In my most recent series of paintings, I'm still using oil pastel and wax markers and graphite and charcoal. And I've added another element - paper. I've had an old dictionary for years and almost gave it away to charity last year. Instead, I kept it, and decided that I should finally just DO something … Continue reading new painting 6.3.2021
Art is full of ambiguity. Our response is often undefined, unexpected and perplexing. Being willing to embrace the mystery—and to do so outside the domain of language—frees a viewer to experience the work without any explanation or validation. That personal response can frequently link directly to the thrill of being intimately enthralled.Deborah Barlow, http://www.slowmuse.com/2021/03/04/intimately-enthralled
The creative life is not a straight line. There is no map for making, only an orientation. It’s a poetic, unpredictable spiral. It’s the discipline of returning to the same practices again and again, regardless of circumstance. No matter how flourishing your life as a maker is, or how successful you are, you don’t ever … Continue reading art quote – Doctor 1.14.2021
One of my favorite songs is Kate Bush's 50 Words for Snow - basically a list in song. And posted on my wall I have a list, cut out from a newspaper long ago, of 100 words for precipitation. I like lists. Perhaps I learned list love (or list lust) from my mom, Eleanor, who … Continue reading word orbs 12.3.2020
Art isn't explanation. Art is what an artist does, not what an artist explains. (Or so it seems to me, which is why I have a problem with the kind of modern museum art that involves reading what the artist says about a work in order to find out why one should look at it … Continue reading art quote – Le Guin 11.5.2020
In August of this year, I learned about a collective, community mural to be displayed on the University of Wisconsin campus here in Madison. Any community member could participate in this socially distanced art event, called "Threads of Hope." One could use any media they wanted, as long as it fit on an 8x8 inch … Continue reading community mural 10.22.2020
My youngest child Berit requested that I make a head planter for her birthday this year. Here's the planter when it's still at raw clay stage - before any firing has occurred. Here are a few shots after firing. She's glazed with white shino.White shino allows for some of the brown clay to show through … Continue reading head planter 10.15.2020
Earlier this year I bought a book titled Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design. Notan, a Japanese term, involves the concept of dark and light; black and white; positive and negative. It's a small book of 80 pages, but it's jam packed with great information. As a life-long student, I was pretty excited to discover … Continue reading notan, part one 9.10.2020
Art is a particular madness where you are using a means of communication, which means are recognizable to other people, to say something that they hadn’t heard, or hadn’t perceived, or had repressed. Curiously, it’s only recently that I’ve noticed that I’m still making sculptures in the way that I made the poems. It’s all … Continue reading art quote – Chamberlain 8.27.2020
In mid March of this year, I began my self retreat at home in hopes of avoiding the Corona virus. I haven't worked much at the community clay studio where I typically used to spend 2 or 3 afternoons each week. Midwest Clay Project (MCP) closed altogether for awhile, and now it's reopened with social … Continue reading home ceramics studio 7.2.2020
