more pictures from santa fe Below are several recent photos--I will have more from our trip in a future post...

This is an installation shot from my solo show at Darnell Fine Art in Santa Fe, which opened last Friday night.

My nephew Matthew and I watching me on video (this is the video I have mentioned making in past posts, but I have yet to figure out how to post it on my blog or You Tube or anywhere...) The video seemed to go over very well, facilitating a lot of discussion about my process and techniques.

A shot from the opening reception showing from left to right, Hilary (one of the very engaging and knowledgeable gallery staff,) artist Marina Broere, myself, and Marina's husband Cor.  ¶ 2:11 PM 0 comments links to this post

  santa fe report (brief version) This morning I'm wading through the aftermath of ten days away from home--it's wonderful to be back. I'm tired but buoyed up by the good trip and because now all the effort (and occasional stress) of the exhibit in Santa Fe at Darnell Fine Art is behind me. The evening of the opening was rainy, but many people came anyway. It was a very nice event, followed by a fun meal with friends, family, and gallery staff.

I am in wait-and-see mode now in regards to sales...and am assured by the gallery folks that in spite of the slow economy, they will continue to occur over the coming days as interested people reach their decisions. It also helps me to know how amazingly well things have gone at Darnell over the past year that I have had my work there. So, I'm trying not to hover by the phone and computer waiting for news...and to think "whatever happens, happens."

There was much more to the trip west, including a studio visit with the wonderful painter Diane McGregor, relaxation at the hot springs, and hikes in the high desert. I'll post a few more images and stories later.  ¶ 9:44 AM 0 comments links to this post

  new painting and now i'm done.... Not long ago I was declaring my work finally finished for my Santa Fe exhibit which opens this coming Friday...but that was before losing panels from two paintings in the black hole that is DHL's (optimistically termed) "lost and found." (Well, they got the first part right anyway.) I spent the weekend getting some other paintings ready to show in their place, including this one, In Deep, 40"x36."

This painting had an interesting evolution--I had it bolted together a bit earlier in the process than I normally do (I can't recall why that was) and the carpenter who does this work advised me not to unbolt any of the panels (which I often do to work further on them, and for touch-ups) because he'd had trouble getting everything to line up correctly. He said if I took it apart he could not guarantee that it would go back the right way. From that point until just a week or so ago, I had a huge mental block about finishing this painting because of having to divert from my usual process. I did try to work on it many times, but with the most frustrating results!

Finally, I figured out a few things, and I think they have applications beyond this one painting. First, that I can use the same blue tape that I use on the edges of the panels (to keep them clean) to mask edges within the painting. I started doing that between panels on this painting, but soon began experimenting with other ideas for using the tape on other paintings, with interesting results. I also had to view this painting as a unified whole throughout most of its development, since I was unable to take it apart and move things around as I usually do. As a result I think the panels, at least the bottom four, are more congruent than is typical of my work. I don't know what this means at the moment, if anything, but it seemed worth noting.

Now I just hope it and the others I just finished will be dry enough to make the trip west...but there should be a few days of heat on the way to speed the process! I am very much looking forward to the week ahead--the western landscape that I love, seeing family and friends, and of course the opening reception. If you are in the Santa Fe area please plan to attend, from 5-7 on Friday the 11th at Darnell Fine Art, 640 Canyon Road.  ¶ 10:45 PM 2 comments links to this post

  new painting and conversations with dhl
A box containing panels from the painting above (Ramble #2, 60"x36") and from Border (posted a few days ago) have gone missing on their way to Santa Fe over the past week. Tracking data simply ended last Monday, with the information that the package had passed through the DHL hub in Minneapolis.

This means that two paintings intended for my upcoming show are in jeopardy...I'm bouncing around between anxiety and the aforementioned "que sera, sera" attitude, with "wait and see" as my default mode. I'm also (reasonably I think) contemplating which two paintings that are still in my studio might be finished up in time to replace these two in my exhibit (which opens July 11th.)

Of course, I've been calling DHL, trying to figure out where my box has gone and how to get it back on track. One thing I know from prior experience, though, is that each DHL employee exists in his or her own little world, and almost for sure you will get a completely different and contradictory story from each one when you call about anything.

My disjointed conversation with DHL started on Saturday, when I realized that the tracking data had gone dead. I phoned (using www.gethuman techniques--wonderful when you just don't want to listen to voicemail prompts!) and was told by a very businesslike person that a "dock search" would be put on my crate, and that I would be contacted on Monday with results. This resulted in disturbing mental pictures of my box sitting abandoned in some dark warehouse corner, perhaps with the shipping label torn or missing, and half-hearted dock workers missing it in some cursory glance around. But she sounded efficient and seemed to imply that this happens all the time, don't worry.

