Complicita gets a Face Lift

        One of the troubles about working in the fragile medium of paper, is that it is so susceptible to negative reactions from the elements.  The first version began to fade-- the printed plaid picnic cloth melting into pink and the halo-mane losing brilliance, even though it was not subjected to direct sunlight. It was time to give Little Miss Paula's recurring living nightmare (also defined as little white lies) a new life, more permanent materials.  We must remember our little daemons, and take care of them for they keep us on our toes, and not to let foolishness overtake our intelligent hearts.

Little Miss Paula's Pic-a-nic Daemon, 2016

Acrylic on Canvas Paper

20" x 20" x 3"

        While working on the little daemon, it began to become so personal, with memories snatched from my childhood, that I christened it Complicita  de la Piccanini, daughter of James LeCrowe, who began appearing in multiple sightings, in the latter half of the 19th Century.  No matter how many little white lies we tell ourselves that it doesn't exist, or how much we love the dear sweet lil' childe, the presence of the little daemons we have inherited from our forefathers will continue to appear in the picnic of life, until we all share the banquet of life.

     Here is the original from 2013:  

Uncle Finbarr joins the Gods

Uncle Finbarr began as Uncle Harald, with a wild fringe of hair placed on a white face; his inspiration was from Freddie, a fisherman, who, off season, sometimes worked for Chuck & I in the kitchen doing prep at our restaurant.  He talked to the food as he prepped.  One day I asked him: "Did I hear you talking to Mr. Tuna again?"  He told me his dreams of catching "Mr. Tuna", a Moby Dick sized dream of the ultimate prize fish--bringing glory and fortune to the weary fisherman.  Living on the Harbor in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where the Merrimac meets the Atlantic, Freddies stories enhanced the romance of our seaside home.  
Freddies tales became:

Uncle Harald Weaves Tales of the Sea

(2013) 11 x18

My love of this work like a good yarn, grew in my imagination, and Uncle Harald became Uncle Finbarr, after reading a story of a wild Scandinavian fisherman by that name.And now a revival has come upon the shore.  Reborn into a broader sea, with the intercession of Neptune, he has become: 

Lord Finbarr, Weaver of Gotaway Fishtales and Dampened Dreams

 Handmade, watercolor, enameled and canvas papers, 2016

13" x 20"

On Honeyflies and Butterbees

Oh, Gods so oft forgotten

and Goddesses gone before

there are times when we seem to need you

ever more and more

Seems we human beings, when we begin to moan

have a dreadful habit of messing up our home

sometimes so bright and pretty

well fed and happy so

Then we court our own disaster

the few pile gold and wealth

which brightens no one's future

nor strengthens the people's health

And in that lust our ignorance

seeks the help from a priest of god

that simply assuage the masters 

who  force with gun and rod

But when we kill the miniscule

the birds the bees the fish the bat

we lose the benefits of life and

we realise the world is built on that

Our hearts now open to the need, 

we call upon the winds of yore

we seek loved gods and goddesses

 we invented to serve before

Apyariadnae

Goddess of Honeyflies and Butterbees

(on white background)

16 x 16 x 2 Cut Paper

 (on red wall, afternoon light)

Completed 10/07/2016

copyright james m. frase-white

A New Old Fish From the Realms of Glory

A books of Angels, which I'd purchased as gifts for my daughter and a friend, included several versions of the Angel of the Apocalypse, one in particular in a tetraptych, that is, composed of 4 panels or wings.  I did a my version beginning as a painting, planning to turn it into a stained glass window.  The window was not created but the work grew from the initial 2 foot square watercolor into a  3' x 3' 4-Panel Paper Cutting in 2013 (see link below to view full work).  The upper left quadrant of the original mock up is the angel in the red circle below. 

The Angel of the Apocalypse, version 1

(Detail) Gouache mock up for Stained Glass Window  (8" x 8")

[See link below]

September 2009

Sketch  3" x 3"

made during a faculty meeting 2010 or 11

 Angel/Man on Flying Fish (in Vermont, of course) 

Watercolor 16 x 12

2012

The Angel Gabriel Announces the Apocalypse 

(Panel 1 of 4) 2013

To see complete work of all four panels, please check out my webpage, go to the page titled  A Gallery of Paperworks  then view the slide show:  The Apoclypse Myth

www.frasewhitepaperglass.com

Gabriel Calls the End of the Beginning 

 begun 2012, completed August 12, 2016

This recently completed Watercolor was found, half done, in a pile of old works.

I started playing with this overgrown cherub until satisfied, sharing a certain boisterous innocence to replace a told-you-so type of somewhat sinister rejoicing that some seem to feel (or so it appears to me) about this rumor of this peculiar religious destruction and end of the world by its reported creator.  16 x 12

Makemake in the Realm of the Dwarves

The dismissal of Pluto from the realm of the major planets was at first a letdown, as if, unlike the Ancient God, the heavenly body had been treated like the Disney cartoon. Astronomers have now discovered that Pluto is no longer "in the doghouse, but in a neighborhood with a litter" of dwarf planets, including the Hawaiian named Makemake.  The canine reference stops here.  Below are two paintings and a stained glass window I have done in the past year, the last two more recently, on the fascinating subject of those mysterious worlds, so far, yet eternally so close to us and our beloved god, the Sun.

"A Feather on the Breath of God"

14 x 18, Gouache & Watercolor

"Red Feather Dwarf:  Searching for Makemake"

12 x 16, Gouache, Acrylic & Watercolor

"In the Realm of the Dwarves"

Stained Glass, 30 x 28

Looking East

As above, Looking North

changling

From a Babe left upon the step in the middle of night, this changeling is a paper metamorph. Once transformed into human form, like the caterpillar to cocoon to adult, he (in this instance) ages, waiting full moons, maybe, to manifest into what?

   This work evolved, the name captured in a passing conversation: all works are products of mystery and magic, skill manipulated, but truly with a 'mind' of its own.  

"changeling"

6/26/2016

Mixed papers: Enameled paper, cardstock, rice paper

14 x 11 x 2

And waiting in the corner of my paper room window:

a flock of changelings

Retired Gods

This is a time of religious turmoil when few seem to get along, and the fight of Them against Us or Us against Them reeks and explodes in the headlines day and night.  All the gods, divided as they are within the religions themselves, the Moslem (Shiite and the Sunni), The Christians, (Orthodox, Coptic, Catholic and the multitude of Protestant sects), the Hindu and Buddhist, Shinto and Zoroastrian, and all those I have not included, all  claim to deserve/demand our respect, of them and those who believe in them.  This being so, we also need to respect the gods of the past, as we do our ancestors.  These supernatural deities are manifest in our imaginations, in our stories, our truths and fictions.  Several of these gods have come into my scope and have resulted in this homage to the Forgotten Gods.  

Lord Flyfishing Flyingfish
God of Flyingfish
3/30/2016

Cut Paper

18" Circle

Lord Ichneumon Spiderweb

God of Frighteningly Beautiful Innocent Insects
3/29/2016

Cut Paper/Mixed Media
18" x 18"

Poetry Made Visible

A new exhibit at Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild, Poetry Made Visible features works by 16 Artisans from the Northeast Kingdom.  Included are the two works below, which began life as poems.  The exhibit runs from 13 January until 2 March, 2016.  It is also the first show that I curated, tutored by Joan Harlowe, who is training me to take on the  position of Gallery Coordinator for the Back Room Gallery,  at the NEK Artisans Guild, 430 Railroad St., St. Johnsbury, Vt.  Check out our website at: www.nekartisansguild.com