Conversations: The Series

Welcome to summer....which has been bringing a surprising amount of rain to our part of the country! Seems as if it wasn't all that long ago, the topic of conversation at the bank, the grocery store and all around town was the need for rain....now it's just the opposite! Small rivers are flooding, but we are in good shape here on our section of the Missouri River, as the flows from the dams are no doubt cut back to make room for waters feeding in to the river downstream. Plenty of violent thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes in the area lately. I feel so badly for those who have lost property and livelihood in the recent round of storms.

June 1, 2014

Thought I'd share with you a bit more of the work from the exhibition that Johntimothy and I had at the University of South Dakota. Part of the idea of the show was to collaborate on some new pieces, which we pulled together only at the 11th hour....but not for lack of trying. All winter we had attempts at working on projects together that just never went anywhere....the magic wasn't there. But a week or so before the show was to go up, the latest round of screenprinted patterns that Johntimothy was creating called to me in a way that the others hadn't. Maybe it was the patterns themselves or the subdued tones that called to mind ancient wallpaper and faded memories, but suddenly I was drawing on top of these patterns and then we'd go back and forth with his printing and my drawing, adding layers, in a kind of conversation. We've worked on project numerous times before, but I have to say that these pieces are my favorites!

Conversations no.1

Conversations no.2

Conversations no.3

Conversations no.4

Conversations no.5

Conversations no.6

The image size on these mixed media works is roughly 8x8" and they lay on beautiful paper that measures about 15 x15". The circle and square format correlated with the rest of the works in the exhibition. The series is much larger than this and we are currently working on securing other exhibition opportunities for these collaborative pieces....even as we continue to create them!

Hope your summer is going well....filled with a mix of inspiration, relaxation and energizing rejuvenation!

Awakening Breath...The Finished Work

Awakening Breath, no. 1

Awakening Breath, no. 27

As promised, I am posting a couple of the finished pieces from Awakening Breath, the collaboration exhibition with my husband Johntimothy Pizzuto.  These are just quickie photos--sorry not the best views.  There were thirty pieces in all...in many ways the same and in many ways different.  Once we finally had a beginning vision of the work, we knew each would be a triptych, something resembling an altarpiece in shape.   Johntimothy created the side panels and I did the center panel.  Johntimothy is a printmaker, so the sides are built up with layers of silkscreen texture and pattern at the base, then lots of rubber stamping, both with and without stencils.  Actually those strong organic shapes that float in the space on the sides are made with stencils he carefully cut out from each of the shapes I created in the middle panels.  The middle piece has a pattern of pencil on top of blackboard paint, layered with another pattern of an organic seed or cel-like shape and the surrounding field of linework  in ink.  Each "roof" has a layer of a different pattern in pencil with an ink and acrylic drawing on top.  That's a short description of the pieces that seem to have been stepping stones for both of us.  As I mentioned earlier, we wanted to embody subtlety through layering and pattern, along with a meditative quietness.  We won't see these pieces installed until we go out to take the exhibition down at the end of September.  

I think for me, this work was very important and brought me closer to a place of letting go of the image.  I found that I was so at peace and in a flow while drawing the underlying subtle pattern in pencil and then the seeds and the surrounding lines that seem to evoke a zen garden.  There is a part of me that has been wanting to let go of the image, but another part that is tied to creating some tangible link to our daily lives through a familiar image.  But so much that I need to say is all about the intangible, the fleeting...perhaps I'll now speak in the language of abstraction.  Let's see what unfolds from here....I have a feeling it will be scrolls....

The Same But Different

"Awakening Breath" in process

"Awakening Breath" in process

Thought I'd share some of the work in process for our collaborative show, Awakening Breath.  These are some of my center panels laid out on the table in different stages.  The final pieces will be triptychs, with Johntimothy, my husband, doing the side panels.  We've talked a lot about meditation, the breath, reflection, quiet, balance....all manner of issues related to trying to live in a mindful way.  There is a lot of drawing on my pieces, a layer of different patterns in pencil and then ink drawing on top.  What we realized after my last finished Fork in the Road work, shown in  an earlier post, is that there is a feeling of a zen garden....a sense of quiet, but with energy flowing and that idea was the springboard for our collaborative show.  We've also talked a lot about how the pieces might appear to look the same, but we know and we are hoping that it is a reminder for us all that there is much to be seen in subtle changes and subtle differences.

One of our favorite moments in a film comes in "Smoke", co-written by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster.  In that scene Harvey Keitel's character is showing a photo album to the character played by William Hurt.  The album contains all the photos in chronological order, that he has taken from the same spot in front of his smoke shop, at the exact same time, every day for years.  He calls it his life's work. As William Hurt slowly turns the pages, he says that they're all the same. Ah, but they are not the same at all.  Different people are passing by, or perhaps the same people are seen in different photographs, thinking different things, perhaps smiling in one and not in another, the light is different, the seasons are different.....in short, everything is different as the drama plays out day after day.  I absolutely love that, in a way I can't describe.

Day after day, our lives look very much the same, but each day is different and the accumulation of them builds a history that adds up to a life.  Thanks for reading and I'll be sure to share more pictures as the work unfolds.  Tuesday is our deadline and we still have quite a way to go with these 30 pieces!

A Cliffhanger!

Well, it's Sunday, so Johntimothy and I have a little over a week to have the work ready to deliver for our show.  In my last post I mentioned finding my direction for the collaboration...my instincts were right on.  When my husband came home, he loved those drawings of the seeds and it caused us to rethink the whole project.  Yesterday, we basically started over and are now doing triptychs, with my part the central panel, to be informed by those drawings of last week that showed up in the one above, which is A Fork in the Road no.3    Johntimothy will make the panels that go on either side, so the piece will resemble the format of an altarpiece.  We are both excited about the project coming together in this new way and although I speak of it as "starting over" this is really just another step in the collaboration that has been going on over the last couple of months for the show.  It's the creative process at work....just made more complicated by involving two people instead of one!  No time is ever wasted...but it's kind of a cliffhanger still...wondering how the pieces will finally resolve themselves.  I'll let you know!

Dreaming in Collage

This is the front cover of another little book I just posted this afternoon in my shop (www.etsy.com/shop/missouribendstudio).  Lately I have been very much immersed in collage, partly because of the new work I'm making on my own and also because my husband, Johntimothy, and I have a show together at Black Hills State University late in the summer.  He's a printmaker and I would say a master of collage, pattern and surface so we are immersing ourselves in figuring out the work for the show...sort of the logistics of how our collaborative effort will work to make a whole new group of pieces for both of us.  Challenging, but fun!  In the meantime, I am making collages for covers on small pamphlet books, cards, etc. I'm dreaming of collage in my sleep, as I often do when my inner self is trying to figure things out.  It's best that I stay out of the way!