For the love and mystery of Crows

About ten years ago I had a dream about a crow sitting on my left shoulder.  I sculpted this terracotta piece after having the dream. (it fell off a shelf a few years ago, excuse the cracks and glue!) I wrapped a Great Blue Heron around my back and shoulder.

I included a computer drawn image of the dream in the center of a collage, the image shown above is zoomed in.

After talking about crows in my last post and I found that there is a kindred feeling many of us share towards them.  I love their smart, canny ways. The crowish way they move and walk. That certain tilt to the head.

Crow lovers know what I mean and could add much more.

So I got to thinking about the crows I have at home in my own art or others.

My Picasso postcard from the Cleveland Museum of Art, of  Woman with Crow. (One of my most favorite paintings!)

My stuffed felt crow made by the woman who runs the fabric shop out in Amish country.

I have more crows in garden art, on ceramic pieces from other artists...I wasn't aware of my crow volume until I took stock!

Thinking about it even more, crows are used in art quite often.  Leafing through art magazines, you can find crow imagery frequently.  Ubiquitous.  Why?  Is this part of our Collective Unconscious?

Not a crow, but a raven from a larger painting of mine. Now there's a bird I love and I've never seen one!  But I will.

What's your crow story? Do you have crows in your art?

Book Art

Playing with neutrals.  Elimination of text on the right page balances the added text of the Peterson Field Guide on the left page. The page corners are cut and rounded.

Collaging with string and a bead.  The torn area beneath the bead was a good accident.

After I got my first digital camera, I was taking pictures with reckless abandon.  I found this toad nestled in some rocks.  I printed it on paper from Nepal that a friend gave me.  The photo has been sitting in the piles of collage "stuff" for a while.

(click on photos to enlarge)

More Book Art

For this post I chose some of my favorites from the book plus the ones with similarities in style.
With the exception of the second picture, they all feature the odd figures that I've been drawing/painting for about the last ten years.  I'm not sure where they come from, but they happen on pots when I glaze,  in sketchbooks and sometimes in paintings.  To me they're universal symbols--part of the collective unconscious I guess.  I feel they represent a sense of joy or lightness.

The lefthand side of the  second picture is a dream image--my house was on fire with a moon overhead.  (On the right hand side, I was just drawing legs!)

oil paint, oil pastel, fabric, old peterson field guide, pencil, colored pencil, thread

Book Art

As I said in the previous post, this book began as a place to wipe my brushes while I painted.  I picked up this idea from another artist who will use her sketchbooks in this fashion, which I've been doing for a few years now. For me having color already on the page is a good starting point for sketching into and lends itself to playfulness and a lack of inhibition.
The book making was an organic, intuitive process.  Each page grew on its own and at first there wasn't a relationship between the pages. I'd just open a page and start working on what moved me, either the brush marks I'd made or the text in the book.
These are pages 2,  3 and 4.

watercolor, string, photographs, photocopies, oil pastel, assorted paper

Book Art

                                                      PEACE

During the months of November, 2009 through the start of February, 2010 The Geauga County Park District held The DiscARTed Art Show revolving around the theme of recycling.  Artists submitted a range of works from stringed instruments made from cigar boxes (a bluegrass band played them the night of the opening), to lamps, jewelry, wall art, huge iron sculptures......

I submitted this book.

Last spring our school librarian was getting rid of boxes and boxes of books, to make room for more computers. (I've got mixed feelings about that.)  

I took many of the books for conversion to Art; for both me and my students. The book I reworked was from a series called THE GREAT IDEAS.  Full of writings by philosophers of whose work I know next to nothing.   The first page (shown above)  includes some of the names; Cervantes, Descartes, Spinoza, Newton, Locke, Hume. Faraday--these last three names are significant for any LOSTIES out there!

When I started with the book this summer, I used the pages in a random fashion for wiping my excess paint from my brushes.  Which then becomes a nice start for sketching, painting or collaging on.

What you see here is the Front Cover and the inside cover (p. 1)

Collage, oil paint, oil pastel, photographs, string.

