Leonore Carrington is dead

She was just 20 years old when she eloped to Paris with Max Ernst, who left a wife for her. The following year, 1937, the Nazi's arrested Max. Fearing for her life, Leonora escaped France to Spain, but then she suffered several mental breakdowns and medically administered experimental drug horrors. Max eventually escaped the Nazi's with the help of Peggy Guggenheim (whom he then married).
Leonora was an accomplished surrealist painter. This painting is a parody of a portrait by Leonora of her Max. I like it for many reasons. When I painted it, I had no idea Leonora was dead.

Hi

Just writing to let you know that I am adjusting to my new surroundings, which include the dawn of new beginnings and the mourning of old endings. I have physically moved away from family, friends, support systems, and home, and found myself with out internet or phone for the last month. There has been plenty to do with a good job, wonderful students and stacks of syllabi. But above all I try to digest a new found and mostly awkward silence and, when I start to panic, I make room for stillness.
I bought canvases last week!

not ready to hand over the keys

quite yet


collage on wood panel
roughly
7 x 9 inches.

You can hide

multiple sins with a paintbrush....

Trying to get the house in shape to rent out.

8 x 6 inches mixed media- acrylic with metallic leaf on wood

HOUSE STILL AVAILABLE FOR RENT

What would I do without a chainsaw

to take out the dead wood and make room for the new life?

birthday burn up

moving into menopause.

Fun, fun, fun

Hestia the virgin Goddess of the hearth is symbolic of how small repetitive tasks are all I can do to center myself! I'm burning the stuff I do not need any more...

SOLD

SPREAD THE WORD

Teenagers are living in the perfect moment for self-realization. I am offering a fun, insightful, thought provoking, and ultimately rewarding class in self portrait painting through the NorthLight Art Center in Sharon, CT. Classes will start April 7th and run for 6 Thursdays, 3:30-5:50. $20 each =$180 for all six. Materials list provided upon registration.
Contact me by email or the Center at 860-364-5675

STUDIO-TO STOVE WORKSHOP

March is all about memories... they are what motivate us and fill our brains. Irish soda bread is a recipi that goes way, way, back and it comes from a time there was not a lot of abundance... no eggs hardly any food, jobs, hope. But we will make irish soda bread and knead it with intention. And while our loaves are in the oven we will create tromp loel momento boxes that are easy, with no-fail steps to follow, and sure to "wow" your friends. That's a memory you won't likely forget.
Please consider- if you are in the Lakeville area- joining us March 20th from 1-4pm. All materials included, but please, if you have one, bring an 8 inch cake pan! $50.

Uprooted from the garden of love

Summer painting!
This is about challenges, change, choices, and travel...
acrylic on wood panel
15 x 22 inches
$500

I have to, I have to, I have to...

I have to go down to Florida and attend a trust meeting where we vote on suspending the gift giving for at least a year. So sad, but we are out of money. And where I will run into my ex-husband and that always seems to make me sick. In fact, I feel quiet nauseous today. And I will see my mother and that carries some baggage too. I feel like Persephone traveling between worlds. Which is hell and which is heaven? It's not so easily labeled. I will also get a chance to catch up with my 15 year old son, and meet his school advisor. It could be heavy. I also have to attend an art opening that my Bed Song painting is in! Isn't it crazy how the timing worked out? I am in a juried group show in my mom's hometown that opens while I am visiting! So... its all about riches. But even riches are part of our luggage.
This collage painting is called- like the text in it says- A Cry For Help. When I made it it really helped me get through what I was in the midst of... (which ironically, to put it simply, was too much family). It's just under 6 x 9 inches and I've priced it at $75.
Though instead of buying it, if you should find yourself of similar mind, you should make your own and see what happens.
I have to go paint now!

Isn't this the time of year we do impulsive things?

I remember seeing the back of Malcom McMullen scooting off on his bicycle after I heard the door bell ring when I was in about 6th grade. At the door my nanny found a giant heart-shaped box of chocolates with a little silver bracelet taped on top. I still have the bracelet with Malcom's name etched onto it. How brave he was!
And dozens (30?) years later I drove my 11 year old son on an icy February morning to deliver roses to an unsuspecting girl. Just outside the door he had cold feet and we both realized the flowers were in danger of freezing before their prime effect was to be had. He flung them at the door- rang the bell- ran to the car- and as his chauffeur, I dutifully sped us away...
Ah! What speeds us on at these moments? Is it love?
Small collage with paint on wood. 3.25 x 6 inches, I call it "...loosing my mind".

Sometimes it's not politically correct to say it

But it leaks out!

Catharsis, 13 days to V-day

This wooden heart has collage with found text and is painted magenta and blue-green. The heart was a cold bronze model. Some of the words can still be deciphered through the paint, and they read like some contemporary poetry:

imagination
Punishment for the...
injured

we're probably guilty
play date
Howls of protest against the trapper

cheap dates:
economic turmoil, the hard work of finding a new job
Improves...but only bitter...

