Lyrical Thursdays: Warm Summer Sun

Here in Michigan, winter has held on like a baby to long hair - with a vice grip that can be painful at times.  (Is that a weird analogy?)  Today it was finally one of those spring days where all you want to do is sit outside in the warm sun in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops, even though it's only 55 degrees.  But come on, after 20-30 degree weather for weeks on end, 55 is practically tropical. 

To celebrate the day, I took a little road trip - to Hell, Michigan.  It's only about 25 miles or so from where I live, and not too much past Dexter, where my show is up currently.  Since I had to go fix a frame at the show, I thought I'd just keep going!  I'll write more about my trip to Hell in the next few days (for a preview, you can look at my tweets about it on the side of my blog), but both the warm sun and the metaphorical warmth of actual Hell (Hell, MI is still defrosting after this frigid winter) made me decide to choose this painting and poem for today.  Both are in the Dexter show (which you should go check out!).  I'll include below the blurb I have next to the painting as well as, of course, the poem.

Encaustic painting is the use of heated beeswax with colored pigments added.  When painting with the beeswax, it can become quite warm, as the wax has to be melted and reheated over and over to gain the desired effect.  All of this heat made me think of the warmth of the sun, and this poem by Mark Twain.  I tried to bring the tendrils of warm colors up through the cool blue to reach out to those who need it so much after the sharp, bitter cold of winter.

Warm Summer Sun

Mark Twain

Warm summer sun,

Shine kindly here,

Warm southern wind,

Blow softly here.

Green sod above,

Lie light, light light.

Good night, dear heart,

Good night, good night.

Warm Summer Sun by Moi
Encaustic on Panel

Lyrical Thursdays: This Is Just To Say

Today has been cold.  Really cold.  The kind of cold where you really want to be careful about sticking your tongue onto metal surfaces outdoors or you'll have a Christmas Story-esque experience.  (For the record, I think you might want to be careful about sticking your tongue onto metal surfaces outdoors like, any time of year.  Germs, man.  Germs.)  This image led me to start thinking about how, if your hand is wet when you reach in to get ice cubes from the freezer, the cubes stick to your fingers, which in turn got me thinking about ice boxes and sweet, cold plums eaten by someone sneaky, which is the basis of today's poem.

The poem, titled This Is Just To Say, is by William Carlos Williams and is also another I've used in a painting:

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten 

the plums

that were in

the ice box

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

Painting by yours truly - oil & mixed media
on 8 x 8" panel

For this painting I knew I'd have purple (for the plums), and wanted to play around with complimentary colors so I put a yellow in the background.  I also used acrylic gel medium mixed with white sand to get a snowy, icy texture in the painting over the collaged words, with the purple plum shapes floating over and under.  (Click on the image above for a closer look.)  Part of me always wants to go back and keep reworking the painting (this is the case with all of my paintings...), but I also like it the way it is.  (I'm not the first to create a painting based on a poem by Williams, but more on that another Thursday!)

One of the things that I love about this poem is how simple it is.  Someone had delicious plums waiting for them in the ice box - maybe they were saving them for breakfast when they really would hit the spot - and someone else ate them.  I can almost picture the words of the poem written on a sticky note stuck to the counter, to be found by an irate roommate in the eater's absence:

Of course Williams may have had different, deeper meanings to the poem, but I enjoy its apparent simplicity, the cadence of the words, and the picture they paint (literally and figuratively).  Others have also been inspired by Williams' words, and I'll leave you with an example that had me laughing on Twitter last week:

Happy Thursday!

Lyrical Thursdays: Desert Places

Here in Michigan we got a few inches of snow the week after Christmas.  It was nice, really, since we barely got any snow last winter (though the winter before was a doozy).  While snow can be a pain to clean off cars and sidewalks and to drive in, there's still something so magical about it.  It's so peaceful as it falls, dampening the noise of the world and covering everything with the purest white blanket.

The snow inspired me to post a couple of poems about, you guessed it...snow!  I'll post one this week and one next.  The poems are both by Robert Frost - apparently he was very affected by snow!  The first one is called Desert Places.  Like with Millay's Sorrow, I was inspired to do a small painting based on this poem:

These paintings I did based on poems were releases for me.  I did them in the midst of the chaos of my last year of grad school, when I was busy working on very detailed paintings that took most of my concentration to do.  When I needed a break, I'd turn to where I had a few small panels set up and let loose with color, with palette knives, and with various oil painting mediums.  Sometimes I liked the results, sometimes I really hated them!  I was usually aiming to capture the mood of the poem more than the actual image the poet was painting.

I'll let you decide whether this painting captured the poem or not.  Here it is:

Desert Places

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast

In a field I looked into going past,

And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,

But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it - it is theirs.

All animals are smothered in their lairs.

I am too absent-spirited to count;

The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is that loneliness

Will be more lonely ere it will be less -

A blanker whiteness of benighted snow

With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces

Between the stars - on stars where no human race is.

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places.

Lyrical Thursdays

Last weekend some friends of mine allowed me to turn their apartment into a very awesome gallery space.  I hung around 30 paintings as well as a few old prints and a drawing.  It turned out really well!  My sister took a few panoramic shots as we finished setting things up for the evening:

It was really nice to look at paintings I hadn't looked at in a while - that have been sitting in plastic waiting for me to do something with them.  But really the best part of the evening was being able to talk to people about my work.  

