Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Here's how I made this Christmas light:
I simply stuffed a string of LED lights into a turquoise vase along with a few small silver balls and placed some snowmen to guard the light. An extension cord runs down the back of the chest to a nearby electrical outlet. This light stays on all the time, maybe even long after the holidays.

I have several other similar lights in my entry hall and living room to serve as night lights and to add sparkle to the rooms. Lots of interesting light strings are now on sale. Grab a few strings and make some light vases for yourself and for gifts.



Here's the lamp in daylight:


Jo's Merry Christmas light

Limited materials, limited palette

 

Songs of the Soldiers
Jo Reimer
Collage on Paper
7.5" x 7.5"

 On a recent week at the coast I determined to limit my art supplies and took only a small box of compost with an assortment of black and white and a limited palette of colored papers and supports. It was a good decision that forced me to seek variety within limits. I learned that it's possible to do satisfactory work with limited means and is an appealing challenge.

The name of the above small collage came from a piece of sheet music with my uncle's signature, dated 1918-19. Keith lost one arm as a teenager and couldn't serve in WWI but he loved to sing and I can imagine him thinking about those at war as he sang the songs that were currently popular... "Over Here" and "Over There" among them. The picture of the baseball player also was from that era.

Red Maple - Late Fall
Jo Reimer
Collage on Paper
12" x 12"

Red Maple - Late Fall is the main work I intended to do that week, an abstraction of the colors I saw from my front door, taken from this photograph:

Then I got out some paint (still the same color palette) and did a quick painting, remembering some recent weather:

Unsettled
Jo Reimer
Acrylic on Paper
9" x 12"

Then back to the collage box for the next piece:

Under the Clouds
Jo Reimer
Collage on Paper
9" x 12"

All these papers were ones I previously painted or dyed except for the brown, upper right corner.

And this is the final one in the series:

Teatro
Jo Reimer
Collage on paper
9" x 12"

 

Autumn Colors

 

 

At the tag end of autumn there's a whole different set of colors than those I noticed a month ago. The 'Bloodgood' Japanese Maple in the front bed with its bright red leaves suggests Christmas is just around the corner and the lichen on the vine maple at the front steps is a light but muted sage green. It's all about contrast, just waiting for me to notice. I see so much color here and while I'd love to have the painting skills to render a likeness, I can't, and why would I want to when a photograph captures the moment so well. Perhaps by using these colors from nature and the lines of the trees I could form an abstract collage. If I manage something I'll show you. 

From my Sketchbook ...

by Jo Reimer


Freesia

I keep a tiny metal alphabet stencil in the back pocket of my sketchbook and use it when I remember. The stenciled letters adds interest to any page. 



 

Geranium

 Cannon Beach Oregon is known for incredible flowers. There are planting beds and big pots of flowers and shrubs everywhere with blooms lasting most of the year in the mild climate. The misty ocean air is good for the plants and whoever tends the beds knows just how to keep the soil in tip top shape to stimulate growth. This September the geraniums were at their peak and gave me a good reason to sit on a bench and draw a nearby flower, noticing for the first time how the buds hang from this particular variety.

Calla Lily

 There are calla lilies everywhere, along fence lines, in big pots and beds alongside the sidewalks. In one neighborhood every yard has masses of calla lilies, leading to the suspicion that neighbors are generous with their plant starts.

Leaves

 The leaves of a vine outside the coffee shop window held their pose for me this morning.

Pink with text

 Sketching is a great activity when one is waiting for something to happen...

Red Japanese Maples

Our son planted about an acre of Japanese maples "Bloodgood" just before he left for the army right out of high school. We sold that place 21 years ago and there are still several dozen of the trees left in the field. Perhaps I should have titled this Nostalgia.  I hate to think about how many farming acres near cities, including this one, are slated to become housing developments. This is where my daughter rode horse, where our son had his first job working for a neighbor on his nursery, where we started our own nursery business, where birds sang and dogs ran free. Yep, Nostalgia. It's bittersweet.

From my sketchbook... another 5

by Jo Reimer

There's not much of interest to draw in a hospital exam room.

 I used a Pentel Pocket Brush pen for this drawing. I like the bold line but I need to warm up with writing or drawing before I tackle a drawing because my hand can be a bit shaky.

