White Butterflies Digital Collage

"White Butterflies" - Digital Collage

I'm visiting with my son who lives in Brooklyn and occasionally find that I have a little time to kill in the mornings. I decided this is a perfect time to work on some digital collages which I haven't done in awhile. This new one is definitely Brooklyn inspired. There's a wonderful coffee shop located near the Graham Street subway station and it has this great wallpaper in it. The moment I saw it I just knew it would make the perfect background for a digital collage. 

The butterflies came from a recent note card that I created. 

I love the way my laptop becomes my studio when I can't be in my studio!

Retrospective Part 1

"Two Pears" - pastel - 4x5 - 1996

I'm currently visiting with my mother who lives 650 miles from me; so I don't get to see her often enough. Being the supportive mother that she is, she owns the world's largest collection of my artwork. This collection covers the gamut from my very beginning days until now. It's always great fun and a great education for me to review these pieces whenever I'm visiting and it has inspired me to create something of a retrospective exhibit within my blog.

I was 39 before I discovered that I had the ability to draw. I was never one to take art classes in high school and I really never doodled or dabbled in art. But, I've always been an art lover, a frequent visitor to art museums, and a collector. Finally, one day, I just had to see if I had the ability to create anything of my own.

My first foray into creating art was learning to draw with charcoal and pencils. Unfortunately, I don't think any of these early works are in existence. I was over zealous in cleaning out my studio one day and... whoops!

After spending time just honing my drawing skills, I stepped up to using color. Pastels. The little piece above is the very first pastel I ever did. When my new box of Nupastels arrived, I broke them in and practiced using them by creating pears. Ever since then, whenever I try something new, I almost always experiment by using pears as my subject. My art friends tease me about it being my favorite fruit. As far as I'm concerned, the shape and countours of pears allows you to fully experience the extent of the capabilities of a new medium.

Shortly after the pears, I painted the image below from a photo of my parents' back yard.

"In A Southern Garden" - pastel - 18x24 1997

This was probably my first attempt at flowers and you can see I had a tough time with them. I love their silliness. I became much better at flowers later on.

Mauve Note Card

Another note card. This time using a lavender-ish fiber paper. Actually, it's hard to even call it paper. It's just a lot of fibers loosely woven together. It kind of, sort of reminds me of shredded wheat. Also in this note card is my now infamous "scream" paper. So called because it reminds my friend Denny of Edvard Munch's "The Scream." Once she told me that, I could see it plain as day. As beautiful as the paper is, I will now always associate it with that famous painting.