Community is something many of us do not get enough of these days, due to all the risks and fears and restrictions of the Covid pandemic. And most artists do benefit from some community with other artists, not just friends and family.

I have lacked this sense of community most of my life. Prior to the pandemic, I had some small sense of an arts community for many years, but this was limited. A small group of friends met weekly to make art. Most of the group did not share my dedication to almost daily art. Rather they enjoyed a more limited commitment, and worked primarily during our two hour weekly meetings. So our sessions were social and the friendship was wonderful, but was not quite satisfying as community with other artists. And our weekly sessions were suspended in 2020.

I suppose that making, of one sort or another, has become something of a passion for me, even when I do not exhibit my work. Some pieces hang in my home & studio, some are gifted, some are simply stored! I do find it hard to use the word “passion” about myself. Like many “Brits”, I was not brought up to acknowledge any passions in a serious way :-)! But my immersion in making is real, and important to me.

Like many artists, I enjoy working alone. I am an introvert, but … introverts still want friends and community. We just need time alone as well, maybe a lot of time alone! But I absolutely enjoy sharing time and conversation with other like minded artists or with supportive members of the arts community. One good reason to show art is to generate contact with others with an interest in art! Friends and family may be wonderfully supportive, but I find that their interest and involvement in my work is limited. So I need to seek out some community with other artists.

Recently an acquaintance I have not seen in years happened on my current art exhibit, and reached out by email to tell me that she enjoyed my work. This was lovely to hear, and we sent a reply or two back and forth. Here is part of my correspondence.

This post describes two altered wine box artworks currently on display at my exhibit at the Uptown Dental Clinic. I have made several mixed media relief art works using old drawers and boxes. Most of these are fairly small, and can be hung on a wall for display or they can displayed free standing on any flat surface. Some of these include LED lights intrinsic to the artwork.

The Mining Museum

The Mining Museum is one of the two altered wooden wine boxes that were provided by a local art enthusiast.

I removed one of the two “shelf” fittings for the wine bottles, and cut a circular hole in the center of one short side of the box. This became the top of the art piece.

Then I installed a coil of battery operated tiny LED lights over circular hole. I used one of the glass pieces from a candle stand on top over the lights; this references a old style miner’s lantern. There is one bare “bulb” LED dangling down into the “mine” display that is the main section of this piece.

The miner is a cast in clear resin from a paper clay original that is used in another artwork. The relief sculpture was based on a pencil drawing. I doodled this draped figure originally on scratch brown paper, then found him charming. The sculpted figure & subsequent casts are low relief, that is they are partial figures about 1/4” – 5/8” thick. The miner is clear with a touch of iridescent pearl pigment. I mounted him in the box after I lined it with a poly litho print. I cut and covered foam pieces in order to create the irregular top to the mine.

The miner’s “pick axe” is made from three found nails. I found these rusty nails buried in my yard. They are an old type of square nail. I placed the two metal parts in the scene to evoke machinery used in a mine. I placed a selection of rocks, minerals & made resin pieces in both the mine area and in the lower section of this box.

The lower section represents the museum rock collection display. Museums often display rocks & minerals in lit and mirrored cabinets, so I used pieces of mirror to reflect light in my arrangement.

The second wine box became a piece called “Forest Angel”.

About Forest Angel

“Forest Angel” is a mixed media dimensional artwork in a painted wooden wine box. The box is lit by a long coiled string of LED rice lights that can be plugged into an outlet or operated by a battery pack. The lights are covered by a translucent material featuring a print of stylized trees.

Forest Angel has similar “ingredients” to the artwork called “The Mining Museum”. The two pieces started with two matching black wine boxes.

Forest Angel features a relief resin “angel” over a 2-dimensional forest. For the Forest Angel I removed one of the sections that held the wine bottles, and cut out the three wine bottle circles that were at one short end of the box. This end became the top of the artwork, and I installed the LED lights above the cut circles to light the inside of the box.

