman with a wonderful accent and a twinkle in her azure eyes became quite enamored with slightly off-color limericks. I have to say I missed this group when the class ended. From bellydancing to poetry readings to art field trips, this group seemed to have a better social life than I do, so I promised that when the Peep diorama exhibit rolled around I'd join them. Thus, last Tuesday I followed the bus from Harvest Hill down to Newport to survey a wide and creative array of peep dioramas. If the exact nature of my students remains in question, let me share that one of their favorite dioramas was 50 Peeps of Gray, a homage to last year's popular erotica novel 50 Shades of Gray. Following the exhibit, we drove to McDonald's and exchanged pleasantries over sundaes and McFlurries.

We took a picture of the group, which I jokingly refer to as Me and My Peeps go to See some Peeps. These people may be older than me, but the title fits us well.

The Blue Lady

I have a student who has been working on a long term project based on a statue that resides in a small grove on the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center Campus. I have been his teacher for a number of years and as a result feel a particular fondness for The Blue Lady. Whenever I visit the hospital, I try to stop by, say "hi" to her and take her picture. Yesterday I was there to drop off two new pictures that I recently had accepted in the Healing with Art show at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center. After dropping off my two photos and picking up my two from the last time, I stopped by the grove and was horrified to find the Blue Lady's beautiful face smashed and fallen to the ground. I saw the pieces lying there and realized if the hospital knew about it they would have picked them up to preserve them. I thus, returned to the information desk and told them what I found. They promptly sent security to investigate.

My student's story is all about how this magical statue comes to life and helps a young cancer patient deal with her illness through a wonderful adventure. He describes in his book the Blue Lady's gentle expression. I would hate to think this is the end of her or that this smile would fail to grace her lips again. I hope the Blue Lady's story has a happy ending.

Pysanky Eggs

Last weekend my best friend and I took a workshop at a local craft center on how to make Pysanky or Ukranian Easter Eggs. I babbled away through most of it, nervous as usual as I learned the process. In the beginning I covered way too much of my egg with beeswax leaving lots of white underneath, but I got the hang of it and enjoyed the rest until I got to the final stages of removing the wax off the egg. It took forever to get the stuff to come off and I think my design may have been to intricate, because I was left with little colored blotches and smeared wax. I think I may have cooked my egg, I held it so close to the flame. Still, in spite of all the little imperfections, I seemed to get it right. I had a lot of fun!

A Day at Mass MoCA

A few years ago I asked two friends to accompany me to view an exhibit of Leonard Nimoy's photography. He called it Secret Selves and it was on exhibit at a place called Mass MoCA in North Adams, Mass. We had no idea what Mass MoCA was like, but gamely set out on an adventure. It was well worth the trip. We enjoyed the Nimoy exhibit, but we fell in love with Mass MoCA—an old industrial complex turned into a modern museum of contemporary art. The exhibits are fresh, unique, energetic. The building? A treasure trove of geometry, light and shadow. Pieces interesting on their own, take on a whole new life when viewed in the context of this building.

Today, my friends and I returned. We've been trying to go once or twice a year ever since our first time, but it's been a year since we were last there. It was no less wonderful. It may have been more so. One of my friends was not a big fan of contemporary art when we first went. Today, she had a hard time choosing a favorite piece. My other friend aptly declared that something about the place made her feel simultaneously stimulated and tired, a happy tired. Something about it makes me feel that happy quiet like after a yoga class. It's not just the beautifully building, the intriguing art, it's sharing it all with my friends. We haven't spent much time together lately, but today it was as if we had never been apart.

Here's some images from the day:

Collage in Process: Orphaned Princess

I snapped this photo of my latest collage with my iphone. This is the draft with embellishments and still needs to be scanned into the computer and completed. I started this picture over a year ago and am only now getting around to finishing it. I tried some new things in this one including gluing on actual feathers. Although when the piece is actually finished it will be a digital print. I love experimenting with new materials to give the collages a sense of texture and dimension. A fellow photographer wondered if such embellishments transform fine art into craft. I hate such distinctions. It made me pause and contemplate for awhile what this says about art. How does one define it? What is art versus craft and is one less than another? Not only do I think these additions add texture and dimension, I think they merge the words of digital with traditional collage. There was a time when I would have found getting such a critique devastating, but in this case I didn't. Perhaps it's because I enjoy so much what I'm doing here, I wouldn't stop anyway. Perhaps, it's because I've gotten enough accolades with my collages that I know I'm doing something right. Funny thing is I really respect the photographer who gave me the opinion.  She has been inspiring in so many ways. So I thanked her for her advice and critique, and found myself content to disagree with her. That's a big thing for me.

This isn't the first collage I worked on this week. A couple of days ago I posted the draft of my latest effort, Temptation. As many of you know I enjoy discovering the symbolic meaning of my art as much as the viewer. A lot of the choices I make are unconscious and I only discover later how apt they are. This often is the case with the animals I choose to include in the collages. I played with several in this one before settling on the goats, which just seemed to blend right in. I added the apples later, playing with the idea of temptation, Eden, Eve, etc. When I finished the draft I googled the symbolism of goats and found some interesting things in the first post I clicked on.  Here, are a couple of meanings I found. First, goats can mean spiritual ambition. Second, goats symbolize curiosity and sampling everything around them. Third, the goat symbolizes sacrifice. All three of these themes fit in with Garden of Eden. Man's own spiritual ambition in being disobedient to God and sampling from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve's curiosity in seeking out what they weren't supposed to know and what is the exile from Eden than the ultimate sacrifice of Paradise. I think the goats fit in this collage both visually and symbolically. Sometimes, you just have to trust your instincts when it comes to art and it comes to life. In doing so you learn to not only believe in what you are doing but to believe in yourself.

Collage: Temptation

With all my work and writing behind the scenes of this blog, I haven't had much time to create any new collages lately. I started this one a couple of weeks ago after taking a blurry shot of my niece Tori in the snow. I've been trying various incarnations out and finally arrived at a draft I am pleased with tonight. I still need to print it out and work on the extras. I know I want to embroider around the edges a bit and add some pastel, but this is the initial digital draft. I'm calling it Temptation. To me this is the child Eve, the tempted and the temptress. There's more to it than that, I think, but that's where I started.