no woman is an island

Maria sends an email… I will be back in town next week and was wondering if you have any of your work on exhibit right now. We have friends coming into town for a few days and I’m thinking of things for us to do. So if you were showing somewhere I would love to take our friends. One of them is an artist herself.

I invite Maria, Susan and Laura to come to my studio.

As you might expect  anatomy study surrounds us. We talk the body for a good while. Laura personally relates to the newest kidney drawing sitting on my table. Susan wants to know about materials – the paint and paper.  I understand she has worked in woodcut and now does linocut.

Do you have any prints, she wonders. This question always confuses me. Do people mean a reproduction like a giclée or poster? Or do they mean an original print? I’m a printmaker. I stumble with the words … I have real prints, I say.

Maria wants to know about one particular small print. I’ve only thought about anatomy lately so I have to stop, change focus and think … considering the content of the work, I find it amusing. I can tell Susan and Laura do too.

Self-Sustaining Confusion, MM – Collage and hand-painted print, 12 x 10″

Here it is, in a nutshell:
The title – Self-Sustaining Confusion – I find in physicist David Bohm’s book On Creativity. I write the phrase on a piece of paper and leave it on my work table. Weeks pass and one day the rest of the composition formulates while I listen to NPR.  A scientist talks about the brain chemistry at various stages of awareness (or lack of) and I hear things like 69 unfolded proteins and limited real-estate in the brain. And that’s that, I pull out a piece of copper and start drawing.

We talk printmaking and intaglio. This is a dry point.  I use a sharp-pointed tool to  scratch the image directly on a copper-plate (I love copper!). Can you see it? ↓ The process of both printmaking and collage tend to free me up, work flows more stream of consciousness.

About this print in particular – If I recall correctly I pull 15 prints, only 7 of them are worth saving. In general the drypoint technique won’t allow for too many pulls, the marks are too irregular.

copper plate with drawing on it

a few pulls of the print

Each image varies slightly. This one is the first image I collage and paint in the series of 7.

We talk about California (where they are from), the ocean, and the desert. We discuss raising chickens (I learn some things) and having fresh eggs (Susan does).  Of course I bring up making  egg tempera paint. They leave my home with plans to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s (Taliesin West).

Ladies, I appreciate our morning together. Thank you Susan for wanting to take home Self-Sustaining Confusion. It’s the last one of that series. Enjoy it!

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The blog posts titled No Woman is an Island acknowledge the people and/or organizations who support me and the work I do.

a cicada from kansas city

“My mother is on vacation from Minnesota and texted me some of your images at ASU. I love them. I love bugs and bats and anatomy and maps and you have put them all together in the most beautiful way…”

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“My husband and I are from Kansas City and are print makers…
…we dabble in collage as well so really appreciate what you are doing.
…Do you have any cicadas? …if you decide you would like some cicadas, I have quite the collection of them and would be happy to send some along for inspiration.”

A few weeks later a package arrives!

This is the one I choose to study and paint. I find two used Missouri maps here in Phoenix – what are the odds of that! I plan on another composition soon.

mixed media collage, 12 x 12″

Krystal shares more:
“….Aren’t they amazing. Right after they shed their husks they are completely white. I sit with them on my hand and watch them turn into their colors, their wings are tiny little clumps and then as they dry they uncurl and form into shape. It takes about 45 minutes and it’s the coolest thing to watch. Each group is a different size and marked differently.
…The orange wings came off small, all black cicadas from last summer. I didn’t keep their bodies because they weren’t particularly interesting, but I had never seen orange wings before. If I find them soon enough after they die and they are still flexible, I can pin the wings out and dry them that way. I am just fascinated with them. Glad you find them beautiful, enjoy.”

Krystal and her husband are artists and printmakers from Kansas City, Missouri.

There’s magic and myth associated with Cicadas, worth looking up if you’re inclined. They symbolize carefree living, resurrection and immortality. They connect to the ideas of spiritual realization and spiritual ecstasy.

Thank you Krystal! Yes, they are amazing.

