CLASSICAL ELEMENTS FINISHED

Finally finished with Four Oceans Press Classical Elements Exchange. Yeah!

I started this project with the idea of portraying the elements as we encounter them today in our urban environments. We have limited exposure to the elements, or have tamed them for our convenience.

This last one, Fire, was the one I had the initial idea about. We seldom use fire in our urban lives. Even cooking, we use heat, not fire; and with the microwave, we don't even use heat!

FIRE - DAY TWO

It was a busy day today. I made two passes through the press with the forty sheets of paper. So, there are now four colors on the paper. Tomorrow I'll do the key block, which outlines everything in black.

I'll let them dry over the weekend and then I've just got to sign and number them and stuff them in clearbags. Oh, and write a colophon to accompany it.

Almost there! It will be nice to be finished with this series.

I'm really looking forward to receiving back everyone elses prints. I plan to sit down and look through them all and see each participants four prints together.

FIRE - FIRST DAY PRINTING

I finalized my drawing for my last Classical Element, 'Fire' on Sunday and carved the key block. Yesterday, I transfered the keyblock carving to two more blank lino-blocks. I decided on the colors this morning and carved the first color block.

Today, I finally got ink on paper and just finished the first run.

I set my Zune to play just 'rock', turned up the stereo and set about the repetitive job of inking the block and running the papers through the press. It's mindless but fun. The hardest part is to keep from completely zoning out and not repeating each step exactly the same.

I must reiterate: I love Akua inks, I love my Ettan press and I love the registration system I learned from PrintMakerGuy on Wetcanvas, Andrew Gott.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.

I'm going back up to the studio now to carve the next color block.

See ya soon!

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

I hung some of my paintings upstairs at a coffee shop in Ballard (northwest Seattle) today. They will be available to see through the end of July. Thank you to my friend, Sue Danielson (there is a link to her website on the page under 'Links') who curates the artwork for

Java Jahn's Coffee

1438 Leary Way NW, Seattle, WA 98107

206-789-9441

They are open M-F 5am to 6:30pm, S-S 7am to 7pm.

Stop by, have some great coffee, go upstairs and view the show.

Let me know what you think! Thanks.

I am so pleased to have them out in the world!

FABRIC FINDS IN DENVER

One of the things I used to do all the time was go Quilt Shop Hopping. I love fabric! I love collecting it. I haven't been fabric buying in a long time. So, while Darrell was busy in Denver I went to a few quilt shops in the area. Having a gps in the car made it extremely easy. I had a whole list of shops, but after I went a little nuts at the first one and spent too much money, I had to cut back on my list. I didn't pace myself. So, I only went to two shops, The Great American Quilt Factory and Fabric Expressions. Nice stores but I think their selection was down a little, maybe due to the economy. I did my best to stimulate them, though!

In the past what I would do with the fabrics, when we got home, is make a quilt commemorating our trip. [See Berkeley quilt] So, now my mission is to come up with a design for Denver. Hmmmm.

Stay tuned.

DENVER TRIP

Wow, my Mom just pointed out to me it's been a while since I updated my blog.

We went to Denver last week, got back on Sunday and was back to work on Monday. So, I didn't have a lot of time to paint (or anything).

I wasn't sure if I should post about our trip or not. I started this blog with the idea it would be about my painting and art making. It has evolved.

We had a good time at the Denver Art Museum. Unfortunately it was covered in tarps because the brand-new roof had been leaking. A very cool building. We'll have to go back when its fixed.

We saw:

a show of posters from the 1960's San Francisco area. Then we wandered around looking at their collection of Western paintings, a nice collection of European paintings (Pissarro, Monet, and folks) a very cool Hieronymus Bosch (strange) even some Gustav Baumann prints. Darrell enjoyed the furniture, there were a few nice pieces by William Morris. There was even a chair exhibit, showing examples of different styles through history.

We went to Denver because Darrell was conducted a workshop for a group of woodworkers. So, on Saturday I was on my own for most of the day. I took the advice of a friend and went to the Mile High Flea Market. I didn't go to shop so much as people-watch. I put a long lens on the camera and wandered around trying to get candid pictures of interesting-looking people without their knowledge. I want to use the pictures for painting portraits, so I was looking for people with no hats and no glasses (I hate painting glasses). Such people are pretty rare, especially on a very sunny morning. The light that morning was very intense, just the way I like it. I did get some photos I can use, and I got some interesting photos of some of the stuff for sale there.

