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I have also been working on some new jewelry I’m fairly excited about.  I have added vintage settings to some of my glass pendants, and started a whole new line of earrings made of lucite floral and leaf beads, paired with glass, crystal, and metallic elements.  Though all elements used are new, the jewelry has a very vintage feel since these beads were very popular in the 40s.  I feel that they pair pretty well with my pendant jewelry, and the flowers even remind me of elements of my paintings.  Just had to start experimenting with this before the Christmas buying season was over.  So far I am just selling them locally at my co-op art gallery (Six Days Art) and to FB friends, but plan to be introducing them to my stores, my website, (and etsy) soon.  You can view more designs on my Facebook album here … or, if you are not on facebook, see my flickr photostream (these will be replaced with more professional photos later).

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If you are in Portland, please come to the open house event that is being put on at my co-op studio THIS Friday and Saturday, Dec. 2 (5-9pm) and December 3rd (12-4pm) at the historic Troy Laundry Building.  18 artists will be opening their studios to the public.  Located at 221 SE 11th (between Oak and Pine). 18 artists are participating. Visit me in my studio (#10)  to see what’s new on the easel (or to buy a print or jewelry!)

The painting pictured here, “Everyday Blessings” was finished a couple of months ago, but it reminds me of this dream.  The more I inquire into the world of my dreams, my art, and my spiritual growth, the more I see how they relate to each other.  Magic happens every day.  It is important for me to remind myself of this especially when I am feeling a lack of connection between my reality and dreams.

Lately I’ve been feeling a bit disconnected from my dreams, my art, my passions in life.  Feeling too busy, I’ve been trapped in a warped sense of reality where I never feel quite caught up.  Part of this is because I’ve been in a whirlwind between doing art shows, keeping up with wholesale orders of my prints and pendants, moving my household, filing my taxes, etc.  Now, as I ready myself for cranking out salable artworks for the coming holiday season, I ask myself if I will ever have time to truly return to my original passion of painting without always thinking about sales and survival.  I long to have nothing to do but explore my dreams, my art, the stirrings of my creative imagination.  I think this dream’s purpose was to remind me of this creative fire and the fact that it is still very much alive within me.

Here’s a couple more paintings that I created in the past few months.  I hope to have many more to come soon!

"Good Day, Sunshine"

"Jay's Blues"

Another student who made great use of the drip and pour techniques was Nina Kirby, who chose to paint over a painting that she’d done before the class began. Unsatisfied with its progress, she freely poured the paint over the painting, thus re-creating its new direction.

Here’s another amazing painting by Nina. She began with the texture at the bottom of the painting, created by pressing crumpled tin-foil into joint compound. After having a dream of this figure coming out of the ground, she continued with the drip painting background, painted the figure, added molding paste for the tree trunk, and used glass bead paste mixed with paint for the hair. Well-done, Nina!

While working on one painting, Nina has a habit of working on a second (abstract) painting that utilizes any mixed paint that is left over from the first.  This way, she doesn’t waste any paint, and is able to work on something else while waiting for layers to dry.  An example of this is below:

Another student who made a lot of progress in class was Tamara. She really enjoyed getting some interesting textures through the use of joint compound. She was also excited about integrating acrylic image transfers. There is a wonderful sense of subtlety in the following works:

Ann added the class half-way into the session, but was able to achieve quite a lot of progress in 4 short sessions:

The first image above was created by using collected fragments of plastered paint material that had crumbled off some walls… which she found on a trip to Mexico. The second image was from a “failed” image transfer. Somehow the image of a swarm of butterflies didn’t quite turn out, however, there is more subtlety in the partially revealed image.

The background of this last image was created by creating a texture from joint compound, with layers of acrylic paint worked into the texture.  The next layer is some kind of shiny metallic paper, covered with another  lace paper layer.

