Shout out to a neat organization

Wish I were younger, unfettered, and Canadian.  The place I'm talking about is Spark Box Studio, located in Picton, PEI, Ontario.  

From their website, Spark Box Studio is a:

Space for artists to live, research, investigate and experiment. We aim to encourage discovery and the cultivation of new ideas, provide career-building opportunities for artists at all stages, and to engage with the community through the arts.

 The site has a section offering information about "The Business of Art" and is now taking applications for a summertime one-week residency for artists aged 19-29.  There's more, though, so check out the site 

UPD:  And check out the organization, too, if you happen to be up that way!

Winter's Bone and Sinew - New Painting

A week ago, we had two lovely snowfalls back to back.  It shut the schools down for, well, the entire week.  It also meant closure of Sharp Spring's Natural Area, an exquisite many acres of nearly virgin land.  I parked outside the gates, and with my Iphone and dog, went exploring and picture-taking. 

My plan was to walk a half hour or so, but, entranced by the exquisite beauty of it all, found myself returning to the car nearly two hours later.  Smokey didn't seem to mind and sprang about in the snow more lively than I'd seen the 10-year-old dalmatian in ages.  I think she felt as uplifted as I did in "owning" the place, unspoiled by human footsteps, tire tracks and more.  

I painted the above from one of the photos I'd taken, waivering about whether to add the foreground fence that bracketed the photo on the lower right side.  In the end, I thought the stark expanse more like the breathtaking experience I felt when there. 

The title - Winter's Bone and Sinew - comes from a John Burroughs quote:  Winter has given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and the blood.

Upcoming Harpeth Hall Green Art show includes one of my paintings

Yay!  It selected this one, which is done on Arches 140 # cold pressed paper.  Inks/paints used are my homemade ones, including stains of blueberry, saffron, blackberry, chamomile and walnut.  It's made archival by a coat of mat medium on front and back.  Now to mat, frame, present it and at the opening, enjoy it among the field of work by other artists from 11 states who submitted to this show. 

What the witches brew concocted...

The top painting is on Arches 140 lb. watercolor paper and the paints really did beautifully - especially the walnut one I made which was smooth like butter and very, very rich which is why I used it alone in the very zen-like second painting.  Done in the Sumi-e style, it is simply walnut paint on the handcrafted pampas grass paper I made.  

Hope you enjoyed todays lesson.  = )

Time to validate

I avoided the news about the Arizona massacre, just did not want to go there, let the news in.  After 9/11 (like the rest of America) and later with my sons serving and losing "brothers" in Iraq and later, at home, I became shell-shocked and found the best coping mechanism was to avoid, deny, and refuse to go to that dark, mournful place. 

But ... I touched my toe into the water today, listening to Obama's speech replayed on YouTube since I conveniently missed it last night.  (There's a very stark contrast between the woman I am today and who I was just two years ago)...  I did not watch the funeral for young Christina, and avoided the news stories for the most part too. 

But now, after listening to his speech last night ... well, lets just say the floodgates are open, let the mourning begin.  I don't have words now, only tears.  For the little innocent Christina Green who never got to experience that first kiss, have a teenage fight with her mom and dad, walk down the aisle, suffer through childbirth, feel the tickle of her own child's breath on her neck. 

I told my youngest son after a brother-in-arms' suicide some time ago:  "You need to live a life that validates him."  Well, this incident, Obama's words, that little girl's death makes me want to validate her life, all their lives, too. 

My husband thinks I'm a witch! LOL

OK, to be fair, he's not entirely off base.

I mean, on the front door, we have this smartass window sticker we bought when in Glastonbury (UK) this past fall that's a spin on the Neighborhood Watch signs that every good whitebread neighborhood posts.  Ours reads "Neighborhood Witch." 

Then, there's the pot of pampas grass boiling in the big corn pot on the stove.  You can't smell it, but there's a definite scent of Fels Naptha Brown Soap wafting in the air. 