Oh, and I did buy a very interesting African Mask. This is the second mask I've acquired, the first, a 'Day of the Dead' type mask I got in Galveston, probably 10 years ago, while on a side trip from Quilt Market in Houston. I guess this means I'm on my way to having a collection. (nooooo).

Vanilla Houses #4

I've spent the last few days working on this, the fourth painting in my series I'm calling Vanilla Houses. So called, because of their common blandness (among other reasons). Its acrylic on canvas, 24" by 30".

I'll have to let this one rest for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes.

Let me know what you think - what doesn't work, what does....

Thanks!

BOXED ME REDONE

After I loaded up the image of my self-portrait, "Boxed Self" I saw some things I didn't like. So, I've spent the last few days re-working it. I took out the black outline off the boxes, and changed a few other things, one of which was lightening up the shadow over the eye and doing away with so much yellow. Which is funny, because the very first addition, which I don't have a picture of, has the eye box mostly all yellow. I thought that worked very well. But, I kept fussing with it until the yellow left didn't look quite right. It needed to either add more yellow or totally eliminate the yellow...and of course, I went for the more realistic look.

I like it alot better, now. It's still acrylic on canvas 8"x10"

Here are the two, side by side:

BOXED SELF

Sifting through my photo files again, I came across a photo I took of myself. Using it as a starting point, I painted this today.
It's an acrylic painting on canvas 8"x 10".

INTO PORTRAITS

I saw a photo in the Seattle Times the other day, and thought it was a very interesting face. Turns out it's Geitner, the photo is by Applewhite of Associated Press.

I've been thinking about painting faces for a while now. So, when I saw the photo I had to cut it out. This might be a copyright infringement, so .....shhh.

I've got an inquiry into AP for permission (I didn't tell them it was after-the-fact).

I never did hear how the Obama 'HOPE' poster controversy turned out.

This is acrylic on canvas 12"x 9".

Since I don't want to get all tangled up in copyright infringments, I took a look through my own photo files. For years, I've been taking pictures of people and squirrelling them away with the idea I could use them for portraits.

When I look at family and friends pictures I have a hard time seeing just a face. I see memories and how they looked years ago and I find it very difficult to actually paint them. I've tried, and it just doesn't work! So, I need photos of people I'm not close to....

Here's Jenna. This is a photo I took in September of 2005.

This is an acrylic painting 8"x 10".

I like the Geitner painting better because it's a little more abstract. I started out wanting to make a very abstract painting. But, next thing I knew, it was this!

But, I think Jenna turned out really nice, too. I started it thinking I would get very defined with her 'edges and planes', but again, it turned out more realistic than I had intended. The under painting was very plane-like. I think that is what ultimately makes it a good painting.

Should I fight this tendency to go realistic? or go with the flow?

COMPASS MAT TOP COMPLETED

Well, after alot of head-scratching and moving around of parts and pieces, I finally figured it out, and got them all put together.

Now, I don't know what to do with it. I think it needs a border. At this point its about 24" by 18". There is plenty of fabric. Hmmmm. More head-scratching required, I think.

NORTH STAR COMPASS

Feeling the need to finish more quilt projects, I pulled out this small one. It originally was started by my sister, Sue. Somewhere along the line I inherited it. I'd always liked her fabric choices, and thought it would make a nice Christmas table mat. I was sorry to see Sue had abandoned it.
Anyway, it's been years since it was pulled out and of course, there were no instructions! It's a paper pieced pattern and all the pieces appeared to be there, so I stared sewing the fabric onto the paper pieces according to the colors Sue had marked on them.
When I got done doing that, I laid the pieces out and began trying to fit them together....
Oh, my...it's not going to be as easy as I thought.

To be continued.

BERKELEY QUILT

I've been feeling the need to finish some very old quilt projects lately. I pulled this out several weeks ago and realized it just needed to have the quilting finished on the border and binding put on it. Easy peasy.

I got the last of the binding nailed down over the weekend and can call this one officially finished! Yeah!

This quilt is my original block design after the Freeman Ford chair, designed by the architects Greene & Greene and built by the Hall brothers in 1908. I started working on this quilt in 2003 after Darrell and I went on a fact-gathering trip (vacation for me) where Darrell was going around to get information for his since published book. Greene & Greene: Design Elements for the Workshop.

