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.

Posterized

Gallery Night Providence is starting up again with a brand new website and a classy new poster which I am thrilled to report, has my painting on it! This is the second time one of my paintings have made it to the poster and I was very lucky to be asked again to supply the image, and it coincides perfectly with my exhibit, which is having a "closing reception" at the Bert Gallery on Gallery Night, March 20, from 5:30 to 9, if you're in the area. If not, you can always hop on a plane, but no pressure.


The painting is called "The seal" and is a kayaker's view of Harriman Fiord, where I went as part of the Voices of the Wilderness Artist-In-Residence Program in the Nellie Juan-College Fiord Wilderness Study Area of the Chugach National Forest.

This year I couldn't resist the temptation to apply again to the program, this time just south east in the Tongass National Forest near Juneau. I actually sold a few of my Alaska oils during the exhibit and all of my little gouache studies I did in the field, so need to do some more research and restock! And as this is the 50th Anniversary year of the Wilderness Act, it would be great to spend some of it in the national forest with the greatest number of wilderness areas! Wish me luck!

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!

Hanging at the Bert Gallery

My latest exhibit at the Bert Gallery is coming together, with the help of Cathy Bert, who has somehow managed to take a disparate collection of my latest work and present it in a way that makes sense, and looks great. The show is still in "beta", but if you'd like to get sneak peek call (401.751.2628) and see if the gallery is open. The official opening is February 20, and will be up through the first Gallery Night Providence, March 20. There will also be a web component, still in development, I'll post a link when it's up. And by a great stroke of luck, an image from the show will be used on the March Gallery Night poster, so check it out!

Timeless techniques - and less time to do them.

 

My egg tempera demo was a lot of fun, thanks to everyone who came even though parking was a challenge and the action looked more "spirited" across the street in the 3 bars celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Above is a little panel I did using egg tempera of the yellow mounds in the South Dakota Badlands where I was artist in residence back in 2002. I'm hoping to keep working in egg tempera, but it might be more of a winter medium. I'm anxious to get back to oils now that the weather is more reasonable and my studio less frozen.

I've also taken some printmaking classes this winter at the AS220 printshop:

Walter Feldman at the Vandercook press

The first was Woodblock Printmaking with Walter Feldman. It's such a treat when you sign up for a class and it exceeds your expectations. I knew Walter Feldman was a master woodcut artist, but I didn't know he would be so inspiring as a teacher. It's not that he gives and exhaustive blueprint of the printing process, but he imparts a love of the medium, a respect for the tools, and an appreciation that woodcut is an art form onto itself. "Let the block speak to you" he says, as he runs his printer's hand over the wood's surface. But don't get the idea that he's one of those artists who hear voices, he's down to earth enough to warn you not to get a fingerprint on the paper "Then you won't be able to sell it".

I took another woodblock class last year that taught how to use a laser cutter to cut the block, but while interesting, is not the way I'm going with this. Laser is surely capable of cutting just about any line, but the hand is the better tool, in my opinion.

I'm also now taking a refresher etching class, the toxic kind. I took the non-toxic intaglio class but once again, toxic is better. The concession to health and environment is to use ferric chloride instead of acid, but I even miss hanging over the acid bath brushing the air bubbles off the plate with a feather.  Not good for you though.

Why am I learning even more techniques when I don't have time to use the techniques I already use? 

No answer to that question but to change the subject. Hey, look over there! Wonderful landscapes, check them out! http://weimarart.blogspot.com/2011/03/crucified-land.html

There's gold in them thar hills

 

Here's my latest study for my new series. The setting is an old gold mine I found in the Sangre de Cristo mountains during my artist residency in the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado.  Didn't see any raccoons out there, but they'd no doubt like to explore if they could.

I'm in the process of gathering info to apply for another national park artist residency for this summer or fall. There are some good ones out there, but they are not especially well publicized. That helps my chances I guess so I don't mind doing some digging.

The gold mine study was done on a piece of flocked black paper and pastels that I inherited from the studio of Louise Marianetti. I hadn't worked on flocked paper before and am not sure the softness suits my work. It might be nice for portraits though, which is probably why she liked it.

