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.