A few weeks ago you got a notification of a new feature on my website – Ed’s photos.  His most recent work has it’s very own column and I hope you will enjoy looking at his photos. I certainly do.  He has a unique view of the world that I find exciting and provocative.

In April Ed was taken by ambulance to the hospital and diagnosed with three clogged arteries and a poorly functioning aortic valve.  It seemed like the docs would be able to fix him up but additional tests uncovered more health issues which were weakening him.  Sadly, on May 16 he left our world for a new adventure – that next big trip we all will be taking at some time in the future.  I brought his photos to my website because there will be no more new ones from Ed and I wanted to make sure some of his photos would be available for you to enjoy.

Needless to say, my life has changed big time!!!!!  I am very grateful for the multitude of friends who have circled my wagon and helped me through these early stages of grief.  Now that over four months have passed, I’m beginning to find my stride and starting to make art again.  This year’s birthday doll is almost finished and ready to be revealed.  Look for my next posting.

Now I’m focusing on getting to know myself in this new capacity.  I’ve spent over 41 years of my life in partnership with Ed and now life has become a single-handed sailing experience.  It’s quite different!!!  I’m staying put for this first year, looking at how I want to spend my life.  I’ve got to simplify things and a good place to start is to get rid of stuff that isn’t being used any more.  It seems overwhelming!!!!

Being more inclined to optimism rather than pessimism, I see my future filled with potential and new experiences while I still have health and a mind that works (sort of)!!!!!  I’m clear that creativity and discovery are important elements that contribute to my happiness so they are daily objectives.  And to maintain a broad perspective, I get out every day which helps me avoid getting caught up in sadness, self pity etc..

My most important current goal is to continue to be of “service” to others and finding ways to achieve this objective is an on-going challenge.  I see this blog as one of my “service” activities – a way of sharing my ideas, discoveries, actions and accomplishments with you.  I hope you find reading it worthwhile.

love, maybelle

Recently I spent a delightful Saturday with my friend Rose Andreacola and several of her “artsy” friends.  She showed us a basic technique for creating simple house sculptures using primed scrap lumber, acrylic paints, stencils, stamps, photo copies, ephemera, and aluminum duct tape (from Home Depot and Lowes) used for making vent seams tight.

Her techniques for embossing with the metal tape are terrific.  She’s been using this in her art for well over ten years. She used mat board, cord/ric-rack, a tracing wheel,  a bone folder and a ball point pen to create the textures.  For the roof she runs the metal through a crimping tool.  From time to time she gives a wonderful class in how to do this.

It was lots of fun and Rose had several embellishment tricks for finishing including using a black wax marking pencil to accentuate edges, applying do-dads with Weldbond glue (very strong) and using various acrylic mediums for collage and varnishing.  If this is something you might be interested in doing, you might want to contact her at roseandreacola@gmail.com

I decided that my houses would focus on “memory” and dedicated #26 to my maternal grandparents.  “26” represents the street number of their home and the colors and embellishments have special associations with them.  My second house with the number “6675” is a celebration of our 40th anniversary which occurred earlier this summer.  It’s decor is infused  with memories of our life together.

Every time I glance at them a happy memory comes to mind.

One winter Saturday I took on a personal challenge to make a book in one day informed by the sculptural qualities of Daniel Essig’s work.  I wanted to submit the book for the Poetry Center show “Beyond Word and Image”.

Before starting, I “juiced” my muse by looking at artists books and setting aside some of my favorite texts and looking again at Dan’s work.  I began by painting two large sheets of Stonehenge and folding them into pages.  I reread the texts I had set aside to see if there was a fit.  I found that Rumi”s “Guest House was coming to life.

The individual folios became rooms.  I created openings to suggest  doorways and windows so one could travel through the house.  After much experimentation, I found a writing style for the poetry. But I was not finished.  The work needed a “wow” in the form of some sculptural element. That is part of the charm of Daniel’s work.

I stepped away from the piece and several days later realized that the book should be hung from something!  I could use a human form since the text refers to our humanness being a guest house.  I decided to suspend the book from an upper torso shape which I constructed using a foam-core base wrapped with plaster bandage.  This provided an opportunity to implant a hanger so the book can be displayed on the wall.

I painted the form with acrylic paint and applied a encaustic coating.  The final step was to attach the book to the form using artificial sinew.

The book took more than a day but less than a week to complete!  And it was not chosen to be in the show!  Oh well, that disappointment is just a part of being a human guest house.  I subsequently found out that the jurors were more focused on the graphic elements of the work submitted and in choosing a cohesive show, had eliminated some unique pieces that embodied innovative structures.

Several weeks ago I spent three days in a workshop sponsored by the Contemporary Artists of Southern Arizona – www.casaaz.org . They had brought in the popular and excellent teacher, Jackie Sullivan, www.jacquelinesullivan.com to do a class on working with texture.

For me the workshop was extremely informative and productive. I don’t judge a workshop by how much work I finish because I am a fast worker and usually complete several pieces in a class. I judge workshops by how much I learn and how hard I am pushed by the instructor to explore my “edges”. Jackie did that very well! I left feeling I had learned some new “tricks” and I ended up with a number of pieces ready for mats!

I particularly liked Jackie’s way of transforming aluminum foil into an interesting collage material. The way she layered pieces on to her work to give work additional dimension was interesting. Her use of mediums was fun to revisit, and her unique way of building a painting was new to me.

Jackie likes sparkle and she had a number of ways to incorporate “glitz” on to the page. Years ago she and Victoria Pittman developed a wonderful class that was presented at the annual calligraphy gathering at Sonoma State in 2000. While I did not take that particular class, I have taken that same metallics workshop three separate times and have learned something new each time. I don’t think Victoria is offering it any more, but Jackie does include some of the techniques in her texture class.

I won’t give away Jackie’s secrets but she said many of the techniques that she taught are demonstrated on the video offered for sale on her website.