Zabriskie Point

I have been visiting Death Valley for decades, and always finding it inspiring.  Typically, I paint it in a more presentational manner.  But this latest version of Zabriskie Point is more focused on that unique palette.  

A Different Kind of Landscape

Arches National Park, mixed media on paper 9″x12″

A Catalog of Collage Objects

Like any collage artist, I run the risk of becoming a hoarder.  When you make collage, you are always on the hunt for objects to use.  Boxes of collage fodder begin to fill up and then, when are you going to get around to using it all? MUNI passes going back to your 1990 arrival in San Francisco, Czech matchbox labels, vintage cigarette cards purchased in New Zealand 25 years back, fortune cookie fortunes from years of lunch specials. It all just keeps accumulating. 

My collage work has evolved.   Nowadays I tend to make my own material by painting paper, cutting and reassembling.  I really have little reason to save these things anymore.  In an effort to thin out the hoard I have been creating artist books and then purging, recycling, donating and giving away the rest.  

My latest effort is a A Catalog of Collage Objects  where each pair of pages is dedicated to 19 different ephemeral objects.  Some of the highlights are show here.

Back to Richmond, California

Sometimes I come across an old postcard that is so unique, it is too good to cut-up for my art.   This postcard booklet of Richmond, California is an example of one that was just special. It was given to me by a friend who had pile of her late Uncle Bill’s postcards. He had saved them for decades.  

In July 1945 Helen Ausenbaum was in Richmond and working for the Red Cross when she mailed this to her brother Bill who was stationed in Europe. By that time Captain Ausenbaum had fought across Europe.  A year before he landed at Normandy in a glider.  He was at the Battle of the Bulge and with the 82nd Airborne when they liberated the Wöbbelin Concentration Camp.  Uncle Bill was awarded both the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Last year I contacted the Rosie the Riveter WWII Homefront National Historic Parkand asked if they wanted the postcard booklet for their collection, which they did.  Recently it was added to one of their exhibits.  I wonder what Helen and Bill would say about this simple postcard coming back to Richmond, 74 years later, and being an historic artifact in a national park museum.

If you have never visited the Rosie the Riveter National Historic Park, I highly recommend it.  It honors the thousands of women and men who contributed to the war effort at home during World War II while presenting a fascinating chapter of history.  It also serves as reminder for the present.  Reminding us what we can accomplish if we all come together, work hard and are willing to make sacrifices for the common good.  The park offers a lesson plan for the fight to combat climate change.

Marin Coast

Marin Coast, acrylic on paper, 12"x9"

One of the best parts of San Francisco is our wilderness backyard just across the Golden Gate Bridge.  The Marin Headlandsare a world away yet only a quick ride across the bridge. On weekends, you can even take the MUNI 76x– it always please me to see that bus from the city winding over the hills.  I have hiked up and above Fort Cronkhite countless times and it has always been an inspiration for my art.  The Adventure Peopleeven had a photo shoot on one occasion.  This latest painting is of the view looking down to Tennessee Cove. It is at the end of trail that was closed for years.  The drop off at the edge is a bit scary, but it’s worth the view.

Printing Death Valley

 

I believe the last time I was carving out linoleum and making block prints was when I was student.  Maybe it was the visible geologic time machine of Death Valley that inspired me after last weekend’s trip to the desert.  This one comes from a long morning hike way back into Mosaic Canyon – one of my favorite places in the national park.

The National Park in the Backyard

Even when I travel all over the Western United States it is easy to forget that I can find myself in a national park by taking a walk for all of 45 minutes.  Living closer to Golden Gate Park, I often “forget” about the Presidio — our national park right in San Francisco.

I have been meaning to check out Andy Goldworthy’s Spire for, I realized, nearly 10 years.  It is one of four installations he has created for the Presidio (details here). We started at Wood Line and then hiked up to Spire.  By the time we got down the hill, the building that house Tree Fall was closed, but we saw the latest installation Earth Wall in the courtyard of the Presidio Officers’ Club.   I had, mistakenly, assumed the Presidio Officers’ Club was essentially used as event space.  Yes, it is an event space, but it also home to a fantastic and free history museum.  What a discovery!  Before taking MUNI back home we had a peak at the brand new and fabulous Visitor Center.  I do love big government when we spend money on our national parks.

Take a Hike! — National Park ATCs

There is a great deal of expectation for artists to respond to the lunatic and his cronies that have occupied our White House.  As an artist I feel compelled to respond and yet I am torn.  I rather not let such negative energy into my art space. I want to make pleasant art and let my head escape to the national parks I love.  It is remarkable that something as innocuous as National Park-themed ATC’s could be perceived as something political. But these are remarkable times when our federal lands, lands protected for future generations, are under siege.   Even the voices of park rangers are being censored. Today’s outgoing mail art includes artist trading cards with the “radical” notion that the land administered by the National Park Service is to be loved and protected.

Revealed Landscapes

One of my projects this winter includes a new, 20-page sketchbook that includes paintings of nine places that are part of the National Park Service.  Like many painters, I often notice smaller paintings within a larger work.  Sometimes I even trim a painting on paper to “save” the part that works and discard the bits I am not pleased with.  With this sketchbook, each 10”x10” paintings is preceded by a page where a 4”x4” square has been cut out.  The square frames a “smaller” and often abstract painting.  Only when the page is turned, is the larger painting revealed.