October 26, 2011: Family Mysteries

I'm always trying to find out how events and the landscape evolved into the present. As a child, I was stunned to discover that the people and world around me had not always been as they were at that moment. Why was that old truck cab abandoned by the barn? Why was one aunt so bitter? Why were my grandparents at odds?  Over the years I asked questions and inherited caches of letters that fill in many lines of missing stitches. When I read these letters, I hear my family speaking to one another - and now me - across time and space. "River Passage," is a visual metaphor for the mystery of family history. This 16 x 12 oil on canvas will be included in Clayton Galleries "Small Works" show in Tampa for the holidays. http://www.claytongalleries.net

September 5, 2011: Signs

What are the landmark events of your life? I can recount certain people and happenings that pointed me in the right direction. Perhaps that's why I have always been inspired by this vista from a bridge overlooking the Oneida River on New York's Barge Canal. After a peaceful journey between crimson-tinged shores I can imagine boaters spying this sign "MARINA" - mounted on an old barge - directing them to safe mooring. The feeling of homecoming is what "River Landmark," 10 x 20 oil on canvas - just completed - is all about.

Step Back to the 1970's: August 3, 2011

When I was a senior art major at SUNY Oswego in 1973, I had the opportunity for planning art on a grand scale. Lakeside Dining Hall commissioned me to design and execute a mural on their double stairwell wall. My plan was semi-abstract shapes that suggested underground forms for the lower levels, and the main upper walls were landscape. Instead of tubes of paint, I had to use gallon pails of custom mixed paint from a local hardware store. My team and I (which included my future husband, Paul, and good friend, Charlie Brown,) worked long hours over Christmas break to complete the vast mural. We worked on scaffolding perched over the stairwell. First, we had to make a grid using a string line. Next we transferred the design, and began filling in the shapes with paint colors. After a week of twelve hour days, we completed the project. This weekend, our good friends from these college years are traveling from New York to visit us in Ohio. We'll be stepping back in time and re-connecting with our current lives.

Remembering William Henry Merchant: July4th, 2011

This couple's image is one of my favorites, and I drew them over three decades ago from an old tintype. They just happen to be my great-great grandparents. I would guess this is their wedding picture. How I wish Sally Pepper, my young ancestor, would pop out of the frame and we could get to know one another! She and William (we have many Williams in our family - our grandson is named William, too,) went on to have four daughters. William enlisted in the 149th  and fought in the Battle of Atlanta. He died of disease just before Union victory was declared. On this 150th anniversary of the Civil war, I remember him.

Rooms I Have Known: June 17, 2011

Many of my dreams revolve around rooms. Often they are under construction, with dry wall to be hung, or vast areas to be painted. Other times, we have just moved in and are expecting guests, and I still haven't unpacked, organized, or cleaned. On daily errands or long road trips, I often wonder what stories are happening inside the passing houses. Perhaps that is why one of my passions are historic home tours, where I can walk through rooms filled with the ghosts of past lives, as in this colored pencil drawing, "Lake View 1" of Rose Hill Mansion in Geneva, New York. It just won the Arthur Harliss Memorial Award at The Hudson Valley Art Association's 80th Annual in Old Lyme, Connecticut. www.hvaaonline.org

Rainiest April on Record: April 29, 2011

I grew up in Central New York, so I am used to rain. (In fact, I even find weeks of unending sun and blue skies boring!) But here in Ohio, as in most of the rest of Eastern states, we have had quite enough severe rainstorms, tornadoes,  and cool temperatures. We are anxious to enjoy the spring, and we want our farmers to be able to plant their crops. I am posting one of my latest collages, "Spring Planting," (acrylic and water soluble colored pencil on paper,) as a visual prayer for some sunnier, warmer days in May.

