sanguine yearning

Red Alert - Week 1 opens today. The vernissage (opening) will be the evening of Valentine's Day. I've called my piece sanguine yearning. Sanguine refers to blood but also to optimism and confidence. I will refrain from saying what the piece means to me. My hope is that it will evoke personal associations and emotional responses from those who view it.

clotting

Motivated by Red Alert, an upcoming red-themed exhibition in which I am one of the participants, I've been mucking about with plaster bandage and sanguine ink. I started to experiment and ended up creating what I have come to consider as small clots, but they are essentially nests or vessels (of course!). Below are some glimpses of my materials and process. The show opens in a few days and I will post some photographs of my finished piece when it is done. I'm always finished at the eleventh hour...

comfort in affinity

Yesterday I went to Galerie René Blouin to see a tribute exhibition of Betty Goodwin's work. It seemed a fitting place to go and pay homage because René Blouin was a great friend of Betty Goodwin's and represents her work (as well as the work of another of my favourite artists, Kiki Smith).

There were prints, assemblage, sculpture, drawings, and paintings. The smallest work in the show caught my eye. While I am quite familiar with much of Betty Goodwin's work, I hadn't encountered this piece before. It was a small plexiglass box with the skeleton of a small bird attached by wire to a metal plate and a handful of long black hair coiled like a nest beneath it. The bird's skeleton was mostly exposed with some evidence of dried flesh. It was exquisite. Typical of Betty Goodwin's work, it was stark yet tenderly vulnerable.

I was drawn to the tiny pearlescent feet of the bird and was immediately taken back a few months ago to a bird that flew into our window and did not survive. At that time, I was moved by the fragile beauty of this dead bird and I photographed it. Revisiting these photos, triggered by and connected to the piece I viewed yesterday, and experienced in the state of melancholy that I have been inhabiting lately, gives me great comfort. I share some of those photos with you now and perhaps the emotion which accompanies them.

betty goodwin 1923 - 2008

Betty Goodwin, Passing Through (Nerves Series), 1994

I've not been on top of the news these days and I have only just learned that Betty Goodwin died on December 1st at the age of 85. Betty Goodwin's work resonates with me in a way that no other work does. I relate to her imagery, I connect with her use of materials, and I respond to her work in a deeply visceral manner. There is recognition on so many levels. It is the intimacy, the fragility, the subtlety, the vulnerability expressed in her work which moves me. Her passing saddens me but there is comfort in knowing that her work will continue to influence the work of others. Including mine.

Betty Goodwin, Black Arms, 1985

Here is an excerpt from a Maclean's article from 1998 which makes an excellent start in describing her work: Betty Goodwin draws on the skin of things. She makes art with flattened shrouds of disembodied clothes, old vests pressed into paper like dried flowers. She stitches scars onto a black tarpaulin that hangs folded, with ropes dangling, like a stage curtain. She works dark bruises into paper and Mylar. And in her body of work, the body is always making itself felt, as a vessel of memory, the flesh smudged by love or torture. She draws swimmers who may or may not be drowning. Bodies that could be floating or falling. Bones, nerves, phantom limbs illuminated by pain. But behind the dull ache and discreet terror, there is a resilient beauty. And an openness. Her work resonates with echoes of the work being done and undone - the shuddering rhythm of countless erasures, and the presence of penciled figures left unerased from early drafts, like pictographs from past lives.

Betty Goodwin, Figure/Ladder Series, IV, 1996

crooked stem

crooked winter stem

observed from different angles

squiggly snow drawing

merry christmas!

