Water Study - Lake Waconia

Charcoal on paper

11 x 14

I love the abstract quality of water, the way blobs of light and color break away and re-form. One of my favorite things to do is go canoeing; it is a great way to be quiet and intimate with nature, to be able to go places that would otherwise be out of reach. Living in Minnesota I am surrounded by lakes, ponds, rivers, swamps.... As much as I have been avoiding news of the gulf oil spill, it's hard to avoid that painful reality. I guess I have been thinking of water, vulnerability, transience.

Full Bloom

The prairie is in full bloom! If anyone wants to come out for a prairie walk, let me know.

FYI - I will not be having my annual Fall show/sale at my studio this year. Instead I will be participating in the Fresh Art Fall Tour, down by Lake Pepin, WI. I will be a guest artist at Barbara McIlrath's studio. The dates are October 1,2,3, and I will be mailing out brochures in September. It is spectacular on the Mississippi River Bluffs at that time of year, I think it will be a fun event. If anyone is not sure if they are on my mailing list or if you want to be added, e-mail me your information. Thanks!

Sedge Wren Nest

I found this beautiful little sculpture next to a mowed trail in the prairie..... a sedge wren nest with three eggs. Unfortunately it has been abandoned because of the mowing - I hate that! But on the bright side, there are many other wrens nesting where a few years ago there was a cornfield. An old bur oak - 200 yrs. ? That I could see from my studio window has come down in a recent storm. This tree had been a favorite perch for many a raptor and song-bird; it will be sorely missed.

Barrow, Alaska

Charcoal on Paper

11 x 15

Ever since I returned from Alaska I have been playing around with charcoal, something I have never really used before. Thanks to friend Holly Swift for her help and to artist Kathy Hodge, kathyhodge.com, who I know only via internet and who generously gave me advice; there's more to it than I thought! Trying to find paper that feels right to me is my first task. I am wondering if this paper is too grainy....

I came across a concept that really struck me. In the Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard talks about Intimacy in Immensity - the possibility that a work (painting, poem, music, etc.) can induce a person to have the experience of vastness that feels in proportion to his/her inner expansiveness. Every time I read that I get tingly!