Finally, Denali! and hello 2016

Well, it's 2016, and this year I pledge to post at least weekly on my blog (ha, ha, good one!)
But seriously, I need to at least catch up on my so called life, and announce that I have finally conquered "The Great One". Yes—Denali has finally capitulated to my ten year blitz of applications to their artist-in-residence program and decided it was easier to just accept me and get it over with.

So sometime this summer I'll be heading Back to Alaska II, this time to the interior and land of big mountains, grizzlies, and wolves. I will have a cabin with no electricity, but long, long days. No running water, but braided rivers. No wifi, but, but . . . I think I can handle it, a detox will be cleansing.

 

It's especially exciting to be going in the National Park Service Centennial Year and the year the true name of the mountain is acknowledged. More about that when I hear more. So far, I just have this letter to assure me I'm not imagining it.

• • • 

February 1 is the first anniversary of being sprung from my day-job in the newspaper business into the wide open landscape of unemployment. One of my greatest fantasies was having one year, just one year, without the day job. So how did I spend the year of my dreams? Well, mostly trying to figure out how to make some money. To that end, I brushed up on my web design skills and started a web design business (need a website?), took an advance wordpress class, drank the social media kool-aid and set up a few workshops (more about that as I'm trolling for students). I also applied for 2 real jobs, one I wanted, one I didn't. Interesting to go on my first interviews in over 20 years. I didn't get offered either, but nice to know I'm no longer the nervous wreck I used to be when in the hot seat.

My main 2015 accomplishment was two exhibits of work from my residencies in the Tongass and Chugach National Forests. How I could have hung those shows if I was still doing the 9-5 I don't know, it was a panicky scramble at the end as it was, but I think it came out pretty well!

I exhibited in group shows at Gallery X, the Newport Art Museum, Save the Bay and am excited to be represented by a new gallery, the Charlestown Gallery in South County. I hope to deliver more work (with the perk of side trips to the beach) this summer.

So, I kind of fulfilled one New Year's resolution, which was to re-start my blog on January 1. My second resolution was to stop procrastinating. Like I said, kind of.

Hope you all have a great, happy, healthy, adventurous and peaceful 2016, and the same goes for the other 7.3 billion people in the world who don't follow this blog.

War is over. If you want it.
Peace.

Finishing up

 

As the deadline for delivering my work approaches, a question that I am often asked becomes more urgent.  How do you know when is a painting finished? It's a tough question for sure. I often feel that I can keep working on a painting forever, pushing it, changing it...but will it be better in the end? Sometimes, but not always. 

I have had the experience of just "neatening up" a painting I considered finished, only to add elements that I realize were crucial to the work. Other times there are areas that I mean to get back to that suddenly look fine in their brushed-in stage.  I guess the best way I can tell is that if a painting I think is finished bugs me every time I look at it, it's back to the easel. If it seems to settle in, then I can move on to wrestle with the other monsters in the studio.

The painting above is inspired by two of my experiences in the Tongass National Forest as described in my journal...

"It's 11:30 by the time we launch and head across the flat waters of Holkham Bay, aiming for the buoys marking a break in Tracy Arm Bar, which stretches across the entrance to Tracy and Endicott Arms and was formed by terminal morraines of Sawyer and Dawes Glaciers. The sound of whales had been in the air all morning, and as we cross the bar we are surprised by a huge black surge from the water, the back of a humpback whale which is gone before I can fully realize what it is. Solan suggests we knock on our kayaks to alert the whale to our presence, and I bang on mine till he laughs and says "I think it heard you." Then I'm sorry, because the whale doesn’t appear again, most likely off to quieter depths."

• • • 

"As we eat lunch and stretch our legs, walking over the smooth curves of the huge shoreline rocks, we suddenly hear a roar and look up to see that a house sized iceberg had just rolled, exposing striations of jewel-like colors of browns, purples and intense blues. Still wet, it glistens in the sun—an amazing sight. Since the wind is still picking up, we soon pack up and resume paddling. The break had been welcome but I am still tired and sorry that we have to paddle further out into the fiord to skirt the iceberg, but I'm glad that we can get a closer look. Only Chrissy manages to take a picture as we pass, since without constantly paddling, the wind and current drives the kayaks backwards. We paddle through the headwind and choppy waves called haystacks, then turn the kayaks into Ford’s Terror."

I think it's finished. I think. Maybe.

