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About the art: a fresh canvas with a nice coat of gesso to begin this piece - no murdered underpainting! I began with a sketch of the form in thinned oil paint and roughed in the first layer of the background to refine the form. A long drying time. Beginning with the face and hair, then moving to the dress, leaving the hands and arms untouched until the initial layers on the rest were dry. A slow and thoughtful mark making with thinned oil paint to create the designs on the skin. Then the real fun! A wide, flat brush laden with paint moved with big gestures to create movement in the fabric - ooh la la! Building darks over many weeks. A final coat of paint on the background, a looooong drying time and then the varnish. She's a big girl, and a powerful presence. I am smitten!
A note about the quoted lyrics: Kerala Dust has some surreal lines in their songs, which get stuck in my head and loop in fantastical ways. Mistaking whispers for earthquakes is a perfect analogy for panic attacks (the amaygdala making mountains out of molehills), and thus became attached to the art. Another of the lyrics, the wind is a thistle, frolics in my thoughts. I wonder where it will go? About the art: Are you wondering? You are correct! Another reinvention of a murdered painting. The underpainting was acrylic for this piece, so a nice coat of gesso over the top obliterated the original. A fresh white canvas, with a little added texture thanks to the original piece. Beginning with the background color in a thin wash, then "drawing" the design into wet paint with a rubber wedge. A long, LONG drying time. Working outside-in and inside-out to refine the drawing, straying from expected architecture into a bit of the wonky/unexpected/whimsy by allowing lines to become askew and the building to make little sense at all. What freedom! The focus for this piece was deepening darks, building shadows and reflections, creating texture in the sructure and the background. The final touches were the signage and the crows, followed by a thick layer of varnish. Plenty of room at the crow hotel! "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave" (The Eagles) Blog and blogger are heading out for a wintery vacation, so I'll see you back here in two weeks. Thanks for reading!
And I was floored. Because I had made an assumption - that what he really wanted was money (and who could blame him for that?) But all he wanted was what he asked for, and our yard signs let him know we were safe to approach. Whoa. Now, you might be thinking, Lola, what does that have to do with art? I am fixin' to tell ya! That moment of realization - where I saw something I did not expect to see, made a connection I didn't know I would make, felt things I was suprised to feel - that changed me. And that, that is what we hope to do as creatives. To make a moment like that when someone interacts with our art, our words, our writing (dancing, singing, sculpting, sewing, knitting - creating!) - that's everything. The man taught me something profound. And I am deely grateful. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this painting will go to the Portland Food Project About the art: another murdered painting becomes reborn into something completely different! With this piece, I felt the urge to create a spontaneous abstracted forest-scape; something reminiscent of our hikes. I didn't think, didn't plan, just began. Once the basic underpainting was completed, I let it dry for a couple of weeks. Coming back in with a palette knife and a couple of brushes, layers were added, texture built up and colors deepened. A simple glimpse of a place maybe my feet have walked. Very satisfying.
A quick shout out to my friend, the artist Carl Stoveland, whose blog just experienced a rebirth! His experience, wisdom and voice is another great gift in the world. Take a read! A worthwhile place to spend some precious time. About the art: In pursuit of an abstracted portrait with a limited color palette (I sometimes work best with one metaphorical hand tied behind my back) I began with a Notan of my own face highly simplified into light and shadow. I chose reds and yellows as my primary colors, and began blocking the darks in with red over a piece of gesso'd wood panel. The goal was to keep things loose, resist over defining and allow the addition of a small amount of cool tones to set the piece off. In the end, I embraced a more geometric approach (following the paint) and worked wet into wet to achieve the various shades of warm tones. The impact is punchy! Yes!
may the wind deal kindly with us may the fire remember our names may springs flow, rain fall again may the land grow green, may it swallow our mistakes we begin the work may it continue the great transmutation may it continue a new heaven and a new earth may it continue may it continue - DIANE DI PRIMA
You doing ok in there? Yep, just don't bend over, or look up, or look down, or lift anything, or fall down or bang into things. Hmmm, well that is awfully restrictive! How about if I just lift this thing? Well, ok, but tomorrow could be iffy. Iffy? Uh huh. You might be in some pain. Might be? Yes, I can never say for sure. And why not? I mean, you are the actual bones, right? Yes, well, I am also prone to sudden mood changes. Don't get. me wrong, I love my bones! I am grateful for their reslience and tenacity. But I sometimes delight in portraying my bones as unpredictibly monstrous. Somehow it feels better to imagine a moody monster within than a slowly crumbling structure of minerals. And my bones like being seen as sassy, anyway. How about you, dear reader - what is always at your back?
