Current Projects

September 30 Atlas series progress

After the long winding up and down for the out of town exhibition in Santa Monica I am tired, exhausted actually, but in the end a wonderful experience to have been invited to this totally new community. It was the stretch that I needed to really open my eyes to new possibilities, paths I want to follow and paths I would say no to, all of which welcome knowledge that I am excited to have and share. Eagerly I look into the fall here in Michigan, the changing of seasons, the hustle of the last of the warmth and golden sun on gleaming leaves. I look forward to continuing with the 'Atlas' series, and the focus on temperamental landscapes built on organic patterns.

September 7 - Lava & Swim

A preview of the works that will be available at The Other Art Fair in Santa Monica the 21st through the 24th of September. The series evokes my love of organic patterning, and has been a practice in really getting acquainted with composition. I have been finding a joy in really needling into this area, for me it really needs so much fiddling and thought. I want to be gestural and quick, passionate , but in the end, like much of what we care about, there is so much more that must go into the process. As always, we learn, and we learn there is more to be learned. Peace :)

Each work is a layered ink terrain, creating a depth of texture manipulated through with water pressure, scraping, washing, and drawing. On top of this are layers of heavy gouache, opaque forms creating vibrant hot patterns on top of the dark ink terrain.

July 23 - Exhibitions and new Patreon page

I am beginning a new stretch, I have been lucky enough to have been accepted into a number of exhibits this and next season, as well as a master abstraction residency at MassMoCa in the fall of 2024, but before embarking on these projects I am focusing on renewing my work towards the use of raw pigments, and utilizing materials that I have more control of, with less processing, and less waste. For those of you who are interested in supporting these endeavors, I encourage you to check out my Patreon site. This is a new effort, and I hope to be able to offer something to those of you that are far away, as well as give you deeper insight into my process. I will still be updating the site here - but more so with finished works, and updates on exhibits. I want to be able to share my work with a wider audience, and develop closer ties to followers and those of you that have supported me in the past. Creating is what I do best, and I hope to continue to reach and learn and share with all of you - peace.

July 2nd Ongoing projects

Summer has only just begun, and I am in the gardens for work, so my hands these days are mostly covered in dirt, petals and roots rather than my lovely paints and papers. Amidst these moments I am finding space to work on these projects that have become the heartbeat of my work, the Swim series, the Atlas series, and the abstracted landscapes.

April 9th

There are few colors that I find myself being enamored with, and one is this blue. It is, swimming in a lake in Michigan on one of those clear hot days, when the sky is vastly open and the water is sheet flat, just listening to the muffled sounds on the beach as you float.
Since mixing up this pigment I have been fixated on the contrast of it over the textured bases. Here are a few, getting ready for frames.

March 26

Spring is on its way, the air has begun to change and we can sense we are coming out of our winter huddle. The past month has been spent working on texture bases, moving from cold press rough bumpy paper to hot press which affords me more room for detail on the smooth paper. The textures built on this paper are so different, and I have been working more with scoring and creating subtleties through linework. It is a satisfying transition, and of course, the never-ending hoops, loops, orbs and egg forms that overwhelm my work. I've been mulling over why this shape is so reoccurring. Looking back on older work with the figurines, it begins to take form on appendages, little orbs of energy, or parts of self. They appear as connectors to the places outside of our body, a feeling of us, somewhere over there, which I try to evoke in the figurative pieces - that sense of self that spills out and feels uncontainable, like the convergence of wild and built habitats, there is always that place in-between that was never intentional, but exists.

March 1

The sunlight in the studio today felt like a spring. I dove into some hot red pigment, I think in part out of a desire to make some big marks. Having been pretty busy the last couple weeks, I fell out of my regimen. So we have red, to reclaim my hopes of a steady pace, to aid rising from the doldrums of a cloudy late winter. I am thankful for the pile of bases I worked on while in the old studio, I'm finding ways to build on them with structures and forms that overlay the soft ink patterns.

February 12

Final photos of the Atlas series, encompassing primarily ink terrains, with gouache detail.

February 5

Atlas 2. Using the bases from the snowfall project, this was layered with ink, alteration of the paper absorbency through scratching, and a bit of gouache. The photos that were taken bring out the intensity of the black. The ink, when layered, looks like slate with a glossy but stone like feel, ancient and timeless. In other areas the ink is warm, like velvet, a darkness you could crawl into warmly. The series is incredibly fun to work on, allowing me to play with both my environment, and a sense of delicacy with the final added details :)

February 2

It is amazing to consider how much the world around us is changing. How the cycles of the seasons have moved as the years have passed. This year I was waiting for a big storm, one of those monumental Michigan blizzards that mean snow beasts, ice forts, trapped cars, lumps of snow like pudding on the trees. I waited until just two weeks ago, and we finally had one. So on top of shoveling wet snow, I put out paper like I did last year, and let the snow fall on ink soaked sheets. A reminder of these days like photos of time, how many snows will I still get to see, how will I remember the changing of seasons...