New Alaska painting

oil/canvas, 30"x40", 2014

My latest Alaska painting, actually begun after my first trip in 2011, but finished with new inspiration from my 2014 residency and my investigations into the structure of ice. (click to enlarge) A more wordy post will come eventually!

Tossed out of the rat race...

Slowly but surely I'm finishing work I started in Alaska. This one was done just out of sight of our tent on Harbor Island. While I was working on it one of the Rangers came over to tell me that the rushing sound that I subconsciously attributed to waves was actually a whale spouting. So we ran over the bumpy mossy terrain to the shore, and waited, and waited, and waited and then — I saw my first whale! Or the spout anyway, but I did get a glimpse of tail so I guess that counts!

2015 is looking to be an interesting year, I have two shows of my Alaska work in the fall, and in January I'm going to be exhibiting my Shoemaker paintings at the state airport. So that's "good interesting".

I'm also going to be UNEMPLOYED, come February, for the first time in my life, including college. A victim of the ailing newspaper business. That's just "interesting-interesting". We will see what happens with that. I am looking for work, but there's a good possibility I won't find it, right away at least. Perhaps I can live off my painting? I know, always joking....but if I can meet my studio expenses I can still keep painting.

A break would be kind of wonderful, but no paycheck will be a shocker. Fate (and various HR departments) will decide! Until then, to the studio!

Back to the Blog!

[Insert obligatory apology for not keeping up with this blog HERE]
[Insert empty promise to post more often HERE]

Whew, now I feel better!

So where was I?

 I've finally finished a painting I started before I went to the Tongass, this one is from the Chugach NF. I hung out with more oystercatchers in the Tongass, so there will be more paintings featuring these crazy birds.

The Oystercatcher - Pakenham Point, Chugach NF - oil/linen 20x24

These two are were started on my last residency in the Tongass National Forest. The first was foiled by rain, the second by little black flies, but I brought them back to the shelter of my studio and finished them. I'm working as much as possible on my Alaska paintings, and will have two (!) exhibits of them in the fall of 2015. Time is as scarce as always lately, so how will I pull it off? Big changes ahead after the new year....stay tuned!

Harbor Island - Tongass NF - oil/panel - 11x14

Middle T, Ford's Terror - Tongass NF - oil/panel - 11x14

Back from Alaska!

It was an incredible experience. It's been a bit crazy trying to process all my impressions and deal with life back in the real world but I hope to post more writing and paintings soon!

Next stop, Alaska!

Did I mention, a long time ago, that I was returning to Alaska as Artist in Residence with the Forest Service? Well, after months spent doing everything but writing in my blog, I am almost ready to head to the great north! I am almost packed, have read everything I could find about the Tongass National Forest, rolled over in my kayak 3 times and practiced rescuing myself and others in a kayaking class, and even watched YouTube videos of the take offs and landings in the Juneau airport. 

Having already spent a week kayaking in the Chugach NF has really has helped me figure out what to bring on this trip, and I've gotten a little more ambitious. This time in addition to a small gouache set, I am bringing acrylics and canvas, and a little lightweight easel, since those lovely Forest Service kayaks can hold an amazing amount. 

I'm expecting I'll be posting from Juneau, since I've now enabled my iphone to capture the internet and deliver it to my laptop, so if I can get a signal you may be hearing from me. Of course I'll be off the grid when in the field, but really, wouldn't you rather be in a field than mapped to a grid?

4 days till lift off!

Back to Alaska, after all!

I am very excited to announce that I have been once again selected to be artist in residence with the Voices of the Wilderness program, this time in the Tongass National Forest, Tracy Arm/Ford's Terror Wilderness, Alaska. I'm especially honored because due to budget cuts, they are only able to take one artist this year, and I'm it! I'll be going at the end of July, beginning of August, which give me some time to get in kayak hoisting shape, and maybe take a class in rescue techniques before having to practice them in the cold waters of Alaska

To see what the residency is like, artist Jason Elvron has posted a journal on the VOW facebook page that describes the day to day experience. I, of course, have been pouring over the entries. "What kind of pants are they wearing? Hmmm...fleece vests, could be chilly, how many drybags are they fitting into the kayaks? No headnets, that's good. Is that a bear!?!"

Photo by Jason Elvron, 2012 Artist in Residence.