There’s more to this story, but I’ll save that for another time. I plan to show the Kansas Cicada, along with other studies, in the STEAM exhibition, opening next month at the Tempe Center for the Arts.

today i am a biologist

 

Growth is a spiral process, doubling back on itself, reassessing and regrouping. –    Julia Margaret Cameron

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This is the second time I make a map. The first, a few years back, was a map of the city of Phoenix laid out as a living cell. I made it for an invitational exhibition called You Are Here. That summer I saw myself as a cartographer. With this new drawing the cell itself is primary, the city is secondary and I am a biologist mapping out the smallest unit of life.

In esoteric teaching it’s believed there exists a blueprint of the physical body. Changes in the body occur in the blueprint before they appear into its physical form. As I work I think there must be a blueprint for each and every individual cell. Imagine that!

I can probably still call this work You are Here. You think cells are inside you but in fact you are in each cell. Are you the life in each tiny cell? Could you in fact be the maker of each cell?

Am I the maker of the blueprint?  Am I the one who maps out each and every cell? I can only say for certain – today I am.

Detail shot of the cell.

The Nucleus controls activities and contains the cells genetic material (DNA). The And the Endoplasmic Reticulum is like a labrynth holding and moving molecules.

The Golgi Body packages proteins and lipids before they get sent to their destination.

The Mitochondria is the power plant of the cell and holds its own DNA

I didn’t plan to work this big but in the end it’s allowed for me to really think about the space I fill – the space I live in.

 

mano

This hand has no gold.

I collage a hand that is only about ritual and material.  That’s all.

Ggraphite, gesso, casein, ink, silver leaf – collaged and varnished doily, on Japanese paper. 7″ x 5″

caballo del mar

Caballo del Mar is Spanish for Seahorse.

A student gives me this small seahorse that once belonged to her grandmother. She gives it to me because she says she knows I’ll paint it. Aimee is correct. I accept the precious object knowing I will complete an anatomy study.

The seahorse is a marine fish in the genus Hippocampus. Hippocampus comes from the Ancient Greek, hippo meaning horse and kampos meaning sea monster.

A few facts:

• These creatures have independently moving eyes.
• Their body is covered with consecutive rings of bony plates.
• Seahorses are fish. They use gills to breathe and have a swim bladder to help regulate their buoyancy. Note: they are not very good swimmers.
• They have no teeth and no stomach. Food moves through their digestive system quickly; they eat almost constantly to stay alive.
• The male gives birth, he carries the brood pouch.
• I believe, when I begin the composition, seahorses mate for life (which is why I paint two), and though they do form a bond, I learn for most, it is usually only through breeding season.

Seahorses were given international protection on May 15, 2004 (under CITES). Millions are now being traded around the world for many reasons including for their use in traditional Chinese medicine. There is also deterioration occurring in the Coral reefs and seagrass were they make their home. Learning this, I have to say, I’d feel even more saddness for them if they did mate for life.

I wish we could be better caretakers of all of life.

Here is the finished anatomy study of a female (facing left) and male (at bottom) seahorse. I place them in the Pacific Ocean, because they are found in warmer waters.

Thanks Aimee.

Caballos del Mar, Mixed Media collage, 12 x 12″

Seahorse’s symbolize:

• Patience
• Friendliness
• Protection
• Inflexibility
• Persistence
• Contentment

el murciélago

Murciélago is Spanish for bat. I like the word, and I like the creature.

Approximately 70 species of bats live in the Sonoran desert region, about 27 of those species live right here in the state of Arizona, more than in any other state. I live near a bat colony and note them as they occasionally fly about the neighborhood.

About bats:
Bats are from the order of Chiroptera (meaning hand-wing), which describes their most unusual anatomical feature and the reason why it’s the only mammal naturally capable of true and sustained flight. In the course of working on this study I learn more about this magnificent nocturnal creature.