Recently instead of drawing with brushes I have been working with mark making using different tools, pressure, scratching. Like embossing, the ink soaks into the areas where I've tortured the paper a bit, and makes this beautiful soft line. The final images are part of a series called Atlas. The piece below, 22x30in gives the impression of the shape of a place, or time. It has the sensation of wildness that comes to mind when I try to wrap my head around the movement of our lives through space, our impact, and how we are such tiny bright moment in a vast space.

I hope you are starting your year off well, resting, reading, eating good food, finding the sun when it comes out. Peace

January 5

Happy New Year!

Last year at this time I was working on a piece in this series, and I feel the spread of time between them. I have enjoyed finding works that span months, to tie these bits of life together.

My project for the winter is redoing the site to organize works, and separate these blog entries from the central pages. That is, if the time presents itself. Otherwise, I have a stack of paintings that will be slowly worked on.

I hope you stay warm and cozy this winter, and find some moments of respite.

December 8

As I hunker down for winter I have just two small events, and am finishing the year with a pile of cozy doodles and small works. I hope to see you!

Nov 22

Ink on paper, let sit, wash. Sometimes it takes the least interference to understand how materials are interacting.
Ink on paper, water
22x30in

Nov 19

It was April 4th last year and snowing heavily, it felt a gift, being my birthday and all. So I took a handful of papers and laid them out in the grass and let the snow accumulate on myself and the sheets. After a while I scattered ink on the heaps and let them sit. Lo and behold these beautiful delicate lace like patterns were beneath. They have been sitting in the old studio for months now, and having finally gotten them photographed, here they are.
'April snow'
Ink and snow on arches paper
66in x 30in

November 6
Expand and contract! A brief update:

Letting go of spaces. I had the biggish studio for two years, all pandemic time, and within that amazing space was able to create an incredible new body of work. With the winter coming, and taking some classes, I am letting go of the studio, which is fitting, it is a drive, and honestly getting in the car these days seems like a chore. I have space to work out of at home, and will be working slowly towards finding a new space in the summer, but in the mean time - it is prime cat time, tea, snuggle time, thinking time. Time to mull over projects.

Working within the pieces created over the last year I'm hoping to explore the overlay between the ink-scapes, and scientific illustration. I have had a long time fascination with waterways and ecology; much of my abstract work meanders back to this. The abstractions are rooted in a sense of timelessness, of the sense you feel when watching the swift water rush past you, or a gently eroded rock face and its centuries of history. The abstractions in some ways are an ode to the sensations of awe at the passage of time, and space, attempting to capturing the unfathomable. Scientific illustration looks at this same awe from a deeply human perspective, the desire to be able to see an organism in all its physicality. To see it as it is now, presented in a form taken from the stuff of our past, made of organisms and molecules used and reused. How can I bring these two perspectives together...

Thanks for reading, happy fall!

September 20

It has been a fulfilling couple of months, with a little time off here and there and more energy focused on pulling some of these larger pieces together. It is beginning to make sense. The more I work into these abstractions, the more they communicate with each other. Of course I can't ask for them to make sense to anyone else in the way that they make sense to me, but I hope that their composition brings out an emotional bonding. They are evolving moments capturing the overlapping of our built world and the cacophony of ever eroding and rebuilding of life.

August 4

This has been an ongoing project, well, more of an homage to our cycles of precipitation here in Michigan. They are left as is, capturing a simple moment.

The image to the left was blanketed in a heavy late spring snow, April 4th. Drops of ink rested on snow covered paper outside, and that is it, washed. The second image captures a late summer torrential downpour, August 3rd. Same method, just sumi heavily pelted by a shower of water then left to sit, and washed.

At first I thought they could be used as texture bases, but the subtleties of pattern are so unique. They are a moment truly encapsulated, a photograph of touch, pressure, texture, and the memory of the sounds and smells at that fleeting moment. Peace

July 24

The orb series of works have become a real play with energy, I come to work in the studio and want to slough off what ails, to make work that rides on what I am thinking and feeling, but also to make work that mends my thoughts together. I want to make work that feels like a good dance into something that may lead my heart to a better place. For a moment I am just giving in to the meditation of color and texture, water running over paper, the smell of the ink. Peace

May 22

A couple weeks back in a moment when my life had more free time I made a wash of this beautiful blue over a few sheets of Arches paper. I am hoping to keep them minimal, the color is so enticing to me, but keep adding these hints of movement. They are like the calm from dipping your toes in cool water -

March 21 Springtime

Spring is a time for movement, for enjoying the abrupt and explosive life that has laid in wait for the past several months. If you are here in the north, it is a time to appreciate the sun again with our longer days. I often feel at this time of year a vibrating energy, like tiny lights blinking, small but intensely beneath the skin.

