Thursday, April 14, 2011

Air Mail



Click on image to enlarge

Air Mail is a 21 x 28 1/2 inch, narrative collage/mixed media piece that tells the story of the world's first post-mistress, Nora Gami. She trains birds to deliver mail. To read her whole story, check it out on my web site, timbuctooties.com where you may also peruse some of the close-up details of the work. The next stop for Nora will be my up-coming exhibit at the BAC Gallery on Bainbridge Island in July, 2011. If you are around Winslow and Bainbridge Island in July, pop by for a visit. 

Not posting work or notes for weeks--until now: Work has been just short of overwhelming for the past couple of months with a host of minor family crises and age-74 "back" issues to deal with. But I still have an abundance of energy and pour a big batch of it into my work, trying to keep life in balance on a daily basis and myself standing upright. I sometimes wonder how any artist without a supporting partner and loving family and friends, manages. I know a few friend-artists who just manage to scrape by and do it with grace, humor and amazing creativity.  But you can ask my spouse if I kavetch, grump and show the same grace or humor under pressure. He'd say, "Yes on the grumping and often no on grace." But as a life long artist, I could not survive by any other route. No, not the grumping. But the daily making of art, which has sustained me during the bleakest years and bought great joy during the best. If we love doing what we do, then we keep at it no matter what. No matter whether it sells or not. No matter what the critics say (and that changes like the wind). Making art simply sustains us and we simply must keep at it. And so we do. And so I do.