Monday, April 7, 2008

Studio Visit
























When I was majoring at MECA one of the most helpful things was the weekly scheduled studio visit from one of my professors. The studio visit is an opportunity to share process, get feedback and to brainstorm. It was at first a little scary to open the inner sanctum and ask for guidance along the way, but I quickly got over that! So I'm doing an on-line studio visit. Here are my sketches and the beginnings of my window installation for the Walker Terrace window on Congress Street in Portland in May. Knowing me, it could and probably will change drastically as I work on it. I bought a 6' x 3' piece of linoleum and began sketching out the beginnings of a diptych last Friday. Tomorrow I have to get to work on it! My basic idea is to make a piece about birds returning for the summer. It is also about a joyful, spiritual connection to nature. I'm looking at illuminated manuscripts, my dream journals, and books about birds. I also took these photos of branches because I want to make a network like this woven behind and through the two figures. I plan to have a linoleum print be at the center of each half of the diptych and have a drawing of some sort (paint? pastel? mix?) extend beyond the edges of each print. I'm thinking about cutting some bird shapes out of the linoleum and carving them and using them to print on top of the drawing. I may even decide to cut out the two figures and use them like giant stamps as well...
So there will be this mix of print and drawing...

I am open to feedback!

4 comments:

Rob S. said...

This looks wonderful. The branches and roots have such amazing anthropomorphic forms! And the figures have a kind of pre-Raphaelite look, which I'm rather fond of. And I also am into the bird theme. My grandmother was friends with Roger Tory Peterson, the naturalist. She used to take me visiting to one of his aeries that he maintained on the Connecticut coast, and I got an early education on the North Atlantic Flyway.
Can't wait to see this!

martha miller said...

Hi Rob

Thanks - I can't wait to see it, too. It's alottalinoleum...

OK, what is an aeries?

Rob S. said...

An aerie (also: eyrie) refers to the nesting/territorial area of a bird or birds that is located in a high place (an eagle's nest on a cliff, for instance). But this term can also be applied to a man-made sanctuary in a high place. Mr Peterson maintained one on a ridge above the Lieutenant River in Old Lyme, Connecticut where my grandparents lived.

martha miller said...

sounds like you had a neat grandma...