March 14 Orb series

Well here is the second piece that went back to that layer of gouache that I liked so much then fell apart - in some ways happily - in the last piece. These pieces feel like play, and although they are layer upon layer of subtle ink washes and textures, they are simple and elegant. Hopefully I can continue to feeling that builds these paintings, maybe it is the spring around the corner and looking forward to sunshine and green things, gardens and fresh air. Peace

March 6th Sunlit water

Well this one went through a few iterations! I washed off the white gouache layer, which left a slight pattern and subtle texture. I finished it with a layer of Acryla gouache which is new to me - but resilient to washing which is nice since I have been doing a lot of adding and removing, it's nice to put something down and know that it's there to stay. That's all, I hope you and yours are safe in the world. Peace

February 27th Process

A lot of my joy in work has been from playing with the absorbency of paper. I use mostly water and pressure to alter the way pigment and ink interact with the paper - but sizing liquid is a gentle way of also altering this. I think I'd like to work again with making a batch of my own sizing liquid, but for now I use Holbein. Pulled from a drawer after sitting for ages. It adds a soft change to my primarily monochrome works of late. And myself - as I tend to be camera shy, working on this weeks project. Happy Sunday and I hope you catch some of that sunshine today!

February 23rd 2022 Framing day

The first of this group to go out into the world nicely framed with that beautiful deckle there to see. These embody my fascination with pattern and texture, and a reverence for the simplicity of materials. This one will be up at The Scarab Club in Detroit and the Gilda Snowden Memorial Exhibition. I encourage you to see their space, and check out a rich part of history as well. Peace

February 5 2022

Who couldn't spend a day staring at the subtleties of a boulder, or the tiny ripples of water as it meanders on its way. The slowness of things, and also - the expanse of time are revealed in these intimate moments. The longer we live, the more we marvel at this beauty, and our place amongst it all. Here are glimpses of what I am working on these days.

January 22 2022

River Rocks triptych.
Together it measures 22in by 30in - and the plan was to frame them separately which will be cleaner but I also like preserving the whole as it is. Maybe I will do a few more so I can let go of keeping this as it is. Funny though because I rarely am attached to anything I have made, and this was completed in a couple of days between work. We will see...

On another note if you're wondering if I show work anywhere I usually have a few pieces up at Gutman Gallery in Ann arbor. More on Galleries soon.

River Rocks 22x30
425.00 unframed
Ann Arbor pick up

January 15 2022

The Gardener, ink and gouache. 11 in x 15 in.

Much as I enjoy the world of painting, my heart also lies in the garden, be it the one we plant for beauty -to walk out our doors and be delighted by plants we have nurtured, plants that are passed down, plants we have grown from seed, plants we grow to eat and heal, and the gardens that were here before us.

The Gardener 275.00
Unframed
Ann Arbor pick up

January 12 2022

Happy New Year! I end 2021 finishing this big one. It has been on and off the table over the past several months as I struggled to get through the hours of little details. There is nothing like allowing yourself the freedom to create slowly. It is often difficult - as the need to constantly produce is always in the back of our minds. How do you leave that awful nagging monster behind completely, and settle into your space to make quietly something true to your heart - This is what I strive for. Peace

December 17 2021

My projects of late have been in this stage of re-understanding and re-thinking. I walked in today, unfocused and set out all of my unfinished pieces to take a look. It felt good to see how even as I let myself play without restrictions on series the work has a cohesiveness. Hoping to finish up work and move on to framing things in the next few months. It will be satisfying to see the last two years come together!

December 15 2021

The advantage to working on multiple project - being able to come into the studio and work on something that best suits the condition my body is in. Big works with lots of texture that need a large feeling to work, energy and movement like dance, a desire to play with my space, make a mess - or pattern play, where I sit rest-full and let my hand slowly fill the page with purposeful details. Being able to make these choices echos my own being, and as with most creative works the pieces slowly become a part of you and so have the projects that I work on.

This larger piece has come and gone in my space a lot in the last six or so months. I mixed up a batch of pigment that is running low and am ready to finish before I need to make more of this somewhat mystery color - getting the same pigment ratios again isn't something I look forward to doin but will if I need to...

