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

Playing with Shapes & Color

It all began with a reject:  a big bubble up in a circular cobalt blue glass that I had fired in my kiln.  There are traces of yellow enamel.  I could not use it for the intended glasswork, so assigned it to the "can't quite discard pile."   I set it down next to  white and blue triangles.  Playing, like this:

Trying to find just a combination that titillates the senses, and creates a uniform idea, a concept, that is abstract yet coherent.  Using paper to simulate stained glass, a basic symmetry of emotion will eventually ring true.  The result, half the size is below.  The bubble has been changed for blue water glass, the clear for yellow:  Size is 9 1/2" x 14".

Over my cutting table is my old license plate, ARTBOOK, from our former home in New Hampshire, the state motto emblazoned across the top, the last two words,"or die" are taped out.  I have created a new flag, with a new pro-life alternative: "Live Free and Fly."  Ask the pink deer.

Glassed for Winter in the Studio

The last two, of four, storm windows, to replace the unseemly plastic that keeps the drafts at bay in my upstairs studio in this 175 year old, rickety house, are done.  They were such fun to do; I reconditioned (i.e. broke, cut and pieced old storm windows, adorning some with stained glass, from reused or disowned sections of old works into functional art.

The Bubble Window

28 x 45

For the Glass Room, which looks out to the S

And the woods on the mountainside,

Tamarac, Pines and Apple Trees

("Fisheye: Suncatcher dangles on the Upper Right)

The same from outside

T-Square Window

28 x 42

In the Green Bedroom, looking SE over the Pantry/Kitchen Roof

Morning Sunlight

Glazing Deceptions: When Stained Glass isn't

I was recently shaken when I realized that a favorite artist had fooled me.  He had adapted some of his world famous woodcuts for use in stained glass windows, which he'd removed from an old 19th century church.  These formed central focal medallions of the windows in place of biblical or masonic images.  Looking at the panels, I had assumed that they'd been meticulously transferred onto glass, stained, and then fired in colors replicating the originals.  Upon close inspection, I recognized that they were thin plastic replicas that had been adhered to plain glass. An illusion was shattered.  He'd cheated!  With that in mind, I have borrowed the technique to create a storm window for my studio, in the "paper" room.

The Window BEFORE

This is the window before creating the new storm window.  My early Herakles from the 1990's rests against the window, several 'discards' grace the top section.

(taken in the early morning:   the dew as yet has not been kissed by Jack)

The window AFTER with new storm inserted

St. Francis & the Goldfish

(25 1/2 x 40 1/2)

The Center Panel is a Replica of:

St. Francis Preaching to the Birds, circa 1335

Abby Church, Koningsveld, Switzerland

It is plastic film  which I sandwiched between two panels of  clear glass.

I found it in a very smelly junk shop in Ossipee, NH many, many moons ago.  It was sold as a puzzle--maybe a souvenir-- in a plastic bag. I paid probably a $1 for.

  The fish that surround it are real stained glass, which I indeed did make, painting & firing the goldfish into blue glass.  Each square is 5" x 5". 

 These fish, honest-to-goodness stained glass,are a tribute to the window pictured below, that I created inspired by the plastic model and the song, "St. Anthony Preaches to the Fishes" based on the Brentano poem, from Gustav Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

St. Anthony Preaches to the Fishes (30 x 35) 
This can be viewed at the Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild, 430 Railroad Street, 
St. Johnsbury, Vermont

Jack Frost is knocking

It is that time of year when heat begins to find the cracks and crevices to seep out of the interior of this house, built in the 1840's.  The old pane windows upstairs and unused-in-winter doorways get coverings of glass or plastic.  Here is the beginnings of a new storm window hall window upstairs, in the still-unfinished room, which serves as a gallery for my works.  The stairwell connecting it to the downstairs dining room has been closed off for the season.
Here is the beginning of the design on the worktable:

 Silver Solder, Gold Foil Stages

Center panel for Storm window

14" Circle, Gold bubbled & Champagne Water Glass

(Early Afternoon Sun from the South)

And here it is completed in place in the Hallway

25 1/2 " x 40 3/4"

Morning Light from the East