Friday, August 24, 2012

Friday August 24, 2012 Fragments Nine

Fragments None #104  30"x30"  gouache on w/c paper

Fragments Nine #106  30"x30" gouache on w/c paper

Fragments Nine #107  30"x30"  gouache on w/c paper

Fragments Nine #105  30"x30" gouache on w/c paper

I continue to create paintings based on collage and on the grid.  For me when I create a new work, I need to create a context for the work by creating a number of paintings in the same manner.  In this way I am able to judge the work.  

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Fragment Grid #101 30"x30" gouache on watercolor paper

Fragment Grid #102 gouache on watercolor paper

Fragment Grid #103 30"x30" gouache on w/c paper

These grids are created from the collages I made and are now the basis for the paintings.  I spend a lot of time creating the collages and putting them together to become the grid.


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Thursday July 1, 2010

Thursday morning, I've been waiting for July first and I'm not sure why. Maybe the way it sounds, like tinkling bells in my ears. Not that I want to wish away my life, but something about July the first excites me. I don't know where this wants to go, or even if it want to "go."

The thing about time is, that there isn't enough. Today I would like to be in the studio, following my own path, discovering answers to my own questions, but, not today. Today I have to go to the gallery, so first things first. Perhaps this afternoon will be my own.

I am thinking of a quote by Meyer Schapiro, "...the arts have become more deeply personal, more intimate, more concerned with experiences of a subtle kind."

Sunday Morning June 20, 2010



It is Sunday morning I sit before the computer, the computer glows inside the studio and outside, the world become light. Dawn breaks over the world. I cannot see the sun rise or look to the east, from my studio, but if I could look to the East, I would be looking towards Taos pueblo. The sky to the north west and west is a pale blue green, and at the horizon, it is a subtle color, which is hard to name. There are clouds which are grey with highlights of gold. A lone cricket sits near my door and chirps his morning song, all else is quiet, there is a sense of waiting.

Peggy Pound Church writes in Bones Incandescent, "The moment today when I realized that to live here we must not only think the mountain is holy but know it --think of its holiness each time we look at it--focus upon it the spirit of all holiness which we feel in us." She is not writing about Taos mountain, but the words could apply. I do realize how lucky I am to live in the shadow of the sacred mountain. I think there is no other place like Taos. But it is a power center and the power or energy here does not agree with everyone. It is said if the mountain does not love you, soon you will go screaming out of this place. And for others it is a place of good energy, and I am lucky it is good for me. It is a place I can work without interruption, and when I look up to look out from the studio there is beauty in all directions. My life in Taos allows me to follows in the footsteps of other women artists, like Georgia O'Keefe, Florence Pierce, and Janet Lippencot who worked in New Mexico. And Mabel Luhan, is not to be forgotten, though she was not a painter, she was a lovely writer, and she encouraged the painters, invited them to Taos to stay in her home, to tell the story, to paint the West.

The oil paintings I started the day before yesterday, are quietly waiting for me to come to them to continue. And soon I will be at work, subtly changing the color, layering more paint, following the path of all painters, who have come before me. Our way of life is a quiet one, alone in the studio, making thousands of choices each day. We must focus, and "The art of focusing itself has beauty and meaning; it is the art that continues..., turns art into meditation, into poetry (into painting). The question of place resolves itself into point of view." --Peggy Pond Church, Bones Incandescent. And it is in this place I am creating the work I call, "Poems of the Desert." And it is here the door has opened into silence, "like the old roar of ocean in a seashell..."
May Sarton, A World of Light.

"There is no separation between poetry, the stories and events that link them, or the music that holds all together, just as there is no separation between human, animal, plant,sky and earth...The land is a poem of ochre and burnt sand I could never write (paint)unless the paper were the sacrament of sky, and ink the broken line of wild horses staggering the horizon several miles away. Even then, does anything written (painted) ever matter to the earth, wind, and sky?"--Joy Harjo And she also says, "A story leads to a dream leads to a poem leads to a song (leads to a painting), and so on."

