As 2022 begins, I'm dreaming of warm weather...

It's been rather cold in Illinois this January, so I've been making art of warm vacation scenes. 

"Blooming Desert" is comprised of multiple digital alterations of a desert photo all cut into strips and combined with colored pencil, handmade papers and vintage stamps. 14H x 11W.

"Steadfast" depicts a view up from the beach at a regal palm tree made of multiple digital alterations all cut into strips and combined with handmade papers, book text and vintage stamps. 11H x 14W.

"Join Me" depicts 4 chairs at Ephraim, WI facing Green Bay. The altered imagery was cut into strips and pieced together with additions of handmade papers, vintage postage stamps and shredded U.S. currency. 10H x 20W.

Filling in gaps

I'm looking at the work I have for an upcoming show and noticing things like ... I only have one interior scene of a bouquet, so I should make another. (I asked a friend with a floral business in Argentina if I could use a photo she'd posted of ranunculus in a vase by a stack of books.) I need to make more art using my co-exhibitor in the art show's photos as the basis for the art... and I need to make more southwest pieces for an Arizona gallery. The work below reflects my disjointed approach to art right now!

Desert revisited

In looking at the art I had assembled for my solo show (going up this week), I realized I didn't have any desert scenes. So, I made this 8" x 16" vertical to go with my Montana and Illinois landscapes. I overlapped the horizontal strips at the bottom with some green fiber paper that looks a lot like vegetation when pulled apart into small pieces. Breaking my own grid!

More desert anyone?

I'm making some more desert pieces for Xanadu's winter "high season" and am enjoying cropping photos I took around the Valley of the Sun to fit a 12" x 24" cradled panel. The horizontal one is of a landscape in Sedona and the vertical is a view from the lower cliff dwelling at Tonto National Monument. One of the filters I used on this one is "sand" so that is the grainy texture on some of the strips... it seemed appropriate for the subject matter.

The opening for the Buchanan Center's 64 Arts national juried show was last Friday. Eric Fischl was the juror and he flew out from NYC to be here for the opening. Since he's "an internationally acclaimed American figurative painter and sculptor," around 20 of the 78 artists in the show came to the opening. I enjoyed visiting with artists from Rhode Island, Montana, New York, Michigan, Washington, Iowa, and Illinois. Here's a photo of Eric talking at the opening with one of my pieces on the wall beyond him.

It all worked out

The woman who commissioned two pieces from me (see April 23rd post) to go with two others she'd purchased from Xanadu Gallery sent an email after they'd received the package. She said they really loved the barrel cactus close-up piece, but it wasn't working with the grouping and was like the song form Sesame Street "One of these just doesn't belong here..." HA! I told her I wondered if it would "play well with others" as it had a very dominant personality. She expressed interest in getting another 12"x12" landscape of mine at Xanadu, so we decided she should ship the cactus piece to the gallery and they would send her the landscape. She sent this photo of how the arrangement looks with the watercolor they already owned. They're very happy with the grouping and I think it looks great!

Desert Path

After hiking up this path to see some Native American ruins in central Arizona, we made our way back down, frequently stopping to enjoy the up-close view of desert plants and the long view of saguaro, lake and mountains. I made three digital alterations of a photo from the path, shredded those alterations and combined them to form a new landscape.