The swing on my back  deck

 I love porch swings, had one at my childhood home, one at the farm, and now one hanging from the pergola on my back deck. All my grandkids have grown up sitting on Gramma's lap in the swing or sitting beside me as we see how high we can go. I don't usually look at it from this angle.

Two drawings, two villages

 The upside down umbrellas are from among the many which hang from the ceiling in Marcos Cafe in Multnomah Village. The building is in Cannon Beach, OR.

Anniversary drawing

Using painted book page in my sketchbook

I don't remember that I'm a collage artist when I pull out my sketchbook! Now what's with that? Bits of paper ephemera such as those used here add lots of visual texture and interest to an otherwise dull page. A few years ago I bought a dozen small Japanese novels, at least I think they're novels, at a book sale. I've used them for altered books and for sketch journals, and have painted pages from one  in various colors to put in my compost.

Gratitude

by Jo Reimer

 

I watched Louis Schwartzberg's TedTalk  about Gratitude yesterday with all his wonderful time lapse photos of the majesty and intricacy of nature and can't help but be filled with gratitude to the One who created it all.

 

 

Our Western Oregon landscape is so lush and beautiful at this time of year with the hot colors of the turning leaves and fall blooming plants. Even the dead leaves are leaving their eco prints on the concrete sidewalks. Once again I am in awe of the beauty around me and I recalled a page in a 2009 journal so I dug it out to share with you. I hope each of you has a wonderful weekend and are mindful of the beauty around you and of all we have to be thankful for.

 

 

Thank You

From My Sketchbook, 5 more pages

by Jo Reimer

Caldwell County Courthouse

 We were impressed by this amazing courthouse in the Lockhart, Texas town square. It was built in 1894 of blue sandstone with Pecos red sandstone trim. This day it was shrouded in scaffolding as workers cleaned the surfaces. A quiet Sunday allowed me unobstructed views but my drawing skills weren't quite up to the task. Still, I remember the blue sky and the two young boys who stopped to watch me for a while.

Lunch at the Gristmill

 This was another scene that proved too much for me and my little book. However, one of the wait staff kept looking over my shoulder and finally asked about how to learn to draw. That made my day, and maybe hers, too.

Aerial drawing over Texas farmland

 As we flew in a small plane toward Dallas we were low and slow enough for me to capture some of the roads near a small Texas farm town. The rusty red circles are old buffalo wallows, now cattle ponds. (at least that's what my brother-in-law who knows such things told me.) See how the road circles the ponds?

Sunset

 One can't really DRAW the sunset.

After Agnes Martin

Agnes Martin was a Canadian-American minimalist painter, an abstract expressionist whose work I first saw in the Agnes Martin Gallery at the Harwood Museum in Taos. The works were soft paintings with almost no color, just atmosphere, covered with lines. Here's a link to a video of the gallery: Agnes Martin at the Harwood.

From my sketchbook... everyday drawings

by Jo Reimer

I'm reaching the end of a sketchbook and decided to show you some of the pages. I gutted a small 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" Moleskine and replaced the paper I don't like with Fabriano Artistico 90# watercolor paper. This results in fewer pages but the paper is more pleasing.

Trillium

I love to draw and the more I draw the better I get at it. I'll continue to improve but that doesn't matter to me as much as getting images on paper in order to glue the day into my memory bank. When I look at each page I remember where I was, who was with me, even what the day felt like. That's what's important to me about a drawing practice.

No, I don't manage to draw every day although that's my intention. I simply haven't committed to the practice, no matter what I tell myself.

Mur's Patio

 

Gruene, Texas

Zentangle doodle

 

Deep Blue... Mixed Media Collage

Deep Blue
Jo Reimer
9" x 12"
mixed media collage

This first completed collage of the week came about because I happened to put the photo of the ocean down on top of the painted paper. Composing the elements on a panel that I had just prepared with gesso over a failed effort led me to that sweet spot of knowing when it was just right.

Perhaps this makes the case for working with compost on a messy table.

Artful Compost Revisited

Just Sayin'
Jo Reimer
7.5 x 7.5
mixed media collage with painted papers

I keep a small basket of 7.5" substrates, mostly 140# and 300# weight, to use for collage. A full sheet of watercolor paper tears down to this size with no waste. When I travel I can grab a few sheets and toss them into a box of "compost" along with scissors, a tearing ruler, and glue so I have something to play with when the mood strikes.