The strong angel figure protects a threatened forest. The angel is translucent rather than clear, and has a very pale greenish tint. I mounted my protective angel over a poly litho print of bare trees under a fuzzy moon. I repeated the moon motif using a tinted clear resin half sphere on the adjacent strip where the forest has been cleared of trees.

So the upper section of the artwork represents an endangered forest and habitat much in need of protection by this angel.

The darker lower section is darker, with a gloomy underground feel. Bright copper coils and pieces with glitter show brightly within. I have placed a mix of natural and man made pieces here. These are intended to catch the eye, and also perhaps to puzzle and disturb the viewer.

I hope this piece is thought provoking, as well as attractive.

These two altered wine box artworks are a bit dark, both visually and in mood. Hence the lighting! Both are intended to engage and also to puzzle you a bit. I hope you enjoy them!

For two months now I have had limited use of my left arm. I am recovering, but still being very careful what I do: no strenuous work or heavy lifting! My new series, The Surprisingly Artistic Potholes of Port Townsend, has come about through an injury.

Most of my recent art work has been photography, often including plenty of digital enhancement. This led me to a very local project: the series of photos, mostly enhanced or transformed, that I call The Surprisingly Artistic Potholes of Port Townsend!

This is not a “fine art” series, but a quick and dirty (potholes are muddy!) and very fun way of showing up, and enjoying the sorry state of Port Townsend streets. But there is art here too. There is unexpected beauty everywhere, even in potholes and puddles!

I am of mixed mind as to the desirability of smooth well paved residential streets: potholes are great for traffic calming, and I would rather see resources better directed. But the current reality is that we do drive, many of us really do rely on our vehicles, with few reasonable alternatives to driving. So many people in Port Townsend are old, and many are infirm; we are not going to take to bicycles at this point in our lives. And younger working parents probably cannot readily readjust their lifestyle to bike to work, etc. That kind of change does not happen overnight.

So some level of street maintenance is badly needed… and is not really happening!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

You can find many more of The Surprisingly Artistic Potholes of Port Townsend in my online photo gallery!

This is a combination of colored pencil and watercolor on a polylitho print. It is from the a limited print edition of “Watching”. I have completed several of these prints based on a simple line drawing of a lone figure in a stark landscape.

I was not enthralled (lovely word!) by the virulent (!) green & blue of the watercolors on this print. So I softened these a bit with colored pencil, displayed top left below. It was one more interesting experiment. Of course the heavy soft etching paper I used really soaked up the watercolor!

And then of course you can see the digital magic. I applied digital technology to both this watercolor painted version of “Watching”, and also to a softer, less colorful print from this edition.

The scan of my watercolor paint & colored pencil print is the first image, top row left. On the top right, more colorful again, is a modified foil enhancement of the print at left. But on the second row, I got a bit negative!

On the lower row, at left, you see the negative of the foiled print above. The purple is vile, but I like it! And we all feel a bit negative at times, surely?

I did a bit more digital work to balance the intensity and contrast. The thought occurred that more could/should be done, perhaps. I switched to working with a negative of the scanned image, rather than using the foiled version, and that is the last image in the gallery view below.

For my second dip into the negative, I started with a less colorful version of “Watching”, tinted with colored pencil mostly in sand tones. This resulted in the mostly blue, blue, blue image! Of course this has additional digital work also to enhance the touch of greens and purple in the aurora borealis…

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The final image, bottom right, is yet another colored print. I used metallic pen for some highlights, and metallic colored pencil in addition to some “normal” colors. Then I added a second figure: a negative and flipped version of the original.

I don’t think I need to try watercolor on a polylitho print again, but I’ll never stop using digital magic!

I can’t help having a few further thoughts about the label & word: macabre. It is a fine word, but … making artwork that displays the sad and weary does not equal macabre!

I incorporate real life, and sometimes my work shoes anger, sadness, even despair. But also hope, beauty and joy.

Of course if documenting and displaying the existence of death in life is macabre, well so be it.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Here is the article that provoked these thoughts:

Macabre Artist | Sandra Stowell