Renovation

Elevator renovations were underway at the studio so of course I needed to take some photos. The Crane Building has so many great surfaces and textures!

Studio Update

I'm still cutting scales for the big scale piece I showed you earlier. When I need a break from the cutting and sewing I'm working back into some of my paintings from last summer.

Bottle Garden

In keeping with the bottle theme from below...a bottle garden. Tomorrow I'll post some studio images.

Art Class

This is a fun photo from my Saturday art class. I am always inspired by the children's creativity and enthusiasm. This is art-making done right.

Colors of India

My sister, Courtney, went to Sikkim last month. She brought some beautiful paper back for me to paint on, lots of gorgeous photos for me to virtually travel through, and a broken ankle! Ouch.

More Spring in the City

I am optimistic that today I will feel mostly healthy. I've been down and out for two weeks now. But last night I took Mucinex before I went to bed. So, just as soon as I wake myself from this drug induced stupor... I just KNOW I'm going to feel great...

Dog on a Roof

I drove around the neighborhood before I went home from the studio yesterday. The city is being transformed by spring. I'll show you more photos in the next couple of days. I wonder if they painted the wall to match the dog!

April in the Studio

A sneak peek at what will be a 6 foot square (or there abouts) scale piece. Lots of cutting and sewing and cutting and sewing.

Olivia took this photo at Longwood Gardens yesterday. I especially love the knees and hands at the top of the image. I'm taking a camera break. Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and admire what I see around me without the pressure of framing photos. And, oh yeah, I just didn't want to carry the camera! I'm blaming my allergies for my lethargy.

Clare Grill

Clare Grill has some new work up on her site. Sometimes I see paintings that make me want to rush back to my oil paint. These definitely fit in that category.

ICA Boston

We went to see the Shepard Fairey show at the ICA over spring break. Ironically they did not allow photos. I say ironically, in case it isn't obvious to you, because his work is all appropriated images so who's worried about further appropriation?? Maybe it's just a general "special exhibition" museum policy because I couldn't photograph the Marlene Dumas show at MOMA either. But I did photograph Marlene Dumas at the ICA. Dumas perplexes me because her painting handling is sometimes shockingly beautiful and sometimes awkwardly dumb. This is most powerful when she uses both in one piece but I really want to know more about why she does this. I suspect it has to do with treating the images the way we treat images in real life-trash we are inundated with and cannot possibly pay much attention to even when the images are disturbing. White noise would be the hearing related term but what is the equivalent for visual background "noise?"

Stuff

Yesterday I spent the day moving things around in my studio. I haven't unrolled my 6 foot paintings in at least a year so I decided it was time. I was also looking for canvas to cut up. I'm working on a large scale piece right now. It was great to see some of my older work. I even found a few paintings I didn't know I still had. I rerolled most of them. But a few got the boot. They are in line to be made into my latest body of work.

Monday I decided it was just too miserable, or maybe I was just too miserable, to do anything useful. I did have a lot of fun looking at Philip Taaffe's website, especially the studio slide shows.

What does all this have to do with the seahorse photo??

Structure

There are always so many more things to do that I can fit into my day. I took a photo of this plant the last time we went to Longwood Gardens. It was just about to flower and I meant to get back to see it. It's so amazing the way it is here in the photo. I can't imagine what it will look like in bloom. I'm paying a lot of attention to structure these days, looking for something to use in the studio. I don't know if this structure will make an appearance but I love looking at it.

Water Lilies

I have a thing for water lilies. I don't really know what the source of this thing is or even what to do with it. But I can't wait until they put the water lilies out at Longwood Gardens. These lilies are from Schedel Gardens in Ohio. Very cool place that I don't think a lot of people know about. The Toledo Zoo also has a great water lily garden between the aquarium and the gorillas. They tend to include some really amazing African varieties. I'm hoping to find one in particular this year. I don't know the name and I can't find my photo this morning but it's very large and appears to be puckered. The puckers are repeated across the surface of the pad. I think I might sew a giant one sometime soon. I would love to know what they are called- in case anyone recognizes my impressive description-ha.

