Mojave Light Musing

  Hello friends, I have been digesting the weeklong cyanotype collaboration with my friend and art collaborator, Ellen Dooley. So many takeaways from that venture. I am still letting the energy settle.  To briefly recap, Ellen and I challenged ourselves to make a print every day for a full week. We limited the size to 5x7ish, had to use UV sensitive chemistry, natural fiber papers, freshly made each day. Whatever else we chose to throw in there was up to us. It was uncanny how we ended up making something akin to what the other did - you can see that in our diptych presentations which are all in the slide show below.  Here is one... my skeleton leaves (l.) mimic the bare tree branches in Ellen's image (r.). We both also added elements on top of our prints.   We did not confer with each other prior to making our prints... A few personal interpretations of my experience:  1. I learned the importance of DAILY time and space to create - even if all you do during tha...

Hello dear readers, I've appreciated the feedback and conversations surrounding my art collaboration and friendship with Ellen. Good food for the soul. Thank you! Today is day 3 of 7 in the 7 Days Series Ellen and I challenged ourselves with. We limited ourselves to a 5x7 work area, only using cyanotype chemistry (and maybe some additional 'secret chemistry' thrown in...), and printing on natural fiber papers conducive to receiving light sensitive solutions (as well as holding up to a lot of soaking and washing in water).  We do not confer with what the theme of the day is so it's a joyful surprise to each of us once we share the one print we are happiest with for that day. Take a look at the diptychs of our daily work on our  Two Women Talk  Instagram page to see how the pieces pair as well as follow what transpires on the series. We would love to engage in feedback and discussion as well - that's the rewarding part  - connection and discovery .  My reflectio...

Hello kind readers! This is a bonus post from Two Women Talk as we have a fun announcement... Ellen and I have decided to do a 7 Day Series project in July. Something to celebrate summer, something to do while the heat keeps us in, something for the sheer fun of it while we experiment and practice our mutual love for analogue photography. During the week of July 5 - 12, we will each be making a handmade, camera-less photo, one every day, on 5x7ish natural fiber papers of our choice using sun sensitive chemistry - literally painting with light. Each photogram will be one of a kind, a unique creation difficult to reproduce due to the nature of the heat, light angle, exposure time, and amount of chemistry combinations. Unless they are measured and repeated exactly, the outcome will vary. I don't often exactly measure things - much like how I cook - I intuitively add ingredients as I go along..."that tastes about right, let's go with that" kind of approach. We are limitin...

Here's what life in my desert is like right now: This morning, a helicopter is hovering over my neighborhood making many close passes overhead. Most likely it's the power company inspecting the lines and transformers as we've entered extreme heat time here (102-106 the next few days which is super hot for us...normal summer highs used to be 90s...) The air is smokey from a wildfire up towards my favorite mountain camping retreat. My heart is aching. Late last night, we had 5 men with radios and a woman in a getaway car casing houses, jumping fences, boldly walking into people's yards. We slept with the front and back lights on, also grateful for our shepherd with his deep bark and strong bite when needed. We slept okay. That is not typical for where I live. In fact, for years we barely locked our doors. I am grateful for a close knit neighborhood. We look out for each other. And in Ellen's world in the PNW? It's a cool 61ish degrees today, not to break 70 much o...

Like many others during the height of the lockdown, I spent a lot of time on Zoom in webinars, workshops, and private gatherings to stay connected, sane, and either hone up on skills or learn something new. There were a lot of intriguing and serendipitous connections being made.  In this particular case, I cannot remember exactly when or how but I do remember where - Instagram - another alternative photographic printmaker and I connected over...one of her images? Mine? Another artist whose feed we both followed? Either way, one comment lead to another and then a mutual follow, a few back and forth messages, and then an idea blossomed... Through a few Instagram message exchanges, I learned this woman lived where I frequent - in a small community outside of Bellingham, WA - where I fly to in order to make a short drive to one of the islands to see family. Her art style is one I resonate with and admire greatly. We discovered quite a few parallels in our lives, like:  we both hav...

re·con·struc·tion (n.)  /ˌrēkənˈstrəkSH(ə)n/     the action or process of reconstructing or being reconstructed. a thing that has been rebuilt after being damaged or destroyed.   3546 days.  9 years, 8 months, 16 days. 116 months, 16 days. 196 posts. That is how long I've had this blog. In nearly 10 years, it has been interesting, for me, to review where my thinking was when I started this site and where I am now. I almost thought about just starting over because my writings are going to be more on my artistic processes, projects, experiences and considerations on all things in my art life. Isn't art life? Isn't what we create a direct reflection of our internal landscapes influenced by the external ones?   So, I decided to just continue the flow from 3546 days ago because, in my reality, it's all pertinent. Several years ago (8 in fact), I spent some hard earned money on a defining your personal narrative workshop. It was a full weekend, small gr...