Sandhill Cranes

 Last night I dreamed of five Sandhill Cranes ascending from a field as I drove by with my family. The kids were little.

When I woke from the dream, I was reminded of the first time I saw Sandhill Cranes while birdwatching near Lake Erie in 1998.  Two cranes were riding the thermals and wheeling in circles with several Turkey Vultures.  In 1998, my children were small and the time I had for art was piecemeal.  Collaging and monoprinting were my media of choice at the time.  Collaging more so due to the ease with which I could start and stop working on a piece. 

 The collage featured above was inspired by my first Sandhill Crane sighting.  It is titled Grus Canadensis Dance.  (grus canadensis is the latin name for sandhill cranes)  Cranes have a courtship ritual which involves an elaborate dance which includes head bobbing, bowing and leaping. I'd love to see that!

Collage in 3-D

This artwork was created for the DiscARTed show at the Geauga Park District.  I could only submit two entries and I made four.  The two that were entered are a cigar box which I call Bird Box and a book which I altered with collage, painting, stitching and sketching. Pictures will be posted when the show comes down in January.
For this one I assembled pieces and parts of old paintings, collage materials, and plexiglass.  It's mounted on a stretcher frame from an old canvas.  The little popsicle stick figures were made by my daughter when she was about ten years old.  They're meant to symbolize us--the human race, the owl represents wisdom. I placed the people behind the plexiglass with the idea that it represents a barrier.  The barrier for when we aren't connected to earth.   The circle in the background symbolizes  the circle of life, our life path. The hands are painted with symbols which I read about in a National Geographic magazine.  Hand prints were discovered on a cave ceiling in a remote area of Papua New Guinea.  They are ancient and thought to be ceremonial, ritual handprints of an ancient culture.  The amazing thing is that each handprint was painted with a different symbol.  Who knows what they represent?
So I was trying to link the ancient world with the 21st century (popsicle stick people); the birds represent our beautiful earth and the inhabitants of the natural world. The Owl being wisdom, linking the old with Now.  My prayer is that we are wise enough to honor and love our earth.

Birds. It always comes back to birds.

So, there isn't a title for this collage yet.

There is an Art show sponsored by our local park district using the theme "discARTed" as its basis for all entries.
The show was a motivation to finish what was started some time ago. I pulled out all of my collage stuff (lots and lots, eek...!)and was able to wrap this piece up.

It is about birds. The background uses part of a 1955 National Geographic article about a trip some ornithologists took to Papua, New Guinea, which turned out to be dangerous when they encountered the native people. Along with the danger, they were educated about a people who were a 'dying culture' The imagery features birds.
I'm seeking a parallel between dying cultures and species loss. But also, noting where we (the human race)have contributed to these losses.
I've got a couple of other collages/assemblages happening, with the same themes. It'll be tough to decide what to enter, since I can only enter two works.

The Eternal Collage

An eternal collage and I think I like it............
This piece (12 x 12 masonite panel) was started at least two years ago. Over time it has gone through several changes some subtle, some drastic.
It started as a demo piece for one of my AP Studio Art classes. I was messin' around with surface textures by using gesso in various ways; along with incorporating fabric and plastic wrap to show ways to build up a surface. From there we began collaging.
There was a point when I absolutely loved this piece, then I decided to make some changes. Ha. It went downhill.
I set it aside for a long while.
Picked it up a few months ago, worked back into it. Kept it around the studio, stared at it.
A few nights ago I added color and pattern. Its brighter than it was and I think I like it.

6 hours in the Studio

WHITE DOG


(click on image for a larger view)


PRAYER FLAGS


(click on image for larger view)




Parent teacher conferences on Thursday; work 12 hours, get Friday off.

Work 6 hours in the studio....Bliss!!

Besides a few paintings that are still in the works, these two collages happened from my sketchbook dumping ground. (where I brush my excess paint)

Prayer Flag~~not quite done. White Dog~~pretty much complete.