Reverse paintings

These little guys are painted on the reverse side of archival acrylic (mylar) sheet. The one of the vase was then placed over a sheet of paste paper that I made which gives it an undertexture that doesn't show up very well in the photo. I was experimenting with drawing slowly and intuitively in waterproof ink directly on the mylar. Then I painted acrylic over the drawing and flipped the mylar. So the colors are very vivid. You need to enlarge this first one to see the paste paper detail. I love a small vase with a sassy attitude.

The second one is of a subject I love; woman cuddling kitty who knows how to get everything in the world out of its smitten owner. Humans are pretty smart but cats really have the inside line on how to get their needs met. I call this one "Catbird Seat". It is a reverse painting on mylar also but with only a white back board.

Have done a couple dozen of these little paintings in the last 2 days. I just sit quietly at my drawing table and put my head down and float away. The ideas come often only after the pen starts moving. The first line suggests the second and so on. It is a free and zany way to work and you always discover things you did not previously know. I dont always work this way but on the little sketches I often do. OK, back to the studio.

Knee High By the 4th of July

I actually took the garden shots on the 3rd of July but what-the-hey, the corn is reaching for the ceiling in this hot, dry weather. The farmer will harvest garlic today, saving the most primo heads for next year's seed crop. The first shot is the corn patch to show that we have attained the knee high by the 4th of July goal and then some.


The second photo is of the garlic patch. We are huge believers in the healing and health-giving properties of garlic. Plus if you dont use huge amounts you just aren't much of a cook, in my opinion. It is a natural anti-bacterial. I credit my fortunate good health to massive quantities of garlic. It is one of John's favorite things to share with his friends.


While I was out in the garden I had to stop and admire the beautiful flowers on the lowly potato plants. John is growing Yellow Fins and a fingerling variety called Yellow Rose Fin this year. He tries new ones all the time. We love our 'taters.


We are flush with berries. I got a shot of blueberries for the folks that live in other climates and hemispheres to enjoy. Almost everyone around here (Oregon) has their own to admire.


The fruit ladder is still out. I thought it was pretty.


And finally a shot of the peas, doing their best to climb to the moon up in the left corner of the picture. This was taken at dusk. These are sugar peas that climb up a trellis and are best eaten raw. They are sweet and tender, even when overly mature. I like them better than candy. (But not better than Rhubarb Crunch which I made for our guests on the 4th).


I took 88 shots on the 4th of the big party here but this is one of the best of the two grand-puppies looking angelic. Right after I took this they hurled themselves on each other and rolled around the yard playing. It was a terrific party and everyone helped with the work; the handsome grandson oversaw the ice cream making, the ever agreeable son-in-law did the barbeque duties, the women brought various picnic dishes to share and farmer John cut the big, cold watermelon. The sun smiled down on all.

Garden Update: Why I Moved to Oregon

In 1971 I made my first trip to Oregon in October. It poured rain for a solid week and was cold and gray the entire time. It was a sharp contrast to my home in Arizona. I returned to my life there (working full time at Motorola assembling widgets for the space program) and didn't think much about Oregon until June when I returned for another vacation. This time the weather was sunny and the garden of my friend was like Eden. We sat under her apple tree doing crafts on a picnic table and in the evenings we gathered herbs and greens from her garden for our evening meal. My friend was a maker of wine and a canner of fruit and a baker of bread - we were hippies! And oh my God if I didn't fly back to Arizona and put my house on the market and quit my job that I had held for nearly 8 years and move directly to Oregon. This is why. Raspberries.

And strawberries. (They are a weed that comes up everywhere that I am growing roses and under the peach tree and the fig tree. Hard to believe, I know but the birds eat them and scatter the seeds and they are very prolific.) We don't spray so we get volunteers. It is nature's reward to those who live in harmony with the earth. I picked these on Sunday afternoon, sliced and sugared them and by Sunday evening we had shortcake.


Our friend gave us a pot with a cutting of pinot noir grape. The magic gardener man put the pot in the shade of a rhododendron bush where it took root and grew up through the branches. This is our second year to have pinot grapes. I've made wine out of our other grapes but not these yet. Oregon is famous for her pinot wine.

Next come the onion blossoms. Aren't they beautiful? And so good in a spring salad.


