by Diane: Art Escape update #19, last update

I love the comments from a plein air painter from Hawaii and another one from my co-author, Rain.  The painting of these swallows looked like surfers on a  big wave. Rain thought that the clouds look like waves. How poetic? I am naming it "Swallows Surfing the Breeze"

Although I am not finished interpreting the flight of two swallows, one moving closer and beginning to turn back to circle and the other cirlcling in the distance. The closer swallow is more blurred because it moves across more of my visual field per second.

I am beginning to make the birds being more important than the sun breaking through the atmosphere after a rain storm when bugs hatch and fly.

This is the last update of art escapes. Next week will be my first post for Tiny Respites.

by Diane: Update # 16 of Art Escape: assessment and new plan

 

Pinned up drawings and hung new and years old paintings of swallows in preparation for a paint out this morning. The plan is to paint via zoom with sister-in-law interested in pushing color on surfaces like umbrellas in her Portland, Oregon back yard. I will try pushing color spectrum shifts to  the very fast flights of swallows. I will paint the swallows bluer as they fly away from me and more red as they approach me.

I am off to set up on the far end of out property. Will post results on my next blog next Wednesday.

by Diane: Art Escape #14, On changing direction a little

"Flight Patterns"
Graphite on 14' x 11" smooth bristol paper




 

Friday, May 8
Have not painted or sketched since Tuesday. Been trying to change my cooking approach with more do ahead preperation. Still just looking through out the day at the wind waves across seeding grass field, while cotton wood fluff is blown about by the wind. Just memorizing the look of swallows flying. Moiving the jet sled into the garage near the gas pilot light in the water heater. Bad decision. Husband does not see this move as his need to stake out his area as opposed to where my art would take over. We have agreed upon boundaries between my stuff and his.
        Well so much for writing today: I am going to sketch the flight path of swallows in preperation of painting over the entire surface of my most recent painting. It is windy enough that the swallows are not gliding as much.
         At about 11:00 AM one of my wonderful daughters came with groceries and we prepared rice and chicken dinners for two days and some to freeze. One was sweet and sauer and another honey and lime. From her food prep for fisherman hubby, I learned an easy way to remove chicken skin. Then in the late afternoon I was finally able to prepare my own food.
     In the evening I watched the swallows in our front yard. Don thought it was jouvenal flight school because some kept having to land on the driveway.

Sunday, May 10, 1:30 PM
Wonderful to get mother's day greetings from my children and even some surprise ones from others. My sweet fisherman husband started working on my request to fix the fumes in the garage. His jet sled boat was just parked in our garage near my painting storage and the gas waterheater and furnace pilot lights. As it warmed up these hot days, it made me fearful of combustion. And I did not want to expose myself to these fumes when I cook or paint in the garage. Because fisherman hubby cannot tolerate cooking odors, I struggle to accomidate his likely allergies and cook outside the main house.
    I am so thankful that removing the older of the two full gas tanks reduced the odors noticeably.

Monday, May 11
"Flight Paths", Graphite on 14"x 11" smooth bristol paper

Tuesday, May 12,
     
The dead line for entering the art About Agricultural competition " "Tention/Harmony" is June 27.  A sigh of relief!!  I have enough time to make something to enter.  I need a break from sketching and painting like I have been doing.  So my sister-in-law and I will do a virtual paint out.  She will be painting near her home in Portland and I will take a wagon of my art plein-air paraphernalia to a location near my home. On Zoom we will enjoy each others creative energy. Our daughter will be taking fishing hubby to physical therapy while I take this painting break.



Finished Tuesday, May 12
"On the Wings"
Graphite on 11"x 14" smooth bristol paper

by Diane: Update #4, Inspirations incubating

Thank you Rain for putting up a detail of my painting, "Fantasy" as the blog header.   It is a female strong 2019 fantasy interpretation of Henri Rousseau's "The Dream".  It is still a painting in process. Missing is a monkey and tropical birds hiding in the tree. This change will not change this header.

Playing more with knots to plan the second in series.

 Sunday I anticipated some days this week would be so challenging that actual hands on involvement, even for a few minutes, would not be possible. When this post is published, my husband and I will hopefully be learning how he can heal after no improvement from the hiatal hernia repair 12 weeks ago.

