What have we done??

                                               Autumn Ditch oil on canvas 30x48 inches

Some things I see stick with me a long time. At least 10 years ago I was visiting the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge and at the edge was an irrigation ditch for a neighboring farm. Swarming with color and reflections I thought, I`ll paint that some day.

The world has five weeks to prepare for the second Trump Administration. This seems to me a 9/11 scale catastrophe, I`ve never been more discouraged about my country. No question Democrats got spanked and 'owned'. No one believes Haitian immigrants eat their neighbors pets and everyone knows how ridiculous it is to suggest children leave home for school in the morning one gender and return later in the day the opposite. But it does discredit Democrats by implying these fringe people and communities matter more to the party than you do. It isn`t true but it`s hard to explain. Decency once was valued more. Trump deserves prison for the insurrection on Jan, 6, 2021 but that never came to trial. So now here he comes again, god have mercy on the world, we are in big trouble.

                                                  

                                                   one of the saddest photos I`ve ever seen

                                                                             John

Twentysome years ago I asked him to get into this tree for a photo and he did it. And again last month when we walked in Tryon Creek State Park. He`s a good sport and a good man and he retires in two weeks! From his graduation from high school to now, he has spent over 40 years in healthcare. My husband soon will rest. This is the only thing I`ve wanted for years.

                                             Northwest Canyon 2 acrylic on Yupo 40x26 inches

I had an older abstract painting in storage that I didn`t want to look at so I thought I would work a collage into it. Soon another slot canyon took shape. I was cutting out interesting shapes and painting them separately for the collage. But I was getting the values wrong, repainting them and eventually I realized I should just make the thing a new painting and forget the collage.

new work;

                                         Camassia Forest 2 acrylic on Yupo 21x25 inches

                                                 Endless September oil on canvas 20x16

                                                   Aquatic watercolor collage 11x10 inches

                                               Wetlands Dusk acrylic on yupo  19x14 inches

                                           Champoeg River watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches

 "It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty"

Luigi Mangione

These are the two last sentences in his manifesto. 

Like just about everyone, the murder of the insurance executive Brian Thompson, has really got me upset. Children are missing their father and a young man has ruined his promising life. The public response has been overwhelmingly vengeful. I don`t have anything to add except this, if the social, political aspect of this is not kept alive, it will happen again. There is just a sickening amount of income/resource inequality in our country. People will choose violence as a last resort. Or to create a new order.

                                                                      Joseph W Spoor

Such short days and what long cold nights! Even though it keeps trying to kill me, I`ve got to say, I miss the guy. Our pal the sun, the first God. In the north next Saturday, let`s welcome him back.

Click HERE for new work and older, for sale in my studio

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I`m not going back

                                        Root Crown and Forest acrylic on Yupo 20x20 inches

 Like everyone I know, I`m consumed with worry about what my country might do. Much of the time I have faith but then the Washington Post refuses to endorse anyone, including the only sane candidate. What in the world could be behind such a public display of cowardice from the owner Jeff Bezos?? That spooks me.  After so many of those who worked with Donald Trump have alerted the world to the dire  emergency his election would be, the polls are tied. After 2016 there aren`t any arrogant Democrats alive with complete confidence the country will do the right thing. I can only hope, we all know who he is. The people will speak.

This moment is striking in the similarities with Nazi Germany. If you replace 'immigrants' from the  language of Trump and Vance with Jews, it`s the same scapegoating in an effort to create anger. That fomented rage is the engine Trump thinks will propel him back into power. It may, or not if reason  prevails.  October began in sheer horror seeing what Hurricane Helene did to the Southeast. The images alone have caused trauma. I can barely imagine the misery in those mountain towns as rescue workers fight to get basic necessities to all those isolated people. Then along comes Milton!

 Having been shocked beyond belief once, I will not make that mistake again. I imagine how desolate life will feel if Trump wins and I try to think of an appropriate response. The fear and dread will be massive, how can I be something positive and helpful? I`m working on that, there are eight days left. One thing is certain, even if the country becomes a Christian nationalist state, I will not shut up and I will not re-enter the closet. 

