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My Journey in the Visual Arts: Part 1 of 10

This is a series of short posts that will piece together how I ended up in the visual arts. I don’t recall an Ah-Ha situation where I knew from a particular moment that I wanted to be an artist. It just sort of crept up on me. It has now been over 35 years since I pursued art as, at first, a serious avocation then a profession. Along the way I have been very fortunate having experienced many facets of the visual art world. During that time I have also made attempts to leave that world only to be pulled back in somehow. So I will start with my earliest memory and go from there. I will not have much in the way of images for these first few posts.

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My first memory of a visual art experience was when I was about seven or eight years old at day camp. Somebody drew a picture of a boat by a large sunset and I thought it was one of the greatest pictures I ever saw. At some point after that, my family was on vacation in Florida and the hotel where we were staying had an art activity/contest so I drew the picture of the boat with the sunset as best as I could remember it. For my efforts, I was awarded “3rd prize” which consisted of a plastic trophy about 8 inches tall with the name of the hotel on it. I immediately felt like a fraud! Even though it was my drawing, I knew the original idea was not my own. I was too young to understand feelings like inspiration and definitely never heard the saying “Good artists copy, great artists steal”. Well, I am by no means a great artist, but I feel I can at least fall into the ‘good’ category at this point so my guilt has since subsided.

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The next drawings I can remember were cartoon characters that I liked: Fred Flintstone, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Woodstock. The Fred Flintstone one was a challenge. I was copying the front of a Flintstones coloring book and got Fred down fine but was really struggling with the prehistoric bird with its wings wide open that Fred was using as an umbrella.

In grade school, we very occasionally had art. The teacher, Miss Shore, came to our class. I guess it was the same idea as what is now called Art on a Cart. I don’t really remember what types of lessons Miss Shore taught but I do remember that I referred to her with great reverence as a “Real Artist”.

The years this took place were in the mid 1960s and charm bracelets were wildly popular. The idea of charm bracelets was to fill it with charms that were symbolic with things about your personality. Somebody in my family gave me a paint palette to put on my charm bracelet. I must have spent much more time engaged in art that I can recall for someone to notice and give me that charm. Oddly, I do have a photo of that charm bracelet (below). That’s all for now – to be continued.

New Artist Book: Kudzu – The Vine that Ate the South

I never heard of it before, which is odd since it was first introduced a the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. Now, it is all around me. Every area has its own invasive species and I knew the ones in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast US. But until I saw Kudzu – a highly invasive vine in the Southeast, I can honestly say I did not know the meaning of the word “invasive”. Kudzu was planted, like many things, with all good intention by the Civilian Conservation Corps to stop soil erosion on slopes and hills. It actually is not a bad looking vine and I can see why it was an attractive idea at the time. But this vine is such that it covers thickets of full grown trees and reaches out from stream banks giving the feeling that you have encountered the plant from the Little Shop of Horrors

Well, I tend to make books about things in my environment that seep into my conscious and don’t leave until I express it. So though it is not quite yet finished, here is my book on Kudzu – the Vine that Ate the South. To make it, I had to block print many, many leaves and glue them onto “vines” I made out of twisted paper. Using mixed media, I made a forest scene that the vines are covering. Below is the almost finished book and images of it in progress.

Stream of Conscious Drawings with Longwinded Captions

Awhile ago I posted a drawing from my sketchbook with a lengthy caption about The Girl from Ipanema. Since then I have done more of this type of sketching and figured I would post a few more here. I will type out the captions underneath because there are good handwriting day and bad handwriting days.

We don’t know what this is but it has been decided that every home should own one.

Who is this fine gentleman and where did he get his hat? Not to mention those glasses. And here is his wife, another interesting character indeed and a tad more refined than he. She used to teach piano lessons but decided to give that up so she could dedicate all her time to juggling fine china.

New Book

Though I keep thinking I am finished making books for my upcoming exhibition at the Hickory Museum of Art in 2022, I find I am still coming up with thoughts that I can’t get out of my head until I make the book. So here is my latest one called Retreat. It is made inside a small box about 4″ x 4″. I had to refashion a cover because it need something pliable.

What are the chances?

Lately, I have sharing my modest knowledge as an amateur botanist with artists from the Plastic Club in a series called “on plants” which takes place via Zoom off and on. Carla Stine, one of the participants who creates beautiful botanical illustrations, had a strange looking object that fit in the palm of her hand that looked like a porcupine. My guess is that it was the fruiting structure to something, but what?? I suggested she send me photos so I could ask the real botanist at work what it might be. So I toddle into work the next day and put my water cup on the shelf I always put it on, and there, three measly inches from where I place my cup is, guess what??? The EXACT same porcupine object!!! In the millions and millions of plants out there, what are the chances that this object would be right under my nose? Now in my own defense, the same shelf contains several objects, many more picturesque than the one in question. Upon picking it up (ouch!) I could see underneath that there was some nut like fruit.

So a short time after this odd discovery, here comes the botanist, who identified this object as a chestnut. He then proceeded to go gather some mounted specimens, including one where the nut was open. A few things to point out on the specimen below: next to the open nut (the female fruit) is a structure that looks like a string of pearls which are the male flowers. In the image under the specimen is its label. Note that there has been a name change, something that happens more often than you would think, sometimes because of mis-identification, other times because the plant has been put into a new genus, sub-species, or some other category based on new knowledge gained.

The reason I love botany is it gives me, as an artist, a visual way to solve puzzles. Why would a chestnut have such a covering? I am thinking as a means of survival. Porcupine like needles are certainly a way to discourage predators from eating up your potential offspring. So concludes our fireside chat today on botany.

This Sunday: On Plants. A Zoom series on plants and the different ways artists relate to them.

