September was the driest month ever on record in Kentucky. (see at note on this topic at the end…) Now I am grateful to have this Summer Portfolio of memories, reminders of earth’s delicate beauty and grandeur after a year of rain. It makes me ponder the concept of balance. I have faith in its universality. (more…)
Since the last quarter I’ve focused on gouache paintings that I put together into two spring Portfolios. Based on what I observed as new in the garden, one portfolio is of twelve birds, one of twelve flowers with a snake and firefly thrown in. (more…)
There are four days until the summer solstice, which happens at 11:45 AM, ET this Friday. This is part two of my self-directed assignment to record in painting the spring birds and flowers that arrive here at Sunwise Farm and Sanctuary. Is there anything more uplifting than to see the first flowers pop up, often through snow? (more…)
As we approach the summer solstice next week, I am completing my self-directed assignment to record in painting the spring birds and flowers that arrive here at Sunwise Farm and Sanctuary. The Red Winged Blackbirds started showing up early in March, soon they were coming by the thousands (more…)
I am excited to share what’s new; Spring Into Art, progress in the Studio Annex, a new art medium, the birds and botanicals of Sunwise, beads and bracelets, Atlas of the Year open for enrollment and the Carnegie show was great, I hope you saw it! (more…)
The time change happened early, it’s still winter, sort of. Its a rare sunny day but the air is cool, spring sensations, sort of. It’s more like indicators of liminal space. What do I do on the last week before my efforts and work of the past two years are presented in the world? (more…)
If you write a newsletter, are you struggling to come up with your own true title, different from others? This is a topic that a group of online presenters has been discussing. Instead of Mid-Season Studio Updates I want to use just one word, which makes it a bit challenging. If it were completely to the point it would be “communication”. True but dull.
Happy Valentine Day to you. Love is in the air. It makes me think of where and when, who and what, I love and cherish. In this virtual moment on this airway, I send love to your direction at mid-winter. (more…)
In our passive solar designed front room at mid-winter it is full of the returning light, it’s our favorite time for being indoors. Fingers crossed that it will be sunny for the next Sunwise Open Studio Event on February 2. The theme is Valentines. You are welcome to make your own from materials supplied in the studio. (more…)
My art friend, Patti Edmon had a great idea to post her best artworks from 2018, so I followed suit with two categories, color and black and white. What are your nine best? (more…)
My 50th year as an artist comes to a close as I write the last post, about the years 2017 – 2018. It’s with a sense of accomplishment that I complete this series, reptrospective, 23 posts in all. It became a big visual resume that gives me a grounded sense of accountability to myself in regards to creative purpose. I hope it will serve to give perspective to anyone who inherits or buys my art, a real legacy, in my opinion because the images are served up with story. (more…)
In 2014 I created this version of my website, the grid was one of the first home page images of current art. My domain name remained the same since 1997 and from spring of 2010 until autumn 2014 I was blogging on this site. Since combining both on this version, it’s been an enjoyable art form for me. (more…)
Regarding the samples I chose to represent the years 2011 – 2013, I love the flow between each artwork. It validates that my instinct and intuition for creativity have common ground in shape, symbol, theme and assymetry. That connectedness suggests (more…)
Building a home requires so much beyond what I have in me to be adept at construction, let alone cleaning up after the wreckage. So when I found the brush that I was too tired to clean, justification came into play with one of the first of many talismans to follow. The collector who bought this treasures it and I’m happy for her, but darn, I wish I still had this! (more…)
The 10th Annual Autumn Open Studio took place on a brilliantly bright day. One year we had snow, but still art tourists came. This time everyone smiled all day because of the warmth and beauty. I’m always too busy talking to visitors, and Greg is busy with parking, so I don’t think to take photos during the event. Here are some taken before, everything is prepared. (more…)
How can it be mid-autumn? Try as I might to keep up with the speed of it all, I seem to become exponentially slower.
