Muse Group in Olympia

Demo: inks, gesso, collage on w/c paper 10 X 11″

The Playful Muse group met Thursday morning for the first of a three week series. All seats taken in this first in-person workshop I’ve taught since moving to Olympia! And I couldn’t be happier to have these fellow travelers exploring mixed media fun, riding the waves of that shared creative energy. They all came prepared and plunged right in. The art studio I’m renting from a new artist friend is cozy and well appointed with a big table for each person. After the holidays I’ll continue to offer these Muse Group series. If you’re local to Olympia and interested in Muse workshops next year, let me know!

The first lesson was inks and gesso applied with a variety of tools. In the picture above, can you see where the acrylic inks and gesso were dropper/dropped, spritzed, finger blended, rollered, scraped with a serrated tool, drawn into with a rubber color shaper, stamped with a custom-made soft linoleum stamp, and squirted with a water streamer?

I’d forgotten to bring my brushes and had to borrow one just to wet a shape on the paper first so that colors would shoot into rivers blending like the salt and fresh water in our rivers here. As usual and by design I had no plan to start out with, just a lingering sense of awe from the short drive to the studio, past trees and bushes of flaming, out-of-gamut color! I was not the only one in the group who couldn’t resist the warmest colors in our palettes.

The second step in the painting was to add some collage, and I grabbed an old music book with Roaring Nineties music and picked the lyrics When the Robin nests again!

Because even with the glorious colors of fall, I am already longing also for spring. Fickle thing, the mind. Here’s how it came out when I finished the piece and did the free write (edited version here)

I claim to be at peace with all the seasons
Each color in my palette there to celebrate

This week I am blazing fall foliage
Dancing sizzling salsa

Next week I am the winter strains of melancholy
Blues and wooly grays

And when the robins nest again
The bunnies, bees, blooms, butterflies

. . . the greens of peace again.

 

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Step by Step Muse-ing

acrylic inks and gesso on 10 X 11″ w/c paper

If you’re up for it, I’ll take you through the machinations of a mind steeped in the mysteries of Muse-ing, which is no other than common ordinary imagination set free with almost unlimited art supplies at hand! I’m tuning up now to teach my first in-person Muse Group since the pandemic started, and at the mere though of it the wild horses of imagination are off and running at breakneck speed. Woooo boy!

Starting with no brushes here. They are way too left brain for a spontaneous start. The aim is to cause something unexpected to happen. Squirting ink from a dropper, dropping gesso in tiny blobs, smooshing with fingers, spritzing with water, scraping with a cerated tool and a palette knife. Letting it dry and then gazing and free associating. What forms do you see here? A sun god, an octopus, a barking dog or wolf? But don’t get too attached.

acrylic “skins” and collage added

I could have stopped there, but wanted to have some more mixed media fun. In a magazine I found a vessel and wanted to fill it with something. The underpainting was not cooperating with this new plan, so I unearthed some acrylic “skins” (dried poured acrylics) and started cutting and finding shapes. I wanted a story to evolve, but this took some time, moving pieces around, discovering the lucky accidents of small pieces which could be put together into abstract bird shapes. Then I got stuck again and decided to try to write about this evolving story and see what it was about. 

Black and turquoise acrylic and screen collage added

Finally I had my story but needed the separate parts to hang together and talk to each other visually. So back to the collage to find some screen material, one of my most favorite collage materials! The bottom needed anchoring with more black acrylic, but in a way that harmonized with the circular swirl of marks on the page. Some of the black screen needed painting with the white gesso to show up against the dark segments. I was in pure design mode.

And finally the voice said, you can stop now. And there you have it. You may have stopped much sooner, and that would have been “right” too! Here’s the final version of my writing, tweaked for external consumption. Although it’s not specifically mentioned here, you may find yourself making the connections with things going on in this time of proximity to election day. I certainly did. 

A cart upset

And cargo released

These eggs of questionable parentage

Now rumbling into

Bewildering atmospheric haze

Their wild permutations defying 

Sanity   and     Reason

Even the solitary high flyer could not make sense of it

Too weird he shrieked, dropping feathers

In his haste to exit the scene

 

He could not help but catch sight 

Of the curtain rising

On the most bizarre show of all

Demo at Jubilee

I was invited by some new friends to do a demo at the meeting of the Jubilee Art Club last week. They had a beautiful set up with space for social distancing and an overhead mirror so that everyone could see. I knew they were a group of mostly experienced artists who would appreciate the focus on creative process and expressive painting, so I shared my experience with the Muse Groups.