Here's the short version: The rest of 2017-2018 is a blur.   Left a 35 year career in public education halfway through 2019. Gifted myself a custom built camper van to freely travel and be a full-time artist, open land advocate, and whatever else I wanted. In February, 2020, we were planning a wedding and awaiting the arrival of a new family member - my first grandchild.  Covid hit shortly after in full force. Granddaughter arrived despite Covid restraints and world events, healthy and as adorable as can be, thank God and FaceTime. The new little family is thriving and safe. Everything else turned to shit... Like you, I am trying to figure out what 'new normal' looks like as every day unleashes old and new circumstances to make sense of and navigate through. Grieving and creating are simultaneous, daily rituals. My thread of sanity is that I am not in this alone but in good company - as sad and frightening and frustrating as it all can be - I remain hopeful, most of the t...

Happy NEW Year! I've decided that 2017 needs to be a year of action for me. No "promises" on lists or in yet another journal for a new year - that I'll never look back at after January 3rd. No rituals of "letting go" or setting intentions with sage and candles. No, this time I just did  things. Like fresh bedding on all the beds (had lots of guests over the holidays); clean windows (only to have doggy nose art reinstalled); clear out a small space in my garage and organize my platinum, palladium, cyanotype, and encaustic supplies so I can get all these images in my head down on cotton rag papers and cradled birchwood frames (or anything else that beckons to be adorned); read, snooze, take the dog for a walk, soak in a scented bath; hang out with friends; put fun things down on my 2017 calendar like more flights up to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, photography workshops (ones I'm teaching and ones I'm taking), and the necessary school things... ...

The catalogs are out!! Not much longer!  I think we are going to be in for some fabulous desert fall weather during art tours. My friend and plein air painter, Krista Wargo, and I are looking forward to this year's art tours as we both took a creative hiatus last year. It's always a good time. I've fallen in love with analog, aka 'alternative', print-making methods and have barely scratched the surface of all that entails. I have not been able to get my darkroom/studio built this summer as I had planned (darned heat!). However, I will have some platinum/palladium prints to show and explain the process - marrying the digital world with the analog world.... digital because those are the cameras I use to make the images and negatives on digital film / analog because that is how I print them using chemistry, sunlight, and unique fine art papers and other substrates (as in not the typical ink jet print on glossy/semi-glossy paper sent out to a commercial printing hou...

I've been busy. My life is evolving at light speed. Dreams are being realized... Chapter 3 of my Life is now in full swing. The kids are fully out into their own grand adventures. I love spending time with them in their newly 'adulted' lives. One 30 year career is nearing to a close and another begins. Chapter 2 had a satisfying end. Chapter 3 promises a journey of many predictable and unforeseen surprises along the twists and turns, peeks and dips. Kind of like Chapters 1 and 2 but more grown-up...if there is such a thing. The remainder of this blog will be dedicated to all things artful - specifically my passion for the alternatively processed, aka 'old school', print making methods. I am marrying the digital world with nostalgic methods of presentation developed in the 1800s.   More on all of that later.  For now, here are 2 earlier prints I made using platinum and palladium on cotton rag paper. Nothing but precious metals and organic cotton fibers t...

I am a winter baby. This is my favorite event of the year - the Winter Solstice - a time to be still with yourself and your gratitudes and ground yourself for the next round. May this season of going within find you present, at peace, and enveloped in the warmth of all Life's Blessings... (artist unknown)

Greetings dear readers....I've finally gotten around to thinking about writing again after a whirlwind many months of changes and adventures. I felt a little stumped on what to write about and post, but the blockage is slowly clearing after giving myself permission to just "be" instead of "do, do, do".... Italy, northern Italy in the Tuscan hills to be exact, was exactly what I needed. Born a European and a traveler, I needed to feel that earth beneath my feet again and experience the rich traditions of art and food and architecture and the people of my past.... What's really cool is that I am still in touch with nearly all I met along the way - including some generous and kind Italians who opened their home to me and shared a bit of their life.  The world doesn't feel so huge and cruel and empty (as much of the internet will tell you) when one travels and discovers that, while we may speak different languages and wear different skin, our hearts seem to ...

