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.