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My new installation at the Andersonville Galleria: Dryad (70"x48" oil & mirror on canvas), gold and copper wire wrapped tree branches (lost some sanity wrapping those) and 110 hand-painted (glass, acrylic & resin) ornaments in rainbow flag array - just in time for the holidays!  
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She's taking her time revealing herself... a sneak peek at my latest monster canvas 
As an adult, I was introduced to the poem by Wislawa Szymborska describing, not a woman turning into a literal pillar of salt, but a woman cut in anguish trying to leave the past behind. Now that was a historic telling that made sense, and I painted an oil and mirror mosaic inspired by that poem. However, I was never truly happy with the painting, and this past January, after spending time on the history-steeped island of Gozo, Malta, I decided to revisit it. I covered the burning city with a sea-inspired liquid acrylic pour, and the mirrored city became saltpans. Civilization reclaimed by nature, history healed by time. Suddenly the painting, like the story, came alive for me. And because I felt a kinship to those Gozitans who continued to labor in that ancient and time-tested technique of salt extraction, it was only fitting to dedicate this painting to such a basic yet primal part of life: Salt.  Today, the ever-changing palette of Lake Michigan evokes the sea for me. So I put this wall together as homage to summer in Chicago and the treasures in our own backyard that we can too often take for granted. These Foster Beach sand casts (plaster, resin, sand) of driftwood and found shells serve as companion pieces, bringing to mind the grit and silk of the surprising number of beaches we enjoy in Chicago. And in the paintings: the plip and scatter of minnows in the shallows of Montrose Bird Sanctuary, the buzz of dragonflies over the dunes, the clip and billow of all those sailboats, and the ever screeching “mine-mine-MINE” of the flocking gulls. Now, at the Andersonville Galleria:  Oh my goodness, what a delight to arrive back in Chicago to find out that my work was photographed and shared! Thank you so much! Check out my Instagram for more.
Wonderful to spend my birthday in my home state! Enjoyed a little plain air painting, saw 6 moose and 2 black bear, and mountains for miles! Love this place...  So many changes at the Andersonville Galleria, if you haven't been in a while, you have to check them out! They are converting the top floor into an expansive artist venue for classes and shows, so I've been moved to the second floor to a 4'x4'x4'... and an 8ft WALL! Very excited to be showing my large canvases starting next week! JUNE will showcase Herrlein's Eve; super thrilled that JULY will bring the first public showing of Swamp Monster; and I hope to finish Ghosts for an AUGUST reveal! In the meantime, here's a peek at my new space at the Andersonville Galleria and I look forward to sharing photos of the wall next week!
 After an intense couple months of acrylic and resin, I decided to play again with oils because I love the viscosity and texture of the medium. Normally I paint with a brush, but I was compelled to practice with a palette knife. The initial experiment resulted in waves (see below), but I had a round canvas that has been pulling me to create a yin yang piece for a couple years now. I didn't want a traditional yin yang so I sketched out a spring motif that made me chuckle. I used a pretty heavy hand for texturing, this piece will probably take several weeks to cure to dryness. But I love the thickness of the paint and the birds make me smile every time it catches my eye! Yin Yang, 20in diameter, oil on canvas  
 Salt 36x60 oil, mirror, acrylic and resin on canvas ($2750) |
Thank you for visiting my visual blog of my work and muses!
Feel free to contact me if a particular painting catches your eye. "…Every day I discover even more beautiful things. It is intoxicating me, and I want to paint it all…
my head is bursting." -- Claude Monet |
