Doing What I Do...

Telling stories at the Dallas Museum of Art. This photo was taken on January 21, 2013 in the American Art Gallery. I was telling a Brer Rabbit tale in front of a collage by Romare Bearden. I was blessed with a super fun audience that day. LOVE my job!!!

My Art Doppelganger

 

On Monday, January 21, The Dallas Museum of Art had their launch of the return to FREE membership. It was a grand day at the museum with activities throughout the galleries. One activity had people taking artist personality quiz's to discover their art doppelganger. Selection was limited to Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keeffe, Frank Gehry, Pablo Picasso, Claude Money, and Piet Mondrian.

 

Guess who my doppelganger is?



Pablo Picasso!!! I did have a few hits with O'Keeffe, but overwhelmingly I matched up with ol' Pablo. I was like "WHAT!?!" Then I read the description:

You are Pablo Picasso. You can't seem to make up your mind about who you are and you constantly re-invent yourself. One day you're blue, the next you're pink; one month you're fascinated by African art and the next you become a political activist. You're also analytical and love to examine ideas and objects from all sides. You're not afraid to break things apart and piece them back together in a way that is appealing to you. You are a force to be reckoned with, and many people measure their success based on the standards you have set.

Not a bad match - especially about my re-inventing myself, examining ideas, breaking things apart...I love acting and telling stories because I can "become" someone, or something for a brief time. I enjoy the experience of looking through new eyes at the world. So all in all, I have to agree with the Pablo Picasso link.

 By the way, I LOVE this rooster he painted.

An anecdote about Picasso -

A visitor to Picasso's studio found the artist gazing disconsolately at a painting on the easel. 'It's a masterpiece,' said the visitor, hoping to cheer Picasso up.

'No, the nose is all wrong,' Picasso said. 'It throws the whole picture out of perspective.'

'Then why not alter the nose?'

'Impossible,' replied Picasso. 'I can't find it.'

Finger Painting by Judith Ann Braun

My daughter Lily sent me a link to this video of Judith Ann Braun painting with her fingers. Lily knows her Momma! I love to paint with my fingers & hands rather than with paintbrushes, or other tools. I watched this video, became curious about the artist, so looked her up. She must be a sort of soul sister to me. I identify with her on many levels, creatively speaking.

Love, LOVE the video she made that is posted below this one. Enjoy.

My Five Minute Life by Judith Ann Braun

This video just tickles me to no end! Love her STORY and how she presents it.

A Visit to LuminArte

I finally decided to attend a gallery opening in Dallas last weekend. It is a long drive into the Design District where many galleries are located. The neighborhood, at night, is more than a little scary. I didn't want to go alone, so my personal super hero, husband Jeff, was my valiant escort.

The show intrigued me with its theme, "Red: Existentialism in Art". Gallery link here: http://www.luminarte.com/home.html  Artist, Alison Jardine was showing work there and I am a big fan of hers. Her work is so dreamy. It grabs my imagination, taking me on journeys to faraway places.

I am not sure who the fellow was playfully shooting Alison in the photo, but it was all in good fun.

Love her painting, In Retrospect, Hope. Alison has an excellent website http://alisonjardine.com/ Do make a point of visiting it to see more of her work!

I ended up having a lovely evening hanging out with fellow art enthusiasts. Wonder why I don't do this more often? For the new year, I will make the intention to go to more art exhibits and openings!

Dancing in the flow of story, unspooling the wisdom of the ages

 

The definition of Unspool -

1: to unwind from a spool <unspool the cable>

2: to execute or present artfully or gracefully <unspooling an intricate tale>

 

Out of the blue one day, I had this vision of a figure dancing on a spool, swirling around, gracefully unwinding the thread.

 

The figure was that of a storyteller, caught in the flow of a story, dancing to the rhythm of the spoken word, deftly following the thread of the intricate tale. 

 

I knew I had to bring this vision to concrete reality. Why?  This image captured for me, what it is like to be in the midst of creative "flow" while telling a story.