I’m waiting to get a few more images from a couple other students who took the class.  I am supremely proud of my students, and already looking forward to my next mixed media classes, which will probably begin in September.  If you (or someone you know) is interested in taking classes, please visit the classes link on this site

Just started this painting a couple nights ago, and it’s progressing quickly, but not quite finished. The color scheme wasn’t entirely deliberate, as it was determined primarily by the fact that I had a panel in my studio that was pre-primed in yellow ochre. As it developed, I decided to elaborate on the yellows, contrasting it with red-violet shades in her facial shadows and clothes… then adding veils of turquiose blue to cool the temperature and add more balance.

For now I am enjoying continuing a theme of women with flowers and/or birds in their hair. It allows me to focus on all three of my favorite subjects at once. This lady was inspired by a small vintage photo that I found online. An ornithologist friend tells me this is an English robin that’s perched on her head (apparently the red breasted robin is only in America?) The flowers are entirely from my imagination, and are likely to change soon.

I’m attempting to work a little faster than my usual mode.  For one thing, I tend to get so caught up in the details that I feel that sometimes my finished pieces lack the spontaneity that exists at the beginning of production.  I want to keep some of that initial excitement of fresh paint instead of getting too bogged down in my usual tendency towards over-refinement.

Update, May 31: Though most of this painting was created during April, I have finally pulled this one together by adjusting the colors and refining some details.  I’ve decided to call her “April’s Crown”, as a commemoration of Spring.

My new studio is more than twice the size of my last (shared) space, so this makes it easier for me to work on several projects at once.  Right now I’m gearing up for the Spring and Summer art shows by working on several small paintings.    Included in this post are the first two of a series that use vintage photographs as reference material.  There’s something evocative about the expressions of these Victorian ladies, and since they are small reproductions printed in b/w, they give me just enough reference info to let my imagination fill in the details. I’m going with a “Spring theme” for now, including references to flowers and birds.

I had begun “Primavera” a month or so ago.  Though I used actual flowers to model her “spring headdress”, her face began completely out of my imagination.  As a result, there was something awkward in her expression that I couldn’t quite figure out.  I then found a vintage photo that reminded me of her, so having a  photographic reference really helped me with the proportions and shadows.  There’s a bit more painting left to do on this one, as there is still some distortion in her face.  Painting faces is definitely one of the most difficult subjects, as minor details can made a big difference in the emotional expression.  My ladies almost invariably look just slightly sad (or pissed off!)  Such expressions are never my complete intention, though I’m also not into painting cheesy grins.  I think there is more emotive power in an expression that leads one to wonder what the subject is thinking.

Here’s one more painting I’ll share with you, which I created last month.  ”Poppy Love” was painted partly in preparation for having a card to offer for Valentine’s Day. The poppies are painted in reverse on one side of a thick layer of glass.  The figures are added to the front side.

As I continue to create new works, I am making them available as notecards and mounted prints on my Dreambird Art site.  If you are interested in seeing more of what’s in the studio in future months, please check back.  I plan to begin posting at least bi-weekly in future months.

Also, I will begin teaching small classes in my studio over the next few months, so if you’re in Portland and interested in that, check out my classes page!

* Two of my artworks have been published in the recently released 2011 WeMoon Datebook, and one was selected for the wall calendar!  (“Aquabird Dream” was chosen for the month of April of the Wall Calendar, and it is also represented on page 149 of the Datebook.  “Blooming Meditation” is presented on page 146).

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* My business plan for my art reproduction company was approved and I received a matched savings grant to help me pay for the printing of thousands of prints and cards of my artworks.

* I received an RACC (Regional Arts and Cultural Counsel) grant to help me pay for a brochure to advertise my new company to over 1000 stores.

* I co-designed the brochure with my graphic designer (fellow artist, Amy Livingstone) to create a 4-fold presentation, which required new photographs of my work and many hours of diligent consideration.  If you’d like a brochure, email me, and I’ll be glad to send you one.  Also, if you know of any stores that you think would be interested, please send me their address!  Here’s a web version of my 2-sided, 4-fold brochure:

* I personally created a new website, dreambirdart.com, which is now almost finished! I just need to finish setting up the shipping info and add vouchers which will allow new customers to receive 10% off their first order (as well as a way of offering wholesale pricing for retailers). The site is expected to launch by October 10th, but anyone can log in to register now and add items to a “Wish List”.

