Helen R. Klebesadel

Second Nature: New Watercolors by Helen Klebesadel

Helen — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 04:09:34 +0000

My visual concerns run the gamut from careful study to poetic, symbolic and sometimes political representations of nature.

[caption id="attachment_1955" align="aligncenter" width="525"] Humming Bird Pollinator, watercolor on paper, 5x7, ©2011 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] You are all invited to my exhibition 'Second Nature: New Paintings at the Grace Chosy Gallery, November 2-24, 2012. The Grace Chosy Gallery is at 1825 Monroe Street, (Across from Trader Joe's) in Madison, WI. [caption id="attachment_1940" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Vanilla and Allspice: Super Naturam (Above Nature), 20x24, watercolro on canvas, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] I enjoy immersing myself in the careful looking that painting from life allows. Making art is one of the few activities we have were we are allowed to slow down, to a stop, and take a second look; to examine nature for the hours it may take to know it by looking. I often layer metaphoric meaning into the images I creates. This has been especially true of those paintings inspired by concerns for, or appreciation of, the natural world. [caption id="attachment_1952" align="aligncenter" width="472"] The End of Cold, 20x16, watercolor on paper, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] My paintings consider our place in the landscape and our relationship, as humans, to nature, including the species that are dependent on cold for their survival. Some of my new paintings explore the complex realities of the changing climate while considering of the metaphors we use to describe our relationships with each other and Nature. They shift away from the very gendered metaphor of the unselfish, all-giving Mother Nature to a less human-centered Second Nature. This Second Nature responds to the pressure it is under without regard for humanity, much as we humans often ignore the effect of our actions on the world. [caption id="attachment_1942" align="aligncenter" width="497"] Earth Elemnet" Drought, 40x30, watercolor on canvas, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] Increasingly I finds myself creating environments that contain both the decay of destruction and the beauty of new growth. My Elements Series emphasizes power and destruction that occur when earth, fire, water, and air are out of balance, becoming drought, forests burning, drenching precipitation, and dangerous storms. The fifth element, spirit, calls us to restore the balance. [caption id="attachment_1945" align="aligncenter" width="511"] Spirit Element, 40x30, watercolor on canvas, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] My birds and bees are lovingly painted and celebrated for their beauty, but my paintings also evoke narratives reminiscent of the use of the canary in the mind shaft. My paintings ask “Where are the bees?” because as go the bees… [caption id="attachment_1946" align="aligncenter" width="527"] As Go The Bees..., 22x20, watercolor on paper, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] How is it we are drawn to representations of nature but have moved so far from seeing ourselves as a part of nature; of knowing where our food, air, and water comes from; and from being responsible stewards for the earth? We seem to have become increasingly divorced from direct contact with the natural environment unless it intruded upon our lives in the form of extreme weather and its consequences, but nature is starting to get our attention. My basic premise is that: We are nature. What we do to the world we do to ourselves and we do to ourselves we do to the world. [caption id="attachment_1947" align="aligncenter" width="501"] Water Element: Drenching Precipitation, 40x30, watercolor on canvas, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] This particular body of work also demonstrates my exploration of new media as I expands on my traditional use of watercolor on paper to explore the flexibility of painting with watercolor on canvas. [caption id="attachment_1949" align="aligncenter" width="510"] Fire Element: Forests Burning, 40x30, watercolor on canvas, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] I must thank my sister artist Nikki Kinne for convincing me to try a watercolor canvas on our plen air painting trip last November (what a difference a year makes). Nikki handed me a canvas and said "Paint" and I did. I haven't stopped. [caption id="attachment_1950" align="aligncenter" width="502"] Bee Pollinator I, 7x5, watercolor on paper, ©2011 Helen Klebesadel[/caption]

The Exquisite Uterus Project: The Art of Resistance

Helen — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 21:47:40 +0000

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450"] 'Don't Tread On Me,' by Jenifer Mokren has become the official flag of the Exquisite Uterus Project. Jenifer is an exquisite artist and educator from Green Bay, WI.[/caption] The Exquisite Uterus Project was initiated in the spring of 2012 in reaction to, what is being called the most current ‘War on Women.’ Fiber artist and educator Alison Gates and I decided to offer feminists the opportunity to participate in this collaborative art project to channel some of the rage we were experiencing at the attacks on women's reproductive health in this political environment. I wrote about our motivation in an earlier post. [caption id="attachment_1879" align="alignleft" width="146"] A plethora of uteri arrive in my mailbox in August.[/caption] Basically the project grows out of our contention that reproductive freedom is critical to our human dignity, self-determination and equality. We have a vision for a world where every woman is free to decide whether and when to have children; where every woman has access to the best reproductive healthcare available; where every woman can exercise her choices without coercion or discrimination. Essentially, we envision a world where every woman participates with full dignity as an equal member of society. It turned out others share that vision too, and withing the limits of the project these creatives have expressed their perspective on the issues in fiber, paint, bead, and sequins. The response has been awe inspiring. You can see the entire virtual version of this project with artist statements on a Pinterest Site we created. Please check it out! [caption id="attachment_1878" align="alignright" width="175"] Give Birth To Yourself, mixed-media, by Nina Laden, Seattle, Washington[/caption] The Exquisite Uterus Project is currently on display in the Reeve Union/Steinhilber Gallery at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh as a part of a larger exhibition, Power, Politics, and Performance: Gender, Art , And Resistance, featuring four fabulous artists:Dan Barry, Edward Robin Coronel, Kerie Throw, and Angela Richardson. The entire exhibition runs September 4th-October 6th, 2012, with a closing reception Friday October 5th, 5:00-7:00 PM. The exhibition is held in conjunction with the regional Wisconsin Women’s Studies and LGBTQ Conference . The conference will be October 5-6, 2012 at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Join us! [caption id="attachment_1881" align="aligncenter" width="404"] Debra Klebesadel's “'Golden Comfort Palace of the Womb' is an expression of and devotion to the miraculous power, creativity, and mystery of the female experience of fertility, including its exquisite joys and terrible sorrows, its profound pleasures and piercing pains, its highest hopes and bottomless fears, and, more so, its role in a woman’s sense of personal identity and direct connection to and participation in the universal Great Chain of Being. Yes, all that. Do not subjugate this power." (Yes, she is my sister).[/caption]

Exquisite: Carefully selected; marked by flawless craftsmanship or by beautiful ingenious, or elaborate execution; deep sensitivity or intense understanding; pleasing through beauty fitness, or perfection…

Exquisite Corpse: Among Surrealist techniques exploiting the mystery of

[caption id="attachment_1888" align="alignright" width="172"] Another 'Don't Tread On Me' was created by Kathleen Buchanan of Stanwood, WA. Other text on the piece includes "Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine![/caption]

accident, it was a collective collage of words or images called the cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse). Based on an old parlor game, it was played by several people, each of whom would place their contribution on sheet of paper, fold the paper to conceal part of it, and pass it on to the next player for his contribution.

Uterus: a major female hormone-related reproductive sex organ of most mammals including humans. One end, the cervix, opens into the vagina, while the other is connected to the fallopian tubes and ovaries. It is within the uterus that the fetus develops during gestation. It is attached to bundles of nerves, and networks of arteries, veins, and ligaments that are essential to sexual response in directing blood flow to the pelvis and to the external genitalia.

[caption id="attachment_1885" align="alignright" width="223"] "Tight' was created by artist Sara Detweiler of Green Bay, WI. This beautifully beaded piece is even lovelier in person. The photo doesn't do it justice.[/caption]

Exquisite Uterus: An ingenious collaborative project, elaborately executed and sensitive to the perspective of women who seek to retain control over their own uteri without over-medicalization, or government or religious intervention in their reproductive health. Beautifully executed to respond to the politics of the times. The project promotes common and affordable access for all to medical and preventative healthcare necessary for reproductive health and well-being, and recognizes that women are the appropriate decision-makers for their reproductive and other life choices.

