Portland Creativity

"Steel Bridge: Dusk Rain" by Julia Gardner
Resin and Mixed Media

I want to let you know about a couple of local artists who will be in the spotlight soon. Julia Gardner will be showing her brilliant fusion of photography, mixed media, and resin at Guardino Gallery.

Julia will also be giving a fascinating talk at Beppu Wiarda Gallery on March 28 called "Experiments". In addition to being a wonderful artist, Julia is also an art historian and will be talking about the intersections of art and science in conjunction with the gallery exhibit, "Proof". Here's more information on this event.

"Portland Outdoor" by Julia Gardner
This one may be my absolute favorite...

On the musical front, singer songwriters Julianna Waters and Barry Cranell will be giving a concert next Saturday evening at Artichoke Music. They just get better and better and I can't wait to hear them again. Below is the information Julianna sent me about the concert:

Julianna and Barry of Heart & Hammer

"Next Saturday, we'll be playing a rare full concert at Artichoke Music's Backgate Theater with the whole band, including the Kerry Williams on Mando, Carl Smith's percussion and Jeff Woodcock on bass. If you haven't been there before, you're in for a real treat. It's an incredible listening venue and we'd love to see you there. Barry and I have both been writing up a storm this past year and have lots of new material. If you haven't heard us before, go to our website here."
Check out this Portland find!


I'll be participating in the upcoming 10 x 10 show honoring Portland Open Studios. Come see our work at City Hall!

Portland Open Studios to be Honored at City Hall Exhibition 10 x 10 Show at Portland City Hall Featuring artwork 10” and under by 2009 Tour Artists First Thursday Opening - March 4th 5pm - 8pm
Celebrate local art on First Thursday, March 4th when Mayor Sam Adams will honor Portland Open Studios with a Proclamation and unveil the organization’s 10th Anniversary Purchase Prize gift to the City of Portland. The 10 X 10 Show (all art 10 inches or less, in all media) features artworks by over 80 artists in the 2009 Portland Open Studios tour. Event is free and open to the public. Artwork is for sale with 20% going to the Kimberly Gales Scholarship fund for young artists. Enjoy live music, refreshments, and this rare opportunity to see an array of art by Portland Open Studios’ artists under one roof, encapsulating the breadth of our local talent. Opening night refreshments provided by Storyteller Wine Co., Full Sail Brewing Co., and Artemis Foods, Inc. Musical guests: Jim Boydston, Daryl Davis, and Steve Remington of Manzanita Portland Open Studios is an annual event that supports local artists and provides an art education experience for the public when everyone can Watch Artists at Work in 100 studios in and around Portland during the 2nd & 3rd weekends in October. If you wish to RSVP, you can do so via Facebook!
Show runs March 4th - April 1st Mon - Fri 9am - 6pm
Blog	Artist profiles, information about exhibits, classes, and other events; links to other media coverage in the Portland metro area. The Portland Open Studios blog
Videos	The 2008 Portland Open Studios video The 2007 Portland Open Studios video

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I'm so excited--my studio is featured in the Spring issue of Studios Magazine. Out on the stands now!

Last Friday night I hosted our local chapter of International Encaustic Artists. Several members shared some amazing new work. I almost didn't share the piece below, because I wasn't sure I liked it. However, the other members thought it was great. Interesting how that changes one's opinion of one's work, isn't it?

"Homage to Fayum"
Encaustic/Teabags by Serena
This is inspired by the ancient Greek encaustic paintings
discovered at Fayum.

Mi Propio Canto
Acrylic on Canvas

I finished the above picture last week for a show opening at Onda Gallery on Alberta on March 25. The show will have the work of twenty women artists and is inspired by the song, "Gracias a la Vida" by Violeta Parra. This will be a powerful and interesting show inspired by a powerful song, and a powerful life. Here's some information from the National Geographic music society about Parra:

"One of the most versatile artists to emerge from Chile in the 20th century, Violeta Parra remains as one of the most unique and powerful representatives of the nueva canción movement. A visionary artist, Parra would explore a multitude of platforms for her message of peace and social justice, from music to poetry and painting.

