Blog
10/13/2023 2:39:58 PM
Nothing interesting ever happened in the suburban neighborhood where I grew up, until one day I saw a car drive by that was shaped like a hot dog on a bun.
That car was one of a fleet of what the Oscar Mayer company called wienermobiles. They were, and still are, driven around the United States, obviously for the purpose of promotion.
Miniature wienermobiles were eventually sold as toys, and I bought one that now lives in my studio. It keeps company with several Mr. Potato Heads and a few Gumbys.
I’m just starting to learn how to paint in both oils and watercolor. This is my first watercolor painting, and as I learn more, there will be more to come.
9/11/2023 6:41:37 PM
One of the great things about being an artist is getting to learn new things. It can also be one of the most embarrassing things.
I’m tremendously embarrassed to show you my 2nd attempt at oil painting.
Well, I might as well really embarrass myself and also show you my first attempt, so here goes.
My point in showing you what I feel are pretty horrible paintings is that there’s this belief that only some people are artists and the rest of us have no talent. I’m good at building fabric things and also plaster and stained glass things. That’s only because I’ve spent so much time learning, practicing, and failing a lot.
I need to learn, practice, and fail before I get good at oil painting, which is what I intend to do. I also intend to share my learning process as I go along. It’ll be my attempt to challenge the notion that artists are born that way.
9/11/2023 5:28:06 PM
I've spent a lot of time lately wondering what kind of art to make next, so I took a break, made some clay and molded it into noses and lips. The lips didn't thrill me, but the noses! There are pug noses, cooked noses, little ones, big ones! Who doesn't love a great, big schnoz?
Also, hooray! My final mosaic relief sculpture is finished. Go here to see how it was made and hear the story that inspired it.
7/18/2023 1:31:43 PM
Frustration!
In my last post I wrote that I was off on my next art adventure after ending a long romance with relief sculpture.
Since then, I've played with oil painting, watercolor and ink, and have also tried some new techniques with silk painting. With each medium, after my initial burst of enthusiasm, I just feel...blah.
So this is the time for me to kiss a lot of frogs, meaning, I'll keep on trying different things until something feels so great that when I wake up each day, I can hardly wait to run downstairs to the studio.
6/20/2023 1:41:28 PM
It’s finally gotten warm enough to take my relief sculpture out to the garage for grouting. After this, all I have left is taking some photos of the finished product and finalizing the slideshow that’ll go with it. As I've mentioned before, this is the last of the mosaic relief sculptures in the series. I’m looking forward to my next art adventure!
This cake frosting tool shoves the grout where it's supposed to go, in between the tiles
Wiping down the piece after grouting
5/18/2023 1:07:34 PM
Let's Go!
Now that we’re no longer being held captive by the epidemic, who wants to stay home? I don’t have news from my studio because I haven’t been there much. Too much traveling to have time to make things!
4/14/2023 12:53:19 PM
My desk and almost every other horizontal surface in my studio has been occupied by relief sculpture tools and materials
I’ve had a ridiculously hard time writing this email. It’s because my art is going through a transition.
Here’s what’s going on: I’ve decided to stop making relief sculptures. I’ve devoted the last 10 years to the sculptures, including 3 years of experimenting and failing until I finally figured out how to make them. And I’ve LOVED making them.
But...each one takes 1 ½ to 2 years to make and they eat up a gigantic amount of space in my studio (tiles, plaster mess, huge metal pieces from the hardware store, lots of tools and more!) It also hurts my hands to make them. For the last few months, I’ve felt sad and lost as I’ve wondered whether I'll ever make anything that I love as much.
Fortunately, those feelings are starting to dissipate. While cleaning up the relief sculpture mess in my studio, I’ve realized that I'll have much more time and space to make other things. I’ve already been working on new silk painting techniques, and I’m also excited about exploring oil painting and a watercolor style called line and wash. Looking towards the future has made it less painful to let go.
3/16/2023 10:44:16 AM
A few months ago, I decided to do some still life paintings using objects from around the house. I decided to paint this guy.