Bok Choy

I love vegetables and fixing them.  I spend hours cooking for me and my husband, so as I cook I am preparing to paint. I continue to seek forms that speak to me.

Purple Cabbage

Some of the waste is just too precious to eat.
Last year we couldn't get the bok choy to grow. Maybe the heart will grow better than seeds so loved by the purple finch we invite into our yard by feeding them sunflower seeds.  Maybe these beauties will inspire new work.
                              

 

 Maybe the purple cabbage will be part of an assembliage. I have many ideas. Too many ideas are better than none. Maybe I can tie them together soon.

 

                      

by Diane; Thoughts on a Lunch Box Conversation at the Corrine Woodman Gallery

At the Corine Woodman Gallery in the Corvallis Arts Center the November 12 to December 4th exhibit is called The Woodblock Traditional and Experimental featuring long time artist Jessica Billey and a  recent graduate of OSU, Tim Hartsock. At the Lunch Box Conversation, Tuesday, November 12, Jessica and Tim answered Hester Couck and the audiences' questions..
        Both exhibitors use wood in their work. For Jessica's the prints is the finished art.  Her woodblock is a tool for printing multiple prints. While for Tim the wood becomes the finished piece of art. They talked about their process and how they used their tools.
       After my previous blogs on the ways brushes can be allowed to govern in traditional and creative finished painting, I enjoyed seeing how traditional and high tech tools play in the process of two very different artists.



Traditional V cutter and two U cutters

       Hester Coucke often pairs artists who have contrasting processes. This month is no exception. Both artists share a studio above the Inkwell Home Store in Corvallis but their process comes from different backgrounds.  Jessica has been carving since childhood. Tim is new to wood and fresh out of finishing a degree in art at OSU.
         Jessica carves birch plywood to make prints and then enjoys the block on her walls while Tim considers the manipulated wood block his finished work of art.  His process starts with pencil drawings that he manipulates with Photo Shop and finally burns the image of his handwork into the wood with Oregon State University fancy expensive laser cutter. The look of the lines he originally The same lines character in the end is.from the machines making the manipulations and less from thought and feelings directly made by his own hand. Tim needs to have an exhibit to want to work.  an exhibition goal helps to get permission to use the OSU cutter! For him he does not need to be producing art works to be creative. At present he is living as an artist working to make his home his creation.

      Jessica starts with photos of flowers combining them into a collage. Then she photo digitizes her collage to make a transparency to project on large plywood blocks approximately four foot by three foot. The projected image is penned with a black Sharpy on the painted red wood so when she cuts the wood the lines are lightest. Carving is very physically difficult and painful. When coming back to a work that builds day by day, knowing her journey path must be calming and meditative keeping her wanting to go to the studio to work. She needs to take breaks and get physical therapy and message.  

       Like Tim the goal of having an exhibit in the future is a welcome motive for Jessica.

       Jessica uses traditional tools like mine. These knives are cheaper than laser cutters by far.

       I did wood block prints in the 60's and 70's. My process was to paint the wood block black and carve it freehand while looking at a model. The detail below is example of one of my prints. The lines made by a V cutter. Repeated lines form a gray shape similar to Jessica's favorite method of creating value contrasts.

 

detail of woodcut illustrating mark of the V cutter
mostly cutting in the direction of the grain.
Mostly cut in one hour, my choice was cutting with the grain
 because it was faster than other tools and offered little resistance saving time.
I apologize for not having pictures of Jessica's work
but too busy care giving to go to the CAC to
photo Jessica's prints and Tim's wood blocks.

           Old growth wood like I used is not readily available today so plywood is the wood of choice.  The uneven grain on the wood skins gives Jessica the challenge of adjusting her cuts according to the resistances of working the knives through uneven grains.  These irregularities in the wood start a process of give and take between her and the wood.  The story of her process is visible in the prints taken from the block. Jessica's woodblock prints tell an intimate story. Tim's are to me an expression of the pulse of today's technology's forced power in contrast to the organic growth of the wood.

 

 

by Diane, On grooming our flower garden for painting

Every evening a black cat crouched in the cosmos waiting for the unwary finch. So in an effort to make the hunt more difficult, I pulled yet more cosmos.  Don also continued his war against the invasive clover threatening to cover and smother all low growing flowers.

