Mixed Media for March

Six Black Birds  30 x 20 x 3

Working on new pieces for myself and the shop.  This is part of my altar series in that the "frames" were originally designed for pieces based upon Mexican and Spanish altar pieces.  They've morphed into what you see here and below - though they still feel altar-ish to me.  I've got this thing for grapevine tendrils.  I'm sure it's related to my fascination with spirals Equiangular/Spirals (a posting of a couple years back.)  But it's also due to their nature if you will.  As a sometimes basket maker and fiber artist, I've great familiarity with the tensile strength and spring-back qualities of grape tendrils even after being stored for years.

A Singular Path (sold)

And they just make such interesting lines.  It's as if they are drawings in the air that take shape and form; no two alike. I've included a couple of others in the series:  A Singular Path and So Fragile A Fire - both done in the last two years in between bouts of painting. Another previously posted The Madonna of Our Season was done as a holiday mystery give-away purely for fun.

I built the original frame, then asked a woodworker friend to use it as the model for 20 more.  I've four or five left and the next one is taking shape in my mind's eye.

As for the glowing circular areas in the photograph of Six Black Birds - a friend of mine swears they are entities, presences of energy captured by the camera because of their interest in what's going on...  Sounds good to me.

So Fragile A Fire