A new direction or rather new exploration. It has been bouncing around in my head for a long time: this idea of an archeology of the future, a past in the future tense, a glimpse of what is possible. Only a glimpse because only our children will know what we can truly accomplish next, they are the one who will come up with ideas we were not able to come up with, see things we were blind to, think of things no one thought you could think of. That is, I guess, what this is really about.

Perhaps the inspiration for this came because I was so uplifted by the idea behind the Avatar movie: to see that Hollywood for the 1st time had imagined a world better than our own, filled with beauty, life, joy... and that this could be us one day. I realised then how important the job of artist is: to give people without imagination a vision of what could be. And what a magnificent task that is!

To me that task is what is sacred about Art.

Especially since, most artist will tell you, vision never flows from us, always through us.

Winter weeds

New work

Apologies - I have been away. In my mind. In the limbos of my heart.
I am back and you are back and we are friends again!
I have been painting - feebly, and what was born was something soft but potent. From a more quiet part of my soul, but a fertile place.

I hope you will like this. I want to know what you think.

Tell!

Treasure found

This is an antique quilt found at a thrift shop. When I saw it I could not believe my eyes but as often, I tend to first dismiss it. I took it home and looked at it carefully. It is covered with carefull red, white and blue stitches all done by hand ...millions of stitches! ...and there is so much more to it. It has these bands of paterns hand stitched as well, each band is a diferent patern, and it is very very old. I can't say how old but It has to be at least 19th century. It was once double it's size most likely but probably fell apart on one side and someone cut the edge of the bad part and refinished a smaller version of it by applying the edge strip to the cut edge of the salvaged side. The result is a slightly assimetrical design with an interrupted corner on one side(photo above) and proper wedged corners on the other. Looking at the material and looking at the colour theme and pattern, it looks like it could be even older than 19th cent...

But that may be wishful thinking!

If you know anything about this type of blanket, let me know. I did a search but have not come up with any worthy reference so far.

I will post a bunch of other picts on my flickr page...

Detail of new painting - "Life in the woods"

I was trying to describe today to a friend what this painting was about. I got caught in a web of long sentences that sounded intellectual and vague.

The thing is, my true voice IS my painting. Everything else is an interpretation. Words are so limited to what is habitual, the conventional. And lets face it, I am not that good at verbalizing my ideas... because... they are not ideas. And too many things wants to come out at the same time. I do notably better when I write. You can slow down, you can go back, re-organize things a bit!

...Like I do as I write this.

This painting is about all that is hiden in life in general, in nature in particular, in forest most specificaly. all that is hidden from us because of our very short range of sight, of hearing, of understanding. I am asking the viewer to look within at his/her own concept of a forest. Should one reconsider what we mean by forest? The question is hanging. You do not need to answer.

The answer is in the question, the question is the answer.
- you can see more details on flicker.

creative process

I am now looking at materials to find out what will work. I chose a scheme of blue white and a touch of red. but nothing is written in ink yet. it's just food for thought... literally!

sketch

...as promised: a first sketch of  New Doll's outfit. Tentative. It looks a bit futuristic, but once I make it (if I do) it would have more of a primitive feel.

working on my doll

She aquiered carved, painted and lackered limbs, and got all stitched together, and is feeling all good about that. I really want her to look awsome and will spend a lot of time thinking up a great outfit for her.

...Above I will post a first rough sketch of that.