* I had an opportunity to move out of my shared art studio into one which offered me around 3 times the space.  I’ve already started several paintings there… and recently finished 5 new ones.

* I am currently the “Featured Artist” at my artist co-op gallery, Six Days Art.  Here’s a snapshot of my display:

One of the paintings not displayed above is in the gallery’s window.  It’s a favorite which I titled “Emergence”.  The image began with an experimental method of creating texture by painting first onto a plexiglass surface, then transferring it to the paper.  When I pulled the paper off of the plexiglass, it created a most amazing rippling effect.  Within this texture, I saw the image of an owl… so I articulated it further.

I find it interesting that, without any direct intention, 3 out of my 5 recent paintings have focused on the subject of owls.  I had actually intended to respond to the theme of next year’s WeMoon call for art, which is supposed to respond to the subject of “Chrysalis”.  But these are the images that were flowing through me, so that’s what I needed to follow at the moment.  All 3 of the owl paintings still respond to the theme in a tangential way, in that they seem to be about “protection”, or a sense of ‘guardian spirit”.   I did create one painting in this recent series that spoke more specifically to the “Chrysalis” theme.  I called this “10,000th Incarnation”:

To see more of my new series of paintings, please visit the Paintings 1 gallery of my website. (I also lowered prices on several of my paintings by up to $200, to help stimulate sales… as a result of the economy and the fact that I’ve had very little cash flow while I’ve been concentrating on starting my new business!)  Please also visit my new website for Dreambird Art!

I’ve spent most of the entire month of May writing a business plan for my art business.  I didn’t think it was going to be all that hard.  I’m pretty good at visualizing what I want and I’m a decent writer.  But figuring out every little detail of every expense that will propel me into a profitable art business… in this economy….. well, that’s hard.  Especially when you have to reconfigure every calculation whenever you change your mind on something.   So I’ve spent almost every waking moment of the last few weeks researching and writing, re-writing, visualizing, re-visualizing, editing, calculating, and re-calculating this thing.  Alas, I think I’m done and I’ve done a pretty thorough job.  My plan is in review right now, so I hope they’ll say I’m good to go and can get the money needed to start my business soon.

Here’s the basics of my plan: I am going to expand my current sales of my prints, cards and pendants into a wholesale business.  I’ll be targeting bookstores, boutiques, metaphysical shops, and card stores.  I’ll begin with 6 of my best-selling images to create offset runs of my cards,  prints and mounted prints (until now, all of this has been hand-produced, so limiting the number of images will allow me to get a larger number of prints done for each of the images, adding new images every few months as sales pick up).   There will be a focus on sustainability, using Portland companies that use recycled paper and soy inks.  And I’ll hire Portland artists to help me with the production on things that are more labor-intensive (mounted prints and pendants).  I’ll also improve the process of creating my pendant jewelry by wire-wrapping them instead of adding glue-on bails.

Now that I’m done with the biz plan, I’ve spent the last few days refocusing my attention towards making product and doing a couple of outdoor shows.  On Wednesday, I stayed up past 3 a.m., making mounted prints and glass pendant jewelry.  The following day was First Thursday in the Pearl district, so I packed up all my display stuff and put up my tent and gridwalls, and once I had everything set up, it started to rain. And it rained… and rained… and didn’t stop raining.  If I’d left 1/2 hour after setting up, I would’ve made all the money I was going to make for the night.

Yesterday was the first truly sunny day for weeks, so I thought, GREAT… everyone will be out and sales will be good for the First Anniversary Celebration of my Sellwood gallery (Love Art!).  So I set up a couple grid-walls in front of the gallery (minus the tent because I didn’t want to block the view of the bands that were setting up).  Once I got all my art up on my grid-walls, a wind came and knocked the whole thing down, damaging some of my mounted prints!  I put the whole thing up again (this time securing the walls to a huge metal sculpture).  Was there all day, enjoyed some great music and company of some friends… and got a sunburn (just to prove I got some sun).  Sold 2 things all day while I watched the traffic jam push past the gallery.  I think everyone was headed out of town because they knew it was their one day of sunshine for a while. 