Never underestimate the work that goes on in life's transitional phases. When my last 'baby' left home in the fall for college, I thought I would just easily flow through that dreaded 'empty-nest' syndrome typical for so many parents, single parents in particular. I found myself simultaneously feeling stagnant and catapulted through either not quite knowing what to do with my 'free' time or having a staggering amount of opportunities and decisions to make. In just a few short months, I planned and booked a trip to Italy with the sole purpose of expanding my artistic trade and developing a stronger portfolio, cleared out physical stuff , quelled out fair weather friends and acquaintances, and left my workplace of 18 years. None of which was a foreseeable blip on the horizon until I was standing smack dab in the middle of it. My life is nothing that I knew of it - kids grown up and gone, day to day habits have made a 180 degree to the west turn, the faces of...

Day 3 of the 3-pieces-of-art-a-day-for-5-days I have been challenged with. This time I decided to post portraits I've done. Is that considered "art"? My photographer friends would say yes. There is always a debate about photography being "art". It's not done with paints or brushes or canvas or drawn by hand so many in the art world would argue it is not art. The word photography is made up of 2 ancient Greek words meaning "light" (photo) and "drawing" (graph). Drawing with light. The camera is our tool - our brush if you will. And the surface we place our images on - fine papers, wood, glass, fabric, metal, ceramics, and yes, canvas. Can that not be "art"? It all started about 6 years ago when colleagues of mine asked me to take their family photo with another family they were close with. They were moving back east and wanted a memento. Since then, I've been privileged to photograph many families and artists. Each time, ...

So, I've been challenged by a fellow artist to post 3 works a day for 5 days. This is Day 2. Going back in the archives, I am sharing (again) some unique desert weather shots. I know I've mentioned this many, many times - but, we desert dwellers get really giddy whenever there is any kind of precipitation - especially drizzle/rain accompanied by fog. Fog is a super unusual occurrence in our desert. This year, we've had literally days and days of it. Once for 3 days in a row - the pea soup kind. Of course, I was teaching on those days - not conducive for chasing great fog shots. But I did manage to go out and play for an hour after school, before dark. There is something eerily special about standing out in the desert, enveloped in the thick quiet of fog. The best part? The smells! Oh my. Sage, desert lavender, cedar, pinion pine, creosote - all mixed with granite (yes, rocks have smells) and wet earth. Heaven. This shot was taken in January, 2 years ago. Not phot...

Looks like there is no slowing down in 2015. Thought I'd pop in and let you all know what's been up in my absence. Besides the throes of a working girl, getting over a lively holiday season, and spending spontaneous fun-time with my adult kids, I'm preparing for my works to hang in the local county courthouse offices; planning a trip to Tuscany; prepping for a photography class I get to teach in Joshua Tree National Park; and playing with polaroid film and sun sensitive papers. I've finally finished up a slew of portrait shoots over the holidays so now I have time to hunker down and hone a body of work that has been dancing around in my head for months. I've been such a hermitess lately - work > home > dog walk > work > groceries > home > dog walk  > work > family > work... Ever have those times when you just hole up for long periods of time and people start to forget about you?  I like to think of it as reflective, decompressing, crea...

Merry Christmas (I'm on traditional time...) and Happy New Year! Feeling nostalgic on this last eve of 2014. It's been an eventful yet good year for me, all in all. The nest is empty for the most part. I've had to adjust to not having to be "on" for someone else besides me on the home front. I had imagined all this free time filled with experiences I've been saving up to do once my family fledged the nest. Funny, but it seems I've never been busier with little free time, even on weekends, to do all the hiking, photographing, creating art, traveling, socializing I thought I was going to do. Looking back, I think I purposefully filled those spaces left open with mindless stuff to not feel the potential emptiness.... Empty, yes. Lonely, no. I am relishing the solitude. My reserves needed refueling. I had thought about doing an article on the best bits of 2014 or something like that. But, nah. I know what those are and that is enough. My energies thes...