I started the painting by first choosing colors and...
...doing a little study.
More to come!
1/28/2023 9:08:36 PM
At last the tiling is done on my latest relief sculpture. Now all I have to do is wait for the weather to warm up so that I can do the final stage, which is the grouting. I do that part outside so that I’m not inhaling bad chemicals.
Warm weather will be here soon!
I use tweezers to place most of the tiles because they're so small
1/3rd of the way done with the tiling
Just a bit left to do
The last few tiles get placed
Done until it's time to grout
12/28/2022 6:42:26 PM
I’ve been searching for something to use as a subject to both draw and paint. So, I thought, why not use some of the ridiculous stuff that's already here? In fact, thinking long-term, I can make runs to thrift stores to look for even more ridiculous stuff, that is, if I start to run out of ridiculous stuff that I already own.
I'm starting off with this old kitchen timer that I picked up somewhere, and a chicken that I use to pose with my little people.
After much maneuvering in front of the camera, I settled on this scene.
This is the start of a drawing, which I'll finish and then try painting in both silk paint and oils.
12/11/2022 1:28:56 PM
I’ll be 70 years old in a few months. While I wish I’d had more time to make art when I was younger, there’s so much to be said for having this time to focus on it.
Yesterday, my physical therapist asked if I was retired. Because what I do is endlessly challenging, fun, interesting, satisfying, as well as being frightening and exasperating… I’ll keep on going until disability or death stop me.
In 2016, after three years of experimenting and failing over and over again, I finally figured out how to make my relief sculptures. More recently, I spent two years messing around with silk paint (in the process, destroying lots of both paint and silk) in order to figure out how to create the sorts of silk paintings that interest me. Now I’m busy making messes as I learn how to paint with oils.
I have the great fortune of having wonderful health, and except for s smidge of arthritis in my left hand, for which I occasionally apply a smidge of cannibis-derived ointment, I can now say that there is absolutely nothing stopping me from heading down to the studio to create.
I repurposed some furniture to make a new oil painting/drawing area in one of our upstairs rooms. I already have a big studio in my basement, but it gets dark and kinda creepy in the winter evenings. So now I can come upstairs to keep working after dark.
10/24/2022 5:33:51 PM
10/18/2022 8:49:28 AM
The leaves are brilliant, the air is crisp, and kids are getting ready to get themselves sick on dental-destruction delights. Meanwhile, I’ve been in the studio, working on my leaf sculpture, capturing the colors of the season. Here’s my progress:
I start with stained glass sheets and cut them into mosaic tiles
Starting to do the mosaic work
9/19/2022 11:35:58 AM
There are times when things go badly in the studio. I run out of ideas, I don’t feel like making anything, I hate everything I’ve made...you get the idea. Intentionally making something that’s just terrible, like this silk painting of a duck's head coming out of a boot, sometimes works to flush the negative feelings away.
After I painted it, I scribbled this directly on the silk, "This boot/duckie represents the Meaning of Life. At last I've captured it!"
8/19/2022 1:59:15 PM
I’ve been steadily working on my latest relief sculpture. Here I'm varnishing the ground, which means that this part of the piece is completely finished.
In the photo below, I'm starting to work on the part that will be covered in stained glass tiles.
Those gray metal pieces will support tiles that will hang over the side, in mid-air.
Here I'm shaping the piece using plaster and fiberglass mesh.
Still quite a bit of shaping and smoothing before I can start tiling. Will keep you posted!
7/18/2022 12:00:31 PM
American Democracy is in peril, so I’ve decided to use my art to encourage registration and voting. What you see here is one of three Voting Vignettes (thanks to Charlie for the catchy name). I'm working on a new web page where I'll be offering them for free to get-out-the-vote organizations. Know of a group that could use them? Contact me.
6/20/2022 1:13:18 PM
Hear Carlos’ story and watch the process of making the piece:
5/16/2022 2:47:01 PM
In a previous email, I wrote about my friend Barbara and her new retirement hobby of making beautiful food presentations. I so admire her push to always be learning that I made a silk painting of her work.