I've talked before about my compost and if you click the link above you'll see some pictures of some of my compost piles. My blog header is a photo of a pile of compost in my studio. I'm not talking about making rich dirt. My compost consists of paper, piles of paper which I've painted and dyed and printed in various ways. I call it compost because as I search my piles and boxes of paper it all becomes a jumble of color that often suggests new, rich uses.

I don't use much ephemera or other commercially printed paper in my collage practice, preferring to paint original papers so that the artwork I create is completely my own. The painted papers add a complexity that I can't get from commercially printed papers. Most images in my work are my own photos or drawings. I don't see anything wrong with appropriated images when they're transformed in some way by the artist using them; it's just not my way of working.

Have you started your own compost pile? It's satisfying... like Just Sayin'.



Workshop Report

Spot On
Jo Reimer
10" x 10"
Mixed Media

 It's been a week since I began the workshop with Donna Watson and time to post a report. For two days we worked with Japanese Rice Paper (washi) painting one side with acrylic paints of a consistency that left fibers visible on the reverse side which, in many cases, became the front. Then we cut and tore these papers and made collages. Spot On was my first one and if you look closely you can see the visual texture of the papers which were actually quite smooth to the touch.

The Good Life
Jo Reimer
10" x 10"
Mixed Media

I'm showing each collage in the order in which they were created. This one is a mix of papers, moving away from using lots of black and including more color. The lower left quadrant was painted with ultramarine on the other side. Remember that every piece of paper has two sides. The text in the orange band features painting over writing; the white vertical band features what I call "writing that can't be read"; some of the orange bits papers painted over a laser copy of names of women who've influenced my life, and at the top left is blue and black painted washi over handwriting. Because the washi is so thin it will show the layers below.

Torn
Jo Reimer
10" x 10"
Mixed Media

Torn is a quickie collage using just three papers. Donna tells me that this is more "me" than the others because I'm all about color and organic. I think she's right and perhaps that's why it went together so quickly. The piece on the left is white spray paint through a stencil onto brown. The orange stripe is painted tissue from my painted papers stash. The piece on the right is washi. I worked on palette paper, mixed raw umber with black and white and rolled it onto the palette paper, then combed through it to create the undulating lines.

Falling Leaf
Jo Reimer
10" x 10"
Mixed Media

Falling Leaf is my personal favorite. The top and bottom bands are washi painted in class. The orange band at center left is from my stash of tissue painted with inks. The leaf is from my garden, pressed last year and saved for just such a reason. The leaves are turning again and it's time to gather and press another batch. In our family we're all about trees. We have a family wholesale nursery where we grow ornamental trees which are sold to nurseries across the country. The crops include lots of Japanese maples and we have many growing around our home. I love to draw the winter skeletons of trees so using leaves in my mixed media collages is a given.

Now you wonder if I've followed through since the workshop and the answer is yes and no. I got sick the first day with a chest cold and since the workshop I haven't felt like doing much of anything other than reading over my class notes and summarizing them. My intention for tomorrow is to gather my stock of washi and tubes of acrylic and get busy painting more papers. That usually leads me directly to making and then I'll be off and running.

How to get the most from a workshop

I’ve wasted lots of time and money on workshops, mostly art related, wasted because I had no procedure for follow through. All athletes know the importance of follow through. You don’t just throw or kick the ball but you complete the movement by getting ready for what comes next.

Workshops are the same.

You prepare by ...

·         reading whatever you can find that the leader has written
·         practicing what you’ve read about
·         gathering whatever supplies are stated by the teacher
·         packing your Go-Bag and dressing the part

During the workshop you take notes and put into practice what you’ve learned.

 

At least this is how we should begin...

But in the past I’ve made a crucial mistake. I would go home and unpack my bags, file my notes and return to my usual routine.

And what happened? I forgot what I learned because I didn’t follow through. I didn’t stand at my easel every day for the next week to practice this new method I learned. I didn’t re-read my notes. I didn’t work in my journal to explore further ideas for how I could adapt this to my skill set. I didn’t work hard after the workshop to drill the new knowledge into my memory banks. I wasted my time and money even though I probably had a good time.