All in all I am overjoyed that I took the leap to work on something so large - although it is taking months to finish. The figurine embodies this melding between landscape and ornate human made structure. It falls well into the scope of work I'm hoping to have together in the next few months. So here's to finishing projects, and dreaming of more - peace

December 8

I have slowly finished a few more works, and am building on these figurines, now more thoughtfully as I begin to see them in a new light. The reason for my figurative work has gone through so many transitions. I begin to see them more as personal representations, I feel myself as a builder - I can't imagine a world without my hands busily creating. It is a joy and a burden as I often begin to feel them aging, tired of years of hard labor and repetitive tasks. The figurines are often heavy, resilient images ambling through the world, as this one is - with precariously placed figments of beauty falling by the wayside. The art is for you as much as it is for me - and perhaps these images mean something else, but as I look at what I am creating I am seeing a way to embody my joy and pain and often indescribable sensations of strength and fragility into a form that is both a being and a thing.... Things to think on as the world turns a bit to chaos. I am thankful to have the resources to continue to paint. Peace

Life update and burgeoning piles of work October 14

Over the summer I was gifted a stack of 25 sheets of 22x30in. Arches cold press paper. I usually use hot press - but being my usual broke self I was happy with paper, any paper. So I ate right through it, two sheets left now, and stacks of half done experiments, things I want to go back to, things I want to never touch again, and things that I will keep as references. Below is a photo of a few of them, large and small, finished and unfinished. At some point I'll consider framing, editing down the pile of oddities that I've accumulated.

What I have learned through some of this is to be content with where I am as an artist. I'm busy with my day job, but it frees my mind to let go of work that tries to communicate something that can be put into words. It is totally freeing to build into an abstract universe, it is like digging through the darkness and grabbing hold. Initially when showing my work - which I really nervously started to do around 7 years ago - I wanted to relate everything I made to something else. It felt good to be able to point out with precision how my work looked the way it did. Very art deco, very architectural, very Frank Lloyd Wright meets Erte and then fell into a Tarot deck. And then I just kept making the same work over and over, and wasn't really aware of how stuck I was because it felt good to be good at what I was making, and to be able to explain it so easily, I had a good vocabulary for what I was doing.

At this point I am not sure what I'm making, maybe it's no good, but it feels good, It is healthier - full of play. I have a long way to go to keep learning about what it means to be making something that is true, a true part of what you are. What I have so far is - because I have often felt more at home when staring at a leaf or the ripples in the water, or the light that is bouncing off the snow on a dreadfully cold winter morning, because of that I strive to create things that represent a moment of bliss in the random coordination of objects in the universe.

So I have accumulated a pile of experiments, and will be making my way through some shows in the near future. I hope to see you there, and if not, hope that you are safe and well in whatever you are doing in these odd times. Peace

Building on textures July 26

I have taken to letting myself be in the middle of several unfinished projects. In part I have my partner to thank for convincing me to let projects sit for a while, let go of thinking of all of my work as a thing, more as process. So here is some larger work, a not quite done abstraction of a structure, that may or may not be a part of something else. Cheers! - and sorry for the poor photo

Spheres June 15

I have always been drawn to patterns that build up everyday structures, alone and untied to their original form they are beautiful, enchanting, mesmerizing. Working with ink helps me to block out the need to create tangible things, but along the way things become things, sometimes I appreciate the end, other times I wish I had maintained the mystery. Here are a few that I have put together over the past few days, partially as a break from all of the intensive botanical work. Also as the act of painting for me is sometimes so trying, this is the one area that I find effortless. The process is far more intuitive, and feels to me like dancing with shapes.

Peony Garden 2 June 6

These flowers evoke so many memories for me. When I am at work in a garden full of them I find myself distracted, they are a bit like hanging out with a new lover. I may be dramatic, but how can you not love a peony.

Watercolor and Sumi
10x14

Tree Peony May 28

This is probably the most challenging piece I've worked on in some time. Each petal took hours, and between those hours the normal life that happens when you are mostly relying on your income elsewhere. As a side note I love my work as it keeps me active and outside, but when it comes to focusing on a project and splitting up studio days it is often like seeing how far you can stretch a rubber band before it snaps and you lose a connection with what you were working on. But in the end I hope to work on more of these. In Ann Arbor we are lucky to have the Peony Gardens at the Arboretum with an abundant display of flowers every year to swoon over, and this tree peony was there - though I can't remember the name it had the most beautiful softness.

Watercolor
10x15 in.

Magnolia flowers May 3

I've been slowly adding to my palette and this has made a world of difference when working on botanicals. That and working towards limiting the palette when working on one piece. The petals here were the simpler part, what I found most difficult was the umber area, working with a pigment that lifts off the paper easily (Quincridone rust) - which can be really wonderful and also a nightmare. Luckily this is such a small piece, and I tend to work dry on top of a layer of wet washes. Still it was a good challenge and I certainly learned a lot.

Watercolor and Graphite on paper
8x8 in.

Iris reticulata April 7

I am busier and busier these days and trying to make time to grow a tiny garden in my little rented space, with a small bed in the shade and another that is essentially part of the drive way, and so rather full or gravel. I tend to pick up and go from place to place, but love making wherever I am beautiful, or at least trying. So last year I put some bulbs in and slowly the little garden grows, hopefully it will be there for someone else to add to when I leave...

