Innocence

"Innocence is not the prerogative of infants and puppies, and far less of mountains and fixed stars, which have no prerogatives at all. It is not lost to us; the world is a better place than that. Like any other of the spirit's good gifts, it is there if you want it, free for the asking, as has been stressed by stronger words than mine. It is possible to pursue innocence as hounds pursue hares: single-mindedly, driven by a kind of love, crashing over creeks, keening and lost in fields and forests, circling, vaulting over hedges and hills wide-eyed, giving loud tongue all unawares to the deepest, most incomprehensible longing, a root-flame in the heart, and that warbling chorus resounding back from the mountains, hurling itself from ridge to ridge over the valley, now faint, now clear, ringing the air through which the hounds tear, open-mouthed, the echoes of their own wails dimly knocking in their lungs. 

What I call innocence is the spirit's unself-conscious state at any moment of pure devotion to any object. It is at once a receptiveness and total concentration. One needn't be, shouldn't be, reduced to a puppy. If you wish to tell me that the city offers galleries, I'll pour you a drink and enjoy your company while it lasts; but I'll bear with me to my grave those pure moments at the Tate (was it the Tate?) where I stood planted, open-mouthed, born, before that one particular canvas, that river, up to my neck, gasping, lost receding into watercolor depth and depth to the vanishing point, buoyant, awed, and had to be literally hauled away. These are our few live seasons. Let us live them as purely as we can, in the present. "

- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (pg 82)

Three Announcements!

ONE: The Shop!

The Etsy shop is officially open for business. Acknowledging that my goal to post hundreds of items for sale before I announce it is just plain silly, I'm opening it with only a few items. But the promise is that there'll be more to come. The shop is called The Ambrosium in honor of St. Ambrose, the patron saint of wax workers, and it can be found here. I'll be concentrating on filling it with more things after this weekend when we have....

TWO: "3rd Friday Open Studio" 
and 
"Durham Art Walk and Holiday Market"!

Friday from 6-9 PM the Golden Belt Studios will open its doors to the public, and there'll be plenty of artists working away and selling their wares. Food trucks are likely to be hanging out and there should be a new show in the gallery. It's bound to be a great time. 

Saturday from 10 AM - 5 PM and Sunday from 1-5 PM the Durham Art Walk will be happening all over town. The Golden Belt artists will participate in the walk by offering art and christmas gifts and ornaments galore. It's a great place to do your Christmas shopping and to find unique--and, yes, affordable--things for all your special people. I'll be selling....

THREE: Prints!

For the first time I will have available prints of my watercolor series. They'll come in two sizes. This is a perfect gift for someone looking to spend $20-$35 dollars on an art print. You can find images of the series here.  The prints will be smaller in size than the originals, either 8.5 X 11 or 11 X 13. They will be printed on heavy weight paper with white border perfect for framing. The printer uses archival inks so they're sure to last for a long time. 

If you email me a pre-order form before Friday, then you can have a print for $15 or $30 instead of the full price I'll be offering over the weekend. If you live in another state and would like to pre-order, I can send you your prints next week for a small shipping fee. To pre-order: look at the images here and email me the titles of the ones that you would like to purchase. I'll send you a pay-pal link with your order so you can pay remotely if you live outside of Durham-Chapel Hill. 

So, to recap:

1. Etsy shop now officially open.

2. Studio open with fun things for sale: Friday 19th 6-9, Saturday 20th 10-5, Sunday 21st 1-5.

3. Prints available--first time ever. Pre-order by Friday for discounts. 

Week One in a Working Studio

Dried lichen from last spring that hangs above my work table. It's still neon green!

Last week was pure craziness. I had so much work to do. I'm glad I was able to squeeze some art making in between everything else. Until I have time for a real post, here are some shots from things I'm working on right now:

Ink dried in the bottom of a glass dish. 

I'm making small paper forms and experimenting with sewing on them in different ways. My plan is to sink the paper forms into wax in clusters. Sort of like a 3-D version of my cellular pieces I've been working on.  

I've been using all kinds of glass vials, test tubes, and small beakers to mold my forms onto.

This is one of my favorites. I love the red thread underneath one layer of thin paper. 

I'm trying some sewing with my own hair. It's pretty tricky to get it knotted, but I bought some cheap magnifying glasses to help me see the tiny ends. This takes total focus and good music in my i-pod.

I've been doing tons of simple cellular type drawings that I am going to turn into either watercolor/drawing pieces or encuastics. So far it has been too difficult to get really clean and simple details using the encuastic process. But, I'm going to keep trying different things to try and see if I can't figure it out. I'd love to have these drawings translated into wax somehow. 

My many to-do lists. It's great to have a whole wall that I can use for lists.

Wrapping up and sending off my first (trial run) etsy sale. I'll announce the etsy shop opening soon. This sale was to a friend who kindly agreed to be my guinea pig. This way I could walk myself through the whole process and make sure I'd gotten everything right. As soon as I finish filling the shop I'll have it open to everyone.

