Hollyhocks

Hollyhocks! Such a beautiful flower.

Hollyhocks

I was at the Denver Botanic Gardens recently, shooting closeup photos of leaves and plants before fall sets in. I was photographing the hollyhocks when an elderly lady commented about them being a flower of the past. When she was young, she would put a popsicle stick into the narrow end of the flower, using the stick as the head and body, which she decorated. The flower portion became the flowing dress, and presto… she had a dancing doll. Nature …. instills imagination! We all see things through different eyes.

See a video on making hollyhock dolls.

Doggy Down and Yoga

While doing yoga the other day, I was in the ‘doggy down’ stance. I remembered looking at my own dog that morning and observing her doing something similar. So many of those yoga poses relate to animals and nature. There are the zebra, camel, howling cat, tortoise, cow, cobra, lotus, and tree poses. Plus the willow, sun salutation, and ocean breath movements. Can we mimic and learn from nature? Of course! Do I use nature as a source of inspiration for my artwork? Of course!

Arborglyph (1 symbol 9) Under WaterA very popular set of yoga poses are called the warrior poses. Many of my Arborglyph monoprint symbols resemble something in life. The symbol to the left reminds me of one of the many yoga warrier poses. See all that positive energy eminating from the ‘body’!

Arborglyph: (1 symbol 9) Under Water.

Underwater…

Arborglyph (1 symbol S3) Under WaterIs your bank ‘underwater’?

Check out its debt (or depth…)

Many of my Arborglyph monoprints are titledUnder Water . Therefore, I just couldn’t resist looking at this news article. Of course this ‘underwater’ stuff is affecting us all. How do we artists stay afloat when some of our banks are barely swimming.

Arborglyph: (1 symbol S3) Under Water.

© 2006 Linda C. Everson, All Rights Reserved.

EcoArts, eARTh, scientists and artists…

In today’s Denver Post article, Climage ” change gets down to eARTh, Ray Mark Rinaldi discusses EcoArts Connections, scientists and artists, left brain and right brain thinking. All are working together for the same solutions for environmental awareness. We’re not so different after all!

But what of the differing methods? The perception that scientists spend their lives seeking definitive, quantitative answers, while artists seem content to raise broad questions and let audiences or viewers draw their own conclusions?

Jim White uses a surprisingly artistic metaphor to explain the relationship. “One way to look at it is like this: Just as a sculptor chips away what is not needed in a block of stone to reveal the art within, a scientist chips away the unproductive theories to expose the truth within.”

EcoArts Connections in Boulder, CO has scientists and artists working together with innovative technology to raise more environmental awareness. EcoArts is one of the organizers of “Bolero Colorado” where there are several art /science events in September in Colorado. There will be a violinist performing in front of NASA images, dances, multimedia events, wind farms visits, and so on.

The Denver Botanic Gardens will host a multimedia event on Thursday, September 17 at 7 pm. There is also an art show by Bonny Lhotka called Alchemy (through September 20) at the Botanic Gardens. I was at the opening, and got to speak with her firsthand about her innovative use of digital photography and laser technology to create her images of nature. Extremely intriguing technique and wonderful artwork!

As you know, nature is an also important element in my own artwork. In 2005, I collaborated with a scientist for a WCA show called Women in Science? Science in Art? at the CU Gallery in Boulder. I typically don’t work with math, but since Martin Walter was a mathematician, we decided to work with fractals in nature. Since aspen trees and the magnification of the tree bark was my current theme, that became the imagery.

Sierpinskis Triangle In the Aspen Forest

Sierpinski’s Triangle: In the Aspen Forest.

 © 2005 Linda C. Everson, All Rights Reserved.

Seraphine, the movie

One of my favorite past times is watching art movies and foreign films. Recently I saw a wonderful movie, Seraphine, at the local art movie theatre, Chez Artiste. This movie has won 7 French Academy Awards (Cesars) including Best Picture and Best Actress. The movie received great reviews.