[caption id="attachment_1883" align="alignleft" width="233"] This fabulous painted piece by Deb Flagel from Madison, WI is entitled 'Rosie Returns,' She declares "My Uterus, My Decision!" Note the fatigues, hand grenade ovaries, and red scarf.[/caption] An invitation was extended to interested artists and other motivated participants asking them to embellish a plain cloth uterus "blank" (a square of organic white cotton canvas fabric with a simple black and gray medical illustration of a female reproductive system printed permanently on its surface.) The 'blank' was made available in my shop print-on-demand fabric shop on Spoonflower.com. (Its now my best selling fabric). Participants were invited to manipulated creativity obvious to all. We only asked that participants not take their uterus for granted, but that we claim it as ours to direct! When asked for guidance from the curators the typical response was, “Its YOUR uterus. You get to do whatever you want with it!” Participants were urged to have fun with it but to consider how our ability to take control of our own personal uterus (and health care decisions) is a very serious and, increasingly political issue. [caption id="attachment_1893" align="alignright" width="196"] Wisconsin Fiber artist Jill Robinson gets right to the point with exquisite detail![/caption] The response to the project has been overwhelming. Makers range from professional artists to first time creatives, all determined to have their say. They are healthcare workers, and parents, men and women, of all ages and backgrounds. Close to 200 uteri appeared from all over the USA, Canada, Germany, and Denmark. They came as quilt squares, pillows, aprons, and headdresses. [caption id="attachment_1895" align="alignleft" width="209"] This apron created by Theresa McNeil, Mary Sanderson and Sara Williams all of Madison, WI declares " I choose when I cook in this kitchen!' (Sara and Mary are both members of the Raging Grannies, radical singers of Madison, WI).[/caption] Each uterus is unique, and each one addresses some aspect of women’s reproductive health or well-being. Along with the uteri have come statements and stories that range from empowering and moving to sad, and funny. Stories of the making of the uteri have included individuals creating their submissions anonymously, because it was too hard to be identified with the project, to groups women coming together in their communities (Red Lodge Montana was a model for this approach) to make art, support and learn about their local reproductive health providers, and to register to vote, sometimes all in the same evening. [caption id="attachment_1884" align="alignright" width="217"] This is a truly exquisite uterus. It was submitted anonymously from Montana. The text says 'Its a mad, mad, mad, mad, world.' We agree.[/caption] Alison and I are humbled and awed by the power of feminist humor and creativity represented in this project and its promise of agency and action. Our understanding of our own experience was summed up in this message I received from one of the participants: "I wanted to thank you so much for the opportunity to be part of this project! I've been fighting for women's reproductive rights since I was 17 (I'm now about to be 46), and nothing I've been involved in (protest, letter writing, visiting politicians and local law enforcement, clinic defense) has brought me such a sense of catharsis, healing, joy and accomplishment as the Exquisite Uterus Exhibition. [caption id="attachment_1896" align="alignleft" width="232"] 'Venus Envy' was created by Julie D'Angelo of Burbank, CA. She says "The elephant symbolizes the 'GOP' -a group who is obsessed with women's reproductive power and how to limit it…but they even realize that the elephants are a matriarchal society."[/caption] My husband found your call for entries and shared it with me. As soon as I read about it, the ideas started flowing. If I'd had the time, I think I could have executed at least thirty submissions. Something about the project has struck me, very deeply and profoundly. I also wanted to thank you for photographing and posting all of the entries, including the creators' statements. I can tell that so much love and care has gone in to representing each one accurately. Being able to see them all is a powerful experience -- I've laughed, I've cried, but most importantly, viewing them all has given me a sense of hope and community for women's reproductive rights on a larger scale than I had experienced previously." Alison and I are honored by the all the participants who made contributions to the Exquisite Uterus Project. Continuing in the same vein, in the continuing effort to use serious humor to bring visibility to the issues I send a shout out to the women of Michigan. Thursday September 20th Michigan women legislators and citizens held flash dance mob on capitol steps for reproductive rights in the face of conservative legislation moving through senate. They are asking their Governor to veto the bill should it make it to his desk. Check out their moves to exert control and autonomy over their bodies! I wish I could show all of the uteri to you. If you are near Oshkosh, check out the exhibition in person. See all 160+ on Pinterest. Here are just a few more of wonderful uteri that are a part of the project, along with their artist statements! [caption id="attachment_1919" align="aligncenter" width="375"] Sampler, is a mixed-media, by Margaret McDowell, Carrollton, TX. She says, "In the style of Klimt, but honoring Adele Bloch-Bauer, this piece is a metaphor for something prized, stolen, valued, and retrieved. The next election will prove if the last part will ever come true."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1916" align="aligncenter" width="396"] 'Like a Flower,' by Clarice Zucker, Milwaukee, WI. "My obstetrician said, a post meopausal uterus was like an old sock! I said, "How about a flower"…and showed a Georgia O'Keeffe painting to him."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1915" align="aligncenter" width="417"] Eunice Choi of Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts created this delicate and beautiful needle worked uterus.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1912" align="aligncenter" width="437"] 'My Body is Not Your Issue' by Tess Rutz, Madison, WI. It calls for: 'Equal pay for equal work. Right to choose. Legal Potection against any violence. The right to speak freely and openly. Birth control. Sex education. Cancer screenings, Unbiased medical care and advice.' Yes![/caption] [caption id="attachment_1918" align="aligncenter" width="430"] The Beauty of It All, by Future Akins, Lubbuck, TX. It has not been my'gut' which offered advice over the years but my uterus. Sometimes whispering invitations of enticing encounters, other times hushed warnings of betrayal. What a mysterious pulsating organ of womanhood, connecting me to nature from the monthly flows of a young innocent to the desert dances of a sage. Each bead, each sequin is a celebration of the journey.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1913" align="aligncenter" width="445"] 'Healing Uteri Buddha' was created by Madison, WI artist Maxene White. Part of her statement reads: " Acts of Resistance take great strength from those who have the awareness, energy, & time to fight back. My “Self-Defined Uterus” represents a space for the women of the world, who are having a war waged against them, to heal. It is both an internal & external place for the collective to replenish, rest, and re-strengthen...Fight back![/caption] [caption id="attachment_1898" align="aligncenter" width="436"] Ed Check of Lubbock, TX (raised in Manitowoc, WI) created this moving uterus. His text says "I never got to thank my working class mom for letting me wear a dress in 1961. To all working class women who are intelligent, wise, and visionary -- we queer son's honor you.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1901" align="aligncenter" width="414"] Eugenia (Jody) May of Spring Green, Wisconsin created this many layered work called 'Femininity.' Jody writes about the piece, "For 70 years I have camouflaged my Femininity. Now I embrace it and meditate on the pearls scattered in the fields.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1904" align="aligncenter" width="414"] Anne Waitzman of Fennimore, WI created this fabulous history lesson for us in 'My Politicized Uterus.' Take a close look at the progression away from and back toward the hanger.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1891" align="aligncenter" width="404"] Artist Candace Forrette has created this absolutely delightful piece entitled 'Put on Your Best Panties," and included the additional text "Start Marching" and "Protect your rights." She is from Billings, Montana. Montana was second only to Wisconsin in submissions to the project[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1905" align="aligncenter" width="453"] Dee Czarniecki's, mixed media with buttons is a wonderful piece. Dee is from Madison, WI.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1909" align="aligncenter" width="314"] Alison Gates shared her own Bayeux Tapestry inspired Uterus . It says, in pidgin Latin : "Do not allow the bastards to grind you down." A nod to both Margaret Atwood's A Handmaidens Tale but also, a speculation on the Holy Grail and ... Well, Monty Python too![/caption] [caption id="attachment_1914" align="aligncenter" width="412"] Artist Tiffany L Pascal of Grand Forks, Nebraska send this fierce and fabulous piece that could be a study for a graphic novel (I'd buy it). Her texts include such phrases as "You know you live with a strong woman when you walk in the bathroom and see her vibrator lying on the sink." "Just because I'm a Muslim woman doesn't mean I don't like vaginas."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1907" align="aligncenter" width="434"] Feminist artist Carol Flueckiger of Lubbock, TX shares this piece we call 'Emancipation.' Carol explains her process here: "Cyanotype on printed square. Text is from 19th century broadside calling for dress reform. Early American feminist/reformers/abolitionists were discussing how their clothes affected their ideas about equality and democracy."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1920" align="aligncenter" width="436"] Fruit and Flower, embroidery by Maggie Rozycki Hiltner, Red Lodge, Montana. Maggy is one of the Montana Red Lodge Art of Resistance leaders. She was one of the professional artists who were on hand one evening in June in Red Lodge to assist and encourage participants' creative process as they made their uterus their own. We thank Maggie and her cohort for using this project to bring women together to organize and share information about the issues (and register voters!)![/caption] [caption id="attachment_1877" align="aligncenter" width="459"] Lori Ushman of Madison, Wisconsin created this wonderful photo collage. "Don't F*** With Mother Nature.'[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1900" align="aligncenter" width="424"] Artist Amy Bethel lives in Madison, WI. Her uterus overlays an internationally recognized warning sign which is, itself, overlaid with text which includes, but is not limited to, phrases such as "Unauthorized reproduction may be illegal. Does not cause mental retardation or mental illness. Not intended as a penis substitute. Do not avoid contact with legislators. Act now, this opportunity may be withdrawn at any time. Comes complete with clitoris (not pictured). This unit is self-cleaning."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1930" align="aligncenter" width="436"] Hanging by a Thread, mixed media, by Roberta Condon, Portage, WI. She says, "This piece shows the Gemini, mother of twins, with the words of “The Vagina Monologues” forming the texture of the background. The mop washes up blood, sweat, and tears that spring from our womb and souls as we struggle to bring these beautiful people into the world. My male children give the women they love freedom, and mark their accomplishments. They’ve seen my struggle, and love me, and I hope they’ll make good husbands."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1921" align="aligncenter" width="464"] I began my uterus the day it arrived in the mail. I knew instantly that I wanted to adorn it with sequins in the style of a Haitian Drapo Voodou to signify that I am, indeed, a devotee of the exquisite uterus. My step-children, ages six and eight, sorted a thousand multicolored sequin into muffin tins. Being a novice sequiner, I began with the uterus itself, choosing to make a radiant all-American uterus from reds, and pinks, silver, and blue. This project is a patriotic ode. As soon as I was done with the uterus itself I realized my mistake. I need more contrast between my uterus and the glittery golden sky. I was paralyzed in an artistic quagmire of my own creation. I rolled up my uterus and threw it in the bottom of an 'Urban Outfitters' bag and waited for inspiration. My uterus did not bejewel itself. With a lack of contrast, the actual uterus blnds into the yellow background like a subliminal femivision test. I waited so long that finishing my uterus became an emergency. We had to take it along to Ethiopian Culture Camp. There was a huge cross by the fire pit. I was worried of being judged, of being labeled the crazy-vodoo-uterus-spirit-flag-sewing-lady. It has happened before. "Oh, how beautiful, what is it?" they asked. "Chicken," My partner teased. Easy for him to say. He was not the one sitting under the shadow of a giant cross sewing sequins on his uterus for the entire world to see. It was surprisingly hot beneath the super-sized cross. I walked to the edge of Geneva Lake and met a woman named Colleen resting below the protective arms of an old broad oak. She pointed out her 19 year old biological son and her six year old adopted one playing Frisbee together. She wanted more children when her eldest was born. At age 48, after invasive and expensive fertility procedures had not worked, she adopted a child from Ethiopia. Now she has ovarian cancer and it is spreading about and the treatments are exhausting. Ovarian cancer sucks. I told her the truth. Its not just any old abstract art project. Its a exquisite (healing) uterus. She saw it then. We were quiet together. I thought about my friend, mentor and professor, Mimi Orner, who died of ovarian cancer (1959-2000). She taught me and many others about the value of the exquisite uterus and the art of resistance. I will always miss her.[/caption] Finally, my own: [caption id="attachment_1923" align="aligncenter" width="413"] This wearable headdress is entitled 'Ms. WeAreWatching (and voting since 1920)' created by co-curator Helen Klebesadel[/caption] There are so many more fabulous pieces and interesting statements in this project. Please take check out the virtual exhibition and do your part to act to ensure our access to good and complete reproductive healthcare continues and grows!

