The circle just might be my favorite shape. But then, I’ve always been a grid girl so maybe it’s the square. It’s not a triangle. But I think a variety of triangles together is really interesting. Oh, and I love ovals! But aren’t they elegantly squished circles? And, really, the tricks a square can do are impressive; rectangles, parallelograms, trapezoids, rhombi. And don’t you just love the word “isosceles”? Oh, no, this could lead me back to triangles.
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And the word “circuitous.” Man, I love that one.

​A few months ago I posted designs for a new alphabet inspired by a Zanders calendar. It took me a while to wrangle this piece but it was finally finished in April. And the alphabet acted exactly how I intended! What? Already started another one. 

Instead of making letters and words with my stencils I decided to create an abstract piece using only parts of letters. I chose the most generic style of stencil instead of one of my own alphabets. Something architecty or engineeringy or designy (well, that’s a given with me) happened and I need to make more as soon as possible.

​Well, I don’t understand hashtags and honestly fear them. I have never searched one or placed one in an electronic correspondence. So, before I go extinct, I wanted to deal with a hashtag where I could control where it could spread . . . and just now as I am re-reading this post, silly me!
 
And, yes, I have a hidden word in here about how all of this makes me feel.
If you are the first to find it I’ll give you a print!
 
This sentiment is printed in a couple colors and even a blind emboss. It is a collagraph. If you don’t win the contest and want to purchase one, let me know.

I hear that people like to see work in progress (see, I can listen, too). This piece is called “I Am Talking.” I have an ampersand (&) or two in there and repeat the words twice to convey that once we get talking . . . sometimes we just can’t stop. . . I better just speak for myself here.

​As I mentioned in my earlier post, thanks to Jennifer Ford Art these pieces and more are available for purchase at:

If you want a VIP ticket, please click here:   artmarkethamptons.com/tickets/jenniferford-vip

​Well, some of my art is anyway! 

If any of you would like to download a VIP ticket that gets you into the opening party and fair, please go here:   ​       http://artmarkethamptons.com/tickets/jenniferford-vip

​Thank yous, best wishes and cheers to finding every piece you carried cross-country a home in New York to Jennifer Ford Art and her wonderful team and collaborators. Here are a couple of my pieces that will be shown there. This a silkscreen on a reclaimed press sheet from the manufacturing process involved in making paint chips that you find at a hardware store.

And this is an encaustic. This fair has a design bent to it I think that my sensibilities will be well understood.

In my next post I plan to show the progress of five encaustics that are ready and waiting for the fair to open.

I just thought it was funny so don't hate on me sculptor friends!

​​It’s no secret that I’d rather make art than talk about it. I've not been blogging as planned. It’s time to change that with a thank you to Cathy and Tim Beere at DeBrand’s for selecting my art for their 2016 Valentine’s Day boxes. 

​This is especially fun, and means a lot to me, as I’ve been friends with Tim forever and with Cathy for about as long. Cathy’s chocolates are mini pieces of art and I love (tis the season) how our passions merged in this product.

​The art on the box is a cropping of a much larger letterpress piece that they have in their Auburn Road store. Here Cathy and I are in my studio with the larger work.

​I have worked with the letters “evolvelove” for years and in many media. It interests me how “l, o, v, e” create two meaningful words that when placed together become even more thoughtful and turn into a new-fangled verb. 

​The heart boxes come in two sizes which causes me conflict. The little heart is just adorable but there are more chocolates in the big one; get both! Afterall, they have both been made with the most precious ingredient of all; love. http://www.debrands.com

I will never forget getting dressed up and going to my first art opening in a gallery. I had been to museums and the College gallery but not to a “real” gallery event. I was in my sophomore year at St. Francis College (now University of St. Francis) and my professor, Maury, had a one-man show at Artlink Artspace on Broadway. I learned so much that night; how to act at an opening, how to yearn to afford a piece of art (a lasting craving) and what a true artist is and does.

Decades later, as Maury and I discussed his art, I learned something new that should have been evident. His work is influenced by outer space and the night sky he gazed on as he left his office after teaching late art classes. What’s in that sky? All the television and radio towers! For four years I, too, gazed at those ever-blinking towers. His work will always remind me of the once-in-a-lifetime, life-altering collection of experiences that college provided me.

I am a fortunate person for having Maury in my life. He taught me to watercolor, to airbrush and, most importantly, by his example, to do. (Oh, and he’s no slouch when it comes to craftsmanship.) Artlink Gallery is having a retrospective of this amazing man’s fascinating artwork. He continues to teach me and I can’t wait to see the show and find the lessons it holds.

I was invited among a number of his former students to show a piece at his show. Here it is, humbly and thankfully:

His Example; Her Wings, Encaustic, 24” x 24”

Please see the show:
Maurice Papier, A Retrospective
Artlink Gallery
Fort Wayne, IN
September 11 – October 14
Opening September 11, 6 – 9 pm

Much of my work’s subject matter is an idea, or concept, rather than a landscape or still life. A few years ago I endeavored to portray the government’s confiscation of hard-working people’s hard-earned money. I learned that this topic had been addressed decades ago by American economist, Milton Friedman:   

I made letters of wax caught in the process of melting away. UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher summed it up, “The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”

In getting ready for the show I struggled to price the piece. Then, it hit me. Make the work free! That gesture ensured that I got my idea across. After all, isn’t other people’s money always free?

If I have multiple pieces in a show, I make a new version of “Other People’s Money” and it’s always free. And the first to “sell.” At one show people ran to the gallery director to be first to claim it. My advertising background assures me a real kick when a concept works. I don’t run laughing to the bank but I do laugh!

Three final thoughts: 1) this is the only piece I have ever “sold” before a show opened. 2) All art is political. 
3) A friend and businessman in town calls “other people’s money” OPM. Yep, a clever guy.