The good news is that I learned a lot from the process of creating the piece. The bad news is that I learned a lot because so much went wrong while I was painting it.
I learned a lot about painting in general, and while I was at, I spent a great deal of time fighting with the medium because silk paint is poorly suited to the kind of painting I was trying to create. So I’ve decided to try out other paints. I’m taking a painting class and will be doing all of the exercises in watercolors, acrylics, and oils to see which one suits me best.
Onward!
5/16/2022 2:40:41 PM
I can’t even express how angry I feel about the recent Supreme Court leaked document regarding women’s healthcare here in America. Angry enough that I joined the huge pro-choice demonstration in my town, and angry enough to imagine the following chat that mothers may (and in some states, already do) need to have with their daughters.
Girls, we need to have a talk.
Until you are ready to take on the decades-long, crushing responsibility of having children, you cannot have sex. At all. Every single form of birth control fails sometimes. Every one, that is, except abstinence.
Since rape happens sometimes, you’ll also need to just stay home where it’s safe.
Well, most of the time home is safe. Then again, there are plenty of homes where girls are raped by people who are supposed to be trusted adults.
So I guess what I’m telling you is that you can never be safe.
4/25/2022 9:26:54 AM
I’ve written before about the new relief sculpture I’m currently working on. The process involves some experimenting, such as playing around with plaster to get just the right background texture...
...and playing around with paint to get the right background color.
I also visited the local stained glass shop and bought the glass that I'll cut up into mosaic tiles.
More to come!
4/5/2022 12:32:36 PM
Building things, like my relief sculptures, is both fun and easy for me.
But sometimes it’s good to do things that aren’t easy. One of the many things that isn’t easy for me is drawing. So I practice it most mornings.
Here is one of my drawings:
And another, drawn from a photo in a magazine:
I’ve recently started taking a pencil drawing course*. It’s helping me with value—which is artist-speak for light and dark. Artists use value to give drawings and paintings a feel of depth.
Here is what I’ve drawn for the class so far:
I’ll keep at it and continue to get better. But I’ll probably never love it as much as I love building things.
*The class is taught by Nolan Clark. He also teaches a reasonably priced how-to class about selling art, which I absolutely loved.
2/24/2022 2:22:09 PM
First full-sized sketch
Each new relief sculpture that I make starts with an interview. When I recently interviewed Kim Stubbs, she told me the story of giving birth to her stillborn baby, Gregory. We both cried. The sculpture that I make her will be of an orange leaf, which represents what Kim learned from this especially hard time in her life. As the sculpture progresses, you’ll learn more about Kim’s story.
Miniature painting of how I picture the final piece
1/27/2022 12:27:53 PM
I’m so excited to announce that I have just one final step--grouting--and Carlos’ relief sculpture will be finished. But wait a minute! The safest grout I’ve been able to find has just a smidge of VOC’s—volatile organic compounds—which are known to cause brain and nerve damage as well as cancer of various body parts.
So, I’ll wait to do the grouting until the weather warms up and I can open some windows. Meanwhile, I’ve started working on another relief sculpture. If you haven’t already, sign up for my emails and get the news about the new sculpture and whatever else I’m working on.
More photos of the process:
Affixing tiny stained-glass tiles with a tweezer
Almost done tiling
Signing the piece
Varnishing the ground
Another view of the all-but-grouted piece
12/27/2021 1:27:34 PM
Sometimes you need your friends and family to help you manage
Lately it’s been one thing after another.
In just one week, the following happened: I was betrayed by a beloved friend and was intentionally coughed on (twice) while food shopping. I also watched as rainwater poured into both our dining room and our basement. The basement got so wet that we suddenly had a terrible mold problem.
Good thing friends and family were there to help me cope with the betrayal—one dear friend even listened to me for hours as I cried and ranted. My husband and I dealt with the coughing incident by filing a police report and, after numerous phone calls from us, the market banned the offending shopper. A roofer, handyman, and a wonderful friend helped to resolve the water-in-the-house issues.