Passage... to be far worse
is a bad idea

>I won't tell you what I was up to when I made this...but I assure you it was cathartic. Using collage and random poetry as part of searching into your soul can tap into dreams, answers, possibilities yet unseen. Think about doing it! Better yet- don't think, just do it.

If you want, join us in Lakeville February 13th, 1-4 for a group creative studio-to-stove workshop.

Into the Heart Workshop offered

February 13th 1-4 pm...
We will build min-shrines to our hearts and bake aphrodisiac cookies.
Look deep inside your heart, explore your passionate roots and emotional baggage. We will embrace the spicy the sweet, and the possibly sinister aspects of the season.
Red is a vivid reminder that love is from the heart, even though the heart is easily broken.

Join us for another seasonal studio to stove workshop.
hosted by me and Rosemary Barrett
for more info or to reserve a spot email me at Tillystudio@aol.com

Hibernation Workshop

Exploring challenges, change, choice, roots and wishes last Sunday.










In the first of our Studio-to-stove experiences, we had a gathering of 7 to delve into bread making and play in new collage media techniques.



























Our next workshop is February 13th, Sunday from 1-4 (must arrive ahead of that) where we will create heart shrines and bake aphrodisiac sweets and spells. Let me know if you are interested soon because space has to be limited.

As a Hen stands balanced

...On the edge of her milk crate-turned-nest, I contemplate my own off-kilter existence. I am not at all balanced... in any realm!
I can't get all my picky lists done. There doesn't seem to be enough of me to please everybody. Could it be, in fact there doesn't seem to be enough of me for me? The inner judgement is an exhausting voice that tells me I am fat and lazy and should be calling so-and-so and getting those letters written and looking for that job and... I feel so empty yet my body seems a fragile thing with murmurs, eruptions, aches and so aside from balancing the outer world with all it's fast paced to-do-lists, there is an inner world that seems out of balance as well.
I am hoping this daily practice of painting again will help center me and gain me some... down home balance!
Sewn painted paper, 4.5 x 3 inches $35 plus shipping

Hibernate with friends!

One day only! Rosemary and I are hosting a ONE day course from 10am-5pm, January 23rd, 2011, exploring winter's opportunity for healing and creativity, settling into and exploring our dreams from the oven to the studio.

Bake your own braided loaf of 100% whole wheat bread: big, beautiful and delicious. Share stories including the contributions of Tasahara monks while combining ingredients such as deliberate intention, faith, and fresh air(after punching the bread).

At the same time you will be guided to craft your personal book using collage,text,and imagery that explores the idea of hibernation and the effects of this on our families, friends and self. Discussion will touch on the cover and inner "page" contents we create for ourselves in terms of obligations, avoidance, time and permission to rest.

At the midday break, We will have a large pot of homemade root soup to share with each other. You are welcome to bring along your own lunch.

It is Rosemary and Tilly's hope that through expressions of bookmaking, food, and story, each participant will share unique viewpoints with inspired tips for gracefully living through this season. We promise that you will enjoy lots of laughs, and take home your own bread, a book, and memories of a good time.

This is for men and women. Space is limited to 8, so confirm quickly. $50.

Resolution in the works

Along with things like exercise and consuming less salt, there is the practice of keeping a daily journal. My history in all three has been a complete failure. I used to have to hide my words. No convincing, through arguments or begging, kept them private. So I snuck pages in the backs of books, in random hidden notebooks, in letters written and never sent. It's pretty insane. Recently, as I start to organize my life, I come across excerpts of pain and risk scattered in the oddest places. Safely hid under barely worn gym gear, or even in the basement freezer. I have started to gather these loose missives and sew them all together so that I can dispose them in one final shape. Everything is out of cyclical order, but there is a spiral repetition to the theme of time and question. So
Now... should I start a real journal? I could do it with a new freedom to be authentic and open.

Cutting paintings in half

It's easier than you think. This evening the county legislators will hold a public hearing on their budget cuts. As of this moment there is no money allocated to the arts. No money for artists to work with school children, no money for 40% of the local theaters' operating budgets, no money for the hospital's healing arts programs, no money for the stadiums music concerts... As a board member of the county arts council and a working artist and teacher I have a passionate interest in things being resolved differently. It would cost each taxpayer 67 cents a year to keep the arts funding level to what it was this year (which was hugely cut from previous years). Imagine if people spoke up and said they thought they could afford to spend that 67 cents!
Lack of imagination may be a poverty of society, but soon we may have a whole generation lacking exposure to anything other than their TV and their cell phone.
Imagine what we would be missing. Is anyone interested in a show of paintings only half there, a concert of music only 1/3 played, a film without editing or ending...?

wallowing brings forth bodies of work

40 paintings to mimic the 40 pages of the divorce document and a bed book containing 24 pages from my 24 hours of wallowing over the demise of my 24 years of marriage.

Hah! Now that my real work is done... can I go hold down a regular job?
Yes!