Snow day

 

The gift of a snow day yesterday gave me a chance to explore another gift, the set of pastels I "inherited" from the studio of painter Louise Marianetti. It was a well-used and well-loved set, the hinge broken but the softly worn pastel sticks carefully arranged. Heavy on reds, pinks and light orange it was obviously used for portraits. Not being a portrait painter I needed to rebalance the colors for landscape so sorted through them, adding my own earth colors. It was strange picking up the velvety ovals of color, knowing that the last hands to touch them were Marianetti's adding a stroke to an unknown drawing, and that the next stroke of the pastel would be on mine.

With snow still  falling outside I decided to work on a snow scene using a sheet of Canson paper also from Marianetti's studio.

 

I haven't worked in pastel for awhile but found it freeing to work quickly and without detail, even though it will take me awhile to get back in stride with it. It's a good winter medium, I just wish they weren't so hard to frame! But that's a problem for another day.

Louise Marianetti's show is now up at the Bert Gallery in Providence until March 19 and I highly recommend it. The work shows the obsessive focus of a real artist. The more you look at her work the stranger and more interesting it becomes, a quality that seems rare today. Don't neglect to look through the rack of unframed paintings by the door, some of the best work is in there. And the exhibit includes some artifacts from her studio, including art supplies and props, beautifully arranged by Cathy Bert.

From the studio of Louise Marianetti

June 16, 1939, the year she left the Art Student's League in NYC, 23-year old Louise Marianetti stretched four linen canvases. She coated them, along with several panels, with white lead gesso, preparing them for paintings that, in the next 70 years, never made it onto the canvases. Which is not to say she stopped painting, for according to Cathy Bert of the Bert Gallery, Marianetti returned to Providence in the early 40’s, reconnected with her RISD friends (she earned a degree from RISD in 1936), joined the Providence Art Club and continued to paint and exhibit.

Why this sudden interest in Marianetti? It's because I am fortunate to have "inherited" those canvases along with oil paints with ridiculously low price tags still attached, brushes and assorted tools from her studio. Louise Marianetti died last year and her family is working with the Bert Gallery on an exhibit focusing on the years when she stretched those canvases. They wanted to pass along her unused supplies to artists who would use them. I was thrilled to be one of those artists. 

The exhibit will take place early next year. She doesn't have much of a web presence, but I've seen two of her egg tempera paintings, unframed and protected by yellowed glassine paper. They were portraits of women that reminded me of Botticelli, that is, if Botticelli had moved to South America and become a surrealist. I'm looking forward to seeing more, in the meantime, I will have to paint something really special on those canvases.

Among the Living

I guess I'm officially Among The Living, although some days it doesn't seem so. That's the name of the latest group show at Bert Gallery that includes my painting "Fourth Church". The show is up until June 18th, so if you're in the neighborhood, maybe sitting by the river and sipping a cool one across the street at the Hot Club, stop in. Or see the 3-D version just east of the gallery at the Holy Rosary Church.
The opening is on Gallery Night, June 17, which is also the opening of the Art League's show at the RISD Museum. I have a painting in that one too and will post more about that soon.

Art New England Review

I've been reviewed! The writer, Martina Windels, visited my studio about a month and a half ago and we spent a long time talking. She looked at both of the shows I had up at the time at RWU and the Bert Gallery. I would have rather she reviewd the Bert show, since that contained my latest work, but understand why she chose the longer show at RWU. Art New England only publishes every two months, so most shows are already down by the time they're reviewed. But the RWU will be up until June, so there's plenty of time to see if you agree with her assesment.

I'm generally happy with the critique, even the "They fail, however..." part. I know the large Badlands triptych was more of a transitional piece, and if I failed to convey the desolation, it could be because I found the Badlands not desolate, but incredibly rich in color and texture.  See what you think...

Criticism is easier to take if it is well thought out and informed. I know Martina spent a long time looking at my work, my website and asking questions. I'd rather get a bit of negative feedback in a review with substance than a flattering reprint of my press release. And I have no complaints about the ending!

So, thank you Martina, for a "fair and balanced" review.