 

A small baby garter snake hiding in the damp cool of the clover
is one of the healthy benefit of weeds.

 I  was dutifully pulling the top leaves off the clover,
 when I spotted this wee little one.
Now I wonder if we should
think more about wild habitat in our gardens.
Clover is also good for adding nutritive nitrogen.
Yet the greener clover spreads over flowers mercilessly.

I like the clover carpet when it is just recovering from
being somewhat scooped  with hoe and shovel.
Roots remain: The clover grows back.
Constantly grooming clover is more back breaking labor than what we want to do.
Past years Don covered the clover with mint compost.
Fall crocus used to push its way above the mint compost.
Recuperating from gall bladder surgery,
Don is waiting to spread mint for a few more weeks
until his ten pound limit is lifted.
The mint is so strong it stinks and grows
ugly orange fungus
 and with the slightest disturbance clouds of mold spores rise.
Even smolders as it decays!
When the mint is first spread,
all my painting of the garden is from my studio window.

 

 



We agree only that a change is needed in our flower garden next year.

More plants that tolerate dry conditions!
More plants that will be compatible with wildlife.

 

by Diane: How much money is my painting actually worth? Not the purchase price?

WANTED THESE SOLD PAINTINGS
The money received for a short time
made me feel good
but now these paintings would be
more valuable for me to study.
 

 

How much money a painting is worth depends on the person -  the artist or the buyer. Obviously the amount the buyer is willing to pay for the painting is how much the painting is worth to the buyer. Right? No! Some buyers like bargains and want to hear the painting is worth more for their self satisfaction.

 The first time I was asked was in 1965 by Hale Wellman who purchased  several watercolors of palm trees painted in Tucson, Arizona. For insurance purposes he wanted to list my paintings as his belongings.  Since his daughter was one of my best friends, and my husband and I were newly married living as students on a tight budget, the paintings were very reasonably priced to sell. Hale wanted to know their actual value that must be different than what he paid. It crossed my mind that they were not even worth as much as he paid. Putting a monetary value on art is a superficial construct of our capitalistic society. Paintings were like gold ingots to keep wealth. At the time I was dumbfounded by this question making me see art in an unfamiliar light.  I do not recall rising above being wordless.

Even if not including the sentimental attachment I have for the memories my paintings give me, the worth of all my paintings are priceless to me. The value I have for them can not be measured in dollars. The true monetary value of my painting is not something I usually have in mind. I should hope my work is worth more money than the cost of the materials. But is it worth a salary for the amount of time I put into living and working with each painting?  Figuring that way I am working for free even if I sell a painting now and then for hundreds of dollars and once a few times for $1,200. Does it pay for my education and experiences that went into painting? Not even close!

What I make in money is less and less important to me in my senior years.  In 1965 I was encouraged by all sales when I needed the income for buying more art supplies. The small budget years when my husband was a graduate student  at the University of Arizona, I enjoyed going to the student store and buying supplies for a small fraction of what they cost now. Knowing the money came from someone who wants to have my work was a boost to my ego. But the supplies did not last and neither did the glow from the sales. my patrons from the 60"s have either down sized and in many cases have passed away. Some work has sold on e-bay or the Portland Art Museum Rental and Sales Gallery for several paintings that were once part of the  First National Bank Permanent Collection.

These days all my older work informs my new work. I welcome my older paintings back into my collection. Some friends have put my paintings in their will to go to me or my family. I am willing to pay to get the work back.

by Diane, Overcoming painter's block recipe - benefits and shortcommings

Starting July 31st my past four Wednesday blogs were about the development of two similar paintings.

I declare them finished this week.  At least for the foreseeable future!  Their titles might be  MY DREAM #1 and #2. The  recipe for these combined three entities - our garden, a painting surface already covered with textured paint.  Henri Rousseau's painting, THE DREAM was an interesting start because I enjoyed the lush forest.

The first painting has more of Rousseau's symbolism that led me to see changes in meanings of symbolism between 1910 and today. Also needed a larger surface. In the second painting.  DREAM #2  became more personal with symbolism from  life closer to my home garden.

