Homage to the Forgotten Ones

Diary Drawing no. 11

Early February greetings! I've been squirreled away in the studio working on this diary drawing project, which has also been the subject of my most recent posts. I am now up to no. 28 of the 36 I plan to make, so I'll share them in small groups over the next couple weeks. 

Diary Drawing no. 12

Just to recap, these drawings are a kind of homage to the ordinary folks, countless generations of them, whose lives are lived in the richness of days punctuated by highs and lows, births and deaths, milestones large and small....just like ours. Over time and over the course of a deepening history, these lives become anonymous....forgotten. And yet, each one of us lives and breathes because of them, we carry their DNA and our lives are built on the experiences and memory of those who came before.

Diary Drawing no. 13

These anonymous diary drawings pay homage to those ordinary folks, living out their lives across the globe....countless generations of them. These are the "what if" diary pages of the people who have come before.....creating a trace where one doesn't exist.

Diary Drawing no. 14

This theme is not a new one for me, but one that has always been close to my heart. This notion of remembering and forgetting, as well the layering of history and the ephemeral nature of experience runs through all my work. A few recent additions to my bookshelves, which I'll share below, speak to these ideas in different ways.  Personal and collective history, the sense of place and a kind of grounding...the bittersweet nature of a life lived....these are things which unite us all.

Diary Drawing no. 15

Still reading Common People: In Pursuit of My Ancestors....fascinating!

Just started The Shepherd's Life....but was immediately immersed....beautifully written.

War & Turpentine is one of those books that is hard to finish...and I did reluctantly. It has been favorably compared with W. G. Sebald, one of my favorite authors. While I can see the connection,  this one is different. I wouldn't say it is truly a novel....more of a memoir and a memoir within a memoir. 

I'll leave you with a beautiful quote from James Rebanks taken from The Shepherd's Life:

"My grandfather was, quite simply, one of the great forgotten silent majority of people who live, work, love, and die without leaving much written trace that they were ever here. He was, and we his descendants remain, essentially nobodies as far as anyone else is concerned. But that's the point. Landscapes like ours were created by and survive through the efforts of nobodies."

That sentiment is the same one that underpins this these diary pages. Although they are a product of my own creation, they are a simple, quite homage and an appreciation for those who have gone before....the nobodies.

In the Round

Looking Glass

As I make initial preparations for a new suite of drawings for an upcoming show in the early spring, I find myself contemplating a circular format. I made this piece today as a way to get my feet wet, so to speak. And I started making a list of things that are round....writing them down in my sketchbook as they came to mind. Coins, the sun and moon, the earth, spirals, buttons, spools, wheels are all round...or circular...or spherical, I suppose. Since I am thinking in two dimension (drawing on paper), I think of all these things merely as round. Then there is "circle" or "round" as a metaphor, which called to mind the cycle of the seasons, mirrors, magnifying and looking glasses. Somehow I stopped there....at the notion of the "looking glass."

I thought about the notion of the lens and how we are continually seeing the world through the lens of our own experience and physicality. And too, there are magnifiers, microscopes and telescopes to extend our vision, to see the far reaches of the cosmos....the infinitely far away, in time and in space, as well as the infinitesimally small. We continue to learn about the vastness of the microscopic world and the interconnectedness of the roots of trees and plants, the microorganisms that dwell there....seemingly infinite worlds reside in a speck of dirt...or of dust and somehow these worlds seem to mirror or echo what we see in the larger cosmos. Or maybe they form a kind of circle. I think there is something worth exploring in a new group of drawings....in the round.

Like much of the country suffering from frigid temperatures, we've been plunged into the winter season and are finding the cold a bit of a shock. Already there is ice flowing down the Missouri River and I suspect soon it will appear more like a solid sheet of ice. In the last 9 years, I don't recall the river has actually really frozen, as there are always some channels open, but there is a definite frozen quality to the surface that makes you feel as if you could walk across to Nebraska on the other side. A little snow on Friday served up the gentle reminder of the coming months.

