Call Her Name

Mother I, 2011
ashes dumped on snow, 12' x 4'

Mother II, 2011
ashes dumped on snow

Mother III, 2011
ashes dumped on snow

Mother IV, 2011
ashes dumped on snow

Mother V, 2011
ashes dumped on snow

Mother VI, 2011
ashes dumped on snow

MOM, 2011
ashes painted on snow

(thankyou, Annell, for the idea for this post title...)

Gabe Mangold

I stumbled upon this jewel of an installation at MECA last Friday when I was on break from teaching. Isn't it terrific? The artist is Gabe Mangold, a painting senior. I've posted about his work before, here. I read his artist statement on the fly, but do remember that he said his work is influenced by his dreams. This piece brings to mind a chrysalis, painted hippie buses, Peter Max posters, an Egyptian tomb, Chagall's stained glass windows...

It just makes my eyeballs happy!
I like this guy...

Lillie Evelyn Congdon

Lillie, around age 14 or so, drying her hair in the backyard, and peeling potatoes. Love the little clothesline with pins behind her. LOVE this image.

Lillie on the left, with her sister-in-law, Mary, at a county fair. Terrific hats!!!

Lillie at her home in East Greenwich, RI, with an old beau who is wearing WWI garb...

Lillie front and center.

My Gramma.

Next week I will be back to working on my charcoal portrait series. I've been sidetracked by other projects, but plan to spend time downtown in my studio starting on Monday! I have so many great images to work from, thanks to the scanning prowess of my cousin Jon!

Ghosts, Cont'd...

More experimenting with the old frames. Love the reflective layers. Elaine Tselikis, a friend and student of mine made this comment about the bottom photograph:

This is a powerful photograph with the portrait painting and window pane. It goes through reflective layers from present to past and in between. The cat walks through the piece as our time messenger.

(I like that!)

Ghosts and Graves

My maternal grandmother, Lillie Congdon (little one in the center) with some of her family. (Check out that lighthouse painted in the background!!! I must draw that...)
Lillie was born in 1896. That's her grandmother on her right, her mother in the upper left, and her sister Edna in the front. Edna died at age 17. My Mom is named after her...

Lillie ready to take a dip in front of her old beach house at Point Judith, RI. I could use a swimsuit like that...

Some of my cousin Jon's family grave photos...

My great-grandfathers ~ Lillie's father-in-law (left) and father (right), with her first born, my Aunt Carolyn.

My charcoal is waiting impatiently for me to grab it and get going on more portraits of these marvelous old faces...

My cousin Jon is going to be showing his grave photos along with my portraits. We are thinking of cool ways to do this...

Here are some of my ideas:

What if they were B&W prints?

And/or printed on drawing paper, so they look soft and charcoaly?

What if they were printed and then cut out and collaged on lightweight boards, to look like actual stones?

Or...

(Now I'm getting wacky, but what the heck...)

What if they had frames made of live grassy loam?

Or what if we placed the photos in a plot of grassy loam??

With the geraniums and the little flags...

Or maybe some more pertinent objects, objects from their lives...

Just doing some out in left field thinking...

Join in if you like!!

...and Jon's band might come up and play at the opening!

Jon said maybe they can play some Grateful Dead tunes!

Hee hee!!!!!

Ghosts of Ideas

Time for another on-line studio visit. My son Andy has a stack of old windows from various job sites piled up on our barn foundation and yesterday I pulled six of them out and began to play around with more ideas for my upcoming exhibit.

(Oooh, I really like the reflections of trees in the window panes...)

I've been talking about having these portraits printed on sheer fabric. I wonder how they would look as curtains hung behind these old windows? Or in front? Is the old window too overused ? (Should I care?) Is it too obvious a symbol? You know, windows of the soul, looking through the windows of time...

(Do I care about that if I like what's happening with these??)

Do I have to print these on fabric? Or do I simply use the drawings themselves? Or do I go for the fabric and window "sculptures," and frame the portraits in regular frames as another segment of the exhibit?

I was thinking about burning all these window frames so that they are charred charcoal black. I thought that might be a beautiful strong contrast with the white curtain/ghost/portrait. Burnt windows appeals to me, since my barn and studio burned down...

Hey, I could actually show a few of my burnt drawings in this show. I've never shown them before...

As usual, my head is trotting all around. Need to reign it in.

And as usual, Feedback is WELCOME!

MES

Started this portrait on Saturday - this is my father's mother, Mary Elizabeth Simmons. I am Martha Elizabeth, and until I was twenty one, we had the same last name, and the same initials. (What a MES! :^)

She died when I was five years old, so I have just a few memories of this grandmother. My father always said that I resembled her. Yup. The same face shape, the same nose! I have to keep working this - I've made her face too long and I've made her look more severe than she is - she has a very soft and gentle expression. I will find her as I push that charcoal around!

I want to thank those of you who gave me feedback for my *ghost* project! And I want to share this bit of synchronicity:

Directly after I corresponded with my cousin Jon about our collaboration and about my plan to print my portraits on sheer fabric and make them hang like ghosts, I responded to a friend's inquiry on Facebook about the upcoming Ebune Parade in Portland. She had asked me if I'd ever been in the parade, and I told her yes, that I had participated in 2005, when one of my MECA professors, Alex Kahn, was in charge. I sent her a link to Alex and his partner Sophia Micheles's website, knowing that she would love to see their work. They do pageant puppetry, and my friend does paintings of puppets. While finding that link for her, I happened to notice that Alex and Sophia had a video on Youtube, and curious, I clicked to view...

Ghosts with portrait faces!!!
Wow, I just love the floating chairs, tea cups, silverware, etc!
Pure Magic.

Alex and Sophia now travel the globe working with communities to create wondrous puppets and pageants!

Great Grandmother Godfrey

The latest in my Mything Persons series (this is a working title...).

I started this drawing of my great grandmother Godfrey yesterday - my mother's paternal grandmother. Hmmmmmm, she looks a bit like Elmira Gulch...

My cousin Jon Simmons has been taking pictures of our ancestors' gravestones for the past few years, and has been doing alot of research about the family. I asked him yesterday if he would like to collaborate with me for my show in September. He could show his photos, and I could show my portraits. I think, though, that my portraits are going to be a springboard for something else. I mean, they are fine as drawings, but I want to transform them into another medium. I want to make an installation of Jon's gravestone photos possibly as big Iris prints, or maybe projections? With my portraits maybe digitally printed on sheer fabric and made into wispy ghosts of sorts...

The ghosts could float from the ceiling, along with objects from their lives, perhaps. People in my family have stories and remember bits and pieces about those who've passed: a great aunt who had the first mastectomy in RI, and one who loved to serve tea; a great uncle who hunted rabbits; a grandmother with TB. (There, I've made a poem.) But if I could take some of the objects that usually pack my portraits OUT of the picture plane, and have them floating in the air somehow, along with the ghosts of my ancestors...people and objects that have gone the way of all things, to use one of my mother's great expressions. (Hmmm, could be another title possibilty...)

I have just started hatching this plan...if you have any ideas about this, throw them my way! I could use a studio visit about now!