One of  the personal symbols was my husband Don's and my sculpture of Nessie.  I wanted to commemorate my wild garden that we both created but will be replaced by easier to maintain plants in a drier climate.

 Another entity in my formula is the surface. DREAM #2 was painted on top of an incomplete abstract became the surface. I borrowed much of the original abstract for the overall coloring of the painting.



 This week I attempted to resolve MY DREAM.

 
 

Mine symbolizes mystery and female renewed, creative flow.

Rousseau's has female symbolism of renewal, peace plus esoteric mystery.

Some of the subjects are shared and  may have different symbolism.

Mermaid by our front door

 Summation of the benefits and critic of my experimental recipe to banish painter's block

This new adventure followed a dry spell when the sightings of foxes abruptly terminated my last series of immediate reactions to what I was seeing of them.  Hopefully the foxes went closer to the river where their pray wouldn't be warned by the snapping of dry grass. As we saw fewer and fewer fox we worried that the mountain lion sighted in our neighborhood took them.

Writing was a positive part of my process keeping me thinking, photographing, and researching origins and symbolism of plants and animals. Writing about the experience, I want to add in retrospect, was as important as the three entities in the formula to overcome painter's block. A fifth entity is a strategy of determining when the painting is finished.

 If  the summer had not dried up the garden plants,  if the yellow jackets did not pester me, if I wasn't about to pack for travel, I would have been tempted to add some birds, and define the pears and peaches, or add surreal Koi fish flying about.  Adding more was becoming work instead of fun. So my final hours of painting was devoted to looking at the abstract composition of color values, compositional contrast to bring some flowers and the snake to more dominance. I made the background darker and more purple to help to make the moon more noticeable.

I am happy with the painting.  Thank you Rain for making me a co-author here.
Stay tuned. In October I foresee another need for a painter's block formula. Painter's block often occurs after life's interruptions.

 

Diane Widler Wenzel : Native Hawaiian Weaving with Hulali Jewell




Hulali assisted me by tying off ten locked ends
 to keep them in place while working on the other side.
This is the stage where a flat weaving
is made to have four corners.

The last baskets I made were during my early teens. For several years I made paper Easter baskets for four neighbor kids. The baskets were held together with stapples. They were decorated with paper flowers and animals, filled with decorated hard boiled eggs. While vacationing in Hawaii, I learned of the basket making and woven bracelet class from a park ranger and immediately I wanted to experience and appreciate the pleasure of touching natural fiber in the process of creating. I wanted to try something new.
         For the price of the materials, Huilsli teaches traditional Hawaiian weaving classes every Friday and Saturday morning at the headquarters of Kaloko Honokohau National Heritage Park on the Kona Coast in West Hawaii. Preregistration is necessary so Hulali can make kits for each student. For reservations call 329-6881.
           Materials from nature are rewarding to my senses. I am often repulsed by perfect manufactured slick plastics. The aesthetic richness and soothing rhythm of the weaving craft permeating every aspect of the lives of my weaver friends. Their immersion and connection to the natural world is an art form transforming the quality of their lives. Even their values!
       I foresee a time when more and more people in our consumerist American culture will again value working with natural materials over the convenience of plastic containers and toys.  The process of crafting natural materials will tap into our creative selves satisfying a basic need to express ourselves. The bonus will be a more complete and satisfying life styles like my utopian fantasy of Hawaiian culture. I imagine the Hawaiians and their children together. Adults sitting and weaving while children sometimes looking on absorbing the art of living or the children imaginatively entertaining themselves now and then being entertained with their elders' stories and songs in the rhythm of their weaving.
      Neither on line nor at the Kona Bay Books was an adequate book to prepare me. A teacher like Hulali is essential to demonstrate just how to distinguish the right side from the back side of the pandanus leaf, just how much mist is required to keep the fiber pliable and not soggy limp, and just how much to pinch or tug. There is no substitute for Hulali's vigilance to catch mistakes early enough to correct them easily. As a beginner I held the basket awkwardly making weaving difficult. I tried to hold the basket as she suggested. Of course the smaller the class, the better she can assist. When I was wove a basket, I was the only student.
       From Hulali's class I received a greater appreciation of an under appreciated vehicle for creative expression. What I enjoyed most was the feel of the leaves. The right side of the leaf has a natural sheen. The back has visible, slightly hydrated veins strengthening the basket with a nice supple body as though the leaves are alive.  The fiber properties must be respected but with love and care the leaves are amazingly forgiving allowing finesse.

