Extension of Self, Cont'd...

More extensions...aren't they marvelous? This is the perfect project for Halloween week!

Extension of Self

My Monday night Self-Portrait class at MECA did an Extension of Self assignment this week. I asked that they make some sort of extension of themselves and wear it to class. Or bring it to class, like one student who brought this powerful poem that she wrote. This is an assignment that I had to do in my Beginning Performance class at MECA with Ling Wen Tsai in 2003. The students then did drawings of themselves with their extensions. Great fun!

The Middle Road

The Middle Road in Woolwich, where I've lived for the past twenty years. I have walked this road winter, spring, summer, and fall, saying prayers, ticking off lists in my mind, dreaming dreams, crying with grief and frustration, skipping happily. This road holds alot of my heart, and I owe it my sanity I'm sure. Here are some images from my two mile walk yesterday afternoon just before sunset. There is a new color scheme now - the leaves are past peak - it's a chestnut/russet/gold palette, with good doses of emerald green and sky blue still in the mix.

One of my favorite walking meditations, a Buddhist prayer:

May I be filled with loving kindness.

May I be well.

May I be peaceful and at ease.

May I be happy.

More Fun with Faces and Photoshop...

Last year's Halloween e-card featuring Lisbeth and her cat Milkweed.
Have a restful weekend, all!

Fun with Faces

Because I do alot of portraits, I am always studying faces and I notice similarities in people's features. I used to drive my husband nuts with this. I'm constantly saying things like, Doesn't Joe look like a composite of my brother Ken and that guy Henry who works at the supermarket? or, Look, there's Nicholas Cage's brother! (I actually saw a guy this week that could have been a 17 year old Cage...)

Now Garry does it, too.

Posted here is a little photoshop postcard that I e-mailed my daughter-in-law Tracey after spending a recent afternoon with my grandchildren, Calvin and Cecilia. We went for a walk on the Bates campus and then to The Den for a snack where I snapped this cute shot of Calvin. With those upturned eyebrows, I thought immediately of James Dean.
A couple of cool dudes! :^)

Pete and RePete

Pete models for my Life Drawing and Mixed Media Portraiture classes at MECA. I've made several quick studies of him during class over the past couple of years and want to ask him to sit for my portrait series, so that I can actually work on a drawing undistracted for a couple of hours! He has extremely deep set eyes and in certain light the shadows are so dramatic. FUN to draw. The top portrait is a drawing I did in the middle of teaching Life Drawing this week, and the bottom two portraits were done last year during one of my Mixed Media Portraiture classes.

Pete with Skull and Pumpkin, Late October, 2008

India ink, charcoal and cray-pas on Rives BKK, 22" x 30"

Pete/Oil and Water, 2007

Pastel, oil, charcoal, and acrylic on Rives BFK, 22" x 30"

Pete with Orange Blush, 2007

Pastel, oil, charcoal, acrylic and collage on Rives BFK, 22" x 30"

all for sale.

Kate Cleaves

Kate Cleaves sat for a portrait yesterday. Kate graduated from MECA with a degree in painting the same year that I graduated, 2006. She is one of my studio neighbors in The Artist Studio in Portland. You can see Kate's colorful and exuberant work on her website: katecleaves.com. In addition to her painting Kate also makes these fanciful fairies...

I plan to use these, along with these photos of Kate, to resolve her portrait. In this outfit, I think that Kate looks like one of her paintings!