TIME SUSPENDED

TIME. How does one have a friendly and copacetic relationship with time. Can we stop time? I think when we are in a zone, like doing something we get lost in or is meditative we can suspend time as though it did not exist, where only we exist within that one moment, and then the next and the next...


Here time is put into a place of presence where it has no force or effect...TIME SUSPENDED...sits waiting within a structure of paper, metal street cleaner bristles, aluminum tubing, tacks, poly-board, vintage clock face dangling on threads, with a beautifully patina'd piece of metal for the back wall and other mixed media.

ROMANCING THE SALMON MOON

Does bear sing to the moon when she is full to lure the salmon to bear's feasting place? Only bear knows, as does the moon. But the salmon, do they know and simply gift themselves to bear so she/he may be sustained? All is in balance as it is until we try to balance it the way we think it should be . . . and what we are doing to them and to our planet, we are doing to ourselves. An insightful, profound and soul felt expression from our own wise man, Chief Seattle. He understood. They/we are all precious.

ROMANCING THE SALMON MOON is a window into a vignette where I use my illustrated salmon swimming in a sky of handcrafted paper and disc bead for a moon. Onlooking and singing is my illustration of bear all under glass, surrounded by a maple frame that I embellished with more flat disc beads and a wedge of maple wood. (click on photo for larger image)

WHERE I OFTEN FIND MYSELF

One could say, as we journey on, that we find ourselves somewhere that makes us feel at peace, a place where we often find ourselves to be. Or we become aware of ourselves in a place that feels like home, where we find our being, where one often finds one's self...That place of being connected to it all, to nature, to each other.


Imagine opening a door and all we find are stairs or a ladder that takes us to a place of calm, a place where we go to feel quiet and peaceful or to contemplate, somewhere we can frequent regularly just to be.


If we were to keep going we might find that place called nirvana, perhaps, where there is no myself. Hmmmmmmm
(click on photos for larger images)

MOMENTUM

MOMENTUM is another one of the three pieces for the DOORS show at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts. It started with a salesman's sample door that my husband brought home to me a couple of years ago. When I was asked to be apart of the DOORS show this miniature door came directly to mind. But how to use it. I covered it, as you see and the rest grew from numerous ideas in my sketch book. With the use of the pewter wheels I felt it needed the illusion of movement . . .
Slanting the house backwards was inspiring - how to do the rest of it . . .




A clock to me represented movement, not only in how it works, but the passing of time, being here and now with the knowledge and inevitability that we are moving forward to the next moment.


The egg in the nest is nurtured now as a precious life, right now, within. And the potential for a new life in a different form, what it is going to become. Nature, life, there is always momentum if we stop for a moment. This moment turns into the next. We move from this now, right now, to the next now, which is always, now . . . Momentum. (click on the photos for larger images)

BIRTH OF AN IDEA

When the idea of a small trailer (see previous post) came to me for the DOORS show, it was a vision in my mind's eye. Then I went to my sketch book where I plant seeds and started to doodle - I love to doodle - and played with shapes for this piece. The first one was a bit crude and I thought I would title it HOME GROWN, which is still on the "pieces to do" list. The second sketch was getting closer and the third one was drawn in photoshop to get the curves to transition smoothly. The next step was to scour my studio for materials I could use. Aluminum sheeting, yes. Wallpaper, I created in photoshop. Flooring, scraps of marmoleum. Wheels...hmmm. My husband went to a box of goodies in his workshop that had some parts from a very old radio...alas, there they were, tuning pulleys, the perfect wheels, down to the little "tire valve" to which I preceeded to add black paint to simulate a valve cap. And the rest evolved as I went along. Thus it was birthed.

By the way, the opening last night was a success. The exhibit was displayed beautifully. Once again, kudos to the staff at BAC. I GO WHERE I'M TOWED got lots of smiles and attention and happily found a new home to park itself. It is, often times, bitter-sweet to see one's creations depart, but much to my delight this piece is going to live with 2 dear people whom I know. They love it very much. So it remains in the extended family, so to speak. I hope you can get by to see all the wonderful and creative ideas that sprouted from the artists who participated...

I GO WHERE I'M TOWED

This piece is one of three from a show that opens tonight at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts Gallery. The title of the show is DOORS.
Having a love for vintage travel trailers I thought it would be a fun project to create a small trailer with a little door. Lost in the idea I didn't know how challenging it would be. I had to enlist the talents and strong hands of my husband to help at particular junctures while I put this piece together. I also had some help from my artist friend, Shane Miller, as we wrestled with her metal shear and the piece of metal we successfully cut that wraps around the circumference of the trailer.
While out on a travel about a year ago my husband and I came across a small tear drop trailer with the words I GO WHERE I'M TOWED printed across the back bumper. We had such a great laugh over it at which point were determined to use the phrase on our little pop-up trailer. That has not come about as yet, but once I created this piece there was no way I couldn't use it as the title.
Then came the task of what would be the surprise inside the trailer once the door is opened.


It took me a while, but Voilà! Of course, put a toad inside.Then came the search for a really appropriate toad. Nowhere in all my rummaging hither and yon, including the internet and letting my fingers do the walking could I find the perfect toad that fit the personality of this little trailer. Well, a local Port Townsend garden shop was out of small toads, but they graciously suggested I try a new shop downtown PT.


Sure enough they had the perfect toad, a Christmas tree ornament, that I gathered up, took home to my studio and proceeded to paint it to look realistic. Meet the perfect toad. He goes where he's told, I mean towed.
(click on photos for larger images)


Originally I had designed the graphics on the plate to look like a vintage plate, but my husband said, "oh no, you really should have it look like a Washington license plate", so I said, go for it, and he came forth with these graphics for the plate...perfect. You can't see it in this photo very well, but the date on the license plate is the date of the opening of the show. Then I proceeded to craft the license plate holder. More fun. More smiles.