We stopped at the University of California, Berkeley's architectural archives where Darrell had made an appointment to look at original documents from the Greene's, circa 1900-1915. We had also made a few stops at quilt shops in the area, where I bought some of the fabrics that ended up being in the quilt, including the beautiful paisley border fabric, which I used as the 'jumping-off point".

When we left there, Darrell was very excited about the Freeman Ford chair so I designed my block as kind of statement about what I liked about the chair: the curve of the back going up to the crest rail.

Here is a close up of one of the blocks. It shows the four pieces that make up the block. At the top is the crest rail, the gold fabric represents the sensuous curve of the back leg as it splays out and connects to the crest rail.

Here is the chair - Greene and Greene 1908. This chair now lives in The Huntington Museum.

Darrell designed a chair after this one, also. His Aurora Chair.

The border on the quilt gave me fits. I didn't have enough of the fabric to make it all the way around, so I decided to 'make do'. I took some of the other fabric and made little blocks and used them to fill in the blank spots. I'm not real excited about it, but it turned out okay. Note to self: don't be skimpy when purchasing border fabrics!

GREAT DAY!

Yesterday after I finished printing I loaded the dog and my bare necessities into the car and headed out. First stop was my parents house, where my sister, her husband, me and Lucy went to have lunch with Mom and Dad. Lucy got her first ride on a Washington State Ferry (I guess). She enjoyed watching the seagulls.

It was kind of a late Easter lunch with ham and everything. We had a nice visit, except for when Lucy was harrassing their poor cat, who was hiding out under the bed. We sat on the deck and were bombarded by tiny, flashy little hummingbirds. And then we dashed-off.

It was a case of eat-and-run, because my ultimate destination was Port Townsend, where my husband, Darrell was teaching a class at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking. I told him I'd meet him after his class ended for the day at 5:00pm. We arrived a little early and the class ran late, so Lucy and I walked down and then back up Water street, looking into all the shop windows.

The next morning, after a nice breakfast, I followed Darrell up to the school at Fort Warden (you may remember it as the place 'An Officer and Gentleman' with Richard Gere was filmed). After a short visit and look-see around the benchroom, Lucy and I left the men to their class and we went for a great walk up to the old bunkers.

If you've never been there, it's a must-see.

At one point, I let Lucy off the leash to take a picture of her, and I thought for a second that might be the last time I'd ever see her.

Although, she was a little overcome by all the beasty-scents, she did come back and hook back up to the leash.

We continued our adventure, wandering through the underground bunkers - pitch black! I made Lucy go first, just in case there was a drop-off! Hey, I would have pulled her back up with the leash. It was fun, scarey and exciting!

Here are a few pictures:

This is where the Big Guns where installed, they removed them unfortunately. There are lots of little deadend rooms where I guess the Big Shells (?) where stored. Lots of really great Big Iron Doors. Lots of stairs and tunnels and up on the top, a wonderful view of the ocean. I think I've heard you can see Canada.

And then Lucy and I left about 10:00am and headed home, Lucy in her little dog-seat. We had grocery shopping, laundry and housework to do yet before I have to head back to work tomorrow.

ALMOST FINISHED WITH AIR!

Okay, I spent Saturday morning putting the final layer, the so-called keyblock, on - the black ink. I was surprised how well everything lined up! Like I said in the last post, I had adjusted the alignment of the third layer, the orange, and I was worried about how the last would go. It's the most important, since it outlines everything.

I still have to weed out the bad ones, tear them down to size, sign and number them. Then I've got to make up a colophon (description, statement, facts, info and name) and stuff the whole works into plastic bags - which I don't have! Yikes!

I ordered some more, so now they are going to be even later than I thought, while I wait for the bags to be delivered. I must send an email to Four Oceans Press and explain.

I'll reiterate my theme.

In this series of the Elements, Earth, Water, Air and Fire, I wanted to show how we come into contact with them in our modern society. Imagining someone who lives in a highrise in the city - when they want air, they turn a knob and adjust to whatever temperature they prefer.

Here's my latest Classic Element - Air.

And here's the first two I did - Water

and here's the first, Earth -

DAY THREE - AIR PRINT

Here's the third color, I had to do a little adjusting to get it go line up right.

