Laying Tile

The floor is prepped and David and Jean-Matthieu are laying the tiles and making the most beautiful marks with the cement on each tile before they carefully place it. Needless to say I am entranced with the process and keep taking photos of the cement.

The back of the tile with such beautiful cement lines. 2016

More beautiful cement , 2016

And even more beautiful lines. 2016

First view of the laid tile. 2016

A Tangle of Lines

A Tangle of Lines 1, pastel on paper, 2015

A Tangle of Lines 2,  2015

A Tangle of Lines 3,  2015

Dreaming Blue

The blue dream continues to unfold, roots in blue earth wander about, entwined in space.Some feel like pages of a book . The roots can not be contained and wander off the page. By this time the dream is a memory faded and I still continue.

bule dream line play 2,2014

towards the edge of the blue dream, 2014

More Blue Dreams

In between rain showers I come back into the studio to see if I can capture a fragment of a dream from a few days ago. It was one of those dreams where you say to yourself "I'll never forget that" and sure enough the next morning all that is left is that uneasy knowing that you have forgotten something important. And at times throughout the day you get a glimmer, and you try to ease it into consciousness.

2 lines, ink on paper, 2014

towards blue 2

towards blue

Lines

The lines seem to have a life of their own in the studio.  They have become demanding, insistent, "I want to be a this, I want to be that", and all I can do is what they demand. And so the story continues.

ladder for Persephone,  24 x 19 in, ink, acrylic on Terra Skin, 2014

more ladders for Persephone,  24 x 19 in, ink, acrylic on Terra Skin, 2014

Venus rising,  24 x 19 in, ink, acrylic on Terra Skin, 2014

The Dream, Part 2

The dream image is reoccurring, [link here], not every night but most, and I am still working with it, trying to untangle it or its meaning. Trying to sense what it means for me, or how it wants to inform me. When I did the first few drawings I used a pad of lined paper made of Terra Stone. Loved the idea of stone paper but it has a cool, smooth texture and is more like Mylar than paper. That being said it loves ink, actually it seems to love any thing put on it, so I found some larger sheets and set to. Doing some research on line/lines I found a sweet fact, that in geometry, lines are a primitive concept. For some reason that pleases me.

working the dream, 38 x 24 in, mixed media on paper, 2014

working the dream 2, 38 x 24 in, mixed media on paper, 2014

Dream Lines

For the last while, just as I go to sleep, I have seen the same image. Sometimes during the day I'll see it in my minds eye and when I found some steel wool today, I scanned it. It's not what I see, but shares a sensibility. Then I looked at some sketches I had done a few days ago, and the ink piece I was working on yesterday; spirals, nests, vortexes, the expanding universe, spaghetti. Actually my dream image was just lines, million of lines, overlapping, winding about, and very beautiful.

steel wool, 2014

dream sketch, 2014

working the circle on the studio floor, 

Details

I now have a roll of Kozuke Ivory, a Japanese paper [thanks Stan and Lorraine] and have had the best time playing. I wonder why artists never seen to talk much about the sheer pleasure of making things, of putting ink on paper. Ink meets paper is a sight to behold. It's like "Hello Big Boy"; there is such attraction and energy between them. The paper buckles in pleasure and I am in love with the marks; some looked scratched or etched, some strong and deep. I find myself making lines, that's all I want to do, line after line after line; stacks of lines, flourishes of line, fat lines, skinny lines, galaxies of lines.

detail, brush strokes

detail of more brush strokes

detail of more even brush strokes

Sowing Seeds

Well so much for the grid, it seems to be on the back burner while the seeds have demanded all my attention. Not sure that they don't looks more like eggs but it doesn't really matter. I couldn't wait to try this out, this being take Black Seeds [see previous post, link here] and see what happens when you try to extend the seeds, this is very rough and I can see that I will try to get rid of the strong diagonal, probably by changing the size of some of the seeds. I wondered where all the straight then wavy lines, that I had been working with for the last few months had gone; realized that the line had joined ends and become quasi circles. Filled with charcoal of course.