Walks in the woods and the unfurling of Spring March 30

I work as a gardener and love the brilliance of ornamental gardening, but I have always been a lover of the unassuming plants and flowers I happen upon on my walks. The plant life not meant for us, not bred to be in our gardens and instead communicating with a world of life that we so often don't acknowledge. And so I have become enamored with this pungent plant this year. The last walk I took for reference photos was a warm sunny day, the ground was softer and the air was full of its musty rotting smell. There were flies in the air and the leaves were just beginning to unfurl. The small vernal pond in the area was full of frog songs and it was a delight to be surrounded by the non human beings of the woods.

Watercolor and graphite

Spring in the garden March 24

Happy Spring! It is hard to keep up with the all the tiny beauties popping up everywhere. The snowdrops seem to spring up under your toes and are so simple until you lift up their little nodding flowers and look inside. Watercolor and graphite

Skunk Cabbage and ramblings March 9

Working in watercolor and graphite - I have always been the most comfortable with drawing, and love combining my two favorite mediums. It feels natural and appropriate to have the new life of the Skunk Cabbage flowers emerging from the drawn graphite leaves of last years debris and soil.

I hope you find some out in the wild, and if you don't maybe something else will pop up in your outdoor travels. Today I went out to check on these and was surprised by the loud knocking of a Pileated woodpecker :)

Skunk Cabbage and the first flowers March 5

I have walked through the woods in late winter every year since I was young looking for skunk cabbage flowers. I remember at the house I grew up was a marsh out back, where my mom first showed me where to look. Finding these is like finding little gems, pungent ones, but so unique and such a surprise in February. The photos for these watercolor and graphite illustrations were taken at Nan Weston Preserve, and another one that I honestly always forget the name of - off some dirt road in Washtenaw County - a tiny park nestled between farm fields.

Sketchbook February 8

It seems impossible to ever know a thing - over the years I have spent a lot of time staring into flowers but am still a beginner when it comes to knowing the botanical names and parts. I am constantly in awe of the mechanics of plants. Like this Dogwood I am working on with it's true flowers these little inconspicuous clusters in the center of the bracts that I called petals for so long :)

Lily Pond Figurine Feb 3

Witch Hazel and capturing ephemeral moments Jan 28

I am slowly learning the power of painting with a piece of life in front of me - for years I mostly painted from photos, or purely as expression of patterns and figure. Only in the last few years have I been really interested in plant studies. The more I delve into this universe the more I find myself wanting to capture a gentle combination of intense detail, with a softness of simplicity. It is hard to find a balance between wishing to focus on all the tiny structures, and letting the plant have a voice of its own. At what point am I stopping the dance of the plant and turning it into a skeleton of its true self.

The Witch Hazel was a hard place to approach this, a unique plant, odd with funny leggy flowers in clumps on bare branches. It was a good challenge, and I wish my cutting was still going strong or I would give it another try - but here we are - finished and just in time as the flowers have wilted and the photos I took wouldn't do it justice as reference.

Botanicals for a New Year Jan 22

Witch Hazels, Hamamelis, the small trees that flower when you least expect them. Walking through the late fall woods in Michigan you can find the native Hamamelis virginiana with its diminutive yellow flowers. A pleasant surprise as the rest of the woods are putting themselves to rest for the winter. In gardens you can find a variety of wildly bright cultivars like this one with long boisterous legs that flare out into the cold of February like fuzzy stars. This one - I don't know what specific cultivar it is - was just buds last week, until I clipped a stem and stuck it in water to let it show off a bit early. Heres to a New Year, and hope for a brighter future for all.

Rudbeckia and Rambles Oct. 6

The daydreams of a gardener...
Gardens for Humanity. What would your ideal city garden look like? I always am craving more green space, but spaces that are architectural in some sense. Places that blend the building site and the land. It is related in some sense to a few places that I have lived, and the feeling of living in an environment that has somehow grown from the earth rather than being plunked down like legos on turf. Check out Arcosanti and you will see where I am going with this. I hope to someday see more spaces like this, for more to feel at home in.

Fall Botanicals September 30

I have three main areas that I love to work in and each satisfies a particular need as I work to create. The botanicals are my childhood dream job - I remember one summer, I was maybe 15 or 16 - thinking about college and taking a summer art class through the U of M. It was a really special opportunity, one of those things I took for granted but was also genuinely excited about. We had a life drawing course and a scientific illustration class. It was at a time where the idea of getting a job drawing or painting illustrations from life for a journal or such wasn't an illusion, computer graphics programs were still in their baby years. It is something I still dream about.

