Blackbirds

Blackbirds

charcoal on paper, 16 x 20

Here is a piece I did last fall when the birds were starting to flock before migration.  I have had birds on my mind as I have started my fourth year of the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas.  It is getting harder to find plots that need to be done close to my home, and I was skeptical about the one I had chosen for this year, as it looks like a lot of big farm fields, = not a wide variety of birds.  But there is one huge slough, a WMA (Waterfowl Management Area) that has some adjoining woods.  If I can figure out how to get a canoe out there it will be a great place for numerous birds.  Volunteers are still needed, the results will be valuable for scientists, natural resource managers, public officials, educators and birders -  check out mnbba.org.

Last Swan photo

Seward, Alaska

charcoal on paper

12 x 16

Swan Update: The top photo may be the last picture of the single swan that remained on the pond this fall up until 2 days ago. I was getting worried about it as the ice was beginning to freeze - some days it needed breaking so the swan could get water. Luckily this has been an extremely mild fall so far, and the muskrats are doing a great job of keeping the pond open somewhere. Last week seven swans flew over the pond low, circling and calling, and still our swan didn't leave to join them, very unusual. So it really seemed like it could not fly for some reason. Four days ago I had someone from the Trumpeter Swan Society out to assess the situation, and we had decided that as soon as the ice was hard enough to walk on we would catch it and release it at Rebecca Park, where they keep the water open all winter for swans who stick around. Then yesterday it was nowhere to be seen; same today. I hope it was finally able to fly and made it to some open water, it will probably remain a mystery.

The charcoal of Seward, Alaska, was done last fall, after my birding trip there. I was looking through my work for pieces with a water-theme, I am thinking of submitting work for a show that is about water. This piece reminded me of today's weather, damp and spritzy and chilly.

Sense of Place

(top) Branches charcoal on paper, 13 x 16

(middle) Dawn Birds charcoal on paper, 13 x 16

(bottom) Trees/Clouds charcoal on paper, 13 x 16

These three pieces will be in the upcoming show Sense of Place, which will be at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts from October 13 - November 3. This is an exhibition of landscapes in a variety of media and styles representing both traditional and contemporary approaches to this enduring subject. The opening is Thursday, October 13, from 6 - 8pm.

For more information about the Minnetonka Art Center go to minnetonkaarts.org

Maple

Maple

charcoal on paper

20 x 26

This drawing and three others of mine, as well as wonderful work by other PAN artists, are on view at the current PAN show at the Phipps Center, in Hudson Wisconsin:

Project Art for Nature, led by River Falls based artist Vera Ming Wong, consists of approximately 27 artists and illustrators from many areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin. To highlight nearby gems of prairie, forest, river and wetland, PAN artists create artworks focused on individually chosen natural areas in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Visiting the sites regularly throughout a two-to-three-year cycle, observations of seasonal and cumulative changes in native plant and animal communities spark curiosity, reflection and creative responses. The participating artists share their sites and insights into both nature and art with one another and, through exhibitions and related educational programs, with the general public.

Places Between, Species Within: Project Art for Nature's fourth cycle unfurls with a show of new works, by both new and renewing artists, at the Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, Wisconsin. Exhibit Dates: 19 Aug – 25 Sep 2011; Opening Reception, 26 Aug, 6:30-8:30 pm. Round Table Discussion with Exhibiting Artists, 25 Sep 2011, 2:00-4:00 pm. Check the Phipps website for gallery hours, www.ThePhipps.org. For more information about Project Art for Nature and participating artists, please visit www.projectartfornature.org.

Sky/Hill

charcoal on paper

17 x 21

After applying and getting rejected for the last four years, I was just notified that this year I have been awarded an Individual Artist Grant by the Central Minnesota Arts Board! www.centralmnartsboard.org

A much needed and appreciated career and ego boost. The work I submitted with my application was my recent charcoal pieces, much of which I have posted here over the past months.

Moon

charcoal on paper

17 x 22

I am back from the southwest and have been so caught up in picking up the pieces of my life that I have been remiss about posting..... It's a cold and sleety day in Minnesota, but here are two hopeful poems from my favorite book of love poems called "The Ink Dark Moon":

Nothing

in the word

is usual today.

This is

the first morning.

Even though

these pine trees

keep their original color,

everything green

is different in spring.

- Izumi Shikibu

Deep Woods

charcoal on paper

20 x 26

I am reading "In Praise of Shadows" by Tanizaki again. It is a little slip of a book full of beautiful insights on culture and the psyche. I was thinking after my last post about light, that shadow is equally important and powerful, and I decided to post this interior-woods-shadowy piece.

"So benumbed are we nowadays by electric lights that we have become utterly insensitive to the evils of excessive illumination."

Tanizaki

Thinking of this as I am getting ready for my annual southwest sojourn to Portal, AZ, which has arguably the darkest night sky in the lower 48.

Morning Pines

charcoal on paper

26 x 20

Sometimes it just seems like there is a lot to be sad about, like the recent shootings in Tucson. I came across this quote that I wrote in my journal (but I forgot to note who wrote it) -

"Nature reflects light, which fills the entire world."

I love this, both in the literal and the metaphoric sense. I wanted the first piece that I posted in this new year to be filled with light.

Trees/Sky

charcoal on paper

16 x 20

sold

I have been reading a wonderful book, called Letters On Cezanne, by Rilke. It contains many letters that he wrote to his wife one Fall in 1907 when he was in Paris. At that time there was a large exhibition of Cezanne's work; Rilke "discovered" this and went nearly every day, spending hours with the paintings. These letters are a beautiful portrait of the close relationship he had with his wife, as well as intimate looks at both Rilke and Cezanne. Walking and absorbing Paris, he writes:

" These are the days when everything is all around you, luminous, light, barely intimated in the bright air and yet distinct; even what is nearest has the tones of distance..."

I have some work in the Holiday show at the Lake Pepin art and Design Center in Pepin, WI. The show will run from November 26 - December 31; stop by if you are in the area.

Black Hills Evening

Charcoal on paper

16 x 20

When asked why he paints what he paints, artist Neil Welliver responded:

"I have no idea, no verbal answer to that. I am interested in flora and fauna, in the topology and topography. So I do a lot of mindless rambling through the woods. Then I have a sense of place. It feels right, something engages me."

Precisely.

Dark Clouds

Charcoal on Paper

15" x 20"

sold

I have been sort of obsessed with charcoal this summer, it feels so direct and physical to work with. My last 12 pieces have all been of trees and sky, the transition or meeting of the two... some thought tracks are: earth/sky; body/soul; grounded/free; limited/infinite. Another track is that I am always looking at the tree branches to see birds, and cannot help but love the silhouette and pattern of branches against sky, on a purely sensate level.

"The frothing of the hedges

I keep deep inside of me."

- Jean Wahl

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!