making these bead dolls is so much fun. with the patterns in japanese they're stretching my underdeveloped brain to figure out how to make them. here miss marigold, named for her flowered skirt, stands atop my harvest of eucalyptus branches. i love the smell of eucalyptus, which transports me back to my roots in northern california. i am thrilled to have hardy varieties of eucs that can take the cold temps here. i copice one every year yet the other one i had let grow into a big tree until this year. the trunk was being ravaged i think by deer rubbing their antlers on it. i thought that with the cambium layer of the trunk ripped away from a sizeable area that the tree might become susceptible to a blow-down so i chopped it down to a newly copiced stump. it will likely resprout (eucs are tenacious buggers) and i will be able to keep it at a manageable size from now on, and harvest the lovely red petioled leaves. i have got to paint those leaves one of these days!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
making these bead dolls is so much fun. with the patterns in japanese they're stretching my underdeveloped brain to figure out how to make them. here miss marigold, named for her flowered skirt, stands atop my harvest of eucalyptus branches. i love the smell of eucalyptus, which transports me back to my roots in northern california. i am thrilled to have hardy varieties of eucs that can take the cold temps here. i copice one every year yet the other one i had let grow into a big tree until this year. the trunk was being ravaged i think by deer rubbing their antlers on it. i thought that with the cambium layer of the trunk ripped away from a sizeable area that the tree might become susceptible to a blow-down so i chopped it down to a newly copiced stump. it will likely resprout (eucs are tenacious buggers) and i will be able to keep it at a manageable size from now on, and harvest the lovely red petioled leaves. i have got to paint those leaves one of these days!
Friday, February 09, 2007
as i clean up my winter garden, clipping away desiccated spent flower heads, removing soddened chlorophylless iris leaves along with heaps of styrax japonica seeds mashed in with its fallen leaves, i am keenly aware of the process of decay. what would it be like to have my paintings look as though in the process of decay? were my recent gilded bird paintings old, were they new? the patina of age is sought so highly in furniture yet on a woman's face it is banished in popular culture. in an attempt to further fragment my paintings, in photoshop, in a spring-like manner rather than winter's harsh hand, i've been experimenting with flower petals and forms reminiscent of germanic ironwork to decay the image. 
aaaah, as i look out the window spring is appearing in little jewels about the garden. spare canary yellow crocus and a pink bud on the cherry tree whisper the change of season is upon us. who is shouting outside? well it is the witchhazel of course. "come smell my intoxicating elixir perfuming the air", it beckons through the window, resplendent in a mellow fringe of yellow petals.
spring!
