Mud

Life is real, life is earnest,

And the grave is not its goal

From dust thou art to dust returnest

Was not written of the soul.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

For some reason I memorized that quote in middle school, and it remains implanted in my brain. It often emerges in the swirls of clay dust which surround me when I am in the process of recycling clay. Always wear a mask when doing this!
The process consists of breaking down and re-wetting scraps of dried clay, slaking them in water until they are completely saturated

16-tons

and soft throughout, then drying them on a plaster slab until they are ready to be transformed into sculpture. This hunk is a year's worth of saved clay scraps. On top is a recognizable reject from an old sculpture that didn't make it into the kiln... an arm or a thigh.
I let it all dry out into a giant jello mold the size of a 30 gallon garbage can- just kidding- it IS a 39 gallon garbage can... then break it down with the sledgehammer to re-wet it evenly 
I need a new, long handled sledgehammer, but I don't do this often enough to make me run out and buy one.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Andy Towl says that he is spiraling into infinity.
I am so grateful to him for that vision: an ever expanding metaphysical Fibonacci of the soul that resonates deeply for me. Like sunflowers and brussel sprouts and the golden mean and DNA.
Currently I am moving towards the finish in several projects. I find that if I attack them frontally or directly it is an ineffective path. None of these approaches are dismissive or dispassionate. But sometimes I have to look at the process out of the corner of my eye so that I don't frighten the idea away on the way to fruition.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Last day of August. The past week has been spent getting ready for classes- Intro to Studio, Drawing I and Intro to 2D design. So I am thinking intensely about art concepts and how to share them effectively.  That and finishing up urgent graphic design commitments for a client. Tonight we have a benefit band job in Middlebury  to help raise money for a man who fell off of a 3 story building into shallow water. He survived, but has seriously shattered bones... I don't know the exact details. I'll find out more tonight. He is self employed with no health insurance. Music joins and heals.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand,
as in what direction we are moving.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes.

The image is a little dark, but if you compare it with the photo from a few days ago, progress is visible.

I'm having some frustrating incompatibility issues with the new compute

Coral reef watercolor 14" x 41"

r. Things bumping and knocking and growling when they should purr. That and being hacked on Facebook. Hmmm... all this connectivity can occasionally implode I guess.

Meanwhile, I will immerse myself visually in the warm waters of the Caribbean while a skunk assaults my senses outside the window. Last night as I left, he was 3 feet outside the door when I opened it. I shut the door VERY QUICKLY. Fortunately we were both quite
surprised and the cute, little furry guy ran away.
How do they stay so beautifully combed and white, scurrying about and rooting through trash?
My drawing class starts Tuesday. Leaves are beginning to turn. Summer just started, but  it's nearly over.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Canvas giclées- a whole new world of imagery.
I have always felt strange about reproductions of my work, and have never done any prints of my nests or visionary realism. But with this new technology I am excited about the possibility of making them available in a very limited edition. It is astonishing how true the color and texture is.
An original is takes me many weeks to finish. Sometimes months or years as evidenced by the coral reef painting in the preceding post.

Lillian's Nest, limited edition archival giclée on canvas editionof 90

Pacific Beach Treasures, limited edition archival giclée on canvas, edition of 90

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

My painting table and research library complete with sea salt.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Every now and then it's nice to harvest something tangible.
Picking peppers this morning in the garden... so luminously lovely and delicious to gaze upon. Firm and colorful.

Pepper Harvest this morning

Castleton Watercolor final critique- a beginning student's work.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

One wonders if this pace will continue to intensify.
Gravity is useful. Gravity is a starting point.
Dreams of flight; liberation and defiance. Defiance only in the sense of self acknowledgement.
One's own needs. Honoring one's own decisions and values.
Emerging from the restriction of imposed limitations.
The last two weeks of class have been all absorbing. 
My inner quarry has been scraped to raw bedrock this summer; to the core, but now in the fullness of the August moon, it is once again restored. I am somehow ready, I think, (she says hesitantly) to regroup, gather the necessary items, and recommence.
Defying gravity also refers to the new sculptural goals. Fiberglass has super powers. Wonder woman must have used it! It can defy the pull of the earth's core and soar into the heavens.
With a good ventilation mask and an able hand.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Read and post comments | Send to a friend