cross breeding art

I think this has been the worst year for my art production, personally. BUT (always a "but") there have been some significant collaborations where my art has been involved in music CD design, theater props, animal shelters, and the farm to the kitchen.

I moved from the studio to the workshop and the classroom.
Now I am not sure if this should bother me or not.

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!

Painting up a storm

the last class was a hoot and a howl and a dance... we made interpretations of horses, moving like them, and creating stencils of their shapes, finishing with charcoal sketches and some metal engraved details... wish I had more pictures but I had to keep moving to keep up!

bare bones series

Here are a two of my limited series of skeletal studies painted on wood panels, 4 x 6 inches
I am trying to get them out of my system, and paint them without focusing on personality or morbidity. It's not an easy assignment for myself.

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

mythologies are moving me

I just love the stories.
here is Phoenix rising from my head. Might not be done...
KEEPS CHANGING

HAPPY valentines day

It's one of my favorite holidays...
I created a book about it out of pink tissue and black lace with cut paper plates. What other holiday can you do that with? This is best enjoyed with fresh flowers and chocolates.

Some musings on my son's contribution to my art

Not only are my sons inspiration, but they have given me the material, literally, to paint on.
Here- eaglet, Mother bear and son, bird rookery, and Bald eagle totem are all painted on paper made from my son's over worn kahki pants, bits of maps, and small inclusions.

Under a bush

Is your heart hidden under a bush? Bring it out! There is a unique dance inside each one of us and we owe it to the universe to share it. I am going to be kind to my heart today. It's so easy to forget how fragile we are... how our hearts and bodies are just containers for star dust.

Mixed media on paper 8 x 10 inches

If you are in Florida... in St. Pete, come to Studio @620 central avenue for reception between 6-9pm tonight. See you there.

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".

Penny dreadfuls

Esther Howland of Worcester Mass is often credited with starting the commercial business of "penny dreadfuls" in 1847. By organizing workshops of women friends to each add their touch, to hand assemble, and mass produce a Victorian card, Howland created a cruel craze of sarcastic and insulting cards. These were seen as a response to the stuffy morality of the Victorian era. In spite of selling her valentines for one penny each, Ester Howland became a very rich woman!
Way to go Esther! She is one of my heroes.

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

Hibernating journal

The bed as an alter




What happens when you close your eyes?

Planting and burying in the same strata where we have roots and dreams.


Listing things that drain me and things that restore my soul.





There is a time for every season...

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

Ever since my marriage started failing and good friends started dying

I have made a commitment to do things differently. I paint every single day. I love my chickens. Through these two realms I have found a voice for my sadness, my courage, and my faith. Within my daily practice I recall memories and visualize evocative tones that distill symbols into paintable vignettes. My work blends text and image in humorous, dissonant, and melding ways to explore security, panic, and the mortal experience. Because I feel transient as a species, the perpetual conflict between leaving and being is evident everywhere in my work. This duplicity is also captured in the whimsical palette, the playful brushwork and lightness of imagery that lay bare the anxieties of our time. Brushstrokes, text, and nature are strategies I explore in transforming the material to be spiritual and harvesting the spiritual to material.

Here is an installation of work at the MountainCow Cafe in pine Plains, NY, up until March.

I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from college with a BFA and a BA in painting, printmaking and art history from Colorado University in 1984. Born into a family of artists, curators, and spiritualists, I spent the first 20 years as a world traveler. I am the mother of two sons. The last two decades of my life I have lived in rural Dutchess county and been blessed with a network of artists that inspire my great love for roots with wings.

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.

the elf thing

I always get inspired to make something for the holidays- and I work like mad on prototypes, mix media, and then, as I hand out the gifts just days before the holidays, I am struck by how meager the offering actually is. Is it cheap of the soul to make chachkis for your friends?
I don't know, but, as always there is a pattern here, and I'm heading to the mall!


(making missile toe for gifts)

Gift ideas for the teenager and even your ex

Mill Street Loft's Junior art institute has fun classes after school February through March for the 11-14 year old on your list. I'm hoping to teach a mixed media class where we will play in assorted new experimental art media, such as Golden gel skin transfers and Derwent inktents.

Also, as Nora Ephron says, "Marriage comes and goes, but divorce is forever"- how about my 20 page art book with 40 paintings saying goodbye? It's $30 plus shipping. As a bonus I will throw in one of my "You've ruined my life" postcards with the purchase.

And if you are in the region please check out my small paintings at the Mill Street Loft (45 Pershing Ave) and at the Twisted Soul (47 Raymond Ave) in Poughkeepsie through January 19.
And several interesting (if I may say so) new works at the Hanbeck Gallery (South Center Street) in Millerton on weekends.

Thank you.