December 12, 2016

I'll leave you with today's daily drawing....hope it brings a note of cheer! Enjoy the rest of your week...hope it is full of inspiration and joy.

Uncharted Waters

Uncharted Waters

Hope you are enjoying your weekend! The piece above is a new listing at MissouriBendStudio, a companion to one I shared recently titled Dead Reckoning. They both started with that graphic and ink lined background, which was originally one long narrow strip. I was trying to break out of my comfort zone and change up the format, but I seemed to go nowhere with it until I tore the piece into two equal pieces, roughly 12" x 9" and then they seemed to make themselves. 

So, now I realize it is a little bit ironic for me to write about the notion of uncharted waters the way I intended....since, in a sense, I reverted to a safer zone and an already mapped territory. I understood this piece to speak about the notion of uncharted waters in terms of daily life. The sea, for me, is a metaphor for the journey we are each traveling through life. 

Since I'm not working (at a real job), but home in the studio, I struggle to stay motivated and I struggle with the balance of making work that is meaningful to me and making work that I want to sell to bring in at least a modicum of income. Ideally, those two are not separate realities at all. Yet, sometimes I feel like I am in some sort of vacuum, insulated from the outside world. I look about the studio with the nearly 200 pieces of art listed in my Etsy shop for sale, not to mention the decades of other work that lean against the walls several pieces deep and I wonder why I need to make another piece of art to add to the piles. 

When I am there, in that low place, I remind myself of the journey....that life is what we make it, despite the way it seems that each day is much like another, merging into a blur. The metaphor of sailing on uncharted seas, allows me to see each day as unique, full of possibility and my tiny boat as a vessel for navigating new territory. Each day we must be open to discovery. In the spirit of charting new waters, I hope your day is full of new possibilities!

Dead Reckoning

1. 
   

   

   Dead Reckoning

   
   

   dead reck·on·ing

   noun

   noun: dead reckoning
2. the process of calculating one's position, especially at sea, by estimating the direction and distance traveled rather than by using landmarks, astronomical observations, or electronic navigation methods.
   
   
   The title of this piece, Dead Reckoning, came to me from some deep interior, as an echo, as if calling it out its own name. I wasn't sure of the precise definition of the term and so have looked it up in the online dictionary. Since then, I have been pondering the meaning, as I make sense of it as a title for this drawing and as a metaphor for life's journey. 
   
   
   Dead reckoning...I think it is what we do....I think it's the way we navigate our life at sea, each of us charting unknown waters in our tiny vessels. Somehow. Our internal ways of knowing allow us to look back to see where we've been, estimate the course of our recent passage to figure out where we are. And there are days and times, when we are lost at sea, as common experience for me, when our sense of dead reckoning feels less reliable and we wish for sure landmarks or other sound methods of navigation, to find our way forward. 
   
   
   And yet, I remain certain, that each of us knows more, we carry more intelligence inside us, than we credit. And even as I often wish for more accurate navigation, I find myself wondering if those outside pointers, mileage markers and other voices from our culture are interfering more than we realize. The sky goes on forever, but we are each crossing our own ocean and we must listen for our own dead reckoning.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Blessings and Curses (of the Internet)

Notes From The Ancestors no.20

Many contented hours were spent stitching on this latest piece in the Notes From the Ancestors series. I'd lost count, but when I went back to the files, I see that this is no. 20! That's a nice round number and I think this will be the final piece in this ongoing series. Something else will emerge, I'm sure. 

I thought I'd devote a portion of this post to sending out an alert to all my artists friends in the blogging world. As we all know, the internet has made possible the amazing connections between people across the world whose paths would never otherwise cross. It is such a positive vehicle for connection and for broadening horizons in so many ways. But, as with everything, there is always at least another side that is unleashed, which is not so positive. The internet also paves the way for all manner of interesting ways to scam people and now I've had a chance to experience it first hand. Scammers prey on all sorts of folks, through a variety of means and making a query to purchase art is just one of them. 

