In the Name of Art

Dia de los Muertos

Its been my ambition to go to Mexico for the Day of the Dead for about 10 years and tomorrow I fly out to Morelia, Michoacan! My travel rituals are to create a travel journal out of an old book and make one entry the day before on a separate sheet. The pre-journal entry is below. 

Won't be back until election afternoon (have already voted early) so will miss the ruckus. Also will miss posting entries.....hmmmm, do you suppose I could hit an internet cafe? We'll see! 

Some Journal Pages

The slide show that follows this entry are the snapshots of the weekend and these are the journal pages.

Our guests took naps and rose a tad late so I  could sit at my desk and continue to use the drawer-full of scraps sitting there for emergency art use. The story about the dinosaur is true, the kids voted but their choice was given the deep-six. Ah, school days!

Weekend at the lake

The cottage at Lake Chatauqua is the best getaway in the fall, the lake mists, the colors, the sun all seem like the best in the world (not to mention the maple syrup and Southern Tier micro-brew). The pictures here are from Chatauqua Institute, the lake outside my back door and a trip my friends Carrie, Joie and Karen took up to a state park that borders Chatauqua Gorge. Though I've been making trips to all these places for 13 years I haven't taken pictures to post here. So here you have it, Chatauqua NY.

Season of the Crow

This is darker, but still carries some of the mystery of winged messengers.

Birdland is Dadland

When I was about 11 my father became an avid birder. Which on some level meant the whole family would be birding, at least occasionally because my father was the General Patton of passionate interests. He bought the obligatory bird-book and dragged us out of bed at what seemed the middle of the night but had to be 5am. We'd drive to the local park and search out the most amazing animals, these quick, light creatures with wings and vibrant colors. They were rarely, is ever, in our back yard, but in the park a whole secret cabal of them were twittering, fighting, swooping, screaming.

Its not hard to see why birds end up in my work. This is a piece from a collaborative I'm involved in. In Africa, birds were regarded as messengers from and to the gods. That seems to fit for me. 

Journal Entry

Up at the lake last week I decided to use some of the papers that were in the collage drawer and make a (rare lately) journal entry. The colors are decidedly neutral for the most part but my selections were limited by my scraps.

Birdland Post

Heres the last of these, this week at least, I need to take time to finish up several projects on the back burner that are due mid-month, end of month, etc.

Love these little spaces, the birds and landscapes just belong to each other. Who knew that images separated by time, space and library shelves were made for each other? I think I'm simply the facilitator, bringing everything together.

Small and Common Graces

More faux post, though at this point they are almost bookmarks. The severe verticality of these four restricts the design possibilities, but this is a good thing, I can't go far wrong. The people are all cut from a single group photograph sent to me by Sarah Fishburn. I really like the generic quality of snap-shots and wouldn't know what to do with a photo that had more unique qualities. Then its like the photo stands by itself, but with the more generic, ubiquitous snaps I can let my imagination run wild.