• A bats body is hairy while a leathery membrane makes up its wonderful wings.
• Bats are not blind though see best at night.
• They use echo-location to maneuver through space, and to help find shelter and prey.
• They have an acute sense of smell which helps in the rearing of their young in large maternity colonies. In fact, it’s the way they find their own young in the midst of hundreds of others. I find it particularly interesting that colonies include non-reproducing females that help with rearing duties.

In the lower elevations of Arizona bats mate in late Spring, maybe as early as March.  In Northern Arizona bats can hibernate 5 to 8 months. 

Bats are in serious decline. They are an important part of our ecosystem helping to keep populations of night-flying insects like mosquitos, in control. They disperse seeds and pollinate many plants. In the state of Arizona bats and bat colonies are protected by law.

Symbolism:
Because bats live in the belly of Mother Earth, they symbolize death and rebirth. They are  reborn every evening at dusk. The Native Americans observed them as highly social creatures with strong familial ties. While the bat is nurturing, verbal, enjoys touch, it is also shy, intelligent and gentle.

Bat medicine teaches us to release fear. Think new beginnings.

 

studying a tarantula hawk

My friend Patricia gives me this tarantula hawk for my insect anatomy series. She finds it dead inside her home. I learn it’s the official state insect of New Mexico. After what I read about the wasp I wonder why the Land of Enchantment would adopt such a creäture. Ironically there are a few animals that will eat a tarantula hawk wasp – the road runner, New Mexico’s state bird, is one of them.

The tarantula hawk is a spider wasp with a metallic blue body and rust colored wings. This one here has large, silvery graphite eyes (very New Mexico if you ask me). The striking appearance is aposematism  or warning coloration that benefits predator and prey – the wasp has a most painful sting. Despite these qualities it is relatively docile and attacks only when provoked.

The female wasp hunts tarantulas. When she captures one, she paralyzes and drags it to her nest where she lays a single egg in the spider’s abdomen. The larvae will feed on the live tarantula until it emerges as an adult to continue the life cycle.

The day Patricia gave me this bug, my husband saw one while on his bike ride in the Phoenix dessert. By his description, which included a newly caught tarantula, I knew what it was immediately. It lives in warm climates and here in the US is mostly found across the Southwest.

una campamocha, a praying mantis

From whence arrived the praying mantis?
From outer space, or lost Atlantis?
I glimpse the grim, green metal mug
That masks this pseudo-saintly bug,
Orthopterous, also carnivorous,
And faintly whisper, Lord deliver us.
~Ogden Nash~

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Campamocha is Spanish for Praying Mantis. I like the word.

La Campamocha, 12 x 12″, collage on panel

After researching this insect, I feel facts and symbolic connections are a bit out of synch. It may be that the symbolic associations are purely visual. I must say though it’s one odd-looking bug. It’s a cousin to the termite and maybe a prototype of the cockroach.

A little more…

• mantises have compound eyes that give them a binocular field of vision
• their one ear is on the underside of the belly (similar to a cricket if I recall correctly)
• its neck is flexible and rotates 180 degrees
• life span is about 10-12 months
• spiked forelegs help them hold prey securely
• it’s considered a predator
• it’s a carnivore
• they can fly (they can?!)

In terms of symbology …

• mantises blend with their environment and becomes invisible to enemies
• they teach us how to still the outer mind and go within
• the word Mantis is Greek for prophet or seer
• it is the oldest symbol of God.

…. could this be why we found this one staring at us from a bottle of wine….

Since I began working on this insect series I have received emails that include photos of exotic bugs, names and web sites of artists who depict bugs and many interesting reads. I know many of your favorite bugs : cute and ugly. I’ve been visited by a number of insects whom I’m sure wish their presence known (la campamocha en la botella de vino). All the bugs I drew made some personal connect via a friend or were direct. I appreciate it all. If we could learn to respect the smallest of life it would certainly be a better thing all the way around.

The most recent link I received reminded me of the Insect People from the Navajo Creation Myth: Insects in Art and Religion of the American Southwest. 