Spring Rush: April 8, 2011

When we moved back to Central New York after many years away, we were enchanted by all the water - everywhere!  Down the road from our house, water cascaded over a dam for an old power plant. Along the next road, water rushed through a boulder-strewn creek. The old Erie Canal meandered nearby. Beautiful Cazenovia Lake was minutes away, and Lake Ontario shimmered on the distant horizon. Perhaps most mesmerizing was powerful Chittenango Falls, which has been a destination for generations of nature lovers. Last week, I completed this oil painting, "Spring Frenzy," of rushing Chittengo Creek.  I contrasted the delicate budding foliage along the shore with the bold power of water. Can you feel how cold the water is?

March 25, 2011: Creativity or Chaos?

I often heard my mother observe that my father's rolltop desk was "so messy." He would always respond, "But I know where everything is!" As a curioius pre-schooler, I was fascinated with this forbidden jumble of rolled up blueprints, mysterious slips of paper, small pads and notebooks, and the crowning jewel - a ball point pen standing upright in a holder! I longed to write with that pen just as I saw my father do. And how I wanted to open those little drawers and poke in the cubbyholes and pull out all those sheets of paper. As you can see by this photo, I somehow made it up to the promised land, and it was just the beginning of my passion for the power of lines on paper.

March 10, 2010: Old Lady Under a Hill

When I was little, I was fascinated by the nursery rhyme, "There was an old lady who lived under a hill...and if she's not gone, she lives there still." I was intrigued by the possibility of a mysterious old woman who lived in a cozy little cavehouse. I wanted to go visit her! Unfortunately, on our flat farmland, our only "hill" was a slight slope behind two old apple trees. In early spring, my favorite walk was to this spot to see green grasses emerging from tangled brown stalks. If you listened carefully you could hear the hill bubbling and snapping with new life. "Ohio House 1", colored pencil on paper, explores my lifelong feelings for hills in early spring - and the elusive old lady who might live there still.

Lonely Hearts: Valentine's Day 2011

One day while waiting for the light to change in Westerville, I spied this elderly woman walking into the cold wind. Dressed in a warm wool coat and a jaunty deep blue hat pulled down over her forehead, she slowly but surely made her way down the sidewalk.   An artist, like a playwright, can change the scenery to tell a more interesting story. Because the number on the door was "14", I had the idea to change the window decorations from Easter to Valentine's Day. The result is my colored pencil drawing, "Februrary Skies." With a change of holiday, the viewer could wonder - along with me - about the loves in the life of this determined woman of a certain age.   On this Valentine's Day, remember the older people in your life with a call or note. The heart is always eager for love!

January 30, 2011: Winter Days

During these gray snowy days of winter, I'm reminded of my Great-Grandmother Morey, who wrote a letter to my grandmother in 1918 "that a wagon had passed by today." As I sit at my computer sending Facebook messages to my friends and family, I marvel at our communication technology. And yet, we still sit alone at our devices, much like great-grandma in her rural farmhouse in snow - drifted Central New York almost 100 years ago.    As a person devoted to creative activity, I have to be mindful of the present moment so I don't miss those perfect ideas. If I multi-task or fly off in too many directions, I miss that wagon passing by.   This graphite drawing is my great-grandmother Morey sitting on her porch on a summer day. I included activities of her life from my imagination using multiple images.

January 14, 2011: Dreams of Florida

How to prevent creative burn out? One way that works for me is my sandbox, where I try new techniques. No judging is allowed, only a carefree and open attitude will do. Out of this playtime, I've begun to make collages. I snip and paste text and imagery to my heart's content, and then in a mad scramble try to unify it all. I love combining drawing and painting with text images from my historic and family history treasure chest.   In these cold dark days of January, I am thinking of our 1960 trip to Florida to visit relatives. We travelled south - this was before interstates - in our new sleekly finned turquoise Plymouth station wagon. One of our stops was St. Petersburg, where my grandparents rented the back apartment of a little cottage. I created these collages about our trip to what I fondly now call "Old Florida," which still exists today in such places at Mt. Dora. Clayton Galleries in Tampa featured these collages in their holiday show.