Farewell Dear Friends

Two of my favorite paintings sold last week to some good friends here in Imperial.  It was so fun to see them in a different setting.

Impressions of the Frenchman seemed to glow on the green wall in their house!  And it means a lot that her family is from the area where my inspiration photo was taken.  This has been part of my Highway 6 Series and depicts the Frenchman River near Hamlet, Nebraska...with artistic license!

High Plains Aerial #2 was also inspired by a photograph taken from our airplane, towards the eastern part of a line between Denver and Imperial.  It's the last to go in a series of three coordinated aerial landscapes, that were all framed alike.  All three are owned by people in Chase County!  I loved them hanging together..they are all in a square format and have the same papers, and colors.  But, they are perfect individually in their new homes.   

I am honored to have others appreciate and purchase my art.  I know there is magic and mystery in the unique responses people have to art, and it is a blessing to connect with people in this way. 

A Work of Giants

I just finished an exciting painting that will be entered in the NebraskaLand Days art show in North Platte this week.  The theme of this collage is (subtly) railroad.  You may not guess it if I didn't point it out.  But, it has a nearly hidden image of the Union Pacific crest, tiny words "Pacific Railroad Act", and the date 1862 stamped on it.  Once you hear railroad, the vanishing lines with cross bars become obviously, tracks.  This one has abundant colors and textures.

Also this week will be the Association of Nebraska Art Clubs Conference at the FFA leadership center in Aurora.  I will be teaching altered books and collage at this event!  Much planning, practicing, and preparing has been required, and I think I'm ready!  I hope it will be a blessing and inspiration for every student.  If you are interested in attending, you can still register.  Check out the ANAC website, or call  Jean Cook at 308-382-5591.

Threshold

This painting will be included with the show in the Focus Room at the Noyes Gallery in Lincoln through the month of February.  In preparing work to take east, I was stymied by titling this piece.  Last night I was down to "Doorway", but not satisfied.  Today, listening to American Public Media's Being, I heard an interview with John O'Donohue, an Irish poet, philosopher, and Catholic priest.  One of his books, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, is reviewed at Amazon by Kerry Walters, who quotes the introduction:

In our overly busy culture, he writes, we frequently race over the "crucial thresholds in our life" without pausing to take note of their significance. We no longer have "rituals to protect, encourage, and guide us as we cross over into the unknown" (p. xiv). A blessing is precisely one of those protecting, encouraging, and guiding rituals. It memorializes our transitions, connects us with a wider community (since none of us really ever travels alone), and strives to "present a minimal psychic portrait of the geography of change it names" (ibid).

I am struck by this spiritual use of the term "threshold"...so much more descriptive and less cliche than "doorway to the future".  This painting is one of my simplest collages.  The background is created using Citrisolv to alter the printed images on clay based magazine papers and create the ethereal pathways and bubble formations.  Black marker highlights some of the shapes.  The large rectangle and cross-hatched lines are from my favorite tissue, painted with black gesso and dry brushed with copper acrylic.  The texture of this tissue suggests tree roots, or blood vessels.  Serendipitous results of the experimental techniques used here could be symbolic of "crossing over into the unknown"...to a changing geography. 

It brings to mind a friend who is in treatment for cancer.  A month ago, she was afraid of the unknown, but now, 4 weeks into treatment, is realizing a wider community of others who are experiencing the same things, and others who are there to help her.  We should have created a blessing ceremony or party to recognize the threshold she had to cross as she started into this chapter of her life.  It's never too late to start a ritual.