Newly Modified Work Makes Its Debut at the Wooden Cow Gallery!

Once upon a time, well, in 1994, I sat in my tiny, hot apartment in Rochester, NY, and drew this nude self-portrait:


I was pretty pleased with the result, had it matted and framed, and hung it on the wall for many years. A couple years ago, my husband, who is usually very positive about my artwork, but who never lies, finally came out and told me that he really doesn't like it. I accepted this opinion but never really considered doing much about it, I just figured that maybe someone else would like it and, oh, say, buy the damn thing. No such luck. So a month or so ago, I was possessed by an image in my mind about how words rarely hold as much meaning as actions, and often my best intentions of telling someone my thoughts and feelings don't seem to come out the way I intended them, and instead wind up falling like barely discernible little leaves into the air. So with this vision firmly planted in my head, I proceeded to take the frame apart, hoping that I had not trimmed all of the paper away from the sides of the original drawing. Upon getting it apart, I discovered that I had a good bit of space off to either side of the figure to work with, and I proceeded all the way through conception, planning and execution in about half a day. Here is the result: The original drawing was created by a reductive method (think of laying down a medium toned even color all over the paper, then erasing out the white parts and penciling in the dark parts) in pastel and pencil. I drew new lips onto the figure directly with colored pencil. The heart was drawn with colored pencil onto a separate paper and collaged on. The words were created with a graphics program, digitally blurred, softened and faded, printed out, torn out of the page, then collaged on. A few extra pastel and pencil details later, it was done!

A couple of days after finishing it, I read the announcement for the juried show entitled "Wordplay" at the Wooden Cow Gallery here in Albuquerque, and I thought to myself that it must be kismet or something, as this piece seemed perfect for such a theme. It must have been kismet, since they accepted the work, and now it will be appearing in the show in August.
For any local readers, the Wooden Cow Gallery is located at 7400 Montgomery Blvd NE in Albuquerque, and the opening should be on Friday, August 7 from 5 pm to 8 pm. Hope to see you there!!

Corset of Arms

What if chicks had ruled the world back in feudal days? Now I know some would say that we would never have adopted the corset as women's wear in the first place, but I beg to differ. Women like being beautiful, no matter how much torture it is...

This pencil work measures approximately 3.5" x 5.5", which is the proper size to use as a master for a Gocco print. I have had a Gocco set for several years now, have gotten it out of the box, read the instructions, just have never pulled the trigger and ever tried to do anything with it. I will probably go to Kinko's and get a photocopy made of it, as I am not sure what might happen to my original if I use that to create my master. I have never done screenprinting of any kind, so this would be a whole new step for me...

Checking the Blue Corn Traps -- Finally Finished, Again

Drumroll please... I am not 100% positive, but I think this may be finished, again. This colored pencil work is one that I "finished" in 1999 (hence why the '0' in the '09' next to the signature looks a little like a '9') and have blogged about before. There is almost no space on this drawing that has not been drawn over now, but I think I like it. I have totally changed the color of the background, enhanced the original colors of the 'trap,' totally changed the color and shape of the corn, and punched up the little green, um, slug-thingies-that-are-doing-the-trap-checking. The most challenging part was the fact that this wasn't done on particularly heavy drawing paper, and erasing and colored pencils don't go together for a reason. I almost couldn't get the color to take on the last piece of corn for lack of a smooth drawing surface. I am still looking at it trying to decide if I missed any spots, or if I want to lighten up the corn a little, but overall, I think it looks okay. Pretty soon I will put it back in its frame and buy it new glass (found a place here in Albuquerque where I can get low-glare conservtion glass for cheap) and decide on a price! I appreciate any feedback from my readers so please, comment away!

Green Man--An Embossed Print with a Celtic Feel

"Green Man" is an embossed print I created in 1997 as an edition of 15. It was created by carving the three-dimensional design into a linoleum block, then running it through a printing press with a piece of damp printing paper. The embossed design stays in the paper pretty much forever, creating this beautiful texture of white on white in wonderful detail. I have sold about 1/3 of the edition so far.

