Thursday, September 22, 2011

Maple Witch

Maple Witch
© 2011

If you've been following me from my previous post, my intention is to produce more statement-oriented work in the future.

But in the meantime, I have "Maple Witch" to show you which is in my usual line of art work. She is part of a series of witches that fly through the sky with the autumn leaves. (The last one I made was "Oak Witch" which can be found on this blog post).

She is for sale in my Artfire shop year round as a greeting card (and possibly as a print in the near future) and in my Etsy shop during the Autumn months and in all of the usual brick and mortar stores listed on my website.


MY ART IN ON-LINE STORES:

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

devastation from Hurricane Irene and how it has touched my life

what Hurricane Irene did to a road less than a mile from where I spent many of my childhood years
(you may have to click to get a bigger picture)

For a change, this post isn't about art. Frankly, the devastation that Irene has caused to my childhood heart and home from that time has made it hard to create the usual kind of fantasy, Renaissance and holiday art and music I am known for. In fact, it is an event like this that makes me do a double-take, wondering what I am doing with my art (and life in general). I feel so sad about what has happened as I still know many people from the area. 

The sadness has intermingled with another sadness over the death of a childhood friend from the same area around the time as the hurricane, someone who put his life out for other people, someone who gave selflessly to those less fortunate.

This next picture is a road (that hurricane Irene turned into a river). It is the road my parents drove on a lot. I drove on it too when I got my license, in fact I barreled down it with abandon because it had so little traffic. You can see the remnants of the road where the dog is standing:


I have heard from a number of sources that the municipality in which it dwells will probably never rebuild it: they will just consider it a "lost road".

The next picture is a road going into the nearby town, only a few miles down the road:


Many people in the area have lost their homes permanently because insurance doesn't pay for flooding.

I have a bit of that "innocence lost" kind of feeling at this time. This was a wonderfully idyllic place to live as a child. It was rural, mountainous and one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen anywhere. And the community! ... let's just say it was a childhood of peace, beauty, deep conversations and purpose in world-wide causes. Think "underground railroad" with lots of like-minded people.

It was such a stark contrast to the life I have now where community is tenuous and often baffling, where I seem to have stepped "down a rabbit hole" and haven't come out yet, for lack of a better metaphor. Where do I find the child I once was who was part of causes, fighting for rights, helping others struck by prejudice and injustice and speaking out fearlessly? 

I am not finding it in my recent art. And that is a part of me that is missing that I suddenly wanted back in the wake of this recent turn of events. In fact, life as a child was sometimes so intense (and sometimes dangerous) that I used art as an escape. Obviously I am still escaping and not using art to engage. This is what struck me about the hurricane. It blew into my mind and woke me up about that. Perhaps I need a new path.

When I look at the piece I did just before the hurricane ("Hurricane of Doves and Hearts" on this page), it began to have a new poignancy for me. Indeed, as in the painting, my childhood home of love and peace was disrupted by a hurricane. I hope the doves and hearts are just merely displaced, not missing.  

maple leaves in autumn, gift tags



maple leaves gift tags
© 2011
(hand-cut)

From my original artwork:


MY ART IN ON-LINE STORES:

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Oak Witch

Oak Witch
greeting card design
© 2011

This was inspired somewhat by a member of our gallery in Cambridge, NY who makes figures out of leaves and plants. I decided I'd like to try my own version, using drawing techniques with plants instead of pure collage.

The original is a whopping 10.35" x 15.75" because the oak leaf was so big (I believe it is the leaf from a red oak). I found it on the Skidmore campus. 

The wonders of making art so big is that details can be refined and can later be shrunk. She in my Artfire shop and will be for sale during the autumn season in my Etsy shop. I'll also have her for sale in the next couple of weeks in select brick and mortar shops in my area (check website for gallery and shop listings).


MY ART IN ON-LINE STORES:

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

frustration with leaving comments on blogs

I was wondering why it was so hard for folks to leave comments on my blog! I had noticed that when I was designing the gallery tote bag, no one left me comments, but e-mailed me instead (I got over 20 e-mails from members of the gallery as well as some graphic designers I know).

Then when Karen Anne Brady left me a comment on my latest entry, I discovered I couldn't leave a comment back on my own blog!

I found out that Bloggers default settings only allowed certain accounts (ones which require additional passwords, profiles, personal information and agreements of TOUs). It used to be that Blogger automatically allowed comments, because it is a google account which you have to sign up to use, after all. But this is not the case any more. Even the open ID does not work (at least when I have tried to use it -- when you try to leave a comment, it erases the comment instead -- and I usually have to e-mail the artists my comments instead). Previous to the new settings, I used to leave comments on other people's blogs and my Blogger picture (the one to the right where I am wearing Celtic green and holding a guitar) would show up, but that isn't allowed any more either.
Anyway, having learned a lesson, I tried to figure out how to change the comments section of this blog to allow anonymous comments again. I succeeded after nearly ten minutes looking for the settings (it isn't intuitive at all). Even leaving comments on my own blog, I am relegated to being an anonymous user (so weird).

If any of the artists I follow wonder why I don't leave comments any more it is because of these default settings (most of you have the default settings "on" like I did).