 

Quickly, I built a wire figure on top of an antique spool. Then, for several months, let the idea simmer, waiting for a spark of inspiration to present itself. Questions bided patiently, needing to be answered. What materials would I next use? How would I use them?

 

Then, at an estate sale, I found an old book, "Fairy Stories and Fables". It had been given to a young boy, Jack Van Riper from his Uncle Tom and Aunt Gloria on Christmas, 1907. He must have loved the book, it certainly looked liked it had lived a full life!

 

At last an idea! I can use the pages from this book to paper mache' onto my figure, thereby preserving them (in a way). However, the pages were rather crispy and stained. Would they be stable enough to paper mache' onto my figure? Oh my, and what about the illustrations? They were so lovely and special too, I wanted to not let those be lost to time. How could I use those?

 

After doing a test sample, I learned that I could carefully manipulate the old pages with the paper mache' goo, BUT I had to go slowly. Also, I decided to use the illustrations for the dress, but first I lightly colored them, hoping to add extra focus to their presence.

 

My finished, 31" tall figure appears to be female, though this happened more by accident than anything else - it could be either sex. Also, the face is purposely undeveloped. I want the viewer to assign a face that is relevant to their memories, experiences, cultural group...etc.

 
Dancing in the flow of story, unspooling the wisdom of the ages.

Overall, I am pleased with the result. Is it perfect? No, and that is okay.

Three Apples Fell From Heaven

In Mid December, I attended a workshop led by sculpture and UNT adjunct professor, Rene Muhl  at the Dallas Museum of Art. She taught us a mold making technique. We had only a brief amount of time to make something out of non-drying clay, create a mold, then finally a mini-sculpture using Plaster of Paris.  We were asked to think about symbols that had meaning for us. I thought of the Armenian folktale "Three Apples Fell From Heaven".

 

In brief:

Three apples fell from heaven;

one for the teller,

one for the listener,

and one for he who takes it to heart.

 

There has always been a great deal of symbolism in the tale for me. The apples represent the universal wisdom, (some might say, God's wisdom), that reside in our world's folktales. I have created other artworks inspired from it, so this time I decided to make a pendant. Quickly I made an apple, giving a Scandinavian, wood carving texture to the surface. The mold turned out pretty well, and the resulting cast was very pleasing to me. I took it home, painted it and made a pendant! I can reuse the mold using a variety of casting mediums, which I have every intention of doing!

 

Rene Muhl has been a source of great inspiration. She's the one who introduced the idea to me of wiring little puzzle pieces together to create art works. To learn more about her, and see some of her sculptures, visit http://www.txsculpture.com/member/muhl_rene.html  

White Christmas In Plano, TX

We had a white Christmas this year. The cat, Leonidas, did not think highly of the snow.

The dogs Bilbo and Waldo loved it! Jeff was so-so. Me? I LOVED it! So pretty, so peaceful, so Christmasy!

Back in the Saddle Again

My New Year's resolution is to be a better blogger. My goal is to post at least once a week. Hopefully.

I spent most of December busy creating stuff in my art room. I worked mostly with old wool sweaters, what a mess it gets to be, but what fun! Here is a photo of my Painter Elves. They come with their own story I adapted from a Brothers Grimm tale. I made 14 of these little guys.

 Here is Larry David the dog, named by Amanda Blake who works at the DMA. It was my present to her little, cutie-patootie pooch named, George Costanza. I will leave you, the reader, to make the connection between those two names.

 At last, I finally, finally painted the old window in my kitchen. My inspiration was a restaurant in Santa Fe whose dining room is surrounded by painted window panes that are rendered in a primitive folk art style. I love when the sun shines through the painting - it is so colorful. I was very intimidated to do this, not being a very confident painter, but I am happy with the result.

 These are older works from this summer. The mystery creatures were made using left overs bits of stuff. I let my whimsy guide me. I want to create background stories for them.

Lastly here is The Reader after I had DMA patrons and storytellers from the North Forty guild write the titles of their favorite books on it. This is an ongoing piece, I will continue to ask people to write book titles on it until it is covered. The Reader is at present quietly reading "The little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Anderson in my guest room.