LAYER UPON LAYER 3

LAYER UPON LAYER 2

new finished piece- LAYER UPON LAYER 1

This is the result of some painting experiments done over the last year or so. Layer upon layer.

REJOICE!

This piece is 7"x9" and has been waiting for a few years to be finished. This is it.

Layers of life- people's choice

This piece, BLOODLINES, (40"Wx30"H, mixed media) was one of the people's choice award winners in the Layers of Life show at the Franciscan Center. I just found out about the award today and I'm still a little amazed!

We also had to write a paragraph about it. Here's what I wrote:








Blood lines is built over layers of former paintings on a canvas I’ve owned for twenty years. Some areas are textured and impastoed with a variety of materials. It’s collaged with fabric, tissue, and photos of ancestors layered over a grid of horizontals and verticals with bits and pieces of debris from my studio life. The varied shapes and lines create a kind of map of territory that evolved over time. It is a continuum of history arranged in an intuitive composition.

Reception in Lowell on Saturday, July 19, 5-7

I was honored to have a nice article written about my show at the Lowell Chamber of Commerce by Emma Palova of the Lowell Ledger. I've tried uploading this article six different ways for it to be readable, but you get the idea. If you'd really like to read it, click on the image and it will open readable in a new window.

Emma took the photo too. I thought she did a great job!

There's going to be a little reception for my show at the Lowell Chamber of Commerce
on Saturday,
July 19, from 5-7.
The show isn't large (18 pieces) but the venue is lovely- right across from the showboat on the beautiful Flat River, behind the Flat River Grill. The Chamber is at 113 Riverwalk Plaza in Lowell. (To get there- M-21 turns into Lowell's Main Street and just over the bridge past the Flat River Grill you can turn left on Washington and another left right away into the parking lot behind the chamber.)

It should be a nice time to visit and share some wine and snacks on a summer evening on the river. Lowell's also a lovely place for a stroll. If you've never been to the Fire and Water ART Showroom at 219 West Main where I am among a stellar collection of 25 artists gathered by 'local art guru' Kathleen Mooney, you could see more of my work there. The showroom is open until 6 on Saturday, so you could get two art experiences for the price of one!

new business cards

Just another aspect of being an artist. I spent time creating these today on Photoshop and also making labels and an artist's statement for a show at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in downtown Grand Rapids. I'm hanging that tomorrow.

nothing new

no new art to post, unless you want to see a photo of my bathroom. I'm painting some of it gray that used to be white. woohoo!

or I could post work of students I've taught or business cards I designed for a friend... time to spend time in the studio and do my own painting!

GATHERED TOGETHER #1

This piece was purchased by Pine Rest Christian Hospital after my show with Mary E. Andersen in the Postma Worship Center's, Leep Gallery. It's always fun to see where these pieces go on their journey after I create them and frame them. Some stay with me a while before they find their true home. I hope this piece is a blessing to the people who see it in the context where it is finally hung.

Saint Theresa's Prayer

This was sent to me as a prayer by St Theresa, but I can't attest for the provenance.
It is, however, a beautiful prayer and worth sharing, I think.

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received,
and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be confident knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones,
and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.

SHAPE JOURNEY #4 +5

These are the finished pieces ready for framing.

WIP= works in progress

Works in progress- they already look very different. New post soon.

DAWN OVER 96

This painting was also recently revisited, reworked and framed. I'll be hanging this at the Lowell Chamber of Commerce building at 113 Riverwalk Plaza (across from the showboat). The show will feature 10-13 of my acrylic paintings and my dancer photos. It runs June 15- September 5. The title is appropriate for this venue because 96 runs right past Lowell. This painting is 30"x40".

Lowell is a great little town! and the Chamber is just a short walk down the street from Fire and Water ART! at 219 West Main where I'm honored to be among 25 talented artists who have their work on display.

CHANGE

I guess I'm in a time of change- I saw this piece in a frame and popped it out to add some lighter elements. It was called MORPHING COMPOSITION, and now it's called CHANGE. I guess it kept morphing! and it still could change!