 

                                                Oceanside watercolor on Yupo 26x20 inches

                                                                        Oceanside

 One of my favorite beaches. The painting is a view of the waves pushing between the giant cliff and the little 'hat box' rock on the left in the photo. As the tide comes in, that passage is filled with liquid drama. We got away to the coast after the Lake Owego Open Studios. Thanks to all that came by, our conversations meant a lot to me.

                                                       Dunes acrylic on plastic 12x18 inches

 A mystery plastic surface, I was looking for a Yupo equivalent in a different size. This did not accept watercolor at all but would take acrylic if medium was added to the washes. It`s called Nara and I guess was formulated for alcohol inks. From India.

                                               Birth of Rainier acrylic on plastic 12x12 inches

                                           October Forest watermedia on Yupo 12x9 inches

The darkness is a definite challenge but once the morning finally begins, it is magnificent outside. Here are a couple of photos from nearby Champoeg State Park from last week;

                                                                    by Jane Hynous

This won by a lot in a competition of student designs for the 'I voted' stickers. She nailed it.

                                                     Portrait of Van Gogh by Francis Bacon

This is a favorite of Francis Bacon`s psychologically charged works. From early on, painting the darker side of human experience was his obsession. The work before 1960 was particularly strong. This portrait is actually based on Van Gogh`s own self portrait 'The Painter on the Road to Tarascon'. Bacon placed the painter in a box, his feet mired in turbulent mud. An effective metaphor of the troubled artist.

Sort of how it feels to be American right now.

See you on the other side.

work for sale in my studio

Lake Oswego Open Studios-latest work

                                      Summer Wetland watercolor, acrylic and oil 35x23 inches

Soon the Open Studio will have happened and I won`t have to keep announcing it. Promotion isn`t something natural to me. I`ve sent out invitations by email and texts and if I missed you, it`s not because I don`t want you to come. My mailing list is an abomination, that`s why. Sorry, please come visit anyway. I`d love to talk with you and there will be cookies.

5373 Lakeview Blvd, Lake Oswego OR 97035   #25    503 380 4731

 The painting at the top was inspired by a fishing hole on Oswego Creek. I found this out because seven boys waited patiently for me and Mitch to finish painting one morning so they could fish. No parents anywhere! That never happens anymore and it was great seeing unsupervised kids. Anyway, the painting began as a watercolor but I just couldn`t get the open spaces of water right. I re-emulsified the paint many times but could not get a particular transparency I wanted. So I sealed the whole thing up with archival spray acrylic varnish then went in again with oils. Of course it looks nothing like I intended and nothing like the place on the creek. Such is painting, I made something new.

                                      Dark Pool, Mossy Rock watermedia on Yupo 14x11 inches

                                           Across the Lake watercolor on yupo 14x11 inches

This new watercolor was painted after immersing myself in Ann Patchett`s 'Tom Lake'. Oh my what a beautiful book. Listening to it slowly was a highlight of my summer. From all I`ve heard, Michigan sounds like a uniquely special place.

                                           Iron Mountain watercolor on Yupo 23x35 inches

I walk this mountain frequently. This is where the iron was mined for the first iron works in the western United States. The furance is still standing in a different park and the walking trail there was once the train tracks.I wanted to paint dappled light but I may have something here that produces vertigo.

                                          Rainforest Floor watercolor on Yupo 14x11 inches

And a new collage;

                                                Bonfires in the Dunes watercolor collage

The election may be slipping away from Donald Trump. Every time he talks I imagine he loses support.

Good. I wish Kamala would assert herself more, quit talking about lifting people up. That is not going to win her respect or votes. Please tell us your honest thoughts on Gaza? Tough nut, I know. I think it`s possible to be a Zionist, promote a separate Palestinian state and do a lot more to protect innocent life. Make Israel the 51 state if need be but insist on an end to this war.

An employee of Trader Joes told me to buy this yesterday. That they had just come in and people were lined up an hour before opening time to purchase them. She assured me it would make an appreciated  gift.

??. What am I missing? It`s a miniature shopping bag. I own a big one and it`s dependable but can`t say it`s brought me joy.