 

     Like in making pots the basket fibers are gleaned from the earth, aged, hydrated to the right consistency, coaxed to being pliable with a bamboo straight edge like the wooden potter's rib.  Both materials, leaf or clay, are measured exactly, cut and arranged precisely, tightly centered to make a vessel. Both are built up from the bottom. Both have a mind to spread outwards as the sides build upwards. Clay and natural fiber both require a feel of how much to pull inwards until the top of the vessel is reached.  Turning the lip is critical and difficult. The shaping of the body is the most rewarding. The final stage included pushing in and pulling out the body in both. Love was the pinching pushing and pulling down the lip to make a nice tight edge.  The diagonal spiraling directions of the plated weave allows for shaping reminding me of the spiraling movement of clay on a potter's wheel. The dampened slightly misted leaves slip against one another just as the molecules of clay do so in shaping. When pulling up the wall and later shaping a pot on a potters' wheel, the water makes the vessel pliable and strong holding their shape.
       The properties of the materials of both also reminds me of the way clay can imitate fabric. In both wheel thrown and handbuilt clay the softness of the natural convex shape is like the basket's body. The tendency of both clay and pandanus is to flare like a trumpet at the lip. Also like clay the woven pandanus fiber leaves behind a story of every touch. In my inxperience the story is one of struggle.

In both my clay slab handbuilt and my plated pandanus basket
the materials want to push outward especially around the lip.
They both show the touch of the maker revealing my struggles.

The walls of the basket could be shaped into greater angularity.
I see eight triangles not so natural for clay.
 

     What took the longest for me was tucking in the loose ends to finish the basket. I recalled my weaving friends who were always so patiently finishing their weaving. No final tucks for clay vessels.
      I came into this class careless about craftsmanship. But I soon learned that each stage whether it is a basket or a bracelet, requires correct tightness from the start with consistent rhythm to the end. The bracelet furthered my appreciation of the fiber because it feels so good hugging my arm.  According to a park ranger who takes regular lessons from Hulali, she never takes her bracelet off and wears it even when she swims in the ocean. Truly amazing pandanus fiber! Only in the tropics, Hulali and islanders do not export the raw material for weaving. At home in Oregon best to collect and use natural fibers growing in Oregon.
        I commend the National Park for programs like Hulali's class as a national treasure that will continue to inspire our mix of cultural exchange for a brightly satisfying future for those who will it.


     

by Diane Widler Wenzel:The Art of Entrepreneurship in Being an Artist

 

Exhibits at the Corvallis Arts Center open up fascinating Lunch Box Artist Talks facilitated by the talented curator Hester Coucke. January 31st, Pete Goldlust and Kristy Kunn were interviewed.
 Both after much living are successful at supporting themselves with their art. Both achieve their desires from a long journey including preparatory business experiences combined with various learned skills which ultimately help to shape their art.

