…a couple more small paintings from the same series. I have so many fireflies in my yard that it’s magical out there during the evenings. Will have to try to get pics.

Both are 9″x12″, available either here (my EShop) or in my Etsy and 1000 Markets shops.

Fireflies

Orange Crush

New small paintings from the last couple of weeks. I made the panels myself by cutting up masonite and attaching the canvas. I much prefer this type of panel over the versions I’d been using, simply because they’re a little more rigid and sturdy.

These all derive from a much larger painting that was scarred beyond repair, from my relocations for jobs, back and forth across the country. I find it liberating to paint over the original work, and the previous color and composition inform much of the new paintings. 

All are 9″x12″, available either here (my EShop) or in my Etsy and 1000 Markets shops.

Deep Blue

These are the Days

June

Summer

Two pop icons died today. One updated Astaire’s (and Kelly’s) moves, followed PT Barnum’s model for showbiz and blazed through the ’70’s and 80’s. The other was known for her hair more than her acting. I listened to part of a newscast about Michael Jackson and while the claim was that he broke the racial barrier in music in modern times, that’s a bit overstated. Ray Charles refused to play to segregated audiences in the 1950’s in Augusta, GA and was sued by the promoter. 

“I told the promoter that I didn’t mind segregation, except that he had it backwards. . . After all, I was black and it only made sense to have the black folk close to me. . . Let him sue. I wasn’t going to play. And I didn’t. And he sued. And I lost.” 

courtesy minorjive.

…in Jackson’s honor I give you Mr. A in ‘Say it With Firecrackers’. 

youtube disabled the embedded video- watch it here.

Sharon Butler’s Two Coats of Paint is a blog I follow and she always has interesting posts. Today in a guest blog post on Art21 she wrote about Mel Bochner’s new book, ‘Solar System and Rest Rooms: Writings and Interviews, 1965-2007′. Out of work as a young artist in 1965, he was paid $2.50 per review by Arts Magazine for about $30 each month, earning his rent at the time.

An excerpt from the book:

Competency, craftsmanship, and professionalism lend these large painting-constructions a certain interest. Into shallow spaces constructed behind a heavily surfaced canvas, small wooden abstract shapes are placed in the manner of meticulous Nevelson. The keyed-down color, non-referential shapes, and small esoteric numerals and arrows do not quite achieve an intended aura of mystery. If Bonevardi aspires to enigma, his all-too-familiar international vocabulary is incapable of expressing it.

Butler goes on to say that Bonevardi did well despite Bochner’s review and his work resides in collections at MOMA and the Guggenheim.

Blogging for the mortgage payment isn’t a bad idea.

It’s not always evident to the home gardener how much time goes into actual picking. Life is dictated by weather and gathering the fruits of one’s labor - which becomes just more laborious. I’ve been out almost daily to pick strawberries since late May. Over the past week it’s been so wet that I missed a few days and the berries are now rotting.

After making about 14 pints of jam and freezing 8 quarts, I’m not that unhappy to be at the end of the season. This morning was spent picking, cutting up berries that were spoiling in the fridge, freezing another quart and thinking about one last batch of jam. I’ve also been eating the berries about three times a day. Is it possible to get too many antioxidants? Apparently not from strawberries.

I spent a few hours on Saturday visiting a neighbor gardener’s organic raised beds on 1/2 Acre. Liz Alakszay is an adjunct professor at Keller School of Management, an instructor of sustainable small scale backyard food production at West Chester Night School and a grower of custom heirloom and open pollinated vegetable and herb transplants. I took a container class from her, offered by my township a month or so ago and discovered how much healthier plants are after 2-3 transplants and not just the one time I was accustomed to doing. She has the neatest raised beds I’ve ever seen. Her broccoli was hidden safely under Reemay, her peas were prolific and her potatoes were already twice the size of my own plants. It ain’t fair I tell ya.

raised bed overview.

herbs along the back wall of her house.

On Sunday I had a SAITA tractor maintenance all day workshop with Shane LaBrake at Charlestown Farm. Shane is an agricultural consultant and explained the inner workings of tractor engines. I’m at a loss to explain the details but you can find the workshop notes here. You’ll need to scroll down to my June 16 post.

After hearing Shane talk about safety in the field and all the precautions needed before heading out on the old John Deere, I realized how lucky I’ve been. My early twenties were spent haying a 300 Acre farm in Nova Scotia and I was driving an old 1940’s tractor with no seat belt or anything else that could be considered a safety measure. We used a hay rake, a baler and a cutter. There was a scary bunny maiming brush cutter that I wasn’t allowed on, being the only girl of the crew. While we knew back then about unfortunate farm accidents, I can’t say that we were ever as careful as I would be now.