As a student teacher I learned that there are many ways people learn. Some learn best by reading, some by hearing, but all learn best by doing… and then doing it again and again.

Continuing to practice the new skill over and over is a given. I knew better but I simply didn’t apply it to my own role as a student.

Growing as an artist or writer or whatever kind of maker you are depends on follow through: putting the new skills into practice, thinking about ways to make this new skill part of your way of being.

It’s been awhile since I attended a workshop but I’m taking one this week. I have my supplies ready. This will be a collage workshop with Donna Watson. I'm taking it because I admire her work and because after a fallow summer I need a jumpstart and I think Donna is just to one to help me.  I am excited to learn a different approach.

 

In addition to gathering the recommended supplies I have done some thinking about this class and I’ve decided to go with a focus of my own. I’ll do as she says but with my own plan in mind.

I chose a color scheme. My paints are the black and white she suggests and to these I added blues, browns and bits of orange. I like working on a square format so I cut my substrates 10” x 10” instead of 8x10. I have a vision of making a book out of these collages so I will strive to make pieces that will work together, flowing from page to page. Eventually there will be text on each page so I’ll keep that in mind as I work.

When I leave the workshop after two days I’ll have made a good start on my master plan.  But the skills I learn and the ideas I develop won’t stop here. I’ll keep working. I won’t put away my supplies; I’ll lay them out on my work tables and I’ll continue working on this until the flow stops naturally or I’ve reached completion.

I won’t turn to other work yet. I’ll keep on doing what I learned, what I started.  This is the beginning, but not the end. And not a minute will have been wasted.

The Heart of Art

PATH ALONGSIDE THE COLUMBIA - SAUVIES ISLAND, OREGON
Jo Reimer

I know exactly where I'm going with my work... I will concentrate on making art that honors God and that brings me joy in the doing. I won't worry about what other people think about what I make, whether they like it or not. What's important is that I keep on doing the best I can, in my own way.

Making art is a spiritual occupation. Artists work from their heart to produce the work that comes to them from within which means it has spiritual, but not necessarily religious, connections. It has everything to do with doing one's best.

And because one's art comes from the heart, the soul, and the mind, the essence of a person, external criticism of one's work can be very hurtful to the artist, especially those new to showing their work. Most of us have a soft heart. We work to create something beautiful but since beauty is in the eye of the beholder what we make isn't always embraced by all who see it... and that is okay. But hopefully the viewer will be kind and find something positive to say about our work and will be careful not to fling hurtful words around, at least in the artist's hearing.

I remember standing in the gallery at my first solo show and overhearing two women talking about a piece I had made. One said to the other, "well, it's nicely done, but what in the world IS it?". I could have been crushed but instead I laughed and I'm still laughing. Nowadays my work is more representational and most people understand what it is I'm doing even though they don't all like it.

At church today our pastor urged us to be positive about other people. Find three good things about each person, he said, and voice those positive words for both the good of the other person and for your own good.  It seems to me that we could adopt the same attitude when we look at a piece of art. Keep the negative criticism  to oneself and find something good to say.   I like that. I'll work on being less critical and being more positive. 

I currently work with acrylic and paper on canvas and board; I like to use watercolor in my art and travel journals; I love making collages with my own painted papers; and I've returned to stitching, now on paper as well as on fabric. At this point it looks to me like I never will have success with narrowing my focus to working with one single medium and though it used to trouble me that I couldn't focus I now accept that that’s who I am, a multi-media, mixed media art maker who loves the learning and the doing of a variety of ways.

Robert Genn www.painterskeys.com quoted Mas Kodani : "One does not stand still looking for a path. One walks; and as one walks, a path comes into being." What perfect direction for me today, if not tomorrow!

Pueblo Pottery - Along Old Route 66. collage painting

Pueblo Pottery - Along Old Route 66
Jo Reimer
Collage Painting
22" x 17"
Acrylic, paper

As a young teenager I traveled from my home in Arkansas along route 66 through Texas and New Mexico to Arizona to visit relatives and was struck by the beauty of the pottery made by the Native Americans of that time. I particularly remember the matte black pots with glossy black designs, especially those made by Maria Martinez.

I traveled to Taos for an art workshop some years ago and was again impressed by the gorgeous pottery. I've tried my hand at molding clay but these hands are made for stitching and painting, not pottery.

