december, january, february

blind contours of myself--carved into the wax, etc....I like the change of imagery and getting back to drawing a bit. February is on the way!

season of long shadows

these are both images I took of our field on Saturday AM...0 degrees. I printed them on paper and attached them to 8x8"boards.....one is with bleached beeswax and the other is with amber.

beeswax team gift exchange

I received my wonderful parcel from Beth Billups several days ago. Beautiful, Inspiring, and Amazing! This 6 inch cradle board is framed with black painted wood. The back of the piece is covered with brown paper for a very neat presentation.

“creativity, inspiration, community” are the three words collaged onto the incised jar images. Beth incised the lines and colored them black with oil stick. The lower half of the piece is an image of honeybees! (my favorite!). I am truly honored to have an image of Beth’s. She is a very detail oriented artist who knows about great presentation. Beth’s website is super. http://tangledskystudio.blogspot.com

We found out we have similar taste in music and we are both (originally) from Michigan! Yes, that is snow to the right of me in the vertical picture—we have about 30 inches on the ground as of today and the temp was about 15 degrees today.
The gift exchange was a super idea. I hope the person I sent work to doesn’t feel shafted (sorry Pam if my work is strange!). All in all, this group started by Shannon has been a wonderful new community of artists that I am very thankful to be a part of. Happy New Year Everyone!

apples in the snow

each of these is on a 12x12" canvas board. the picture was taken last weekend on the edge of our property.

birds of sorrow

again, this diptych is 2x 16x16" canvas boards together. image transfer, encaustics and player piano music were used.

the player piano music will appear in my january installation to represent the flight path of the honeybee.

drop this ticket

this is a larger collage of canvas board, but I couldn't get a good photo..wanted to show the use of player piano music.

postcard ideas

let me know what you think...also, I can take away the flare glowing dot!

light box updates

this is the angel statue with a honeybee on her head. I was going to use her as a mold for the guardians of the hives, but it didn't work out. She appears in the installation in this form instead.

door painting behind and clovers/daisies in front.

pictograph box and close-up

new views. I added photos on transparency to the front and back of each light box. The photographs were taken while boxes were sitting on a windowsill. I plan to put flourescent or LED lights on the back for the gallery.

perfect flight

12x12 " made from an old worn out pillow case that Bonnie got me and various other things.!

music box....

bought this roll from a player piano at the antique store....I think it is going to find itself into the installation somehow..."music box"...I have the perfect box to house it in and maybe string into the air??? Not sure...not sure why...the hive...

shoe bee

i am having my high school students do the "shoe into sculpture" project. Here is my example. I am making 2 so I can show one with their work in January and one with my show in January at the Vertin! Still in progress......

light boxes and scrolls

I made these 10 years ago in Minneapolis and never used them in my installation, but now may be the time...maybe possibly perhaps...

struggling with the light boxes...suggestions????

in progress: majorly! light boxes are from hive boxes: 19"x16", and the big scrolls are 3x3'

running man blue and red, grieve

running man 1 is 4x4", running man 2 and mary grieve are on 6x6". The vials will hang down the wall when the pieces are hung.

celebration and marriage

marriage

the first 2 are 8x8" and the marriage one is 16x16". the images from the first 2 were found at my grandpa's house...not sure who they are yet!

more buttons

these 2 are 4x4" and on deep cradle board.

buttons

why buttons? Not sure, but here you go. I experimented with layering oil paints and wax, and then hitting with the heat gun. the following are all 6x6" deep canvas board.

Machado Triptych

The Antonio Machado poem: Last Night As I Was Sleeping inspired these pieces:

the adapted poem is as follows:

Last night I dreamt that I had a beehive here inside my heart

and the golden bees were making white combs and sweet honey from my old failures.

Last night I dreamt that a fiery sun was giving light inside my heart.

sun because it gave light and brought tears to my eyes.

The true poem is longer, but these were the parts that I chose to depict in the triptych.

wintering: into the hive

winter is for women momento bottle and honey bottles will be part of the installation.

It has been a long time coming! Today I tried to document some of my recent works for this show. It is going to be more installation oriented, as the space lends itself to that. Here is the where the title comes from and some of the ideas for the pieces. Feedback is appreciated!

Wintering
Sylvia Plath
This is the easy time, there is nothing doing.
I have whirled the midwife's extractor,
I have my honey,
Six jars of it,
Six cat's eyes in the wine cellar,

Wintering in a dark without window
At the heart of the house
Next to the last tenant's rancid jam
and the bottles of empty glitters ----
Sir So-and-so's gin.

This is the room I have never been in
This is the room I could never breathe in.
The black bunched in there like a bat,
No light
But the torch and its faint

Chinese yellow on appalling objects ----
Black asininity. Decay.
Possession.
It is they who own me.
Neither cruel nor indifferent,

Only ignorant.
This is the time of hanging on for the bees--the bees
So slow I hardly know them,
Filing like soldiers
To the syrup tin

To make up for the honey I've taken.
Tate and Lyle keeps them going,
The refined snow.
It is Tate and Lyle they live on, instead of flowers.
They take it. The cold sets in.

Now they ball in a mass,
Black
Mind against all that white.
The smile of the snow is white.
It spreads itself out, a mile-long body of Meissen,

Into which, on warm days,
They can only carry their dead.
The bees are all women,
Maids and the long royal lady.
They have got rid of the men,

The blunt, clumsy stumblers, the boors.
Winter is for women ----
The woman, still at her knitting,
At the cradle of Spanish walnut,
Her body a bulb in the cold and too dumb to think.

Will the hive survive, will the gladiolas
Succeed in banking their fires
To enter another year?
What will they taste of, the Christmas roses?
The bees are flying. They taste the spring.

new developments

small vial with words hanging off of her "skirt"




tape/cellophane and shellac figure with LED light at the base!