Lots of seeds

One Step Back

It's always amazing to me how, when you don't know what to do next, you fall back to something that has worked in the past. Maybe it's just filling in time until the way forward is clearer. Ever since I worked on 'Big Blue' [link here] [and here] I have been fiddling about with different ways to have 2 curved sinuous lines. I'd swear I had a compass that you could put lead in both ends but haven't found it yet. A couple of months ago I borrowed J's flex curves. I forget what I wanted them for but finally had that eureka moment. This is on my thinnest paper, which I am not happy with. It's very soft so the tape pulls up a lot of fiber and when I use layers of fixative the paper and the charcoal become grainy and coarse.

Wavy Lines, charcoal, 24 x 39 in, 2013

More Black

Some of the drawings have met the computer. This really helps me see what I wish I had done and what I want to do. Back to work.

On the computer

From the black notebook

Stacks of Lines

I keep telling myself to get organized, make lists of all the things I want to do and need to do. Make a master list and prioritize. Good intentions. The studio beckons. Where I make stacks of lines. As if it were my list. With everything crossed off.

Just Lines

My fascination with lines continues. Love how much a line can say. Love how it feels in my body when I make repetitive lines, like kneading bread; breathing with each stroke. Then the rhythm changes, becomes faster, the emphasis is on the out stroke of the pencil. And then it changes again. I am loving this dance.

The Black Quilt

While I Wait

Back to lines. And more lines. It's the thing that intrigues me most in "Big Blue" [see previous post]. And while I'm not sure what it wants, I'm sure that I want to to make more lines.
Lines > paths
Paths > forest
Forest > horizon
Horizon > sound waves

Pencil, charcoal

Pencil, charcoal and worked on digitally

Decided to Play

"The Coffee Cantata" has turned blue, literally. Decided I'm taking this piece way to seriously, a fatal mistake so decided to play and what I really wanted to do was draw lines. Lots of lines. And it was hugely pleasurable.

Lots of lines

A Blue World Continues

The fog the other morning has worked its way into the paths and lines. Today they have become blueprints.

blueprint |ˈbloōˌprint|nouna design plan or other technical drawing.• figurative something that acts as a plan, model, or template : a vagueblueprint for fundamental land redistribution.verb [ trans. ]draw up (a plan or model) : [as adj. ] ( blueprinted) a neatly blueprinted scheme.ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from the original process in which prints werecomposed of white lines on a blue ground or of blue lines on a whiteground.

Crossed lines

Outer reaches

Our Need To Make Marks

Call it what you will;, line, marks, scribble, drawing, we love to make them. Always have and always will. Yesterday John and I saw a wonderful movie "Caves of Forgotten Dreams" about the 32,000 year old drawings in the Chauvet cave in France. The sublime simplicity of these drawing is breathtaking and incredibly moving. I really urge you to see it and found a link on YouTube for the trailer [link here]. As we walked Zoe last night, we were still talking about the movie [always a good sign] and realized this was our lineage.

Who Ever Knew

Who ever knew that sandpaper could be so gorgeous. Took these photos after doing the final sanding on the edges of my panels. About to pitch them in the garbage I finally "saw" them. Yummy butter yellow with soft white plaster and charcoal from the paint. The lines look scribbled and smudged and I like the straight lines and grid, actually they are covered with grids of the sanded off material by the time I throw them out.

The First Layers

While I was working on the "Scribbles", I took a lot of photos and using Photoshop, started to layer them, taking bits and pieces from one and adding them to another, all the while not knowing where this was going or quite what I was doing, trying to pay attention to what was happening as I layered line upon line. Soon they were demanding more color than what was in the drawings, even thought an amazing amount of color presents itself when you photograph drawings. So back to my files of color and textures. You can see why I really need to get these files in some sort of order. It's a very instinctual process of feeling my way, of trying to find or see the light or follow the line or thread, of trying to bring forth what I sense is there. 

The in between place

Gathering Lines

Still organizing my files [I have a feeling I could be at this for a while] and while I was walking around outside, realized I was watching the play of light on the paths we have made through the snow, and that got me to thinking about paths = a road = a line, and the power of a line. Whether we are writing, or drawing or making gestures or walking so many things have a line quality to them. As so often happens, a friend sent me this link to a show at MOMA, called ON LINE, a really terrific exhibition that I urge you to visit.

Lines