Then my task was to finish up gluing the front of homemade canvas panels that I began yesterday. I have a couple of huge paintings from years ago that have been so scarred and scuffed in my travels back and forth across the country that they’re damaged beyond repainting them. So I decided to cut the largest at about 5.5′ x 8′ into more manageable pieces to be backed with masonite. Some painters consider 30″x40″ to be huge, but for me the 90’s were all about exploring size and space in two dimensions. I love painting that large, but it takes months to finish a piece and they certainly don’t travel well. It’s amazing to think that Morris Louis did most of his own giant works in a small 12′x12′ dining room, unfurling them to paint and then re-rolling them for storage.

I now have 4 panels drying under heavy art books. There are many ways to do it, but the main thing is to remember that the canvas should be removeable at some point for conservation purposes, so you don’t want to use permanent glue. Here are some pics I grabbed from other sites that show the process. And a couple of links, at My French Easel and Deb Schmit, a Montana artist, sent me her own process. She uses plywood and a table saw. I had to get the guy at Home Depot to cut up the masonite for me. 

Tomorrow I’ll test them out and the fun will begin.

June has been rainy and cool here in southeastern PA, and the peonies are sadly gone, although I have about 4 new paintings of them. My antique roses are now in full bloom and I’m still picking strawberries on a daily basis. The corn is 8″ high and my transplanted tomatoes are looking healthy and sturdy, thanks to the daily dosing of fish emulsion when they were babies. I hear heavy raindrops beginning again.

For some great tips on working with beneficial creatures and attracting them to your garden, see my notes on Maysie’s blog from our Mike McGrath seminar this week at Camphill Kimberton. He agreed that my swath of meadow is great for birds and bees so I’ve kept a part of it in the backyard. I notice more and more birds in my yard each spring, so I must be doing something right!

I don’t usually paint flowers, but was once more inspired by the blowsy, seductive peonies in early spring. All of the following paintings can be found both at 1000 Markets and my Etsy shop, except for the one immediately below, which has sold. I’m currently featured on two blogs for my YART sale promotion on Etsy, running through this weekend. The Seasonal Cottage has a nice feature up, and RavenX has been promoting Etsians since the sale began this past thursday.

slightly more representational…

I keep channeling Soutine.

my salad greens…no reason to go the farmers market anymore except for cheese and mushrooms.

It’s strawberry season and the 50 plants have taken over two of my garden plots. That’s about 10′ x 30′ total. The asparagus and blueberries are competing for space and I’m too lazy to weed. So I go in there like an explorer, looking for hidden red berries under all the brush. Even the big black crows haven’t yet found them. The ticks landed on me just once so far. 

I have two types, one that fruits early and another everbearing that fruits later. Despite all the weeds, the plants are amazingly prolific and are huge in this, their third year. There is no comparison to store bought berries, or even other farmer’s berries. Mine are superb. Even with my still depleted palate- from last year’s ZPak for a flu that turned into pneumonia. Antiobiotics can keep you alive, but is it worth it with half your taste buds and sense of smell gone?

This morning was strawberry scones, this afternoon will be jam. The fridge is full of ripe berries waiting for processing of some kind. I have 3 paintings to finish but the garden could be another full time duty. 

In rummaging through my old sketchpads, I found these yellowing drawings and figured I’d better get them at least salvaged to digital memory before they completely decompose. Memories. I doubt I can draw this well anymore; it’s all about practice. I’m selling some in my shop on Etsy. They’d be better preserved through framing.

Bill B. with Ra, the cat - circa 1984.

Most of these were created in Marc Chatov’s studio in Atlanta during the early 1980’s. Smokey was a model who was relatively transient, but Marc brought him in off the street to pose for us. He was excellent at holding a steady pose and I have several other drawings of him.

I’m discovering quite a few gallery exhibiting artists with BFA’s and residencies in their background turning to Etsy or other online retail art sites like the more upscale 1000 Markets. These artists may still be in the gallery and museum system, but for smaller works they’re using online retailers and can often supplement their ’straight’ income through these means. You’re probably all familiar with the Daily Painters or Painting a Day sites, but most are traditional representational painters who rarely vary their subject matter.

I met Victoria Veedall on Etsy, where I’m selling smaller works as well. I was searching out painters to put in a Treasury; a promotional tool that members can use to showcase their ‘favorites’.