And now - sitting down to a beautiful plant and looking at all of its small details, thinking about what is it that makes this plant what it is and how to express this in a way that is sensitive to its being - I love this. When I do my other work, it is quite different from this place of creation, but grows from this initial love of sitting and looking at our natural world, reveling in it's inconceivable bounty of wonder and exquisite beauty. - Peace

Coneflower Series 5x6 In.

Summer Botanicals August 17

July 19 Water 1. 2. 3

July 16 Water One Thinking Vessel

The more I walk through this life the more I believe in a better world, living systems that are like ecosystems breathing together. I hope this is reflected in the work that I create. Our lives are small and we can feel like we are unable to make a difference, and somedays just giving someone a hug is all it takes. Peace

July 11th Thinking Vessels

July 6 Hellebore 3

I often wonder what is used in an artists' palette. I try to use single pigments when purchasing, but will premix large batches of color and use over and over for a period of time. As can be seen from my history, a palette will often stick around for a while as I work through what is attracting me to that color scheme.

The palette for hellebore sketches:

Yellow Sophie PY 93
Yellow Ochre PY 43
Quinachridone rust PO 48
Alizarin Crimson PR 206
Phthalo Blue PB 15
Ultramarine Blue PB 29
Viridian PG 18
Oxide of Chromium PG 17
Titanium White PW 6

July 2nd Hellebore sketches 2

The longer I paint with watercolor, the more I appreciate the water side of its nature, the subtle difference just a moments wait has on the flow of pigment. The more I let go and wait until the end to pull the piece together the more comfortable the pieces feel to me. I have trouble allowing this to happen, and struggle with the process of a piece being in it's phases, but am getting better at seeing through this.

In the end I think it helps that I have only a few hours to paint at the end of a day, and what counts is the joy of the moment and an appreciation for being able to make time for it.

Love

June 30 Evening Hellebore Sketches

Watercolor on Arches hot press. I bought a few 10 x12 blocks just before the stay at home order and they have been awesome. I feel less intimidated by quick sketches without the hassle of stapling paper down. It's a little lighter than the 156 lb paper I usually use but is also smoother so lends itself better to botanical works which have been keeping my spirit a little lighter these days. Peace

June 28th After a long silence

Bloodroot
Watercolor 8.5 x 14in

It seems frivolous in times like this to take a moment and update an old website that I have trouble with already, but want to share my love for this work, and in a more personal way than quick snippets on Instagram and FB.

Since the beginning of the stay at home order I was laid off and able to take the time to work on botanical works in the spring. Due to circumstances I am back to work in a landscaping job that allows me the joy of work in the fresh air and a moment in some beautiful gardens.

It is difficult in these times to be anything but grateful for work, and the sun on my skin, but am also angry with the inability to change things within our culture that have led so many of us to lives that are less than they should be.

I share my hope for a brighter future through my love of creating work that revolves around the sacred beauty of our woods and wild places, and figurines that are a reminder to be vigilant in our need to be thoughtful and compassionate beings.

Peace to all of you and your beautiful hearts

A New Year Feb 5th 2020

I am excited to be back in the flow of work, with a bit of time to spend doing what I love most. As life often does - I have been pulled this way and that in the last few months. This makes the time spent working on projects all the more meaningful. I have hopes for a show at some point this year, for the time being though, I am content to continue focusing when I can on learning more about my practice and sharing what I can. Happy belated New Year, and to those of you in Michigan - hopefully we see winter soon!

Watermedia
Searchers 1
5 by 10 inches

Works in progress September 21

I am slowly getting some work listed online! It's mostly to share what I have available at the moment - if you're interested in something and are local I can make appointments to meet at the studio space in Ypsilanti.

FYI - I am reluctant to have prints made as they are expensive to have done and to pay for the cost of prints plus time they sell for the same price as many of my small originals - which feels like a waste of resources and time to me. If you have your heart set on an older print though please please let me know! I have a stash of a few of them that I am trying to get rid of.

Etsy shop name LissePatternmaker

Solar-scapes - September 12

Somewhere between calligraphy and painting, there are moments when I'm drawing these lines with the brush where I feel I'm writing in some hidden language - a letter in a foreign language full of entangled loops and swirls...

Hollyhocks - August 28 work in progress

As I work more with limited color I enjoy the subtleties of texture, the soft patterns in the paper, and the nature of the ink as it plays with the water. When I find my way back to the lunar/solar series that I started in the spring there will be no end to the vibrant cadmium and hot color to burn your retinas - but for the moment I am just getting to know the ink, and appreciating how far I have to go to be comfortable working so minimal.

Figurines - July 15th

In the last phase of these figurines. I have learned a lot about the ink that I love working with so much while working on these, it's delicate nature suits my style well, but even less forgiving in some ways than watercolor. It is there to stay when you lay it on the paper. There is constant balance between the nervous tension of wanting the piece to be as I see it in my head, allowing the ink to be itself and beginning to trust the piece will do as it likes.