I brought my inks and gesso and demo-ed that fun way to short circuit the left-brain thinking mind by squirting inks and gesso onto wet shapes and moving them around with a scraper, a roller and fingers. The results always lead to a group hallucination which is a hoot and makes people realize that art making can be fun and profound at the same time!

inks and gesso on w/c paper

You’re invited to the Jubilee you know.

Your presence is requested.

So wear your finest top hat.

Come roaring up in a race car

Or astride a steed with matching hat.

This party requires your presence

Inaugurates your next fifty years (more or less)

So no regrets to the host.

Take a nap, eat a hearty meal

Get yourself tanked up and ready.

Because this ship will be leaving and

You must be on it.

Preparations are arranged.

Destination will be discovered.

 

Your presence is required.

 

A Bifurcated Goddess of Spring

Spring is the time of year when I’m most content with just sitting and staring dumbly at nature’s exuberances. My Piscean March birthday makes me particularly vulnerable to wanting to weep at the beauty of it all.

But this year is particularly poignant because we are about to leave this gorgeous home of ours for the north country. The house sale is pending, and I’m off next week to find our next home in the south Puget Sound area of Washington.

For weeks now I’ve been living in two worlds in my imagination. Were I a more experienced shaman, perhaps I would move more gracefully between the imaginal realms without the upheaval of loss and dislocation alternating with expectation and exhilaration. But maybe not. 

rorschach with ink and gesso, collage and acrylics on w/c paper

Two sides of the same coin

Doppelgangers

Me in two places

North and South

East and West

Sun and Rain

or

A split personality

A here today there tomorrow

A bifurcated goddess of Spring

Dwelling in two regions at once

Traveling the sensory tapestry

Of the be here/there now

A shaman riding the dragon’s tail

Landing softly in two places to

Be ready

        for both

Gaze

      Touch

             Listen

                   Sniff and

Taste!

Illustrated Adventure?

People keep asking if I’m excited about moving. And if I shrug they might add, but you’re in for an adventure. But honestly, adventure of this sort often looks more enticing from the outside. And we all have some element of restlessness, especially after a year of pandemic shut downs. So I get it. Sure, I guess I’m excited

For most of us adventure is sweetest when you’ve planned it out first, like an exotic vacation, and maybe a good friend told you about how fabulous it was, and how safe, and you’ve poured over pictures to prepare yourself.

Anticipation of adventure applies only theoretically to a move. Nevertheless I am trying, and this piece today bears witness to that. I want something to look back on once the boxes are packed and unpacked on the other side in the mythical new home. Then there will be stories to tell and hopefully the audience to hear.

For now I steal moments away from the near constant cleaning and clearing to paint and paste the adventure, which I’ve not yet fully embraced!

inks and gesso rorschach with deconstructed book, etc. collage

Suspended in my own frenzy

an echo of springtime

riot of

bird-buzz

bud-burst

bee-bloom

as Easter bunny makes her way through

oxalis and I at the ready

to hop with her 

Rorschach

I hadn’t done a rorschach blot painting in a long time. You know, the proverbial inkblot that psychologists have used to diagnose patients by listening to their answers about what they see in the inkblot. Rorschachs are a great way to project your imagination onto the screen of your paper. In more abstract, expressive painting sometimes it’s hard to get started. Not so, when you start with rorschach play. I always find my mind kicking into high gear with hallucinations, ideas, stories, and occasional wisdom. Here’s the latest.

India ink, acrylic, screen and paper collage on w/c paper

They were doing a little dance, like children do, or maybe there were playing hopscotch. I don’t know. And as the sidewalk heaved up between them, a golden light escaped from below. A veil had lifted from their eyes, and they gazed down bewildered, and maybe a bit bewitched, but in a good way.

Meanwhile wise ones, taking their measure of the children, sent their emissaries, in readiness to draw the veil again if some mischief arose.

But the two tiny characters became fearful. Are we allowed? they asked. And there was at first no answer.

Then they heard it, a crackle and a hiss, a snap and a pop. That was it! They ran away shrieking, leaving the pots of treasure untouched.

And so it is for us all, that we fear those treasures which wait for us to find them, meanwhile searching in all the wrong places.

Would you like to try a rorschach of your own? I recorded a three minute demo today to show you how.

To watch the demo click here.

This Garden’s Wild!