 I was looking for a book and came upon a box of my mom`s photos.                                                   Here I am at 23 with my sad nonexistent derriere yet so happy to be living on a hill in New Mexico. Over my shoulder is Joan Mitchell`s  “La ligne de la rupture”. Painted in 1970, I tore the image out of an art magazine in 1976 and it was on all the walls I lived within for years. 

Here it is in a retrospective of her work in 2021. This show came to San Francisco and some of my friends traveled down to see it. I was still too freaked about Covid and stayed put which I now regret. I didn`t understand yet just how effective masks were. No one liked wearing them but they were quite efficient despite their controversy. Maybe I`ll see this personal talisman someday, I hope so.

 

Sarah Dwyer is an intriguing artist new to me. I keep seeing them online  but I only now read anything about her. Basically I think the work of the artist is interesting, not the artist so much.

She`s Irish, living in London and studied economics before deciding on an artistic life. What interests me so much is how she depicts forms that aren`t quite human, are mythic without being specific and always with fascinating color juxtapositions. Someone called them abstract surrealism but that doesn`t account for their unique power. They feel to me like nonverbal messages. See what you think;

                                                                            Sarah Dwyer

                                                                       Sarah Dwyer

                                                                          Sarah Dwyer

           

Words to live by.

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Hope

                                                   Windbreak oil on canvas 40x30 inches

 The two weeks between the debate and the assassination attempt were really tough on my mental health. I felt adrenaline in my system daily as it seemed I was just waiting for slaughter in the fall election.We saw profound confusion in President Biden during the debate and that is not right for the most powerful office in the world. Both my parents had some dementia in their last years though it came and went. I believed Biden had to withdraw or he would be the primary issue throughout the campaign. Friends, family, AOC and Bernie Sanders disagreed. Thank God for Nancy Pelosi!! Again! Seriously, what a warrior! She could tell that the gains of the last 15 years were about to be wiped out. Her legacy along with Bidens' and Obamas' Again, it wasn`t that Trump gained votes from the disastrous debate, it was that so many would be discouraged and wouldn`t vote at all. The  cult of the Republican Party would sweep congress and the presidency and further embolden a radical supreme court.  At least now I have hope. Now we can stop what seemed inevitable after the bullet missed its target. Their convention was like the second coming of Christ and all I could feel was doom. We cannot let that happen. Trump should never be president again.

 I believe the marvelous upwelling of support for Kamala Harris began in utter relief. We will see if she has the character and imagination to meet this moment [looks promising!] and advocate for a future we want to live in.

I`m curious to hear what the [likely] Madame President has to say.

                                                                        Mendocino

When I was 18 I had a semester of art school in Mendocino Calif. The school was really oriented more towards crafts but I wanted to be there because of the extraordinary setting. My dorm room was adjacent to an immense meadow that ended at the headlands overlooking the ocean. Also at the edge was the local high school. A double row of Monterey Cypress had been planted at the western side of their football field to act as a windbreak. I would climb into the tree at the start of the row and look down the tunnel or out to the sea. It was truly awesome. The painting above was an attempt to paint those trees from a 52 year old memory. The painting below is a small egg tempera of my perch up in the tree that I did at the time.

                                                                Mendocino Cypress

 Below are new watercolors painted on location then cleaned up in my studio;

[no titles yet]

And this painting inspired by the local streams;

                                             Oswego Creek oil on canvas 16x16 inches

                                                                 David Shrigley

                                                                       David Shrigley

                                                                    David Shrigley

I love David Shrigley. I think his work would be called conceptual art. It`s his goofy humanity for me. Look at this wonderful video interview. Such a lovely man.

 The second annual Lake Oswego Open Studios will happen this year at the end of September. For those who don`t know what this is about, an open studios tour is a self guided visit to dozens of artists studios open that weekend for guests. By looking through the website, you can decide which artists you`d like to visit. I was a founding member of the board  and though I am no longer,  I love and support this introduction of artists to the community. It`s fun!

For many years I participated in the Portland version and realized there were enough artists in Lake Oswego to do our own. So we did. This may be the last year I do this however, it depends. No matter how prepared I am or how successful the event proves to be, there is always an emotional whiplash I don`t understand and it takes too long to work through it. Solitude really is best for creating.

click HERE for work for sale in my studio

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