I was the victim of what is known as the Distant Buyer scam....well, almost a victim, in that I caught it in time. I was contacted by someone to purchase two pieces from the Art of Wonder series that they had seen on my website. The correspondence went back and forth for a couple of weeks and rather than purchase the pieces through Etsy, which was what I suggested, this buyer wanted to send a check. Here's the crux of the scam, in case you are unfamiliar with how it works. You come to some agreement with this distant buyer (they are basically smooth operators, but there are tiny red flags along the way, alas) and when the "check" arrives it is for an amount far beyond the agreed upon price. They then direct you to go ahead and deposit the check and just send a check to refund them for the difference. When this happened to me a couple of weeks ago, the buyer (who was supposedly in Miami) sent a check that had a return address of North Carolina, drawn on a bank in Minnesota. In this scam, the check is bogus of course, and if you are caught in the snare, you will deposit it and send back the balance before it comes to light that the check is no good. Apparently, this happens fairly often in the buying and selling of all manner of things on the internet. As I don't engage in anything but selling my artwork, I never thought I'd be entangled in such a scam. So, all is well, as I learned quickly enough what was happening and didn't fall for it, but I just want to remind folks to pay attention to those little internal red flags that go up when something doesn't seem right. We all know the old saying, "buyer beware", but in this case and in these times, "seller beware".

On a ligher note....another little book has come together....The Book of Endless Time. It's a theme I often return to...the magic of the written word, which I describe through lines of dots and a kind of handwritten pseudo text. On top of the text that alternates the dots with the looping writing, a series of little spirals forms scatter across the pages. The pages are made with pencil and white ink on Japanese paper that is then dipped in beeswax. I love the translucency and how wonderful the beeswaxed paper feels in your hands. Time seems to flow in a linear fashion, but there are moments when it does feel circular and indeed endless, which is hard to quite fathom.

Just the other day, I had the desk all cleared and ready to work. It doesn't take long to turn into a little whirlwind of chaos....now that the Notes From the Ancestors is finished, time to head back downstairs, regroup and put things back in order.

Hope your week is going well! It's a beautiful autumn day here in my corner of South Dakota. I know it is not calm many places and my heart goes out to the victims of the hurricane Matthew....hope it will skirt the U.S. and cause no further damage.

Cheers!

Reflections and Notes from the Commonplace Book

The Book of Disappearing Wisdom

I do a lot of reading and this morning noted the following quote in my commonplace book. It is taken from Lab Girl by Hope Jahren, and reflects some of the sentiment behind my penchant for documenting (see Discovering Logbooks). Jahren is reflecting back on the memory of a spruce tree that grew just outside her bedroom window throughout her childhood and adolescent years. She's just learned the tree has died and has had to be taken down.

"Time has also changed me, my perception of my tree, and my perception of my tree's perception of itself. Science has taught me that everything is more complicated than we first assume, and that being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life. It has also convinced me that carefully writing everything down is the only real defense we have against forgetting something important that once was and is no more, including the spruce tree that should have outlived me but did not."

It's the taking note, the paying attention to the small things, which may seem insignificant now or in the whirl of the events of everyday life. But we can't know, can we, what will come to be important....either to ourselves in later years, or to historians or the next generation looking back? I think about the huge gaps we are creating in the record of our collective days, as so much of our lives is lived online. We no longer write letters to one another on paper, diaries seem to be a quaint relic of a bygone are and the very busy lives we live result in little documentation that is tangible. 

The little book above, The Book of Disappearing Wisdom, is new to my shop and is a reflection of these thoughts....tiny dots that resemble writing line the pages and clusters of colored dots seem to move across and through and then disappear. We think we are wise, but I suspect generation after generation spends much of its time learning the lessons of their ancestors. Much is gained by the progress we make, but much is lost and there is a certain ambiguity that fills our days.

