Category Archives: Inspiration

Photography vs. snapshotting (and a cool dove)

Posted on by
12

Before he left San Antonio this afternoon, my friend Ramesh wanted to go looking for birds to shoot – with his camera. We went to the Judson Nature Trails, the place that Whiltley Streiber said he saw aliens. No aliens, and actually, not many birds, although we heard a bunch of them. I took a picture of some trees. Zowee. Here we are heading for the trail.

Check out Ramesh’s camera – he didn’t need to go on a trail to take a great bird shot. When we got home, he took a fantastic photo of a dove outside the kitchen window. Now that’s the difference between a photographer and a snapshotter like me – you can even see the dang dove’s eyelid, and look at those feathers! I love this photo. Thanks, Ramesh, and happy trails home!

dove

Tonight’s opening and a poem

Posted on by
1

It’s  Fotoseptiembre  – and I’m especially delighted that my friend Ramesh arrives today for the opening of his photography show, TERROIR. His Oregon wines arrived before he did, and are waiting to be opened and shared with tonight’s guests. I’ve already purchased one of his spectacular orchid photographs. This one – wow.

3
Each photo is printed on stretched canvas and other forms of prints will be available by special order. I love Ramesh’s work (and I hear those Oregon wines of his are pretty good, too!). Please come to the opening.

Anyone who creates anything know that it takes work, imagination and most of all, tenacity and optimism – so here’s a Friday poem to remind us all of that.

Optimism

More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs — all this resinous, unretractable earth.

 ~ Jane Hirshfield ~

Thanks to Joe Riley and Panhala for sending this along today. Hooray for figs and turtles and friends and art!

 

 

Art teachers and adornments

Posted on by
2

I don’t know where Sherrill Kahn gets her energy – after two full days of teaching workshops at the Studio, she lectured to a full house of North East ISD art teachers this morning at the McNay Museum of Art as part of their in-service for back-to-school. My painting pal, Gloria Hill, is the NEISD Visual Arts Director and she arranged for Sherrill to come from California for the occasion. Sherrill shared images of her intricate, colorful work and she gave lots of hints to teachers on how to inspire students even on a teacher’s budget. Did you know, for example, that cheap hair gel from the Dollar Store works beautifully as an extender for acrylic paint? Check our her newest book for lots more cool ideas.

Afterwards, Gloria, Sherrill and I went to my Studio to work on face shard jewelry, but not before several of the art teachers showed up just to visit with Sherrill on a one-on-one basis. We did get back to work on our shard faces, and we spent the rest of the afternoon with Ann Pearce creating our necklaces with her help. If you’d like to make your own clay faces, I have a workshop this Sunday, August 25, on clay adornments, so sign up and join the fun! There’s still space.

neck2 neck4 necklaceanns

 

Blogging from the Watergate

Posted on by
1

Hi from DC – I’m visiting my dear friend Victoria (who has a wonderful place at the Watergate on the Potomac) and taking a few days off to fill my artistic well with new inspiration. This city is amazing – so many things to see and do – and eat. One of my favorite places to visit is the Textile Museum – FASA friends, if you want some inspiration, too, check out the pages of the artisans who do work for the gift shop there. Personal favorites are Chris Triola’s Cloud Shawls, which are textile paintings as well as wearable art. Another inspiration – the delightful and super-accomplished Jean Effron, whom I met at dinner last night. She’s the founder of Jean Efron Art Consultants LLC, a Washington, DC, based art advisory firm that provides comprehensive fine art services. Jean finds artists whose work compliments the needs of her corporate clients. I really enjoyed taking with her about what she does, and the some times tough job of finding the right match for both the artist and the client.

Finally, here are some San Antonio connections at the Watergate – ahem. One of my paintings hangs in Victoria’s living room, looking pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself.

cp

And on another wall hangs a wonderfully mysterious figurative painting by Laura Mijangos – if you haven’t seen her work before, there’s an opening tonight at AnArte Gallery featuring her paintings – I’d be there if I weren’t here!

But I will definitely be in San Antonio next Friday for the Shared Spaces opening – hope you can be there too!

 

 

Meanwhile, back at the altar . . .

Posted on by
3

When last we saw our altar box for Celebration Circle’s Silent Auction, it had a not-too-happy Spirit Doll lying in it, and it looked pretty creepy. Sigh. But I *knew* the moss was the right thing – so I kept thinking and working, and then I remembered a graduation gift I made for my grandson. It was a wall sculpture of the Celtic god, Cernunnos. I liked him because he was kind of a mystery, open to possibilities (actually, that goes for my grandson, too :)). Using Cernunnos as an inspiration, I am working on my Altar gift to Celebration Circle. It’s not quite finished, but here he is – The Guardian of the Sacred Grove with his little bird buddy, still a work in progress.

grove

If you want to see it finished, come to the Bijou Theatre Gallery between Sept.1 and Sept 30th and view all 50 of these wonderful Altars. The closing reception and Silent Auction is on September 30th at 6:00. With any luck, you can take home the Guardian of the Sacred Grove or another cool altar to grace your own place of creative belonging!