           Their similarities mostly end with their entrepreneurship skills. Pete originally wanted to be a commercial artist but his teachers stirred him away and he studied fine art at two prestigious art schools. His formal art training was with teachers who were encouraging to his outsider tendencies. He retained his own playful, intuitive, imaginative imagery for making art.  He made work only for his own satisfaction for many years. An example is a very large scroll painted over many years. It is a detailed colorful painting of his imaginary world crowded with detail.
           Kristy had no formal art training. She studied engineering until she found she would not be doing any hands on building. Woodworking was her first passion. She then went to work in a California furniture workshop featuring natural woods and fibers. She married a manufacturer and learned the business end of a craft industry. After separating from her husband on her own, she made a living by starting her own business of importing art supplies for her children's school. One supply was wool fleece for felting. For only the past three years she has started felting and promoting herself as an artist and art workshop instructor. Her techniques are self taught. Interestingly my first response is wonderment at how she engineered perfect right angle joints in felt. The mystery of her work methods is bait for students to take her workshops.
          Pete, after years of making art that was not marketable, he finally just a year ago found a satisfying approach to being economically viable as a full time artist. Some of his work lends itself to designing it while leaving the labor of making it to others. His biggest commissions are his drawings enlarged to gigantic proportions by commercial vinyl laminators. Also on exhibit are his small Sculpey clay animals he hopes will be commissioned. He envisions them as monumental bronze sculptures. His diverse directions include some hands on art work like his delightful colorful "Jellies" that are made of  found plastic kitchen containers purchased at thrift shops.  He screwed them together to look like jellyfish. The "Jellies" were commissioned by a charter school and a dentist.
           Kristy Kun's method is tactile. She has a very general idea when she starts and is open to having a conversation with her materials, interacting with them as she works.  Her work is intensive but never a labor because of her love of the wool. There is nothing she rather do than work on her art.  When a problem in handling the material occurs, one of her approaches is to take a short 5 minute nap. After separating her mind from the work, she wakes up with an idea on how to solve the problem.
           Pete loves the business end. The first work he does in the morning is business.  He spends 90% of his time doing the records and applying for public commissions working in partnership with his wife who polishes his proposals. Pete Goldlust, like a commercial artist of his boyhood dreams, made proposals showing exactly what his piece will look like. Those who commission work want to see what they are buying and no doubt his explicit proposals were a prerequisite to success. When proposals are accepted most of his work is already done and the actual making of his huge wall hangings is done by the vinyl laminators. His challenge is to research the needs of the projects and come up with ideas before the deadlines.
           I asked Pete when during the day does he get his best inspirations. He immediately said happy hour. After a good laugh by the audience, the conversation was moved towards questions of who in his past inspired him. I am left with a vision of him drawing on cocktail napkins while socializing  with friends and family.  Maybe the joyous feelings of the occasion transferred to his drawing late into the night.
         I imagine that if an artist is spending most of the time on business the intuitive subconscious would not be easily stimulated to produce ideas. But Pete's early practice continues to enrich him while he meets the demands of  seeking commissions for public art. To Pete's advantage, he has kept a scroll of tiny imaginary beings and environments which could inform him for years.
          A period of freedom is very important in an artist's early development away from the demands of the marketplace.  My professor Frederich Heidel at Portland State College told me I should keep my early work and not sell it. Having early work as a reference is vital in having a rich art development. I took slides of my work but that is not the same. Interestingly Frederick Heidel and Pete Goldlust studied at one of the art schools in Chicago, a savvy oasis for steering students away from the pit falls of marketing and encouraging the intuitive? My Woodrow Wilson High School art teacher, Henry Heine, said art making must be fun. When making it is not fun, people quit making it.  He also went to the same art school at the same time Heidel studied there.
        I come away from the Arts Center feeling like celebrating the importance of these two artists being in a sweet spot where their original desires are satisfied. They are making art that is true to themselves and are solving the dilemma of being true while making a living.

Christmas in fiction

by Rain Trueax

There were years when I had a big footprint where it came to Christmas. It goes back to childhood with Santa coming Christmas Eve, and then Christmas Day with our family, aunts, uncles, grandma, and cousins for big meals and more gifts. When Ranch Boss and I formed our own home, there was always a Christmas tree and more gift giving through all the years of child rearing-- even as they formed their own homes and grandkids came along. 

Regularly, we'd have a big dinner at our home twice-- first one for neighbors and friends with even luminaries to light the driveway, second for family and again some friends, who didn't have family nearby. I loved the preparation, the decorating, the sharing, and setting up three tables for sit-down dinners. 

In decorating, I had Christmas nativities, ornaments that went back to childhood, collectible ornaments (some hand painted), white twinkly lights, and a huge Christmas village. Lots of greens were cut, along with a Christmas tree along with many white candles.

We generally did the Advent calendars and, in Catholic days, attended midnight masses (that is so special). Then out here in the rural community church, we were involved in Christmas programs. It's a busy season when someone is in a community.

serendipity

by Rain Trueax
 

It's hard to believe that it's already December. This year went by soooo fast. I am not much of a holiday person, though I had years where I was. Now it's mostly get through the season, to the shortest day and start heading toward spring and then summer. 

