Insomnia

At one time I wanted to be a Master Printer with a specialty in limestone lithography. In this piece I took a lithograph named Marathon Runner and embellished it with various bug stamps, stamps from every state I had lived in, flower stamps and  paper as well has hand coloring.  Having insomnia the majority of my adult life, it reflects the constant running my mind goes thru when I can't sleep - always running running running  in circles never stopping like I am a trying to run a marathon. 

Another emphasis on how my mind works under the influences of insomnia.  This piece is constructed of wrapping paper, a lithograph and scrapbook paper.

I always wanted to try to paint with acrylic on parchment paper.  I personally did not like  it.  However, now and then, I will do a funny or sarcastic piece.  Here in Arizona we always talk about the coyotes and the javelinas.  But we rarely see them during the day.  What are they doing but playing hide and seek in the desert grasses.  I have collaged the grand master of javelinas on the back of his favorite friend horse looking for his mates.  They can be seen standing on top of each others heads laughing.  The coyotes are jumping through the grass and Wylie Coyote is standing there with his Help sign. All the animals except the horse are collage.

I was the recipient of a blue ribobn for photography (go figure - this was a collage) in a show a few years back .  Probably about a year before Obama ran for president.  Th images were not intentionally made to look like him.  However it was a time of turmoil in the United States at the time.  I spent most of my life in the San Francisco Bay area. Thus the cityscape in the background and the Treasure Island bridge.  The hands become part of the bridge to the city - the fast paced life that most experience - praying that there is a change ahead..  The white gloves move in and out of the waves like sail boats, clapping along the way. Is our white glove society  proud of our progress in overcoming racial bias or are we still making sure everything is white glove clean?  What is the "politically correct" white thing to do?  And yet the blackman is still waiting to be cleansed of his wounds, only partially testing the waters to make sure they are safe. His back to the viewer, always bowing down to those who judge him...a bit fitting still for the times in 2020 don't you think...(shock)

One of the paintings that as part of my masters thesis at UC Berkeley School of Art.  The series was called Manana Ptah.  Ptah was an Egyptian pharaoh who I thought was the first existentialist - everything is nothing and nothing is everything. Manana - tomorrow.  I was stumped on what I should do and I was studying the Egyptian Book of the Dead at the time  and decided  to focus on what I was impressed by at the time.  The vessels at the top of the painting are symbolic of the vessels that Ptah used to transport the "stuf" he had in his life into the afterlife, including the remains of his slaves.  The vessel in the upper right corner becomes a window to the heavens.  The image that looks like a banana slug in the center of the painting (that is what my friends said it looks like) is actually a black halo - the influences of my catholic upbringing but the opposite of holiness - an omen of things to come.  The image below reminds me of the circular shape of a kiddy pool.  Birthday wrapping paper is  present with painted thick acrylic looking like finger nail polish on toenails.  The overall shape of the image is almost kittenish and playful, and yet the whole painting appears to be dreamlike and not likeable  - distant from ones life but part of a dream.  One of my favorite pieces.

Acrylic and wrapping paper on canvas - "Here I sit on the sea wall trying to untangle my life picking away the aches and pains as if they were gnats or bugs tangled in a web of hair.  Then the fish swam up and saved me - Big eyed & beautiful they inhaled my soul as the monkey tied behind my back and the vessel readied itself for burial."  Very dark time in my life. 

Mark Rothko was a contemporary  artist who committed suicide by laying on the floor with his arms outstretched like Jesus, slashed his wrists and died. There is a Rothko Chapel in Texas with his paintings that I would like to visit some day.  I here it is a very  spiritual, quiet, and peaceful place

Using acrylic paint, photo transfer,  collage and red rose flower petals this painting portrays the thoughts of a women going into menopause.  The dried up rose petals symbolizes the passing of her periods, no longer to be..  The women standing on the scale is not only happy that she is losing physical weight but also happy that she is getting the weight of past fears off of her shoulders - the fear of getting pregnant, and the fear of the clowns that she has always been afraid of as a child. The swirling ring around the clowns head are swallows represented also in other places in the work.  Some with gold gingko biloba leaves inside of them - symbolizing natural health, another turning into the holy spirit, a  reminder of the faith we have in God and in the taking care of ourselves that we need to be reminded of.  

