Collared Lizard

I have better photos of this guy but this is the one where he came after me. Small but scary. He lives in the Petrified Forest National Park. I'll share more photos and stories next week when I get back home.

Made it to Albuquerque

Three days of driving and we made it to Albuquerque last night. Yesterday we drove a marathon 12 hours. Or rather, I drove. Olivia has been a great co-pilot but for some reason they just won't let 12 year olds drive. On our second day we stopped off at Maramec Caverns. It really is beautiful. In fact I wish they would just turn the lights on and let you look. Way too touristy and cheesy including a "light show" where you could hear the guide flipping the switches at the back of the room. I think that was to add his special touch to the programed light show. What a way to treat a spectacular natural form.

Last night we stayed at a friends house north of Albuquerque. Absolutely beautiful. The moon rose over the small mountain and was just gorgeous. If I hadn't been so exhausted I would have sat out and enjoyed it.

Today we head to the residency. Time to settle in and start making some drawings.

Heading to Arizona

I'm heading out to an artist residency at the Hubbell Trading Post in Arizona. I don't think I'll have internet access until I return Aug 26th. But then you can look forward to some great photos.

More Polination

Sam

For more than 14 years we had one of the worlds greatest dogs. We miss him terribly.

Some Kind of Purple Wild Flower

I took this photo last fall in Delaware near the shore.

Sunflower

DCCA

Olivia and I at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art in Wilmington. Photo by Olivia.

Inspiration

I'm still working on getting those pink spirals together. This image from last fall seems like a good inspiration.

Rose of Sharon

Some of what's dropping off the trees these days. My zucchini plant has succumbed to some pest. Very sad although we did get a bunch of great zucchini from it before it died. I promise not to scan the droppings of whatever creature is entertaining himself in our garden. It looks like an enormous rabbit so I think it might be a ground hog. Today we are off to the studio so perhaps I'll have some updates from there soon.

Sluggish

I seem to be in a sluggish blogging period. This is primarily a result of lack of camera activity. (Maybe some absent mental activity as well...it is summer after all.)
Our 14 year old lab doesn't seem to be able to smell very well anymore. He's now operating on deductive reasoning. Plastic often contains food, therefore all plastic must be removed to the cage and inspected for possible morsels. He has recently "inspected" the cardboard bottom of a 24 pack of water (with it's plastic of course) and my little baggy of pieces. I had to fish my graphite holder out of the cage as well. Just more evidence that getting old sucks.

Student Work

This is a collage made by a student from movie posters.

Material Experiments

First Painting

I took slides today, including one of Olivia's elephant painting. The pink spirals are making me crazy. I'm hating them at the moment. But most of the time hating a painting is better than loving it, at least mid process. It puts you in that "nothing to lose" place that is so important in making art.

Marigolds

One of our garden neighbors deadheads her marigolds aggressively. The kids were thrilled to find the still fresh "heads" tossed about the edge of the garden. They gathered them all up and took them home. I always wanted to do this as a kid but never had access to so many flower heads. Of course now I could barely breathe around the marigolds. I had to satisfy myself with taking pictures and stringing needles.

Yesterday there was a flurry of activity at the studio. I'm working on figuring out how to put these guys together and making more of them.


Olivia was making her first oil painting.


And Gwen, my fabulous new intern, was helping with all kinds of things. Here she is tracing more spirals for me to cut and sew. Thanks Gwen!!

Plans

Every time I make one of these constructions I plan to paint over it. That is WHY I started making them in the first place. I REALLY want to paint on them. However, it often turns out that I like it so much as is that I can't paint on it. One solution is to make the structure out of raw canvas. Then even if I like it raw I know I can remake it which allows me to go ahead a paint on it. This time I tried something different. I gathered the ugliest assortment of whatnot and sewed them all together. And wouldn't you know...three people came in my studio after that oohing and aahing about how cool it was. Well, what the hell. I am not one to be deterred from my mission. So I went ahead and ignored them and slapped paint all over it. It's not done yet so this is just a tidbit. It needs more painting and maybe more sewing but I doubt I'll get to work on it much until I'm done with the pink thing below.

Summer in the Studio

I finally remembered to bring my camera to the studio. Here's what I've been working on. I have to figure out how to join the pieces. My initial attempted failed. This might be one of those days where writing a blog entry at 6am is a mistake. But essentially I'm making a bunch more of these and experimenting with how I want to join them.

4th of July

Fireworks from Philadelphia.

Polination

Rocks State Park

Rocks State Park in Maryland.

Garden

Our garden is really starting to grow. The sunflowers burst into bloom this week and the weeds are a bit under control. So we've got sunflowers outside and inside!