Radishes, from the artist book Diary of a Vegetable Farmer

You do not have to be an artist or an expert on plants to enjoy this upcoming series hosted by the Plastic Club. It will kick off this Sunday with a presentation I am giving on looking at the characteristics of leaves with an emphasis on trees. Many people enjoy plant journaling as a way to relax and/or a way to learn about plants. This presentation will touch on this topic as well. It may lean a bit more towards the botanical than the art end of things but if you have any interest in plants I hope you will join us. And, we are looking for future speakers so if you have information to share on plants please consider becoming a presenter. The link to sign up for this Sunday’s event is here.

Succotash, Painting, Leisure Activities

This may seem like an odd combination of things but it is because last summer I gave a summary of a week’s activities and it was a week that we cleaned the carpet. Well, it is carpet cleaning day again so I figured that was a good reason to repeat that format and fortunately it will be minus an earthquake.

Winter is Approaching, mixed media on panel, 12″ x 12″

Starting above with a painting I have been working and struggling with for the past few weeks. Well, I was able to complete that and am pretty happy with it. Last year I was volunteering at home mounting plants. Now I am employed at the herbarium so I spent a few days there and I am still trying to adjust to a new work schedule but that is coming along fine.

So what is this? Well, I find it to be great fun to take a bunch of vegetables that are in too small amounts to do much with on their own and make different blends of succotash. Aside from the show Chopped, the other inspiration I have for this is my Dad who used to clean out the refrigerator, add eggs, and scramble them with all the leftovers and called it Jambolt. Jambolt is an actual dish but it seems that is is one of those things that varies depending on the household. Well, succotash is sort of the same. My base for my Jambolt/Chopped succotash is thankfully NOT eggs but corn. For this version I had a little leftover radishes, red onion and spinach from our lunch this week and I am a big believer that a little olive oil, salt, and pepper are the the essentials to any type of vegetable dish. So to that I added a dash of cayenne and a little sweet paprika. Succotash.

The above images are from a sculpture show we went to last Saturday at the Boyhill Walking Park in Lenoir, NC. We were really not sure what to expect and decided that if we didn’t feel safe we would just not attend. Our reluctance was based on many things but I won’t get into that here. It was only about an hour away so at the very least it was a nice ride. But we were pretty sure it would be fine based on some research we did. As you can see, it is a lovely setting and it was not very crowded. There were about 35 sculptors and they were arranged around a lake. Most of the sculptors wore masks and we put ours up if we approached them to talk. We were really glad we took the chance and went. Each artist was allowed to display up to three sculptures. My favorite sculpture is below.

This wonderful installation by Crista Cammaroto was made out of all natural materials and is on a sand base. It was quite large and some details are above (you can right click on any image and it will enlarge in its own window). The yellow mounds were tummeric and you could smell them big time. She must have been there in the middle of the night setting this up. There was another one but my photos of that did not come out so well.

Earlier in the week I was able to safely attend an organ concert. An organ concert is not like going to see a rock band as they attract a relatively small, particular demographic. I love sitting in the back row of this big cavernous church and dozing off. It is very meditative. There was plenty of social distancing, even for the people who sat way up front. It is in Davidson which is, as a rule, concerned about safety and has a high vaccination rate so I feel pretty confident about anything I do there.

So though we are creeping along, I truly believe we are in a better place than we were a year ago for many reasons. And things will slowly improve as time goes on. I believe it was necessary to have this set back because people were getting too lax too quick, forgetting that many children are still not eligible for vaccines. I, for one, was struggling with the idea that a light switch turned and everything was normal again. That actually felt more strange to me than this slower adjustment.

Of course, the carpet is now clean. And the upholstery.

The Chair – a very short illustrated story

I wrote this several years ago for a workshop and recently pulled it out and made some edits. Hope you enjoy it.

The Girl from Ipanema’s House

I am posting this at the insistence of a friend that urged I share it. I don’t know what made me think of this song recently but I did and was compelled to draw and write the following (see a typed version of the text under the image):

The text reads:

This is where the girl from Ipanema lives. The location of the house is unknown but many of the features were made public. It has a spiral staircase that goes to a sunk-in living room. There is shag carpeting and a wet bar. Though there is no pool there is a beautiful fountain in front of the house. On warmer days the windows are open and you can hear Henry Mancini records playing. People have seen her when the shades are up or when she is at the front door talking with a neighbor or a delivery person. She wears flat shoes and form fitting pedal pusher pants. Her tops are short and if her arm is raised you can see her belly. She wears her dark hair piled in a bun and likes long dangly earnings. She wears eyeliner, but no eye shadow unless she goes out. She is thinking it would be nice to have a small dog and if she gets one she will put a fancy collar on the dog and get a leash with tiny rhinestones.

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Oddly, when I went looking for a version of this song to post I came across an interview with the actual woman this song was written about. She actually has (did have) dark hair and she obviously does like long dangly earrings and does like eye makeup. When the interviewer asked her what version she liked of the song, which was written by Antonio Carlos Jobim, she said the one by Frank Sinatra which, oddly, was not the most popular version of the song. However, in her honor, I will post a link to a version of the song (click here) done as a duet by Frank and Antonio.

The Neighborhood – The Final Version

**The Neighborhood, 24″ x 24″, Mixed Media on Panel**

I have been working on this piece for several years now. For awhile, it lived on a dowel and each house was on a string. But after awhile, that seemed awkward to display. Then I thought about making it a book and made fences to help the houses to connect together and stand up and then changed my mind. This is now how the houses will live. The houses and fences are adhered to a 24″ x 24″ paint panel. There is additional painting and drawing on top so it is a mixed media piece. Some detail images are below.