(Art New England doesn't link all of its reviews from its website, so I took the liberty of *sigh* retyping the whole thing here)

Art New England APRIL/MAY 2010

KATHY HODGE: PAINTINGS 1993-2009
Roger Williams University Law School Gallery - Bristol, RI - www.bristolartmuseum.org - Through June 2010

In this fifteen-year restrospective, the Bristol Art Museum assembles just a small sampling of this prolific painter's work.

Here one sees how Kathy Hodge intently examines a subject for a long period of time. This exhibit includes work from several series: Train, Russia, and National Park. While working on the latter, she was in an artist residency at the Badlands National Park. She captured this landscape by breaking down and patterning earth tones. They fail, however, to convey the desolate nature she tries to depict. Hodge's patchy and detailed application of small color fields work much better when she paints the hard surfaces of buildings, as in Wait. In this lively and semi-abstracted scene, half a train emerges from an old metal building. The objects in the paintings — trains, bits of building, school buses, row houses, chimneys, and power lines — are all rendered at odd and often conflicting perspectives, which make the scene both mesmerizing and perplexing.

The most compelling paintings in the exhibit are taken from the Shoemaker Series, recently exhibited at the Bert Gallery in Providence.

Intrigued by old cast-iron machinery that she discovered in a local custom shoemaker's shop, Hodge took photographs of the unusual objects. The photographs became the source of inspiration as she started with quick, unfussy, and lively watercolor sketches that captured the equipment's character. Then, using charcoal, she created more studied and realistic portraits of the machine. Workings simultaneously on several pieces and in different media, Hodge would create a third iteration of the object — a loosely composed illustration in acrylic paint, overlaid with pastels for additional color and highlights. The grand finale would be a large painting, always executed in oil, with nuanced color application and a more refined composition.

In the oil paintings, Hodge would often combine elements from different objects, splicing them at obscure angles. The more abstracted the image, the more compelling the painting, shifting the focus from content to color, shape and composition, areas in which Hodge shows her strength and confidence.

—Martina Windels

HELD OVER

...but not by much, so you'll have to hurry if you'd like to catch my show at the Bert Gallery.  The last  day will be this Saturday,  Feb. 13.  I'm sorry to see it come down—it's been a great few weeks and  I can't think of a better person to work with than Cathy Bert. I wish she had a bigger space to display her contemporary artists, but she does more with her beautiful little gallery than most do with huge white boxes. If you stop in, wish her a happy 25th anniversary, it's quite a feat to survive that long as a gallery here in Providence!

It's funny, when I exhibited some of this work over a year ago the silence from the press was deafening. This time around, the show was mentioned in 2 reviews - Providence Phoenix  and  The Providence Journal,  and had a full-page write up in The Warwick Beacon.  It was also mentioned as an editor's pick in a several publications and will be reviewed in the April/May edition of Art New England.  Working in the newspaper business I have come to realize that the merit of a show is only one factor in whether it gets press. Others factors are:

• The writer's schedule
• The news hole
• Whether you have a "hook" or local connection
• What else is exhibiting while yours is up
• Whether they've been sent good imagery
• Whether the reviewer takes your venue seriously
• Other miscellaneous factors

I'm just glad the planets aligned for this show. Thanks so much to all who came, purchased or wrote about my work, it is much appreciated!

Reviewed!

I was happy today to open The Providence Journal and find my show got a positive mention in the weekly art review.  Although I work for the paper, that by no means guarantees a review.  In fact, I think it works against me most times. It's hard to maintain that bohemian artist mystique when you're seen every day trudging up the stairs to your cubicle.

It was even more fun to get a phone call from my mom, who lives in Warwick, that the show got a full page color write up in the Warwick Beacon. It's nice to make the folks proud once in a while. And just think, all the neighbors will see it!

I get a kick out of it too, since The Beacon was my first job after I graduated the Swain School of Design.  It wasn't my first newspaper job, which was typing in stories for the RISD Press, but it was where I learned the trade of newspaper design and production.  A lot has changed in that field, but it still provides me a paycheck, and now supports my painting habit.

And unusual for art reviews in this area — the reviews were published before the show is over.  Yea!

The show is up until February 12 at the Bert Gallery in Providence.

