eARTh - the 4 elements--my upcoming art exhibit!

Shortly after returning from the Pawnee National Grasslands with my friends...

we began to talk about how, as artists, the environment influences our work.

We were all in the grasslands together, yet we were all experiencing it differently.

As we talked we realized that an exhibit was beginning to take shape.  

(To share in this experience see my other blog, https://WhimsyCalls.blogspot.com, 8.29.16.)

A trail winds across the treeless prairie in the grasslands.

Our discussions expanded to include the four elements:  

1.  Fire
2.  Water
3.  Air
4.  Land/earth

In our research we realized that there is also a fifth element--one that connects us to nature and our relationship with the divine.

5.  Life force/spirit/prana

Lewis Bay on Cape Cod a week ago.

The four elements included:

1. Spring
2. Summer
3. Autumn
4. Winter

And, the four directions:

1.  North
2.  East
3.  South
4.  West
By November, our exhibit concept began to take shape and we had a date, gallery and creative ideas we wanted to pursue and explore!  

(Also see https://WhimsyCalls.blogspot.com "Arctic Blast and Other News" 11.30.16 for a short video clip on our developing ideas.)

Paints and gelatins crowd my painting taboret.  

 My head began to swim with ideas!

I wanted to create a number of new works for this show and knew I needed to jump in without hesitation/procrastination/delay!!

Today I'll share a few images of what I'm working on--and, next month I'll show you what I actually decided to submit.  (NOTE:  NOT ALWAYS THE SAME THING!)

While driving to Jackson, Wyoming, last summer with friends, we deliberately chose a route through Dubois to avoid driving in the smoke of the Cliff Creek Fire, southeast of Jackson.  

So, we were totally NOT expecting a NEW wildfire, the Lava Mountain Fire, just 20 miles northwest of Dubois in the Shoshone National Forest.  The smoke began to be visible long before we neared Dubois and as we approached the smoke quickly became thick and we were all coughing--even with our windows closed.  

My painting is the beginning of a mixed media work that will depict the scars that are so visible years after a wildfire.  Although I know and appreciate the value of "managing" fire (i.e. making wilderness more resilient to fire, a more diverse vegetation and forest structure, etc.), the ferocity and surprise of encountering the Cliff Creek Fire stayed with me long after we escaped the smoke for clear mountain air.

Meanwhile...

I have this idea to depict the soft hues of the sky and environment around me in a series of "flags,"-- each a cotton 14.5" square dyed in an individual color.  

I have an image of suspending these squares near the ceiling of the gallery as an installation work.  Fingers crossed. 

My first attempt produced a beautiful array of squares--but, with too much energy and vitality for what I want to show in a February exhibit in the heart of winter.

Plastic apron, plastic gloves, plastic on the
table--ready to dye!

So, the next day I purchased more unbleached cotton muslin, tore it into the right sized squares, and carefully stayed with one primary color until I had dyed a square in each succession of one color giving way to the next.

This gave me the soft, gentle hues in colors that moved one to another, like a sunrise slowly moving toward morning.

(I had never worked with Rit dye before and now I can't wait to move from cotton squares to silk scarves! That will be a future project!)

On lines I strung throughout the garage I hung my dyed squares, each a different hue.

A bundle of sticks that "jumped into my arms!"

As a self-proclaimed 
stick artist...

I also want to create a number of new pieces using driftwood gathered from the Cache la Poudre River.

Fortunately, Colorado often has chinooks during the winter that bring amazing warm temperatures into the state.  When it's over 40 degrees I can work outside in the gazebo--which I use as my STICK STUDIO. Yesterday, it was 60!!!!  I was able to work outside ALL DAY!!!

Would you like to see my gazebo studio?

  

This is a piece I've had rattling in my head for a long time.  It is a three-panel driftwood design that should be self-standing when the panels are connected to each other.  

River driftwood is a smooth tactile joy to work with while considering abstract design
and balance.

Work is due...

Soon, really soon.  You're invited to join us for the opening reception--but, if you're unable to attend, my February blog post will feature...

        eARTh--nature's artistic energy!