Kerrytown Sketchbook

The copy in the Moleskine reads as follows: Kerrytown is a Market place in the old section of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Fresh fish, wine, breads, vegetables & fruit are being sold in the stalls of the indoor market. It is Saturday so the Farmers' Market is in full swing just beyond the windows. I have found a table with enough space for a latte & my sketchbook. I am looking into a sea of red. Apples- all of which are perfumed by their freshness. I spend this rainy afternoon drawing & painting the scene.

In Praise of Moleskine

If I had to rush out of a burning building, I would be clutching my Moleskine sketchbook. It goes everywhere with me. Then there's the Moleskine notebook that I use for my journaling. Moleskines are nothing new, they've been around for a couple hundred years. A favorite of artists and writers, because they are relatively cheap. They are ever so portable, coming in a myriad of sizes, shapes, some with lines, squares or even blank. In the recent past the last of the Moleskine makers closed their doors, but like the Phoenix rising from its ashes, they are being manufactured again. The little black notebooks are easy to find. I buy mine at one of the large booksellers. After all, when you have an idea, you need a place to keep it.

"The Gibbes"

As an artist, I take a lot of pictures. Most of these pictures make little sense to anyone else. I think of them as reference photos. I was in Charleston, South Carolina and my aesthetic radar was having a wonderful time. Reacting to the architecture of a large white Victorian era building, I began taking pictures. Instead of taking one picture of a place, I like to take a series and then piece them together. The perspective is often a bit wonky, but the end result has a kind of energy to it. The resulting image always seems truer to how I experienced the place or subject. "The Gibbes" is one of those photo collages. This time I printed the images on aluminum foil. I juxtaposed elements of vintage elegance against the building blocks of creating art: color, line and shape. The resulting piece is intentionally whimsical and recalls for me that sultry Spring afternoon.

The Mad Scientist Struggles On

Ah, struggle, it is said to be beneficial to the human condition. I continue to be the recipient of these benefits. "Flora", a painting done in 1640, haunts my progress. Although, I did myself a big favor when I printed "Flora" this time, I made four copies. Thought I'd give myself four times the wiggle room. Oh and do I ever need it. Now printing an image on foil is pretty easy. Manipulating the resulting image into a collage or painting is an entirely different thing. I am just blowing through my "extras". But I do struggle on never knowing what's going to happen. This is both the blessing and the curse of working with an experimental media or technique. I'm in the grumbling, stumbling dogged pursuit phase. For every step forward, it seems like I'm taking two steps back. Even when I don't get the results that I want, I discover techniques that may prove useful in the future. That's if I can reproduce the effect. I'm not sure why something works one time and not necessarily another time. Is it humidity? Or is it dependant on the phases of the moon or a magic incantation that I've yet to learn? Maybe it's serendipity. Doesn't matter because I'm in this to the finish. So I'm going to put on my lucky socks and mumble an incantation or two. Wish me luck.

Failure = Success

I have already confessed to being overly fond of things that sparkle, glint or shine. So it was a given I would just have to try printing images on foil. Besides, it's pretty easy to do and ever so affordable. I use generic aluminum foil from the grocery store and coat it with Golden's Digital Ground Clear (Gloss). Cut it to fit on a piece of computer paper, taping it on two sides with blue painter's tape. Most important is taping the leading edge, keeping everything as smooth as possible. Less critical is the taping of one of the long sides. Now I'd like to say- just pop it into the printer and click on print, but there is this moment of sanity when you ask yourself why you're putting this in your new printer while remembering just how much it cost. So it was with sweaty palms and whispered prayer that I gently placed my prepped foil into the feed slot. I stood there listening to the most frightening crunching, crinkling sounds, but out it came in fine shape. I actually did five that day. One hung up at the very end without damaging the image, one had a skip in an interesting place, two were perfect and the last one, well...was a minor disaster. It hung up at the beginning and was munched up by the printer. It was the last one and by then I had relaxed and exhaled. My super duper printer disengages when you cut the power and has doors to reach through and lift out whatever gets stuck. I reprinted that image and it, too, was perfect. The images have a tin type look to them, but in full color.

The mad scientist in me started looking around for other applications for my new found skill set. I've been working on a piece that has a tulip as it's focal point, but it is actually about the great tulip investment bubble. In my research I stumbled across a painting done at the time, FLORA. (Note the two faced woman on the right.) Since the image was in public domain, I downloaded and sized the image to suit my composition. I had prepared and fixed it making it ready to be incorporated into my painting. But first I thought I'd use a rubber stamp buttered with acrylic paint over top of it. When I lifted the stamp it pulled away part of the image. Oh how I fussed. I felt like a child whose lollipop had just been snatched out of her sticky fingers. About an hour later, when the wailing and gnashing of teeth abated, I realized that if I had glued it to the painting and then it failed that would be far worse. Decided to go to the coffee shop. On the way out the door, I grabbed my journal and a folder full of Golden product information. While sipping my consolation latte, I found that I needed to use a spray varnish to fix the image and not the workable fix that I had used. Alleluia!!! Okay, this will work for me! I kept reading and saw another technique... baked skins.( Future post ) Needless to say I'm seeing yet more opportunities. All of which should be tested out before affixing to anything. Although it started out being a disaster it ended up being like Christmas.

One is silver and the other gold

A lifetime ago when I was a Brownie Scout we would form a circle at the end of each meeting and sing the following song. "Make new friends, but keep the old. For one is silver and the other gold." Being only seven or eight years old I found the lyrics puzzling. I asked my mother if it meant one group of friends was better than the others? On the contrary, she said it meant that both our old friends and our new friends were equally precious. It still seems that when someone or something new comes into my life I can be dazzled and distracted from all that's come before. I rather think it's a momentary illusion and soon things sift down into a harmonious perspective of celebrating the new while valueing the old.

I have been painting in acrylics since about 1975. In that time I have probably used every product labeled "acrylic". The mainstay of my studio has long been Liquitex which comes in two formulas. The tube formula has a creamy peanut butter consistency. The soft body formula comes in plastic bottles and has a heavy cream consistency. Both stand up well to being thinned with water, retaining its durability. I also love the wealth of information that's easily discernible on the label. Not only is it user friendly but it has proven its long term durability to me, which is no small thing. Until recently there were these great debates over the permanence of acrylics as a fine art medium.

In 2006, I was a participating artist with the OFF THE WALL project. Artists painted themed art on banners that were displayed on lamp posts in the gallery district. The banners provided were much like vinyl window shades with a rod pocket at the top and another on the bottom. They would be installed in November and stay up through the harshest of the Winter weather. I cringed.(Part 1 of 3)

One is silver...(continued)

You see if there is one thing that acrylic painters are warned about, it is cold. It seems acrylics can become brittle. I emailed Liquitex for their input. Their representative reiterated the extreme cold concerns and cautioned against the flexible support that would surely exasperate the problem. I had only one choice. Throw caution to the wind and go for it. I lightly sanded the soft vinyl to give it a bit of tooth and then primed it with Liquitex gesso. I used Gloss Medium along with water to thin the paints since I was doing sheer layers of transparent colors. I went several times that winter to see how the banner was fairing. It was just fine, however other banners began to crack and peel over time. The banner went on to another venue after that. It has survived vertualy unscathed. It's experiences like that one that insure brand loyalty. (Part 2 of 3)