Yolande Moreau is remarkably skilled at playing the real-life Seraphine, a lowly housekeeper in the daytime and an avid artist at night. Her guardian angel inspired her to become a self-taught painter (naive art), and she made her own “secret” colors from various natural ingredients in the French Senlis countryside. Her various rituals in life: housecleaning, shuffling through the woods in search of paint ingredients, singing to the Virgin Mary while painting by candlelight late at night; all are craftly portrayed in this poignant film.

In 1912, Seraphine was discovered by Wilhelm Uhde, an art critic, dealer, and early collector of such famous artists as Picasso and Rousseau. The story is of their relationship as artist and her sometimes benefactor, both with trials and tribulations, both with an excessive love for their art. It is a touching story of an artist’s perseverance through the harshest of circumstances.

I thought the movie Seraphine was beautifully photographed. In keeping with the theme, the director used “no warm colors” except for the ‘colorful paintings’ by Seraphine; no special effects, just great camera angles. It was a sobering , yet extremely inspiring film. How can anyone truely creative have any excuses for being non-productive after seeing the intensity of this artist who had many problems.

Below are a few quotes from an interview of the director, Martin Provost.

There are often people who are not erudite, who were not born in favorable circumstances, or close to culture, but who carry within themselves this incredible creative capacity, irrepressible and disturbing at times. These artists are like deep-sea fishermen, far from artistic evolutions and turmoil, with no teachers or disciples, and they don’t always get the recognition they deserve.

He also emphasized that rituals were a way of disciplining one’s life.

Fox

In my last blog I mentioned that Zorro means ‘Fox’ in Spanish.

DAM (Denver Art Musuem) has an the intriguing exhibit of Sandy Skoglund’s 1989 installation … Fox Games, which has 28 gray fox in various poses in a totally red restaurant. The fox scampering over the floor, tables and chairs; even hanging off the walls. Its totally WILD! Skogland creates these unusual environments and photographs them. While more people are familiar with her photos, to observe one of her installations is a big treat! I saw an installation in New York where everything, people included, were made of cheetos. Cheesy! One of her many themes is the encroachment of humanity upon nature, or in this fox exhibit, nature upon humanity.

In my own neighborhood, we are having that a similar scenario of nature and man encroaching upon each other. While walking my dog, I/we often see fox and coyote, but they usually keep their distance. It’s actually wonderful to be so close to nature. However, a few humans and their pets have had some aggressive encounters with these “wild animals”, and authorities are considering some intervention. My own vet has told me to carry a stick. In Aspen Co, they’re also having many encounters with bears roaming into homes, businesses, or just on the streets.

Tree grafittiSome of my artwork is also an example of man’s encroachment upon nature. My ‘Arborglyphs’ series are derived from aspen tree bark, sometimes the natural scarring, sometimes grafitti. Since aspen bark is light colored and fairly smooth in texture, carving grafitti onto aspen trees tends to be very popular.

I have found multitude of tree grafitti with interesting motifs. Names, initials, hearts, and dates are most common. A guess we all have to leave our imprint. The earliest date so far has been 1944. A few interesting words were: “The Life”, “Last Day Working”, and “Good by”. It’s amazying how much grafitti one tree can hold. I can only hope that this encroachment upon the trees does not harm them.

I don’t often see animal words as tree graffiti, but did find the word “FOX”, which became the 6′ x 6″ Arborglyph monoprint below.

 

Arborglyph: FOX 

© 2006 Linda C. Everson,

All Rights Reserved.

Z for Zorro

It’s all in your name!

When I was at an art festival last summer, I had a viewer look at my artwork for literally 30 seconds, and he exclaimed “I have to buy this!” A decision so quickly! Why?

It turns out that the monoprint he was enamored with had a huge red letter “Z ” slashing across the top of the image. And it so happens my client’s nickname is… “Z”. Sometimes art hits you between the eyes just like that!