But, since I have already traveled with the Rangers in the Chugach National Forest (Nellie Juan/College Fiord Wilderness Study Area) I have an idea of what to bring. And it's really great to be able to do things a little better than I did the first time. Forget the clunky waterproof camera CASE, I'll splurge on a waterproof CAMERA and take WAY more photos. Any if I can get my hands on another audio recorder, I won't leave it out of the ziploc to be dunked and destroyed in the fiord. And I'll bring two pairs of pants, for when I follow the recorder it into the water.  And I'll be a bit more ambitious in my art supplies, the kayaks can hold more than I had expected. And I'll of course be taking my xtratufs, but with some alternate shoes in case I "overboot" (see above) and need to let them dry out.

The supply tent in our base camp, on Harbor Island.
Photo by Jason Elvron, 2012 Artist in Residence.

And I will spend more time exploring the shoreline life, pay more attention to the ducks and birds, and the forest.

And, if I couldn't get any luckier, Rangers Barbara and Tim Lydon, who kept me alive during my first residency, have family in my area so will be staying with me for a few days while they visit! So they will give me the lowdown on the Tongass, where they were based before moving north to the Chugach. 
 

Ok, this is the kayak launch that scares me, I don't want to find out how deep the fiord is!
 Photo by Jason Elvron, 2012 Artist in Residence.

 Home sweet home. Photo by Jason Elvron, 2012 Artist in Residence.

Exhibit update

Three little paintings (Gouache on Paper, 7inx5in) of the trees left by the Long Mesa Fire of 2002 in Mesa Verde National Park where I was Artist in Residence in 2008.  They are currently on exhibit in my show at the Bert Gallery. I will be at the gallery on Saturday, February 22 from 2 to 3, if you are in the neighborhood, stop in and say hi!

Yes, I did paint on the trails...

View from the Coconino

but finished up in the studio..."En Atelier Air" as it were.

Back to Reality

I'm back to living in real but scarce time after three wonderful weeks traveling through the layers of ancient worlds in Grand Canyon. They say our lives are a blink of an eye in the lifespan of this earth, and it sure feels like it. I did manage to post some photos...more to come, including, you know — paintings!

Photos from my residency on Flickr

Off to the Grand Canyon!

On Tuesday I'm off to the Grand Canyon for my 11th artist residency and 3 weeks in a little cabin on the north rim. I can't wait to get on that big red plane and head west, but for a few more days, life will continue in its hectic, scattered east coast way.  I've already shipped off a box of art supplies, but it's still challenging to decide what to bring for 3-weeks far from art supply and grocery stores.

And it will be HOT. Usually temperatures on the North Rim are in the 70s, but they've been reaching the 90s lately, and I don't even want to TALK about how hot it is at the bottom of the canyon.

OK, I do want to talk about it.

How's 115 sound to you? I really would love to hike to the bottom, which would probably not be too bad if we started early. But even after a night at Phantom Ranch to recoup, the hike up would be daunting at those temperatures. No water, no shade, 1 mile up and 14 miles long. Gee I hope I get to do it....

As happy as I am to get away from my day job for 3 weeks, it does have a little perk. While designing web sites for the newspaper, I can't help but learn a whole bunch of html, css, js, photoshop, etc.  Which may not be such a perk as it makes me feel the need to redesign my own site to keep up with all you crazy ipad, iphone, droid, and who-knows-what viewers. But my site was overdue for a redesign anyway, and god help me I do find it kind of interesting, so I've been spending way too much time after work at my computer... My last redesign only made it halfway through my site but I'm going to streamline this one, estimated launch date - August!

 I'm also designing a Wordpress blog which will hopefully serve as a forum for the community of Artists in Residence. It's so much fun to find other AIR's journals and blogs to read before applying or arriving, so I'd like to create a place for us all to post links and interact. But a community Wordpress is surprisingly tough to set up, so that may also have to wait till August to launch. If you've been an AIR, you may receive an email from me inviting you to join, or just check back, I'll be posting it's debut for sure!

 

I am planning to blog daily from the Grand Canyon, but internet connections can be iffy, and my resolutions tend to be iffy as well. But I will try, so if  you want to come along, check back!

A painting for Petrified

 

70 days till I leave for the Grand Canyon and I finally finished my painting from last year's residency at the Petrified National Park. I didn't quite make the 1 year deadline but hopefully will be forgiven. I'm still working on Alaska paintings so haven't really gotten ramped up on the PEFO work, but when I do I'd like to work big, maybe a wall sized 5-panel panorama of "The Most Beautiful Place in the World"

Other than that, I'm still struggling with trying to do too many things with too little time. Maybe I should make a list and see what I can eliminate. . .

