LAW 158: Merry Christmas and all that, only a little late

I thought i would share my Christmas card series. Last year i decided that the very few friends and family that were still getting holiday cards from me would each get an original. Since i must stress, there are very few of them, this is a very doable project. In prior years i had designed and printed a card, but somehow this felt like the right thing to do.

And He Needs Me to Light His Way, for my Dad

This year's cards have a common theme; imagery that i sourced from two delightful children's book i scored earlier in the year. One of them, actually a Christmas story itself featured a moon that fell out of the sky. This of course caused Santa all sorts of problems, as there was no moon light to guide him through his Christmas eve travels.

The Next Day When She Awoke, for my Mom

The moon from this book became the unifying element in each of the cards. This felt very apropos: we would experience a full moon for Yule, and after all, the solstice is the time when the balance of light and dark start to change. Thankfully towards the light.

Santa Had Noticed the Change in the Night, Aunt Rita's

The other story, which provided most of the delightful starry cosmos images was about a hedgehog that got to be an astronaut.

He Gave Pleasure, for Brian and Marrianne

The bits and pieces that made each card individual and meaningful to the recipient came from a wide variety of sources; mostly paintings.

At First it Was so Dark, for Maggie

Have a great rest of the holiday season and as always,

More later

gail

LAW: This That and the Other Thing, # ??????

I appear to be a very bad blogger. What can i say, life has a way of getting in the way. We spent a lot of time this fall trying, repeatedly to get the paddle wheel on Tesla's Revenge functional; we are sooooooo close. Sadly we proved once more that you do indeed get what you pay for, viso, cheap, Chinese crap. Which is how almost all Chinese imports, particularly building materials and electronics are (not so fondly) referred to in our house.

 

A girl has gotta spend time with her cat!

The culprit this time, our replacement for the replacement of the motor controller. It did work, the wheel did turn, for about 15 seconds, before the fusible link in the controller went fissst, up in smoke. Ya think that maybe the specs aren't accurate?

Yes, red is the traditional color for a paddle wheel.

All of this along with normal winterizing of the boat. It seems as if winter is coming a little early this year. We had to make some fairly significant repairs to our flexa-glass enclosure of the cockpit. We will probably get another full year out of this version; but we are surprised and a little disappointed in the performance. Most significantly the flexa-glass shrank enough over the summer, i guess due to the heat that we had to reposition all the snaps. In some places it shrank enough that we are going to have gaps this winter.

Oh yes, you better believe i voted; thought about following the old Chicago axiom, vote early, vote often..... I did however, express my post election anxiety by creating this collage.

9 out of 10 poll watchers agree....

And, yes there is more, we are finally moving our stuff out of storage from the marina basement, to a more permanent, and hopefully drier unit. I hate going through and moving things, terrible fire anyone?

Still and all, i have been making art, and really really yummy food.

Grilled Eggplant Parmagiana

We grilled the last of our local eggplant, served with a homemade ricotta cheese. If you haven't made your own ricotta and butter you should really try it!

On the art news front, my collage, Eternal Logic of a  Butterfly's Wing has been included in the Collage Artists of America FB 2019 calendar. I let you know where it will be available.

A selection of my collages will be showcased in a group show at the Lirodendron Gallery in Belair, Md July 28-Aug 18, 2019. More on this later.

Emergence

Yesterday we were completely boat bound. The first Nor'easter of the season dumped far more snow and ice on us then predicated, so it was a great day to devote to art making. I realized as i was working on this piece that my recent collages were all dealing with liminal space, with the line that divides. I try to push the narrative/figurative elements of these pieces as far into the background as possible. The parts of paintings that i use for this work are almost exclusively backgrounds, and with figurative work, the edge, the outline of the form.



More later. Hopefully not much later
gail

LAW 156: New Collages

Summer has come and gone seemingly with out notice, fall seems to be right behind it. Today is a cool, blustery day, alternating brilliant blue skies with heavy cloud cover. I wonder what winter will bring?

The trials and tribulations of Tesla's Revenge are on going. We are ready to install the paddle wheel, sadly the weather is not cooperating with us. During the last month or so i couldn't find the time or energy for a variety of reasons to create any new collages. I am however back on track and thought i would share the last two with you.

Regarding the Clarity of Light
10.18.18

I continue to explore the design possibilities inherent in pre-selecting and limiting the choices available to me during the composition process. I am pleased with the results. The two pieces i am sharing with you were created entirely with the "backgrounds" of other paintings; i say other paintings as i think of these collages as paintings. 

My sources for these works are the Time Life World of (artists). A series of books that my mother subscribed me to, a birthday present from the early 70's. Yes, i have carried these books with me across country more than once!

SEARCHERS FOR A VERIFIABLE TRUTH
10.20.18

The imagery for Regarding is derived from Vermeer's walls, i loved the quality of light and intention to detail, that of Searchers from back grounds of sculpture, mainly Rodin's.

The subtle color and texture in these large, flat, mainly subordinate parts of the painting are to me, extremely evocative. I hope you find the work that i am creating interesting and continue to follow me as it develops and changes.

Both pieces are 9 x 12" on book board. I have no intention of matting and/or framing work from this series. The collage is wrapped around the edges and carried completely over the back.

More later,

gail

STAY WARM!

LAW 155: Summer Bounty, have i said...

Well, not really summer bounty, but feline bounty! I think that perhaps Magellan was allowed to watch too many Roman costume epics as a kitten. Nuff said.

Yes Really!

This is relatively new behavior for him, but if you note the wet spot on the step down, that, that is not new behavior. He has always dragged his water bowl around, spilling water willy nilly, then, and only then will he drink.