Heading to Boston

Today is our 15th wedding anniversary. We are headed to Boston to celebrate with my brother and his family. Gaius is 2, we're 15, and the Easter bunny is coming to town.

Screen Printing

We got off to a rough start on our screen printing project. First I procrastinated for about 3 months. Then I couldn't get the ink open. It had one of those seals where you are supposed to pull a half circle which then pulls up the full circle that seals the jar. I couldn't do it so I asked Olivia to try. She was pulling on the half circle while pressing down on the full circle. I said "No honey, that's not how you do it. Let me show you." I took the jar, yanked off the seal, and flung ink across the room. THAT's how you do it...RIGHT?? So I cleaned the ink off of my face, my sweater, my arm, and the living room floor and we moved along. We had just finished filling the screen with ink when the dog sitter arrived. The three of us discussed the cuteness of our dogs and whatnot while the ink...you know...dried. So the dog sitter left and the screen was filled with dry ink. It took a couple hours to recover from that setback. But finally, as you see above, we began printing. Some of our shirts and onesies will get one bird but several of them as well as the fabric yardage are slated for a whole flock of birds. And a few of these guys need a little touch up. Tons of fun.

Love this Field

This time last year we were already well into our hiking season. But THIS year Matt seriously injured his hamstring (see bruising over nearly the whole middle section of his leg) and Olivia keeps getting sick (pretty sure we've had EVERY VIRUS THERE IS!!) Plus I'm teaching on Sat and then Sundays and wait back to Sat again. And Olivia has soccer on Sat and now Sunday. It's put a bit of a dent in my favorite outdoor activity. Oh yeah, and mother nature isn't helping much either. Do I plant my garden now??? Or is it going to freeze any minute. And will it stop raining long enough to let me get out there and work? Not to mention the hail. Twice this month I might add. Of course we've also had rainbows, goals scored, paintings made and all the usual fun. But this field (in the photo)...I love this field.

Tape Drawing

Another favorite figure drawing exercise. I especially love the way the students look at me like I'm insane when I tell them to draw with tape. But the results are always fun.

Cherry Blossom Parade

We went down to the Cherry Blossom Parade in DC yesterday. It was extraordinarily windy. These flag guys were working really hard to hang onto their flags. Several guys lost their hats at one point.


These girls were having similar problems and they were probably cold. But not as cold as the girls who were wearing sleeveless, backless outfits!


This thing looks heavy. I'm sure the wind wasn't helping them much either.


Despite all the wind the beauty queen's hair doesn't move.


And finally, my niece is in there somewhere. That might be her back in red on the far left of the photo.


A great day.

Random Photo from the Past: Student Work

I don't remember which student drew this (if you do please let me know) but I had to share it. This was one of my favorite assignments in figure drawing. They were supposed to draw each other from life. I think most of them cheated and used photos but it was still fun to see the results.

Random Photo from the Past: Black Squirrel

One of my favorite things about Bowling Green, OH was the black squirrel. At a certain point I decided to photograph a black squirrel. They must be shy around cameras because this is the best I could do. Also for the first couple years there weren't any hanging out in my yard. So here's this guy hurrying off to do some squirrelly thing. Those are my flowers, pretty rocking awesome if I do say so myself. Man, I miss having a yard.

Oh yeah, here it is:

Photo by Lori Glessner

More Fun in the City

We saw a stop light today that was BOTH red AND green at the same time. Luckily we were walking because I’m not too sure about that mixed message. Lori was visiting my studio and she took a photo that I may be able to show you later. But we did not photograph our meal and I realize now that was a mistake. We ordered Nachos. What we got was an art project. Chips on the bottom, of course. Then cheese wiz, chicken, guacamole and the prize…the sour cream was piped on in concentric circles.