I announce the culminating event of my 50th Year as an Artist, my 10th Annual Autumn Open Studio on November 3, which will include an architectural feature as well as an array of new products, art and bead necklaces. (more…)
This week I finished some paper and bead artifacts that have been in process for a while. One reason I like opening my studio four times a year, is for the deadline effect. I love creating the work, the creative challenge, for myself because I know I’ll always be accountable to myself to finish what is started. (more…)
2007 and 2008 were busy with national exhibits. The themes inspired new directions with media. For Exploring Multiple Dimensions at Albuquerque Museum of Art I created a series of collages, each art work comprised of two drawings with botanicals fused together with bees wax. We were keeping bees at the time and had a large supply. (more…)
Celebrating my 50th year as an artist, I left out a big series that I started in 2002; Book of Light, pages has more than 200 mixed media collages.Book of Light, page 24 is one of my favorites, composed on paper I made. (more…)
Celebrating my 50th year as an artist brings me to this century. As we were building our home I painted my last oil painting of Cosmic Nest series. The scene depicts a cosmic celebration of the millennium for my ancestors. The Grail featured in the painting is a wedding glass of my parent’s seated on a bardic table of remembrance that overlooks fireworks and galaxies. (more…)
Jennifer Gleason is the farmer and creator of Sunflower Sundries and the passion behind the products produced on her small farm. Her whole life has been dedicated to learning about homestead arts and loves making things by hand from local ingredients. We are so proud to know her and her husband, poet Jim Lally. Recently we visited their inspiring enterprise. (more…)
I’m celebrating my 50th year as an artist now looking at 1998-1999, a big turning point time. It was a time of experiencing the empty nest as my kids fledged and simultaneously engaging with a large body of oil paintings that Greg titled “Cosmic Nest.” This period culminated with designing our home, moving to Kentucky and building our new nest. (more…)
The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
–William Faulkner (more…)
Sherry Hart is one of the most inspirational artists I have had the honor to know since the mid 1980s, through the Boulder Artist Gallery. Sherry Hart rocks! On a recent visit she shared her latest project 108 Prayers. It is a labor intensive project of not 108, but 1008 rocks painted with the labyrinth, by hand, no template! Anyone who has attempted to draw the labyrinth knows what a challenge it is. Sherry devotes painting as a meditaiton. A selection of 108 rocks was installed for an exhibit, Imaginary Maps, at McMane Gallery, First Congregation Church, 1129 Pine Street, Boulder, showing through September. (more…)
Atlas of the Year continues to be my central focus. I am thrilled to announce next spring’s online class – read all the details on this page. Much is involved with creating all the components, I work steadily on producing the content and extras, ideas that will bring more meaning and celebration into your daily life. (more…)
Celebrating my 50th year as an artist from the 1993-1996 perspective continues to be perplexing, because it was such a difficult period in my life, and I don’t have much art to show for it. My records show that I participated in several exhibits; Day of the Dead Zodiac, Memory Theater, Boulder Artist Gallery, Craft Design ’90, Colorado Artist Craftsman, both in Boulder, CO and Shamanic Search for Soul, University of Massachusetts. I was studying with some esteemed shamanic elders. During The Next 500 Years festival I hosted several members of the Northern Arapahoe tribe. It was an honor to receive my drum made by Eagle Robe. (more…)
Celelbrating my 50th year as an artist from the 1991-1992 perspective is perplexing, because it was such a diffictult period in my life, and I don’t have much art to show for it. I am very proud of Eagle Feather, and wish I still had it, but it is being lovingly cared for by a dear friend. It is painted from a photograph I took at the Birds of Prey Rehabilitation Foundation, Broomfield, Colorado, where I was volunteering. (more…)
The Bridge, from 1989, has come to symbolize for me crossing into a whole new phase into a realm of clouds, soon I was to find myself painting cloudscapes. (more…)
This post celebrating my 50th year as an artist, brings me to almost half way through my career and up to my 40th birthday. These were big years because of my studies in shamanic and transformational healing, and as the one being healed. How it manifested artistically was varied and prolific. (more…)
In an earlier post I talked about meeting Sun Bear, Rolling Thunder and my spiritual teacher, Wallace Black Elk, a Lakota Medicine Man. From him, I had the honor of learning about the traditons of the pipe, Chanupa, for several years. In the Stone People Lodge, his word for the Inipi Ceremony, one of the Seven Sacred Pipe ceremonies, he taught me how to pray and my heart opened. (more…)
These artworks are from 1983, sharing some thoughts as I continue to celebrate my 50th year as an artist. It is clear to me how influenced I was by Henry Miller, not only as a writer but also unbeknownst to me, an artist. (more…)
I’m still celebrating my 50th year as an artist, and remembering 1981-1982. Here’s a poor drawing that I love anyway, of a rare moment, because it shines with domestic pleasure and irony. (more…)