Swallows always amaze me.  They fly so fast and always seem to be searching for something, as if they are lost, always busy with every flight they take but always knowing where there nest is and how to get home from wherever they are. 

The photo transfer of the cactus are transparent and ghost like to remind us that getting hurt  is part of the past but still lingers and can raise its prickly head again if we are left unaware.  The raven sits on the ledge of the reddish brown  window to the outside world.  There as our protector when we decide to venture out again if ever.  And the moon - the light that still shines down on us in the dark will always e full of light and therefore hope. The pen and ink cactus reminds us that it is all  "reality" - it is what it is.

Driving up to our summer cabin in Wisconsin one year, in the middle of the late dark night I saw the black dog run across the road.  When you see the black dog you know it is time for you to pull over before you have an accident and end up killing yourself.  The headlights pointed on the road ahead just barely making out what is visible because you are tired.  This is truly what it looks and feels like when you see the black dog run across the road.

This is a diptych using 2 equilateral triangles, one flipped upside down onto the other.  It was sold before the paint was dry.  It is a mixed media canvas piece utilizing computer wire,  rice paper of various styles, bubble wrap, acrylic paint and twigs woven into the canvas. 

This 6' X 5' painting is a mixed media painting where gold reeds and grasses are mixed into the paint to give it texture, as well as bubble wrap, gold leaf, silk ribbon and twigs.  Calligraphy is used as flat visual texture.  I had a visitor in the studio where I had this displayed who told me that I had the calligraphy upside down.  My bad! I have no idea what it says. 

On occasion I will paint pet portraits.  Any artist can paint a dog but painting personalities of animals is a little more difficult. I meet the animal, study photographs the owner has taken, and I might take a few myself.  This is a portrait of my favorite bichon who passed away in December of 2019

When my husband and I were on our honeymoon in 2007 we met an old black cat who adopted us for the 10 days we were in Akumal, Mexico on the Yucatan peninsula.  In Akumal the cats and dogs run free.  Each year the locals round them up and give them their shots.  They all take care of them leaving food and water out for them.  So this old cat cake to vist us and sat on the blue chair on tha patio all the time next to us.  You could never pain him but he was always there to keep us company.  We really loved him and hated to say good-bye. He was a scrawny old thing but we will always remember him.

There are several painting that I did with this technique.  They are all 12" X 12 " in size  What is unique about this piece and the others is that acrylic glass paint/enamel is poured onto a glass sheet and left to dry.  It is then slice into strips and woven together in a basket weave techniques then adhered to a background print of my choice.  They seem to be spiritual and tribal in nature to me.

This is a 3D house about 3 inches tall constructed of wood, alcohol ink and embossed pewter (Repujado). Growing up in the Midwest I have lived many different places and have many good memories.  This little house  reminds me of the house you go back to visit, that you remember from your childhood, only to find it old and falling down.  But the trees and flowers are still growing around the house, the corn is still wildly shooting up and the swallows have made it a home. see the other side of the house below.

This is a small 12" X 12" piece painted with acrylic on wood with an embossed pewter (Repujado) image of a Saguaro cactus overlapped onto the nighttime image. Alcohol ink and patinas are used to enhance the pewter image.  A cholla cactus skeleton is used to frame the piece.

This is a 4 inch glass ornament as a sample of the ornaments you will see in the ornaments section .  All ornaments are hand painted on the inside with the exception of the ornaments of flowers and plants which are painted on the inside and outside.  The ornament hood an may of them are hand forged from copper, brass, or nickel then soldered together to make the cap ring.  Most of the flower ornaments are 2.5  inches.  See the ornament gallery for other ornaments.