Born to a large humble family in the Ñuble countryside of Chile, Violeta del Cármen Parra Sandoval had to work much of her young life to support the family, and preferred singing and performing to her formal studies. Parra's father taught all his children to sing and play, and from those modest beginnings, Violeta set out on a singing career as a young girl, moving to Santiago and forming a duet with her sister known as Las Hermanas Parra. Without much success early on, Violeta married and had two children (one of them well known folk singer Angel Parra), yet continued to make her career a priority, which resulted in the end of her marriage.

She embarked on a more promising performing and recording career in the 1950s, and also traveled throughout Latin America and Europe, although the political content of some of her lyrics was banned in some Latin American cities such as Buenos Aires. Her expertise in the musicological research of Chilean folk music as well as her performing brought her to Western and Eastern Europe, and her painting lead to an exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, the first invitation for any Latin American artist.

Together with her children, Violeta established several peñas (cultural centers) where the family as well as invited musicians would perform, and she also wrote several volumes of poetry. One of her most celebrated (and widely recorded) compositions is "Gracias a la Vida," a hauntingly beautiful tribute to life in the face of darkness. Yet despite her successes, Violeta's inner pain resulted in her suicide on February 5, 1967."

I have always loved this song after first hearing it recorded by Joan Baez. I didn't know about Parra's suicide until recently. It seems at odds with her song in praise of life, but I don't doubt that she loved life and lived it fully. People continue to love to sing and hear this song, and it reminds us that life is to be loved in spite of the pain living sometimes involves.

Mercedes Sosa as well as Joan Baez, helped to make this song a favorite worldwide. You can see and hear them perform it here.


Here are the words to the song in Spanish and English:

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me dio dos luceros que cuando los abro
Perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco
Y en el alto cielo su fondo estrellado
Y en las multitudes el hombre que yo amo

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado el oído que en todo su ancho
Graba noche y día grillos y canarios
Martirios, turbinas, ladridos, chubascos
Y la voz tan tierna de mi bien amado

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado el sonido y el abecedario
Con él, las palabras que pienso y declaro
Madre, amigo, hermano
Y luz alumbrando la ruta del alma del que estoy amando

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado la marcha de mis pies cansados
Con ellos anduve ciudades y charcos
Playas y desiertos, montañas y llanos
Y la casa tuya, tu calle y tu patio

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me dio el corazón que agita su marco
Cuando miro el fruto del cerebro humano
Cuando miro el bueno tan lejos del malo
Cuando miro el fondo de tus ojos claros

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado la risa y me ha dado el llanto
Así yo distingo dicha de quebranto
Los dos materiales que forman mi canto
Y el canto de ustedes que es el mismo canto
Y el canto de todos que es mi propio canto

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.

It gave me two beams of light, that when opened,
Can perfectly distinguish black from white
And in the sky above, her starry backdrop,
And from within the multitude
The one that I love.

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me an ear that, in all of its width
Records— night and day—crickets and canaries,
Hammers and turbines and bricks and storms,
And the tender voice of my beloved.

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me sound and the alphabet.
With them the words that I think and declare:
"Mother," "Friend," "Brother" and the light shining.
The route of the soul from which comes love.

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me the ability to walk with my tired feet.
With them I have traversed cities and puddles
Valleys and deserts, mountains and plains.
And your house, your street and your patio.

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me a heart, that causes my frame to shudder,
When I see the fruit of the human brain,
When I see good so far from bad,
When I see within the clarity of your eyes...

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me laughter and it gave me longing.
With them I distinguish happiness and pain—
The two materials from which my songs are formed,
And your song, as well, which is the same song.
And everyone's song, which is my own song.

My model for the painting is my wonderful daughter-in-law-to-be, Ruby, who kindly let me take a bunch of pictures of her. She posed with the crown just for fun, but I decided to leave it. I wasn't sure which line of the song I was going to use as my muse. I had trouble deciding what I wanted her to hold in the painting--I tried roses, sunflowers, and fruit, but nothing seemed right. I called Ruby to ask her what her favorite flowers are. She said her favorites are wildflowers, like Queen Anne's Lace. So that's what I used, and I love the way it came out. I wanted to dedicate this painting not only to the song, but also to my gratitude for having Ruby in our lives. I decided to call the painting after the last line, "my own song." It's my song, and also Ruby's with her own wildflowers and crown.