Life is beautiful a good portion of the time, but sometimes it feels just terrible. There’s no reason to be surprised that shit happens, but there are plenty of reasons to try to be prepared for it when it does.
Have a wonderful 2022, however you celebrate it. I’ll be welcoming the new year in with a brand-new box of fifty N95 masks. I’m hoping that the global need for them decreases as the year wears on.
11/29/2021 5:10:41 PM
My friend Barbara Madison Ripps retired after a long career as an elementary school teacher. She now makes beautiful, complex food boxes and platters (called charcuterie) as a hobby*. I so admired her desire to keep learning and creating that I asked her if I could do a silk painting of her work. My finished piece will be part of a new web page of silk paintings that illustrate life-long learning and growth.
One of Barbara’s beautiful platters. Silk painting doesn't lend itself to complex subjects, so...
...the first thing I did is decide what parts to paint, and then...
...I noodled around with color...
...and worked on light and shadow.
I will post the completed piece when it's done, and will be selling prints.
*Contact me if you live in New York's Capital District and are interested in learning more about Barbara's fabulous creations.
11/1/2021 2:54:35 PM
I noticed the guy who butted in line behind me when I was waiting for a train at the end of a long day. A few minutes later, I wasn’t surprised when he crashed into my back with his suitcase. But I was surprised when he told me that I needed to “take a breath” because I’d glanced back at him to see who had bumped into me. I desperately wanted to tell him where he could put his misplaced hostility.
Of course I didn’t. All of that free-floating anger that’s in the air these days (and in America, it’s combined with the availability of guns) has multiplied to the point that sometimes—only sometimes—I’m scared to speak my mind. So instead of reflecting his anger back at him, I did what he’d told me to do. I took a breath.
Emotions are catching, and it was hard to control myself from giving it right back to Mr. Butt-in-Guy. At least to some degree, I can control how people react to me by controlling my demeanor. I’d rather not live in a world that’s filled with anger and hostility, so I try to not give it out. Even though I didn’t have the satisfaction of telling that guy what I thought of his behavior, I’m probably right in assuming that his world is far more angry and hostile than is mine.
11/1/2021 2:51:05 PM
A friend recently asked me where I buy the tiles for my relief sculptures. The answer is that I don’t buy them; I cut them from sheets of stained glass.
Sheets of stained glass
A few of my cutting tools
Some agitation in an ice cream maker smooths the rough edges so I don't cut myself
Tiles all ready to be glued onto the armature
10/4/2021 8:42:47 AM
A good friend of mine had brain surgery a few months ago. While she was in rehab, she told me that the phrase she heard the other patients say most often was “I can’t”. We, my friend and I, frequently talk about how attitude plays a critical role in having a good life because it has everything to do with how well we withstand the blows that life hands us. I’m so grateful that my friend’s attitude is that she absolutely can because I’m expecting to have many more happy, fun times with her.
Carlos also believes that attitude is critical. He was not in a good frame of mind after being fired from his job. Taking some time to cross-country ski helped him to adjust his attitude, and then he was ready for the intensity of what ended up being a successful seven-month job search. As you can see from the photos, I’m continuing to make progress on the relief sculpture that I’m creating for him.
9/3/2021 12:52:30 PM
One day while visiting my mother, I opened a hallway closet and several plastic bags filled with ancient grocery store advertisements fell on my head. My mother was never neat and tidy, but after my father died she became a hoarder.
Like my mother, I’m also not neat and tidy. Unlike her, I’m not a hoarder. My fear of becoming one pushes me to get rid of things that are doing nothing but taking up space.
Long ago some of my artwork was for sale at a local gallery. One day the gallery owner called to ask a question about one of my pieces. I had the answer written down somewhere, but my paperwork was such a mess that I couldn’t find it. I decided then that something had to change. The mess was making my life harder.
Today some parts of my life are very organized, but I still love a mess. Art is messy. Fun is messy. Life itself is a terrific mess. I’ve learned that when I’m done having fun, I can just clean up.