Making hundreds of business cards for the various events I have coming up. I love the process of tearing down and stamping each card. I'd never change to machine made cards, I just love these deckled edges too much!

Studio 3-103

Guess what? I moved. I am now a proud resident of Golden Belt Building 3: the Artist Studios. I moved in last week and spent days painting over a very dark fuchsia to get the walls bright and white. I'm having a great time working away in my new space this week. It's amazing how much more productive I am when I can't get distracted by laundry, cooking, plants to water, and other various and sundry chores.

I'm really excited about this chance to expand my creative pursuits to include teaching adult classes, doing more elaborate projects in my kids classes, and making bigger art! The building is open to the public each week day from 10-7 and weekends from 10-5. Come by and visit me and the other 40 artists working here. I'd love to see you!

 The Golden Belt building opened in 1900 as a textile manufacturing company. I'm so glad it's been renovated and is being used. It's beautiful and it would have been a tragedy if someone had torn it down to build apartments or something depressingly worse. 

Can you believe this color? Two coats of primer and another of white paint to cover it!

It feel so much bigger now that the walls are white. Even with all my stuff in here I feel like I could teach a whole class without having to move a thing. It's great to have some space to welcome people into the studio with me. 

 All moved in! Photos of stuff I worked on this week coming soon. 

My first event is the 3rd friday Open Studio on November 19th and the Durham Holiday Art Walk on the 20th and 21st. That whole weekend I'll be selling art and other things that make wonderful holiday gifts. I'll also be selling prints of my watercolor series for the first time. I'll have block prints for sale that I haven't printed in a while as well as ornaments, new encaustic works, and other things I'll be making over the next few weeks. Most of the artists will be here in their studios, so it will be a great time to come visit and see all that is being made in this creative space. Spread the word!

House Show, Prints, Cake!

If you live in the triangle area, here's some information on a fun thing happening this weekend. This house is for sale and it's super cute. Anyone you know that is looking for a house, likes to eat free cake or enjoys art should come and be with us Sunday afternoon. Also there will be Prosecco to sweeten the deal.

The really exciting news is: I'll be pre-selling prints of my watercolor series for the first time! The prints will be ready by November 19th, but you can pre-purchase the prints at the open house to ensure you get some before the holidays. I'll also be selling the prints at a holiday sale happening on the 19th but if you pre-purchase at the open house, you will get a discounted price and you won't have to fight the masses to get one, or five. :) Hope to see you Sunday!

New work and a Cupcake.

Interlacers (cellular series: 4)

Encaustic on wood panel, red thread, 5x17

Here are two finished pieces from my current cellular series. I just returned from NYC where I was filled up by all the amazing art I got to see. I'm excited to see how this affects the next pieces in the series. I did eight new drawings on the plane ride home; so I know something is certainly cooking in this brain of mine. I love the long and skinny format of the piece above. I have thirty cedar boards this size. My inclination is to make a whole bunch of pieces like this. I'd like to hang them as one big installation, sort of like a ladder of images. This one underneath has given me fits from the start. I'm actually quite glad to be finally done with it. It's not my favorite but I learned a lot while I was doing it and I'm ready to move on.

Collectors (cellular series: 3)

Encuastic on wood panel, 8x10

I also ate this gluten-free cupcake that was so good it almost made me cry. Really, tears formed in my eyes. 

Coming soon: More NYC pics, including a whole slew of images from our mad dash through the Met; the launch of my Etsy shop; and a fun announcement. 

Etsy Shop: Sneak Peek

Exciting news! In just a little over a week I will finally launch my Etsy Shop.

The vision for the shop is to provide beautiful devotional objects that will help people to cultivate their interior and devotional lives. Hopefully the sale of these objects will allow me to make art and not to worry so much about selling it--although who doesn't love to sell. The Etsy pieces are my bread and butter, so to speak, while my other artwork--for example, my new cellular series and my "Adventurers & Adventuresses"--represents the arenas where I seek to stretch myself aesthetically. The Etsy shop hopefully will provide artistic aids to people's spiritual formation.  The other art is a way for me to explore more difficult conceptual and formal territory. Here's hoping that one will support the other.

The Etsy shop will be called "The Ambrosium" in honor of St. Ambrose who is, among other things, the patron saint of wax workers. I love the idea of a kind of visual scriptorium where images are made in the same way that the monks would have illuminated the manuscripts they copied. The scribes were not necessarily thinking about making great works of art; they were thinking about the creation of beautiful things that complemented the devotional practices of the people who would have read the pages. I am excited about offering these art objects to serve your space. I think that having more time to work with wax and all the lovely things associated with it will only make me a better artist over all.

 I have been crafting the aesthetic for the shop and have landed on wanting to evoke the feeling of ancient, earthy, iconic objects. Think illuminated manuscripts, old books, icons, wood altar pieces and reliquaries, and you'll be in the right place.

These are just some sneak peaks of the inventory I'm building before I officially open. I'm also working on some pieces inscribed with word meditations as well as a whole line of goldfinch images.  I'd love to know which photographs draw you in. If you see something you like, please let me know.