The muse has no watch or calendar

I really "shouldn't" have been painting at all. There were a million things I should have been doing ... preparing for my classes, preparing for a family commitment I had the following day, plus the usual cleaning and straightening around the house.

But something came over me on Friday. I woke up at 1:00 in the morning, after having been asleep for a few hours. I got up for a snack, then started puttering a bit in the studio ... and before you know it, it was 8 AM! I went back to bed until noon and then got up again, intending to get to all those things I needed to get done during the day on Friday, a little concerned at my late-day start. But I thought I would just check on what I had done in the studio ...

And suddenly it was late afternoon! I rushed out to do a few errands that really had to get done, then peeked into the studio one more time ... and before you know it, it was 11 PM! And somehow I had before me three wonderful paintings on canvas (one is shown at the top of this blog) and 10 works on paper!

From early Friday morning to late Friday night, the muse paid me a visit, and she wouldn't be turned away, no matter what my schedule said I should be doing instead.

Work selected for embassy exhibition

My painting "Twist," pictured above, has been selected by the Art in Embassies Program for display in the U.S. embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon.

"Established in 1964, the ART in Embassies Program (ART) exhibits original works of art by U.S. citizens in the representational rooms of most U.S. embassy residences, approximately 180 worldwide. These exhibitions provide international audiences with a sense of the quality, scope, and diversity of American art and culture." For more information, visit the program's web site.

"Twist" is 44" x 44" and made of spray paint, acrylic and fabric collage on canvas.

Next stage

I've added a layer to the acrylic/pastel works on paper I had started last week. They seemed to need a touch of precision in order to be finished, but I didn't want to cover any of the current marks.

Just now I've collaged on some jaggedly-cut strips of sheer white cloth that had lines painted on them. This layer adds sharp lines at random spots, giving some detail and emphasis without undoing what was already there.

This could be a great process for me to continue on with: making impulsive marks with both wet and dry media, then pulling them together with a careful eye. Just unpredictable enough to satisfy my restless Gemini nature, just controlled enough to calm my Virgo Rising, just expressive enough for my freedom-seeking Moon in Libra. Perfect combination of messy and elegant, random and informed.

I firmly believe that the process and media really have to reflect the artist's temperament, personality and natural inclinations. This can change from time to time, as we as people change. But you can't fight who you are, and why try? Instead, enjoy what makes you YOU.

My new work on display at Danforth Museum

"Brown Scribbles," shown above, will be one of two new works of mine on display at a faculty exhibit in the Swartz Gallery at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, MA. The show will be up until July 29.

For more information on the museum's hours, visit their web site.

This painting is acrylic and paper on canvas, and measures 50" x 30".

Small Works show at the Attleboro Arts Museum

I FINALLY got to the Small Works 2007 exhibit at the Attleboro Arts Museum, one hour before the show closed on its final day! (Better late than never.)

I was flattered that all three of my entries were selected for this national juried exhibition, especially when I saw the caliber of the other works that had been chosen. Above is a view of two of my paintings at the show.

Brought back from the brink

The image above is a detail of a recent work on paper, from an interesting series that has come about as a natural part of my working process (spontaneous, for better or worse).

Here's how it goes: Sometimes I come to a stage in working on a stretched canvas when I hate the painting, when it's gone too far and the design or colors have become muddy and obscured. If I lay a sheet of fresh paper over the surface and run a brayer over it, I get a cool print (like the image above). So I can chuck the canvas and reuse the stretcher bars, while still ending up with a terrific print on paper. The canvas is to this process like the glass one paints on in making a monoprint.

This painting on canvas had become a thick pile of yucky brown and white paint mixed into mud. Any design or tonal contrast I had achieved had long since been lost in the mucky mess. As a last-ditch effort to save it, I tried scraping a pattern into the wet paint, but the original canvas was too buried too far and the general appearance of murky gloom prevailed.

But when I pressed a clean sheet of paper against the surface, the awful brown lightened into this elegant beige, and the white of the page turned the scraped marks into this crisp, script-like design.

The painting wasn't over 'til it was over!

Review of "Carol O'Malia: New Work"

Here is my review of Carol O'Malia's current exhibit at the Borowicz Gallery in Dartmouth, MA, which appeared in today's edition of the New Bedford Standard-Times.

For more information on the show, visit the gallery's web site.

For more information on Carol, visit her web site.

My painting finds a great new home

I am delighted to report that my painting "Beam," above, has been selected by the Mattapan Community Health Center for their permanent art collection, to be displayed at their school-based health clinic, through the Art Connection.

Beam is 20" square and made of acrylic and spray paint on canvas.

Artists, the Art Connection is a wonderful way to bring your work to viewers who might not ordinarily attend an art gallery, or who otherwise might not see original art work at all -- the clients and staff of non-profit organizations in the Boston area, often health care and counseling centers. It gives me (and others I've talked to who have donated to the Art Connection) a great feeling, knowing that we are making a difference in our community, directly through our art.

Parts or whole?

A productive morning session in the studio yesterday yielded a bunch of pages of marks with blue acrylic and dry pastels like these. Not sure yet if they're finished works on their own or ingredients for torn collages, but I was pleased with their energy -- calm yet upbeat, moving but not frantic.

A range of roles

There's a lot more to being an artist than working in the studio. You have to "prime the pump," as Julia Cameron says. And, you have to "bring home the bacon," as Andy Warhol said.

I spent last week viewing other artists' work and writing about it.

Last Tuesday, I interviewed Joyce Utting Schutter, who combines hand-made paper with welded steel in sculpture inspired by her love for natural forms and her concerns about environmental issues. To see Joyce's work, click here. The profile I wrote on her will be coming out soon as part of the monthly series I write for the New Bedford Standard-Times.

On Friday, I saw a solo show of new works in oil by Carol O'Malia at the Borowicz Gallery in Dartmouth, MA. For a number of years, Carol has been painting calm, divine views of sunlight shining through tree trunks and casting long blue shadows onto snow. For this show, she has applied her unique sense of texture and light to a more emotionally charged environment: the bed. Her work can be seen here. My review of Carol's show will be published next week in the Standard-Times; I'll post a link on this blog.

I was also a delivery person last week, driving a painting to an exhibit in Wakefield, Rhode Island. And Friday I'll be dropping some work off with an art consultant in Cambridge.

Tomorrow I will begin teaching again, after a three-week hiatus. For the next five weeks, I will be teaching a watercolor course three days a week for four hours a day at Framingham State College.

And as soon as my paycheck arrives in August, I plan on buying a raft of Golden fluid acrylic paints! (Don't worry, Mom, 10 percent will go into my savings account.)

New life for the board room

I have been putting together some works on paper to drop off with an art consultant who is making a presentation to a potential corporate buyer next month.

After all the hours I spent as a bored secretary, taking minutes in board rooms (there's an ironic pun for you), wouldn't it be funny if my presence in a corporate setting was through my art, rather than as a note-taking lackey?

I don't mean to belittle my seven years as a secretary. I worked for some extremely nice bosses, and one of my employers paid for my undergraduate degree with a generous tuition reimbursement program (thank you, MIT!). But my heart wasn't in it.

The funny thing is, I am an EXCELLENT secretary! It's just that the activities it involves bore me out of my skull.

So we'll see if my artwork makes it to the office, since I don't want to go back in person.