Remain Alert....

As artists it's important to remember that what the eye sees, the mind remembers and becomes grist for the mill in the studio. That's why it's so crucial to remain alert to one's surroundings even when one is not in the midst of a creative moment. This was never more apparent to me than during the one year I spent in graduate school at Bennington College in Vermont. Living in such a bucolic setting might seem like a dream come true to a visual artist. And if graduate school gives us anything it gives us abundant, uninterrupted time to create. For me, a die-hard city dweller, I found the "eye candy" of country living looked more like "eye broccoli" which made it virtually impossible to find any visual stimulus on which my senses could feed. Surrounded by nothing but trees and mountains and more trees and mountains, whether they were lush with green or covered with snow or on fire with the colors of fall, it all looked the same and my eyes (and soul) starved. For some, those trees were a dream come true, but they left me hungry and yearning for something more.

Today, while wandering around the west side of Manhattan, amidst industrial buildings, car lots, and sleeping homeless people, I happened upon a window lined with miniature vintage cars just waiting for me to feed upon them. If I had not been alert to my surroundings, I might have missed these gems. But since I am always "eating with my eyes" I stopped to feed on this beautiful urban image and capture it with my phone.

A crack in a wall, a brick wall stained with pigeon droppings, a discarded cup of coffee, the randomness of several strangers in a subway car all wearing the same color....All of these things are happening right before our eyes every day, but if we are not vigilant in our awareness we might miss them. Re-think your idea of beauty and you will see that it is all around you......

Au revoir, Louise....

She inspired me to the very core....

Sunday in Park Slope...

Anyone who lives anywhere near the Brooklyn Museum would be well advised to see the Kiki Smith installation, "Sojourn". As with everything Kiki does, this show does not disappoint. I just love this woman! I spent a few hours at the show with a friend after spending a productive day in the studio yesterday. Great way to round out a sunny, brisk Park Slope weekend.
The show gave me just the boost of energy I needed to get back into the studio and finish up some pieces I started yesterday. I've started incorporating some of my own photography with vintage family photos and my grandfathers writings. I'm quite happy with the results so far. I'm simplifying the compositions and using fewer elements. These are a few pieces that are still in progress.....

Branching out for spring......

Well the sun is finally shining, the cold weather seems to have left for good, so I thought I'd try some new things on for size in the studio in recognition of the new season. Although I don't think I've quite exhausted the subject of my family history just yet, I decided to experiment with some of my own photography for new subject matter and see where that leads. These pieces utilize some great shots I took of reflections on the Venice Grand Canal at night, and then altered using the iPhone app "CameraBag" (which I am totally addicted too). I'm calling these the "Venice at Night" series. Finally making use of the thousands of pics I took in October while I was in Italy. These are tiny pieces, almost vignettes or sketches for an idea still to be fleshed out. The small pieces are a joy to make because I can really just 'play' without fear and without thinking too much about the outcome.

"Venice @ Night"(2" X 2" each panel)
I've also veered off and used a few images of a good friend who makes a great subject. I've been shooting him a lot lately... again, on my iPhone and making use of CameraBag with every shot I take. (It's almost too easy to make great photos with this app! It can make even the most mediocre photo look great.) He appears in these new pieces even though he was no where near the Grand Canal when I shot these pics of him. I love the yummy raspberry color of the bottom piece....

"Perfect School Companion"
"Venice: Nile at Night"

Hot Plate.....in the sun.....

There is no particular reason for posting these two great photos of my hot plate in the afternoon sun....I just felt compelled to share them because they look so darn cool. They were taken with two new iPhone applications which create all kinds of fun photo effects, such as heavy color saturation, vintage photo effects,

infrared, silver tone, and a whole bunch of other neat stuff. I recommend them to anyone who likes the instant satisfaction of snapping artful photos on their iPhone. They're called "CameraBag" and "Hipstamatic" and they're well worth the couple of bucks they cost to download. Enjoy!

Keep walking....

Each day I try to find a quote or saying that seems fitting to my current state of mind. Lately, I've been focusing on "perseverance" and that the most important thing is to keep working, without regard for the outcome and with no expectations. Approaching the studio from that place I am never (well...,almost never) dissatisfied with what comes out of a day's work because I know the most important thing is that I get to the studio as often as possible ~ every day would be ideal. So here is my quote for today:

"If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep walking." ~ Buddhist proverb

All Grown Up......

I found two inspiring and very à propos quotes this morning:

"My breakthrough came very late in life, really only starting when I was fifty years old. But at that time I felt as though I had the strength for new deeds and ideas."
::: Edvard Munch :::

"Everyone has talent at 25. The difficulty is to have it at 50."
::: Edgar Degas :::

What a great way to start my day........

"Quote" "Unquote"...

I've been reading a lot of artist's quotes lately, trying to keep the creative process going during the times I am not in the studio. My favorites are usually the most simple, straightforward ones. I tend to shy away from quotes describing lofty ideals and romantic notions of what art is, or those that profess that creativity is the 'holy spirit' speaking through us. I'm not really interested in that. Do I feel connected to a power or energy larger than myself when I am working - YES, but I try not to think of myself (or my fellow artists) as a holy vessel, per se. I'm only interested in the way the creative process makes me feel while I am 'in the moment' and in that lovely, exhausted, body-weary feeling I get after a day of hard work in the studio. Here is the best quote I found today:
Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.~Pablo Picasso

Giovanni's Notebooks......

My new muse is my grandfathers notebooks.~~ beautiful yellowing sheets covered in fancy, floral, old-world script that looks like a cross between ancient palimpsests and Cy Twombly drawings.

Every Sunday after lunch my grandfather would retreat to his club chair, pencil in hand, and write for hours on end. No one ever bothered to ask what he was writing, and when he died the notebooks remained in a pile on the TV stand along with his dictionaries, newspaper clippings, and crossword puzzles. I have recently begun to translate the notebooks with the help of various Italian-speaking friends and to my utter surprise they are filled with the most amazing musings on politics, religion, and philosophy. Some pages contain quotes by Dostoyevsky, Thoreau, and Churchill. Others are drafts of letters to his beloved sister Corradina in Pozzallo, Sicily.

My grandfather was a simple, quiet man, a blue collar laborer, an immigrant who became a patriotic American, yet remained steadfastly loyal and devoted to his homeland and it's traditions. I am now discovering that there was another, more complicated side to him. The notebooks are a window into the person who was my grandfather, a man who I adored, a man I am still getting to know.......

Mario Giacomelli....my new Italian boyfriend

I've been meaning to post info about this amazing Italian artist I discovered while I was in Italy: Mario Giacomelli. I had never heard of him before, and Wikipedia has only a few words to say about him:
'Giacomelli was a self-taught photographer. At 13, he left high school, began working as a typesetter and spent his weekends painting. After the horrors of World War II, he turned to the more immediate medium of photography. He wandered the streets and fields of post-war Italy, inspired by the gritty Neo-Realist films of Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini.'
This is a photographer worth checking out. His aerial landscapes in particular, blew me away. If I could make ONE piece of work in my life that inspires in someone what his photos inspire in me, I would die a happy and fulfilled woman.