gold horizon

Everything I’ve ever made has lead me to this. Which…sounds way more dramatic than I mean. Even the first line I made as a child informed my brain for the next line. And…here we are.

Gold Horizon. 9x11. Monotype.

Gold Horizon. 9x11. Monotype.

xo, .m.

Three Landscapes

I got a square gelli plate, which is less messy than the square stencil that I was using on the larger plate. But, I kind of liked those really wacky edges that I got with that method…see…experimenting is good.

I also got a pile of beautiful Akua inks in all the colors I could need to make all the colors. So, of course, when I went to play with them I only used the graphite and the gold inks. True to form.

I’m still figuring out how to register the paper evenly with the gelli plates, everyone is a little wonky and off center.

Play. Monotype. 7x7 inches.

Play. Monotype. 7x7 inches.

Barn Light II. Monotype. 7x7 inches.

Barn Light II. Monotype. 7x7 inches.

Greylock. Monotype. 7x7 inches.

Greylock. Monotype. 7x7 inches.

xoxo, m.

mystery 4!

another mystery! secret source series! where are they coming from!?

mystery 4. monotype. 9x11 inches.

mystery 4. monotype. 9x11 inches.

also. i fully recognize that these are sooooo vague and that it could be YEARS before anyone figures it out. but that’s okay. i’ve got years worth of reference material!

xo.

.m.

Snow Field

Snow and cold are on their way!

Snow Field. Monotype. 8x10inches.

Snow Field. Monotype. 8x10inches.

This monotype is listed at a low auction price because I didn’t clean the edges of the plate very well….

mysteries

I started a new little series from a secret source. If you can guess where the images are coming from I’ll send you a print of your choice!

Mystery 1. Monotype. 8x10 inches.

Mystery 1. Monotype. 8x10 inches.

Mystery 2. Monotype. 8x10 inches.

Mystery 2. Monotype. 8x10 inches.

I built a desk (and some spreadsheets!)

I got a new job! Where I work from home! I wake up at 3:00am thinking about spreadsheets! And since my studio is also my office, I thought it would be a kind gesture to myself to try to create some (mental) space between Thing One and Thing Two.

Currently, my computer desk is pretty central to my studio and hogging all the best northern light. I thought that having the computer against the windows would make it nice to look out on the fields. However, it turns out when you’re working at a screen, you’re mostly looking at a screen.

IMG_4422.jpg

Zee has been trying to convince me to move my studio around for a while. He’s good at visualizing space. I am surprisingly bad at it. When he suggested building a desk against walls and in a corner I thought it was the worst idea I’d ever heard. Claustrophobia-central. But I gave it a chance and I spent a lot of time standing and facing a hideous wire rack trying to envision standing there for hours at a time.

The corner before. Let’s not discuss the ceiling situation, please.

The corner before. Let’s not discuss the ceiling situation, please.

Eventually, I started to see what he meant…

I emptied the corner,

I emptied the corner,

built the frame…and did a bunch of other stuff that I didn’t photograph…

built the frame…and did a bunch of other stuff that I didn’t photograph…

and voila!

and voila!

(badass)

(badass)

Zee helped me design it and gave me tips along the way. Aside from things that involved the table saw (which I’m rightfully terrified of) I did it all by myself! I don’t think I’ve ever been this proud of myself…

I can’t move in for another couple of weeks. I don’t want to risk things sticking to the paint (nothing like paint all stuck to the bottom of your electronics.)

I think the rest of studio is going to go through a hefty switcheroo once I get the feel of that corner. I’ll give you a full studio tour once that’s that. :)

xo,

.m.

Wild Geese

In my hunt for the perfect light for the large painting I’ve been doing I kept finding myself in the neighboring corn field at all hours of the day. One morning I went out before the sun crested over the trees in our little valley. After standing in the predawn light for a half an hour and finally realizing that the sun rose behind what I was trying to have lit and that it didn’t even reach that spot until…oh…let’s say noon… I headed back across the fields. Just then a flock of geese came flying up the field, the point of their v headed straight for me. When they saw me they turned, circled, and came back again. I was standing in their spot. They barked and honked at me as they passed over me multiple times and then finally decided to move on over the hills.

Wild Geese. 5x7 inches. Oil on paper.

Wild Geese. 5x7 inches. Oil on paper.

WILD GEESE

by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Change is constant

Hello! Still here!
I’ve been working non-stop on a very large commissioned painting. I finished it last week, however I can’t quite share it with you juuuuuuust yet. Soon :)

Good news is that I’ll be back doing regular posts. For today here’s a super fan-mail painting I did of my creative hero, Simone Giertz’s dog Scraps.

Scraps, oil on panel, 5x7 inches.

Scraps, oil on panel, 5x7 inches.

Hope you’re all well. love, m.

At Sea

I got my new “Gelli” plate for printing. I’ve been experimenting like crazy and getting a little crazy from frustration. The learning curve to loosening up enough has been surprisingly hard! The Gelli plate is not great for making fine lines and the ink isn’t great for making washes. Those two things are more than half of my normal mark-making tool-kit. Sometimes it’s good to be forced into a sort of corner. More on the way soon.

At Sea. 8.5x11. Monotype.

At Sea. 8.5x11. Monotype.

Barn Light, Dawn

When I let the dogs out this morning it was still dark. Little toenail moon in the sky. And down in the valley the barn lights were on and the door was open. A tiny orange spot in the mist.

Barn Light, Dawn. 6x8 in. Oil on paper.

Barn Light, Dawn. 6x8 in. Oil on paper.

Experiments. Unlearning.

Yesterday was a day of trials and errors (and successes) and a complete unlearning of the way printmaking is done in a shop with a press. I did not buy a $250 rolling pin. I did buy something called a Gelli plate. We’ll see how that goes. These are in order of being made. It’s almost like I forgot something between the flowers and the birds….then I found it again.