A New Year, A Clean Studio

Forgotten Cardinal, 8 x 10", watercolor

It happened quite by mistake....the cleaning of the studio at the new year....I was deeply obsessed with painting little feathers in watercolor, and had been for several months, when I looked up from my painting table at the wreck of a studio that surrounded me. I had a slight panic as I remembered a friend was coming over around the first of the year to shoot a photo of me 'in situ' for her upcoming show of photographs of artists and our muses. My 'in situ' was a dump!

So I took a break from doing what I loved and started doing what had needed to be done for a long while. After several days of purging, donating, recycling, moving and insulating, I can say that for the first time since I've been both an artist AND a mother, and that's been 21 years now, I have organized my studio, at least partially, in a way that makes sense. Book making tools and adhesives on 1 shelf, watercolors and brushes on 1 - okay, 2 shelves, etc.

I do a fair amount of teaching of watercolors and different techniques, so it's hard to part with things I think have potential (not quite as bad as Howard Finster...), but I think I'm on a good trajectory for continued progress. For instance, I teach in programs for at-risk youth and I teach classes for adults that might just be 1-time classes. I don't want purchasing art supplies to be a barrier, so I have amassed utility knives and needle-nosed pliers, to name a few. I helped a friend's son clean out her studio when she passed, and redistributed 12 SUV loads of art supplies. As I was cleaning (I kid you not) 200 paint brushes of years of acrylic and oil paint, I thought, 'yes, the high school can use these, but those kids are not going to clean these properly to get years of use out of them' and kept 20-30 decent brushes to use with my students. Most students don't get to use good quality brushes when they are starting out and I'm telling you, good tools make a difference with the student's experience.

So the supplies are a bit more organized, the place is a little cleaner and the year is off to a productive start. Here are a few of the little watercolors I made at the end of 2016 and so far this year. The cardinal skeleton was found by a friend and it had been sitting in the studio for about a year and a half, so painting that was the carrot at the end of the stick for cleaning the studio.

The watercolors have been a big healing /mind clearing exercise after August 2016's 'The Gun Show', but I will get back to working on that project again soon, because......

3 Wild Feathers, watercolor on Yupo, 6 x 9"

Two Tiny Turkeys, watercolor on paper, 6 x 10"

Day 8, artist residency at Homestead National Monument, NE

Day 8 was my day to give my public presentation. I didn't want to go the day without getting a painting in, so I decided to look out my bedroom window again and paint the hazy view first thing in the morning. This time, I've given you several views of the painting in progress. The presentation went well - met a couple of cool women from Lincoln, whom I'll visit on my way out of state, later in the week. We're going on either an art or nature field trip - maybe both!

woven birds, recycled wire w/new wire

various woven wire birds, inspired by drawing at U of M Nat'l History Museum, bird collection

Drawing at U of M Natural History Museum, week 4

This week when I went in to the Bird Collection, I decided to pull out a tray of hummingbirds that had caught my eye on a previous visit. The little gems were specimens from the western hemisphere and dated from 1897 (2 tiny eggs collected in Ohio) to 2005 (a ruby-throat from right here in Washtenaw County, Michigan). The colors are showstoppers, but the beaks are pretty incredible, as well. I was fascinated by a large rust-colored bird from Bolivia and a smaller hummingbird with a mottled chest and a hooked beak. I'm so interested in the evolutionary details – the reasons for the curved beak, what flower she got her nectar from, etc.

Each time I go to the museum, I learn so much from the head ornithology curator. This week, one of the things I learned is that songbirds only make their songs when they've migrated north, to their spring breeding grounds and summer nesting areas. Scientists believe the lengthening daylight triggers hormone production and they all start singing to find mates. When they're in their southern winter homes, they are nearly silent. Fascinating!