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

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