Creativity, Image and Illusion

Happy Solstice! It's the first day of Summer and the roses are finally blooming after a cold, dreary Spring. I'm off to France for a month. Whether I post or not depends on the French Cyber Cafés. Å bientôt.

Check out the display window at Mario's on SW Broadway PDX to see Jennifer Mercedes' wonderful graffiti.

I highly recommend Lynda Barry's new book, What It Is, about creativity, image making and imagination. Her activities and questions at the end of the book keep images flowing and the creative spirit moving. Plus it's a visual treat.

This month, Scientific American Reports has a special edition on preception- 105 Mind-Bending Illusions and what they reveal about the brain with many thought provoking artilces.

The Peony Place

The week I made a wonderful discovery in my neighborhood. The Peony Place is where to go for cut flowers and Fall tubers. Located on a third generation farm in Milwaukie, the family has created this wonderful garden in only three years. Marian's grandfather loved peonies and passed on to her his appreciation and knowledge for their care. Visits are by appointment at peony.place@yahoo.com. With our late Spring, the peonies are still blooming so see them soon.

Exquisite Corpse Muse

The Surrealists developed the Exquisite Corpse Game. They divided a piece of paper into thirds or fourths and folded it up. Each person contributed to the drawing or collage. The first person drew a head, the second the torso and the third the lower body. When the page was complete, they unfolded the paper and saw the creature they had created. Google the Exquisite Corpse and go to images to see the variety of corpses- from the 1920's to very modern interpretations. Art is seen as a collaboration and sharing of ideas.

The Portland Art Collective is exchanging Exquisite Corpse Muse book pages for a four-part flip book- head-piece, face, torso, legs. By flipping the pages, the reader changes faces or torsos to create new beings. This idea fascinates me. I chose Frida Kahlo as my muse and exquisite corpse. She's one of my favorite artists. She inspires me to use color, live with passion, keep going, take heart, care for Mexican culture and art- Viva la vida!

Sketch and Artist Dates

We returned to Oscar Albert to sketch this week. Linda Aman shows her paintings and will offer a Pen & Ink Watercolor Workshop there June 17th.

I highly recommend Heather Raffo's play 9 Parts of Desire. She interviewed many Iraqi women to write her play and Luisa Sermol stars in the one-woman show at the CoHo Theater in Portland. We are far removed from the blood, death, devastation anbd violence of war. We can support artists in war torn Iraq.

Fran Forman is showing her photo collages at 23Sandy Gallery. Fran's collages evoke a surreal world with texture and shadow. Shu-Ju Wang is also showing many of her artist books. Her new Gocco prints on fabric really speak to me.

Sunrise, Sunset

The Portland Art Collective held their spring retreat at Menucha last weekend. The Columbia River Gorge is one of my favorite places. Walking the new labyrinth in the rose garden offered time for contemplation and meditation. Mostly, we hung out, made art and got our creativity flowing with shared inspiration and mini-demos. We reconnected with one another in a gorgeous setting. I feel blessed with this wonderful group of art friends.

We played and worked from sunrise to sunset.

We made paste papers
felted coasters on a new product called art felt paper- available in Silverton, OR at the Purl District
and drew Rorschach bugs on Braille magazine paper

What fun!

Free Form Crochet and the Coral Reef Project

A couple of years ago, Robin Olsen taught me how to free-form crochet. It's funky, uses up a variety left over yarn, creates wonderful color and texture.
Here's a information about the Coral Reef Project from the Institute for Figuring. Click on Coral Reef and enter another world. Exhibits are listed for NYC, Chicago and other locations. The larger than life "Coral Garden" created by an Australian artist, Helen Lancaster, really stands out. Locally, Gossamer supports this project to get the word out about the rapid destruction of world coral reefs through global warming. Can you believe these are crocheted? Get out your crochet hook and make coral reefs.
More sketches for this week-

Spring Hiking and Sketching

Hiking local parks and trails is one of the joys of living in the Northwest. Last weekend, the sun shone and we explored Lacamas Lake Park. The park is located north of Camas, WA.
On the other side of the dam, the river plunges down hill. With all of the melted snow, it flows fast and cold.

The wild iris and roses bloom- two of my favorite flowers.
Tuesday, it rained in the morning and we sketched at Abundant Yarn in Sellwood. Inside the Busy Bee Cafe is the perfect place for knitters and sketchers to gather and share their creativity. The sketch below starts my newly made sketchbook.
My sketchbooks are made with old books from the Goodwill or Salvation Army. I remove the signature block, recover the book board with decorative papers, fabric and ribbon. New watercolor paper signatures are sewn into the spine and decorative buttons tie off the waxed linen thread ends. Make one and fill it with your daily discoveries, impressions and ideas.