Hungry for Art: The Process of Turning the Negative to Positive

Helen — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 17:32:45 +0000

[caption id="attachment_1832" align="aligncenter" width="588"] Wisdom Tree, watercolor, ©2012 Mary Friedel-Hunt[/caption] I just spent a blissful week of teaching, learning, and expanding my circle of inspiration sources with eleven other wonderful women artists who participated in my 'Watercolor From The Center' workshop at the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center near Spring Green Wisconsin. Some participants were first-time painters, others were experienced artists and teachers already. All were generous with their creative knowledge, experience, and willingness to give themselves over to a learning experience that privileged process over product. We quieted our 'judges voices,' experimented with approaches to painting that we had never tried before, and allowed ourselves to see 'exactly how much fun we CAN have if we get out of our own way'. None-the-less wonderful artworks emerged in the form of paintings, experiment sheets, and artist trading cards.

You know you are 'in the flow' when spirals appeared everywhere, even in Carrie's dried paint dish!

I don't think I can do a better job of further describing the experience than sharing a poem gifted to me. It describes the experience of the workshop. It was written by the artist who painted the image that leads off this blog, Spring Green writer, Mary Friedel-Hunt.

hungry

they all came hungry

each new technique

every idea

was inhaled

with an urgency

visible to all

enjoyed by all.

negative painting

collage

textures

looking inward

expressing outward

and more.

each grabbed up by

artists starving for new ways

to express...

to make art...

their leader

well prepared

so talented

real, joyful, passionate

gave and gave

to her "brood"

whose open minds and hearts

voraciously took in

all she shared

and share she did.

a perfect week

of art making.

with gratitude

mary

[caption id="attachment_1835" align="aligncenter" width="685"] The fabulous class holding our 'next step glass slipper sculptures'!: (Back row) Carrie, Jane, Yvonne, Sue, Katherine, Deb, Francine, (Front row) Helen, Sue, Wendy, and Mary. Missing from the photo, but not forgotten is Irene.[/caption] While all of the participants brought amazing gifts to the workshop, some have their artworks available for us to see online. Check out these websites of some of the workshop participants:

Sue Johnson, teacher and artist extraordinar. Look for her paintings and studio on the South Western Wisconsin 2012 Fall Art Tour, October 19-21.
Wendy Fern Hutton offers non-traditional doll making classes at the Madison starting in September. Go to the Madison Senior Center for more information and to register.

In this workshop we used art as a thinking process to draw on the knowledge we already have to guide us as we move forward with our creative thinking front and center in our lives. In one of the collage exercises we created a central image representing our most precious creative self, and filled in the negative space (the background) with images of those things that nurture it. [caption id="attachment_1837" align="aligncenter" width="655"] Representing Creative Self Now, Collage and mixed media. Helen Klebesadel[/caption] As a final gift to this and future workshop participants, and you, I share below one of the popular painting demos I do in most of my workshops. This technique for developing a watercolor is called Negative Shape Painting. Here the subject is a small grove of birch trees: [caption id="attachment_1844" align="aligncenter" width="452"] Step One: An all over light wet-into-wet wash with salt. Allow to dry.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1845" align="aligncenter" width="495"] Step 2: Begin to define the shapes of the trees (in this case, birches) by painting wet-into-wet shapes to define the background, or negative space, BEHIND the trees. Here I lay a light green wash down and drip other colors into it, and sprinkle a little salt for good measure.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1846" align="aligncenter" width="526"] Step 2 continues and allowed to dry[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1847" align="aligncenter" width="507"] Step 3: Repeat the same process, just with smaller shapes and darker paint to define the shape of a second layer of trees. Darker blue-green paint with additional colors dripped in while wet that define the shape of the birch trees in the middle ground.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1850" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Step 3 continued and allowed to dry[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1852" align="aligncenter" width="503"] We could have stopped with Step 3, but I'm inclined to do one more layer. So, Step 4: paint one more darker and bluer layer that adds a third layers of birch trees back in the distance.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1855" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Step 4 continued to complete the deep space, and Step 5 adds a bit of detailing to complete the painting. Birch Study: The Cabal, watercolor, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] Thank you to all the participants in my summer workshops. It has been an extraordinary summer so far. I look forward to continuing the experience next week at Bjorklunden, in Door County (it is full) , and then back to the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center near Spring Green, WI for Watercolor: The Expressive Medium, a weekend watercolor workshop in mid August. There are still a couple of spots left in the August workshop, and in my week-long watercolor workshop Watercolor: A Fresh Start, designed for beginners and those in need of a refresher, and offered at Bjorklunden in Door County in September. Descriptions and registration information can be accesses here. Keep making art! Helen Klebesadel

The ‘Wright’ place to learn the art of watercolor

Helen — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:05:06 +0000

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="713"] Study of Jamie's Dahlia, 8x11, watercolor, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] I am just back from an enjoyable weekend teaching my workshop, Watercolor: a Fresh Start, at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center to a wonderful group of creative learners. The WVS is just 40 miles west of Madison and six miles from Spring Green, Wisconsin in the heart of the Wisconsin River Valley where I grew up. [caption id="attachment_1400" align="alignright" width="300"] Watercolor workshop in session.[/caption] The workshop was billed as being for absolute beginners and for those who needed a refresher after time away from watercolor. I had a fabulous group of 13 participants that braved trying out a new medium and making it their own. Workshop participants will recognize the small painting above as my final demo of the workshop, created to show how to use the wet-into-wet techniques they had learned to paint flower pedals (I send a special thank you to photographer Jamie Wilson Carroll for lending her wonderful dahlia photograph to the cause). Instruction introduced participants to basic wet-into-wet watercolor techniques, and began to suggest how to use the techniques in paintings. (Some participants were especially excited by an approach to painting Queens Ann Lace, recorded here on Youtube for me by Akeem Torres). Most importantly, the workshop promoted the perspective that art is an ongoing process that our paintings or other artworks simply document. Meaning, the larger process is far more important than any individual work of art, so relax, and have serious fun while exploring new ideas, techniques and mediums, whatever they may be. Our class motto is "Exactly how much fun CAN we have painting with watercolor?" [caption id="attachment_1421" align="alignleft" width="300"] Mixed-media found-object sculpture workshop with Leise Pfeifer in room 2[/caption] This was the first of three workshops I'm teaching at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed school this summer. My workshop is being offered along with other art, creativity and environmental workshops being offered by Liese Pfiefer, Bev Gordon, Marian Farrier and Amy Jo Dusick. There is still time to sign up. Most of the workshops are limited to 15 participants but there is still room for a few more participants. Having the opportunity to spend a length of time teaching and learning in this lovely space is a real treat (and its air conditioned). Our upcoming summer workshops include: Watercolor From the Center with Helen Klebesadel, Monday-Friday, July 16-20, 2012, 5 days of workshop, 10:00-4:00 daily, (mixed media artists welcome). Watercolor: The Expressive Medium with Helen Klebesadel, August 17-19, 2012 (2.5 days), Friday afternoon (4-8), all day Saturday (10-4), and Sunday (10-4). Introduction to SoulCollage®: Intuition Through Imagery with Subanna Nur (Beverly Gordon), Sunday, July 15 2012, Sunday 10:00-4:00 Patterns In Nature Workshop with Marian Farrior and Amy Jo Dusick, Monday, Monday, July 16, 2012, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm Give Meaning and Memory through Mixed Media, with Liese Pfeifer. August 17-19, 2012 (2.5 days), Friday afternoon (4-8), all day Saturday (10-4), and Sunday (10-4). Participants can sign up for each day separately with the following focus: Friday Perception and Intention in Art; Saturday, Found Object Dilemma/Breaking the Rut; Sunday, Mixed media collage as purveyors of meaning. For longer descriptions, schedules, and registration information of the workshops being offered this summer go here. More about the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Arts Center [caption id="attachment_1352" align="alignleft" width="300"] Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center, six miles from Spring Green, WI[/caption] The Wyoming Valley School Cultural Arts Center is worth a visit just to see how Frank Lloyd Wright imagined the space in which education should take place for elementary aged children. The school hold a special place in my heart because its where I went to grade school. I grew up on a farm about a mile away and went there for first through sixth grade. The school was built in 1957. I remember as a small child being taken by my father to see the construction underway of the building that would be my first school. While there we had a chance meeting Frank Lloyd Wright who had stopped by to observe the construction himself. It speaks to how old I was that I remember him as a tall man, though he was not. Mr. Wright donated his design and 2 acres of land to the Wyoming School District in honor of his mother, Anna Lloyd-Jones Wright. She had been a kindergarten teacher and encouraged his lifelong love of learning. The school opened in 1958 with 46 students in grades 1 through 8, and later in grades 1 through 6. Children from the Taliesin Fellowship, just down the road, attended the school as well. As the only two class-room school (with an additional large lunchroom/gym) designed by the foremost American architect, the school was a wonderful place to start your education and develop a life long love of learning. Like the old one-room school house it replaced, students in several grades took instruction together in the same room. Younger students listened to the lessons of those ahead of them, and it was not hard to insert an advanced or slower learner in exercises appropriate to their learning level despite their official grade. I have many memories of my six years as a student at the Wyoming Valley School, including being invited to Taliesin's small theater as a first grader with the rest of the school's children to watch animated films from Japan. It has been an extreme pleasure to return there to teach and share my own passion for the arts, carrying on the tradition the school was designed for.