There is a time in life where I was more traditional but that's not this time. I look with some nostalgia on those days but life is what it is. I do see people where their lives seem to stay a lot the same for religion, community, family. Do we choose whether that happens or is it what it is?

by Diane Widler Wenzel : Halloween Collaboration

Trick or treat? What a fun time to decorate for the  trick-or-treaters. Two black cats and a witch will greet them.
 Husband Don is trying to use up the odds and ends of lumber he has collected over the years. He produced them for me to mark cutting lines on three pieces of mahogany skin over plywood.

Then husband Don cut the plywood and sprayed it with flat black. I added the painted lines and color on the witch. I painted a witch trying to be beautiful.

After I painted, Don installed some flirty, flickering LI D lights.



Yesterday I had cataract surgery and today I am thinking of dressing as a one eyed pirate.

Planning, also, for next week's blog, a dead serious one. On some things I have noticed how differently people perceive my paintings. It is easy to demonstrate different perceptions are to be expected and not reason to attack the taste of other people who see differently. We all expect that in art and we do not blame others or insult their intelligence. So people I know are more open than they used to be about art as compared to 1959..

mystery

by Rain Trueax 

The reason why I write paranormals, despite not having a clear genre where my work fits, is my curiosity as to what might be, a belief that we don't know all we think we do, and my own experiences-- along with the challenge of exploring mystery with characters where it's imaginary ...or is it? 

Mythologies, the stories through which each culture determines the meaning of life and often rules for behavior, don't necessarily have to be imaginary. They could be a remembered history and are part of human life on this planet. In human cultures, some mythologies are more accepted than others; but if it isn't in history or happening now, it is mythology and fits into the world of the paranormal-- that which (despite arguments to the contrary) we cannot test and prove by something currently out there. It is a fascinating realm for those open to wonder and open to going where questions take them.

Took over 20 years to paint "Owyhee Spring"

The Owyhee Spring is where we tied up our rafts to refill our water jugs. Originally I painted the ferns and moss like a poor photo I took of the spring. The photo has since become unimportant.Then around 1998 I painted the dry desert in the upper right over some of the vegetation and exhibited it. I thought it was done. Luckily it did not sell.
Then almost every year since I have made some changes especially to the way the water was falling. For awhile I would be happy each year. Then I would observe both the way acrylic paint goes on the canvas and observed more closely water falling into rivers on many boat rides since in other Oregon rivers. Painting this picture enhanced my enjoyment of nature.
Owyhee is a good example of why I am so sure that the directive myth of  quiting before overworking a painting is wrong for my art practice and development. I certainly lost the story of my surprise of this oasis in contrast to the desert but I have become more focused in observing water.

How often does a painter have to paint to be an artist.

Since I posted yesterday on when could I rightfully identify myself as an artist, I realized that I didn’t include my thoughts on how often I practice painting in order to feel I am an artist. When I had two small children, I did not consider myself an artist then. I entered competitions as a non-professional. I was harder on myself than I would be now.  Motherhood is a supreme creative privilege and the most awakening to the heart.

 Choices have to be made to make time to paint. Learning to make priorities and say no to many activities that distract. I have difficulty saying no to co-operative galleries, no to daily painter web-sites which exhaust me while trying to achieve every day and prevent some risk taking.

In progress

Painting almost every day makes for my best results but not necessary for being an artist.  More important is how often during every day a vision of a painting crosses the mind. Also how many ideas are incubating. 

Another important aspect of being an artist is being able to access their own work’s direction towards self satisfaction or  the market place. Some periods during my many years of painting I have been more concerned about selling than other times. Always felt I was an artist though marketing could have smothered my desire to try new subjects and directions. For me repeating the same old same made me feel less of an artist but some artist traditions thrive on repetition.

It's the setting

by Rain Trueax

My idea for the blog that led to so much trouble was reading something another author had written about the importance of not forgetting to talk about and advertise backlists. If a writer has been at it long, they likely have some kind of backlist-- most of which has fallen into Amazon's black hole. Their ranking algorithms favor the most recently published books. 

Mostly (with two exceptions), my backlist is made up of contemporary romances written from the 1970s through the early 1990s. For those years, they were what I most enjoyed writing and reading. I liked having characters deal with today's problems but still have the mythology of those who take care of problems and build things-- the pioneer and cowboy ethos.

