sticks and stones

I am pleased to report that three of my pieces have been accepted for a show at Ciel Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina! The show is called Sticks and Stones, featuring art created from natural elements, and runs from March 6th to May 1st. Apart from being included in the show, the exciting thing is that Jerzy and I are taking this opportunity to do a road trip, so I can attend the opening on March 6th. I've never been to North Carolina, so I'm really looking forward to the whole experience. It's about a two-day drive from here to there, and once we are there and I've delivered my pieces, we plan to explore the State a bit. So lots of driving! Below are my pieces...I consider them a triptych.

synapse 1

synapse 1 (detail)

synapse 2

synapse 2 (detail)

synapse 3

synapse 3 (detail)

the wives

When I saw my friend Laurie Boisvert's latest piece, "the wives", I was awestruck. She has created a series of silver lockets to represent each of Henry VIII's wives. I find this work to be very evocative and a good balance between well-conceived and visceral. You won't see these lockets on her website - these photos were taken by one of the galleries that show her work - but you will find many more fascinating pieces on her shiny objects site. She has given her permission for me to share them with you here. Enjoy...

wall art, open frame-mounted sterling silver with pomegranate seeds encased (Catherine of Aragon)

wall art, open frame-mounted sterling silver with hinged links (Anne Boleyn)


wall art, open frame-mounted sterling silver locket with needle point inside/silk thread (Jane Seymour)


wall art, open frame-mounted sterling silver with kuembo interior: 22 karat gold leaf fused onto sterling silver (Anne of Cleves)


wall art, open frame-mounted sterling silver locket and rose bush clipping (Catherine Howard)


wall art, open frame-mounted sterling silver and paper (Catherine Parr)

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...