some6th grade weavings

Finished

A few days ago I posted the unfinished version of this painting, and over the long weekend we had, I finally have it just where I like it. It has been a very agreeable painting to work with. Some pictures seem to work against me until they finally let me get them where I want them to be, and others seem happy to go along with whatever I want to try. It is 30" x 30" on a cradled panel that is 2" deep, and painted in acrylic.

I'm not supposed to have favorites...

...but I stop and look at this new piece of student art every time I go past the display case. I photographed it in front of a painting of mine so it could have a sky for a background.

I think it is wonderful, a winged golden man captured just at the moment he touches back to earth. It is about 8" tall, and made from wire, newspaper & masking tape, plaster gauze, and paint. And a piece of wood.
It is by Zach, an 8th grader in my Art II class.

back to this one

Putting an unfinished painting on the wall is risky business, because I can get attached to it the way it is, but it sure is easier than storing them! This one is going to get some work today.

This painting is an image I have worked with four times now, from my sketchbook to a small painting to this larger unfinished piece, to a woodcut.

Allergy season is upon us, and I spent part of yesterday at our local Festival in the Park in the Oklahoma wind, and the rest of it trying to get ready for a garage sale and taking things to storage, so the dust and pollen did double duty. Staying indoors and painting is probably a good idea. I already had one day of school with no voice, and thankfully my students treated me kindly. We accomplished a lot with hand gestures and notes.

New Painting

Here is my latest painting, it is 30" x 30" on a cradled panel. It was photographed before being hung, and I will have a better photo of it later. It was commissioned by a family for their mother's birthday gift to go in her newly redecorated living room. I developed the design after talking with her about some of her own ideas, then surprised her with it this weekend.

Working in my small studio space, these 30" x 30" panels have seemed large, but seeing this painting on her enormous walls made them look really small!

Back to Work

Summer went fast, but fall commitments are suddenly picking up.

The "Suite Oklahoma II" printmaking portfolio is complete and has been displayed at ArtsSpace Ponca City, and opens today at Milagros print studio in OKC. It is also available for viewing by appointment at the Lachenmeyer Art Center in Cushing. It is a portfolio of work by...I think*... 18 printmakers across Oklahoma, including me. Hopefully it will be available for online viewing at some point. *we are still waiting on one print to be finished -- not mine!

Last summer 3 friends and I visited Italy thanks to a fellowship from Fund for Teachers. In two weeks we open an exhibit of art that was made in reference to that experience. It will be a mix of photographs, including a couple of my pinhole photos, some jewelry made with Murano beads, a couple of serigraphs, a large woodcut, and maybe a painting or two (if I get them finished!)

I am still working on emptying my childhood home in preparation for a major remodel. Yesterday I finally worked up the courage to "process" my mother's dresser drawer, which was pretty painful but ok in the end. I'm going to make that room my studio.

Slipping away

Summer is really slipping away, between art camp and traveling. Art camp was a great success. The first group of kids was perhaps my most engaged and enthusiastic ever. The second week, well, I really wondered about them at first. Seated in front of paper and piles of crayons, all twelve of them just sat there. My helpers and I told them they could draw while we waited for everybody to arrive, and nobody bothered. I thought "oh dear, a week of this?" Who could imagine a dozen third graders with no interest in coloring? I suggested they do something with their names.....so a few wrote their names, and that was it.

As it turned out, these kids had great imaginations and remarkably long attention spans, they just weren't into drawing. I asked them to choose an animal, and I made them a wire armature of it and had it waiting for them the next morning - the wire is too stiff for little hands - then they built up the bodies with newsprint and tape, and we covered them with plaster gauze and painted them. I was amazed with their ideas and the fact that they happily spent an entire morning on this one project.

It never fails to interest me that classes of kids have a kind of groupthink.