The Fables Series

I want to thank all of you who came to my exhibit at the Interchurch Center and/or to my Open Studio in September. It was gratifying for me to be able to show such a large body of work.

If you weren’t able to come to either of these events or if you would just like to keep in touch, I invite you to come on a weekday late afternoon to have a glass of wine or a cup of tea in the studio. It’s a wonderful opportunity for me to share my work and to hear your thoughts and responses. Please contact me if you’d like to visit.

I’m looking forward to a trip to Sicily in November and that experience will surely provide inspiration for future work.

The Fables series

Here are three of a new series I’ve called Fables.

This group of images came about from one set of monotypes made from a small weed I found growing up between some bricks. When I began to develop the prints I discovered that the images wanted to be some kind of narrative. Some years ago I was able to do a couple of illustrations for The Fables of La Fontaine. Fables have a long history and most people have read Aesop’s Fables as a child. These “fables” have no moral but they really do have stories, just ones that haven’t been written yet! When the images began to come alive in the studio these titles seemed to jump into my mind by themselves.

These pieces are small, about 8” X 10”, and quite detailed. The original color monotypes were developed using pastel and colored pencil.









Fable of the Five Birds















Fable of the Snare















Fable of the Fog and the Devil Bird

Open Studio

Sunday September 27th
2 to 5 P.M.

27-15 41st Avenue
Long Island City, NY

paintergreen.dianne@gmail.com

I look forward to welcoming you at my studio on Sunday. Please email me for directions.

One of the pieces I will have up in my studio is this small piece called Rising Blue that is part of a series called Rising that I completed this past year. To make the monotype that is the ground for this image I used some maple seed “wings” that usually fall to the ground. But here I wanted to activate them, to make them move along with the blue in the “sky” and actually float into the atmosphere. The autumn of the year often makes one think of falling: the falling light at the end of the day, the falling leaves. For me however the autumn also means a gentle rising of the spirit, the soft floating up of wood smoke from burning leaves.

Flying in September

An exhibit of 20 pieces of my work is now up at the Interchurch Center at 475 Riverside Drive in Manhattan.

www.Interchurchcenter.org

The artist reception is Tuesday, September 15 from 4 to 7. The show will be up until October 8th.

The works presented are from various series covering the last 3 or 4 years. The title, Flying in September, seemed appropriate for the time as well as for the imagery. The recent change in the weather, cool and breezy as I’m writing this, really makes me think of the way September is a sweeping away of things and an opportunity to start fresh. In nature, September means the beginning of the end of summer. Leaves begin to fly off the trees and birds begin to migrate. On the Edge/Flicker is a recent piece that reminds me of this sense of flying in a fresh breeze off the water.

Green Mountain
This is a piece I did a few months ago when winter was just getting under way. Now I can see plenty of green from my studio window but the temperature is back to winter.
I’m not at all sure why hills or mountains seem to appear now and then in my work. This piece is one of a series of four images featuring mountains, birds and sky that I made at the same time. One of the interesting things about making art is the mystery of finding out what the image wants to be. Even now I’m not sure what the piece is about except that I wanted to convey a sense of drama and movement that would activate both the “land” and the birds.

On the Edge/Twitter is one of a new series I’ve been working on based on a series of monotypes made using a few small twigs with leaves on them. This piece will be featured in a show this June in Greenport on the North Fork of Long Island. The title of the show is also “On the Edge” and is a benefit exhibition for the Cornell Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center focusing on coastal and barrier plants and the life they support.
Although the “plants” in this image came from the gritty streets in Long Island City, I’m pleased that they can stand in for the endangered eco-system on our coastline. As a part time resident of the North Fork for many years, this beautiful part of the world is always part of my imagination and art practice.
On the Edge
May 23rd – June 29, 2009
The Sirens’ Song Gallery
516 Main Street/Greenport NY 11944