BACK YARD POPPIES and BACKYARD IRIS

Once upon a time in 1993 this was one painting. Today it became two paintings and I like the result!

WALK IN THE SPIRIT

The bottom image is 19x24 (the other parts are closeups). It was inspired by Pentecost and the languages and people who share in the heritage of the Christian faith- all walking in the Spirit! The languages were from iggogle where you can type in a phrase and have it translated into many languages!

quotes from the Painter's Keys

"Rest not! Life is sweeping by; go dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

This is the latest inspirational quote from Robert Genn, a Canadian artist who send out a Twice Weekly email letter about art. Each posting has a clickback where you can tread selected responses to the last email. I find it fascinating and so do thousands of other artists. The man is a power house and full to the brim with ideas and her has a staff the helps him with the labor involved. What a gift to all the artists who read his work!

arise and shine

Someone called with interest in this piece...just after I'd taken it out of Uptown Gallery in Grand Haven! If you're checking this site to see this piece again (you know who you are) it is still available. You may want to search the blog to see earlier postings about it. There's a great quote that goes with it.

We could negotiate a price without frame and glass and I could ship it to you carefully wrapped with the acid free mat and foamcore. Thanks for your interest. Call me or email me through my website listed under links.

SHAPE JOURNEY #2 +3

These are tough to photograph because they have so much texture and sheen. They are the same composition rendered in different colors and orientations. They mirror each other.

MEDITATION #7

This piece is a continuation of the Meditation series I started in 2008.

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

Another recently finished mixed media piece.

SANCTUARY in Art in the Park

This piece, though not accepted into the Muskegon Regional at the Muskegon Museum of Art, made it through 'soft jurying' by MMA curators after the show was selected and this was among 40 pieces chosen to be part of the Art in the Park over the Fourth of July weekend.

SHAPE JOURNEY 1

Finally, a new collage! There are many in the pipeline, but this is the first recent finished piece. I like the simplicity. I did a workshop with Kathleen Conover last week at the Franciscan Center. She is an amazing artist and a wonderful teacher. I need some time to process all the information and start working in my own studio again.

Tosebo work weekend

This is an image from another year, but the same cast of characters were in the water yesterday putting in the Tosebo docks for summer! What a ritual! We were thankful for moderate temperatures. What you don't see are the two lovely assistants, wet and dirty from doing the onshore and on the water's edge component of the work. We accomplished a lot of tasks this weekend that will make the summer pleasant.

Generation to generation

BEING THANKFUL………until you become thankful, you will never find joy.

"Being thankful is not telling God you appreciate the fact that your life is not in a shambles. If that is the basis of your gratitude, you are on slippery ground. Every day of your life you face the possibility that a blessing in your life can be taken away. But blessings are only signs of God's love. The real blessing, of course, is the love itself. Whenever we get too attached to the sign, we lose our grasp on the God who gave it to us. Churches are filled with widows who can explain this to you. We are not ultimately grateful that we are still holding our blessings. We are grateful that we are held by God even when the blessings are slipping through our fingers.

Only when we see this are we able to be truly joyful, because then we have made God our joy. We still cherish the blessings, but not because we have to have them. We cherish them because they are our windows into heaven.

Gratitude is our ability to see the grace of God, morning by morning, no matter what else greets us in the course of the day."

-M. Craig Barnes,

HUSTLING GOD: WHY WE WORK SO HARD FOR WHAT GOD WANTS TO GIVE.
Zondervan, 1999

A HERITAGE ~ FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION, he is god.

“Great is Jehovah! Greatly praise Him! His greatness is beyond discovery! Let each generation tell its children what glorious things He does.”

Psalm 145: 3&4

“… let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans- and all that lives and moves upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit- and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused- and to save us from our own foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.”

-Sigrid Undset

Festival acceptance 2008

This piece was accepted into the Festival of the Arts for 2008.

It's titled PRAYER.

Max and Mary Conover

More cleaned up photos of my in-laws. November 4, 1944 was their wedding day- he was back on a short leave from New Guinea where he was stationed and saw action during WW2.