[caption id="attachment_1356" align="aligncenter" width="737"] Wyoming Valley School side view[/caption]

In 1977, the school consolidated with the River Valley School district and was used as school for fourth graders only for ‘a year in the country.’ In 1990, with River Valley facing more consolidation, the school was sold. The building then changed hands several times but mostly remained empty. In August of 2010 the school was given to the not-for-profit Wyoming Valley School, Inc., by Jeff Jacobsen, a local landowner and neighbor of the school. A Wisconsin State Journal article written by Gayle Worland last year, when the Center opened, describes the efforts of local volunteers to bring the vision of an arts and culture center to Wyoming Valley and preserve another part of Frank Lloyd Wright’s legacy. [caption id="attachment_1360" align="alignright" width="623"] Front Classroom[/caption] Recognizing its original use as a school, the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center Board of Directors is working hard to find ways to support the organizations legacy and mission as an educational center, by offering arts and cultural workshops, performances, lectured, and exhibitions to the community. You can find their schedule of events including the weekly Wednesday Night Arts Gatherings—6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.Every Wednesday evening, Wyoming Valley School hosts a drop-in gathering of local artists, writers, poets and readers. Visual artists are encouraged to bring their own supplies to draw, paint or sketch during the two hours. Writers are encouraged to bring samples of work for discussion, brainstorm ideas, talk about their obstacles, ways to get published, etc. People who love literature should come with reading suggestions or read aloud from favorite passages. Poets may read their works aloud or discuss poetry with others. Wyoming Valley School seeks to provide a space away from the distractions of home for folks to be creative, discussion or just have quiet time. Plans are underway to designate music nights and dance nights as well. There are volunteer facilitators for the various groups. At the moment, these Wednesday Gatherings are reserved for adults only. For more information contact Kate at 608.753.9000. [caption id="attachment_1368" align="aligncenter" width="542"] WVS Cultural Art Center gym with lots of painting going on.[/caption] If you visit visit, the River Valley area and the Wyoming Valley School, you will be near the home to Frank Lloyd Wright’s National Historic Landmark site Taliesin, and the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Near to the Taliesin property is the wonderful American Players Theater. The company performs its Shakespeare and related repertory year-round to large appreciative audiences. Within a mile of the school is the new White Church Theatre Project. The 1902 Methodist church (which was my church growing up), is now the new summer residency of the London based Theatre de l’Ange Fou and International School of Corporeal Mime. Slated to open this summer, the project will soon offer Summer School, workshops, performances, lectures, and films . The Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center is in the heart of a culturally significant and beautiful part of Wisconsin. Refurbishing and maintaining the 1956 Frank Lloyd Wright designed school building as an educational center in the Wyoming Valley will not only preserve and restore this significant piece of architecture, it will also provide a much needed space to enhance arts education and creativity. The concept that guides the Board of Directors of the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Arts Center is to offer a place to bring young students and their families together in pursuit of creative education, while paying homage to Frank Lloyd Wright, utilizing his building for its original intent. Wyoming Valley School, Inc is a Wisconsin registered not-for-profit 501c3 organization. Donors, volunteers, and supporters that share this vision are sought. (Volunteers are maintaining the building and the grounds, as well as contributing to grant-writing and other fundraising efforts.) Contributions are much appreciated and can be made out to Wyoming Valley School, Inc. and are tax deductable. The Wyoming Valley School Cultural Arts Center is a wonderful place to expose yourself to new arts, culture and creative experiences or it may be the place to plan public arts and cultural events of your own that fit within the Center's mission For more information or to inquire about how you might support the effort to preserve the Wyoming Valley School and its mission contact: wyomingvalleyschool@gmail.com I love having the opportunity to teach art at the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center, with its open space, elegant lines and amazing light. If you would like a chance to explore your own creative impulses plan to join us for one or more of our upcoming workshops in a building designed for learning.

[caption id="attachment_1375" align="aligncenter" width="819"] Wyoming Valley School at dusk[/caption] It turns out you really can go home.

Susan Grabel: Art that Explores the Human Dimension of Social Issues

Helen — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 04:24:12 +0000

[caption id="attachment_1240" align="aligncenter" width="389"] Susan Grabel. Venus in Proliferation, sculpture, 2006.[/caption] From January through May this year Staten Island artist and activist Susan Grabel had a retrospective of her work entitled “Constructions of Conscience” at the Staten Island Museum. The exhibition spanned her 35 plus years of creating art with a social purpose, and brought together works representing feminist critiques of contemporary culture that have brought a larger meaning to her creative work throughout her career. Susan Grabel explores the human dimension of social issues in sculptures of handmade cast paper, clay and mixed media and collagraph prints and collages. For many years Susan was best known as a sculptor of small humanistic clay figures and vignettes. Throughout her career Susan's creative work has always had an intimacy and empathetic feeling for the common person. Her works for the last decade have focused on her 'Venus' images of cast paper. In this series she examines the female image as it is, not idealized, not glamorized, but projected as a real and unvarnished display of female anatomy subject to the effects of aging, childbearing and gravity. These pieces are sculpted in clay and then cast in paper. They vary in size from figurines about six inches in height, to full figured woman slightly over life sized. In making the work she first forms the figures in clay and then casts it in paper, producing somewhat fragile yet elegant torsos with the strength of lives fully lived. In these works there are no heads or extremities but there form speaks volumes. Her work often demonstrates how the prevalent female ideal (underweight, young and artificially smooth) bears no resemblance to real women by contrasting this idea of an 'ideal' with the bodies of large, round women whose age and experience shows on their bodies. None-the-less her fuller figured and sometimes deeply scarred “Venus” series represent the beauty of life lived fully as a woman. The oldest work, Caught in the American Dream, from 1978, critiques our overwhelming in consumer culture, and exemplifies Susan's long term commitment to social commentary through her art. [caption id="attachment_1239" align="aligncenter" width="576"] Susan Grabel, Caught in the American Dream, ceramic 1978[/caption] Her works in the 1990s examined homelessness by representing individuals, sometimes children, as beautifully modeled portraits in dry, unglazed clay often presented in rough boxes, made of slats. [caption id="attachment_1238" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Susan Grabel, Dirge, Mixed Media[/caption] Susan says of her creative and activist work: I have been doing figurative sculpture and exhibiting for over 35 years and am currently engaged in exploring printmaking, particularly the collagraph. My work on the human dimensions of social and political issues like consumerism, homelessness, alienation and aging women’s’ bodies is in the humanistic tradition of Kathe Kollwitz. [caption id="attachment_1245" align="aligncenter" width="360"] Once I Build a Railroad, ceramic, by Susan Grabel[/caption] In the 1970’s & 80’s I was involved in the figurative co-op gallery movement in Soho. I was married and raising two children at the time so being a member of Prince Street Gallery worked well for me. It was good to be part of a community, have a goal and know I had a place to show. I have also had solo shows at the Elizabeth Foundation, Soho20 Gallery and exhibited nationally in group shows at galleries, universities and museums. My work has been included in such major surveys as In Three Dimensions: Women Sculptors of the ‘90's, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island, curated by Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein and Sculpture of the 70's: the Figure , Pratt Manhattan Center. My work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Art News and the Staten Island Advance. In the early 90’s, galvanized by The Clarence Thomas hearings and especially the Senate Judiciary Committee’s patronizing and sexist treatment of Anita Hill, empowering women became my mantra. Between 1992 and 1998, I worked with the Women’s Caucus for Art serving as President of the New York chapter, on the national board and later as national Treasurer. Together we created opportunities and stimulation for women to further their art and spirit. Also in the 90’s, I became interested in public art as a means to affect people in their daily environment. I created two public works: The World's Kitchen, a clay mural commissioned by the Staten Island Children's Museum; and, Regarding Women, a sculpture for the Center for Women’s Health of Staten Island University Hospital . [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Regarding Women, multiple views, ceramic, by Susan Grabel[/caption] Women's Caucus for Art: National Treasurer 1997, National Board Member 1995-1997, President NYC Chapter 1992-1995, Co-Chair 1994 WCA National Conference February 1994 I am a sculptor and printmaker and Feminism has informed all of my work although sometimes more explicitly than others. My early sculpture was in glazed clay – serious themes in a craft medium. There were genre tableaus dealing with personal family subject matter; a series called Caught in the American Dream depicting women strangled by commodities; a series on homelessness; and a series on Alienation - portrait reliefs in boxes with grates and bars in front. [caption id="attachment_1244" align="aligncenter" width="576"] Address Unkown, ceramic, bu Susan Grabel[/caption] My work deals with the human dimensions of social issues. In the late 1990’s, I was particularly concerned about the lack of positive images of older women in our youth-oriented culture and how the media constantly bombards women of all ages with images of femaleness that bear no relation to what they see in the mirror. I began to explore the reality of the older woman’s body, bringing to the fore what we don’t want to see. The body is not idealized, but shown as it is, with all its wrinkles, lumps and bumps, imprinted with life’s experiences, its pains and joys. [caption id="attachment_1246" align="aligncenter" width="360"] Earth Venus (EVC001), collagraph monoprint from cast paper fragments, by Susan Grable[/caption] Through classical references and the use of handmade cast paper with its rich textures, colors and lightness, I show the beauty of the aging woman’s body as well as its sensuality and grace. I normalize it, confronting the conventional biases about aging women and validating women’s experiences of themselves. [caption id="attachment_1240" align="aligncenter" width="576"] Susan Grabel in her studio, 2011 - photo by Willie Chu[/caption] Susan and I both have served on the national board of the Women's Caucus for Art, in the 1990s. This was in addition to her leadership in the New York Women's Caucus for Art chapter. Susan Grabel has worked hard for social change and to further opportunities for women in the arts across the US. All the while she has created, and continues to create, rich and moving visual experiences for her art audiences. Thank you Susan for your years of activism, AND thank you even more for your rich and meaningful art. Watch for Susan Grabel's upcoming exhibition at Ceres Gallery next April 2013 if you are in New York. You can also find Susan's work in the Feminist Art Base of the Brooklyn Museum.

