Homecoming: Reentry

I feel a voracious need to talk about art, think about art and immerse in making which no doubt stems from the stimulation of my recent travels. Meeting and working with talented students and sharing in each one's discoveries and new insights -- this all combines to stir up the embers and fuel a new blaze inside of me.



After a few days to rest and unpack over the weekend, I've been back in my studio for several days, surrounded by the works-in-progress that I left in varying stages. Yesterday this Seeds piece drew my attention. Unlike the others in this series, I had masked off large areas of the silk so the black dyes would print a random, interrupted pattern. Yesterday I silkscreened silvery gray paint very lightly over the partial black shapes.

I also filled in the pattern, so once again there are rows of seeds, exposing or shading the original black prints. This second layer adds a lot of interest. Now the work will rest for a day or two as I consider additional layers and what color accents will go on the surface.

Here's a worthwhile new site to visit and explore that has lots of video clips and interviews with numerous artists. It's called ArtBabble.

While at the site I found a great clip called "Meet Grace Hartigan", an interview with this process-oriented abstract painter. Highly recommend that you check out the site and this artist's work, there's a lot of concentrated energy on her surfaces.