Then a couple of years ago my husband and I took a long road trip from Oregon through Idaho, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico and once again I was drawn to the pottery. Though styles have changed here and there we saw similar work among the more contemporary, all beautiful in their workmanship.

This piece is my way of mapping the memories of my travels through the Southwest.

Sketchers Transformed: painted shoes

This is totally off topic unless you consider that painting shoes is somehow akin to making art, but I just had to brag about my outrageous new shoes. I have a pair of Sketchers that fit well but which I considered ugly and useful only for wear in the studio.

So I painted them.

Here are the steps I took:

1. clean with acetone.
2. paint with gesso
3. paint with cadmium red acrylic
4. draw circles on the shoes with a black sharpie Paint Pen
5. fill in the circles with Titanium white acrylic paint
6. touch up where needed
7. cut off old strap, leaving 1.5 inches attached at the toe.
8. sew 2 black/white ribbons (one striped, one dotted) together back to back and then sew one end onto the remaining strap, by hand.
9. cut the ribbon strap to appropriate length and add Velcro to the underside at the end.
10. thread the ribbon through the d-rings and fasten.

I've never done anything like this so I did searches online and on Pinterest to see how other shoe painters work and to get ideas for styles. There's so much information out there and people are incredibly generous about sharing ideas.

My DH dared me to wear them to church. Hummmmm. Maybe I'm not THAT brave, but they'll do for the 4th of July party tomorrow.

Subject Matter

Road Runner
Jo Reimer
6" x 6"
Collage on canvas board

I've been thinking about non-representational and abstract art where the underlying design has no subject other than the design elements of the painting or collage. I like to work this way because of my design background and love of color, but when there's nothing else going for it, when there's no focal point - center of interest - subject matter, it's difficult for the observer or customer to relate to the work.

I remember standing behind two women at my first solo show years ago when I worked in embroidery. They were carefully observing a piece that I was quite fond of but which wasn't easy to define without an explanation. One said to the other, "It's really nice, but what the hell is it?"

Good question. One I need to ask myself more often. What IS this piece about?

Take the collage above, Road Runner.  I made the piece yesterday and liked where it was going, with the sky blue background, the map bits, and the orange stripes which indicate tracks in a red dirt road, but what is it about?  It's certainly not finished. So this morning I started asking questions: who's on the road? What do I hear? What do I see when I'm out in blue sky country (Oklahoma in this case)? Birds, of course.  The subject quickly became clear and I found a stencil from Diane Ericson which worked perfectly.  The working title for a few minutes was Bird on Blue but as I was typing this post it came to me that Road Runner was much more to the point.

And the collage now has a focus, a story, a subject, a name... and it's finished.  Now it needs a buyer.  It can be yours for $50 postpaid.

An Artist Changes Focus



Margaret asked the question, "I am a quilter but I want to change. I've collected other art materials over the years and think it is time to actually use them. How did you decide to give up quilting?" 

I'll bet others are interested in my answer and maybe have their own unique reasons for changing their art focus and questions or advice on how to do it... so here goes.  Warning: this is a long post.



Early embroidery on pillowcases
Jo Reimer, c.1950

I learned to sew seven decades ago. Boy, does that make me feel old! My grandmother taught me to embroider and then my mother taught me to sew my own clothing. I kept it up and still sew though I gave up embroidery a few years ago when my fingers went south and I couldn't hold a small needle comfortably. 

As an adult I approached embroidery as an art form, not something done on pillowcases but as art to hang on the wall. I studied embroidery in London from some of the finest artists of the day and took dozens of local workshops and eventually taught classes and workshops to other women who were interested in applying the basics of art such as color, design, composition to making art using fabric and thread.
 


Zinnia
Jo Reimer, c. 1980
26" x 26"
Mixed Media Embroidery

 

I enjoyed piecing fabrics to serve as interesting backgrounds on which to stitch. I worked by hand and machine and gradually rekindled an interest in quilting, and developed skills in surface design on fabric which involved painting, dying, applique, and printing, thinking I'd use these fabrics in quilts.  My sewing studio in our new home was featured in Dream Sewing Spaces by Lynette Raney Black, page 12.

 

International travel related to business led me to designing patterns for garments with hidden pockets to be worn by women travelers to protect travel papers.