Last additions

But really, summer bounty here is crazy, the weather is crazy, perhaps the whole world is crazy. The weather, too hot, too wet, too cloudy has made for a shorter then usual season for the local farmer. Our favorite local farm stand, Zahradka's has already cut back to week-end hours only.

I'm Ready!

We are still wallowing in tomatoes, corn and cucumbers. Oh and eggplant, eggplant has been awesome this summer. Nothing like a grilled eggplant and mozzarella sandwich with fresh garden ripe tomatoes and basil, oh yea! They were so good that we forgot to take pictures!

Love these bowls Darby made us!

Not so the delicious Maryland Crab soup/gumbo. And it was yummy, all locally sourced ingredients. I was enjoying a good, also local IPA. we served the gumbo with the last of our home brewed cider.

Need I say more?

Not bad for a 29 foot converted sailboat with one burner.


More later
Gail

LAW 154: PROTEST

PROTEST, yes in all caps is the duty of every thinking citizen. We all approach conscientious protest in different ways. This is a good thing, as we all are very different people with different agendas and different talents.

The Watch#1, 7.7.18

Since i am a visual artist beside putting my voice and body on the line at public protests i can as well make critical statements through my work.

Watching #2, from behind every....7.10.18

My collages have taken a turn from the strict abstract imagery that i have been working with for the last several months. They have become embodied if you will with witnesses. I am under no delusion that anyone of importance in the political/governmental hierarchy will see, much less be effected by my work.














But i will reach you, and you will share the images that move you, right? It is all that any of else can hope for, that we influence the minds and hearts of our friends, neighbors(near or far) and followers.

Watcher #3, We heard what you said, 7.18.18

Watchers #4, Tell us more, 7.19.18

Watching#5, I can see clearly now, 7.21.18

A fire only needs one match.

Watcher #6, Transparent, 7.23.18

More later
gail

I have a good friend who wrote me a beautiful, moving poem in response to the art card(seen below) that i made for him. I wish he would let me share it with you.

Clown's Choice, late june 2018

LAW 153: Summer Bounty

We just got back from the local farm market that we patronize; we scored a bonanza of ripe red tomato. I love buying "seconds" tomatoes, they are the juiciest, most tomatoey tomatoes, not to mention available at a ridiculously small amount of money.

Can you believe $2?

In summer it is just to hot to eat anything about salads, and of course off the grill. Tonight we have some fresh ground bison, so it is burgers and sweet corn on the grill, along with grilled onions and some of the aforementioned tomatoes.

But the last several evenings it has been "zoodles" starring in a variety of salads.

Angel hair zoodles, blanched and drained.

We picked up a table top spiralizer at a Goodwill outlet for 50 cents. It takes up as much storage room as my large soup pot, but we think it is worth the space. It is easy to use, and really does make great veggie noodles. The down side, it's hard to clean, up side, much fresher, less expensive veggie noodles.

Ingredients, wine is not optional

What i make is usually predicated by what is in the pantry; although we do shop just about every day.

Mungo suggested a cold soba noodle sort of thing. We ended up with a marriage between southeast Asia and ......

yumm, fresh sweet corn, tomatoes and cucumber played of a lightly sauteed dressing base with fresh green garlic scapes, ginger, and a little onion. 

Zoodle Benne Salad

Toss in a generous splash of rice vinegar, lime juice, fish sauce, sesame seeds, i'm sure i probably put other things in the dressing, but hey i don't remember. Don't forget the shrimp, and of course loads and loads of fresh basil and cilantro.

I want you to know this beautiful wood bowl has been in my kitchen since i think 1975, when i purchased it from the Neighborhood Coop in Milwaukee. 

More later

gail

LAW 152: Odds and Ends and More Collage

Summer is in full bloom, our favorite local farm stand is providing us with a cornucopia of fresh fruit and veggies, yum yum, fresh ripe tomatoes!

Grandma Turtle almost done!

Work on Tesla's Revenge continues, always slower than we would wish, but hey any progress is good. The sad news is once more we were screwed over by the weasel we bought our motor package from. The motor controller we bought turned out to be defective, as this person and business has vanished from the face of the earth we have had to find a new, functional controller. Still with the wonder of modern on line ordering, through Amazon this time, we will have said replacement in a few days. Another week before we are mobile, hopefully.

It got so hot (how hot?), well we hit 116F as a real feel right before the 4th. Temperatures in the triple digits really put a crimp into the collage making; i'm afraid of dissolving the paper with sweat! So i turned to my embroidery, which has always been a hot weather project. It is very pleasant to sit in the cockpit, or under the drinking trees and stitch. As a result i have finished, almost, Grandmother Turtle.

Tides Ebb, 6.24.18, 13.25 x 9.25"

I still need to stitch a frame around the image. My plans are for a "frame" which looks like a series of tree branches. Yes! more stitching.

I am still working with the Tselkov imagery, although the stash is running low.

Separation of Self, 5.27.18, 9 x 11.25

I have also branched out, working the Tselkov with other imagery and also started to use high end food photos for material.

Left of Center, 7.5.18, 7.5 x 10.5"

And although i am loath to bring politics into what is meant to be a blog about life and art i feel that i have no option but to use my art; to raise my voice in protest of the travesty that this country has become. So is born a new series of collage, collectively known as Watchers/Watching.

Watcher #1, 7.9.18, 6.5 x 10.5"

We all have a responsibility to make our voices heard, making art is one of the ways that i can speak.

Watching #2, 7.10.18, 6.25 x 10.5"

More later,
gail