Here is the final installment of the wonderful and surprising Questions Exchange with Dotty Seiter. My last question for Dotty, and her response in poetry: Aperitif - when you look back at your body of work, written and painted/drawn/scribbled/collaged and the life you have lived making all of that, what do you see and feel? digestif after yoga class, the poet-artist gives her friend a ride home and her friend says, wanna join me for lunch? sure!, she says, and they poke around her kitchen and cobble together what they decide to upgrade to a “luncheon," finding a little of this and a little of that to fill the roles of appetizer (tortilla chips), soup (tomato juice), salad (celery sticks), main course (tuna sandwich), and dessert (frozen thin mint cookies), at which point her friend says with mock solemnity and a faux haughty voice, would you care for an aperitif? uh, the poet-artist hesitates, isn't the drink at the end of a meal called a digestif ? which hits their funny-bones and sets them to laughing hilariously. still laughing, the poet-artist stands up and asserts, what do we care what it's called!, i don't want a drink anyway, best digestif to my way of thinking is a post-prandial passeggiata. perfect, says her friend, and she adds as they begin walking, i have a question i've been wanting to run past you— you've been painting for almost 12 years now, and writing blog posts for all those years and now poetry as well. when you look back at your body of work, written and painted and drawn and scribbled and collaged and wordsmithed, and you look at the life you have lived making all of that, what do you see and feel? the poet-artist takes only a few steps before she replies: i remember in first grade having to color a mimeographed page of circles with color words printed below them. you know, like BROWN PURPLE GREEN, and so forth. i began coloring, easy-peasy, and then before i could even finish coloring the second circle my teacher walked by and told me i was coloring the circles the wrong way-- the RIGHT way was to move my crayon round and round and not from side to side. which i knew was just plain stupid. the writing and painting and drawing and scribbling and collaging and wordsmithing i've done for the past dozen years, and the life i have lived making all that art and all those poems feels like i went back to the day before the mimeograph page landed on my desk and shifted my body just one degree in a different direction and scribbled my way into the best whole-arted life ever. --dotty seiter
And now it is time for the next exchange of questions with the incredibly talented Dotty Seiter! My next question for Dotty: Dessert - what is the sweetest, most decadent and delicious part of your creative life? dessert dessert for the poet as she walks rue saint-denis in montréal is a mamie clafoutis oh mon dieu croissant, a classic flaky buttery french pastry filled with a substantial core of rich chocolate ganache, drizzled with dark chocolate and dusted with confectioner's sugar. dessert for the poet as she listens to an audio novel while she walks her own massachusetts neighborhood is the italian word fermata, a word new to her that might never have caught her ear had she not had a nearly finished draft of a poem awaiting final tweaks for which fermata becomes its oh mon dieu croissant! --dotty seiter
I've been following the monks who are walking for peace, and find this so comforting at thiis time.
And so I leave you today with their words: When peace, compassion, and loving-kindness shine in our hearts, all the barriers that seemed to divide us simply dissolve-- and what remains is the beautiful truth we might have forgotten: we were never strangers, only family and friends who hadn’t yet recognized each other. May you and all beings be well, happy, and at peace.
About the art: beginning with a piece of gesso'd Yupo, I created a mask in the shape of the critters and boat and painted around them with a thin layer of background paint. I use the mask technique when my hands feel uncoordinated (hello, arthritis!) and I want to be sure to get the composition and placement just right. Once the initial background layer was dry, I worked exclusively on the characters first, building the layers and details from the heads and faces outward. Then the sail and moon, then the boat. While those layers dried, more pinks and plums in the sky and movement in the sea. A final layer of detail on the characters and the boat, and one more layer on the background. After a couple weeks of thorough drying, a final layer of varnish over the whole shebang to really make the colors pop. The Question Exchange with the amazing Dotty Seiter continues! Here is my question number three for Dotty, and her gobsmackingly gorgeous response: Main Course - if creating was a main course (a sandwich, even!), what would it be and why? piatto principale the main course of creating, according to my poet/artist friend's way of thinking, is not a particular meal or dish but, instead, an actual course-- a flow, a pathway, a series of illuminating moments, an alchemy, a transcendence, a transformation, a lived experience highly sensory and immediate, a space outside of time and place, a threshold consciousness with which she becomes one, inhabiting it as it inhabits her, animated by generative energy and invigorating tension that resolve at the intersection of process and product no matter the process, no matter the product. in other words, not beef wellington, not quiche lorraine, not shrimp diavolo, but a life force that sustains her from the outside in and the inside out. buon appetito! --dotty seiter
While Dotty and I continue our Question Exchange over the coming weeks, a new winner and a new exchange will begin! Congratulations to Diana D. - you're the winner of the December Reader Giveaway! Huzzah! Send a message to me at [email protected] and let me know what method of exchange works best for you. I am looking forward to it!
Many thanks to all who have read, viewed and listened to the Question Exchanges over the last couple of months. Upon reflection, I am certain I personally feel enriched beyond expectation by the entire process! Anyone who is interested in participating in a future exchange please reach out to me at [email protected] and I'll gladly leap into it with you! For now, blog comments will be just that - comments! Thank you for them! Your readership and participation make this whole blog space sparkly and so very rewarding! xo |
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