Walking in This World: Discovering a Sense of Perspective

Last night was week three of my Walking in This World 10-week session. As I have mentioned previously, I'm also having the ladies do activities out of Keri Smith's How To Be An Explorer of the World and for last week they were assigned Exploration #46, to look for found patterns and if they wanted to, to do some rubbings of textural items they found on their walks. Several of the women had done simple crayon rubbings, and one of the women attached her rubbings into her Artist's Way journal.


Our creative project for last night was to design and make a personal set of Muse Cubes. I heard about Muse Cubes sometime last year and went online and bought a set. I used them during my last Artist's Way session and they were great fun. Basically, one cube has words related to noises and sounds you can make and the other cube has action verbs, i.e., shake, bend, and dance. You roll the dice and do as instructed. You might be howling and bending, or laughing and shaking. You get the idea. If you're interested, you can read more about them and order them by clicking HERE.

The Muse Cubes I had purchased were little one-inch blocks. I offered the ladies the choice of using the little one-inchers, or a larger two-inch size; all but one woman chose the larger of the two sizes I offered. I used the words on the Muse Cubes I had purchased . . . and I added a few new words as well.

Here are their finished blocks!







The blocks are a perfect companion to living a creative life!

Pat and Carl: A Tribute

My long-time friend, Carol, who was my boss when I worked at Willamette University's Hatfield Library many moons ago, contacted me recently to see if I might help her assemble a keepsake memory box in honor of her parents, Pat and Carl. Carol's Dad has died and Carol wanted to give her Mom something special commemorating her parents many years together. I was honored to be asked to participate in such a project and on Tuesday, Carol arrived at the studio toting a bag filled with a shadowbox, photos, a map, and various trinkets. We spread out what she had brought and started playing around with various layouts.

After the background had been glued and a layout pieced together (using a few items from my various studio stashes), Carol was ready to assemble her creation. I introduced Carol to the glories of using E-6000 as an adhesive, and turned her loose.

Since the glue was still drying, we couldn't put the collage into the frame, but here it is in it's almost completed form!

Visible Woman

My friend Jami, of Off the Hook Studios, has been in the process of downsizing her art stuff. She has been in this process for a while now, but this was the final push. Last February she delivered several boxes of stuff to me (here's a link to that goodness), and then last April, she gave me first dibs on her first art garage sale (here's a link to that goodness). Well, Jami has moved and she had several boxes of stuff that she couldn't fit into her new space. Guess who got an e-mail to have the first go round? Yep, I was the lucky one. So on Monday morning, I tootled on over to Jami's house and this is what I got to sort through:





Here are a few close-ups of my treasures in their new home:

After my shopping spree in Jami's garage, we both came back to my studio to splash around a little paint! Here's Jami preparing for a new show in February:

What a fun day! Thanks, Jami.

Pieces of Memory

Mary Lou Zeek Gallery. 100 Artists Show. Nourish and Sustain. I'm in. A dream come true.

Here is the official press release that Mary Lou provided for the event:

“Nourish & Sustain” - 100 Artists Show

Show Date: Tuesday, February 2nd – Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Opening reception: First Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 5-7pm.

SALEM, ORE — For the 7th consecutive year, during the month of February, the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery will be presenting their annual 100 Artists Show. Benefiting the Marion-Polk Food Share, the theme of this year’s show is “Nourish & Sustain” and appropriately, the 100 participating artists were each sent a large empty food can through the mail and were asked to use this as their starting point for their piece of art. Each can was sent “as is”, and was not packaged or boxed, but rather processed directly by the postal service firsthand. The stamps and addresses on the cans remain a part of the artwork for identification and for evidence of the actual mailing. Each artist, starting with the exact same object, has had over three months to transform, build, infuse, reduce, paint or reinvent the can into their own unique work of art.
The exhibit will open on Tuesday, February 2nd at 10:00 am pacific time. The public will be invited to bid on their favorite artwork via a silent auction that will run through Friday, February 26th at 5:30 pm pacific time. Beginning bids are $50.00 with minimum increments of $5.00 and a maximum purchase price of $300. The entire show will be posted online at www.zeekgallery.com. Bids can be made in person at the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery or by calling 503-581-3229.

From the moment I received my can back in October, I knew what I wanted to do and for the past couple of months, I've had my can and the pieces sitting on my workbench at my studio.




Then, a couple of weeks ago, it was time to get busy and create the piece. It became a bit of an emotional task as I thought about the theme of Nourish and Sustain and the idea of children going hungry. Pieces of Memory illustrates the idea of a child just trying to hold it together, putting on a brave front in spite of not having warm clothing or enough food . . . .

After I had painted on the canvas, I asked Howard to help me with the assembly. We headed to the basement (Howard was dressed for work!) and Howard began the drilling, with me directing.

Pieces of Memory complete.

And ready for delivery.