• • •

RIP -  J.D. Salinger. His books helped me survive high school.

Back to work

Bert Gallery,  up until Feb. 12

On Sunday I finally made my way back into my studio. It seems like it's been forever since I've been there, and it was great to be back even though the temperature, which started out at 30 degrees, only made it up to about 48 no matter how much I cranked the propane stove.

Once suited up in 53 layers, with a hot pot of coffee on the stove, I decided to rework the largest painting from my shoemaker series, which is about the only one not safely on exhibit now. Even though its been signed and shown, I was never really satisfied with it. It has some difficult areas, and the color needs work, but it's much too nice of a canvas to give up on.

•

I'm filing this under Things I Wish I Had Time To Do, That Could Lead to Interesting Paintings.  Roger Williams Park Zoo needs volunteers to spy on frogs.  I know, pretty exciting....but it involves a commitment of time, and a nearby pond. Ponds I got. Time, not so much.

Oh well, someday I'll be a little old retired lady hiding behind a rock on the bank of a marshy pond with a notebook. I'll be the one who's also packing a sketchpad.

Exhibit 2, submitted into evidence at Roger Williams University

It was great seeing all who showed up for my opening of the Shoemaker Series at the Bert Gallery. Thanks for coming and for all the nice comments, I'm just sorry I couldn't manage to talk to everyone I saw come through the door.  It's very strange to be the center of attention and way out of my comfort zone, but I do appreciate it, and all the hard work Cathy Bert and her staff did to make it happen.

I have to admit I am enjoying having a nice quiet week though— last week was busy with not only preparing for the Bert Gallery opening, but also in hanging paintings at Roger Williams University School of Law Library in Bristol. I was given the walls of nice big lounge space on the second floor of the library that's open to the public and was glad have help from Lydia from RWU and Suzanne from the Bristol Art Museum as well as two very accommodating men from RWUs building staff, who did the heavy lifting and hung the work expertly. Even before the work was fully unpacked I started overhearing feedback from the many law students and staff who walk through and didn't know the "artist" was overhearing. I couldn't help but contrast it to the sterile, silent atmosphere of most galleries.

Anyway, this show will be up for 6 months, until June, so if you're in the East Bay vicinity, stop in. Unlike many gallery spaces, they have nice comfy chairs and couches!

Opening today!

My show at the Bert Gallery opens today with a Hot Chocolate reception from 2-3. Stop in if you're feeling chilly. Here's a map


View Larger Map

Shoemaker show. The Trailer.

A little video and a link for more info on my Shoemaker show which is up now at the Bert Gallery. (Opening reception - This Saturday 2-3! Did I mention they'll have hot chocolate?)

Exhibitionism

Well, 2010 (just realized that number is fun to type, a good portent), is starting out very unusually busy on the exhibition front. Yesterday I packed the truck full of paintings and delivered them to the Bert Gallery before I had to report to my job. This is the first time breaking in the new truck for exactly what I bought it for, a painting transportation vehicle.  It did well and by the end of next week, when I deliver even more paintings to another exhibit I just finalized, it should settle in to saddle.

The Bert show opens on January 13, with a reception on January 16 (2-3).  I'll be showing 12 paintings from the Shoemaker series, and I have to say they look pretty good on Bert's freshly painted raw sienna walls.

Another show, which came up suddenly and out of the blue, is at Roger Williams University Law School Library in Bristol, RI.  I'll be showing a variety of work from the last 10 years in the second floor atrium lounge. More details to come.

Then in March, I'll be installing my church paintings as part of the Providence Art Windows project. My window is on Fulton street, just to the left of City Hall, and right next to the wonderful Big Nazo Puppet windows. You can see my space above the black pickup (currently exhibiting work by Amy DiPlacido).

As a result, most of my paintings will be out of studio storage for awhile. I'm looking forward to seeing the empty racks... even if it's only temporary.

Year in Review - 2009

I spent my New Year's Eve sitting in front of the fire drinking a little champagne and reading over my last year of blogging.  My memory is notoriously bad, so being able to review the year this way makes me glad to have posted over the last 12 months, even if no one was to read it. But I've also made some good connections along the way, which makes me happy that some people have read it, so if you're reading my blog now...thank you and Happy New Year!