And finally, there's these glass jars of liquid on the dining room table, shown above.  To the uninitiated, they COULD resemble witches tinctures and such. If you look closer, though, and are familiar with the color chart below, you'll figure out that they are artists paints.  Mine though are non-toxic, environmentally pure as the driven snow, and all natural.  Really. 

You see, I'm entering a juried art show this coming weekend where the emphasis is on "green" - the movement not the color.  So... I figured what better way to "represent" than to create works using all-green materials, right?  And as you can see from the chart, I do have an array of colors to work with, though, ironically, there's a dearth of green in these...

Oh, and the pampas grass boiling on the stove?  It's for the paper to paint on, silly! 

Paris the Luminous Years,

Just finished watching the 2010 PBS Documentary and so glad I TIVO'd it.  What a glorious, wonderful doc it was. 

Unfortunately, the NY Times panned the special as in:


"This film, which has its premiere on PBS on Wednesday, looks at the city that seduced the likes of Picasso, Chagall, Apollinaire, Diaghilev and of course, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. It pays homage, though, not in the seditious, inventive spirit of the avant-garde that Paris once nurtured, but in the time-tested, didactic and dutiful tone of a typical PBS documentary.
Paris is still a wonderful city, but it no longer draws the world’s most innovative artists and thinkers. PBS is still a serious, responsible institution that shows good work, but creativity and élan have migrated to other networks and cable channels."

I'll leave it for you to decide, but know that while sorting my receipts from 2010, it made for great time-passing and entralling watching. 

2010 in 100 words, more or less

I gotta say, this was an excellent year for me personally and professionally!

I dove headfirst into art this year, reorganized and formalized my studio, and by chance scored my first solo show at an upscale restaurant in Nashville for six weeks from late June to Father's Day.  Great timing except Nashville's millenial flood took place the weekend of my scheduled reception.  Most I knew were fortunate and suffered no or minimal losses but many areas were devastated.  My reception ended up closing the show, more or less, but still a nice crowd and healthy sales meant I could claim professional artist status!   At year end, my art is
hanging in several venues in Middle Tennessee and a few more people are puzzled by the name "Moesse."
 
A mid-year turning point meant transitioning from Hazel King's tutelage to more independent study, and the formation of Collaborative Artists Network (Nashville) - www.thecann.org - with fellow painters and dear, dear friends.  A more personal turning point came when I took a stand against a loved one, ending a pattern of enabling.  By year end, I'm glad to say, it was proven to be a good decision for all involved and things are looking up on that front.

A wedding in October was special partly because I got to talk to Canadian superstar Bryan Adams and tell him David and I were married to one of his songs (which I'm sure he hears ALL the time).  What made it stellarly special (my phrase in case ya couldn't tell), was that my dear, great and wonderful brother Barry married the love of his lifetime(s), Gretchen.  I used the plural because, yeah, their spirits have been dancing this love tune for centuries.

Another wedding in November, this time in England, meant a stellar trip across the pond, celebrating the union of two young people, spending great time with David's family, touring the southwest region, and freezing our butts off.  All before jetting back home just in time to beat the U.K. version of Snowpocalypse!  While there, I discovered snoods, Primark's cheap but cozy for a season offerings, and an Indian import store offering huge zippered bags on the cheap to lug home our dirty laundry.

December was a blur with unpacking, preparing and mailing out more than a dozen Christmas parcels to friends and family from afar, a few parties, and yes, prepping for and pulling off a New Year's Day open house. I did little painting, but put at the top of the blog two abstracts that I did that I'm very pleased with. 

In closing, know that I'm eagerly anticipating great things for 2011, for two reasons.  First, I have this weird thing for prime numbers (I think because I was born on the 13th in 1959) and 2011 is about as prime as you can get, baby!  Second, my dark-haired brother was the first newcomer to step foot through the door that day, followed by his male black lab, Nigel.  I'm told Scottish tradition says that if a dark-haired male is the first to cross the threshold New Year's Day, it bodes well for the year.  I'll take all this as a good, hopeful sign for more good things to come. 

Here's hoping you experience all good things for 2011. 
MWS