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

Two New Prints at the Interchurch Center

Leaf Float
assembled monotypes with pencil and watercolor
14" X 12"


The Nature of Things

These two images, made in 2006, will be in a show entitled The Nature of Things presented by the National Association of Women Artists at the Interchurch Center in New York from October 15, – November 17, 2008. The Interchurch Center is located at 475 Riverside Drive (at 120th St.) There will be an Artists Reception on Wednesday October 15th from 4 to 7 p.m. For further information and directions visit www.interchurch-center.org or call 212 870 2200.

Both Leaf Float and October Dusk really are about the nature of things. In this case the things are real leaves, which I used to make the monotypes for each image. Leaf Float is actually made from 2 separate prints put together into a single image. Both pieces have been hand colored using different materials, acrylic paint and colored pencil in Leaf Float and pastel and colored pencil in October Dusk.

This summer I had a few pieces from my more recent Garden of Eden series in a show called All About Eve at the Sirens Song Gallery in Greenport, N.Y. I’m planning to have an Open Studio exhibit of my work here in Long Island City in the spring of 2009. I’m busy at work in my studio on some new pieces having to do with birds, hills and nests. In this current financial turmoil the capacity of birds to fly away or to retreat to their next is certainly to be envied!



October Dusk
monotype with pastel and pencil
12"X15 3/4"

April

This 2007 series is named for the month when I began the images. T.S. Eliot said that “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead ground.” April is also a time of change and of new beginnings. It was certainly that for me. Even though the themes of birds, leaves, and nature have been in my work for a long time, these images seemed to mark a new direction both technically and imaginatively. The pieces are quite intense in color compared to work done in the previous year.

These images began with a group of monotypes made on the press using natural objects (leaves, small weeds, etc.). I then developed the images with many other materials, such as watercolor, pencil, gouache and pastel. They are small in size (about 8” X 10”) but increasingly complex and layered.

April Star, April Bloom, April Love, April Sky, April Bird



April Bird



April Star



April Love



April Sky



April Bloom

The Newest Work

GARDEN OF EDEN
Two Birds in Eden, Storm in Eden, Afternoon in Eden, Morning in Eden, Darkness in Eden

My most recent series has to do with the Garden of Eden. The garden as a place in the imagination has a long history in art. These pieces are not meant to be descriptive in any way of the Garden of Eden in the Bible, but rather to invent for myself an imaginary, complex and compelling place.

The working process was much the same as in much of my earlier work, with all the prints being made at the same time from the same materials. I used real leaves, twigs, weeds, etc. directly on the press to make monotypes. These images were then developed one by one using many different materials including pastel, colored pencil and watercolor. Two of these images again include raised areas as part of the overall image.


Two Birds in Eden, handcolored monotype


Storm in Eden, handcolored monotype


Afternoon in Eden, handcolored monotype


Morning in Eden, handcolored monotype


Darkness in Eden, handcolored monotype