I just love this color! It's Akua intaglio ink Scarlet Red and Yellow Ochre mixed together. I'm using the same basic colors through the four different prints in this series. And yes, that's a cheap-o Speedball brayer. Use and abuse and toss it out and get a new one when it's used up.

And here's my Ettan press showing my easy to make three-hole-punch registration system using a 99 cent three-hole-punch made to fit into a three-ring binder and lots of blue masking tape.

DAY TWO - AIR PRINT

I got the second color printed today!

I can't go too fast or I'll hurt my neck - running things through the press takes a lot of turns of the press's wheel. I'm going to do one color a day, giving them some time to dry and not pushing my muscles. I gotta tell you, I don't feel guilty not getting them in on time. So far, every exchange I've done with this group I've been on time, only to have to wait and extra month for the stragglers to get theirs in. This time, I'm a straggler. But I should have them in the mail by Monday, only 5 days late.


Here's a great shot of Lucy, busy watching the driveway. She looks so sweet! What a tough life. Lucky dog.

STARTING A PRINT

Yikes, I got an email last Friday reminding me that my next print for the series, Classic Elements, is due on the 15th...next Wednesday.

Ha! I haven't even thought about it, let alone got it ready to go.

Prints are not an easy thing to just whip out.

I started working on the drawing at work over the weekend. I pretty much had the drawing down and finished it up Monday morning.

I carved the keyblock on Tuesday, transfered that to two more linoleum blocks and left them to dry.

Wednesday, I went to Daniel Smith (my favorite store) and got my paper and ink that I needed. I returned home, carved the other two blocks and tore the paper to the right size.

So, that takes me to today, the day it's due!

I started printing, and put down the first color on 40 pieces.

Here's a picture...
I know you have no idea what it is, but if you watch, you'll eventually see!

SPRING ARRIVES!

Wow, what a great weekend. Finally, some nice weather. The husband and I took advantage of it both days. Saturday, he got the bikes out (after a long winter's storage), dusted them off and aired up the tires. That lead to some general cleaning out of the garage first. We loaded the bikes up and grabbed the dog and headed to Alki. We knew it was going to be crowded, but my goodness - it was crowded! I've got a plastic milk crate mounted on the back of my bike for the dog. She wears a harness and gets cross-tied in so she can't get out (even if we go down!). This was only the second time she's done this, the first time was right after we got her, way back in November, when she was being on her best behavior. Well, those days are long gone. Lucy immediately started whining and trying to get out. We went about a mile, and then stopped. I couldn't take it anymore. I tried letting her trot along side. That worked better than I thought, although it slowed us down quite a bit. We didn't get even 50 feet, when she stopped suddenly and pooped...I guess that was the problem all along! (yes, I had a bag) We let her trot along side for another half mile or so, until it got too crowded with walkers and bikers and skaters and we put her back in the box where she rode pretty good the rest of the way.

Sunday was another beautiful day, even warmer. We took the bikes to Fort Dent and rode down the Interurban trail, where there are very few walkers, and it was early enough that there were not many bikers, either. We let Lucy trot alongside for quite a while, she did great. I worry she'll cross in front of me and I'll run over her, and bounce on the pavement (not good). But she stayed straight and true, like she's done this somewhere else before. Who knows? Maybe she has.

When we got back from the ride and did our chores I headed up into the studio, I was once again inspired to work on the dreadful painting I'd left on my easel. So, I think it's looking better, but its one I really don't care for. And I think I know why, finally. I'm doing this from a photo I took in California, the LA area I think. The freeways down there are different from the ones I see here all the time. And I don't like it's supports.

Have you ever noticed that all the freeways are individualistic? The supports and rails and under-stuff is all different in different areas. I can pretty much tell you about the freeways in King County, especially the older ones. And I have my favorites.

Anyway, here's the latest version of my last post, I completely changed the sky and the coloring. I'm liking it a lot more, although I had to get out my itsy-bitsy tiny brush to finish up some of the bad parts.

BACK TO THE LITTLE ONES

Here's my painting of the day. First image is the underpainting, basically laying out the lights and darks. The next image is the second layer I put on. I started playing with the coloring.

I had to quit because I was not happy with it. It was tedious and boring. (And my neck and head ache so bad I can't concentrate). The second state seems lifeless at this point and the clouds seem contrived...

This is acrylic on canvas, 9"x12"