The tradition of Green Man in history is unclear, but its origins are mostly European, and are represented by a relief carving or scultpure of a man's face with branches and leaves coming out of it. Green Man is generally considered to symbolize rebirth or rennaissance.

This particular print measures 6" x 9" on hand torn paper measuring 11" x 15". It is sold unframed in my Etsy Shop for $45 plus shipping.

Black Dog Friday

Yes, I know it is May Day, and Friday, but I decided today is Black Dog Friday. I was playing around with my digital camera on the SuperMacro setting and the Kids & Pets setting (I actually do know how to work a real camera with lenses and f-stops and whatnot, we just don't have a digital camera with all of those un-automatic features). My teenager is out in the back yard with his airsoft rifle, or else I would have gone out there for some natural light. Oh well.

So my three black dogs are all as terrible as models as I am a photographer, so if any of these pictures are worth a darn, it defies all odds.

First we have Mimi, the Doberman Pinscher, prima dona, Star Pilot and Alien sent here to protect mankind from itself.

Isn't she pretty? I know, everyone says that about their dog. But in the case of Mimi, if I don't say that, she will kill me in my sleep. Or so she tells me. I also got a shot of one of her pretty brown eyes:

And a great closeup of her nose...

Then, there's Axel, a Black Lab mix. He hates to have his picture taken, as if it is going to steal his soul or something. But I did manage to pull off a couple nice shots...

This one I especially like, because he wasn't looking at me, so he didn't seem so scared.

Then, there's Cassie, the Australian Shepherd. Everything I've read about the breed talks about how smart they are, but I swear Cassie was dropped on her head as a puppy, because she's really pretty dense... I couldn't even get her to look at me in response to her name today. But she is pretty photogenic.

So there's the three black dogs. Maybe I'll get better pictures of them oneday, which means I'll probably be a pretty good photographer by then.

Here's a drawing of Mimi I made from a fabulous photo I managed to get of her...

Work in Progress! Checking the Blue Corn Traps

I thought I would post an update on my latest work in progress "Checking the Blue Corn Traps." This colored pencil work was already finished, matted and framed and hanging on the wall. It looked like this:

After looking at it on the wall for about 8 years, I finally decided that the lavender background makes me want to barf. The image itself I still pretty much like. So I took the thing out of its frame and started erasing the purple background and punching up the orange and red strands in the foreground...

I did manage to get most of the background ickiness off of there without damaging the paper. I decided to replace the background with an intense sky blue. Only problem now, was that the three pieces of 'corn' sort of disappeared. Time to do some more erasing.... So I have almost totally re-colored this picture, and am in the final stages of bluing up the corn:

Sorry if the pic is still a little blurry. I am working out some kinks in my new camera...
This does give you a good idea of what it will look like.
For some finished colored pencil works, go here to see my original drawings.

New Juried Show in Albuquerque at The Wooden Cow

I haven't blogged in a while, but I thought I should mention... My work is going to be in a juried show here in Albuquerque! The show is called "Eye Candy" and is being held at a gallery in the Northeast Heights called The Wooden Cow.

The show is called Eye Candy with the intention of providing a colorful feast for the eyes. I submitted three colorful works, but I think they probably picked the best one--"Sacred Heart--Cosmic Scale" shown at left, is a colored pencil drawing I finished early last year. I had recently broken the glass on it, so I had a good excuse to upgrade to glare-reducing conservation glass. As a side note, after calling around to several frame shops for quotes and getting prices from $28 to $52 for a 13" x 16" piece of glass, I found out where they all buy their glass from here in town is O'Malley's Glass, who wanted $13 for the same piece of glass! They were totally fine with just cutting one piece of glass, too. Believe me, I will go back to those guys!

So the show at The Wooden Cow will run from April 29 - May 30, with an opening on Friday, May 1st, from 5 pm to 8 pm. The show will feature the mosaic tilework of Meg Butler (having seen some of her work in person already, I can say it is worth going to see just for that), the colored pencil work of Wendell Unzicker, as well as many other colorful artists from Albuquerque. The gallery is located at 7400 Montgomery NE, Suite 20, in the Mossman Shopping Center, just east of Louisiana on Montgomery. Call them at (505)999-1280 if you have any questions.