The Studio

student studio
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This is my studio this week. It is filled with the materials and work of two private students who have come bringing everything they can that relates to their aspirations for the week. I do maintain one small area for myself to work on the clock parts for “In Search of Lost Time” but find myself more and more involved in what they are doing. Their ideas are big and the hours are long for all of us. We are learning so much from one another.

And as if we did not have enough to work with, two of us are taking off today on a hunt for more parts, more tools, more things that just might be what we need. One is left in the studio by herself to work at her own pace to complete large canvas panels with recessed sections and carefully placed imagery and text that supports her concept.

Next week when they are both gone the studio will return to its open spaces for me to spread out and try my hand at what I am learning from them this week.  Or I will immerse myself even further in my own work and see if I can come close to the accomplishments made by others in my space.

Putting Things in Order

Studio corner detail
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I have cleaned the studio in preparation of private students arriving next week. And there is so much more room in there now. When working in mixed media things get a bit layered over each other on tables, benches, counters.  Almost any available space becomes a cluttered collection of mixed parts and missing tools. Everything is now in its place and I can see it all. But I found when it was finished that I kept going back to the details of the places things were placed. They were interesting to photograph. Each was like an illustration in some sort of story….small narratives on the walls and in corners. Here are some more

Small textile pieces piled together.
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Small textile pieces piled together.
On the end of a shelf.
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On the end of a shelf.

 

 

"In Search of Lost Time"  The next series waiting to be completed with all its parts gathered together.
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“In Search of Lost Time”
The next series waiting to be completed with all its parts gathered together.
Every sketchbook and artist book  done in and about Australia, all lined up
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Every sketchbook and artist book done in and about Australia, all lined up

These images are of things that seem to want more attention. I know I need to get back to the time pieces, but what do those small vignettes that are happening on the shelves expect me to do? And the long line of Australia? I think they are there to remind me I am going back and not to forget the recording of memories that will join them later on that shelf.

For some reason I am intrigued by the top introductory image. It is the corner of a four foot square canvas with graphite and large stitching that goes through the cloth and becomes part of the image that also exposes an under painting that came before and now is framed with willow tied in place to frame the “history” on the canvas. The braid of raffia hangs there like it was also painted and reminds me of my basketry beginnings. I think this image means something but I am not sure what. Something.

 

Teaching Again

 

Experimentation with materials cassein
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I start teaching again next week. A class called Marking Places and Making Pages. It is actually a time of experimentation with materials. It is a way of showing students everything I know how to do that may be useful to their art practice. Then at the end of the week it is all assembled into a big book of ideas, notes and samples. Bound in such a way that hopefully they find it irresistible and pick it up over and over again looking for just the right way to say what they have to say.

eco coloring shifu
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A Little Time Alone

I akangaroo bones in drawingm cherishing the time alone at a friends home in Medlow Bath, a town west of Sydney and perched in the Blue Mountains. The yard is full of gum trees, vegetable gardens, black cockatoos, sunshine and a bower bird with the most amazing collection of bright blue plastic clothes pins. My laundry is finishing up in the washer and ready to be dried. The watercolors made of Australian soils are laying next to the sketchbooks, carved wood blocks and torn sheets of printmaking papers. It is time to record more of Australia, try to get down on paper what makes this country so magic for me.

Tomorrow I am moved closer to the location of my last two workshops here in the Blue Mountains and just like last time, I miss the country before I have even left it.

farm sketching
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