The dress from is such an elegant representation of the female form. It has a quiet feminine dignity that’s removed enough from the flesh and blood version to offer a depersonalized platform from which to make a statement. I particularly love this tattered, antique dress form that I photographed above as you can see her scars of age and the metal bones of her inner core. There is such an …
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Oh happy day! I had just finished setting up my date with the dress form and was leaving Willow Glen when I passed this pick-up full of mannequins glowing in the sunshine. I’m not sure what it means metaphorically yet but I find it intriguing. These headless, armless, beeswax colored male and female torsos seem to be roped in for a joyride, or maybe they were abducted! It’s always good to have your …
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Dress Form Angel I saw this time ravaged dress form glowing in the darkened window of Whatnots and Dodads in Willow Glen one night. She was looking mysterious and winsome in her vintage pink crinoline and angel wings. I had enquired after her thinking it would make a dramatic painting but the dealer did not get back to me about a rental before the pink crinoline was sold. That’s what …
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I like the rain. I like the moments after the rain. I like how the light is soft and the colors are awakened by a wet, glassy coat from the sky and glow against a dark, damp backdrop. The sun can be blinding but these intimate moments of quiet observation can reveal a subtle beauty in this wet world.
How I loved studying these intricate icy patterns that formed a frosty crust on a creek in Kirkwood.
There was a magnificent display of clouds tonight, a rare enough event in Los Gatos and rarer still, some of these clouds resembled the newly classified Undulatus asperatus in their veil like undulating quality. I quickly found a hill top where I could have unobstructed views of the performance. It was heavenly!
That’s what persimmons say in the Victorian language of flowers, “Bury me amid nature’s beauty”, how poetic! How appropriate too, November is the month when persimmon leaves blaze yellow and gold and fall away revealing ripe orange persimmons dangling from bare branches like festive ornaments. I took these photos yesterday between walking the kids to school and voting, it’s nice to take a few moments even in the busiest of days …
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In my studio I have a new companion in honor of Halloween. Though a plant, this Asian native has the soul of an artist, one who creates illusions and allusions. This black bat lily (Tacca chantrieri), aka devil flower, has not only evolved into resembling a bat but also imitates the smell of carrion to attract frustrated pollinators! Lots of tricks up the glossy green sleeves of this shapeshifter! Lucky …
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You have to look closely to find sundews. They’re low to the ground and look like nothing more than sparkling morning dew as you tower over them. I remember thinking how odd it was to see the gleaming moisture by mid afternoon. When I bent down for a closer look I discovered (though I had no idea what it was) my first sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) in a low lying pasture …
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The pitcher plant is another beautiful monster of my youth. It grows in the poor damp soils of bogs and ditches and thrives along the country roads of Nova Scotia. The top photo is of the The Northern Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea) which I discovered growing in the marshy field behind the little church Stella Maris that I used to own in Morden. I remember my delight in stumbling upon them among …
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I’m easily swept up in the excessive beauty of flowers but plants can also have a sinister and cunning side which I find even more fascinating. As Halloween is fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to focus on a few of my favorite flora that have honed disguise and deception into a fine art. The Venus flytrap symbolizes deciet and danger, no kidding! Dionea muscipula, (Latin for Aphrodite’s …
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The rose is a great deal more than a blushing apology for the thorn. – excerpt from Rabindranath Tagore’s Fireflies.
Lately I’ve been intrigued by objects preserved in resin or lucite especially flowers (with an eye to my florilegia) but shells are lovely too as they seem suspended in water. The odd paper weight can be really exquisite but most objects in this genre tend to be a little tacky and I find that quite fun. This piece, however, is over the top campola! The mold must have been taken …
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Our brains are designed to pick up patterns and spot similarities (and differences), it’s like a game, survival magic. It’s this skill that helps us decode which red berry to eat, to avoid black and yellow striped wasps, snakes and tigers and how to trust a loving face. An artist’s eye naturally seeks out these visual parallels and harmonies but also thrills with their added dissonance, the basis of a …
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From the French “pensées” or thoughts, these wild pansies, also known as heartsease and violas, mean think of me. This vintage paperweight will find its way into my Florilegia where I explore the Victorian meaning of these flowers in a visual way.
I’m a shutterbug hiker. I like to capture the moment in a photograph for my archives of reference material for paintings. While hiking with my daughter at Monte Bello, we came across the very first sign of autumn this year – poison oak blushing red and illuminating the forest with its dangerous enchantment!
The Victorians spoke with flowers and I’m giving it a whirl as well. As a companion to my Florilegia I’ve begun to collect these antique floral frames as the base for something more contemporary (stay tuned as I work this out). I could use some help identifying these stylized blooms though! Anyone?
I fill my studio with inspirational objects, many of them come from the sea as do these abalone shells and the fishing line that I wound into a bracelet. These bits and pieces serve as models for paintings and may be incorporated into mixed media pieces at some point. Primarily, they serve the role of muse.
What do I love more? The iridescent shimmer of the mother of pearl? The way these carved fish form a school? The way they’ve come from the sea and shells? Or that these antique gaming tokens have such a rich and colorful history? Mostly, I love the sum of all this resonance which makes for me a compelling inspiration.
When do barnacles grow on trees? The unexpected can be shocking and unsettling, thought provoking and curious, terrifyingly abhorrent and breathtakingly exquisite. It is unusual if nothing else and this stimulates the mind. It is where art dwells.