… enjoy…the bugs.

a jerusalem cricket

This bug is neither from Jerusalem nor is it related to a cricket. It is found across the western United States and Mexico. Years ago I met one in the Texas desert. It jumped, I ran. In Spanish it is called Niño de la Tierra – which translates to Child of the Earth. The one I met had a lighter colored head, more truly like a baby. This one is darker.  They are also known as Potato Bugs. They have many Navajo names that all refer to the insects head:

c’ic’in lici (Tsiitsʼiin łichíʼí) “red-skull”
c’os bic’ic lici (Chʼosh bitsiitsʼiin łichíʼí) “red-skull bug”
c’ic’in lici’ I coh (Tsiitsʼiin łichíʼítsoh) “big red-skull”
wo se c’ini or rositsini or yo sic’ini (Wóó tsiitsʼiin/Yaaʼ tsiitsʼiiní) “skull insect”

While the nocturnal insect has strong mandibles it has a supposed meek disposition. It may bite if threatened – but no worry, the bite is not venomous.

I think my almost complete painting resembles Talavera pottery. Somehow it goes from creepy (above) to sweet (below). I had the similar challenge with this bug as I had with the Palo Verde Beetle.  I work at keeping translucent what should really be darker  and opaque – so one could still note the anatomy. I may go darker if I find a balance.

 

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Every summer for the last few years, I spend a week doing a drawing a day. This year I focus on a series of small bug works. The time line is more like a bug a week. I intended to only make four, but as bugs came my way (via friends) I kept thinking – only one more. I enjoyed the learning experience so much I doubled the plan.

Some of my bugs will show at the i.d.e.a. Museum in an invitational  titled Jeepers Creepers – Bugs in Art Exhibition. The show opens in October and will be in partnership with the ASU natural history entomology collection.

This Jerusalem Cricket is commissioned by Liz Casebolt and her cat Charlie Goodyear. Liz was my neighbor here in Phoenix. She now lives in Burbank – hence the AZ and CA maps in the background of the artwork.

Thanks Liz –  No Woman is an Island.

tale of a hawk moth

You landed on my screen door to get photographed and drawn, didn’t you? I ask the striking creature / bug / moth that clings to my screen door one early morning, last week. It’s there all day and doesn’t seem bothered while we enter and exit. First thing the following day, I go to the door and sadly – it’s gone.

Liz, a friend who lives in California, sends a text – Is this the same kind of moth you had on your door yesterday? Did my moth fly to California overnight to visit Liz? One can think that with the photo that is attached.

I learn (via Facebook where I’d posted the photo) it’s a Hawk Moth. It flies like a hummingbird, Dave writes. Donna comments it’s a White Lined Sphinx Moth an important pollinator, especially of my neighbors Sacred Datura. Nature is amazing, says Nancy. And as though reading my mind Dominique notes … as your reputation spreads among the arthropods you will surely encounter more six-legged friends. Just keep the screen doors deployed. And it’s unanimous – Yes! It arrived to be drawn.

After more reading : I conclude the reason it left at night is because it’s nocturnal and if it did go to California, it did so because it can go without eating for long periods of time.

Here is the Hawk Moth.

The questions at the start: Do I focus on the external design of the moth? Do I try to include internal anatomy?  I do a bit of both.

I include its larvae (and anatomy) which is medium to large with a stout body.

When complete the organs I include make it appear like some sort of wired, electrical moth. I’ll leave the wings as they are – dark, dense and lined. And furry – the moth appears to have hair – but in fact it has scales and they keep it warm as it flies at night.

I talk to Robin, a neighbor, and I tell her about the great moth at my door. She looks horrified. I guess some people find them creepy. I don’t. Though I learn something that I’ll keep from her – some Hawk Moths can have a tongue as long as 14 inches. Not this one, I’m sure.

…one more composition for the bug exhibit.

palo verde beetle

I received an invitation to take part in – of all things – a Bugs in Art themed show.  I wouldn’t naturally do this sort of examination, but because it is so out of my comfort zone – why not. I enjoy studying life and maybe I enjoy overcoming fears.

This Palo Verde Root Borer has been one interesting challenge. A friend gave me the creäture. I know it’s not alive but I am nervous the entire time I paint.