The raspberries started ripening this week. These are growing through a soil sifter that John left leaning against the trellis.


Graham Thomas rose from the famous David Austin. Given to me by friends as a thank you gift for paintings I donated to the Doernbecker auction a few years ago. It is enormous and lusty.


Walking onions. They fall over when the heads are mature and the little babies tumble out on the ground where they take root. These two seem to be kissing.


Foxglove always seems like an ancient and dangerous flower. It came to us courtesy of the same birds that plant the strawberries. Must not be poisonous to them.


Another David Austin from the same source. This one is "Heritage" - extremely fragrant and has that twirling-quadrant form that I first saw in Paris in the garden of the Chartes Cathedral. I just love this one. The color and texture reminds me of a baby's skin.


My trusty man Hermanito taking a break out on the deck. He is old and sometimes grumpy with arthritis but most of the time a darling who asks for nothing more than constant attention. What a sweetheart.

That's the end of the Garden tour. I'll try not to do this too often but how can I resist when it is all so awesome and changes so fast? As I sit here I wish I had included my moss rose and the beans Kay and I planted the last time she was here. She soaked too many for herself so she brought a bunch of them to me and I poked them in and now I have bush beans coming up in my flower bed. My little green babies.

Collaborative Book; 2nd Entry

Had a great time Saturday afternoon working on the mermaid pages in Bee's book. I think working this way (participating in collaborative books) makes me think harder than anything else I do. Because I am not very experienced as a collage artist so I don't have a lot of past knowledge to draw on. What I do have, however is a large body of work and a feverish passion to create so I ran to the collage drawer where I have tucked away stamps, prints of my work, fancy papers and just plain trash and I let the materials guide me.


This is the first page. don't know if you can see the 2 pearls in the vinyl container but they are there tucked in with a piece of a map from the south Pacific. The little pearls represent mermaid seeds - Bee and myself as little glimmers in the eye of creation before we emerged from the deep fathoms of the sea. I attached the clear envelope with a green eyelet, strung a tag with fish on either side and started stamping away. The mermaid is an acrylic transfer from one of my paintings and the tape is aluminum plumber's tape. The postage stamp with the man's head is from Indonesia and was given to me in a trade at Artfest. My best ephemera came to me from total strangers at Artfest; given freely and generously. It is a place of many miracles and has had a profound effect on me and on the way I think about my art. I have learned not to take myself so seriously and that the goal is to have fun, not to be a genius. Once you get that you are really free.


On the next page I made two mermaids in Photoshop as opposing twins and added some writing from India that was left over from the painting with the Indian miniatures. For awhile I wanted all my writing in the book to be illegible so I did it upside down and backwards. Of course you can read it with a mirror. When I was a child I kept several diaries in this handwriting believing that my mother would never go to the effort of reading it. Ha! I was wrong about that.

The homesick mermaid is a page I did for a fatbook that was returned to me as an extra. That page was created from an actual wooden mermaid in my collection that I photographed against part of one of my paintings containing water. She is dreaming of her little grass shack on a desert isle; my secret place.

Most of the artists I know have a homesick quality to them. We squirm in our skins and our brains run too fast. We are not quite like the other fish and we know it. We feel most at home with the other free thinkers. Our imaginations are always supplying us with new material and we know how to make stories and objects and use metaphors and how to make our dreams materialize. All our lives we are apprentices; learning the secrets and formulas we need to do what we do even better. For the most part we keep our methods to ourselves; not because they are a secret but because we know that the fun is discovering things on our own and adding to our little bag of tricks all the time. We don't need fame or fortune. What we have is better than any of that.

This is the 3rd page with a transfer, a piece of tarleton that was left over from printmaking, and a vellum envelope with copies of atc's cut up and tucked inside. I collaged bits of my paintings around 2 sides and scribbled with the end of a paint brush into wet bronze paint for the center part.

I believe that every able bodied person has the ability to make art. It is not a specialty or a talent. It is something that is available to almost everyone and it will fill the hours with fascination and transcendence. There is something magic in it.

Folklife Festival 2006

Folklife Festival 2006: Seattle's gift to itself in the form of a free festival devoted to music, culture and diversity. What a joy to be a part of this amazing party.

