Stories

Techno Green Man

This piece was created for a show about contemporary portraits. While not of a likeness of a real person, it is my rumination about people transforming due to climate change. I wonder which will save us, evolving by new technology or regressing to more natural beings. Which will we put our focus on?

Saint Julian of Norwich

The patron saint of contemplatives and cats was a joy to paint. Maybe it’s because she reassures us that “All will be well, all matter of things will be well.” Normally, icons depict holy people with no emotion on their face. The ideal being that each view will receive their what they need from the image. But knowing what she said, how could I paint her other than with a smiling face. Even her cat looks her joyous face for reassurance.

For Jim and Richard

I’m blessed to belong to a church that is open to anyone who wants to attend. So many have found it a safe place to worship. Love is our guiding light. Communion is offered to all without exception. I cherish this ritual that reminds us all that we are apart of the body of Christ. This piece was created for a couple who found their way there and have supported the church in so many ways. I’ve tried to show how precious their lives and relationship are within the body. Included is a ring of stylized figures to represent all the saints, living and dead, that protect them. There are arrows that symbolize Saint Sebastian. He’s the patron of strength and endurance. These are qualities this couple models in their continued faith. I’ve also include stylized palms, a symbol of peace, which I pray surrounds them wherever they may go.

DAWN
It’s a time of change. Light returns. Colors appear. A new day begins.
I was recently contacted by a art consultant with the possibility of creating work for a hospital. While I am in the dark as to where this will lead, it did cause me to think about what images I would create for that kind of location.

I am so soothe by lily ponds. With flowers rising above the murky water and the leaves so calmly floating, there is a release of tension. A sigh of relief. This piece may be too dark for a hospital, but then again…

GOD’S ABUNDANCE
As a member of the National League of American Pen Women, I was able to participate in their show Visions of Spring at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore, CA. It occurred as my backyard garden was just coming into its first blush of the season.

By God’s grace our planet is in continual rebirth. Yes, I had to play my part; amend the soil, plant the seeds, water as needed. My little garden is a reflection of the part we play in the health of our planet. Assist and do no harm.

The abundance of flowers and birds was overwhelming. I had birds building nest in several bushes in my yard. And as my vegetable garden began to sprout, I was so filled with the wonder of how life keeps bursting into existence. It can’t be held back.

Above the Understory
Why a solid black circle in this view of looking down on the forest floor? It’s my wondering about our future. I wonder what will happen if we don’t get our climate disaster under control. What happens if we destroy all the mother trees. That’s the solid black circle, the missing tree that radiates out to all the younger trees giving them guidance as we now understand. There is so much abundance in the understory, so much to lose. We just beginning to truly understand how so interdependent all life is.

THE INNER STORY
I’m one of those artists that likes a prompt to get my creative mind spinning. As a member of the Guild of American Papercutters, I received a call for their upcoming show. The show’s theme is The Understory. They may have chosen the theme because of the popularity of the book The Overstory. If you haven’t read the book, do. It will change how you perceive trees. I know I value them more. The life on our our planet is supported by these amazing, living beings. I’m in awe of them. And, all that life from a small seed. There is, indeed, a inner story in each one, some told across centuries.

BROTHER BILL

Two years ago I made a bet with my brother about the seeds we were planting in our summer garden. Would old seeds sprout? I had my doubts. However, my brother’s optimism won out. What did I owe him? A portrait. Well, life got in the way. He patiently waited. Finally on a sunny, winter day, I took a pic and two weeks later his face appeared on my gessoed board.

Prayer To Move Beyond Racism
This year has brought us to a time of reckoning. Social media has laid bare the continuation of racism in our society. The video of the killing of George Floyd shocked us and also made us admit that we still have work to do.
With this icon I make a change in direction. Icons are used to call us into prayer. I hope this icon is experienced as a visual prayer moving us out into the blessed community we must work towards.

Wishes For Lucas As He Ponders His Future
This is a painting of my grand nephew, Lucas. He is at the age where the future is wide open. We discussed what the content of the painting would be. W agreed that it should include objects represented his interests, hence the kendama toys, a nod to Star Wars and the gecko. I’ve also add symbols for the things I hope for him; a healthy earth, peace, long life and relationships.