The Art Of Resistance: The Exquisite Uterus

Helen — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:52:48 +0000

We just couldn't take it anymore! Artist and educator Alison Gates and I had come together to discuss an art exhibition of emerging artists we are curating in conjunction with the regional Wisconsin Women's Studies and LGBTQ Conference . The conference if being planned for October 5-6, 2012 at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Our meeting happened to be during the time when the "War on Women" was becoming more and more visible. Virginia legislators had moved forward a new law requiring women have an unnecessary trans-vaginal ultrasound before having an abortion. This followed high profile attempts the same week to exempt religious organizations from being required to offer health insurance that covers contraception; Rush Limbaugh had recently verbally assaulted all women who use contraceptives through his attacks on Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke; Planned Parenthood Programs' basic health programs for poor women were being de-funded; GOP legislators have were seeking to exempt religious organizations from having to offer health insurance that covers contraceptives; in Arizona and Kansas Republican state legislators were pushing bills allowing doctors to lie about the health status of a fetus to pregnant women so they couldn't opt for abortion; women where I live in Wisconsin were seeing legislation passed that infringes on the physician-patient relationship and there were legislators blocking the Violence Against Women Act because they didn't want Native American Women, or gay and lesbian victims included, nor protective measures for undocumented women. It was just too much! (More has happened since. The Violence against Women Act was passed relatively intact in the Senate but the House of Representatives continues to support a bill that excludes women on reservations, ignores same-sex violence, and demands women who are undocumented choose between being reported or getting help.) After some very satisfying venting over coffee we gave into our natural tendencies to turn to art as a means of addressing the issues we were concerned with. Our collaborative feminist art project was born. We have dubbed it "The Exquisite Uterus: The Art of Resistance" and we invite you to participate along with anyone else who wants to join us in demanding that our reproductive health should be our own concern. We offer you a uterus to do what ever the heck you want to do with it. The art history buffs among you may recognize a reference to a Surrealist technique called the 'exquisite corpse' (cadavre exquis). It is among Surrealist techniques that celebrate the mystique of accident through a collective collage of words or images. Based on an old parlor game, it was played by several people, each of whom would write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold the paper to conceal part of it, and pass it on to the next player for their contribution. We invite you to participate in our collective and collaborative Exquisite Uterus suspecting that each piece will be wonderful, but the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts, and will help to create a synergy that uses our outrage for a greater good. Interested artists and other motivated participants are asked to embellish a plain cloth uterus "blank" (a square of organic white cotton canvas fabric with a simple black and gray medical illustration of a female reproductive system printed permanently on its surface.) Final works should be approximately 13" square. Participation is free except for the cost of purchasing the organic cotton canvas uterus and mailing. The fabric uteri are available via on-line orders here: http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1080580 (It will cost $14.00 for a 'fat quarter' that included two uteri. You can give one to a friend). All proceeds to the designing artist (me) from the sale of this fabric will be donated to organizations working for women’s reproductive justice. Participants are invited to manipulate the blank uterus in any way their fertile imaginations desire, making their prodigious powers of self-expression and creativity obvious to all. (Whether or not you still have an original uterus, this project offers an opportunity to use your originality to creatively fashion a new one.) Let us know by July first you are participating and send us your finished Exquisite Uterus by July 1, 2012. Participants are asked to send their self-defined uterus to the project organizers with a stamped self-addressed envelope for its return after the exhibition. We only ask that you don't take your uterus for granted. Claim it! Have fun with it but take your control of your own personal uterus very seriously. Take the time to think about what your uterus wants to say visually, and make it happen. You may use words, stitches, dye, colors, textures, images, sparkly stuff, fairy dust or whatever else inspired you. We want uteri both bold and shy, and will even have some made by guys. (There are already rumors of uteri aprons, pillows, sculptures and clothes). Once all the uteri have been received the artists will follow the tradition of the motherhood of church ladies and assemble their collection of unique, individual and righteously outspoken uteri for public viewing in the Steinhilber Art Gallery as a part of the exhibition entitled “Power, Politics, and Performance” Our timeline is as follows:

April to Early May 2012: Distribution of Uteri
July 1, let us know you are in
August 1, 2012: Uterus due
Exhibition , September 3, -October 6, 2012
Conference dates are Oct. 5-6, 2012
Conference reception Friday, October 5, 2012

More details can be found here: http://www.creativitylessons.com/call-for-proposals.html We are having an amazing response that is showing us that we are not the only ones who feel that enough is enough. Join us! Alison and I are looking forward to including an amazing installation calling for protection of reproductive autonomy as a part of out wonderful exhibition (which you should come see. I'll write more about the exhibition as it nears.) It turns out Alison and I are not the only artists who see the uterus as a symbol of independence. [caption id="attachment_1217" align="alignnone" width="640"] Government Free VJJ, DIY Uteri and vaginas. Share with your legislators.[/caption] The women behind Government Free VJJ have a different approach than we do, but its equally effective. They say:

"Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent, female or male, please join us in sending a strong message to our government representatives.

Tell your male government representatives: “Hands off my uterus! Here’s one of your own!”

Please Note This is NOT a group for political argument and debate. This group is not in support of any specific political party and it is not pro-life or pro-choice. This group is against government regulation of women’s bodies and it is against the government making personal and moral decisions for us. If you disagree with this project, please find a group more suited to your tastes. Anyone who starts arguments, is rude or mean, or spams this site with religious or political debates will be banned.

"Follow these simple steps," their website beckons... 1. Knit or crochet a vagina or uterus. http://www.governmentfreevjj.com/the-patterns/ 2. Print a message to enclose. 3. Mail it to your male Senator or Congressional Representative [links provided] 4. We're in the process of arranging hand delivery to congressional offices in Washington, until then, go ahead and mail yours in! 5. Record your items in this spreadsheet so we can track which representatives still need to receive a "gift"! 6. Don't forget to thank your representative if he respects women and supports our rights." You can join them on Facebook too. There are other artists who have adopted the uterus as a subject and symbol, and not all of it is focused exclusively on reproductive choice. Some, like The Uterus Flag Project are social practice art projects to increase the awareness of over medicalization of women. [caption id="attachment_1257" align="aligncenter" width="633"] The Uterus Flag Project, a social practice art project to increase the awareness of over medicalization of women.[/caption] Escondido artist Terrilynn Quick is asking participants to be a part of The Uterus Flag Project. She discovered this need while doing her MFA- Feminism,Fiber Arts and Craftivism and for her final grad show coming up in July 2012. She is seeking contributions. Her personal political concerns are about the over medicalization of women, and specifically having an unnecessary hysterectomy. On her blog she asks if you have a story, and to please share it and participate. You can contact her and she will send you a packet. Here is the Project Facebook page. Uterus Flags have been touring in Europe for a while too. Billed as 'public intervention' they make the lack of awareness of women's concerns more visible. [caption id="attachment_1223" align="aligncenter" width="393"] Artists Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson install Uterus Flags in Rovereto, Italy[/caption] Artists Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson ( who have established their center of work in the cities of Rotterdam and Berlin.) have exhibited Uterus Flags in various European cities. The flags are essentially a bunting in 9 different color combinations, inspired by heraldry and party-flags, but they bear the silhouette of the female sexual organs; uterus, falopian tubes, ovaries and vagina. Another interesting creative project is Incorporate My Uterus, a project of the Florida ACLU. They say: Coast to coast, conservatives get elected by promising smaller government and less business regulation but as soon as they get elected, they rush to put big government regulations on the personal freedom and privacy of your body. It’s a clear double standard. To them, there are too many regulations on pharmacies and fruit stands but not nearly enough government rules about your uterus. It was inspired by the following quote by - Representative Scott Randolph of Florida. "The point is that Republicans are always talking about deregulation and big government. But I say their philosophy is small government for the big guy and big government for the little guy. And so, if my wife's uterus was incorporated or my friend's bedroom was incorporated, maybe the Republicans would be talking about deregulating." The more I have looked the more I have found systematic outrage across the country at the efforts to regulate women's reproductive lives by imposing particular moral and religious perspectives. Organizations like the Women's Media Center are working to make sure women's perspectives are better represent in the media, and that sexism is called out when it occurs. Many individuals, including artists, are fighting back in our own ways. We invite you to join our project or create your own. I know there are many more feminist creative projects out there focusing on reproductive justice and rights. Please send us links to those projects in the comments, whether they are uterus-centered or not.

