Upset > All Set!

I leave off yesterday heading I don't know where, entirely content not knowing. 

Hahaha! Good thing I don't know!  

Yesterday, in mere seconds, I shift from a demanding to-do list to totally happy art-play. 

Today, I sit with pen in hand and, in mere seconds, create a mess totally not to my liking.

Noooooooo!

Lived experience reminds me I've rescued almost every mess I've ever painted myself into, but still I suspect I'll most likely pitch this one and call it a day.

Eventually, though, I think to call on my trusty paper cutter to isolate a found composition, and I set to work with tweaks and tiny touches of magic. Fascinating process, I gotta say!

The Day Was Still Warming Up 4 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, oil pastel, and collage, mounted on card stock abstract 2022

The Way

The way one raindrop

acts as an image-disrupter 

of branches reflected in a puddle,

leaving the branches 

just enough time to reassemble

before another raindrop

starts a fresh shimmy;

the way, after months of winter,

birdsong suddenly 

accompanies me

on a predawn walk

in the last darkness of night;

the way the slightest of breezes

sets a desiccated oak leaf

skittering like a mouse

across the path on which I walk;

the way one thing ends

and another glorious thing begins:

astonishments one and all.

They Was a Little Breeze Stirring
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, pastel, and collage
abstract
2021

Surrender Experiment

Mid-afternoon, I let myself stand still. 

Fully.

Physically and mentally.

Cleared the kinks from my body, the clutter from my mind.

Decided to act on inspiration from a post written by my friend Simone.

Grabbed a tiny piece of paper canvas.

Scribbled with a mechanical pencil.

Grabbed quinacridone nickel azo gold.

Used my finger to spread some color.

Added some white gesso.

Felt great to surrender to whatever transpired.

tiny art start on paper canvas

(Parenthetical Project) 7

It can be, and often is, tremendously difficult for me to get past my own defenses to discover, identify, and fully own what I'm thinking, and then to let go as indicated of either resistance or clinging.

How is it that this difficulty, this resistance, this clinging can still surprise me?

How is it that I can still hide from myself so capably?

I Hear the Children in the Yard
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, and collage
abstract
2021

(Parenthetical Project) 3

This, then.

The unmistakable beat

of beak on bark,

riveting me in place

to search out

the compelling provider of percussion,

my eyes and ears collaborating

in a pas-de-deux

until I locate

the whole world

in a downy woodpecker.

Where the Best Poems Grow
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, and collage on paper
abstract
2021

I Do, 10/11/1975

Forty-five years. Flame still burning hot and bright! 

 A Surprise in the Familiar
4.5 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic and collage on paper
abstract
2020

Across the Silence

To pray is to enter 

into a humble receptivity. 

It’s to realize the familiar self’s 

inability to deeply know. 

Most fundamentally, 

to pray is to open to wisdom 

that’s available 

to come to the heart 

in a time of readiness. 

This is not 

the emotion-saturated heart 

cramped by desire or need, 

but the open one 

that’s receptive to truth, 

painful or otherwise.

—Jan Frazier

The Ways We Are Changed by the Answering Silence
4.5 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, collage, and pastel on paper
abstract landscape
2020

Walking Through Some of My Doors

I am always so grateful when I can take, and even welcome, life as it comes, when I can walk through some of my doors to see beyond what I have until then perceived as limitations.

The Ability to Respond Gratefully to Problems
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, pencil, collage, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Blame and Battle No Longer Apply
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, pencil, collage, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Others Have Gone Through the Door Before Us
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, pencil, collage, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Each of Us Goes Through the Door for Others
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, pencil, collage, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Whole New Way of Seeing

Early in my years of active parenting, a friend directed my attention to Whole Child, Whole Parent by Polly Berrien Berends.

I had no idea at the time that it was the gift of a turning point.

The Road That Leads to the Road
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, pencil, collage, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

The Suspicion That I'm Not Seeing Straight
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, pencil, collage, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Dying to Wake Up
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, pencil, collage, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Please Tell Me What My Mistaken Idea Is
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, pencil, collage, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Starting Point

Every feeling except love is not-love.

Love. Not-love.

