Coming Up for Air

It seems as though a break in the cold weather, a moment to consider a deep breathe, a lull following a busy period is when I rear my head and come up for air. My blog seems to be the result of this time. So. Here I am having a coffee and bagel at my favorite place, just after dropping my daughter off to school and just before I head to the studio to make and teach for the day. The weather is gorgeous and my schedule today feels light because its designed by me and I am loving my work.
One of my indirect sources for my artistic work is reading poetry. There is something about getting inside someone's head and listening to their words from my lips, that informs what I do with color, texture, particularly when approaching landscape work. Most of my landscape work this past year moves quickly away from the real landscape and become something of their own. I've included here one of my "pink" works that are created with many materials including collage, willow charcoal, acrylic paint. If you do want to have a good poetry read, I found at the Maine State Library a small poetry book called "Nothing Moves On the Horizon", which is a collection of pieces by inmates at the Thomaston Prison.
As for most of the time, my work in the studio has been varied in the last month or so. Possibly its a part of my own self-education, but I don't think artists should be static. We should be open to new ideas, materials, and processes. Anyhow, as part of my new assignments, I have almost completed a painted artist book inspired by first a conversation with a student of how her chicken's she raises arrived in a box in the mail, but also by a short workshop I took with Rebecca Goodale. Here's the result.
There's more brewing at the studio but the studio is calling me to now to come clean up after my weekly messes and start some new ones. Come on by!