Merry Christmas dear bloggers! My gift to you is my great-grandmother Bauman's shortbread recipe. It's never Christmas without them! Here it is: 1/2 cup brown sugar + 3/4 cup butter + 2 cups flour. Roll out cookie dough and cut into shapes and then bake 15 minutes at 300F. May everyone have a peaceful and joyful day!

snow dog

One of the best things about snow is watching Luka play in it. She's part Husky and absolutely loves the snow. She loves to roll in it, burrow her nose in it, run in it, frolic about in it, eat it, or just sit in it, sniffing the air. She's a joy to watch!

nice ice

Winter is here. This makes me happy. Lots of snow and lots of ice...

winter walkabout

I've been away awhile. Planned to come back with a bit of a bang. But perhaps a gentle stroll in my garden during a light dusting of snow will be a nicer way to ease back into things. Good to be back...

porch inspiration

geranium leaves

floating on sunlight's surface

porch waterlilies

collage bound

I've been cleaning up my studio in preparation for a studio tour I'm participating in at the end of september and I've come across a few pieces and scraps of things I did awhile back. When I found this collage, I immediately thought of robyn at art propelled and her current collage journey. I took a look at my piece through new eyes.

I remember exactly when I did it. I was the executive director of an adult literacy organization and I was attending a conference given by the institute in management and community development at concordia university in montreal. They offered a plethora of workshops and I probably should have signed up for a workshop on fundraising or leadership or capacity building or some other management topic but, of course, I signed up for a workshop titled: tapping into the creative process.

I remember that I really enjoyed the workshop because we were given a lot of time to just sit and work away. No pressure. We were encouraged to choose our images intuitively.

These are the images I chose. I didn't think too much. Just clipped out the ones that spoke to me on a gut level. After I had chosen my images, I took a look and saw that a theme had emerged. I added the word "bound" at that point. I purposely chose a word that had two meanings: bound-restrained-obligated and bound-going forth-towards a destination.

It was quite obvious to me at the time what the collage meant. I was feeling very stressed in my job. Close to burn-out. More and more administration and less and less hands-on activities with students and volunteer tutors. Lack of control. Burdened.

But what has surprised me as I look at this collage with fresh eyes, is the other side of the "bound" coin. That I was bound towards a direction. Within a year of making this collage, I left that organization and soon after, followed my heart into art. One wonders if doing that collage nourished some seeds that had been planted. Hmmm.....

tool tuesday: tracing wheel

I am not a sewer. At all. I learned how to attach a button when I was a Brownie and retain that skill to this day, but that's about it for my functional sewing skills. But I am fascinated by sewing tools and I do own a tracing wheel. My tracing wheel has serrated teeth on a wheel attached to a blue plastic handle. It makes slotted perforations as it is pushed across a piece of paper or fabric. Its primary use is to transfer marks from paper to paper or paper to fabric, often using tracing paper as a guide. This is not a tool I use often, but I do love its shape, its preciseness, and its cog-like qualities. I use it to make even perforations in Japanese paper to mark where I will sew the paper. I usually make needle marks freehand because I like the uneveness, but every now and then I will require marks that are perfectly even and my tracing wheel allows me to do that. I also use it to make texture marks on metal tape for collages. And I'm sure, as time goes by, I will use it for other purposes as well. If you have your own tracing wheel, what do you use it for?

By the way...tool submissions needed for future "tool tuesday" posts! Honour your favourite tool!

unwrapping

After viewing kate's post at this disordered life with tantalizing photos of her own process of unwrapping a lovely gift from lynne, I could remain patient no more! I gazed once more upon the beautifully wrapped shrouds and then carefully unwrapped each little bundle. Here is what I found...

turtle bone, blue ridge, VA

small, smooth, gentle s-shape with a slight twist

concretions, northern coast, olympic peninsula

petite masses, perfect spheres, nubbly to the touch

vertebra, WA

surprisingly light, slightly rough, interesting shapes best explored with eyes closed

beach glass, north beach west, port townsend, WA

humble gems, glowing, smooth, gentle clacking, soothing colours

mussel shell, sequim, WA

barnacles, beach fluff, calcium buds, crusted vessels, bruised pearlescent beauty

miscellaneous beach treasures, port townsend, WA

shell, worn ceramics, pebbles, cryptic patterns, muted colours

mouse bones, petroglyph cliffs south of klamath falls, OR

tinier than you would expect, detailed, delicate, elegant

lampwork bone, made by lynne

silky smooth edges, hard, subtle striations, crafted with care

Thank you, lynne.