Etsy shop in slow motion opening May 27th

LissePatternmaker

I've been working towards moving out of making prints, and selling all original works. I have only the hand painted cards in my shop at the moment but keep an eye out for more of my ink works and illustrations in the future. Thanks again for all of you who have supported my work in the past and hope that you enjoy my work as I progress and create! I owe the world to the folks that have supported my life in painting.

A brief excursion into card making May 16th

Just a few of the 70 cards I made in the last week. This was a fun way to get ready for a small pop up show the week ahead. Playing with small compositions with little worry and just having fun - plus it means whoever winds up with a card in the mail gets a tiny original made with lots of love.

Each little 4 by 5.5 card is hand painted with sumi ink.

Figurine 3 Eclipse Details.... May 2nd

Sumi
Watercolor
Gouache

April 21st

There are three figurines in all - each corresponding to a different phase of the moon, this detail shows the outer edge of the halo surrounding the waning crescent moon figure.

Each at the moment is completely monochromatic. I am working entirely with Sumi Ink. The ink sticks I use are made by Boku-undo in Japan, and this one in particular I have found gives me wonderfully consistent linework. It seems to hold up best when worked at a certain richness - this could also have to do with the water, as well as the paper - Arches 156 lb.

Texture and Layers April 3rd

Work moves slow... April 2nd

Forget about time, about the world that you are part of outside of creating. I remember fragments of dreams like snippets of another life while in the timeless space of creation.

Harmonious Landscapes March 27th

Endless beginnings. There is a lot to what I think of when I'm working on these. It reminds me of one of my earliest drawing memories. Drawing the coastline of Great Britain as a kid, and getting into all the little bays and coves, and feeling like I had to understand what it felt like to be a shoreline in order to build the edge properly. Breaking waves, rocks grinding, wind, rain, the constant ebb and flow and thrashing, the coming and going of a surface that is the end and the beginning of places. I love that edge, the end and the beginning, a neverending dance.

Sumi ink with brush
Watercolor
Gouache

Moon Series February 27th

Winter Sale

A very low key studio sale out of my studio home in Ann Arbor.

Friday Feb. 22nd 2pm to 7pm

If you are interested in checking out work outside of those times please email me for more information.

Address:
The big green house with tiny apartments....
1604 Anderson Ave Apt 2
Ann Arbor MI 48104

Some of the works available - details to be added soon

Moon Phase 2 February 4

The last layer of sumi dries on the background. The other day I watched an episode of Nature ' Attenborough and The Sea Dragon' and the images of the ichthyosaur fossil stuck in my head, the fossil was just so beautiful. I love the interconnectedness of things, and I think this came out more in this moon phase. And maybe a little bit of ammonite love in here too, in the end, everything is everything.

Full Moon2
18in x 18in
Sumi ink
Gouache
Watercolor

Moon Phases January 25th

I have been mulling over a group of pieces inspired by our solar system for a while now. The first of the group is the moon, painted with sumi ink, titanium white with a bit of yellow ochre. The series is a great opportunity for me to play more with layering, texture, and pushing
to work more with abstraction, and my love of organic patterns.

Full Moon1
18in x 18in
Sumi ink
Gouache
Watercolor

Happy New Year! January 11

A self portrait in hand form. Starting off the new year as always with a pile of ideas and hoping to find time to work on most of them.

I'm changing some things, little things. No Etsy, I'm hoping to focus on selling work at local shops in and around MI, and doing a few art fairs. Keep an eye on my Instagram feed for updates as well. If you are interested in a piece email me.

I want to keep my art honest and my process simple, I want to make it easy to share what I create. I hope to keep learning, practicing, playing with my process. Happy New Year to all and with it bring you lots of love!

The Sun and planets Nov. 27th

I love building beings like you would a structure. Seeing the body as shapes and edges, places for pattern and places for smooth and rough texture. It takes the idea of the human form outside of what we need it to be. I am round and square and stable and frail and rough and smooth, full of light and dark and soft edges and hard edges like mountains and rivers, all and nothing.

Watercolor and Gouache on 156 lb hot press Arches
H. 14"
W. 8"

Finished Peonies in Light Nov. 19

The reference photos for these four were taken at Nichols Arboretum in Ann Arbor, of a tree peony 'Gauguin' - that caught my eye. The last two in the series are shown at the top - they work the best for me visually.

Spirits Nov. 12

Watercolor. Sumi imk. Gouache 6x8 inches

Process Nov. 5th

When I am working on a group of paintings I am usually engrossed in it entirely. Everything that I have worked on in the past, and the pieces that I am working on now are connected - even if they seem to be different in subject matter. It is all reaching towards being able to communicate something intangible, and the process of being able to communicate this thing that has no words means having a vibrant knowledge of my medium, and a constant desire for precision through repetition, practice and exploration. I hope to share more of my process as I get better at updating here.

