Happy Birthday Granny!

Saltwater #6, acrylic, 14x22, 2004

It was my grandmother's birthday on Friday.  She has been an inspiration and a rock of stability throughout my life.  The reasons for choosing to make pictures of Salt and Water remind me of Granny.  Life if about balance.  We need salt, but not too much.  Water is essential for life, but an ocean of saltwater is not going to quench your thirst.  My grandmother taught me to use warm saltwater gargles to cure a sore throat.  Salt and Water are simple and they are complex.  You need to figure out when and how and how much to use.  The white square on the plate is a saltine cracker.  They sort of remind me of communion, which is also simple and complex at the same time.  I guess what I am trying to say is that Granny seems to me to be a person who has figured out something about life.  Her outlook on life seems to be that we should get out there and DO stuff.  And help people.  And take care of ourselves.  And have fun.  Happy Belated Birthday.

Happy Birthday Denise!

perfect day, acrylic, 16x20, 1999

This is a day late for Denise's birthday, and there is another important birthday today that I will post later today.

Denise, this is called perfect day and that is what I hope you had yesterday.

Happy Birthday Jill!

Duluth Again, pastel, 11x14, 2006

Here is a drawing of a waterfall in Duluth in honor of my friend Jill's birthday.

Study for more Rocks and Water

study, 2007 or so, watercolor

It is early and I need to get to my coffee.

Rocks and Water

Emerging Worlds of Rocks and Water, pastel, 22x28, 2004

I made this on my way home from a Split Rock Art Program workshop in 2004.  It felt like it worked.  It was wonderful sitting there in Jay Cooke State Park just me and the landscape and the pastels.

I've been reading that Kandinsky book a few pages a day because it is a heavy read.  He talks about color and form and representation as three elements of painting.  If I understand him correctly he says that the only way to get at the essence of color and form is to eliminate the representation of known objects.

I tried to make a picture with no representation the other day, the shapes looked too much like hair to me so it turned into a portrait.  I'll try again perhaps.

technology whine

study, acrylic, 2006

It annoys me when people whine about their technology not working, but MY TECHNOLOGY IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!  Updates to things that were working fine before the update make no sense.

More later.

Bridges 41 and 43

Bridge #43, acrylic, 7x11, 2005

Bridge #41, acrylic, 7x11, 2005

I am in a funk lately.

On a positive note, I finally checked a book out of the library that I was interested in.  "Concerning the Spiritual in Art" by Wassily Kandinsky.  I was following the discussion about it on Katharine Cartwright's blog.  I hope the discussion is still going.  That is what I will check next.