On Monday, after waiting impatiently until noon, I called again. This time the man I talked to was extremely reassuring. He said that the box was almost for sure not abandoned on a dock, but was on a truck going...somewhere. The wrong truck. But as soon as the mistake was discovered, the box would be sent to its correct destination. I liked this guy a lot, not only because he had a great theory about my box, but because when he found out it contained paintings, told me all about a friend of his in Texas who paints in the style of "that old hippie stuff, what do you call that?" (me--psychedelic?..him--yeah, that's it!)I felt that I was conversing with a concerned human being, and it lifted my spirits quite a bit.

Then a few hours later, someone else called me as a follow up to the dock search. This person quizzed me at length about what was in my box. Apparently if the shipping information had gotten detached from the box, it might be opened up for identification. I told her it contained paintings. She wanted to know what kind of paintings--portraits, or what?? I said, no, they are abstract paintings. Silence on the other end. I fumbled around for words a bit and finally said (feeling like a traitor to my art form) that if someone opened up the box, what they would see are just some wood panels with paint on them. I could practically hear her roll her eyes. (As in, OK lady, whatever you say. But they're not really so important, these pieces of wood with paint on them, are they?) I decided not to pursue this lesson in abstraction, and we went on to other questions about the size of the box and whatnot. This conversation left me quite unsettled--because it was Monday, after all, and I thought I'd have an answer, and instead I was just getting more questions.

So that's where it stands. I'm rooting for the "on the wrong truck" theory. And wondering why I ship with DHL. (Although to be fair, I've used them many times before, and this is the first time they have actually lost something, if only temporarily--knock on wood!)  ¶ 8:27 AM 7 comments links to this post

  new painting
This painting, as yet untitled (42"x48") is another one that is bound for my Santa Fe show. The reddish-orange panel has been finished for quite awhile, but it was only recently that I found the configuration with neutral dark and light panels that you see here. I especially like the small red areas towards the bottom of the main panel that sort of float on the surface.

I had some delightful studio visitors today, a woman named Peggy and her mother and aunt from the Twin Cities area, who purchased several older pieces and seemed to really enjoy seeing my work from various times in my career and asking great questions.

Peggy owns a painting of mine from 2002, that I did upon my return from my last trip to the Centre D'art I Natura in Catalonia, Spain (and where I am heading again in September.) Like so much of my work that is purchased through galleries, I had no idea where this particular painting, Lost Path, had ended up. Hearing from its owner was like a message from a long-lost friend or relative...there are certain paintings that remain important and close to my heart, and that is one of them. That Peggy would come forth just as I am finalizing details of my return trip to the area that inspired it is really a very neat alignment of events.  ¶ 6:23 PM 0 comments links to this post

  new painting It is party season after the long winter here--seems like everyone is eager to have friends over, grill, and sip drinks on the patio. Happily, this coincides with my need for a break after a rather intense five months preparing for the show in Santa Fe. I shipped the last of the bigger works off on Friday (including the painting above, Border, 74"x24") and so I'm feeling more relaxed and less frazzled than I have for a long time.

I look back over the time since the show was confirmed, and see that the predictable flow of feelings and action unfolded right on cue--the excitement of being put on the gallery calendar, the flood of ideas and sense of huge possibilities, followed by a lot of hard work, occasional bouts of anxiety, frustration, and fatigue...all overshadowed by a gratifying feeling of accomplishment as each painting was done, and reaching a high point at the finish line.

Now the attitude I am cultivating is "que sera. sera"...the work is done and shipped, and what happens now--the response, attention to my work, sales, whatever--that is out of my hands. This is wisdom that I have at least glimpsed after years of exhibiting. I can't claim to always follow or feel it, but it is a useful guiding thought--that my part is to make the best work I can, and then to let it go out of my thoughts and emotions. It certainly seems the best way to stay sane between now and early August when the show is done.

I don't mean that I won't conduct the usual art biz related to having a show--I'll do my part for promotion of the exhibit, and I really look forward to the opening. But it is possible, at least some of the time, to separate that from expectations about the outcome of the show (I do allow myself the pleasure of imagining everything hung, well-lit, in the beautiful old adobe that houses the gallery...)

A word about Border...I have had the idea of working with whites, grays and black for quite awhile...and when I placed the panels you see here together, there was a feeling of inevitability, that this accumulation of panels was just right and meant to be. Still it felt, and still feels a bit risky--no strong color here, and the white panel especially is very subtle. My older brother who visited me last week was very drawn to it though, and I suppose that gave me the little push or validation I needed. The fact that I am imagining more work in this palette is also a sign to me that this is a direction to explore.  ¶ 11:56 AM 0 comments links to this post

  paintings close-up


At the top is my newest painting in the Vertical Series (#20, 76" high, 10"wide) and below it, two close up photos showing details of #20 and #19 (posted on June 15th.) So much detail and subtlety is lost in the photos of my larger paintings that every now and then I try to remember to post some detail shots. Even with these, there is much that is lost in translation from the real object.  ¶ 3:22 PM 1 comments links to this post