Let's go with that as a starting point.

I Awake Under the Dome of Pre-Dawn
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, India ink, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Unmoving, I Yet Move with Everything on Earth
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, India ink, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

All the Time

A moment of zen is mine for the living whenever long-time friend Sarah, now a dog coach, posts on Instagram.

Recently:

Every living thing is learning, all the time. You can teach crazy or you can teach calm. The choice is yours.

Oh.

Yeah.

Now I remember. 

The choice is mine, crazy or calm. I feel myself breathing more deeply already.

No Boundaries Between Me and the Ground and the Grass
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, India ink, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

No Boundaries Between Me and the Planets
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, India ink, and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Perspective

I'm captivated lately by shifting perspective, those experiences of suddenly seeing through new eyes, whether spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and/or—more literally—visually.

Today I start with stuff. Stuff in drawers and baskets, stuff in boxes and folders—a transparent acrylic skin made in October, a painting exercise from 2016, calendar posters from 2014, a black envelope that came in the mail who knows when and bearing who knows what.

Cut a snippet of the acrylic skin, cut the painting exercise, cut the envelope, cut the calendar pages.

Blink.

Through new eyes unrelated stuff becomes two elegant greeting cards, completing a quartet whose other members stepped out together yesterday.

I think [s]he saw art 
where other people
saw nothing,
but that's the nature
of the artist
in the first place,
isn't it?

-Elizabeth George, For the Sake of Elena

Moon Lifts, Sun Drops, Pines Pirouette
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, and watercolor pastel
abstract
2018

Lasso the Flames and Sparks If You Can
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, collage, and watercolor pastel
abstract
2018

Multiplication

To multi-ply is to many-fold and, starting at a young age, my son Scott took a shine to folding paper airplanes, which led me to get him a beginner's book of origami instructions and a package of paper, which in turn led him, at age six, to have an exhibit at our public library of origami figures he'd folded, an exhibit that included an 18-inch-long Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton made from 21 squares of paper, each of which had many, many, many folds.

So it is that when I go rag-picking today, I find origami paper among my odds and ends, providing the perfect backdrop to two found compositions extracted from a 2016 improv exercise. Together, these elements become mono-fold greeting cards.

The Sun So Bright It Bounces Off the Water
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, collage, and watercolor pastel
abstract
2018
sold

The Moon Folds Over and Then Straightens Out Again
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, and watercolor pastel
abstract
2018

Resuscitation

This trio started as an experiment on the front porch of a cottage on Beaver Harbor in New Brunswick, Canada.

June, two years ago. Bright blue skies. Fresh air. Early morning sunlight.

Played with acrylic and oil pastel on a long strip of canvas paper. Did some cutting up, fiddled with some superimposing. Brought it home in a pile of several such experiments.

Moved it from drawer to drawer.  Sighed more than once at its incompletion. Fell into some negative self-talk.

Then, a few weeks ago, a bookmark sneaked out of it.

Today, a triptych of greeting cards. Couldn't be more pleased.

You never know!

Just a Ferry Ride Away from Dulse
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Unexpected Port of Call
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Responding to the Prevailing Wind
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic and oil pastel
abstract
2018

Ragman

Years ago I'd often head to a former factory in Cambridge, MA, with friend Anne. What we referred to as "Ragman" was a place that in post World War II years bought used clothes in bulk and cut them into rags for industrial customers. Then, in the late 1970's, the owner decided to separate out less-worn items from the raw materials and sell them on weekends for $1 a pound.

Craziest place ever. Big plastic garbage bags instead of shopping carts. Clothes heaped all over the old wooden floor. No changing rooms. Big scale for checking out at the end.

Initially paralyzed, I'd eventually pick a starting place and begin pawing through. My left brain had no option but to yield to my right brain. I found the best clothes clothes there! $23—new wardrobe!

My studio is a little less rough around the edges, though not much. I paw through piles of past paintings, let my right brain rummage through all that raw material. I find the best stuff there!