Never-ending Peonies Nov. 2nd

I love the guts of flowers, I love the soft chaos of peony petals, and I love that inside each peony is a different world of dancing stamen. At some point I will find another flower to fall in love with - but for the time...

Ann Arbor West Side Art Hop

For the past four years I have been participating in the West Side Art Hop Gretchen's House venue. This year there are over 40 artists participating in the neighborhood in several houses and businesses. Eleven of them will be at 700 Mt. Vernon along with myself. Come check it out! For more information, maps and venue details go to https://westsidearthop.com/

Fall is here Oct 11th

Thinking Vessel Finished

A break from the usual Oct 8th

Taking a break from the heavier works this week and working on a few seasonal pieces that I've been wanting to get to. I love botanical painting - I didn't realize how much until I worked on some peonies a year ago and fell in love with the softness and intricacy of the work. There also is nothing like working on pieces that connect you to the seasons, and capturing the momentary beauty that is before you just now. So this week I've chosen to work on some milkweed, a favorite this time of year. I am using Watercolor, sumi and gouache on hot press Arches paper.

Thinking Vessels Oct 6th

Thinking Vessels Oct. 4th

Giclee Order September 4th

Getting ready for my only outdoor show this year I decided to go ahead and do a large order of digital reproductions. These images don't do them justice, but I couldn't help wanting to share them. I always get excited when I pick up an order, all of those long tedious hours painting reproduced so precisely. The reproductions are archival - printed using archival inks on a German etching paper that gives a softness to the image but retains the clarity necessary for the images. I ordered images that are old, and some from this year - take a look at my Etsy site if you are interested. Or come see me at the Guilds Birmingham Art Fair September 15th and 16th!

Final Waterlily triptych August 7th

Lily Pad Triptych August 4th

I have been looking for a way to convey my love of texture, light and pattern in a way that both suits the medium I work with, creates something new, and feels true to my own aesthetic. I love simplicity, maybe because it is a breath of fresh air from what our lives are really like. I also appreciate that simplicity is also complex, that is takes time to really know and feel when something is just right. There must be a better word for what I have in mind. For the time I'll stick with simplicity. I am looking for the complexity of texture that is attained through years of change, like a warmly softened stone weathered by time, simple at first and complex from its timeless journey.

The base for the lily pads is a layer of pigment going from dark to light, you can tell on the edge of the pads where tiny layers of alizarin crimson, ultramarine and oxide of chromium are just barely present. The various cadmium pigments that sit on top are opaque, and bold and very unforgiving to work with. If watercolor isn't unforgiving enough. My hope is that these layers while adding a significant visual impact will lend a subtlety to a piece that could feel flat.

The line work is done with cadmium and titanium white, and is meant to give the feeling of life to the foliage. As with all of my work I love the time spent working on painting the details. The fact that the fluidity in the lines comes from the rotation in my joints and the pattern of my breath, makes the process of painting feel like an homage to our bodies as beautiful mechanisms, full of possibility.

Water Worlds July 31st

Part of my love of watercolor is its immediacy, and the sensitivity to elements that change rapidly such as the humidity of the room, the amount of air flow, how wet the paper is, and how these elements interact with the pigment you are using. I don't tend to use a masking fluid as it messes too much with the paper, so in every instance of working a backdrop I work around the edges of the foreground. This has a benefit of creating a gorgeous edge of built up pigment, a soft and natural transition from one area to the next. The sumi stick that I used for the background on these is the only one I've used, and I love its warmth. I toned the paper with a layer of yellow ochre to give it a just a bit more. Tomorrow I will begin working on the lily pads and unopened flowers, working with layers of rich pigment like in the piece below. Using a cadmium yellow on the top to get the intense glow and texture.

Harmonious Landscapes July 21st

Magnolia Figurine June 10

Working with less - May 29

'Looking In'

The piece measures 19 x 26 inches and is on view at Traverse Higher Art Gallery until mid June.

Watercolor - Gouache - Sumi Ink

Three Women

More than a few projects are always on my mind, but I haven't mastered the ability to work on many at the same time. At the moment I have two going. The first will be three miniatures measuring 5" x 10" with a background of warm lustrous sumi ink that I have been playing with. It doesn't photograph well, hence this awful scan with a funny green tinge. In person the ink has the feel of stone, and has a slight sheen.

The second project is a piece for Traverse Higher Art Gallery, and will be part of a group show at the beginning of May. The final piece will be seen there!

Harmonious Landscapes Continued

This series will be on display at the Adrian Center for the Arts as part of a group show featuring artists from Trust Art Studios in Ann Arbor.

Show Dates - February 25th Opening Reception 3pm to 5pm
Up until the end of March. More information coming soon!