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!

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!