Anyone can come and bring their instrument and participate with others in singing or playing their music. It is a calcophany of sound.

Beautiful people. Every age, race, condition and persuasion. Having fun together.

My good friends Andrew and Terry McIlrath. Terry is a painter too and Andrew is a treasure.

My booth (OK, 2 pictures spliced together with a lots left out but maybe you can get the idea of how much work I usually bring to a fair).

The fair was a huge success despite 3 days of moody Seattle weather. On the 4th day, Memorial Day, the entire city seemed to turn out for a day of sunny pleasure, dancing, making music, playing in the fountain and enjoying all the art and film and musical programs on the schedule. I took a lot of pictures and will share these with you. I really love Seattle. The city has more diversity than any other I know of and the most tolerant, loving attitude toward its multi-flavored mix. This is surely heaven right here on earth; acceptance, kindness, love. I am crazy busy and so I will just post some photos for now to give you the flavor.

Blog Eats Woman's Brain

We leave for Folklife in the morning so I am supposed to be packing, cleaning and all that but no, my friends, I am here because you are here. This is the painting i finished just in time to take to the show. This one was inevidable as where I live there are about 25 non-human animals to every human-animal. They have to sleep outside! Life is so unfair. I know they would love nice houses with central heat but the man draws the line. Only Hermanito gets to sleep on the bed.

I will post some flowers that I shot last Saturday. I did nothing all day but circle the property taking pictures and having an "appreciation" day. To be alive. To have health. To be surrounded by beauty. For beautiful food from the garden and fragrant breezes and friends and family. I never forget that I am pixie dust - here for a very short visit and then quickly again I will depart. We create our lives. Make it a good one!

Mermaid Collaborative Book

This is the front and back covers of my half of the mermaid books that Bee and I are creating together. She lives on the Atlantic coast and I live on the Pacific so the book will travel a long way in it's journey toward completion. I had no idea what I was doing so I just plunged in and did what was fun. As it turned out, I headed for the old photos of my family and so I decided to tell the story of my mer-mommies and my home. We'll see how that goes.


I did the writing on vellum with walnut ink and used Babblefish for the Spanish translation. I know just enough Spanish to know that the translation was somewhat bogus but that just made me laugh and I used it anyway.


On the "Home" page I used a transparency of a painting of a house surrounded by aluminum tape with scraffiti. Lots of glued paper and embellishments. You can probably figure it out.


This page shows my Great Grandmother and her sisters dressed in their mermaid tails. We owe everything to our mamas, our grandmothers, our great-grandmothers and beyond. Some day I will do a book to honor the men who nurtured us but I have never heard of a merman (well, beside Ethel) so that will wait. Maybe. I'll think about it. It's so much fun just making it up as I go and making it just what I want to. So Bee, it's coming your way on Monday. And I'll be watching my mailbox for her book in return.

Themes and Symbols

One of my art teachers once said that there were only a few themes in art and life; birth, death, metamorphosis, love and a few others that I’ve forgotten. Some artists are drawn to one particular theme and some to another; by deep awareness we each discover the themes that to us are recurring and meaningful.

I dream a lot at night. In a majority of these dreams I am flying, dancing on air, leaping over buildings, having great joy in my body. Floating. Traveling. I am always me; never a bird or Wonder Woman, but I can always fly and while it is thrilling and dangerous I have trust that I will not fall. So it is an act of courage, this flying as well as an act of showing off, for in most of these dreams I think I am doing something special and that people are watching with approval. I suppose that is the child in me that still delights in pleasing others and basking in the limelight.

One of the recurring themes in my paintings is of a lone woman in the act of flight. I have portrayed this activity in various ways. The painting I just finished is one of these in which I am traveling with intention; I have my little boat and I am charting a course for myself by watching for signs and heeding my intuition. This is how I see my life nowadays. I am wide awake and charting a course of my own choosing. I am no longer young and confused.


This painting is on canvas, mixed-media; acrylic, alkyd, encaustic, and collage. After I finished it I remembered an etching I did of a similar subject about 27 years ago. I searched my drawers and found the etching (a drypoint, really, with aquatint etched in) and I will share it. Someone recently called my "style" magic realism. I dont like labels in art as each painting is so individual an exploration, but I think this one is suitable because it recalls one of my favorite authors, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who has always been referred to as a magic realist. The etching now strikes me as the work of a very young artist but I think it is interesting how it fortells the painting I just completed.