Part 2: Storing my ever growing output of paintings in a 1,200 square foot house

There is a limit to how many paintings can be stored in a 1,200 square foot house. My husband and I need room to move about and live so I am OK with  limited storage. Limiting the number of works requires retiring some of my paintings every time I make a new painting. I am forced to try to strengthen my entire body of work by keeping only my more interesting paintings.  I keep representative pieces. The pieces  that do not make the grade become table coverings, rugs, cloth books for children, or pillows.

While some artist friends manage by moving displays between galleries to other alternative spaces monthly, I keep that activity minimal to give me the maximum time to paint.   I also have work on loan like the Mennonite Corvallis Caring Place rotated every 6 months.  I donate or  loan works to The Oregon State Fall Creek Fish Hatchery and Research Center.

I spend more time thinking of what I can live without in everything from clothes to cookware and books. For years I donate the accumulated stuff from living in a product marketing economy.  Mostly I give to Habitat for Humanity, St. Vincent de Paul,  and Goodwill. When my parents moved from Washington to California, I took a whole trailer full of paintings and furniture, stopping at Goodwill, I donated a few 4' x 6'  paintings one of which was awarded best in the show in a Blaine, Washington Art Show.


After the donations I've ended up with closets devoted to sentimental family pictures and objects passed down to me and collected over the years.  These treasures are in boxes designated for my daughters and grandchildren. Sometimes they are ready to take what they agree is precious and sometimes I keep a few items until my children are settled.

Every time  I donate items like manual typewriters or one of my old fashioned meat grinders. Or family heirlooms are given to a family member who promises to be a  steward of our past. When I have gained a little more space for Don and I to expand I feel good.


 In an effort not to overfill my limited storage, I reinvent some of my paintings. Last Thursday's post about my least interesting Ritner Creek painting underwent an addition of radical reds that made the whole rest of the painting less precious.  I soon became immersed in new avenues to explore.



My new journey is about the tree that died since I completed the original painting last year. This year the flow of the creek is slower. The  very shallow water is warmer. Some  of these steps in the change could be called finished but I am open to more experience.








A number of different near solutions help me learn what linear quality will slow down the flow of the creek. What lines in the tree will be most expressive of struggle?   Stay tuned for a possible resolution. Not sure it will be a keeper.The risk is worth all the learning on how the linear changes effect expressiveness.

More ideas are covered in previous posts can be seen by looking over my previous posts by clicking on my name under labels.

Part 1: What I do with my prolific accumulation of paintings

In this post and next Wednesday's post I will be giving examples of how I manage my collection of my own art while remaining prolific and not promoting sales.  Not magic!!

Example 1: Further development of a finished piece.

Of all my Ritner Creek paintings this one started in 2017 was the least exciting.

A young tree died over the winter so I entertained the idea of painting the essence of the tree’s death struggle. To activate the energy I swiped discarded credit cards with red and brown paint to symbolize the warming, more shallow water.

Paint straight from the tube,  has made the painting more disturbing than after my first swipes. The patio painting area by 9:00 AM was too hot. Tomorrow I will decide how to proceed. Next week I hope I can publish the resolution of the "Death Struggles of a Ritner Creek Tree."  I will also explain how I came to think less about individual pieces and each piece as a part of a body of work enabling me to make decisions on what is representative and worthy of sharing. I treat my art like garden plants, after they have been seen sometimes I prune by finding new uses for old work.

popular or not

by Rain Trueax

Sometimes I dream something and wake with an associated idea-- sometimes only roughly associated. It happened this week. My dream had taken me back to high school relationships and one particular one where the dream mixed real life experience with fiction. 

In high school, I'd had a friend, the kind we did things together, had sleepovers-- and then one day I went to school and she was no longer talking to me. She never told me why. I never asked. To this day I don't know although I could hazard a guess. More interesting to me would be-- why didn't I ask then? I didn't and won't ever now. Her loss was painful for me as I didn't have a lot of school friends. The dream encompassed this real life experience but gave it a different ending-- think Hallmark ending ;)

When I woke, it was with this thought-- I am not a popular person. Is that why my books are not popular? Do they even relate?