I really enjoyed getting back to painting. I've been doing so much mixed media, which I love to do, but have missed painting more than I realized. I want to do more paintings of family and friends and see if I can get better at capturing likenesses, or at least, essences of people.



Pictures from last week's workshop at my studio, "Journal to the Center". I had five wonderful students for this visual journal workshop.

This is how I like the work tables to look after a class!

Students prepare backgrounds and respond to prompts

Thanks Amy, Nancy, Nicole, Sam, and Jessica for a great class!

A Little Hunting and Gathering

A Lovely Day for a Picnic By the River

How I miss garage sale season. Today I found a few things at Flutter and Porch Light on Mississippi Ave. At Flutter I found a page from a photograph album showing lovely citizens of Maine disporting themselves by a river. I'd like to take a brief time travel trip and join them.

I want to be the one in the white dress and hat.

This young man below is feeling good about himself. The gold arrow thing in the right upper corner is a strange kind of photo mount.



At Porch Light they had some very small leather books with various contents. I chose one with satiric poems by W.S. Gilbert, of the famous Gilbert & Sullivan duo.

Here Gilbert describes being haunted by the
ghosts of his many social gaffes

I scanned these at high resolution so I can
use them as backgrounds, etc. Weird illustrations!

Journals on My Mind

New journal begins

The film Martha Ballard

In the PSU classs I teach, called "Women, Creativity, and Healing", we just saw the film "A Midwife's Tale" based on the real life journal of Martha Ballard, a midwife in Massachusetts and Maine in the late 1700's.

The film was made by a woman filmmaker after many years of work and shown originally on PBS. The filmmaker, Laurie Kahn-Leavitt,
based the film on the book by Laurel Ulrich, which in turn was based on Martha's diary and includes many excerpts from it. From Martha's journal we have fascinating insights into the everyday of life of a woman of her time and of Martha as an individual.

A page from Martha's journal

I highly recommend the film. It's beautifully made and researched and will draw you into Martha's life and times. If you love the film, you may want to read Ulrich's book, which gives even more information and insight. I found that two of the families in Martha's community had the surnames of my ancestors who lived in Maine and Massachusetts at that time, which adds a personal connection for me.

To me, this discovery and acessibility of Martha's journal shows how important it is that we leave something behind for our descendants and others who will be interested in how we live now. At the same time, a journal needs to be a repository for our private thoughts and feelings. One way to balance this is to keep visual journals. I'm going to be teaching a class called "Journal to the Center soon, so I've been thinking a lot about journaling and doing work in my own journals.

I started a new journal with a cover influenced by the appearance of
Martha's journal.

It turned out that this new journal was not very strongly bound. So I ended up covering the inside pages I'd done and the spine with packing tape. This strengthened the book and gave it a nice shiny surface, but clearly departed from my original vision! So it goes.

Right now it seems I'm working on two journals. One is just for fun experimentation and some personal writing, and the other is for very, very personal writing to be kept private. (But I will show the Blues Page from it.)

The journal for those deep, private, thoughts
and feelings-- not only teens need this outlet!

More experimental journal pages (cropped)

Another (cropped) spread from the experimental journal

When you have the blues, it helps to paint the blues

Waiting for jury duty, I sketched my fellow jurors
and the newscaster on TV at the time

I feel so much better when I work in my journal!


Here's the information about the upcoming journal class:

Journal to the Center

Sunday, February 7 2010 11-4:30 50. Bring a blank journal. All other supplies provided. You'll bring a blank journal to begin your artful descent to your center with visual journaling! You'll receive written and visual prompts to inspire you to begin writing and illustrating your experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Whether your subjects are profound or everyday, you will create a lavish and enticing book in which to record and honor your life.