BENEATH
The upheaval of 2020 has caused so much trauma. Climate change, forest fires in the West, the killing of our black citizen by police, and of course Covid 19 are still causing stress. The residual affects of this year’s events smolder at the core of many. The arts are a coping strategy for artists and patrons. Trinity Episcopal Church and the Sparrow Gallery of Sacramento are sponsoring a juried show with the theme “I will restore your health and heal your wounds,” declares the Lord. In times like these, our focus on the bleak blinds us to the Spirit at work beneath it all. We forget that this season, too, will pass.

PRAYER: PSALM 139:8
This was also created for the Trinity show in Sacramento. I was still working with the show’s theme of Lord restoring health and healing wounds. I kept thinking about the veil that separates this world and the next. How the times we’re living through makes that veil so thin. People are scared and feeling like their hanging from a thread. Yet, when we can pull our attention away from the fray, we see so many people working to support their communities and reach out to their neighbors around the world. God is present there. So I added old time, five petal roses, a symbol for Christ used in traditional icon paintings. The roses are breaking through the veil. The dove, a symbol for the Holy Spirit that is not limited to our sense of time and space, was added too. The roses and the doves move beyond the “frame” convey a sense that this too will pass and all will be well.

Home Is…
A friend of mine life had an a sudden change during the Covid pandemic. Her children decided to move to another state. She has a very close relationship to them and her grandchildren. Luckily, she could telecommute her job, so she decided to move too. Through this stress of change, she radiated joy. She was moving out of an apartment and into her own home near her family. She faced leaving friends and anticipated making new ones. All in all, with the digital connections we now rely on, it’s more of a growth of friends than loss. The heart is a vast field that will nourishing the relationships we plant there.

Beyond The Garden Gate
Cutting this piece was an adventure in composition and technique. I had planned to cut a piece where the birds on the gate symbolized the yin and yang of life. Flowers, growing and dying would surround them. But, at 1:00 in the morning, I realized I had cut the opened wing with the pattern found on the tail. So I cut off the error and waited for days for my imagination to figure out what to do. Every answer and cut added a new design problem. So much brown paper! The balance was was way off. How to tie it all together? As the piece pulled me into it’s world, the answers came. First answer, broaden the concept to a larger garden held within walls. The new wing is in the shadow of the added trees so the change in color makes sense. You’re pulled into the garden by the use of perspective techniques. Now , as a friend says, it is a view from an Oakland Piedmont district home window looking out on the San Francisco bay.

My Covid Dream
As a member of the Guild of American Papercutters, I was offered the opportunity to show a paper cut at the Laurel Arts Gallery in Somerset, Pennsylvania. The prompt for the show was “building bridges.” Created during the shutdown of the covid pandemic, My Covid Dream, coveys my frustrations and blessings during this surreal time. Stuck within our island homes and using electronic devices to bridge the distance between my family and friends, I swayed between being a prisoner and wandering the world virtually. I could only “hold” my loved ones via screens. Yet, I made new connections via social media. I now connect with other artist in Japan, Croatia, and Italy just to name a few. The little shoes with wings represent our collective desire to escape and meet up. If you look closely, you’ll see a pair of shoes touching, bridging the quarantine divide.

Prayer for the Greening
This piece was on display at the San Francisco De Young Museum during 2020. It was part of their De Young Open Exhibit.
Saint Hildegarde was the muse for the piece. I had been reading about her life and was inspired by her thoughts on nature as an insight to the qualities of God. She saw His hand in all things living. While God is love, S/He is also life. It seems that life just wants to be and cannot be kept from continuing. You see this greening when the lowly weed sprouts between the cracks in the sidewalk where no care seems to come its way. I’ve just learned that living organisms can be found in the highly toxic water that is used to cool nuclear plants. In spite of human existence, life will continue on this planet whether we are here or not. We just affect what is sustained and what becomes extinct. So my piece is prayer that the force of God continues to nourish the life on our planet no matter what we humans do. That it spreads outward like the ripples in a pond, and hopefully touches all our hearts to be apart of a positive movement to sustain the earth
as we know it.

Sea Lion : Public Art Project

I’ve just finished my painting for the Bay Ecotarium’s event Seal Lions in San Francisco. It commemorates the 30th anniversary of the sea lions residency at Pier 39 . Thirty artists painted thirty 6’X5’X3′ , fiber-glass sculptures of sea lions. The sculptures are to be place around San Francisco for 2020. It is the first public art commission that I’ve won. The experience of participating with twenty-nine fabulous artists was amazing. The themes, styles and painting techniques varied among the artists. Some didn’t paint the traditional way. They pored and flicked the paint on. Some used stencils, and others used acrylic skins. One artist evoked all the gunk we pore into the San Francisco Bay and the sea life that struggles to survive in it. One artist painted the base a golden metallic ( We are the Golden State.) As your view moves up, the gold appeared to flake away revealing children on a beach playing in the surf. Some the themes were dire, playful, or thought provoking.