Arborglyphs Z Zorro

Arborlyph: Z Zorro

© 2004 Linda C. Everson, All Rights Reserved

“Z” also stands for Zorro, who was the masked character created in 1919 by Johnston McCulley in series The Curse of Capistrano.  Zorro quite often slashed the letter “Z” as his signature. He was a cult hero in multiple magazines, comics, books, films, TV, stage, music, computer and video games.  His name lives on…

Art and Tour de France

Linda biking in Corsica
Linda biking in Corsica

One of my favorite past times is BIKING. I’m no racer like Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France, but I have done several difficult bike tours overseas and love climbing the Colorado mountains. When I’m not riding with others , I sometimes bring my camera and take photos that I might use for imagery in my monoprints. I will shoot photos of the aspen tree bark markings for my Arborglyph monoprint series, or capture interesting textures for backgrounds. I actually have a whole series of images of the cracking asphalt repairs on the roads.

Road repairs can be interesting textures

Road repairs can be interesting textures

When you’re biking, you get a birds eye view of the road beneath you and much of my art is about that viewpoint. People have often commented that some of my ‘Arborglyphs’ look like aerial maps or caving/spelunking maps. Its amazing what inspires us artists!

Reminiscent of a spelunking map?

Arborglyph: (1 symbol S2) Sharp on Ochre Bark

© 2006 Linda C. Everson, All Rights Reserved.

Intaglio-Type Workshop I

I just came back from a great 5 day workshop with Keith Howard where we learned many Intaglio-Type (non-toxic printmaking) methods which he has painstakingly developed over the years. The intense workshop took place at Don Messec’s studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Don practices non-toxic printmaking to the T! Making art safely is not only his mantra, but also is the title of a series of workshops on digital photography and printmaking.

I was very interested in learning some new photo printmaking techniques for my monoprints, and wanted a printing plate that was cheaper to use than the solarplates that I’ve been using. Behold, I not only learned photo techniques, but tons of other dynamic ways to creat imagery on the ImagOn film which we adhered to PEGT plexi plates. I was also pleased to find out that I could easily cut these plates into shapes, which I already do with my solarplates. Keith Howard uses Akua inks, which are water based inks. They’re less toxic, dry quickly, and clean up easily without solvents!

Keith Howard demo

Keith Howard demo

My friend and I found time in the evenings and during the road trip to/from New Mexico to visit some of the wonderful sights in the area. We joined Keith Howard, his family, & Don Messec at Lake Abiquiu for a night hike and picnic; visited Canyon Road for the Friday art walk; listened to music on the Plaza; saw El Santuario de Chimayo, Taos, and the Taos Pueblo. The colors in New Mexico are spectacular, the history intriguing, the landscape is mesmerizing. It creates fodder for future imagery… especially in my palette.
Sanctuary in Chimayo

Sanctuary in Chimayo

I have so much to say about the whole experience at the Intaglio-Type non-toxic printmaking workshop that I will have to devote that to later blogs. I’m preparing for an art festival this weekend in Boulder. Come Visit!

Common Box Project

The show Common Box Project opens at Abecedarian Gallery this Thursday, July 9 and runs through July 18. 60+ artists, including myself, are in the show and we’ve all done BOXES, Joseph Cornell style… in collaboration with John Common & the Blinding Flashes of Light, a Denver based musical group. John Common’s comments on boxes are intriguing:

Music has a lot of boxes… or maybe it’s like boxes inside of boxes. A box of related notes is a melody. A box of words are lyrics. A box of sounds and words is a song. A box of related songs is a record. A box of musician/artists is a band.

I identified with John Commons lyrics on his new CD, Beautiful Empty. Some of his songs deal with SCARRING and HEARTS. I’m primarily a printmaker and my Arborglyph monoprints are derived from photographs of aspen tree bark SCARRING, both natural and man-made. I used two monoprints of tree graffiti hearts on my BOX, plus a wooden heart and spoon, and several pods that resembled atrophied hearts. John’s lyrics emblished the natural wood as well.

 Good Heart Scars

© 2009 Linda C. Everson, All Rights Reserved.