Victoria’s work caught my eye with its subtle references to Turner, vivid and almost technicolor palette, and loose interpretation of landscape. She has a BFA in painting, trained at the private L’Ecole Albert Defois in France and went to grad school at NYU. She’s been an artist in residence twice at the Vermont Studio Center, in 2001 and 2008, a 2004 Kamiyama Artist in Residence at Tokushima Prefecture in Japan and in 2002 she was in residence at the Chitraniketan Residency in Kerala, India. Our interview was conducted via email.

fd You seem to create series of works; is this typically the way in which you work? I also noticed that many of your paintings are quite small. Do you have a preference for size or does it influence how you work?

VV I enjoy working in a variety of sizes from 4 x 5 inches to 48” x 60 inches.  You can see some of the large paintings on my website. Going from big to small and back and forth between sizes keeps me challenged.  Typically the smaller paintings are made first as a sort of “note” about a place or idea/feeling and then I re-work them into larger paintings.  I like to modify  an idea over and over - in different sizes and color relationships each one seeks to evoke a different feeling.

Temple Walk    2007 oil on canvas, 38 x 40 inches

fd Can you discuss your current work and thought processes. What is the context of your work, and your ideologies as a painter? 

VV As I begin a new series, I look through my photos and/or small paintings to pick images that interest me. Some images I will manipulate in Photoshop changing the colors or using filters. I like experimenting with Photoshop. I use the photos as a source of inspiration, not to copy directly.  When I am ready to start painting I begin with a loose under-painting and build up the surface through successive layering and glazing.  I react to subsequent layers until an image emerges.  I never know exactly what the painting will look like in the end. My preferred medium is oil on canvas, wood panel or paper.  I work with brushes and palette knives.  I like to think that I am creating abstractions of the landscape that transcend the traditional sense of landscape painting. By dissolving the landscape, leaving only what I consider to be the essence of nature, it becomes more alluring.  I continually examine the effects of light and form in the natural world.

fd Your work reminds me a little of Childe Hassam, mixed up with Turner, Albert Pinkham Ryder and Wolf Kahn. Who are some of your influences? 

VV My work is often compared to Turner.  I wasn’t really interested in Turner until so many people mentioned the similarities that I thought I should take a look.  I guess Turner was always in the background after having studied him in art history.  I think Wolf Kahn is a master with his use color.

First Light   2009 oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches 

Days End   2008 oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches 

fd Do you work spontaneously or is there a set time that you devote to the paintings on a daily/weekly basis?

VV I believe in having set studio hours.  I think of painting as a full time job.  My studio hours are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10-4.  I, also, spend a fare amount of time on marketing and promotion of my work.  I have to have goals to work towards. 

fd How do you stay current, or is that important to you. Do you visit galleries and museums on a regular basis, or travel to view art and cultural events?

VV I do go to as many exhibitions as possible in San Francisco at museums and galleries.  I also look at art when on vacation or when visiting relatives in Houston, my hometown, or New York City with my in-laws.   I subscribe to several art magazines: ArtNews, Art Week, Art in America. 

fd Some artists suggest that the studio is too private for them, that they require a social forum for their work. Does networking with other artists and developing community have much bearing on your life as an artist and if so, how does it inform your work and process? 

VV I actually prefer to spend all of my time in the studio.  However, I do think it is important to be a part of a community and I am in a couple of artist groups.  One is a critique group for woman artists and the other is a drawing group where we give ourselves assignments to complete each month and then talk about them at monthly meetings.  In both groups we share different opportunities, etc. I do enjoy the camaraderie of other artists.

fd You have a BFA, have been artist in residence at the esteemed Vermont Studio Center and have exhibited widely around the world. Yet you choose to sell your work at Etsy, the online ‘handmade’ shopping retailer. Can you explain what led you to the site and how you promote your work? Have online sales been successful or do you sell better in galleries?

VV A friend of mine suggested I try Etsy.  She had been a member for a year and had some sales.  After doing a lot of research on Etsy and looking at countless shops, I decided to showcase my smaller works.  I thought they would be more in line price wise with other artists.  I sold well the first week and then it dropped off.  I think it takes quite a bit of work like relisting and adding new pieces continuously.   So far galleries and art consultants have been better for sales for me.  However, I have not been with Etsy very long so I will definitely give it time and try to make it a success.

PR Perspective   2009 oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches

fd What are some of your long term goals for your painting career?

VV Gosh I have so many!  Here are just a few:

First I would like to have a larger studio with great light.  Second I would love to be exhibiting and selling so much that I would need an assistant to help out with office work and marketing.  Third, would be an artist in residence at Yaddo.

