Lost’n'Found

Several months ago I was contacted by a producer/director, Dutch Rall, working out of Austin on a series for PBS called “In Context”. Dutch has created a series of short, lyrical documentary films featuring creative people and the the work that they produce. I was invited to be the subject of one of his films and he stopped by to film and interview me in May. Even though the segment featuring moi is finished it will probably not be aired until fall. But here ’tis for any of you who may be interested.

OK. Sorry.

It’s been while since I’ve posted here and for those of you who don’t know…I did NOT get the house I made an offer on in Boulder. And since there are no other available homes I’m intersted in right now it may take awhile to get there.

In the mean time I have thrown myself into getting my Santa Fe home market ready, so other than designing some new pieces I’ve been more the home improvement queen than the assemblage queen.

There is one piece that has been marinating in my fevered imagination for some time now. I have a FABULOUS, wise, witty, talented, and beautiful friend Dinah Fisher, who lives in Santa Barbara. Dinah is an exquisite glass artist. Check out her web site here. Dinah was able, with the help of ebay, to get her hands on seven vintage Pee Wee Herman dolls.  She gave me two and will send me the rest via UPS. The significance of there being seven Pee Wees seemed somehow important to me and so…naturally…I decided they needed to be The Seven Deadly Pee Wees. Yes…the greedy Pee Wee, the prideful Pee Wee, and of course the lustful Pee Wee…and all the rest of the sinful cast. I envision all seven Pee Wees, lined up in a row, holding their sins aloft. And the text? “I Know You Are…But What Am I?”

I’m experiencing that whiplash of emotions that happens when you make an offer on a house. Yes folks it’s that strange brew of hope, and anxiety, and excitement, and doubt. I did find a beautiful home in the mountains above Boulder that I am making an offer on and I suppose soon enough I will know if I will be one of Boulder newest residents. Send some good real estate thoughts my way!

This morning I dropped off my “Red Hot Mama” at Gallery Zipp. They are having the opening for the “Seeing Red” show this weekend. I was able to see a few of the other artist’s pieces that will be included in the show and it looks like it will be a FABULOUS show. So please come if you are able to!

Today is the day that all of the components of my latest “red hot” piece have all come together. It’s that moment of truth time when I discover if the piece makes sense and works visually and conceptually. For those of you who have any interest in my process. It kinda goes like this…

After the concept flows into and becomes lodged in my brain I make a “pattern” for the piece. I use the “pattern” to execute the actual construction. The saws start blazing and the glue and nails bring together a rough approximation of the piece to be. “Ms. Red” for instance is composed of 33 pieces of wood and molding that needed to be cut to size and pieced together. After the construction is completed I strap on my respirator and sand the hell out of the piece. When construction and sanding has been completed I start the finishing process. The first step is for the wood to get a coating of an approximately 50/50 mixture of molding paste and gel medium with just the right touch of sawdust thrown in for that slightly bumpy textural quality. After that first coating dries it gets at least two coats of acrylic paint, followed by a wash of glaze. The last step is to coat the whole thing with a brown Bri wax. After the wax dries I get a chance to develop those upper arms by buffing  the piece to a low sheen. Of course this is only the wood part of the piece…the text and objects that reside in the boxes I build seem to present me with infinite challenges .

“Ms. Red” was a pin up silhouette that I cut from plywood. Then a grid of red paint chips was adhered to the plywood and cut to the contours of the figure. The inner edges of the figure were sanded and painted and a painted red masonite background was placed behind the figure. The surface of the paint chips were finished with a coating of melted bees wax and my fav stuff…Bri wax.

So “Red” goes up to Gallery Zipp for the show opening Sept. 15 and 16. So I hope to see you all there!

I’ll be absent from my blog fo a few days. Tomorrow I drive up to Boulder to pursue my adventures in real estate there. I’m looking for a home in the mountain above Boulder. I’m more of a mountain person than a desert person…plus being in Boulder puts me closer to my family…plus Boulder is a beautiful, sophisticated, and vibrant town that has a whole lot to offer. After my last move to Santa Fe I figured I would never again want to experience the rigors of moving, but as much as I appreciate Santa Fe after five years here it still does not feel like home…so it’s definitely time to move on.

Attention all confirmed scavengers….On one of my last trips up to Denver to drop off art at Sandy Carson Gallery I took a detour west of Pueblo to the little town of Florence, Co. Florence bills itself as the antique capital of Colorado and I’m not quite sure that’s true, but it does have a good supply of antique stores. So I spent a good couple of hours exploring and scored this wonderful baby head bust. When I mentioned to Stacy that the baby was sleeping she said, “MOM! He’s DEAD!” She’s got a point.

This morning I was jarred awake by my alarm at 5:30, had time to get showered, gulp down a huge cup-o-joe, and lug Stacy’s two giant suitcases out to the car. Yep…baby bird flew back to college today. We drove down to the airport and said our slightly sniffley goodbyes. We really had a great summer together…we are at that point in the mother/daughter relationship where we are good pals more than anything. Among the projects we shared this summer were silk screening, vegan cooking, and cat pueblo building. Of course Stacy is my number one technical expert and as soon as I got home I had questions for her about how to use my MP3 player and how to answer comments on my blog. All this stuff that is so intuitive to her has so much trouble sticking in my brain.

After I dropped Stacy off at the airport I went to visit Leighanna. We had a lovely breakfast together sitting outside at the patio of Flying Star. My first ever patio dining experience there! Twas lovely to see Leighanna again. I assured her I would give her detailed instructions on getting to the flea market at Port De Vanves in Paris when she goes there.

Back home in my empty nest I have taken over the house with art making endeavors. Why would anyone use a dining  table just for dining?

My most excellent, brilliant, and beautiful daughter Stacia just set me up with my very own blog. Yes folks…it’s a whole new world and I’m running as fast as I can to keep up with it.

Daughter dearest is leaving to head back to the academic life at Macalester on Monday, so she was kind enough to whip together my blog page AND teach me how to use it.

In the art realm  I’ve been working on a piece for Gallery Zipp’s latest show “Seeing Red”. It’s a red themed kinda thang…so of course I needed to make me a “red hot mama”. The background of the piece is composed of a myriad of different  red paint chip  samples because we red hot mamas  experience all shades and levels of heat. Eventually the whole piece will be RED.

In the cat realm Stacy and I made a stop at Target to purchase certain unmentionables and whilst picking up a few 1000 lb. tubs-o cat litter we spied a contraption called a “cat pueblo”. There was picture of a fine nylon and plastic tube edifice with frolicking felines bounding about on top and inside of the thing.   Well damn…We DO live in Santa Fe and so an excellent earth colored cat pueblo seemed all too appropriate…so we purchased it.  “Some assembly required” meant putting together five hundred and eighty two pieces of plastic tubes and tastefully earth colored nylon…then disassembling it because we had assembled it wrong…and finally….setting the finished product in the corner and introducing our fine felines to their new “pueblo”. Billed as a “cat play tower” it seems to appeal more to the kitties as a “cat sleep tower”…but they do seem to like it.

So here I am. Swimming in the great blog ocean. Will I continue to make posts to my wonderful new blog? Will anyone ever read the posts I do make? What is the meaning of life?

For answers to these and other questions tune in again later.