LITTLE CAT FEET

LITTLE CAT FEET

LITTLE CAT FEET

First up on the news front, I want you all to know that sculptor, and fellow artist Ashby Carlisle and I are collaborating on a show of new work to be hung at the Avon Library next June. We discovered earlier this year that our work really resonates when viewed side by side. We are really excited to be presenting our work in this context.
I will keep you posted on dates for our opening reception. Meanwhile if you get a chance,  you can check out her website www.ashbycarlisle.com

I also finished another of my precarious landscapes. This one is about the fog of the future, and how reassuring it is to have a bit of blue sky showing on the horizon.

I really like this piece and find that the solidity of the houses … even though they are built on stilts … illustrates how fog, as eerie and unnerving as it can be, still creates a sense of calm and serenity, because one can not look too far ahead.

WE LIVE IN PRECARIOUS TIMES

WE LIVE IN PRECARIOUS TIMES

WE LIVE IN PRECARIOUS TIMES oil 30×40 $2400

I have started a new series called, “Sticks and Stones”

So far I have laid out 5 canvases of various sizes, and am really happy with the direction that they are taking.
In all of them the light that surrounds wonky stilt houses or tippy city skylines is used to heighten the sense of uneasiness that comes from living in a shifting and uneasy world. The sky and the air around us … Mother Nature at her best … serves to highlight the slightly off kilter world that surrounds us these days

This big piece appears to have city states built on top of random stone work, stairs, and loose bits of technology. There is evidence of crumbled infrastructure that nevertheless serves to support the corporate body. And above it all Mother Nature has created a glorious sunny day.

In part the title refers to the obvious political and economic uneasiness that surrounds most of the world’s population.

However, at a different level it is about learning, as we age, how to live when we are impacted by major health issues, or loss of loved ones … or how to tie a knot and go on when life treats us to one indignity after another.

It also addresses the question of how we interact with the outside world, and how tenuous are the lines of communication between individuals … sometimes it seems as if the connections that we make with others are very delicate and a bit dicey to transverse.

I enjoy the sense of power that this piece brings by resolving chaos into a form of order … design overcoming disorder, as it were. At the same time, while it exudes a sense of stability and peace, upon closer inspection nothing is quite as stable as it would appear.  

HEAVY WEATHER

 

10195 HEAVY WEATHER 18x24 $900

HEAVY WEATHER 18X24 $900

The impact of weather approaching over the long flat expanses of the Midwest has a very unique feel, and it is a very strong visual memory.

My family spent some time in Kansas City, Kansas. I was initially amazed that it was so cosmopolitan and yet a heartbeat away you were in the plains … looking at farmland for as far as you could see. That was a long time ago of course, and I’m sure much has changed … but the memory is still as strong as ever.

This piece expresses much the same sense of an unchanging and changeable world. The sense of an invincible and staunch world at the mercy of weather and circumstances is never more visible than in the lone barns and homes that dot the landscape of the plains.

I like the concept of the buildings standing strong against whatever weather comes.  These barns are seasoned warriors.They hang in there whatever comes.

I guess I will never really stop with the landscapes … even as I continue exploring life in precarious times. And, I suppose that this landscape is no different … after all life on a the Great Plains can be precarious indeed.