My art work will be showing at Prairie Arts Collective the month of August 2016 at Paseo in Okc Oklahoma, I will be showing my poppy mamas and the way they have evolved during the process of making them. The idea came from growing poppies in my garden. The softness in color to the bold colors and the delicate almost transparent petals gave me the idea to reinvent them into my poppy mamas. I have gone on a journey to explore many different mixed mediums to create the images that will be showing in this show.
Prairie Arts Collective
"Embrace All"
"Embrace All" represents all people. I feel all people should be treated equal. It doesn't matter who they are or what color they are or where their from. We must learn to live together in a peaceful manner.
This picture represents my son and I. Its titled "Embrace" because when my son was born all I knew was I was having a baby boy. In a few years I realized he was gay. He had been born gay and I embraced him with my love. I have a daughter and a son whom I love very much. The Orlando situation where forty nine young gay and straight people were killed is why I did this particular piece. June 12 2016 was one of the saddest days of my life. I just couldn't believe what had happened. The thought that the young people that were killed scared me knowing this could happen to my son as well as any other young gay person. I hope in my lifetime that this hatred that makes an individual do something as hideous as this will come to an end.
With all the issues surrounding gender I decided to use pink and blue for the poppy moms. Everyone seems concerned about transgenders and the restroom policies. I have many transgender student that I teach in my high school. I feel that this young people are not a threat to the general public restrooms. That doesn't mean that there aren't individuals who are. My picture shows pregnant mom poppies one with a blue body to represent the male sex and a pregnant mom poppy that's pink to represent the female sex. I switched the color of the babies to the opposite color of the sex. I wanted this piece to show the loving nature of a mom even when the mom finds out their child is transgender. Having said that I know this isn't always the case. In my art world in a perfect scenario people would be accepting and loving of every individual.
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Gender
With all the issues surrounding gender I decided to use pink and blue for the poppy moms. Everyone seems concerned about transgenders and the restroom policies. I have many transgender student that I teach in my high school. I feel that this young people are not a threat to the general public restrooms. That doesn't mean that there aren't individuals who are. My picture shows pregnant mom poppies one with a blue body to represent the male sex and a pregnant mom poppy that's pink to represent the female sex. I switched the color of the babies to the opposite color of the sex. I wanted this piece to show the loving nature of a mom even when the mom finds out their child is transgender. Having said that I know this isn't always the case. In my art world in a perfect scenario people would be accepting and loving of every individual.
"Poppies"
The thought behind my poppy art work is from growing poppies in my garden. A friend gave me poppy seeds two winters ago. I spread the seeds like she suggested and last spring I had my first poppy blooms. I was so excited because I have always loved poppies. The details inside of the poppies are amazing and very intrigue. Every morning this spring i have walked out to look at the many colors and designs of these beautiful flowers. I smile with delight when I see them. This spring I have so many more poppies than last year. I have ordered many more poppy seeds to plant this winter. The honey bees relish the honey in the poppies and that should help save the bees. My goal is to have a much larger wild flower garden in the near future I take photographs of my poppies and I use them for my art work. This gives me the opportunity to keep my poppy art work fresh and new.
"A wattle" This piece is in the 2016-2018 biennial traveling exhibition of work by living artist Oklahoma artist.
My new wattle was build on aquarelle arches 300lb. paper as the base. I water colored the base in blue greens and printed several designs in pink, red, and orange. The erosion was build with several layers of bfk rives paper and water colored with indigo blue and a yellow gold. They were accented with dark red and orange. I outlined the shapes with white ink. The wattle was also build up with many layers of the bfk rives paper. I water colored the wattle with difference shades of red watercolor. The wattle was outlined in white ink. I ran bright water colors through the inside of the wattle. Those shapes were outlined in black ink. That step finish the process of making the wattle.
Straw Wattle
This "Straw Wattle" is "22x"22. This is my largest straw wattle I have made. I painted the edges by blending bright colored watercolor and fluid acrylic. I printed the design on top of the watercolor with the bottom of a spool of thread and outlined the shapes with white ink. I water colored the space between the wattle with bright colors using brush strokes. I outlined the brush strokes with white ink. The white wattle was build up using many layers of BFK Rives paper. I hand tore all of the pieces of the white paper in a variety of sizes. I then started forming the wattle on top of aquarelle arches 300lb. paper and gluing down the torn paper. I accented a few of the torn pieces with a peach colored water color and a ink around those pieces with peach colored ink. After I had the torn paper the thickness I wanted I water colored it a light aqua. I inked around all of the torn paper with black ink. I then added tiny colored dots on top of the wattle. The wattles are exciting to make because I never know what spiral shape I will end up with.
A Straw Wattle
I used complementary colors on this straw wattle. I put many layers of hand torn paper to build depth and glued it down on a thicker piece of white paper. I then water colored the wattle in different shades of greens with accents of red, orange and pink and outlined each piece of the layered paper in black ink. The background colors were added by printing different objects into the background in a variety of colors, I outlined the background colors in white ink. I finished the piece by adding several tiny dots of colored into the wattle.
A Straw Wattle
A Straw Wattle was created as part of my Erosion Series. I added paper on a painted and printed background that was outlined in white ink. The background was done on aquarelle 300 pound paper. The paper was hand torn in small pieces of bfk rives paper and glued down on the background. I then added many more layers of hand torn paper. The layered paper was water colored in shades of yellow, orange, purple and brown. I inked around the torn paper in black ink. The last step was very tiny ink dots of color added to the straw wattle.
Erosion #4
Erosion #4 is a mixed media and I used BFK Rives torn paper on top of Aquarelle Arches 300 lb paper to build the erosion areas. These areas are build higher than the paper. I layered the gray areas with 4-5 pieces of hand torn BFK paper. I printed the background with many found objects. I use several different colors to layer the background. I hand cut the letters to the word erosion and printed the letters into the background. The overall effect was to show erosion as I see it when I am in Bueno Vista Colorado when I am on the jeep trails in a jeep. The rainfall and the snow from the mountains creates erosion on the trails. It's a beautiful road trip that I take in the summer.
"Spirals In A Landscape"
"Spirals In A Landscape" was done on aquarelle arches 300lb. cold press. I used watercolors,acrylic, coffee sleeves, and ink. I printed the rectangles with a thicker paint and let them dry. I then added many layers of watercolor on top of the rectangles. I hand cut different images and print them inside of the rectangles. I added three spirals made of coffee sleeves and put one in each rectangle. I use several different ink pens to outline the shapes and spaces.
Birds Nesting in Spirals
I am working on this new piece. This piece is larger ("28x"22), I use aquarelle arches 300lb cold press watercolor paper to create my collages. I use layers of color to create the final piece and cut out the spirals from the watercolor paper and print them onto the large paper. I add pieces of gum wrappers and coffee sleeves to make my picture more interesting. I am using watercolor, acrylic, and cardboard as the mediums. I didn't work on my art this weekend. The picture is divided into 8 panels. It is Monday February 1st and back to work inking the panels. I am working on panel 4 through 8 this week. Hoping to get it finished by Friday.