Then I realized I had had enough.  I sold my pattern company, www.saf-t-pockets.com, packed the quilting fabric and the embroidery thread and the roomful of sewing supplies and stored them out of sight, converting my sewing studio into a paint friendly space. I didn't divorce myself from sewing but viewed it as a trial separation, knowing that this new experiment might not work for me.

I had a growing interest in learning to paint and had even traveled in Greece with a group of painters hoping to learn to paint in watercolor. I needed to know more and decided to develop my own art curriculum by taking classes and workshops that would fill in the gaps in my art knowledge. I wasn't methodical about it but the first step was developing my fledgling drawing skills by enrolling in a couple of terms of drawing classes with a good local teacher.  He also taught a beginning painting class and I learned to handle acrylics.

The internet was instrumental in offering support to my art interests. I was an early member of LK Ludwig's artistsjournal group on Yahoo, an early altered books group, and hosted a few online groups of my own - a postcard art exchange and an exchange featuring art and short stories about ancestors. This is how I developed my collage skills, though I had done lots of applique as part of embroidery.  

  (Applique is collage using fabric and stitching instead of paper and glue.)

 

Self Portrait for Ancestor Deck
Jo Reimer, 2003
6" x 10"

 My earliest immersion in watercolor was in 1991, I started painting full time in 1998, and I now work with all sorts of water-based media, primarily acrylic. I have made watercolor paintings but I prefer acrylics. I enjoy mixing media, i.e. watercolor + acrylic + pastels + collage + graphite and ink, and like working in layers.

So, my advice to Margaret was this: you don't have to give up your first love of quilting. Simply fold up your fabrics and put them in temporary storage. Put away your sewing machine and notions and clear your workspace for playing with something new. Don't think of it as turning your back on an old friend. It isn't about giving up quilting so much as it is giving yourself time to explore.

Use the things you already have (pencils, paints, paper, scissors, glue, dye...) and start working with what you own, investing only what you can afford in new supplies. Explore the options. This is an experiment. Take an art class, something basic like drawing, or composition, or color mixing. Visit local galleries, explore art on Pinterest, and figure out what sort of art you like. If you identify a local artist or art teacher see if they might welcome you into their studio.

Above all, WORK.  Set aside studio hours and spend them working. Don't be self critical. Just do the work. Read about art. Write about art, yours and other's. As a quilter you have so many skills already that will transfer directly to painting. Simply apply what you know to another area of art.

With each new media give yourself enough time to explore. By that I mean set a length of time that you will give yourself to studying that particular media. If it's working with acrylic, for instance, give yourself over to working with acrylic for 3 to 6 months, not just a few days, and not for a lifetime. Set limits and do your best to figure out if this is for you or not.

I've done that with oils. I've taken 3 five-day workshops from good teachers concentrating on oil painting and I've worked at home with oils. I like the media, but my studio is open to the rest of my home (sort of a big loft) and the smell eventually permeated the rest of my home, so I gave up on oil. I gave some away but kept some because I might be in a different situation some day. I've chosen to stick with water-based media and anything that will work with water clean-up.

Please leave your comments or ask questions in the comment section below.
Jo

Titles

Interplay
by Jo Reimer
7.5 x 7.5"
Collage on paper

We're home from a visit in Texas with old friends and while I did manage to draw every day I have done little since returning home to good weather and large weeds. Now I'm back to my rather loose attempt to make time every day for art, even if it's something small such as the above collage or smaller greeting card sized pieces or a drawing in my sketchbook. I'm making no excuses. I like working small and finishing fast.

Collage suits me. I've done this sort of work for so long now that it feels like coming home when I sit down to my table and sort through bits of color and pattern, looking for just the right pieces of painted papers to puzzle together.

But I do have a painting that's percolating in my mind. It might be called 10 Days in Texas. Or maybe not. It might turn out to be something un-nameable.  When that happens I go through my lists of names and titles, or even consult the dictionary until I find a word that fits.

Some people are so good with titles. One such artist and wordsmith, the printmaker Anne Moore who uses titles like Approaching Stillness, Driving Force, and Interplay. I'd love to get into her head to see how she comes up with such appropriate ones. Does the work come first or does the work follow the title?

How do YOU come up with your good titles? I'm searching for a better way.