Creativity Lessons: Art, Nature, and Finding Our Inner Voices

Helen — Fri, 04 May 2012 05:32:57 +0000

Join us for Art Workshops at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center outside of Spring Green, Wisconsin I am deep in planning a series of summer workshops at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center near Spring Green, Wisconsin for summer 2012. Below are the workshops that I, Liese Pfeifer, Subanna Nur (Bev Gordon), Marian Farrior and Jo Dusick will be offering at the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center. Located between Spring Green and Dodgeville, Wisconsin it is near such wonderful cultural opportunities as the American Players Theater, Frank Lloyd Wright Hillside Studio and Theater, and the The House on the Rock. The school is itself a wonderful place to create and learn. I was delighted to be able to offer two workshops there last year during the first summer open to the public, and can't wait to be back this summer. Thanks to the work of the Cultural Centers volunteer Board we now have access to an architectural gem by one of our for most American Architect who made his home and school nearby. The Wyoming Valley School is an art piece in an of itself. Built in 1957, the school was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who donated his design (and 2 acres of land) to the Wyoming School District in honor of his mother, Anna Lloyd-Jones Wright. She had been a kindergarten teacher and taught him his lifelong love of learning. The school opened in 1958 with 46 students in grades 1 through 8. This was my grade school for first through sixth grade. I was one of the local children who started the first grade there in 1959. (Our family farm was about a mile away). There were two classrooms and a gym/cafeteria. There were also three grades in each school room with 4-8 students in a class. Each room full of student were taught by one teacher who would work on lessons with one class while the rest of us did our homework and studies our lessons. When attending a two classroom school, if you were precocious or slow in a subject you could join in the lessons of the class that was working at your level. We has a floor to ceiling cupboard that was our library and I received an award for reading all the books in the library. An art teacher (Mrs. Polly Hocking) came to teach us once a week. In that school I learned to love learning and I learned to love art. The River Valley School district used the building until the school closed for good in 1990. In August of 2010 the school was given to the not-for-profit Wyoming Valley School, Inc., by Jeff Jacobsen in recognition of his admiration for Wright. We who are able to use the school again are delighted and thank the volunteers are making it possible for the community to use the school and enjoy Frank Lloyd Wright's wonderful architecture. The Wyoming Valley School is currently hosting Wednesday Night Gatherings for artists and writers from Southwestern Wisconsin from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Join them! . If you would like to donate to support the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center go here. So, come and join my friends and I this summer at the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center for lessons in Art, Nature, and Creativity! Check out fees and register here. [caption id="attachment_1202" align="alignleft" width="330"] Sunset Hill, 14 x 19 1/2, watercolor, ©2011 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] Watercolor: A Fresh Start with Helen Klebesadel, June 29-July 1, 2012 (2.5 days). Schedule: Friday afternoon (4-8), all day Saturday (10-4), and Sunday (10-4). Watercolor: A Fresh Start is a beginning or refresher workshop, but more experienced artists welcome. This watercolor weekend is designed for absolute beginners as well as for those who have had some experience painting with watercolor but need a refresher to start again. Plan on enjoying this opportunity to learn or re-learn watercolor from an artist passionate about the medium. Workshop participants will explore basic traditional approaches to watercolor painting as well as fresh and experimental watercolor techniques. The goal is to send participants home with the skills and tools to keep on painting. A list of recommended places for lodging and meals will be provided. Plan to bring a sack lunch daily. Workshop limited to 15. Give Meaning and Memory through Mixed Media I & II, with Liese Pfeifer. June 29-July 1, 2012 and/or August 17-19, 2012. Both workshops (2.5 days), Schedule: Friday afternoon (4-8), all day Saturday (10-4), and Sunday (10-4). Take the total Workshop or register for each day separately (below). This course progresses through three parts (separate register possible) for beginner creative soul or experienced artist. Each class has guided exercises. Using play and intuition as a creative source is encouraged and some formal elements are taught Introducing Liese Pfeifer. Liese believes art enhances our living in this world and the process of creating nurtures our self. As a consultant with Integrated Art Group she builds diverse art collections for corporate and healthcare clients. She is Curator of the Design Gallery in the School of Human Ecology at UW where she is working towards a grand reopening this fall. Pfeifer’s art, like her teaching, encourages a spiritual connection through self acceptance in art play. She maintains an environmentalist ethic in her living.Whole Workshop (See daily descriptions below) Workshop 1A: Perception and Intention in Art with Liese Pfeifer. June 29, 2012, Friday Only 4:00-8:00 PM. Explore the difference between how our work is perceived and what we intended. What choices do we have in execution that will help our intention. Brush up on design basics that inform your ability to create impelling compositions. This eye opening workshop will be both lecture and experiential. Materials provided or bring your favorite sketchbook. Workshop 1B: Found Object Dilemma/Breaking the Rut with Liese Pfeifer. June 30, 2012, Saturday Only, 10:00-4:00. How to bring chaos into harmony; Use a variety of recycled materials to create something new. Technical workshop about connecting objects using adhesives, binding, joining and fastening. Emphasis will be on playing as a means to creation. Bring your collection of found objects, some will be provided. Bring sack lunch. Workshop 1C: Mixed media collage as purveyors of meaning, with Liese Pfeifer. July 1, 2012, Sunday only: 10am-4pm. Create a mixed media sculpture or work with collage elements on a board using a personal collectable as focal point. Discover what arises from combining seemingly random images. Bring found objects, favorite pictures, or favorite fabric. Supporting materials provided. Introduction to SoulCollage®: Intuition Through Imagery with Subanna Nur (Beverly Gordon). July 15 2012, Sunday 10:00-4:00. SoulCollage® is an exciting and powerful process of working with visual images (cutting and pasting from printed photos--no particular skill, artistic ability or experience needed) and then using the cards to access information from your own inner guidance—your intuition and personal imagery. (You make cards that function as a personal "deck” that can be used like tarot cards or other tools for individual exploration.) The card-making is satisfying and fun--and a discovery in itself—but it’s only the first part; then you learn to do "readings," to learn what the cards you have made have to tell you. This seemingly almost magical process brings forth an even deeper level of wisdom.At this workshop you will experience both card-making and the interpretation/reading process. You will learn how SoulCollage® cards can be used and ways you can go further on your own. All materials will be provided. Bring a sack lunch. Workshop limited to 10. Introducing Subanna Nur (Beverly Gordon): Subanna is an artist, writer, and recently retired Design Studies (UW-Madison)professor who has been working with visual images, found and natural objects, spiritual practice and personal growth for nearly 40 years. (SoulCollage® brings all of this together Patterns In Nature Workshop with Marian Farrior and Amy Jo Dusick. Monday, July 16, 2012, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. Learn about the fascinating world of patterns in nature. Topics include the interplay of form and function, the math and geometry of specific patterns, the science and art of the pattern, how these patterns can be applied in garden designs, and how these patterns might influence our lives. We will practice our observation skills outdoors, do some reflective practices, and use patterns to design creative projects. Dress for indoor and outdoor activities. Bring your own lunch and beverage, and pen and paper or journal for taking notes. [caption id="attachment_1207" align="alignright" width="384"] Last White Poppy, watercolor, 9x12, ©2011 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] Watercolor From the Center with Helen Klebesadel, July 16-20, 2012 (5 days of workshop), Schedule: 10:00-4:00 daily. Watercolor From the Center is a week-long watercolor workshop to encourage individuals to find or expand their own authentic artist's voice and subject matter. Designed or advanced beginners through professional artists. Through a series of guided exercises using mixed media and watercolor participants will take the first steps toward developing a personal iconography in their art making and toward overcoming the internal censors that stop us from moving forward. This workshop will take a number of creative approaches to learning how to use your own life as a resource in your art. In general the mornings will be used for guided exercises and the afternoons will be open painting sessions with the instructor offering feedback as needed. The workshop is designed to accommodate experienced and beginning artists who would like to participate in guided projects that will open you up to new directions. A list of recommended places for lodging and meals will be provided. Workshop limited to 15 [caption id="attachment_1209" align="alignleft" width="300"] Ocotilla, watercolor, ©2011 Helen Helen R Klebesadel[/caption] Watercolor: The Expressive Medium with Helen Klebesadel, August 17-19, 2012 (2.5 days). Schedule: Friday afternoon (4-8), all day Saturday (10-4), and Sunday (10-4). Watercolor: The Expressive Medium is a weekend workshop designed for advanced beginners through experienced painters. Drawing skills are useful but not required, and you do not need previous experience using watercolor to participate. Participants will explore a wide range of traditional and experimental techniques in transparent and opaque watercolors while they explore the possibilities of this expressive painting medium. Whether you enjoy painting from nature or you are ready to explore your own imagination, this course will give you the tools and direction you need to create strong statements in watercolor. Participants from previous workshops are welcome to repeat this class. A list of recommended places for lodging and meals will be provided. Workshop limited to 15 Plan to join us at the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center this summer! Contact me with any questions.

New paintings by Mary Kay Neumann, 'Art Still Has Truth, Take Refuge There'

Helen — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:44:56 +0000

Madison artist Mary Kay Neumann in her garden of watercolors

UPDATE: There will be an Exhibition Closing OPEN HOUSE for this wonderful exhibition on Sunday, April 29, 2012, 1 o’clock -3 o’clock pm. Plan to come if you are going to be in Madison.

One of my favorite Wisconsin artists, Mary Kay Neumann was kind enough to give me a preview of some of her newest paintings.

I have loved the intense and spontaneous feel of Mary Kay’s deeply moving watercolors since I first saw them. Her wet-into-wet watercolor florals are alive with emotions of joy, conflict, and and the intrinsic beauty of life. I’m delighted to get to show you some of her most recent works.

Her newest exhibition, Art Still Has Truth, Take Refuge There, runs March 19 through April 30, with viewings by appointment (email marykay@mknart.com). An artist’s reception, open to the public, is March 24, 5–9 p.m., at PilateSpa Studio, 2045 Atwood Ave., Suite 107. For more information, visit mknart.com. (Update: The exhibition is lovely. It is well worth the effort to call an make an appointment for viewing. Mary Kay’s paintings are alive with color and texture. Enjoy!).

Mary Kay’s says of her own work: “Artmaking can be an avenue of social change. This past year, Wisconsin has been overwhelmed by explosive politics. Many families, neighbors, friends and coworkers have become estranged from each other during this tumultuous time. My intent is to bring people together, leave their differences aside, and seek refuge in art”, says Mary Kay Neumann.