I can actually find things I need in my desk drawers!
My many silk paints are organized by color and are cataloged so that I can always find what I want.
8/9/2021 1:34:33 PM
This is how I have fun. I'm not kidding.
7/27/2021 3:15:54 PM
What a stressful time we live in! I make a point of taking care of my mental well-being by exercising, getting out in nature, and keeping in touch with friends. I also read a TON of self-help books and then try out their suggested techniques. Early terrible experiences with therapy turned me away from that particular form of help. But through decades of reading and experimenting with the methods that I’ve learned from books, I’ve been able to keep the demons at bay and the depression away. It works for me!
7/12/2021 1:14:10 PM
Odors-B-Gone
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6/25/2021 1:47:12 PM
At last I get to start plastering my relief sculpture for Carlos. This is one of the fun parts! I love the plastering so much because it makes such a lovely mess all over the studio and me and then cleans up with a little H2O.
In the first image, above, I'm just starting to apply the plaster. You can see in the next image, also above, that there are still some rough areas. Those need to be smoothed over so that I can glue stained glass tiles onto the surface. In the photos below, I'm smoothing over some messy corners.
6/11/2021 11:24:57 AM
Long ago, when my job title was Curator of Collections, one of my responsibilities was to talk to people who wanted to donate their personal collection to the museum. I’ll try to put this delicately—most often their collection was absolute crap. I’d tell them that their cross-eyed ceramic dolls didn’t fit with our collection policy and send them off to other, unsuspecting curators.
And now my very own studio is cluttered with Potato Heads! I bought some at garage sales, family members gave me a few, some were originally toys that my kids played with, and I actually bought some of them new! Although I know better than to try to shove them off onto a museum, perhaps one day they’ll find a new home when I have a Potato Head yard sale. I’ve moved on to more mature pursuits, like looking for rocks that are shaped like human feet.
5/31/2021 12:21:27 PM
It took me three years of messing around with plaster, stained glass, and acrylic paint to finally be satisfied with my relief sculptures. The process involved experimenting, failing, experimenting, failing, and repeating this over and over (like I said, for three years) until I was happy with the results. I would have taken a class instead of trying to figure it out on my own but there wasn’t one that taught how to make what I wanted.
I now make my relief sculptures using stained glass sheets that I hand cut into tiles. But before I discovered stained glass, I tried making tiles out of plaster. Unfortunately, the tiles proved too fragile and partially disintegrated when I painted and grouted them. These are photos are of just some of my many, many plaster tile experiments.
5/13/2021 1:45:56 PM
I Suppose it's Time for a Suppository
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5/3/2021 2:18:49 PM
What you can’t see from this photo is that this will be a wall hanging. The white base will hang flat against a wall and the ski boots will protrude a good seven inches away from the wall. It’ll need to be hung above a piece of furniture so that somebody doesn’t poke an eye out!
4/30/2021 11:35:27 AM
My relief sculptures are so fun to make! I use stuff from the hardware store (styrofoam insulation, plaster) to make something that’s both meaningful and beautiful. Also, any oddball thing, like a funky little knife that I never use for food prep, can end up in the studio because it’s exactly the tool that I need.
In case you don’t recall, these pieces will be part of a relief sculpture that I’m making for Carlos. He went through a career crisis and cross-country skiing helped him find his way to a new profession.
4/12/2021 1:02:40 PM
Chipaway the years
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3/29/2021 2:16:31 PM
It’s been a while since I posted about the relief sculpture I’m making for Carlos. I became interested in working with him when I heard his story. Carlos faced an emotional, financial, and career crisis when he was pushed out of a job by a boss who was both abusive and incompetent. Cross-country skiing played a part in both his healing from the abuse, and in his successful career shift, which is why he chose skiing as the theme for this piece of art.
Relief sculptures like this one take about a year to complete. I’ll continue to update my progress here, and when it’s finished, I’ll post a slideshow that tells Carlos’ whole story.
In these photos, I’m creating the clumps of snow that form around cross-country ski trails.