Yellow Dawn   2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches 

Victoria Veedall’s work can be found on her own website and at her Etsy shop, below:

www.veedell.com 

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6554047

My gardens are fruity- the apple trees still have tiny apples that haven’t yet been decimated by worms or copper rust, the strawberry beds are producing faster than I can pick them. And I’ve been eating asparagus every week since April. The bunnies ate the tops off all of the snowpeas, but left me one plant. So much for the eco-friendly gardener. I’m almost ready for a Hunter Thompson showdown.

I’m also working on a couple of peony paintings…

The following paintings were begun while I was in Italy at a residency in 2007. After a year or so of not being content with the first piece, I finally finished it last week. The second work is a view from the same locale and I had photos and sketches that I used as reference.

 I drove with the resident artist to a spot just outside the medieval town of Montecastello, to paint this seemingly abandoned house in an olive grove with mountains in the distance. The weather that day in early September was quickly changing, winds came up and a storm threatened to blow down my plein-air easel. But I kept going. 

These are both available in my EShop here.

Umbrian House, oil on wood panel 14.5″x18″ 2007-09

Umbrian House on the Hill, oil on canvas board 12″x16″ 2009

original painting on site-

and the real thing-

This is the second in a monthly series of artist interviews.

I met the artist Tom Zarrilli during my early years in Atlanta. I knew him from openings at alternative galleries and music clubs like 688 and TV Dinners, where he was the manager. These are now defunct, but at the time were as ubiquitous in Atlanta as bands like the Hampton Grease Band, Thermos Greenwood, and Darryl Rhoades’ satirical HahaVishnu Orchestra. I exhibited in 1985 at Clark Brown’s Blue Rat Gallery, where Tom’s current wife, Cindy (Varnes) Zarrilli, was involved at the time. 

His recent exhibits have included a large installation, ‘A Year in the Yards of Clutter and the Driveways of Divestment’ at Atlanta’s Contemporary Arts Center, and his four state inventory of Makeshift Memorials.

I reconnected with Tom via Facebook and asked him about his work.

A Year in the Yards of Clutter, installation - Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center 2006 

fd: Tom, I met you back in the early 1980’s through mutual friends; artists and musicians involved in Atlanta’s video and club scene. You were road manager for the group ‘Now Explosion’ and a manager at TV Dinners, a downtown club that featured mounted wall monitors playing looped experimental art videos. Can you tell us about your early background and how you got involved in both photography and yard sale or ‘found’ art. 

TZ When I was growing up in the Canal Zone, I began my interest in photography shooting whatever seemed fascinating to me.  I used a Ziess Ikon my father had purchased on the black market in post war Germany. I found out early if you shoot a lot and on a regular basis you’ll come up with some great images.  

Some of my childhood pictures made their way into an installation I did last year entitled “I Still Dream of the Canal Zone”.  In college, I took art history courses as well as drawing classes, but never considered myself talented enough to pursue a degree in the arts. I really never met any real working artists until I was an adult.  I did little photography as a young adult, thinking this was better done by people with better gear and training.  But I did fall in with a bohemian art crowd in the 70’s. 

Teens with Booze, from ‘I Still Dream of the Canal Zone’ 2008.

Mother reads Paper, from ‘I Still Dream of the Canal Zone’ 2008.

After college I did a found music show on WRFG and wrote a music column for Creative Loafing.  I started a comedy ensemble in the late 70’s that played around Atlanta for a few years.  While I had no formal background in theatre, comedy made me realize that I was an artist and that one of the most important aspects of art was entertainment.  I later became very involved with the punk/new wave music scene in Atlanta and operated and managed several nightclubs. I began billing myself as a performance artist instead of a comedian. One of my shows was called “Tom Zarrilli’s Night of Self Indulgence”.  It consisted of a monologue, some sketches and stunts like putting roaches on an overhead projector. In that era a lot of visual artists and art students were interested in music which was quite different than the previous progressive rock scene.  I realized then that ideas were just as important as talent.  My interest in photography was reborn in the late 1980’s when I bought a better camera, took courses and learned some dark room skills.  

fd: Your ‘Makeshift Memorials Series’ features memorial crosses in various parts of the country. Can you discuss the inspiration for these and how you view the series in your overall genre.

I was always intrigued by random encounters with dramatic and disturbing visuals.  I also viewed roadside memorials as a form of naïve art. People who erect them do so out of a sense of loss. They are personally created visual constructs made by people who would never normally make any sort of visual display. It’s interesting now that there are companies who create ready-made roadside memorials for those who feel their own crafts and styling is lacking.  It’s like buying a store-decorated cake instead of making one yourself. 

