Jump to content
Grief Healing Discussion Groups

Recommended Posts

Is this kind of what you meant by name tags Anne? I will have one for any members coming to the show. 

NAME TAG.jpg

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those are nice Steve. i was thinking of name tags that are blank so if people attending wanted to wear a name tag then those of us who were there would know those attending. I would gladly wear the one above but I would like to see those attending wearing one with just their name on it - if they chose to. It's a conversation starter at some gatherings. ;) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gin I guess we'll have to figure an event for the future in Chicago.:)

When I disassembled Kathy's sewing room this weekend, I discovered this quilt she had folded up and stashed in a drawer that she obviously was not happy with. I love it though and I framed it today for the auction thinking it only fit that something of hers should be entered since the morning I woke up with the idea for this auction, I knew she had put it my head.  I think she would love the crazy mat I cut for it.

IMG_5422 - Copy.JPG

IMG_5420 - Copy.JPG

IMG_5421 - Copy.JPG

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stephen,

It is beautiful, and I think she would love what you did with it!  The mat displays it very well, I love the vibrancy!  Yes, it seems fitting that your Kathy should be a special part of this. :)

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see it too Patty. There are rainbows in nebulas - the birthplace of stars.

 

I picked these up this morning . Thank you so much Laura. I will do the three other water colors this week. 

laura 4 (2).JPG

laura2 (2).JPG

laura2 (1).JPG

laura 4 (1).JPG

lena (1).JPG

lena (2).JPG

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everything is so wonderful here. What talent so many have. The framing is just so nice Steve. We all thank you for all you are doing.  It is going to feel almost sacred to walk through the gallery knowing what some of the art pieces mean to each of us. 

  • Upvote 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Mitch but I am inspired right now.

It is kind of sacred Anne but I feel as I look at the body of work that it's more than just an art sale. It's both emotional and inspirational. What it says to all of us and about all of us is that we care and we are indeed a family. I tell you this Mitch. I feel every one of those times I've hit my hands with a hammer, all 43 years of them.:)  Laura I tried to see the hiking trail on departure but I was too focused on incoming traffic but it was a pleasure to meet and visit with you.

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I especially love the third one down of Laura's.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow-thanks! Here is a little info. These paintings show a really pivotal point in my career as an artist - the biggest pivot yet.

The oil paintings came after a long spell of not painting at all. I had started out when I was young with oils because my mother did oils and wouldn't let me touch them. So, that was my first desire in my first apartment- painting in oils!  

Then, years later I started doing watercolors because that was all that was available at the Tucson Parks & Rec Center. I worked on that for several years and stopped painting because I was busy going to graduate school and developing my career. One day a close friend, a classical guitarist, said to me, "I know what you're thinking. You think that you're going to wait until you retire and go back to painting and it'll be really great. But if you want it to be really great, you should get to working on your chops now, or it will be too late to get the hours in for it to be great." I realized she was right.

So I got off my butt and thought I'd go back to doing oils since that was what I really wanted to do since childhood. I had a really hard time with it, in some part because you have to use a lot of white, which is verboten in watercolor, where you just have the white of the paper. Also, the oil paint just sits there, whereas watercolor pigment plays and dances in the water. Somehow, I had totally fallen head over heels in love with watercolor and didn't even realize it! How dense can a person be exactly?

One thing I learned from my mother was that it is way better to paint from life than from photos, which flatten the perspective. An experienced eye can pick this out in a gallery in a flash. So I was looking for things I could paint (repeatedly) that were alive. I painted some potted cacti, but tired of this quickly and it was - you guessed it - December! So I bought a bunch of poinsettias and got busy. By spring their leaves fell off, I went outside and went berserk over flowers. Still haven't recovered.

So the two poinsettias show my feelings about the medium rather clearly. I really took off after I returned to watercolor with an insight and awareness of myself and watercolor as a medium. My mother liked the control you have in oils and she was afraid of watercolor, which always has a balance of control and abandon. But I like the struggle to find that balance between control and letting go. Her oils have an astonishing sense of light and her watercolors look like she was afraid of the paint. To me, my oils look I am trudging through thick paint and my watercolors actually breathe and make music.

There are three kinds of ceramic pieces. The ukulele box I made a few years ago when I first started with clay. It is just a box, but the ukulele was my first instrument. The little panels came from an insight born of frustration. Any little thing makes an impression on clay and often you can't get it out. A hair can fall out of your head and make a mark that never goes away. It could even create a weakness that cracks the piece. So I figured that if I used the same pieces I had carved to make linoleum block prints and just pressed them into clay, I could make one after another.

Great idea except I'm still trying to get it right...how thick to roll the clay, how much pressure, how long to wait, etc. One of the things that ceramics and watercolor have in common is that timing is critical. Some things you have to do at exactly the right time. Too early and you get a mess, too late and it is too late! Hahaha

The pinch cats came straight out of my grieving. My cat Lena was absolutely holding me together. My ceramics classes are all day on Saturdays. From January into May, I would stagger in late and spend a few hours trying to escape reality by delving into inorganic chemistry by trying to understand glaze colors. The color of the wet glaze is unrelated to the fired piece - why? Dang!

Then I would take a small piece of clay in my hands and wander around the room with it, seeing what my classmates were doing. It was like I was making a pinch pot, but it would gradually turn into a cat. Sometimes I would be crying as I wandered around with my clay. My classmates would watch me and make little comments. "I see ears developing...", "Oh look-it's a cat!", as if that were a surprise. They were very sweet and made me laugh. And I made a lot of pinch cats. It seems only right that four of them will be in the show.

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, MartyT said:

Steve, I hope that Laura will tell the rest of us a little about the pieces she has given you. I love learning the stories behind all of them. I'm just in awe of every single one of you dear people . . . 

Sorry Marty, that was a bit more than a little...but thanks for asking!

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, mittam99 said:

I'm with Anne. The talent level and the quality of the artwork is exceptional. My parents actually owned an art gallery/frame shop (I worked there in my younger days) and I agree that Steve does a masterful job on the custom framing of the pieces.

Good stuff.

The framing is great! The watercolor looks like it's breathing and even those oils look good. I can't wait to see what Steve does with the Hibiscus I painted in Maui.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, KATPILOT said:

Thanks Mitch but I am inspired right now.

It is kind of sacred Anne but I feel as I look at the body of work that it's more than just an art sale. It's both emotional and inspirational. What it says to all of us and about all of us is that we care and we are indeed a family. I tell you this Mitch. I feel every one of those times I've hit my hands with a hammer, all 43 years of them.:)  Laura I tried to see the hiking trail on departure but I was too focused on incoming traffic but it was a pleasure to meet and visit with you.

Steve, it was great to meet you and very exciting that you came up in your plane! It was really nice to visit with you and it was fun talking about the wind and flying. Your framing is great and I am looking forward to the show.

 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, KATPILOT said:

Here you go Laura. I had a little fun with this one.

hibiscus 1.JPG

hibiscus.JPG

That is very cool and quite classy - it looks great in there! I would have never framed it like that. I tend toward using the same colors in the painting and have gotten a lot of flack for the crazy colors. This is really interesting to see how you have framed them, because no one but me has ever framed my paintings and it's really interesting to see my paintings through someone else's eyes. It also makes me wonder if they would sell for more if the framing was more traditionally done and not so wild as my inclination.

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Beautiful, Laura. 

You are truly an artist too, Steve. It takes a special eye to be able to frame and mat a piece of art in such a way that enhances rather than competes with or detracts from what's inside the frame. I'm just astounded at your ability to do that!

Bravo, indeed!

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...