Seven Days

I have been challenged by a friend to post on facebook seven B/W pictures of my life. No people, no explanations.

So I have randomly been going through my digital photo folders to see if there is something I can use. There were so many pictures I hardly remembered. Many pictures of my many visits in Germany, even more pictures of my beautiful children. My beloved sister who I don't see as often as I want and need to. Birthdays, vacations, anniversaries. Good days not ever to forget. Moments to hold on to, later.

Loved

I didn't take the time to take a closer look at all the pictures, not now.

Surprised

 
I picked seven photos that are visual translations of my predominant feelings.

Passionate

Hopeful

Proud

Comforted

Safe

You Are Here

Well - I think, I am done with this one. It is the piece that I am going to submit to the "Mapping Out a Future for the Arts" exhibit in December. Our fabulous local Arts Council came up with this intriguing project and invited a number of artists to create works with outdated topographical maps of the local parishes.

The idea for my piece was to focus mainly on the point of origin. Simply because the direction of your path depends on where you are starting from.

I tore up the area maps to make the buddha face. For the background I used the oceans that I found in an old world atlas as I wanted to embed the local dimension into a global context.  The same world atlas also contained a section about the genesis of the universe and I cut out a little bit of the space for the black "You are here" marker.

"You Are Here"
Collage of torn topographical area maps and world atlas pages, ink,
on canvas panel, 20" x 16"

Where Am I?

Okay, so we are well in October already. I will be leaving for Germany in two and a half weeks and until then I have plenty to do. Right now I am working on a piece to submit to a group exhibit which is titled: "Mapping Out a Future for the Arts." The invitation to participate in this project came in the summer. I was asked to pick three maps from several stacks of outdated area maps and do something artful with them. Since then I have been thinking about the map piece, and I was happy to get started a few days ago with a clear concept in my head. Looks like I will be able to finish this weekend.

I like working with maps, I love the look and the message of maps. Incorporating maps in a piece of art is somewhat tricky though because it has become so very popular to make all sorts of crafty projects with maps. I want people to look at my piece as something new and not associate it with all those map crafts. A lot of those map crafts I do like a lot. You may want to check out pinterest on this some time; there are quite a few fantastic ideas about how to give that shabby table or bookcase an eclectic map-overhaul. Love those mappy lamps. Or you can make a romantic pendant that shows where you met your love. Sure, why not. Someone found it fashionable to paste map snippets on her fake fingernails. And then those countless ideas for ornaments, magnets, envelopes, jewelry pieces, boxes, frames - yes, anything can be mapped. Or you can make huge letters covered with maps that spell "Home" or "Paris". Right.  

I really loved the shoes that I saw on a photo somewhere: Those high heels were entirely made of maps and newsprint. These shoes perfectly summarized the story of someone who has traveled the world but never had her feet touch the grounds of a different culture. Maybe the critique on superficial traveling was not intentional, but the shoes contain that message anyway and I love them for that. Because I feel that some of the intercultural misconceptions could be easily cleared up if people would use their rare opportunities to travel abroad for getting to know a little bit about the culture they are coming across. Because life is not a Sound of Music tour.

30 in 30 - check!

So, yes, I had signed up for the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge by Leslie Saeta, and finished. What a month that was! I enjoyed the process and I am quite proud of my collection. But it sure is nice to do nothing for a day or two before I get onto the next things on my agenda.

30 in 30 - this is my harvest of September 2017:

Ancestry

Day 30

of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge by artist Leslie Saeta.

Yes, this is number 30! Got it done, and it was quite fantastic, at least most of the times. I don't really mind the time pressure, generally I work well with deadlines. I hardly have blocks ever but sometimes I run into the problem that my original concept that seemed simply perfect, just wouldn't work out at the end for this or that reason. Therefore I have a few unfinished pieces now that I need to think about some time.

Anyways, here is my last piece for this challenge, "Ancestry." I made it to remember our foremothers that are often forgotten. And because matryoshkas are cute.

 "Ancestry"
Acrylics, ink, storybook clippings, on canvas panel, 8" x 8"

Thank you again, Leslie Saeta, for hosting the 30-in-30 challenge. It has been so interesting to see your daily beautiful piece as well as all the amazing works of so many different artists from so many parts of the world. Thanks for having me!

The Things I Know About Mr. Lee

Day 29

of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge by Leslie Saeta.

I've been thinking about this piece for a while. It's about Mr. Lee, the old man who used to live not far from us in that small run-down house, just round the corner of my kids' school. He doesn't live there anymore, and for some reason I miss him.

I've been passing by Mr. Lee's house a few times daily for seven years. If the weather was pleasant he would sit on the porch and watch the people come and go in their cars. When there was a storm brewing, I hoped he would be okay because the roof seemed not very reliable. And I always worried about him during the cold winter days.

He kept a few chairs and a card table outside, once in a while he had friends over to play dominoes.  A friend told me that he used to grow vegetables in a small plot across the street. He probably liked tomatoes. One time I noticed the bag of tomatoes that someone had left for him on his chair.

His name was not really Mr. Lee, I only called him that because he lived on Lee Avenue. I never knew his true name. We never talked. But a few years ago we started waving and smiling at each other.

After the long summer I realized that I hadn't seen Mr. Lee in a while. His house looked deserted. Some windows were opened, and it was obvious that someone had gone through his things. I wondered if Mr. Lee had died. Or maybe he is in a nursing home now, playing dominoes all day long.

Two weeks ago we found the house burnt down. The whole area smelled like barbecue. A wall had collapsed and revealed the leftovers of Mr. Lee's life. I often stop at the house for a moment which now is just a pile of debris fenced in by yellow caution tape.

Good bye, Mr. Lee. I hope you were a nice person because I miss you.

"The Things I know About Mr. Lee"
Acrylics, gesso, fly leaves, clippings from books and magazines, on canvas panel, 20" x 16" - I used an old domino for the block printing.


 

Pioneer

Day 28

of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge.

I just love how this piece has come together: Pacman is exiting the "New World" through the centerhole of the Columbia record sleeve to explore what's beyond.

I wonder, if the C in Columbia was actually meant to look like Pacman, or if that is just a funny coincidence.





"Pioneer"
Acrylics, record sleeve, book clippings, fly leaf, on canvas panel, 8" x 8"