I have to say, for all the dissing of 2009 I've heard, it was not a bad year for me, and for that I'm grateful. Even though I often fantasize about ditching the day job, I survived two rounds of layoffs and I know, intellectually, it's a good thing. Unemployment would not mean more time in the studio, it would mean more time on interviews. If I was lucky enough to find another job, would probably mean longer hours for less pay. So I guess I'm glad I kept my job.

More importantly though, those I care about are doing ok. Although I would wish better health for some, we are all still here, still supporting ourselves and still getting along.

The most disappointing thing this year has been in my work. After three or four years of intense work on my last series, I haven't produced much substantial since my show at the end of 2008. I have been thinking a lot, but haven't found the same kind of focus as I had with my Shoemaker Series yet. I do have some ideas floating around, and found a special dune-ish inspiration last summer, so paintings will follow...

So where did all the time go? Let's see...

In January I went to classes at the Museum of Natural History in Roger William's Park called "Drawing from the Collection" and learned to love taxidermy.  I focused on owls, and it gave me some ideas about incorporating these little spirits into my work.  It was also very cheering (if freezing) to hop on an overnight bus to attend the inauguration in Washington. It was a great experience to feel so hopeful about the shift in direction our country chose, and although everything is far from wonderful, I still feel hopeful to have someone leading this country who can think in more than one dimension. I had washed my hands of the judgment of the American Public, so had to promptly unwash them.


My friend Mary Grady was the one who got me out into January's cold on those adventures. Her's usually take place up in the sky, so check out her site if you like all things aviation.

In February I said goodbye to my 1989 Toyota pickup. You would think swapping it for a new 2009 version would be exciting but I still feel a pang when I think about it and wonder if I did the right thing. The new truck is much smoother, but bigger and not nearly as friendly. But I gave my old truck to my college-age niece, so I get to take it for a spin once in a while. I have to admit I'm amazed at how stiff, pokey and noisy it rides now that I'm used to the other. But it served me well for 20 years and delivered a lot of paintings. 

In March I found out that one of the national park artist residencies I had applied for had accepted me. In fact, I was to be the first AIR at Great Dunes National Park.  A few weeks later, I got a phone call which told me that my name was chosen in a lottery to stay in dune shack on Cape Cod.

Quite a coincidence, and it was nice to be able to anticipate hiking barefoot through the dunes to get me through the blustery chill of March.

As excited as I was about planning my next residency, I still owed Mesa Verde a painting from my 2008 residency there. I finished it in June,  just over the year deadline. Those at the park were very patient and resisted showing up at my studio door with their flat rimmed ranger hats and crisp khaki uniforms to seize what I owed them. I'm glad they like it when it finally arrived. 

In August, after a little angst about whether I could get the time off work, and keeping a nervous eye on Hurricane Bill which was charging up the coast, I was dropped off at the dune shack Thalassa and spent an idyllic week there, hiking over the dunes and along the shore, watching the huge waves kicked up by the hurricane, drawing, swimming and entertaining a few guests.

Thalassa

I hardly had time to shake the sand out of my shoes before heading out to Colorado and  Great Sand Dunes National Park in September.  The dunes were much higher there, but worth the climbing. I'm still working on posting my journal, but the first two installments can be found here.



The rest of the fall was spent in getting my application out for Denali National Park (rejected!) and happily sorting through some exhibition opportunities which have come my way. I drop off the paintings for the first one, at Bert Gallery in Providence, tomorrow and will have more details soon.

It will be nice to move some of my paintings out of the cold studio and into nice warm gallery space.  And it will be nice to move me into the cold studio to make more...

Here's to 2010, it's going to be a good year.

Whew!

Well, the English Christmas Cake is baked and eaten, the family has come and gone,  presents opened, toasts given, and the yule log is ashes. It was nice hosting our two large family groups Christmas eve and day, but it was a lot of work, and I'm looking forward to getting back on track with planning my Bert exhibit. Invites will be printed soon, so if you like one by post office, or by email, just send me your address and I'll add you to my list.

Happy New Year!