Author: lauramchugh

My collage from last Saturday was “resting” all week. I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do with the images I pulled. I liked the round box, but the images seemed lost sitting inside it.

Today I went to a Treasure Mapping event. Treasure Mapping is a day to think about where you are going for the year and create a collage to guide you to that place. This group always does the most amazing artistic collages.

I was pulling out my images and looking through them, and putting them onto 7×7 pieces of paper. The lovely woman across from me asked if I was making a quilt. I got the direction I needed from her to finish my piece. I ended up with 25 squares, for a lovely 5 by 5 paper quilt.

I put each image onto a sheet of the paper, then augmented with watercolor. This was really fun and it enhanced the images. I think to finish this off I will write some lightly colored text onto each image. This may be how the image lands for me, or poetry. I’m not quite sure on that element yet.

After I got the collage squared away, I moved on to encaustics and created this 12×12″ piece titled “Do you really think people who look like me play the flute?”

There was not much time for art today, unless you count bowling. I bowl once every four years, and I really enjoy it. I like the act of focusing, breathing, and then throwing the ball and watching it go right toward the pins. The strike is especially exciting. We were all whooping it up and having a great time.

When I doodle, I like to draw spheres, which are like bowling balls. I come back to the sphere over and over again. I’m not sure why it is so attractive to me. It’s important that it be a sphere, not just a circle. This means it has a spot where the light source hits and a shadow opposite the face with the light on it. The cast shadow is always the most interesting part. The shadow is darkest right at the point where the sphere intersects with the table/surface. I draw a short horizontal line right there, pressing the pen or pencil hard to get the darkest dark I can.

My other favorite part of the sphere is that space between the sphere and the shadow, just to either side of the dark line part. I also like the space between the bottom of trees, like in orchards and the black dark soil. I like any crack or crevice because it represents the edge of possibilities.

Today I liberated myself. I have the whole world in my hands, like a sphere full of possibilities.

For a little “art break” today, I stumbled. One of my categories is art. I happened upon this site.

It reminded me of a time about 25 years ago when I was doing consulting work at a nuclear power plant in Nebraska. I was inside the plant and able to go to an area at the top floor where I could look down on the spent fuel rod storage pool. The water was a beautiful turquoise and I was mesmerized.

They are quite similar! Twenty five years ago today I took a break from that NE field assignment to meet my husband and ski in Vail Colorado for our 1st Wedding Anniversary… I met Ed Bradley on the slopes.

A little preview of the April exhibit.

These are two 15′ long scrolls titled “Always – Enough.” The top one is acrylic and pencil on watercolor paper.

These are four 6′ scrolls with writing all the way down each, on oakboard (like manila folders), coated with paraffin wax.

The middle painting is a watercolor on heavy (300#) cold pressed watercolor paper.

Along the floor are 16 6×6 in paintings of candles on paper and coated with paraffin.

I can’t wait to get this displayed!