On the Threshold

“On the Threshold” a mixed media piece created in 2019.

Reap the Whirlwind

“Reap the Whirlwind” a mixed media piece created in 2014.

The Altered Page: Buried Treasure

The Altered Page: Buried Treasure: The Continuing Education of a Perennial Art Student . . .Lesson Learned: "Deluge After Drought"

Here is a piece I struggled with for quite some time.  It has quite a few more layers of various papers and paint than I frequently use in my work, and at several stages in it's creation, looked quite different than it looks, above, in it's final incarnation.  At times I thought that I had "overworked" parts of it, and I also kept fighting the urge to give the piece a strong focal point of some kind (even in my non objective artwork like this piece there is usually some sort of center-of-interest), as I really wanted to focus on texture, pattern, and repetition, here.  I put the unfinished piece away for a month or more, and thought about elements that would  bring the composition more in line with the mental image I had of it.  When I hauled it out, again to work on it, I only ended up changing things slightly by adding several new elements to the composition.  Having done so, I knew it was complete.  Lesson learned: giving a piece I am working on some time, by putting it away and leaving it in an unfinished state for awhile, helps me to process, and can actually give the artwork the space and time it needs, as well, to tell me what needs to happen next!

"No Brain for Math and Science:" My Interview in Featuring Magazine

The upcoming issue of Featuring Magazine: Art Journaling, Mixed Media and More. . . includes an interview where the editors of the magazine asked me a number of questions about my 'awakening' as an artist during my high school years, my development as an art student at the California College of Arts and Crafts in the Bay Area in the 1960's, and the fascination with mixed media in my current work.  The article, which includes images of 9 pieces of my work, is titled "No Brain for Math and Science," a direct quote from an answer to one of the questions Featuring's editors asked me.  The current issue of Featuring (issue #4) has been sent to the printers and is available for pre-sale on the magazine's website, featuringmagazine.com. It will be ready for mailing to readers in about two weeks.  If you are interested in collage, mixed media, art journaling, and a world of related topics from an international community of artists, and are not familiar with this amazing new art magazine, you are truly missing something special.  

My Sketchbook

"and when the war was over"

This is an example of the kind of collage and mixed media pieces I frequently create in my sketchbook.  They tend to be a lot more "spare," with more white space surrounding the imagery, than many of the more formal pieces I create as separate works.  In my sketchbook, there are no "rules," and because of that, it is the place where I feel totally free to explore; to both create, and to destroy.  It is also the place where some of my most creative ideas germinate and begin to grow, so, in the long run, it becomes a wonderful resource for other creative pursuits.  I have not made the time to work in my sketchbook, much, lately, and, when this happens, I find myself less happy; more on-edge.  It is something that I need to change!  And, soon! 

Lesson Learned: "Deluge After Drought"

Here is a piece I struggled with for quite some time.  It has quite a few more layers of various papers and paint than I frequently use in my work, and at several stages in it's creation, looked quite different than it looks, above, in it's final incarnation.  At times, I thought that I had "overworked" parts of it, and I also kept fighting the urge to give the piece a strong focal point of some kind (even in my non-objective artwork, like this piece, there is usually some sort of center-of-interest), as I really wanted to focus on texture, pattern, and repetition, here.  I put the unfinished piece away for a month or more, and thought about elements that would bring the piece more in line with the mental image I had of it.  When I hauled it out, again to work on it, I only ended up changing things slightly by adding several new elements to the composition.  Having done so, I knew it was complete.  Lesson learned: giving a piece I am working on some time, by putting it away and leaving it an unfinished state for awhile, helps me to process, and can actually give the artwork the space and time it needs, as well, to tell me what needs to happen next!    

Seth Apter's 5 x 5 Project

A number of blog posts ago, I showed images of the three 5 x 5 projects that I created for Seth Apter's "5 x 5 Project," an online extension of his book The Pulse of Mixed Media.  The prompts for which he asked us to create artwork were as follows: 1)If your artwork could talk, what would it say?  2)Who has had the most impact on your creative life?  3)What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?  Each prompt was to be "answered" with a piece of artwork 5" x 5" square.  The artwork could include other visual elements, but was to be primarily based on some sort of written text or typography.  Since much of my work incorporates the written word in some form, I felt that this was a creative endeavor I could not turn down, and I had a wonderful time in the studio coming up with my visual responses to his prompts.    I created a 5 x 5 piece for each of the three prompts, and mailed them to Seth in NYC.  The magazine Somerset Studio found out about this project, and did a 10-page article on it, in their November/December, 2012 issue.  To my complete amazement, my "If your artwork could talk. . ." piece was included in this article.  One or more of the pieces I created for this project will be included in Seth's blog post on the 5 x 5 Project on his blog, The Altered Page (thealteredpage.blogspot.com), this coming Sunday, December 23rd.