So today in the studio I will seek the "story" which will lead to a "poem" and I will sing the "song." I will be the artist that I am, applying paint, following the thread, on the unfamiliar path, where there is no destination, only the journey.

June 10, 2010


This morning seems to be a morning of anticipation. There is a quality of breathlessness in the air. The sky is slightly overcast and everything is just a little gray. Perhaps the anticipation is for the sun to properly clear Taos Mountain, so the day can actually begin. I listen, there is no sound. It is if I am at the bottom of the sea.

There was another mistake in the printing yesterday, in a long line of mistakes. I keep wondering why this is happening, and we are reassured at every turn, this is an exception. I wonder, is it? Or is it the way people do business these days? No one wants to be responsible, it's someone else's fault. Or is the Universe saying, the time is not right, the job is not supposed to be finished, there is a better time. The Universe has set it's own deadline. Is it a lesson to test the patience?

I have great news! I can't wait for you to wake! Now, I can hear the clock on the studio wall ticking, measuring the time, all is falling into place. There are decisions to be made. It promises to be another busy day.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Fragments III #104  20"x20"  gouache on w/c paper

Fragments III #105  20"x20"  gouache on w/c paper

Fragments III #107  20"x20"  gouache on w/c paper

These pieces were accepted into Third Coast National, a juried exhibition of new works of art from all across the USA.Juror:  Christina Rees is the curator of Moudy Gallery and Forth Worth Contemporary Arts at Texas christian University.

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 Press Release                                                                            Contact: Marilyn Lavi631-549-5106managerbjs@verizon.net
August brings b. j. spoke gallery’s annual Paperworks 2012 Exhibition
On view from Tuesday, August 1st until August 29th, 2012
Opening reception is Saturday, August 4th from 6-9 pm
This year b. j. spoke invited Laura Phipps, assistant curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, to judge the entries submitted for the National Competition and select the artworks on and made of paper for the Winners Exhibition - Paperworks 2012.  She selected these twenty winning artists: Sara Conklin, Karen Cunningham, Marjorie Forte, Jenny Freestone, Colleen Ho, Bror Hultgren, Nikki Klopfenstein, Phyllis Kravitz, Louise Laplante, Francene Levinson, Annell Livingston, Lori Love Penland, Iris Polos, Johwey Redington, Dave Rogers, Suzanne Ross, Stephen Spretnjak, Jeff Wetzig, Christine Wuenschel and Tmima Z.
Ms. Phipps said “Surveying the submissions for "Paperworks" 2012, I was struck by a sense that many artists have an interest in the exploration of the properties of paper - physical, functional, and symbolic. In particular, the works chosen for this exhibition reflect properties inherent in the use of paper through the subject matter depicted, the manipulation of paper's attributes and functions, or the treatment or degradation of the paper itself. 
In their work, Louise Laplante, Annell Livingston, Phyllis Kravitz, and Jenny Freestone present subject matter that depicts both the fragility and vibrancy of the natural world through the specific imagery and symbolism of birds. Similarly, the depiction of other bodies (human and animal) in works by Iris Polos, Sara Conklin, Christine Wuenschel, and Karen Cunningham reflect the complicated nature of life - at times strong and seemingly invincible and at others weak and vulnerable. In these instances the qualities of subject matter chosen by these artists is mirrored in the qualities of the medium and support - paper - the artists employ.
In other instances, the subject matter and functions of paper become intertwined. Paper was created to aid communication and continues in that tradition as a tool for art-making. By incorporating the basic building block of communication - language (Marjorie Forté and Dave Rogers), central tools of communication - the book (Tmima Z and Johwey Redington) and post (Stephan Spretnjak), or highlighting the way paper as communication outlives its purpose (Jeff Wetzig) artists in the exhibition have explored  paper's functionality to a variety of ends.
And finally, the treatment of paper itself underscores its physicality as both medium and support in the work of Bror Hultgren, Lori Love Penland, Colleen Ho, Francene Levinson, Suzanne Ross, and Nikki Klopfenstein. By making paper, reusing found paper, reshaping paper, and poking and burning its surface these artists physically identify paper's multitude of properties.”




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