I guess one thing I’m learning about all this is to take things more in my stride.  It used to be I would be totally pissed off at spending so much time prepping for and sitting shows.  Now I just figure, “You win some, you lose some”… and at least I’ve got some stock to put back in my stores (minus the ones that got damaged!)  I count the people I meet as part of the reward of doing these shows too.

Another thing that’s stimulated is that I’m thinking more about how I can create art that’s practically damage-proof, waterproof, ecologically sustainable, and light-weight (for reduced shipping and ease of transportation).  I have a few ideas and will see what ends up being the best solution.

It was hard to decide what would be the name of my new business.  I had several ideas but my brain went back and forth between several ideas.  So I put it out to a poll of my friends.  I thought it was interesting that, given 6 possible names, around 21 out of 30 responders picked the same name, “Dreambird Creations”, so I decided this was best because it gives a sense of the dreamy quality of my work.  Since I paint a lot of birds and my name is a bird, that’s fitting too.  After writing out ‘dreambirdcreations.com” in an email, I realized a shorter name of “dreambirdart.com” might be better (still deciding on this one).  So far, I’ve decided the 6 images heading this blog entry will be my first group of open editions.

My recent move to a new residence took the wind out of my sails for a bit, especially since I fell prey to a cold almost immediately following my landing. The necessity of making the bills always prevails, so there’s been more time catching up with web clients and planning classes than in the studio lately. Whenever I can’t get into the studio much, I set myself to achieve at least some small accomplishments there, so I finished this little self-portrait that I began earlier last year (above).  It’s not a perfect semblance, but it feels like me.  The little bird floats above the abstract patterning of dendrites (the branched projections of neurons that communicate with each other through electrochemical stimulation).   My father was a biologist, so I’ve always had a fascination with the subject, though my understanding of it is more mystical than scientific.  (Incidentally, it doesn’t bother me that tree branches are reflected in the glass of this photo, as it seems to add to the theme in this context).

Part of what forced me to complete this little painting is that a collector of my work wanted to purchase it. They also bought a painting that I created earlier in my career:

“The Captive Heart” was created shortly after I finished an artist’s residency in Colorado, so I think the date goes back to 1994-5. I have to admit that I’m a rather poor chronological-er of my own work. During my early career,  it was enough for me to remember to sign my artworks, much less put a date on them.

A little about “The Captive Heart”:

First of all, the theme (as one might guess) is one of emotional vulnerability, of feeling that one’s heart is exposed. The figure of the woman is inspired by an image of a Mexican sculpture of Mary… and I’ve place her in a room flooded with water (symbolic of swimming in an emotional space).  A mocking-bird flies within this captive space, delivering a flower.  The sticks with holes drilled in them are a reference to a little illustration I found in my father’s Scientific American magazine.  The referenced article was illustrating the path of a bird as it collected seeds in a controlled experiment (i.e., the flight-line represents the path the bird took when either collecting or depositing seeds within the branches).  As an added mystery to the story-line of this visual puzzle, a man is portrayed outside the window, collecting branches.  I leave it to the viewer to decipher the meaning of all this personal iconography.

Some of the things that continue to inspire me is the similarity of the patterning of branches and the branching of arteries/veins.   And birds… which are ever-present in my works, for reasons that are not entirely clear to my self.  I suppose I see them as messengers of spirit.

Another important note (for me) about this painting is that it was the piece that signaled a change in my way of working.  Though it is painted on illustration board, the “open heart” and window gave me the idea for painting on layers of plexiglass, which gave me a way of creating images behind images (or images above and below, on separate panels).  Today, I go back and forth between painting on wood panels and painting on plexi.  I love the 3-dimensional layering that’s created in my plexi-paintings, but it is also something that slows me down and forces me to be more precise.  For this reason, I’ve decided to limit its use to my smaller paintings in the future.  When I want to work more spontaneously, I’ll work on larger panels or canvases.