As an artist, there is a process I go through with each painting, and it's different for each one.  Some are simply paintings of a beautiful or familiar thing.  But for many of my paintings, there's more to it: emotions I was feeling at the time, emotional attachments to a place/object/person I am painting, a concept I'm trying to get across, capturing a piece of history, etc.  I know that that is happening in each painting, but the viewer might not.

I truly love to find out what other people are thinking when they look at a painting I've done. While I might have all of the things mentioned above going through my head, knowing my history behind it, other people bring their own experiences into each painting and reflect their lives onto them.  A painting I created to express sadness and melancholy, for example, might evoke completely different emotions in someone else.  The visual language of a painting is translated into words spoken about it, and that enriches me every time!

A lot of my work deals with words in different ways and forms.  Some ways are obvious:

And others are a little more subtle:

This love of words starts in literature, threads through poetry and music and ends up splashed on a canvas (OK, let's be real, it ends up meticulously painted on a canvas) in ways that celebrate language - spoken, written, and visual language.  

In talking to attendees of my exhibit last weekend (titled "Tangentials" - since I had a lot of tangents going there...) about the above painting with the brown chair in it, I got to talking a lot about poetry and how it's influenced me and my work.  The more I talked, the more I wished I had a way to share my favorite poems in ways other than subtly included in a painting.  

And then I realized...I have a blog!

So, today is born the first of (hopefully many) Lyrical Thursdays, where I share with you my favorite poems (and go exploring for new ones!).  I may have something to say about the poem, or I may just share it and leave saying things up to you!  

Since this post is already long, I'll share a very short poem with you by one of my favorite poets, Edna St. Vincent Millay (I may post more about this poem at another time):

First Fig

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light! 

Happy Thursday!

The Artist's Corner A/V Club: Watercolor Lettering

Robot Tuesday's Artist's Corner is going techno!  Technological, that is.  I'm adding a new feature: The Artist's Corner A/V Club instructional videos.  My first one is a bit of an experiment, both in subject matter and video execution.  In other words, I hadn't done watercolor lettering before, and it was my first time making this type of video.  (Here's a link to it on YouTube.)

I didn't do a voiceover, so here are the basic instructions for doing watercolor lettering.

Step 1. Gather your supplies: a small piece of watercolor paper, a pencil (I prefer HB or harder when drawing something out for a painting), watercolor paints, a small round brush, water cup, paper towel.

Step 2. Write out the letter or word that you're going to be painting.  For the C, I did simple bubble lettering with a little flourish.  For my name and "Watercolor Lettering" (at the beginning of the video), I wrote it out in cursive, and then added lines to make a ribbon-like effect.

*Tip* When I do a watercolor painting, I don't like the pencil lines to show.  So, after I draw something out, I will take a kneaded eraser, roll it up into a snake (like you used to do as a kid with Play-doh) and carefully roll it over what I've drawn to lighten up all of the lines.

Step 3. Paint!  I did a wet-on-dry technique, where the paper wasn't wetted down before painting (more on that in another tutorial).  If you're just starting out it might be good to do some larger letters first until you get the hang of it, and then go to smaller.  Make sure your brush fits the size, too.  Small brush for small letter, etc.

The key with this is, as you did with your coloring books as a child, to stay inside the lines!  Take your time - in this case water marks (what happens when some of the paint dries before the rest) can be a good thing and can create a cool effect.

Choose your color palette beforehand and make sure the colors you choose are wet and ready to go before you start.  I chose an Alizarin Crimson (my favorite!), Cadmium Red, an orange (that I mixed), Dioxazine Violet, and a cool yellow for a little detail.  Let the colors mix as you paint!

Let me know how they turn out!  If you have questions, post them here or email me at katherinedownieartist(at)gmail(dot)com.

Leave of Absence

And then I walked downstairs and he was like, "what?"  And I was like, "yesterday."  

...So I thought I'd start out this post as if we were in the middle of a conversation instead of the cold, hard truth - that I haven't posted anything in months.  Months!  Here's a little run-down of what I've been up to and why my posts have been scarce:

• wrote a paper and gave a presentation on Frank Lloyd Wright and his principles of organic expression (for school)
• painted.  A LOT.
• wrote and rewrote my artist's statement (9 pages now) and read a lot of James Elkins' The Domain of Images (very interesting, but takes a lot of rereading...)  
• worked a lot
• continued to work in the young women's program at church
• continued chairing the Wee Folks Island committee for the Saline Celtic Festival
• continued on as treasurer of the Kendall MFA Club
• got a stomach virus
• got a Twitter account
• got a painting into the Michigan Water Color Society's annual show, this year being held in Birmingham, MI!
• had a painting in a show at a place called Braaaaaaiiiiinnnnssss 
• worked on my plan to take over the world (shhhh - it's a secret!)
• worked on stuff for my website - COMING SOON!

A mini preview of one of
my most recent paintings -
it's 7' tall, 7" wide, & in oil

Here's what I didn't do:

• post on my blog
• have a social life
• get normal amounts of sleep
• eat healthy
• exercise

What it boils down to is that the second list is becoming my list of things to do this summer!  I'll still be working from list one (painting, working, seeking after world domination, etc), but hope to intersperse some things that are a little more fun alongside sleeping and trying to fit back into my pants.  I'll also be teaching a few youth art classes, an adult drawing class, as well as a workshop on Frank Lloyd Wright on May 15.  (I'm becoming obsessed...there may or may not be a post about him soon...I can't help it!)

I'm hoping that this summer, while being busy in preparation for graduation in December, will be full of adventures!  They may be local, inexpensive adventures (who knew grad students were so broke all the time...?), but they are going to be AMAZING.  I'll keep you posted (no pun intended)!