I think I may have done this etching in 1977 or 78 and it was only the second one I'd done at that time. I wanted to write a story then of a woman who danced into a rainbow and create a handmade book of etchings to illustrate the story but I never got beyond the first two illustrations. After that I learned how to make etchings in color with multiple plates and turned to a more painterly style.

To sum up: life themes. What is your recurring dream? Or daydream. What do you doodle while you talk on the phone? Where does your mind go while you are pulling weeds or washing dishes? These are the seeds that your imagination can turn into art, be it storytelling, song or pictoral. Save them up and nurture them. You have a story that only you can tell. It is a powerful thing and it will change you and the world.

Eighty degrees

It's nearly impossible to stay indoors in this weather. The air is too fragrant, too warm. Everything is growing so fast that it changes on a daily basis and begs to be appreciated.

The lambs. The figs. The growing tomato plants and peppers. The roses which refuse to open with the exception of Therese Bugnet. The blackberries which sprout up everywhere and bite my fingers when I pull them out by the roots. Blackberries will eat us alive in Oregon if we aren't vigilant.

Then there is my trusty assistant, Hermanito, who pesters me all day long to lie down on the floor with him and tickle and pet and cuddle him in all the approved ways. If you dont do it perfectly you will get the wrath of his razor claws. Otherwise he's a pussycat.

These are beautiful, dont you think? Common little weeds. But so precious.

We brought these irises with us from our old house in Orenco. They are a rather ugly variety but they emit a powerful scent of grape kool-aid which everyone who experiences them agrees is miraculous. Beside that they were given to me by Mrs. Sharp who passed away this winter and so they remind me of her and all the loaves of bread of pies she used to send over when John and I were working late into the night preparing for the next art fair. Her name was Dorothy and she was a great role model for me. She excelled in all the old skills; sewing, baking and child rearing. She could butcher a hog and make laundry soap out of it as well as food for the table. Her stories of the "hard times" were a vivid contrast to the easy lives we live today.

Spring Fever

What does the dreamy, dazed artist do when her head is filled with cotton and the sun beckons? If she is me she counts the budding figs and peaches, checks out the blueberry blossoms and moves on to the roses to see if any of the buds have popped yet. She reads her favorite blogs; Dooce, I Blame the Patriarchy, Finslippy and Fussy. She takes pictures in the garden to put on the blog which she wonders why she has started since she is a boring writer and it just gives her one more thing to obsess over instead of heading for the studio. But in addition these are the things that fill out my life and keep me from being a compulsive painting machine. My love for John, our little created paradise and the love we share for our family and friends. Here is the man I love doing what that man loves to do.

Last night we visited our oldest daughter and her family. They left for Hawaii this morning and we all gathered for a Birthday celebration. I took the pictures of the violets and bleeding hearts in her garden.


The violets grow in Oregon as a groundcover. I have them in front of my studio instead of grass and alongside Corsican Mint. The mint is the kind the monks use to make Creme de Menthe and it smells like heaven when you walk on it. Try it in your bare feet when the ground is dewy.

My youngest daughter's family has adopted a new puppy from a dog rescue. He was so sick a week ago that he collapsed into his water dish and didn't bother to move. He hadn't eaten and seemed to have given up. After a week of force feeding by the talented dog whisperers in her house little Cooper was strong enough to take a walk on a leash. Steff says he is part Lab, part Grrrrr-man Shepherd and part something else that herds sheep. But he is all cute and very smart. He joins a house with 2 female cats and so far they are getting along splendidly.

I'll finish up with some more pictures from our place that I took this morning. Then I am headed for the studio - NO KIDDING.

The peony is covered now with enormous pom pons. This is the color they turn when they fade. Eek, there's a weed in the background!

We have pansies and chives in a tub on the deck. Handy for those morning eggs.

We have dozens of varieties of rhodies but these pink ones are my favorite.

The apple trees are covered with blossoms. The mason bees and honeybees are busy helping us pollinate (actually, they do all the work with no effort on our part. That's a pretty good deal for us.) I hope we'll have a bumper crop this autumn so we can borrow Will & Sue's cider press again and make a party out of it.