The Old Samurai

Collage/Mixed Media 33 1/2 x 42 inches matted and framed

The re-known Old Samurai lived a long life but wanted more. He struck a deal with a Djinn to live forever. But alas, the deal fell through and to find out what really happened you can go to timbuctooties.com and click on The Old Samurai and read the whole shebang. One of these days the book/CD I'm putting together of all the collages with their stories will be available for your listening-looking pleasure. At least I hope it will be. Meanwhile, if you are around the lovely area of Bainbridge Island, Washington, you can drop by the BAC gallery and check out a dozen collages with their accompanying stories.  The exhibit is up for the month of July, 2011.  It has been an exhausting ten months preparing for this show and now the sun has come out on the Olympic Peninsula and life is sweet. Think I will relax, ignore the glue pot and scissors and read a good mystery.

Air Mail

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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. 

Gramma's Fairy Tales

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This flight of fancy grew from the lovely borrowed Asian figure which transmogrifies into a fairy in a small world farm story (including a fifthteenth century farmer and his chickens). It tells the tale of an aging Grandma who loves to tell stories. She reads to the birds and her neighbors. As an aging grandma, myself, I know the pleasure found in making up and reading stories to my grandchildren. And then, we can all draw pictures and make our own books. What fun!

As for technique, the papers are hand painted and cut pieces--scraps from old books of flora, a snippet of a found-picture of a Japanese country house, scraps of my own ink transfer papers and of course, in the end, lots of over-painting and more layers of collage. This one can be found at  Bainbridge Arts and Crafts as are many of my other pieces. It is due to be shown in July in a small group  exhibit called, Narrative Collage. It is 28 x 33 1/2 inches framed and matted. To see the piece enlarged with details and the accompanying story, go to my web site: www.timbuctooties.com