Hope and Memory have one daughter and her name is ART, and she has built her dwelling far from the desperate field where men hang out their garments upon forked boughs to be banners of battle. O beloved daughter of Hope and Memory, be with me for a little.
W.B. Yeats, written in 1893
W.B. Yeats, written in 1893
My earliest memory is of making a dress for my troll doll. The fabric was a white flannel with red strawberries and it’s soft, warm texture felt good as I cut two tiny holes for arms and sewed two side-seams. I remember the pleasurable feeling of total focus while making the dress. I used adult tools and I am very grateful my parents never made me use child tools. I was five and I have never stopped making things for over fifty years.
Growing up in the San Juan Islands of Washington, I was exposed to art in school, at home and to a lesser degree in the local community. Being an artist seemed just as much a possibility as any other occupation. At Lewis and Clark College, I double majored in art and english. I wrote in my journal at the time, “I should do something more practical than art but everything else gets boring”. In college I never took a painting class because I couldn’t afford paint so I focused on drawing. I did take a lot of art history courses and looking at art is as important to me as making art.
In my 30’s and 40’s, I was occupied with a curiosity of what I could make with my hands. I found it wasn’t money. However I kept at it living in Southern Oregon for many years and worked in installation art, ceramics and drawing. Most of these activities required a lot of hands on problem solving with fabrication issues. It was challenging and frustrating because more time was spent with technical issues than actually in making spontaneous images from a deeply creative source within myself. Eventually I made a big change to focus on painting as being fascinated with materials became less a motivator than an inward exploration to discover greater understandings of myself and the environment.
I really want to surprise myself with colors and images that lead to fresh insights. I try to not have any expectation of outcome when starting a new picture. I need to go with feelings within myself. The mystery or as the word itself implies “my own story,” was what I am most curious about discovering. Paint fortunately has been in use and developed for hundreds of years so that today artists have more colors and quality paints readily available than ever before. It’s easy to use so I was free to jump into it wholeheartedly and I am so glad I did!
Process is important to my way of working. The work is made of many layers of paint. Plus I use techniques of removing paint to such a point that I feel like an archeologist at a dig somewhere out in a remote desert. This is appropriate at a time in my life where it becomes more important to remove old beliefs, behaviors and collective cultural attitudes to get back to my own true nature.
In the same years I started to paint, I also came to be interested in the I’ Ching and the Tao de Ching. Painting more than any other medium that I have used allows me to feel powerfully the universal forces in creative living. Painting has a unique ability to expand my awareness. The finished painting is almost like looking into a crystal ball. The viewer can be the fortune teller just as much as the artist.
Growing up in the San Juan Islands of Washington, I was exposed to art in school, at home and to a lesser degree in the local community. Being an artist seemed just as much a possibility as any other occupation. At Lewis and Clark College, I double majored in art and english. I wrote in my journal at the time, “I should do something more practical than art but everything else gets boring”. In college I never took a painting class because I couldn’t afford paint so I focused on drawing. I did take a lot of art history courses and looking at art is as important to me as making art.
In my 30’s and 40’s, I was occupied with a curiosity of what I could make with my hands. I found it wasn’t money. However I kept at it living in Southern Oregon for many years and worked in installation art, ceramics and drawing. Most of these activities required a lot of hands on problem solving with fabrication issues. It was challenging and frustrating because more time was spent with technical issues than actually in making spontaneous images from a deeply creative source within myself. Eventually I made a big change to focus on painting as being fascinated with materials became less a motivator than an inward exploration to discover greater understandings of myself and the environment.
I really want to surprise myself with colors and images that lead to fresh insights. I try to not have any expectation of outcome when starting a new picture. I need to go with feelings within myself. The mystery or as the word itself implies “my own story,” was what I am most curious about discovering. Paint fortunately has been in use and developed for hundreds of years so that today artists have more colors and quality paints readily available than ever before. It’s easy to use so I was free to jump into it wholeheartedly and I am so glad I did!
Process is important to my way of working. The work is made of many layers of paint. Plus I use techniques of removing paint to such a point that I feel like an archeologist at a dig somewhere out in a remote desert. This is appropriate at a time in my life where it becomes more important to remove old beliefs, behaviors and collective cultural attitudes to get back to my own true nature.
In the same years I started to paint, I also came to be interested in the I’ Ching and the Tao de Ching. Painting more than any other medium that I have used allows me to feel powerfully the universal forces in creative living. Painting has a unique ability to expand my awareness. The finished painting is almost like looking into a crystal ball. The viewer can be the fortune teller just as much as the artist.