It is oddly beautiful in its larva stage – it is large, yellow with bright red dots – and can live for 3 years before emerging from the ground. The adult on the other hand – is black or brown in color, has long antenna’s, and spines on the thorax which form a collar around the “neck” of the beetle. They have wings and can fly. The mature beetle emerges in the humid summer months to mate and dies soon afterward; adult lifespan is about one month.

Derobrachus geminatus – this longhorn beetle is native to the American Southwest and northern Mexico. It derives its name from the Palo Verde tree. It is one of the largest beetles in North America and can reach up to three and a half inches in length. I met my first one soon after moving to Phoenix. I might never have come here if I’d known about this bug.

Palo Verde Study – mixed media collage – 10″ x 10″

I’m not complete with the composition. After laying it out I decide to show the wings.  I photograph  and post at this stage only because I know the work is going to change again. This is an anatomy study, as best I can figure out the bugs insides, I take liberty especially with color. I add green because it should be verde even if only in my imagination. I will darken things up a bit more soon. Maybe.

After spending several days looking at it under a magnifying glass I decide the creepiest  thing about the bug are the antenna’s. Next bug I paint will be something less intimidating – I need the break.

 

no woman is an island – continues

Monica we are visiting Phoenix and just had a yoga class at Desert Song … and fell in love with your work. Especially the ‘Subtle Female Back Body’. Anita said she loved another work, ‘Handstand’? Could we make an appointment to view your work or give you a call this morning?

Marti and her husband John are in my studio by noon, and when they leave they take 4 artworks (technically 3) with them. In between we talk about their children, dogs, cats, quilt-making, wool, yarn, travel, fishing and of course – Yoga.

They spend time looking at the various large figure studies I am painting. They respond to them and I appreciate the dialogue. As we move through the studio they see and like my recent animal anatomy compositions. In particular they like the 2-sided hanging works on paper (this is why I consider this one work two). They choose the cat and bird – titled Earth and Air.

I talk about the hanging system and how I am playing with ideas for larger work. John explains another type of hook/hardware to me. He wonders if I have any fish images. I do not. They are heading to a fishing store after our studio visit.

Did I mention Marti and John live in Portland, Oregon.

Air
12″ x 12″
Casein, Graphite, on Paper
Print on plexi
2013

This work is collage (with architectural renderings), painted, sanded and varnished. The cat is egg tempera, the bird is casein. I mention the durability of casein. I tell them about it’s earliest known use in Egyptian work. Casein is a binder. Consequently with all that layering they are stiff works of paper and designed to hang in space, as opposed to being framed and on the wall.

Earth
12″ x 12″
Egg Tempera, Graphite, on Paper
2013

They also choose 2 reproductions – images I had printed on plexiglass. The originals are  casein (bee) and egg tempera (cat).  Marti likes The Cat and John likes The Bee. I explain the reproductions are also experimental ways of finishing and hanging an image. While all of it can hang traditionally, it can also hang uniquely without framing.

Cat Study
12″ x 12″
Print on plexiglass
2013

Bee Study 
12″ x 12″
Print on plexiglass
2013

My animals will be residing in Portland. Thank you Marti and John. It was good to meet you. John enjoy your fishing and Marti, quilt-making is great work – get into that studio.

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The blog posts titled No Woman is an Island acknowledge the people and/or organizations who support me and the work I do.

… and then there were 2

animal study / animal medicine

detail

Here are the last two small studies of an animal series, a vertebrate and an invertebrate.

The hummingbird is an animal with a backbone – more accurate – it has a well-developed internal skeleton.  Vertebrates have a complex body and for my work – make for an opaque focal point. The red In above detail represents muscle tissue, the white is bone.

The butterfly below – an invertebrate – has no back bone. Compared to my other work it seems more transparent. I’m surprised to learn 98% of animals are invertebrates. Other attributes: small and slow-moving, no back bone (no internal skeleton at all), and no cell walls.

