A proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorizable form and which is handed down from generation to generation.

I have always loved & used proverbs- maybe that is a southern thing? There are a couple of my paintings on my website that are about proverbs: “Water Under the Bridge” and “She Made Her Bed, Now She is Lying On It”, “bloom Where You Are Planted” etc.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago at an American Cancer Art Auction, Joe bought me a wonderful “outsider art” painting called “Anteater” by R.A. Miller. I love it’s simplicity- in fact, a woman standing next to me at the auction said “Oh! I love kindergartner art too!!” after I exclaimed how much I liked it.

As you know from previous blogs I have been working on a painting about the sacred feminine called “Pity the Blind” for awhile now. I don’t paint as much in the summer because my “day job” is pretty intense then- so sometimes I have a hard time getting back into the swing of things! While contemplating the simplicity of “Anteater” I thought it might be helpful for me to to paint a simple, fast i.e. no shading, no variety of techniques just a color & form painting to get the juices flowing again. That day I had counseled one of my sons about “putting his best foot forward” at a new job and I thought it would be entertaining to use proverbs again as my inspiration. Viola- the first painting:

A week later a friend said she recently had to “eat crow”:

Then after that,  an incident at work came up that was “the straw that (almost) broke the camel’s back”:

Today was one one of THOSE days at work- I cried- I think for only the 2nd time in 15 years- so yes, I am practicing “Keeping My Chin Up”!!!

Tomorrow I am off for a much needed mini vacation in Santa Fe- I know I will come back rejuvenated and inspired- Wahooooooo!!!

In my last blog about my bike, “Time Flies”, I left off where the doll heads were ripped off their bodies & installed on the copper wings. I have a small collection of lady head flower vases that i love!!

I didn’t want the doll heads on the bike to be gruesome- I wanted them to be pretty in a flower head vase kind of a way yet Burning Manish- yes that is my new word to refer to all things that have the “Burning Man look”.

So I took a bunch of silver metal flowers that are used In Bali for their dancing head dresses- painted them pretty-in-pink

and antiqued them a la Michael deMeng: I needed some lime green to tie in with the wings I will be wearing at night that look like they are flapping-( synchronized electroluminescent lights that Joe made for me on a lime green gauze wing base.  A woman at the last Burning Man came up to me and said:”those are the coolest wings I have ever seen- you look like you are flying and I am not even high!”) so I used some green curly wool that is normally used for felting for hair. It’s done now except for the night lights- can’t wait to ride her out on the playa!!

After 5 hours of putting grommets into black vinyl last Monday for Joe’s Burning Man project, Vishnu’s Dream, I was tired- tired of grommets!! But isn’t that the way with any art project?- at some point in time it is just plain old work- at least that’s the feedback I get from my artist friends. We chuckle to ourselves when non artists talk about how lucky we are to always feel inspired, in the “zone”, creative, happy with our work….for me it is more like ocean waves: I get inspired and the wave begins to swell, I start the piece- “Ooooh this is wonderful! this is exciting! Oh! I think I will do this to it..”  The wave peaks. But then… uh oh the wave begins to curl over “Hmm, I don’t like that at all!! Why did I do that?” …the wave crashes….”Damn that is ugly! It’s ruined! I hate it!”…”Oh! Wait a minute maybe if I add this color or sand that area down it will be okay..” The wave begins to rise again and so on and so on. The work lies in sticking with it and the joy and fulfillment & growth also lie in sticking with it.            What’s your process?

Here’s Joe creating the pattern out of black plastic for the material for the petals:

The view of the project behind Joe’s house- the piece by his feet will go on top of the piece by his head- it is BIG!!!t:

This assemblage was created especially for “The Common Box Project” as proposed by Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado. The exhibition opens Thursday July 9th with an Artist’s Reception &CD Listening Party from 7-10 pm on Sat. July 18th – I’d love to see YOU there!!

I was invited to take part in this project, which was created as a way to celebrate the release of the latest music recording of John Common and the Blinding Flashes of Light. The artists were given a box and asked to create a piece inspired by John’s new music. A collaboration between artists!! My inspiration came from one of John’s songs called “The Fall”. This is a song about a man named Jack who did what he was told “…and he moved right in to that typical suburban mold” until “…now he’s smiling and falling. It’s the fall he knew he needed. …But no box could hold Jack’s pearly white soul when he falls for the very last time…”

I interpreted “the fall” as Jack’s release into a different path and better choices in life for him. I used metal embossed labyrinths on the sides to represent the paths we choose in life.

The weight of the world inside the cage presses down on Jack’s head, the bird’s feet are nailed to the floor & bleeding- BUT the ladder symbolizes freedom & escape from oppression. Jack is painted grey to represent “the gray hairs are comin’” . On top of the box Jack’s pearly white soul is falling into a soar of flying, as well as the bird. Falling=Flying.

The back of the box will house the CD and all of the boxes will be for sale. To see more about other participating artists check out the Common Box Blog.

On Thursday July 9th, 2009 the exhibition opens at Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado at 910 Santa Fe, Unit #1. On Sat. July 18th there will be an Artist’s Reception & CD listening party from 7-10 p.m.