Another series of cards:

The In-Between Moments of Slack Tide
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, and pastels
abstract
2018

The Sea-Rich Muddy Harbor Floor
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, and pastels
abstract
2018

Redolent with Pungent Gurry
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, and pastels
abstract
2018

Chiffonnier

Rag-picker is a term for someone who makes a living by rummaging through refuse in the streets to collect material for salvage and reuse. Although solely a job for the lowest of the working classes, it was considered an honest occupation. 

Well, of course!

And, not only that, but also—fancy this!—another term for rag-picker is chiffonnier. La-di-da!

Today, as studio chiffonnier, I salvage a 2016 'busy & quiet' exercise—itself made of salvaged material. I cut it into a diptych, mount each half on scraps of a wallpaper sample from a 2013 kitchen renovation project, slip each card into a clear protective sleeve.

This chiffonier says, Voilà!

And Follow After
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, pencil, and collage
abstract
2018

The Day Together
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, ink, pencil, and collage
abstract
2018

In Production

In limbo, waiting for some supplies on order, I've pressed pause with the WIP last seen at the paper cutter. I have shifted gears and am now in production making a bunch of greeting cards.

I do some more 'rag-picking' again today … and look at this sweet duo! The art comprises two found compositions from another piece done for an online Jane Davies class in 2016. The backing is the inside of an envelope—marketing material, I think. Way fun!

The Smell of Damp Wood and Sun
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, India ink, and pencil
abstract
2018

The Smell of Earth and Grass
4.25 x 5.5 greeting card; acrylic, India ink, pencil
abstract
2018

You Never Know

In my mind's ear I can hear perfectly the clop-clop of a horse pulling an open cart down Chepstow Place in London where I lived in 1968, adding its hoofbeat to the one-line chant voiced by the man running the operation: RAAAAGs'n'bones, RAAAAGs'n'bones.

A rag-and-bone man collects unwanted household items and sells them to merchants. In 19th century London about a thousand of these men lived in extreme poverty, surviving on the proceeds of what they collected each day. By the 1980's they were mostly gone.

I'm somewhat of an updated knockoff rag-and-bone person myself, of the sort portrayed aptly by Florian Roderi in A Weekend with Picasso:

We artists are a bit like ragpickers;
we like to have all sorts
of odds and ends around us.
They may seem completely useless
to other people
but
       you never know!

I experience such pleasure today as I decide which of the odds and ends around me to make into a greeting card, pressing into service a 'mostly monochrome' exercise done for a Jane Davies class—an exercise which itself pulled from several odds and ends—along with a promotional postcard salvaged from the mail. Scissors, acrylic matte medium, books and bricks to press pieces together, and finally a crystal clear plastic sleeve.

You never know!

Buzzing Bees, Like a Haze in Spring
4.25 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, India ink, and collage
abstract
2018

Yin and Yang

I have been fighting the good fight this summer, muscling both ends of a thick rope in a big ol' game of tug-o'-war: (a) wanting my home to be tidy, spare, spacious, and free from clutter, and (b) wanting to hang onto this and that—this magazine page, that painting experiment, this report card from when Scott started kindergarten, that report card from when *I* started kindergarten.

Today, though, I do not see opposing forces but forces that are complementary, interconnected, and interdependent; I see how they give rise to each other as they interrelate.

I snip a found composition from a 2016 painting exercise, pull out a bright fuschia envelope in which my friend Bo (follow the link!) sent me a note months ago (she found the envelope in her basement where she keeps things), and locate in my scraps box a letter from a high school friend typed on pale green stationery.

These forces come together along with today's sunshine and summer air to become an anniversary card that will leave my house—more space!—to transport love, color, and beauty 600 miles down the road to celebrate Meg and Michael.

What Can Happen When You Take a Chance
4x5"; acrylic, India ink, and oil pastel on card stock
abstract
2018
[gift]

Organic Matter

Today, I enjoyed the simple pleasure of making a greeting card. With my own hands. Using a found composition from a painting start created who knows when that then became a lifting paper over time and today turned into a little gift to send across the ocean to an online art friend.

Happy birthday, Mariëlle!

Pebbles Turning, and Waves Tapping Sea-Worn Rocks
3x4"; acrylic, ink, and pastels on paper,
mounted on card stock
abstract
2017
[gift]