Thanks for taking the time to slow down and read these posts! Enjoy your weekend....cheers!

Autumn Reflections

Autumn Suite: September Recollection no.4

Although the calendar doesn't seem to agree with an official time stamp, autumn is in the air and it is indeed glorious. The cottonwoods are still full of leaves here on the river, but those leaves are turning yellow and beginning to drop. The nights have cooled off and we have flung the windows and sliding doors open for fresh air.  I do sleep ever so much better when the air is fresh and cool!

I find though that the forecast calls for a few warmer days ahead, back up just beyond 80 degrees and I'm disappointed. Many folks around me are thrilled to stave off the cool fall days, as they are but a prelude to the cold and snow of winter. But each season is quite enough for me....I'm ready for summer to pack her bags for good and I welcome autumn with its rich color, the cool and crisp sweater days, the smell of wood fires and the sound of crunching leaves underfoot. I know winter is not far behind and when that time truly comes, I'll be ready.

Enjoy your weekend!!

Buttons, Relics and Memory

Last night my husband, Johntimothy, came home from teaching his printmaking classes at the University with this nice handful of old buttons. Some weeks before, he'd taken in some old shirts to turn into rags and he and his students had spent part of the afternoon cutting them up for use in the shop. "Save the buttons!" he called out to them, thinking of the collection of old buttons I keep in a jar in the studio. After he unloaded them on the counter, he started to work the bits of thread and clinging cloth left on them, but I stopped him. No, save the bits left on, I told him....they are part of the memory, part of the trace and the history of those buttons, of the clothing and of you.

My sudden pronouncement to save the vestiges left on the buttons reminded me of a tiny book I made decades ago. Relics featured buttons from my collection with tiny fragments of stories of the people who had worn the garment that once held the button. The book is housed in a plexiglas box filled 

with buttons of various sizes in all shades that might be known as white. 

Oh wait....I detect some random color in there!!!

Each tiny page of the book had a fragment of a story from a day in the life of someone who was wearing a garment that once held that button. I typed them up on an old typewriter and slipped the little story, along with the button, into a tiny plastic bag. They were held in the accordion folds of the cover, which was a piece of primed canvas with an image transfer of buttons on it. I've never made anything else like it and I'm not sure what possessed me to make that, nor how I would have even known how to go about it back then....except that the book  fairly well made itself, even as those fictional stories tumbled from my imagination, sad and bittersweet.

I'm a believer that the material world, the objects that surround us, even the humble buttons that adorn our garments, tell stories and serve as touchstones of our history. Like a cairn, this little pile of buttons Johntimothy poured out onto the kitchen counter serves as a kind of marker on the path, a simple reminder of a life lived.

Autumn Suite, no.2

I will leave you with the second piece in the Autumn Suite Series...a floating memory of falling leaves as they tumble down from the trees in a cascade of color. I do love autumn....it's still pretty green and fairly warm here, but the colors are definitely changing and I'm refreshed by the cool, crisp mornings.

Enjoy your weekend!

Autumn Suite....Recollections of the Season

Autumn Suite: Recollection no.1

Now in early September, I can feel the change of seasons. I find myself reenergized, ready to be back in the studio in order to capture the feeling of fall. As much as I enjoy the bounty and rich color of summer, my color palette is that of autumn, with the subtle tones shifting in the fading light. I'm now returning to work I did more frequently some time ago...spare pieces that I think of as meditation drawings, with the intent of capturing the essence of the thing...whatever it is.

detail

As longtime readers of this blog know well, while I love the natural world, I am not one to draw or paint directly from life. I prefer to let the beauty of nature come onto the page not from direct observation, but filtered through lived experience. The memory of fleeting views comes through my hand onto the page in a way that surprises and delights me.

detail

As always, there are those tiny marks and those dots....for me they are a language I use to express the ineffable. Time moves on....summer gives way to fall...once again. Hope you are enjoying the change of seasons wherever you are!