The couple who bought this piece also bought one other earlier piece of my work which was also a step in my development towards painting on different levels, rather than a singular flat surface.  “The Connection” was painted around 1993, while I was an artist-in-residence at Anderson Ranch, in Colorado.

I had a strong desire to break out of the picture plane, so I used a scroll-saw to cut the shapes of the tree , and the aveoli that makes up the woman’s body.  (Alveoli are tiny sacs in the lungs that perform gas exchange, allowing the body to get rid of carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen).  Her lungs are actually fed by the tree (the branch on the left turns into her veins)… symbolizing this exchange of carbon dioxide to oxygen.  Behind them is a sky filled with stars and a red curtain (the theatre of life)…  a sculpture (borrowed from some cathedral?) that represents the idea that this life can be cut off at any time…. also a man witnessing the scene, and a couple doves with vegetation and flowers.  The woman’s face seems Victorian (if not Queenly).  I don’t even recall how I arrived at this theme.  I tend to be a gatherer of images… and even if I don’t glue them down into collages, I often borrow a “little of this, a little of that” from various sources, allowing myself to re-sort them in ways that make sense to my painter’s hand.  Thus, science, mythology and art history are synthesized within my aesthetic realm.

It’s been most of a month since my move, but the physical requirements of making it all happen put my body in such a state of exhaustion that it’s taken me this long to get back on track. First of all, I am not one who can live out of boxes for any amount of time. The aesthetics of place (and the sanity of knowing where everything is located) is simply too important to me to let myself rest. So the feathering of the nest began pretty much immediately… followed by a near-total collapse (and I’m still recovering).

I’ve only had few visitors since the move, but immediately upon seeing this little attic space, the word “sweet” always comes up. We are situated on the third floor of a lovely home west of Mt. Tabor, which is my new favorite Portland neighborhood. Here’s my favorite part: a panoramic view from the window of the enclosed porch that I’ve made into my office:

Below is an image of what’s currently on my easel. It’s not finished yet, but far enough to feel excited about sharing it. I’m continually amazed by how many of my paintings develop. Usually I begin without any real intention for what the imagery will become. Then ideas spring to me while I’m in the process of creating. Images fall into my hands at the appropriate moment… and then the magic happens.

This began with a panel that I found in someone’s free box. It had an abstract painting on it which I painted over with dripped paint and sponging. That sat for about a year as just a “nice background texture”. Once I moved into this studio, I pulled it out. After going through my folders of images, I selected a black-and-white image (around 1 1/2″ square) of a 5th century Indian sculpture. There was something in the expression that interested me, so I painted it. Then I came upon this image of these weird birds. Fortunately I kept enough of the original article to identify them as “hoatzins”. They were in an article I found called “The Strangest Birds on Earth” (I can’t remember the source I plucked it from, though perhaps a Natural History magazine). Why this woman is taking a regatta ride with these huge birds by her side is as much a mystery to me as anyone else. After committing myself to this theme, I learned that hoatzins are an “unusual species of tropical bird found in swamps, riverine forests of the Amazon and the Orinoco delta in South America” (Wikipedia). I also learned that they can’t swim and that they are poor fliers, so perhaps the idea of them taking a boat ride is not so unusual. What surprises me is that they are not (yet) an endangered species, since they are reported to be fairly unwary. Perhaps they have been saved by the fact that they give off a foul smell when threatened, and they don’t taste good (a common nickname for them is “stinkbird”). Now I have another reason to travel to the Amazon river forests. I am very interested in the indigenous cultures of this area, and now I’m totally fascinated by these birds!

Now that my studio move is nearly complete, I can now concentrate on packing, organizing and getting rid of some of my belongings. Moving every couple of years is the only thing that prevents me from becoming a total pack-rat! At the end of this month I’ll be moving into my new home at the base of Mt. Tabor. More updates will come after everything is in place!