Morning in the Forest

I find inspiration in many different places. National Geographic Magazine is a tremendous source of images that I use to spur creativity. I found this photo online and fell in love:

I used that as an impetus to create this painting:

This piece took a total of about 12 hours to complete. I spent about 4 hours working on blending the colors for the sky in the background, then I spent about another 4 hours on the trees and leaves. Yesterday, I set up my easel on the back porch for about 4 hours to work in the sunlight, and completed the deer and plant life in the foreground.

At 30" x 36", this is the largest canvas I have worked on yet.

Art Panels for Burning Man

I can't go to Burning Man this year, but I'm sending some art out to the desert. My friend Christina asked me to spend the day with her a couple weeks ago, working on some art panels that will become part of a maze that they are installing as their project, the Seattle CORE Project.

Each panel in the maze is 2' x 8', and we painted both sides of one panel, which took most of the day. It was great to spend the day out, collaborating together. I think that our styles and ideas meshed pretty well, too.

We came up with the idea to have a fire theme on one side and a water theme on the other side:

I love that I can't even tell where her art began and mine ended. We were able to mesh it together very nicely, which is not a super easy task, if you have ever worked on a project with other people. But this worked out quite nicely, and even though I cannot attend the actual event, I am happy that a small part of me will be there and be enjoyed by other attendees. 

I love the idea of temporary art. That is one of the main things that drew me to Burning Man initially; the idea that everything is temporary, and we must make the most of the precious time that we have here on this temporal plane. As an artist, I want to create beautiful things, and I crave the company of other creative humans. I often get very attached to my work, but I am learning one of the labors in life is letting go of that which you are attached to and moving forward to new discoveries, new creations, and new realizations, whilst holding on to that which makes you a vital, essential human... Every day is a new experience, and we build upon what we feel is important while leaving behind what we deem of lesser value. And that is different for every human, so we are constantly striving to balance our needs and values, both with and against other humans' needs and values.

These wood panels will be installed for the week of the event at the end of August, then everything will be burned in a huge effigy, as is tradition. The desert is slowly transformed from a barren ancient lakebed, to a beautiful thriving city, to a lakebed again, with no trace of the event that took place there. It is an annual reminder of the temporal, momentary nature of our lives. I love the poetry in that.

Seattle Under Attack! The Monster of South Lake Union

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to Gasworks Park and painted the view of downtown from there:

It was a very peaceful, beautiful day. Until that pesky sea monster decided to come out again!

While this is actually a freshwater lake, I happen to know that this is a very smart sea monster. It came in through the Ballard Locks.



Acrylic on Canvas
22" x 28"
$450

Fremont Solstice Parade

On June 22, 2013 several friends gathered to paint ourselves and ride bikes through Fremont, as is tradition for the start of the Fremont Solstice Parade. My friend Alex Garland was there and took tons of great photos, though we missed each other in the swarms of people. 

While there was an "official" painting party in Fremont before the start of the race, we hosted a smaller event at my house where my friends and I could paint each other in a smaller, quieter setting while we soothed our anxious our nerves. 

The paintings turned out great! There are some incredibly creative people here in Seattle. In our group alone, we had several themes: me, as my art; a shark; Rosie the Riveter; and a peacock:

I went as my own art. I covered myself in blue paint, and then I asked my friends to paint me as their interpretations of my art. This is the result: 

One of my friends asked me to paint him as the earth and sky with a big sun across the shoulder:

Inspired by my Jellyfish painting, one of my friends added a great jellyfish to my leg: 

One of the highlights of the day for me was meeting the artist Henry. I love this man's work, and it was really inspiring to meet him.