Mary Kay lives her beliefs every day. In addition to being an artist she is a trauma therapist who started a psychotherapy clinic for feminist therapy in Madison in 1988. She advocates for positive social change on the personal and societal level in one way or another in every part of her life as both artist and therapist.

“I work with many people who have been abused and see dignity and bravery in their efforts to overcome trauma. While painting or doing psychotherapy I move back and forth between what is painful and what is joyous. The faces of my intensely colored flowers sometimes reflect a struggle to exist. I deliberately infuse emotion in my flowers and invite the viewer to see the beauty in imperfection. Making art and doing psychotherapy both involve the search for what is honest and true…to make meaning out of chaos. ‘Art still has truth, take refuge there’ is a line from a poem by Matthew Arnold. I experience that phrase as a clarion call.”

“As a feminist, the personal IS political”

Mary Kay donates 10% of all her art sales to non-profits. She will be donating a percentage of her sales from this exhibition to “Options for Community Living”, a local group that provides residential services to adults with developmental disabilities.

Mary Kay Neumann has shown her paintings in solo and group exhibition in galleries and art centers across the US, including New York City, Chicago, and California. In Wisconsin she chosen traditional and non-traditional venues to bring her art to a broad audience, including shows in Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton’s Office at the State Capitol, the Wisconsin Arts Board gallery, the Pyle Center at the University of Wisconsin, and the 25^th Annual Artful Women Show at the UW Hospital and Clinics.

Mary Kay has a strong following of private collectors throughout the U.S.A as well as having works in corporate collections that include Meriter Hospital, Petkovsek & Moran and Red Sage Health in Madison; Dean Clinic in Janesville and D&K Pattern in St. Charles, Michigan. She also was juried into the Percent for Art Program in 2010 , and the State of Wisconsin purchased one of her paintings for their Public Art Collection (Unfortunately that program and several others serving individual artists is now defunct due to cuts to the Wisconsin Arts Board budget)

The exhibition space for the exhibition is the PILATESPA Studio, that Mary Kay calls an “art gallery for bodies”. The Studio is a gem in the midst of Atwood Avenue. The owner, Kathleen Conklin, has been an active arts supporter and promoter for many artists over the years. She has created a lovely art and movement venue that is well loved. Her beautiful space will be a fine setting for Mary Kay Neumann’s colorful paintings of flowers.

To see more of Mary Kay’s wonderful watercolors, plan to come to the opening reception on March 24th, 5-9 and I’ll see you there (tell me if you read this blog).

For more about Mary Kay Neumann’s watercolors check out the recent article written about her by Katie Vaughn in a Madison Magazine article: Flower Power

Again Art Still Has Truth, Take Refuge There, runs March 19 through April 30, with viewings by appointment (email marykay@mknart.com). An artist’s reception, open to the public, is March 24, 5–9 p.m., at PilateSpa Studio, 2045 Atwood Ave., Suite 107. For more information, visit mknart.com.

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The high art of visibility: How I am learning to use social media to promote my art

Helen — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:31:20 +0000

My newest art exhibition of watercolors is called Aviary, Apiary. It will focus on environmental concerns through poetic and sometimes symbolic representations of birds and bees. It will be on exhibition at the Benedicta Arts Center in the College of St Benedict in St Joseph, Minnesota from February 15th to April 4th 2012, with a reception near the end of its run on March 30th. Twin Cities artist Christine Baeumler will also be showing a multi-media installation on the same theme that reflects upon the vitality and fragility of bird and insect life.

All artists who have spend months developing a body of artwork for exhibition, or prepared to perform in a play or concert, know that the creating the art is only half the work. The other half is finding a way to let your audience where and when and how they can access the aesthetic experience you hope to offer them.

I was talking to an artist friend, Mary Kay Neumann recently about how we might spread the word about an exhibition she has coming up next month (“Art Still Has Truth, Take Refuge There”, opening March 24, 2012, PilateSpa Studio, Madison, WI). We talked about how she was updating her e-mail and snail-mail contact lists, and about the press release she has planned to send to her press list. We also talked about using on-line social networking media to spread the word.

Over the last few years I have been building my on-line presence as an artist a bit at a time both to grow my art community and to make my creative work more visible. Since the topic is relevant, I promised Mary Kay I would use this blog entry to review some of the steps I have taken to use social media to raise the visibility of my art and make it more accessible to a wider audience.

Creating an Social Media Network From A Hub

There are lots of different ways for an artist to approach developing an on-line presence and build a social media network to bring visibility to their art. Developing a social media network is really developing an electronic way to stay in touch with people you know, and to meet and build relationships with others who share your interests. The key word here is ‘relationship.’ That implies a two-way street. You share what you are doing, what you are interested in, what may be useful for other to know about as well as respond to what others offer you. If all you do is post about yourself you won’t be maintaining good relationships.

Its taken me a while to learn that in building an online presence you don’t have to be overwhelmed by all the on-line media available to you, nor do you need to use it all. It makes sense to only establish accounts in on-line media you can maintain with regular updates. The best approach is to choose one of the many tools available to you as the hub of your on-line presence and then build from there. A website or a blog can be the hub of your on-line presence, whichever one is a better fit for you. It can then be linked to other vehicles like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.

Websites

It is a whole new world in terms of websites, and if you are not someone who can build your own (me either) there are plenty of places willing to design one for you or sites that allow you to customize templates to create your own.

My first web presence was on the free Portal Wisconsin On-line Gallery . The visibility the Portal Wisconsin Gallery gave me several opportunities, including having my art requested for use for a book cover to being asked to allow the use of my art on CDs given as pledge premiums for one of my favorite Wisconsin Public Radio shows, To the Best of Our Knowledge.

Happily this opportunity still exists for Wisconsin artists who apply despite recent budget cuts to the member organizations of the Cultural Coalition of Wisconsin. Its sponsoring organizations include: Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters | Wisconsin Arts Board | Wisconsin Historical Society| Wisconsin Humanities Council | Wisconsin Library Association | Wisconsin Public Radio | Wisconsin Public Television | University of Wisconsin-Extension–Continuing Education, Outreach & E-Learning

I maintain my presence in the Portal Wisconsin Gallery even though I now have my own artist website. (I am in the process of transforming my current website to make it easier for me to update myself. I’ll show it off once its revised.)

Teaching Art Online

In addition to my artist website I have used the very flexible website platform Weebly.com to build a website for my teaching, called Creativity Lessons. Weebly offers free websites and blog with easy to use templates for FREE. If you want to be able to sell products or services on your site you will have to pay a reasonable annual fee. That is what I did.

Art Sales Sites:

I have several places my paintings, prints and related items are available for sale on-line. I self-maintained two on-line stores. These kinda of venue are useful for artists willing to work hard to drive traffic to their stores themselves. For minimal fees they are very easy to use in terms of uploading art and maintaining a sales site that is easy for a buyer to use.

Etsy is an on-line community for Do It Yourself (DIY) artists and crafters, and people selling art supplies and vintage goods. My shop is called HelenKlebesadelArt
I am also exploring a newer on-line sales platform called Meylah, which does a great job of integrating blog technology in their shops. This venue is especially designed to allow the inclusion and sales of tutorials and digital products as well as art and crafts. My Shop is Helen Klebesadel: Watercolors, Prints, and Fabrics.
I additionally have my watercolors and giclees prints available for sale on the Artful Home website (previously GUILD.com). This site functions like a brick and mortar gallery in that after an artist is juried in and pay an initial fee to join the site takes 50% of sales. The fee is well worth it because of the international reach of site’s art collecting audience and the work they do to market and make the site and its artists visible.

There are other on-line sales venues, several with huge user communities and thousands of buyers using the platforms daily. None-the-less it is still up to you to drive an audience to your store. Most individuals who find your store will have been directed to it from another place: a blog, Facebook, etc.

Print on Demand Fabric Designs

For the past three years I have spent a fair amount of time turning some of my paintings and watercolor experiments into fabrics designs. I have well over 100 designs that can be found on my page at Spoonflower.com. This has been a grand adventure. The Spoonflower Community is full of interesting and creative people exploring the possibility of this new media that extends the possibility of fiber arts in so many ways. If you are interested in designing your own fabrics I have a free tutorial in my Meylah shop that will show you how you can turn your artworks into fabric designs.

Prairie Plenty Fabric Design, available at http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/115279

Social Networking sites:

I have a Facebook Fan Page, which allows me to announce my art events to those who have chosen to sign up to receive the announcements. Unlike a regular Facebook Page your followers don’t have to become ‘friends’ and share all their personal information to follow you on a Fan Page.

I am also a LinkedIn participant. This is a professional business-oriented platform that has you make ‘connections’ rather than ‘friends,’ There are may useful affinity groups you can join that share useful resources. LinkedIn, like the other social media platforms, have helped me stay i touch with friends and acquaintances and meet others who share my interests and passions.

I also have my blog, Facebook, Linked in and my sales sites all automatically attached to a Twitter Account that let me share my postings to my followers with one post.

Other Fun Sites

The Arts Map is an interactive website connecting artists, the arts, and the community. You can us it to find artist’s studios, arts organizations, arts events, galleries, museums, & more. I put myself on the map here.

I have just started to use Youtube to post a couple of watercolor demos. I hope to work with a friend to develop more virtual lessons and share them.

Exhibbit is a wonderful virtual exhibition platform that allows artists to create and change online gallery exhibitions whenever we want. You can see a video overview of my exhibition here or you can go directly to the Exhibbit site and see what its like to move through a virtual exhibition at your own pace. You will have to download the media program to move through my Flora and Fauna exhibition at your own pace.