My studio is getting published

The Spring Issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors STUDIOS Magazine

I'm excited to announce that my beloved studio will be featured in the spring issue of Studios magazine! I just found out, but will have to wait until February to see it. You can pre-order the magazine now here to make sure you get a copy. This issue is the biggest so far and should have a lot of cool ideas.

Not Just a Pretty Face

Chris begins her painting based on a Greek encaustic portrait

Today I was host to a wonderful group for my class, "Not Just a Pretty Face." The students had not created paintings of faces before and I'm so delighted to share what they did today!

We practiced using layers of acrylic paint with water and various mediums. Chris began her first painting with a green undertone to the skin. She chose a face from a Greek encaustic burial portrait. The emphasis on the class was on seeing: lights and shadows, shapes, and color, and also on feeling: who is this person, what is her/his mood?

Here's Chris much farther along on her version of the Greek woman.

A hauntingly beautiful portrait

Carrie starts a portrait after Berthe Morisot

Here's the finished portrait.
Carrie caught the subject's pensive mood perfectly

(Carrie I am likely spelling your name wrong. I think there are more spellings possible for this name than any I can think of. Carrie, Kerry, Kari, Keri, Carey, ... let me know what's correct :)

You can see in the above and the following examples how the undertone color of the face adds richness to the portrait, and shows through a bit in the shadows.

Chris' finished Greek lady.

Ruby starts her version of Manet's Olympia

Here she is, finished. Note the rich unblended brushstrokes.
This was Ruby's first painting ever!

Chris wanted to really let loose with her second piece. She used a painting knife and gel medium to build up layers on this fascinating character.

Chris' Renaissance man. He is such a character that
I kept laughing with delight whenever I looked at him!

Ruby's ethereal portrait after Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun.
She began this piece with a purple undertone.

Carrie's wonderful woman after Van Gogh.
Carrie captured Van Gogh's style really well, which
is not easy to do.

Carrie's last piece is a soulful madonna. Carrie's
brushstrokes and shading made this painting
even more interesting and lovely than the original!

Chris painted a modern take on a smiling young man
from a Renaissance portrait. She saw him as a jester,
which really came through here.


Here's Ruby's last piece in progress. It's off to a great start
and I can't wait to see it finished!

I got such a kick out of seeing the lively work this group produced, and also out of seeing how they surprised themselves by what they could do. Keep painting, ladies--you have what it takes!

Charlotte Assemblages and PSU Class

Right side of "Victorian Spirit"

This month has been so busy, especially the last week. I'm busy teaching PSU classes, seeing clients, and taking care of all the business details we all must attend to. I gave a presentation on women artists of Bologna to a wonderful audience from the Portland-Bologna Sister City Association. I have had some time to make art, and am currently playing with Frozen Charlotte assemblages. In the assemblage above and below, I started with a doll head and torso. I added arms and legs and a little dress made of teabags.

"Victorian Spirit" Assemblage

"The Third Apparition"

"Rule, Britannia"
This doll started out as just a head and shoulders.

Closeup of Above

Here are some great pictures from this weekend's PSU class, "Emerging from the Shadows", about Marietta Robusti, a Renaissance painter and Camille Claudel, the 19th century sculptor. The students each make a creative piece based on the artists and issues discussed in class. Several students used as their inspiration this familiar picture of the French sculptor.

Camille Claudel

April's first drawings ever, of Camille and Marietta Robusti, Renaissance artist.

Beatriz sculpted this piece representing Camille
and her lover, the sculptor Rodin.

Chelsey made her first sculpture, referencing Camille
and a painting by Marietta.

Fatima did an abstract piece on Camille Claudel

Karleah's first ever painting represented "The Wave" by Claudel

Melissa's mixed media collage for Camille

Monica's first ever painting honored both artists

Corinne did her first sculpture which represents Claudel and Rodin

Neomi's mask represents Camille

Tina made this mixed media tribute to Marietta Robusti,
the daughter of Tintoretto.

Young Vivianna visited the class with her mother, Beatriz. She cut right to the chase with this drawing from Camille's photograph.

I'm proud of the risks these students took to try something new--great work, ladies!