Out with the old ... in with the new !!
Welcome to 2008 everyone! It's going to be a good one, I do believe, and we're going to have some fun!
One of the things I'm looking forward to is experimenting with a few new ideas, so bear with me as we go.
You'll notice that most of my 2007 items are out of the catalogue - they're heading for new sales venues and will be replaced with some of the new things for 2008.
Meanwhile, for those of you who perhaps might still be thinking that it's dreary and dull up here in the North Country in the winter - here's a picture for you.
Bundle up on your snowmobile, or take your car, or just go for a walk in a Winter Wonderland. This was taken on December 30, 2007 and it was a race with the sun and the wind for photographs, but we got some good ones!!!
Shiela B.
Many of us are curious about the artists we might buy pieces from, would like to know a little something about them as people and not just faceless entities out there somewhere.
I'll take just a few minutes here to see if I can make a real person out of myself for you.
Hmmm.... Where to begin ... most often I'm asked where the ideas come from, and I'm never quite sure how to answer. Some of my works are 'different', but most spring from places I've been, things I've seen, people who have impacted me in one way or another. Below, you'll see samples of some of the places, although photos never seem to quite catch the scope of what I'm seeing.
Lots of times, whatever I do a painting on, or whatever materials I use to concoct something or other already 'know' what the final result is going to be and tend to demand their right to exist - and it's apparently up to me to see to it. Sounds a bit oblique, but say there's a cedar shake (wooden shingle) that has been through a hundred years of weathering - it has its own pre-existing pattern engrained into it over the course of time. It's my job to look at it, see what's there, and figure out what it means.
Another question I get a lot is how is it that my 'territory' ranges from the Upper Midwest of the US to Colorado. I like the variances among the areas: from the stunning might of the Rockies, to the searing dry burning of the Arkansas Valley, to the steady beat of miles of wide open spaces which go from quietly subtle beauty to outrageous blizzards in no time flat, to broken haunted badlands, to still mornings in woods near a northern lake, to drives through Nebraska sandhills ... this, my friend, is where my family and friends hang out, and where I travel as much as I can among them.
Here's one of many photos from Phantom Canyon in Colorado, where serenity is mine, where I've spent so much time for so long that it feels much like home to me, albeit a rather large 'home'! This would be somewhere in my 'front yard'.
More Photographs
Phantom Favorites
Those are full sized trees up there; yes, this is a Tall Wall. No photograph has ever done true justice to the enormity of even the 'smallest details' of the Rockies; it's impossible. You have to go there and see for yourself.
This one's name is 'Phantom Queen'. Aspen grow in 'family groves', all connected (sort of) underground. That's why you'll see a whole section turning at the same time while other sections are at different stages. The ones that are still green aren't 'related' to the ones that are already gold. At least that's what they told me. This 'Queen' has produced several paintings in addition to the 'family' surrounding her.
Minnesota "Up North"
Minnesota Mist in very early spring 'Up North'
It's an entirely different world filled with soft beauty at this time of year.
Minnesota Tiny Cove at the lake house.
Dakota
October Eve just outside of my Dakota hometown.
Anyone who has hunted in this area is familiar with these skies. Autumn in Dakota, unlike most places, is not necessarily about the fall foliage. It's the vastness of the sunsets, which are unavoidably 'in your face' - I mean, they're impossible to ignore and are going to hit your eyes like sledgehammers; and (believe it or not, and not many actually LOOK) the incredible play of colors in the grasses and other plants.
A sample of just one of the Dakota crops.
Sunflowers, miles and miles of them, will boggle your mind in August. This is only one of a number of crops filling the expanse of the Upper Plains.
Nebraska Sand Hills
Amazing how one little detour can broaden your horizons.
My Girls
These are silhouettes of three of my four daughters. The fourth one will be coming as soon as I can grab the time to do a silhouette of her! The first two of these are pastel backgrounds on fabric, with raised lines adding details to the silhouettes. They are designed to fit the windows in my home and when they're in place are backlit from either outside sunlight or inside lighting, to be seen from both inside and out. The last is simply acrylic paint for both background and silhouette, and not suitable for backlighting.
Sculpting
This little guy is not quite as big as my fist (and my fist isn't very big). He's my first attempt with clay sculpting, just to see if I can sculpt a face - since I can't draw or paint one to save my life! I was truly shocked and appalled when out of that lump of kid's play clay came this dude with actual humanoid features!!! I've never seen him before in my life, so if anyone recognizes him, do NOT tell me! That would be a little too spooky.
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