The Brooklyn Museum’s Feminist Art Base, is the first online digital archive dedicated solely to feminist art. A project of the museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, with the mission to ‘present feminism in an approachable and relevant manner, to educate new generations about the meaning of feminist art, and to raise awareness of feminism’s cultural contributions.’

The Behance Network is a n online platform to showcase and discover creative work. They allow creative professionals to create multi-media portfolios that showcase their work within the Network, as well as dozens of other partner sites and industry-specific, curated online galleries. (I have my portfolio embedded in my LinkedIn profile.)

None of these approaches are necessary to being an artist. Being in the studio and making the art that matters to you is the first and most important thing to do. But when it comes time to share your art and advertise your exhibitions, nothing compares to a good mailing list (and email list) and a solid social networking strategy.

I didn’t build my on-line presence all at once. I’ve grown it slowly but surely, one step at a time, as I have had time and attention to take the next step. I do spend a little time on these projects almost everyday, but I have to make sure I maintain a balance between keeping my virtual presence up to date while limiting my time on-line to ensure it doesn’t intrude into my studio time.

So I say, make good art and share it widely. I’d love to hear about what has worked best for you and about any new opportunities in the ever-growing world of social media.

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Painting 'Plein Air' Watercolors and Creating Visual Memories

Helen — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 02:34:08 +0000

In mid December I had the privilege and opportunity to join my friend and sister artist Nikki Kinne for a week of RV camping and plein air painting in southern Arizona. If you have read this blog before you know that Nikki is the Alaskan artist that I did the 33 Paintings in 33 Days Project with this summer, documenting it in this blog. Later, in September Nikki joined me in Door County to help me teach a watercolor workshop at Lawrence University’s northern campus, Bjorklunden. Despite all our fun together in 2011 we still wanted a chance to actually take the time to paint together, and circumstances arranged themselves (with our help) to make that possible.

In mid December I flew to Arizona where Nikki met me at the Phoenix airport and swept me away to the beautiful Desert Rose Baha’i Institute campus where Nikki and her husband Ken park their RV camper. There we experienced a lovely desert sunset, and an evening of catching up. The next morning we set off to drive the RV to Patagonia Lake State Park south of Tucson, near Nogales, Arizona, just north of the border with Mexico.

Patagonia Lake State Park turns out to be on the migratory path for many birds. It was teeming with all manner of waterfowl. (In fact the 2011 birdwatching film The Big Year did some of its filming there.) Within 15 minutes of being in the park I startled a Blue Heron and several other birds.

Upon arriving in the park I started right in on a plein air, “in the open air,” painting. Plein air painting is important for more than the lovely paintings that can be the result. The joy of taking the time to carefully observe nature is my favorite part of painting this way. There are few times when most of us slow down enough to allow ourselves the privilege of just sitting and looking at the wonder of the nature that surrounds us. There is something about trying to render what I see in paint or pencil that brings a special kind of focused attention to the details of nature. I never see so clearly as when I try to draw or paint what I am looking at. I can sit and stare for hours, seeing with amazement what other times I might not notice at all. If I had never drawn or painted I would start now just so I could give myself permission to learn to look at nature with my full attention.

As night fell over the park more of the magic of the place emerged. As we took an evening stroll the full moon rose over the park with an amazing ring around it. Slowly, as a few clouds moved through the sky the ring around the moon suddenly became a spiral around the moon, evoking an unnatural magic in the natural world. It promised that the whole trip would have a special kind of magic to it, and I was not disappointed.

It was actually the was the second day of our painting excursion that was the most magical. We were lucky to be in the park on December 10th, 2011. We woke up at 5:00 am and got ourselves down to the lake shore to watch the early morning lunar eclipse. We were determined to be there to watch the moon as it found itself positioned in its orbit to pass through Earth’s shadow. After watching the eclipse we headed back to the camper for breakfast and to capture our memories in sketches.

Nikki and I each have several other art projects underway and are involved in our home art communities. We spent the afternoon painting and catching up on our current projects, and began to plan for future shared creative projects.

The creative work of the day wasn’t over as evening fell. We decided to participate in a sunset/moonrise hike in newly formed Sonotia Creek State Natural Area that abuts the park. The hike is offered by park volunteers monthly. With a dozen other people we hiked up a rock and cactus covered hill to the to where we could see wonderful vistas in each direction, Nikki documented the experience in photographs. After a magical evening watching the sun set over Arizona and the moon rise over Mexico we hiked back down the hillside with our memories and Nikki’s photos to inspire visual memory paintings when it was too cold or wet to paint outside. We created these next few paintings to remember the wonderful experience of the transition between day and night in this wild area.

A new body of work I have begun includes images of thorny vines. On our hike I became fascinated by the thorny Ocotilla shrubs that cover the hillsides. They seemed to be living embodiments of the metaphor I have been working with as I imagine a new series of paintings. I’ve been researching the plants ever since I came home (their blooms are pollinated by humming birds in the spring and they can perform photosynthesis in their BARK!).

For this mid-westerner the Barrel Cactus are fascinating too, especially observing the way their fruit grow, which in this instance seemed to repeat the spiral theme that was with me my whole time in the park. Nikki convinced me to try out painting on a watercolor canvas too. I’ll be exploring this approach more in the future because it was a lot of fun working on a non-absorbent surface that makes lift-out so easy. (You have to seal paintings watercolor canvas with a spray fixative in the same way you seal paintings on Yupo Paper).

Nikki painted the beautiful work above recording the wonderful vistas we could see from the top of the hill as we watched the sun set. I was inspired by one of Nikki’s documenting photographs to paint the work below.

It was a magical day starting with a lunar eclipse and ending with watching the full moon rise over Mexico. I’m sure bits and pieces of the day will appear in my paintings for years to come.

During our five days in the park we painted from life when the weather allowed and captured our experiences of the area as memories when it was too cool or rainy to paint outside. We also spent a day being tourists, heading to Tubac, a local artist community (the town has been hosting the Tucbac Festival of the Arts every February since 1959.) I’d love to return their in February to catch the festival and revisit some of the artisan shops we saw.

The last couple of days in the park were amazing rainy days, putting a hold on our plans to do further plein air painting. I was able to do some nice little grey paintings out the window of the camper (above) but we were not to get another chance to actually paint outside. We both worked on our memory pieces and developed ideas for future works. Nikki finished the painting sevre in-progress pieces and the painting below in anticipation of an upcoming show.

It didn’t feel limiting despite our inability to go outside. (Who knew it would rain so much and for so long in December in Arizona!) We were able to work from our memories, sketches, and documentary photographs. I found that by thinking of the little paintings I was doing as saving visual memories and ideas for future works rather than fully finished artworks I was free to play and just see what happened.

Kinne Klebesadel Camper Exhibition, Patagonia Lake, December 13, 2011

Because of the rain we spent a pleasant two days painting indoors, catching up, and planning for our next joint project. We are just starting another collaborative project. We have begun to work on new bodies of artwork that will address a shared theme focused on growth and renewal out of dark times. We hope to be ready to exhibit the work in 2013, and are looking for venues that would be interested in exhibiting watercolors so please send suggestions of possible places to exhibit this new work together.

On our last day we headed north to Scottsdale where we were treated to a personal tour of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art by the my friend Timothy Rodgers who is its Director. Its a lovely museum doing very exciting programing with changing exhibitions, as well as being the home of an amazing James Turell skyspace called Knight Rise.

Nikki Kinne in the driver's seat. Thank you Nikki!

From the museum we headed back to the airport, where I bid goodbye to Nikki and my wonderful week of painting plein air and creating visual memories. Thanks to Nikki Kinne (and Ken Kojker) for sharing their camper and giving me a very special time in painting in Arizona.

If you have never taken the time to sit and stare at where a ridge meets the sky or how a branch attaches to the trunk of a tree, or how a hillside reflects in a lake, I encourage you to put all fear aside and go for it. If you do you could discover that the experience of careful observation is satisfying in itself and that it is aided by trying to record it as a visual memory. If you do want to consider plein air painting or drawing here are a few hints about how to set yourself up for a successful experience:

Here is what I pack for plein air painting expeditions:

7×9 Arches Field Watercolor Book

9 x 12″ and 12 x 16″ Arches watercolor blocks (Watercolor blocks are great because the paper doesn’t have to be stretched and you do not need a board to attach you paper to, but since the watercolor paper is layered and glued in a solid block you cannot remove your painting from the block until its dry. You will need two, so you can work on a second painting while the first painting is drying.

Canteen of water to drink and to paint with

At least three of my favorite brushes, #8, #4, #2 rounds

Set of 12 watercolor pencils and/or permanent colored ultrafine sharpies

Winsor Newton Masking Fluid

Rubber shaper brush to apply mask

Rubber Cement Pickup to remove mask

Old toothbrush for texture painting and applying mask (I spatter the mask with a toothbrush to achieve the stars in night skies).

A roll of masking tape ( I like to mask off the borders of the paintings I do for the visual effect but this is not necessary on a watercolor block).

Two small water containers, one to clean the brush and one to provide clan water to paint with.

Two packets of paper tissue or a small roll of paper towels

#2 Pencil and sharpener

I have two favorite watercolor kits that I use depending on the occasion:

Small: Winsor Newton Field Set (this and a set of watercolor postcards are all you really need)

Larger: Capri Watercolor Box (this allows me to carry my studio on a shoulder strap. I can use my tube watercolors in the included pallet, and have room for my brushes, extra paint and a water container).

Bring a small camera to document what you are painting to review later if needed.

Decide if you need to bring something to sit. Dress comfortably, wear a cap or wide brimmed hat to keep the sun out of your eyes. Prepare for bugs.

Have a great time!

Finally, one last thank you to Ken Kokjer for giving up his time with Nikki and to Nikki Kinne for sharing her precious painting time in Arizona with me. What a gift! I had great time!

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