…no cell walls!?

detail

This series of 4 (I’ve shown you 2 details in earlier posts)  are on panel. I laid in collage and carefully rendered shapes with graphite and casein. All these creatures are found in Arizona. And as the earlier post suggests, could have been found in my studio.  Each painting is finished with several coats of varnish.

These are for an invitational exhibition at Shemer – AZ MicroArt to coincIde with AZ MicroDwell (alternative spaces for simple living).

… now think animal medicine …
The hummingbird associated with guidance – is a light in the darkness. The butterfly supports transformation. Both connect to joy. The bee symbolizes work, community and communication. And the beetle surrenders to change, and is known for its adaptability.

Studying a Hercules Beetle
Bee Study

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studying a hercules beetle

Hercules Beetle, Dynastes Hercules

A job took my husband out to a mine in Superior, AZ a few years ago. Deep in the earth he found this Hercules Beetle. He thought I would appreciate the intimidating creature.

It’s the subject of this small collage below. Though I want to approach the work like other anatomy studies, I can’t. Insects are invertebrates – they don’t have skeletal and muscular systems like vertebrates do.

detail of Hercules study

Insects don’t have solid muscles that contract and pull on tendons that pull on bones to make them move. Their muscles are fluid encased in their exoskeleton. They move via a hydraulic system – fluid moves from chamber to chamber causing limbs to straighten out at high pressure and fold at low pressure. If you’ve ever stepped on a bug and seen the white stuff that comes out, that’s the fluid that supports their movement … their muscles. I may never step on a bug again now that I understand this so clearly.

Aside from shape and size – the color of this bug is also a notable quality. Consider it a form of camouflage.  The beetle appears yellow-green or black depending on moisture in the atmosphere. During dry conditions it can be a yellow color. During humid conditions it can appear black. This one, living and dying in the dry heat of Arizona, leans towards green.

I’ve made the small animal studies for 2 upcoming invitational group exhibits. This week someone else invited me to participate in a pseudo-science show. Pseudo-Science – I’ll look up the phrase and consider it may be another interesting opportunity to show these small works.

I plan to get back to my large figure work now. I’ve been away from it for too long. The understanding I now have from these small animal studies is invaluable.

it’s about material – period

The smallest feline is a masterpiece.― Leonardo da Vinci

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Last month Carolyn ( who worked out the Creature in Creature Man Nature ) gave me a prepared paper.  She preps a quality sheet of drawing paper on both sides and doesn’t necessarily frame the artwork though she does fix it. I  like how she attaches it right to the wall, with no glass. I experience the direct surface of a work on paper, including edges. Her materials are graphite and acrylic white, black and gray washes and gesso. I use egg tempera, casein, and work with color.

She gives me a small sheet and says – Here, this is for you to play with … it’s small and maybe you won’t think it so precious. You can experiment.  She’s coated both sides with 4 layers of moulding paste. The paper is thick, substantial and has an object-like quality to it. Each side feels slightly different.

Oh, it’s precious all right – I’m not wasting an inch of this. I paint both sides.

The first two works are cat anatomy studies. The same cat takes up the same space on either side of the sheet.

Above, the cat is painted in egg tempera. The yolk and pigment mixture I’ve made glides smoothly across the surface. I enjoy the feel and so play with / rework the design many (many) times.  I don’t feel it’s complete yet.

The cat below, the flip side of the same paper, is in casein.  It takes well to the bit of tooth on the surface. The paint doesn’t glide, it sits different. I do like the quality though. I’ll continue to work materials and composition.

I decide to prepare a few sheets myself.  I use a heavy Arches watercolor paper. I lay 4-5 coats of moulding paste on each side and at the last-minute I decide to collage in architectural drawings that I’ve collected.

I work on a bird (below), all the while considering what the other side might become. Mary ( the Nature in Creature Man Nature ) has invited me to take part in a group show at 515. These are sized for that exhibit, so maybe one will hang sooner rather than later.  I’ll have to come up with an interesting hanging system, that too appeals to me.

Creature Man Nature closed this weekend. It was a good run. We hope to find an exhibition venue outside of Arizona next.