Exhibition Highlights

Hello again! Reporting in after the reception for my exhibition at Briar Cliff University last evening. Nan Wilson and I installed the show in a day and a half earlier in the week, with the help of a couple of students and a trusty glue gun! None of the work was framed, but was attached to the wall with the hot glue...who knew!?! I managed to make it through the gallery talk, which is not an easy thing for me to do. But the group that gathered was supportive and engaged with the work, so that made it much easier and enjoyable. Below are a few shots of the walls and then some individual pieces, so you can get a better feel of the work.

The longest wall to the left of the entrance was hung with daily drawings from the last 5 months, September through January. Although it took a bit more thought, I wanted them hung according to the calendar and days of the week, rather than as a straightforward grid. So, the set above, for instance, is from January, which began on a Friday. 

Moving clockwise around the room, the next wall contained 27 mixed media pieces that were made as individual works, but hung in 3 sets of 9 pieces each. Because my work is small in scale and intimate, I thought the pieces would be lost if hung in a straightforward line, so I envisioned them as hanging together in a grid. The color palette of each grid is related so they hold together. Collectively, this group, for me, formed the heart of the exhibition. I called the show The Art of Wonder and these pieces comprise The Art of Wonder, Suites 1, 2 & 3. Below are a couple of individual pieces from each suite.

To the right of the entrance was a series of freestanding paper shrines-like objects that contained found text poems. One of them is featured below....sorry, I can't transcribe the poem, because I didn't write them down!! There were made with pages from discarded books on handmade paper dipped in beeswax. Nearly everything in that gallery is dipped in beeswax....except the last wall.

The last wall was a series of randomly hung drawings, made with tiny marks that resemble stitches. I loved making these....so meditative. The paper size varied, as did the pen color, but when finished they each resembled small textiles in a way.

Often after such an intense period of engagement, there is a bit of letdown when it's all over. But my intense month of creating all that work (except the dailies, which are an ongoing project), has left me energized and ready to keep going with new work. 

The Energizer battery hasn't worn down yet! I'm now refocusing energy on my Etsy shop and creating new works to share with my friends here on the blog and across the world. I haven't made any teabag scrolls in quite some time, so that's the next group. I just finished the first one this morning and listed it in my shop, The Scroll for Tiny Drawings. There are a couple of additional detail views in the shop. Oh, what fun to make!

Thank you all so much for following my efforts, for your comments and support. I am amazed how bonds across the world can be made through the blog network....what a wonderful thing. And now, I must get back to it....there is work to be done!

See you soon and hope you enjoy your weekend!

The Repetitive Mark

We were paid a memorable visit by winter storm, Kayla, this week. She was quite something! Johntimothy and I were nestled safely inside for a beautiful day of snow and more snow. I'm quite sure we got at least a foot of it, wouldn't you say? I heard that in Vermillion, just 8 miles away, it was 17 inches. We had an amazing sculptural overhang, as seen below, along the length of the roofline in the back....alas, we had to knock it down. So, we eventually got ourselves dug out and life has returned to normal. 

Shoveling after the blizzard delayed my getting into the studio by a bit, but I got back in the rhythm of making marks on yet another series of new pieces. There is something so meditative about making repetitive marks....I just love it! I'm sure my focus on tiny marks would drive many others quite mad, but for me, it puts me right in the zone. What's been interesting in making these drawings is that, while I often use hand stitching as an extension of drawing, these are basically drawings that come to resemble stitches. And it's funny how the finished pieces almost look like bits of cloth. Here are a few details of this new series. I'm not sure I'll have time to properly photograph all the work before the show, which is installed next Monday, but will certainly do it after the pieces come back.

Hope you are having a good week....the weekend is nearly here! Enjoy!