Off to Santa Fe

A huge life transition. Finally decided to make the move to Santa Fe. Will miss you beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Show of Hope at Hilda and Patrick Arts Gallery

My painting titled Sunday was chosen for the show and used in all the promotional material. I am so happy that my minimal , meditative work has an appreciative audience.

The Vicar and the Artist

March 27, 2011

The exhibit at Hilda and Patrick Arts was deeply moving. Especially my conversation with the Vicar, The Rev. Cynthia Espeseth.

Mother Cynthia asked me how I created my painting "Tall Heart."I explained that I love the minimalist color field approach. As I paint, usually figures or shapes emerge from that field. Mother Cynthia said that's the same way she creates her sermons, "from a universal field."

She said she saw the story of Abraham and Sarah in the painting. "Tall Heart" reminded her of how the angels came to Sarah and told her of the birth of her son Isaac.

Then she asked me if she could take a picture of it and use my painting as inspiration for one of her weavings. She is an artist too.

And finally, (yours truly was in tears of joy at this point) she said that she had given the congregation study exercises for the weeks before Easter. This week's "assignment" was to sit in front of my paintings and pray.

I have never been so touched by how art can make connections in the right place at the right time between kind and gracious hearts.

It was the best birthday gift I have ever received.

GRACE NOTES

How beautifully they played, these three classical guitarists, at a performance October 15, 2010, at the Glenhaven Performance Space in Lynnwood, WA.

The guitarists are Chaz Rogers, Daniel Kashima and Robert Vierschilling.

Three paintings below were backdrop for the musicians.

THE RED DOT

OR, Why Less is More

Here is the story of how Turner first came to paint the red buoy which became a feature of his seascapes.

On the "varnishing day" before an exhibit, when the artists were putting the finishing touches to their pictures, Constable was adding over-the-top red details. His painting was right next to Turner's own expansive seascape of soft, cool, muted greys.

Turner stood in perfect silence watching Constable as he added more and more warm touches to his already busy scene.

When Constable left, Turner stepped up and placed a small dot of vermillion on his painting. It is said that this first apearance of the red dot was meant to provoke Constable into seeing that, in art, less is more.

The exhibit commitee tried to persuade Turner that the red dot had to go. So he changed it into a buoy. This single red dot so pleased him that it became a feature of his seascapes.

I call my work "The Art of Stillness" and Turner was one of my first inspirations.