art journal spring 2017

new

This spring, I’m thankful to be alive. The rain-washed air, the buds, days growing longer, and the surprising warmth of the sun’s rays when they (occasionally) cut between the clouds…these all touch my soul. I’m glad to be a part of the human race—not the rushing race, nor the arguing, but the dignity and possibility to create, to love, to bring healing, to discover, to live.

I’m also in my Jubilee years – just turned fifty. I love it. Thankfully, I have health and strength and a clear mind, yet I also have fifty years of life wisdom and strategies in my tool belt. This could be a defining season.

spring dreams

  1. I have glass artworks (inventive media) brewing in my soul - needing to be made tangible and seen by others. That vision remains and grows. If funded, maybe my dreams will be realized this year, or early 2018.
  2. I'm celebrating the completion of three new dye-painted silk artworks.
  3. I've also completed my first installed commission of silk-in-glass.
  4. Spring pulls me outside even if raining. And I've dreams of various garden art - even living artworks - to reveal on July 15, at a garden art and plant sale here at my lakeside home studio and gardens.
  5. The spring cleaning bug has bit and I'm trying to de-clutter my house, studio, and life--with some progress.
  6. And I'm cultivating personal artistry and discovery by creating small, almost daily paintings.

 


wild trillium blooming on our property
 

photos and stories

In this spring 2017 journal (and linked pages) I share photos and stories of this significant season. Do click often on photos as they lead to more pages and photos to discover and enjoy.

A warm and happy spring to you!
 

 

small

Too many years ago to remember when or where, I was discussing the prospect of creating artwork as commission (custom work for others). And I remember a wise woman artist's advise to me. She said, "Now be sure to do your own studio work as well...to keep your confidence up." And she smiled knowingly. I had no idea how commissions might undermine my artistic confidence, or how doing my own work would help my confidence--until now. And a good way to do at least some personal work regularly is to "work small."


5 x 7 inches, two Gala apples, painted in watercolor on Arches cotton cover, Valentine's Day, 2017

beginning

And so on the evening of my fiftieth birthday I started "working small" by sketching an apple on a 4 x 6 notecard with a mechanical pencil. That's small, right? Not fancy, but small, it was my attempt to begin intentionally cultivating my artistic senses and skills in this season, and maybe for life. On day two, I created in watercolors. Read more...

Click here to see more daily paintings...

 

new commission in silk


Bread of Life 22 x 40 inches

Pictured is one of two new artworks in dye-painted silk satin commissioned for a residence. They feature imagery of hope and life, using bold, sweeping color. Click here and on the photo to see more...

 

mountains in silk

This new artwork in dye-painted silk features Mount Rainier peering through the Tatoosh Range, with Tatoosh Mountain in the right foreground. The imagery was carefully selected by the commissioning family, inspired by memories at their cabin in Packwood, WA. Click to see more photos of the artwork creating process.

Attempting realistic detail using dyes in silk is a little crazy, but I tried anyway. My aim was to express a strong resemblence to time, place, and season. I'm pleased. Tatoosh Sunset measures 48 inches high by 72 inches wide.

 

 

silk-in-glass commission

I'm pleased to announce my first completed installation of silk laminated within glass. The artwork fills the spaces between open trusses of a residential interior. The photo at right two of four panels. Click to see more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

an inspiring day at offut lake studio

a dye-painting silk workshop

On April 8, a small and talented trio gathered at my studio. Each having already dyed or painted silk before, they came with ideas and questions to take their art to the next level. I enjoyed the small class size and was inspired by the variety of approaches and styles. Click here to see photos of a studio day in April.

Click here or on the "classes" tab at top to see upcoming classes schedule...

Click here to see photos of a previous summer silk workshop.

 

 

 

garden art show and plant sale july 2017

Come discover original fine art, living art, and plants for sale at the artist's home-studio gardens on Offut Lake.