Here is a list of the participating artists:

Ruth Armitage – Tualatin, OR

Toby-Atticus Fraley – Washington PA

Rachel Ann Austin – Portland, OR

Marcy Baker – Portland, OR

Holly Ballard-Martz – Bremerton, WA

Laura Berman – Philomath, OR

Christopher Bibby – Portland, OR

Paula Booth – Salem, OR

Tory Brokenshire – Salem, OR

Jessica Burke – Salem, OR

Jan Carson – Ft. Collins, CO

Circa Ceramics – Chicago, IL

Mark Clarke – Eugene, OR

Margaret Coe – Eugene, OR

Dayna Collins – Salem, OR

Valaree Cox – Issaquah, WA

Patrick Collier – Stayton, OR

Karen Croner – Westlake Village, CA

Jon Jay Cruson – Eugene, OR

Diane Culhane – Seattle, WA

Doug Dacar – Salem, OR

Monika Dalkin – Seattle, WA

Katherine Dunn – Yamhill, OR

Mary Lou Epperson – Beaverton, OR

Heidi Erickson – Lincoln City, OR

Mark Flowers – Mercersberg, PA

Elizabeth Frank – Tucson, AZ

Ann Furr – Salem, OR

Kate Gallegos – Aurora, IL

Liz Gamberg – Seattle, WA

Carolyn Garcia – Portland, OR

Jan Gassner – Salem, OR

Ben and Kate Gatski – Bloomsburg, PA

MiKayla Gattuccio – Salem, OR

Christopher Gauthier – Logan, UT

Chris Giffin – Jefferson, OR

Antonio Greco – Vernazza, Italy

John and Robin Gumaelius – Cosmopolis, WA

Laurie Hall – Portland, OR

Kim Hamblin – Sheridan, OR

Kathy Haydon – Oregon City, OR

Jani Holberg – Eugene, OR

Kelly Howard – Lincoln City, OR

Jackie Hoyt – Portland, OR

Bonnie Hull – Salem, OR

Pamela Huntington – Canton, CT

Kelly James – Salem, OR

Jamie Johnson – Salt Lake City, UT

Lisa Kaser – Portland, OR

John Kime – Independence, OR

Tamara Kime – Independence, OR

James Kirk – Monmouth, OR

Jessica Kreutter – Knoxville, TN

Kristin Kuhns – Salem, OR

Ann Lahr – Corvallis, OR

Darcy Leighty – Salem, OR

Jeanne Levesseur – Portland, OR

Joni Lewis-Ulman – Fredricksburg, VA

Shari Lord – Silverton, OR

Melissa Lowry – Portland, OR

Tracy MacEwan – Lincoln City, OR

Laura Mack – Salem, OR

Jill Mayberg – Vancouver, WA

Megan McCamy – Portland, OR

Nicole McConville – Ashville, NC

Sue-Del McCulloch – Salem, OR

Lori McLaughlin – Salem, OR

Jenny Mendes – Chesterland, OH

Annie Meyer – Portland, OR

Phebe Miller – Hillsboro, OR

Betsy Milligan – Portland, OR

Jami Moffett – Salem, OR

Betsy Moore – Medford, OR

Kim Murton – Edmonds, WA

Alison O’Donoghue – Portland, OR

Felix Oliveros – Independence, OR

Arunas Oslaspas – Bellingham, WA

Beth Palmer – Raleigh, NC

Hilary Pfeifer – Portland, OR

Nyla Pilon – St. Helens, OR

Mark Poulin – Oakland, CA

Jodie Raborn – Salem, OR

Hope Raszka – Salem, OR

Shannon Richardson – Portland, OR

Kim Robertson – Easton, PA

Thomas Rude – Portland, OR

Grace Sanchez – Aloha, OR

Amanda Sargent – Seattle, WA

Robert Schlegel – Banks, OR

Bonnie Schulte – Salem, OR

Ben Silverman – Salem, OR

William Skrips – Blairstown, NJ

Bev Soasey – Eugene, OR

Carla Sonheim – Salida, CO

Jacob Sorenson – Richmond, VA

Kate Speckman – Salem, OR

Alison Strine – Roswell, GA

Emily Stuart – Salem, OR

Jill Torberson – Portland, OR

Jud Turner – Eugene, OR

Jo Warren – Eugene, OR

Marjorie Weiss – New York, NY

Linda Welch – Lake Oswego, OR

Sandra Whiting – Clinton, WA

Betsy Wolfston – Eugene, OR

Jen Worden – Nova Scotia, Canada

Jane Wynn – Parkville, MD

Alan and Mary Lou Zeek – Salem, OR

Walking in This World: Discovering a Sense of Proportion

Tuesday night our creative project was sort of like an episode of CSI as the ladies struck a pose on a large piece of butcher paper and in pairs, drew each other's outlines. I did this activity a few years back with my mentor and art hero, Gretchin Lair, at Scarlet Star Studios in Portland - she called it creating a Life-Size Self Portrait. I also have some art books that describe this exercise as Body Contouring or Body Drawing. Whatever it's called, it's fun.










The completed body art.