(ok, I started the list but it got too overwhelming, so I will eliminate making a list, that's one thing crossed off anyway)

Sometimes I think I should give up blogging (and if I have any readers they are justified in thinking "I thought she DID give up blogging") but I can't quite do it yet. So I will try to update more often, because otherwise what's the point?  Which brings me to this post...  an excuse to upload my latest painting and do a little whining.

Stay tuned for a raccoon in a gold mine.

Giving it my best 10%

Sometimes what is supposed to be funny is what can really get under your skin. Which is why I had to laugh (so I wouldn't cry) over this story in the Newspaper of Record, The Onion. Find the thing you're most passionate about, then do it.  Funny, isn't it. >sob<

Ironically, read it just after I had gotten home from work, turned on my studio stove, made a pot of coffee, got out my painting clothes, sat down for a few minutes, turned off the heat in my studio, poured the coffee down the drain and put my clothes away, too exhausted to paint.

As I look over my last few entries, I get the sense that this artist is floundering a bit. Not from any lack of ideas and ambition, but maybe from too many directions I want to explore.

Well, if I can't straighten out my life, at least I can straighten out my brushes. I have an embarrassment of riches in the brush department, but can't seem to retire many of them. Just wish I held them in my hand more often.

But, looking on the bright side, only 112 more days till I leave for the Grand Canyon. I've been hitting the gym religiously for the last few months to get in shape for hiking, since, unlike the mostly  horizontal Petrified Forest, most of the GC hiking is up and down. It seems to be working, and in 112 days, I should be ready. I know I am mentally!

In my spare time, I've decided to start a blog that can be a meeting place for the many artists who have done residencies in the National Parks and Forests. I'm shielding the eyes of the Blogger logo as I type this, but I'm doing it on Wordpress, which is somewhat of a learning curve, but interesting. It's still in development, or as we geeks like to say, Beta. As soon as I work out the glitches I'll post the link, and if you have been an AIR, or are just interested in the program, I'd love to have you check it out!

Oystercatchers and Ice

I'm constantly conflicted, when I can steal some studio time, over whether to do studies for new paintings or to work on oils in progress. But the cold weather sometimes makes my decision easier, as the room I draw in is in my home, and my oil painting studio is in the cold garage. So even though I've divided the garage space in half with curtains to keep my little stove's meager heat from escaping, on really cold days I spare the propane and work on studies. These two are part of my developing series from my residency in Alaska. The top one is an Oystercatcher at Pakenham Point. I never got this close to them, but they would run ahead of me on the beach with a silly little giggle. Now I realize it was probably a nervous giggle, since they may have been trying to distract me from the eggs they may have had just sitting there in the rocks. Anyway, the Natural History Museum has a taxidermied eastern oystercatcher so I spent a few hours drawing him and he didn't move a muscle.

 

This one is an iceberg study, looking toward Surprise Glacier.

So studies are in the works, and I was very happy to have the chance to exhibit one of my few finished oils in the Newport Art Museum's Member's show (Up until May 19). And happy to win an honorable mention.

And even more happy in the placement of my piece, right smack as soon as you come in, under the color coordinated wall sign.  Thank you, NAM!

Denial, Wax and Water...

Toboggan Beach, Alaska  oil/canvas 40x30in

That bridge I was going to cross if I was accepted for a residency at Denali? Well, I probably won't be crossing it this year. I heard the decision much sooner than I expected (which thankfully cuts short the suspense) but unfortunately I was not a finalist. I did, however, make 2nd runner up. The bronze medal, sort of. Which is actually quite flattering considering how few are chosen. And I was very appreciative of the personal note and nice words on my work. So, since I don't imagine two people will be crazy enough to turn down the residency,  I will try again next year, with more Alaska paintings.  And of course, I have the Grand Canyon residency to look forward to, which isn't too shabby!

But coming back down to earth, or as I like to call it, Rhode Island, I have nine paintings from my shoemaker series  in a group show called Knowledge Is Power at the URI Extension campus downtown Providence. Thursday, Oct. 18 *!Gallery Night!* is the opening, from 5 to 9.

