Structure amidst/in color

From a "sculpture" I made with Alex today--am thinking of new painting structures.

Ann Toebbe

I found these images of Ann Toebbe's while looking over Jered's show.  In posting them I realize how rare it is for me to post anything representational on this blog.  But the fastidiousness of these images and their over-the-top sense of exuberant (but kind of wonderfully clumsy) color and pattern grabbed me.

Studio View: Christopher Thomas

My husband's studio is definitely a source of energy and encouragement to me often, but especially of late.  Here are some recent pics of what is happening out there, in the building just beyond my own studio. 

These days (3)

And lastly it is high production time in the garden.  100 degree temps make being out there brutal (and let's not even talk about what the heat is like when one is 38 weeks pregnant!) unless it's early morning or evening.  So as Chris notes, the garden is exploding crazily and with significant abandon--it has long killed all our attempts at containing its sprawl.  Still, underneath and amidst the chaos, he's pulled dozens of carrots and hundreds of beans.  In between the studio, time with Alexander and preparation for the baby, we are doing our best to preserve the surplus--freezing and canning in sporadic bouts of intensity.   

Summer collages

A couple of the collages I made at Hambidge....

Tamra Hunt and Lauren Lopez (top image is Tamra's, bottom image is Lauren's...)

In the studio...

The very beginnings of a wall collage.

Painting/color/shape

Red and red (painting)

In an attempt to keep Benny the dog from eating the wings off of Alexander's toy planes while I was outside in my studio, I devised an elaborate pillow/blanket covering scenario--which in the end was more interesting to me as an oblique reference to painting being a blanket/film over a substrate/support.

Source wall

Stripes and color

I look at fashion because of images like this...from Prada's women's spring/summer 2011 show.  All I can think about is painting.

I love Suzan Frecon

cathedral series, variation 5 (closer), oil on linen, at David Zwirner right now...

Red and Green

The tomatoes are done--I pulled them all out of the garden this weekend.  The okra appears far from done, though I must admit I wouldn't be terribly sad if it were through with growing either.  I am ready for butternut squash, kale and cabbage.  And apples are calling to me at our Saturday morning farmer's market.

Christopher Thomas (Third)

I believe this is a drawing for an eventual painting.

Sketchbook work

I spent the day working in my sketchbook.  I followed tangents.  I made up silly rules to follow--and then abandon.  I examined one color against another, one texture against another, one shape in relation to another, etc.  Ultimately I exercised my looking--good preparation for a return to my newly renovated, now up and running studio.

Melting

An older drawing on paper--from Fall 2009.  I am seeing it anew of late though.  Of the pile of images made at that time this one has risen to the top.

I am back to writing syllabi (two down, one to go) and I'm hoping desperately to grab a few moments in the studio before the semester begins next week.  Maybe, just maybe.  Though realistically this notion will not happen.  As Alex is no longer in his summer program, Chris and I are back to balancing our work day with a lovely, energetic five year old who has just one week left until he begins kindergarten.  We go about our days normally, with an eye toward preparing for the start of all our schools.  But in some way we are all also waiting/dreading that moment when Alexander will disappear onto that school bus...which will then drive on down the road while I stand still, watching, no doubt feeling just about ready to implode.   

I am not sure how the above image turned into a post about me imploding.  But then if this blog is anything it is an attempt to see what happens when an ostensibly formal abstract image is placed right next to these lived (visual) moments of a life/our lives--a pile of orange carrots, a yellow school bus with black stripes, my son's red hair.

Orange diagonals surrounded by a radial white grid

(We have about a million carrots in the garden right now.)

Cows with color (fourth notable image from the last week)

Our home is surrounded by fields that are periodically grazing land for cows.  The latest batch of cows arrived while we were away and, with each new day, are moved systematically around the field to enjoy fresh grass.  Yesterday morning they munched away behind the clothes line, and I was struck by the collision of animal life with these two rectangles of color hovering in front.  I don't quite know how the essence of such an idea would make its way into an abstract painting but the thought interests me. 

In the studio today

Orange/Blue

From Sara's Columbia home of color!