Max Conover

I just cleaned up a few photos on Photoshop of Fred's dad who died in March. Those old photos didn't age well, there was a lot of damage, but these look pretty good now.

GOLDEN

Though these post as the same size, the first picture
GOLDEN 2 is larger (30"x24")
GOLDEN 1 which I started first, is 24"x20". I've been painting sunflowers for at least a year and these are the ones that are the most satisfying to me. They are based on a gaggle of sunflowers I photographed in Golden, Colorado last year in the Clear Creek History Park.

Yes, they are the same, but different!

As yet not named

This is a painting related to the Meditating on the Light piece I posted recently. They actually are related compositions. This one hasn't revealed its name as yet! Back in 2006 I named them Perek Shirah which is the name of a Hebrew book of songs celebrating the natural world as God's creation. I still love that title and will use it again sometime.

MEDITATING ON THE LIGHT

A new piece- actually an old piece from 2006 that just got a makeover. I always liked the start but I was mystified as to how to finish it. It's in a frame from the past, always nice to give new life to an old frame and glass. This piece will go to the Uptown Gallery in Grand Haven, where I'm going to be part of a watercolor show called Splash 10.

I had a wonderful time today with a group of kind people from Hope Reformed Church in GR who listened to my PowerPoint presentation Enigmas and Mysteries and asked very thoughtful questions.

31 South

I will be entering this acrylic landscape in the 2008 Festival competition in Grand Rapids. This is based on some of the photos I posted a few days ago.

Easter banner dedication

This is from the dedication of the Anastasis banner for Easter at Park Church in Grand Rapids. To see other posts about this banner, enter 'Anastasis' in the search area at the top of the blog.

When I was invited to design a new Easter banner for Park Church, I knew it had to be something that would complement the ‘poems in stone and glass’ that are the church building of Park. There is a rich history of art and faith that needed to be considered.

Through conversations with Bets Casey and Rev. Todd Perry and research into Easter imagery, I developed some sketches and a vision for this banner which I hope will visually sing the Easter Hallelujahs.

In the early Christian church, icons were considered sacred doorways into the divine. Icons titled ANASTASIS- literally ‘to stand again’ tell the resurrection story. I incorporated elements from ancient icons into the Park Church Easter banner.

This Easter banner I created includes the entire story of salvation, not just the reanimation of Christ but the complete package of the salvation story. The cross is there, but instead of a symbol of torture, humiliation and death, it has become a symbol of triumph. The critical element is the open, empty tomb and the stone rolled away . Through it Christ conquered death and so shall we! Also, here, as in the ancient icons of the story, there are witnesses. They could be disciples, or saints who have gone before or they could be a choir of angels. Whoever they are, they are a cloud of witnesses to the story.

The sun on the left rises and sheds light on the scene, but the light also emanates from Christ- the Light of the world- who is our source of light. The Greek letters in his halo say, “I AM WHO I AM.” There is a shine and glimmer in many of the fabrics which catch and reflect the light.

Christ is robed in white and gold. This speaks to his purity and holiness. His hands and feet bear the scars of the crucifixion. His face is aglow. His arms are lifted in proclamation and welcome. He stands firmly and also steps forward toward us. The backdrop of white and beige fields of flowers celebrates the cycle of life, the three lilies could be allusions to the Trinity. From early times, lilies were symbols of purity used in depictions of the annunciation. They suggest the plan of God from the beginning and the start of the salvation story in Jesus birth from the Virgin Mary. Also in groups of three on either side of the banner are striped pillars vertically suggesting strength and the Trinity and also echoing the architecture of the sanctuary of Park Church.

I am honored to have been chosen to create this banner and making it has enriched my faith journey and my art skills. I hope that it will add a visual hallelujah to the Easter worship and bless the celebrants of this great salvation.

inspirations

These are photos I took Sunday while driving home from Tosebo on 31 which are driving my work this week. I think this is near Pentwater. It inspires me every time I drive by. I'm inspired by Melanie Parke, Richard Kooyman, and Mary E. Andersen to approach landscape painting in a looser way. I've started some today and will post some when they are presentable.