I also have a fear of driving and these grim reminders are very haunting to me.   When I was camping near Chimayo, while photographing many wonderfully beautiful memorials, I was visited in a dream by the deceased spirits who were honored by these memorials.  I’m not into psychic phenomenon, but it was a disturbing night with the dream accented by gunshots and incessantly barking dogs. 

Pepper Cross, from ‘Makeshift Memorials’ 2005

fd: Who are some of your influences, whether they’re painters, sculptors, musicians, poets or ‘none of the above’?  

Man Ray, Duchamp, Jeff Koons, the late Atlanta artist King Thaxton.  They all had a certain sense of humor about their work. I appreciate Joseph Cornell for his attention to detail. As for photographers, I appreciate the dedication of Margaret Bourke White and Gordon Parks to their art.  I was also influenced early on by the films of Bruce Conner and the monologues of Spalding Gray.

Drunken Gnomes, from ‘Visions of the Yards of Clutter’ 2006

The Disco Bed, from ‘Visions of the Yards of Clutter’ 2006

fd Do you work spontaneously or is there a set time that you dedicate to collecting these pieces for your series - on a daily/weekly basis? 

I work whenever I find the time. I do most of my writing and planning in the early morning.  I’m easily distracted and that’s a problem for me. I need to go on a retreat.

fd: How do you stay current, or is that important to you. Do you visit galleries and museums on a regular basis, or travel to view art and cultural events?

A good idea never gets old, but I am always looking for new techniques and presentation methods. I do visit museums and galleries on a regular basis but I also have a love of historical buildings, miracle sites and roadside attractions. 

Octo Mater, 2009

Requests for Intercession - Mendoza, Argentina 2005

fd: Some artists suggest that the studio is too private for them, that they require a social forum for their work. Does networking with other artists and developing community have much bearing on your life as an artist and if so, how does it inform your work and process?

 I’m a very social person. Social networking sites and listservs are an important adjunct to my social life. At first I found my involvement and others’ involvement in them to be on the shallow side since there is no face to face contact.  The Artnews listserv in Atlanta is a great vehicle for finding solutions to issues other artists and myself may be having with technique and presentation. It’s also a barometer of how some local artists feel about the current art scene and the politics and economics that surround it.

fd: Exhibiting online or in galleries - I know that you have a few websites devoted to showing your work, including a blog on yard sales. Can you talk about where you’re currently exhibiting and whether a traditional gallery model fits (or not) with your work?

Initially I saw it as the same difference between a live music club and hearing music on the radio. The latter was a good medium for finding out about music, but lacked depth and the experience of being exposed to live music as an audience member. 

Websites and online galleries are a great and inexpensive way to showcase your work, but lack the experience of seeing the work first hand and full size. This is especially true with large 3D pieces.

There is no way a tactile and interactive installation can be replicated in an online gallery.  It’s the difference between going on a carnival ride and watching a film of one. But it would be challenging to try to replicate this experience. Managing the websites I have is time consuming, and sometimes does not convey the full effects of what I do - but it is the best tool for promotion, especially since print media is dying so fast.

fd: Any immediate plans for exhibits and/or the next series of work?

 At present I have a major outdoor installation planned for the fall at Agnes Scott College. I tentatively have a solo show scheduled at an arts center in Atlanta in 2010 that I hope to have new photography in, which will be perhaps a variation of the yard sale series. I am also revisiting the Makeshift Memorials series with some new images that I hope to have published in an online academic journal. I would love to do a photographic series on miracle sites, if I can afford the extensive travel required…there are not a lot of miracles happening in Georgia.

Spectacles for Tourists 2009 - from ‘All Small Redux‘ at Agnes Scott College’s Dalton Gallery.

Visit Tom’s Yardsale Addict blog, and the Tomzarts site. See his youtube page for more videos, including archival footage of a young RuPaul and members of the band Now Explosion.

Promenade - Pictures at a Yard Sale. 

Special thanks to Phil Elie for posting the Ginsberg clips on youtube. You can view his own charmingly surreal videos here.

My Historic Commission (West Whiteland township) hosted a regional meeting last night for the Chester County Historic Preservation Network (CCHPN) to meet other members of historic districts in our region, and discuss tactics for preservation. 

Highlights - the 1840 former manor house that once hosted fox hunts, was the historic residence of our host, refreshments included local artisan cheeses and wines. For your viewing pleasure, clips of Shellbark Hollow Farm’s goats. This farm produces fresh chevre from their Nubian goat herd and is right in West Chester. Pete Demchur was wise enough to have bought the land 25 years ago and his sister Donna helps manage the retail side of the business. Excellent cheeses, adorable goats.