books - and the big bold and birdy painting

Collaborate - exchange - and share - that's what we did at Shakerag. Here try this. Wanna swap collage pieces? Wanna see how I made this? Can I borrow a bone folder?

Here we're in a book class with Dolph Smith, selecting book signatures created by our classmates. We were instructed not to select our own work, then we were asked to describe what what we liked about the pieces we selected. The powerful part of this exercise is that as the creator of the pieces we were asked to be silent and soak in the feedback on how the work was received not share how it was produced, or comment. (difficult for me, as you can imaging) Very enlightening. It showed me that everything is open to endless interpretation, regardless of how straight forward I think it is.

Now onto some painting.... My quest was to include forms that one could identify into my work. This should be a reasonable request. But as you'll see (as I post more work from the week) I'm full of abstract forms. I just can't help myself once I get rolling with the color and texture party. This piece is 42" x 42". Why not say it big?

Little bird
Mom watches you from egg to flight.

While many assumed this was about moi, it's about my mom. Yes she is a closet ornithologist and stalks those little birds (quite carefully of course) the moment the nest shows any signs of activity. I wonder how many nests she's had this year? Even I find it to be endless fascination too.

It's big - it's bold - it's birdy - I love it. While it's difficult to see in this shot there are many hidden, smaller and recognizable forms sprinkled throughout. Detail to come.