Just a scrap of paper turned into something more...

I'm a paper freak...I love touching paper and from my fingertips I can imagine what I can make with it, what kind of marks I'll make, what kind of medium will flow best on it...I will go through the art store and fondle the paper surfaces...not only am I a visual artist, I'm tactile, and I love making textures...this blue bit is on a ragged piece of printmaking paper that a fellow artist gave to me, and I loved the shape of it as is, and without hesitation I turned it blue and then as I watched the watercolor puddle and flow, I saw the shapes that I wanted to bring out, and saw the parts to leave alone...

Fun stuff...

Then there are the small pieces within the larger work that I find so pretty because of the beautiful mess I've made...


Another piece...an old favorite...

And this one, I used the junkiest paper, painted a white acrylic surface with lots of rough brush strokes, and then scribbled water soluble graphitint on it, and then made it wet and splashed, squished, made bubbles, and splashed some more...playing with texture...

Wintery exhibition...

I thought I'd do a little winter exhibition...it's not quite knee deep snow out there, but it's working on it...this is a little bit of this, a little bit of that...we've all experienced a sunny winter day that is so bright it hurts, and then those dark nights with the wind blowing through the eaves and making the windows rattle...winter is such an emotional season, so closed up and concentrated...beautiful and brutal...as much as I dislike the cold and dealing with the potential disasters, it's a fascinating time of year...and each piece reflects something of that...

Sometimes I have to say WOW!

I finished this one this week. Ain't she a beauty? I'm so in love with this one right now, I stop to look at it every now and then and love it some more...mixed media, watercolor, water soluble graphitint, and acrylic washes with graphite and various colored pencil treatments...I haven't settled on a name just yet...I keep waffling between Beethoven's Fifth and the Fifth Dimension's Age of Aquarius...a weird combination...maybe I'll just call it The Fifth...

Ongoing work

On occasion, I make presents, something special for a person, and this one I made...

Making art sometimes requires making a mess...

Well, this isn't too messy really, just some waterlogged sketchbook paper over scribbles of water-soluble colored pencils, dry colored pencil scratches, and woodless color shavings mashed around with a chopstick of all things... This one is entitled Haze, from a day spent on my sunny porch, September 14, 2008,












Here's some close ups of the mess...












Experimentation and "OOPS" accidents...

Random marks equal lighthearted fun...

Patience goes a long way...

(let it dry a little bit before diving in again!)

Have no fear of failure.

Don't be timid.

Be prepared to get messy!