Every day I pull a few weeds in the garden. Sometimes for as long as an hour, but rarely beyond that. The spring garden is for dreaming and not just laboring. Painting is sometimes for dreaming too, especially now when we need a break from the monotony of sheltering at home.

When I want to do a seasonal painting that isn’t a sketch or landscape “painting”  of some scene before me, I start with textures, like acrylic mediums that have dried on the paper. Then I start squirting inks and spritzing them and watch what happens. If I use greens and pinks, I know I’ll get something suggesting the spring garden, and if I use iridescent inks. . .well, here’s what can happen.

gesso and mica flake textured w/c paper with inks and chicken feathers (fluff)

This garden’s a bit wild

the way I like it.

One might run into Oberon

King of the fairies

or his wife Tatiana

I imagine she’ll be wearing a gauzy gown

with a dandelion fluff border

and her hair spun with spider thread

I’ll ride a lizard’s back into the undergrowth

where insects and birds lay their eggs.

or hop on a swallowtail butterfly

for the ride of my life!

When the wind sneezes

on that big pink puff,

I’ll hitch a ride on a seedpod

and ride it to the fairy kingdom.

 

Earth on Tilt

OK, so the earth is seriously on tilt. Wouldn’t you agree? I’m finding this to be a particularly fruitful time for contemplation, and I don’t just mean the specifics of how we will get life back to “normal”, whatever that was. Sometimes that means plunging in for a peak at the darkness. But then I recommend taking a piece of paper and your paints with you as a companion.

inks, gesso, collage, pen on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

It’s all flowing downstream, but at some point starts to back up.

The Doctors get called in to treat the damage.

The epidemiologists sound the alarm. Chaos ensues.

What the global warming crisis has not yet demanded,

This microscopic virus now  accomplishes, bringing everything. . .to a . . . halt.

Sit up and pay attention, It declares.

The earth’s axis is on tilt and you’re sliding off.

You may have a chance, if you sit still in your chair at home, for months.

Pull in your feet. The jagged teeth of this monster threaten.

And you elders beware!

Count your days.

Breathe deep.

If you can.

I read this to some Muse friends and they gasped a bit and were silent. If that is your reaction, I recommend one of those comedy clips you find on Facebook or Youtube to clear the palate.

I find that one of the most effective ways to navigate each day is to open the mind and heart to the tragedies playing out, and then to clear the palate with humor and a massive serving of natural wonder. (that and good food and music and. . .fill in the blanks)

Inks and Gesso: Another Free Lesson

Ready to try another free Muse Group lesson?! I’ve taught this one over and over for at least 12 years now. It’s a foolproof way to get excited about making art and to activate creative fancy. You’ll need watercolor paper, inks (preferably with droppers), gesso, and optional: scrapers, rollers, and rubber stamps.

Click here to watch the video demo. But don’t stop there. Give it a try!

 

Meditation Garden and Art at TLR

Once a week for the past month I’ve been entering through the gate at The Living Room (TLR) laden with art supplies for the mixed media expressive art class. Ruth from the Muse Group meets me there, also laden with fun art stuff. This week she found me in the garden sketching a lovely corner of the day shelter compound that I hadn’t captured in sketches yet – the Meditation Garden.

I was well into this sketch when the subject I would have liked to sketch – a woman who is the owner of the bike – showed up. In the shade of the arbor she unpacked a loaded backpack, got it organized and repacked before heading out on the bike. There’s always a great deal of packing and unpacking going on here at this place where women come for day time respite and services before heading out again, to manage lives that are often lacking in secure housing.

On the day of our art group the resource room where we meet is a bustling place with women using computers for email and phones for inquiries about jobs, housing and a million other life concerns. As they finish up and file out to the hot lunch which is being served in the dining area, we turn the room into an art room with watercolor paper  and colorful inks and acrylic paints spread around the tables, along with stencils and stamps and squirters and scrapers and rollers for application. At noon the women start wandering in, up to seven or eight of them, and soon the small room is full of artists who have no trouble figuring out what to do with the paints!

Ruth and I quickly realized that what these folks needed was not an art class but an opportunity to play with materials without being encumbered by performance expectations. (Don’t we all need that!?)

This past week the room filled with a happy, raucous energy that was reflected in the paintings.  It was the last of our meetings in this series. (The regular Expressive Arts team returns with their wonderful program this coming week.) I think we were all a bit sad to have to draw our time to a close, possibly even especially Ruth and I.

I’ll be back this week though and probably for years to come, helping out with the meditation group, sketching stories and best of all, seeing my friends.