Save the date

  • Saturday, July 15, 2017
  • time t.b.d.
  • outdoors at 4137 116th Avenue SE, Olympia WA 98501

Click here to see photos of gardens


 

 

artful living

Spring is here. Click here to see more photos of spring beauty near my studio on Offut Lake in Washington State.

 

 

wellsprings chosen for public art

 

In July, I proposed art imagery to be reproduced on vinyl wraps to cover one of ten East Olympia traffic boxes.

THANK YOU, VOTERS ! I'm grateful for the many facebook "likes" (votes) which placed me officially number eight--within the winning top ten. This art design will be digitally printed to vinyl. The vinyl will wrap a traffic box in East Olympia, at Boulevard Road and 18th Avenue.

There were 99 art entries and nearly 30,000 votes cast.

When the art wraps are installed on traffic boxes, I'll be sure to photograph mine and post images in my journal here (February note: The City is still waiting for warmer, dryer weather to install the wraps).

The original artwork in dye-painted silk was inspired by the McAllister Springs artesian wells which supply water to Olympia. A reproduction of the work (in vinyl) will be adhered to a traffic box in East Olympia. Click here to read more about "Wellsprings."

wellsprings on city council greeting cards

The Olympia City Council was apparently so taken with four of the traffic box artworks, they have requested printing council greeting cards (for their use, not for sale) of the following artist’s images.

Nikki: Persist
Steve: Wellsprings
Mimi: Buoyed
Jane: Capitol Rhodys

So if you receive a greeting card from an Olympia city council member, it might have my artwork on the cover.  

 

 

featured links

 

 


Land and Sea Passage

As students, faculty, and visitors enter Gilson Middle School in Valdez, Alaska, they are greeted by a vibrant suspended mural--over 26 feet wide. Read more...

 
 

 

Macroscape Slides

Three new glass artworks resembling over-sized microscope slides measure two feet high by six feet wide. Each artwork is uniquely created in mouth-blown art glass laminated onto dichroic float glass. They are installed in the Margaret Murie Life Sciences Building at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
 

  

 

Illuminated Passage

This suspended mural of dye-painted silk measures over 300 square feet. For Liberty Middle School in Spanaway, Washington, it depicts junior high years in a metaphor of a river passing through a canyon.
I love it. It turned out to be all I hoped for and more. Read more...

 

 

Experimental Image Glass

I continue to collaborate with Seattle glassblower Jim Flanagan to create gently abstracted imagery within colored glass. Click here or on the photo at right to see our most recent sheets of blown glass (and scroll down, as the newest work is near the bottom). 

 

 


Tree of Life

Commissioned for a thriving church in the town of Dunwoody, near Atlanta, Georgia.

 

 

 

 

Discovery

This mural in dye-painted silk was commissioned for Katchemak Bay Campus of Kenai Peninsula College of the University of Alaska. Discovery was installed in Homer, Alaska, in June of 2012. Read more...

 

 

Generations: Incubation

Kenai Peninsula College etched mouth-blown glass public art installation

Click here to read about Generations.

Here is a link to KPC installation photos

 

 

 

stone impressions - watch the art-making process on video

People often ask me how I create a stone lithograph. It's hard to explain in words so I have a short video that shows the process.

Click here for photos and video on stone impressions.

 

 

 

 

2011 nest images on cotton paper

Click here to see photos of ten new images completed in January 2011

 

 

 

song project - upward call

Read about our spring 2011 kids' pop song project at upward call. Or click on the photo at right to listen to the song or buy it...

 

 

 

silk rivers

Check out my recent river silks inspired by and modeled after the beautiful Fremont antique glass we used for the Kenai Peninsula College installation.

 

 


flowering

My Grandma's name, Florence, means "to flower" as in the sense of a blossom. And 2012's flowers were an explosion of color. See photos in her memory...

 

 

 Be silk scarves


Links...
gallery of Be silk scarves
significance in Be-ing
silk care
displaying silk

 

 

past journals