U

Hot Tip and a Friday Freebie on Saturday

Posted on by
8

I’ll make this quick – I’ve been working on my website and if I spend any more time at this dang computer, well . .it won’t be pretty. But the site looks better. You can actually find workshop info (and I scheduled another Earthshard session by request on August 25th). Anyway, here’s the Hot Tip from my friend Barb at Ann Pearce’s. If you use Altoid tins for stuff, like I do for Spirit Boxes, you can fire up the barbie and put them on the grill. It burns off the paint and leaves them nice and shiny, kind of a patina black. Works great! Thanks, Barb. Now . . . look carefully at that fine golden rooster pendant on the newly-blackened box – he’s the Friday Freebie! If you are a subscriber to this blog, SHARDS, you’ll be in the drawing for him. Sunday night’s the deadline.

Whoopee – off to the Studio – happiness is this computer in my rear view mirror!

altoids

The empty altar

Posted on by
4

Last week, I received this really nice letter from a group that I admire tremendously – Celebration Circle.

Dear Lyn: At the recommendation of many mutual friends, we are writing to invite you to create a hand-made altar for the Celebration Circle’s annual art exhibit, One People, Many Paths: The Sacred Art of Altars and our tenth year of presenting this exhibit and silent auction at the Bijou Theater September 1 – 30. You will be one of 50 artists to receive a handcrafted wooden box to use as the basis for creating a small “altar” focused on whatever matters to you – personally, artistically and/or spiritually – employing whatever media and/or embellishments your vision requires. The completed piece is due no later than Sunday, August 11th. 

the empty altar box

the empty altar box

What could I say, but “of course!” Now comes the challenge. I looked at the empty altar box for a while and remembered that I had some sheets of weathered moss that came off a wall planter.

. . . .lined with moss

. . . .lined with moss

On they went to line the altar – glue, glue. So far, so good – then I thought “Aha, a Spirit Doll! – I love making those” So I popped one in from the last workshop. Oops – the whole thing instantly turned into a moss lined coffin. Not good. Back to the drawing board – will keep you updated :). All suggestions gracefully accepted!

. . .oh, no! She looks dead! Oops. Bad idea.

. . .oh, no! She looks dead! Oops. Bad idea.

Transfer and acrylic workshop report

Posted on by
7

Workshop Report Card Grade is A+++! New workshops are tricky, and this one especially so because we were using a heat transfer on paper and then working with acrylics, which were unfamiliar to some of the participants – but should I have worried? Nah! Great results, great times, lots of learning and laughing. If you’d like to see the process itself, I demonstrate it here on YouTube, and if you’d like to see the participants’ spectacular results, just look at the photos (which, taken on my phone cause I forgot my cool new camera, don’t begin to justify the work). I also did a tutorial on another process we tried using Golden Fluid Acrylic Medium for transfers, here.

 

An Artful Weekend with the Solomons

Posted on by
Reply

Things are so quiet here – our house guests, Pablo and Beverly Solomon are safely home, the Studio is back to its usual self, ready for workshops, and I just finished posting the video from the weekend (below). What great memories we’ll all have! These photos are from both evenings, and include some really great shots of guests posing with their original Pablo Solomon drawings, with Pablo and with his pet monster lizard creature, Diablo. Thanks to everyone who came and helped make this an artful and art-filled weekend!

Friday Freebie – Threads of Blessing

Posted on by
3

When the Sathreads1cred Ground exhibit opened at Cathedral House Gallery in late May, I met a woman named Helen Schnelzer who sponsors a wonderful program called Threads of Blessing, an annual needlework workshop for the women of Uganda. These workshops are designed to encourage women to gather as a community, learn organizational skills, and help develop personal esteem. I purchased five of the embroidered tapestries and wanted to share one with a SHARDS subscriber as a Friday Freebie. This one was embroidered by Abby Thorciba, who writes in her statement, “I have orphans I care for . . .the Lord has given me this to feed, clothe and care for them and myself.” Look at the great expression on this face!

threads2

Here is the full tapestry – it’s about 18×18″ on unbleached muslin and could be stretched to frame or sewn into a hanging or a pillow. It’s signed by Abby Thorciba. I’ll wait until Sunday to do the Friday Freebie drawing but will let you know who the winner is Sunday night. All subscribers will have a chance to win, and I thank you so much for reading my blog.

And here’s the brochure – click on it to read it, and if you’d like to donate, you can write to The Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, Attn: Threads of Blessing, PO Box 6885, San Antonio, TX 78209 (or just email me and I can give you more information – I’m not affiliated with the program, but I definitely support its philosophy and will continue to threads3purchase these unique works).