Spring!

Like the seasons, one thing leads to another and back again. This is my image vocabulary at work. There again is how “Spring” came about. An image of hand painted flowers from Raw Vision Magazine (one of my fave publications) captured my attention. It looked painterly and raw. It led to this series of dresses, also a recurring theme for me. Bring in the pigtail girl, too. Illustrating the surfaces with underglazes and incising with an exacto knife became the methodology of the next series of pieces: colorful, fun to do, feminine. I’ve been wanting to apply this surface treatment to pots again for ages. Pots as in bowls and plates. I will get to it!

Produce

Produce

“Produce” is perhaps at the other end of the spectrum from “Moami”, the piece in the previous post: an abundance of fruitful ideas. (Remember the goblet full of heartberries?)

Moami

Moami, an African name for Mommy, is about being a child and a mother. The doll shape is a hole in the piece, suggesting a memory of loss, a longing.

China Dolly Wallies

I had so much fun riffing on these! As mentioned in an earlier post, I applied rice paper transfers to get these prints. These will be part of my show at Hanson Howard Gallery in Ashland, OR during the month of August 2019. If any are left, I’ll have them for sale in my studio during Portland Open Studios in October, which runs two weekends: 12-13 & 19-20. PLUS, we’re having a special preview Friday, October 11, noon to 5 where you can see and get first dibs on all the work. The “we” is Tamae Frame, June Haddox, Susan Borger, Sally Squire and I. Yes, that’s right, 5 artists in one location!

Ten Cent Worth

My brother and I were talking about the time when, at the tender age of 8, I took 10 pennies from his coin collection to buy a candy bar. I innocently took the first ten pennies, which I learned later are the oldest and most valuable. I made this piece, Ten Cent Worth after our conversation. In the process of making it, I realized I had a lot of shame about that incident. I think he’s still a little peeved, but I forgave myself. 😉

Ten Cent Worth

I became kind of obsessed about these sort of “pigtails”, which I had used on other pieces in the past. They suggested “girl”, but also suggested hypervigilence, like antennae, which one sprouts when the youngest of 4 in an alcoholic household. A body of work followed.

Maw

I made “Maw” incorporating the “Basquiat” face as though on this character’s t shirt. A pensive little angel, recalling a quote from something I was reading at the time, “in every happy moment, pulled into a maw of loss and fear and shame.” Connecting “maw” with “Ma”, along came Imperious Palace, a piece about the ideas of standards and taste one inherits from her mother.

Imperious Palace

This is how I riff—how one piece leads to another. The patterns on the little “heads” are like china patterns. Blue and white china reminds me of my mother. And china patterns led to the creation of my China Dolly Wallies.

Darkness, darkness

This is another section of the collage mentioned previously. The main image here was supposedly a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, or perhaps it was just inspired by his work. I lost the caption. In either case, it was something I associated with him and it has a lot of energy for me. I related to it on a feeling level (chaotic, disassociated, uncentered, vulnerable), but also intellectually challenged, my interest piqued, and tried to bring some of this into the clay piece it inspired, below.

The tangled guy is like a different aspect of the problem. He’s so preoccupied with being tangled up in his rope (in his head), he doesn’t see anything else. In the process of making the piece in clay and string, I realized I had the power to take that rope and wind it up in neat loops and set it aside (or use it to lasso another idea).

Tangle

Ravenous Heart

My clay work often comes out of collages. The collage is a reflection of the psyche. It invites the unconscious to reveal itself, like a dream. Like dreams, the images come in service to health and healing.

The girl with the heartberries was the central image of my collage. It was the first aha in the collage-making process.

This piece, Ravenous Heart, was one of the first images I made in clay in response to the collage. It’s a massive understatement to say that it was (and is) very revealing! My teacher, Coeleen Kiebert, always said, and I’ve echoed through the years, it’s good to get these things out where you can look at them! I hope the title tells the story.

Warrior Girl with Dog

17 inches tall

Tribute to Anselm Keifer’s “Ruins”

13 inches tall

Wall girl with carrots