Everyday Secrets
This is a papercut done in collaboration with composer Mary Fineman. Both of us are members of The National League of American Pen Women. It is America’s oldest, women’s professional organization. Our yearly chapter art show will in January. Mary suggested that some of our artists might use her lyrics as inspiration. I definitely was. Mary’s song Everyday Secrets is about not to following the constraints of culture. Instead it suggests you should follow your own bliss. The impetus of the change was being in nature and touching a dragonfly.

While making the piece, it got crushed and torn. It could have been a disaster. Yet, by the prayers of friends and listening to my art buddies’ suggestions, it lived on. As suggested by my friends, I listen to what the piece was trying to tell me. I ironed the paper and even tore it a little bit more. The tear adds to the dramatic change that described in the lyrics. Yes, the art does lead the designer… if she will listen.

This images shows the paper cuts on display over an altar in our social hall. It’s hard to see, but in front of the altar is a bowl holding the strands of burlap pulled to make the cloth on the altar. The strands conveys the messy lives we bring to Christ. With the burlap cloth, they convey the transformation that occurs through faith.

Christ The Bridegroom
I finally got a chance take an icon class from the master writer, Christine Hale, at Mt. Calvary Monastery in Santa Barbara. What a wonderful experience! While writing (Yes. Icons are written and not painted) the icon with egg tempera was challenging, the serene environment of the monastery balanced out the intensity. Christine is an excellent teacher offering historical and theological background with well paced instruction.

Following Saint Kevin’s Prayer
The story of Saint Kevin, who holds a nest in his hand until the eggs hatch and the fledglings fly away, influenced me. Kevin gave of himself so life could continue. So my piece is a prayer calling us to volunteer to protect and restore the life of our planet. On the back of the seal lion you’ll find a small pair of hands in work gloves holding a nest with two eggs. From the nest grows out a tree and it’s blossoms drift on wind around the entire sculpture. Think of the blossoms as prayers for the earth. The Bay Ecotarium focuses it work on habitats from the Sierras to the ocean. From the tip of the seal’s nose to the base of the sculpture, you’ll travel through those kinds of habits. I’ve included endangered animals, birds, reptiles and insects of those habitats. Around the middle of the seal is a banner with the words Volunteer, Protect, Restore. The banner looks wind blown, frayed, and worn out. I hope it suggests that if we get to work to save our planet, our current worries will fade away. Yeah, it’s a hopeful piece.

United By Love
United By Love: Eden Interfaith Council, created for a local Poetry-Art Slam. Castro Valley Community Alliance sponsored the slam. The theme was “A time in which you have overcome hate, or spread love and unity.” That is what the Interfaith Council is all about. Through working with the council I have learned so much about the faiths that are in my community. Temples, mosques, ashrams and churches are so interesting to visit. I better understand the connections between all faiths. T

Plant A Tree

The image above is another paper cut. This time it’s my submission to the Sierra Club’s Green New Deal call for art. I hope the piece conveys that the simple act of planting a tree seed can have a great affect on our climate crisis. One seed becomes a tree that can reproduce again and again to create a forest. A single tree is a habitat to so many creatures and can clean the air. We all can do something to make a change. Do something.

“Pruning” The Garden
Paper cuts are such a cool thing to create. When I tell people that I drew and cut the image by hand, awe sets in. I find the process very meditative. I slow down and focus on making precise cuts and watching, that as I turn rotate and move the paper, that it doesn’t tear. Paper is tougher than you think. It is a lesson learned as you fight to cut tiny corners and paper resists the knife. I find it magical, that as I cut away the stiff paper, what remain starts to feel and move like airy, thin silk fabric.

Light Up The Season…Maybe Not
Some ideas don’t play out. Created for the Light Up The Season event for the city of Hayward in hopes to promote inclusion all faiths. The plan was to create a series of images pairing up children of different religions. The interfaith council I work with has been working with the city to meet this goal. Alas, the committee thought, that with this year’s planned decorations were enough. Hearing about their other plans, I agreed. But no loss, our new city library might be able to use this and the other images I planned. What’s the saying about one door closing and then a window opens?