Handwork on Prints
“Wooden ships on the water, very free”. Or maybe there is just the one ship, and the one fishing net, there in the top two 3″ x 3″ prints.
I think the double print is quite different. So probably the lower image is not a wooden ship, but a plant; a fern in the ground, with five fronds newly emerging above the surface. And I suppose the upper image is not a fishing net at all, but a sea creature submerged below the surface of the ocean, with delicate tendrils reaching up to find plankton in sunlit layers above it.
OK, despite my own claims sometimes I do have story for my artworks. But generally the stories come after, not before, the making. The images must come first, then the story. If I start out with a story line and a plan, the artwork will likely never be completed, never be satisfying. The joy, the exploration, will probably be absent, and there will be only work and frustration.
Versions III
Versions II
Versions
Trees Always
Varied Abstraction
Working Back
The above pieces are all tweaks or revisions or completions of older work. I stash everything, especially old prints that I never saw as finished works. Generally I printed several prints from various plates, and after working into a few to complete them as mixed media pieces, I would tuck away a few still incomplete. It is interesting to see these again, and work on them years later. Sometimes I can compare my newly finished pieces with ones I finished the same year I printed the starting images. Not sure I learn much, but I do have fun!
Walking My Way
First, this is not directly about art, though I am sure everything I do registers somehow in my art eventually.
This post is about my walking habit, and the pleasure it is giving me. Walking has always been important to me, even when I did not recognize this fact. As a troubled, unhappy, and angry teenager, I would escape my house and walk, sometimes very late at night. I was lucky enough to be in a quiet safe neighborhood, and not in large city…
I have been in the habit of walking regularly for the past couple of years; by this I mean 20-40 minute walks several times a week. But early this year we had a surprising snowfall that remained on the ground for much longer than usual, and I dressed for the weather and went walking!
It was lovely! I was enchanted by the transformation of my neighborhood and the town. Walking familiar streets each day had become an exploration; everything seemed new and different. It made me happy, and I walked for hours instead of for half an hour. This became the start of a new walking plan. My walking goal now is two miles per day, but I often walk a bit further. This has been easy and enjoyable through the summer, but I plan to continue as the weather becomes wetter and colder. I will find the rainproof pants, and the long johns! Walking is making me happy!
