Art Fills The Void

I'm the featured artist for May at the Hilyard Street Beanery, here in Eugene, and this is my latest collection of creative work, Art Fills The Void.

I've been enchanted by the new Cosmos series lately, and it was part of the inspiration for these watercolor and acrylic paintings. Here's my artist's statement for the show:

Do you remember being little and making a wish on a dandelion gone to seed? Did you watch the tiny white puffs fly away and disappear on the wind? When you were a kid, did you ever look up at the stars scattered across the night sky like dandelion wishes, and wonder if someone was looking back across the unfathomable distances at the tiny speck of light that is our sun?  

This collection of watercolor paintings is about the intersection of the terrestrial and the celestial: the tiny, ordinary bits of beauty that surround us every single day, from feathers to ferns to dandelions on the wind, juxtaposed the incredible sweep of the night sky. It’s about mystery and fleeting life and ancient light. It’s about wishes.

A couple of months ago, I came across this tutorial for painting galaxies and eventually decided to give it a try. I love watercolor. The early results were really happy-making, but I wasn't sure about the next step. Then, one morning in our backyard, I saw a single dandelion seed dangling from a spiderweb.

There are things that catch my attention over and over and over again, for all my life. The sweep of the night sky and the arch of the Milky Way. The moments when I can shift my perspective and look across the miles at the stars, rather than up at them - islands in the void. Feathers and seeds blown on the wind. A tiny green vine reaching for and finding purchase to twine upward. And I found a way to visually join the vast and eternal with the tiny and ephemeral.

Oh, and I still hate writing artist's statements.

I love this artwork. I love the sense of motion I see in it, from the swiftness of the wind to the infinitesimal pace of the growth of a flower or a vine. I love the softness, the luminous quality of the paint. These are things I reach for.

When my other half saw the first painting, he said that I should make more. He said that I should do a whole series. And since I'm always saying, usually cheerfully sarcastically, that "art fills the void", Mr. B said that should be the basis of a show - art filling the void.

My muse, my love, this one is for you.

New Zone Gallery and Metamorphosis

I am very excited to have a piece in the New Zone Gallery's Zone 4 All Show in April. Metamorphosis is a one of a kind mixed-media collage, with vintage elements, hand-lettering, and hand inking. It's my largest current piece at about 36" x 24" with the frame. And one of my favorite quotes to ponder.

I Had Some Dreams, They Were Clouds In My Coffee

This week brought me some good news. I'm going to be the featured artist at the Hilyard Street Beanery in May! It's a cozy, intimate space, so the fact that I tend to work small is going to be a good match for the setting.

A few days before, in my sketch book, I'd been playing with the idea of dreams and creatures who appear in them, and how our dreams at night are often rooted in our daytime lives. I want to create imagery that reflects that duality, with animals as symbols and messengers and people doing the beautiful, impossible things we dream of doing. 

With just under eight weeks to get ready, these ideas are going to become the heart of the body of work I'm going to create for my show in May. 

By the way, sometimes I love to share my sketchbook pages here. When an artist shows a piece that goes from the inception of the idea in a rough sketch to the finished piece, I love to see the process, so I want to share that. Is that something that other people enjoy too? 

Light and Shadow

Hand-colored flyer for my upcoming show

In a little under three weeks, my show will be going up at the 5th Street Beanery, here in Eugene. I'm excited and nervous and happy. There's nothing like having an actual goal to work towards to provide inspiration, and more importantly perspiration. I'll be putting in a couple of older pieces, but the majority of the work will be pieces that I've created in the last couple of months.

I was trying to think of a name for this collection that would encompass the range of what I'm doing: illustrated quotes, sunny apron girls, and autumnal Gorey-inspired characters. With typical timing, the name "Summer Light/Autumn Shadow" popped up in my head about two minutes before I fell asleep last night.

Falling, one of the pieces for the show

My goal is to have about thirty pieces ready to go – twenty-five to hang on September 1st, and then a handful of back-up pieces to replace any that sell. I'm about halfway there now.

Oh man, I should have put an owl on the shoulder of the autumn girl in the flyer.

Love and Wings

Love and Wings Mixed Media Collage

This is a little part of my perfect world: living somewhere soft and warm where you are safe with people you love and trust, and it gives you wings to fly with.

This piece will be part of my show next month at the 5th Street Beanery in Eugene.

With The Greatest of Ease

I've been drawing and drawing and drawing lately. Mostly with my beloved Copics, but with this piece, I did something I've been meaning to try for a long time. The background is painted with watercolor. The final result makes me happy.

In September, I'll be the featured artist at the 5th Street Beanery, in Eugene. With a month to go, I have a lot of work ahead of me. I'm excited for it!

Art Show at Orycon

My panel at Orycon's art show

Sorry to be so quiet lately! I've been getting ready for (and then recovering from) Orycon. Orycon is our local science fiction/fantasy convention. I've been going to it since 1991, and for the last few years, I've entered my artwork in the convention's art show. And this year, since I've been doing so much mixed media collage, I decided to enter my recent work in the show.

This is probably the best, most polished entry I've ever put together. Bear encouraged me to frame everything, which made a big difference. (I also had a table with some of my felties and overflow artwork, but I let myself get too busy to take a picture of it, silly me.) Nine collaged pieces and three original illustrations.

Overall, it was a great experience. I sold a couple of my felt pieces, and Discovery was claimed by a friend of Bear's, who saw it in the picture he posted to ye olde Facebooke. I think the big lessons I learned for next year would be to make prints of a few pieces to place in the print shop at the show and to target my artwork more carefully.

My friend Vandy didn't sell any of her original pieces, but multiple prints of her work sold. It seems like convention goers are somewhat more likely to buy artwork at print prices rather than original prices. Also, cats and dragons and Dr Who inspired artwork seemed to be the most popular, so I may try to work in more cats next year. Happily, I love cats.