Which is probably it for the exhibits for awhile, but I'm glad to have gotten some studio time in recently, especially as it is still warm enough to work without preheating my studio for two hours. The insulation is going up little by little though, and I hope to make workable this winter, as I need to paint like a maniac for about a year for two planned exhibits in the fall of 2013.

I'm also going to heat up the griddle for experimentation in encaustic. I've long been interested in learning the archaic hot wax technique so finally broke down and took a class at RISD. My first piece was, how shall I say it, a total mess, failure—a piece so ugly that passing bees made a wide berth around it and denied any part in supplying the beeswax for the monstrosity. So I have high hopes for the medium. Especially as I am thinking of using it in a multimedia painting with my disappointing piece from a previous glass casting class. I rise to the challenge!

And even more inspiring, with my slick little yellow kayak, just purchased used 2 weeks ago, I can go anywhere and do anything! As long as I have at least 6 inches of water, and no small craft warning. I can even go back to kayaking the fiords of Alaska, if the next application I send out for another Voices of the Wilderness residency is accepted. Just try keeping me out of Alaska!

A Grand surprise!

The letter began as all rejections do,

Dear Artist,
...A thank you for submitting...
....A bit about how many worthy applications were received and how difficult it was to pick just a few...
....An appreciation of the work that went into submitting an application...

"rejected" I muttered to my husband.

But then, in the next sentence, the letter took an unexpected twist. The word "congratulations" jumped out at me and I realized I was accepted as one of the 2013 artists in residence at Grand Canyon National Park!

I had visited the north rim on a tourist-vacation-loop, breezing by Bryce, Zion, North Rim, Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley and Petrified Forest in two weeks, so as you might imagine didn't really have time to really explore any one of the parks, but this residency allows an artist to stay for 3 weeks in a little cabin 1/4 mile from the North Rim of the canyon.

PHOTO/NPS

Not content with my good fortune, I've also greedily sent out an application, once again, for Denali National Park. How I'll manage it if I get both...well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Since I've been rejected many times from Denali, I certainly am not packing my Xtratufs yet, but if I apply EVERY year they may accept me just to stop the pestering.

Speaking of Xtratufs, I was thrilled that the wilderness rangers I hung out with in Alaska were in RI long enough for us to be able to get together for dinner. One of the Rangers who is also an accomplished clay artist, Barbara Lydon, surprised me with this super cool Xtratuf ceramic vase! It will take an honored place on my mantle to remind me of my good Alaskan friends and my kayaking adventure.

Back on the smaller corner of the planet, I'm in another group show at the URI Feinstein Gallery called Knowledge is Power. I went over the the Shepard Building at lunch to check it out and there is some really interesting work there, it is definitely worth a look

The Opening reception is on Gallery Night,  October 18, from 5-9pm, and it's up until October 31.

Serpentine

Another Alaska study, this one from a view of Serpentine Glacier across the fiord from Toboggan Beach. Gouache, about 3"x6".

View Point

View Point, gouache on paper, 4"x6"

Painting at View Point

Sometimes this blog seems like a patchwork quilt, with lots of loose threads to tie up (ok, mixed metaphors, but knit together well, don't you think?). This is one of them, the finished version of a little study I started while perched on a rock at View Point, in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Packing for Petrified

The Painted Desert Inn, Kachina Point ||  CLICK & SCROLL FOR 360 PANORAMA

Although they haven't said for sure where I'll be staying, I believe one of those little adobe houses to the left of the Painted Desert Inn has my name on the door, and in less than a week I'll be settling in!

With a bunch of other things going on I've been struggling to get ready, but I think I have my art supplies down, thanks to the packing list that I've developed over 9 previous residencies. New this year is my homemade pochade box, which I think will be easier to pack than my old french easel. But though bulky, the french easel was very sturdy, this little box on my spindly tripod might be a different story—thus the string to tie the center post to a rock if needed. The umbrella will be a nice protection from the sun the the exposed terrain, but I that's also what I kind of thought when I bought it for my residency in the Great Sand Dunes. The wind might decide it belongs elsewhere and insist on taking it there. Well, there's always my hat.

CLICK FOR LARGER VIEW

I hear that there's good connection for Verizon in the park, so I should be able to post a daily journal of my adventures. My goal is to settle into my desert abode after a long day of hiking and painting and post photos and updates every evening. I'm also setting up separate blogs for my journals, which will keep things better organized. So check back just in case I actually get it done!