This was published at the height of Covid’s first bloom in NYC, March 2020.
I live in the center of the city, two blocks from Times Square and we were hit quiet hard. Every floor in our building had the virus. My husband, Juan Carlos, was sick for at least a month with it …I was thankfully un-symptomatic… Here is the post:
As we are all hunkered down, art is more important than ever.
Faceted Apple
oil on canvas
36" x 24"
I painted this homage to New York City a few years ago to reflect the multi-faceted nature of the Big Apple. From the glittering, mirrored facades to the grungy streets, we live in a fascinating melting pot.
I moved here 25 years ago from California, and everyday something catches my eye that makes me say, 'I love New York.'
We are going through a tough time now, but we will make it through this more prepared and less vulnerable. Covid-19 is our wake-up call, and we will ultimately be safer with mindful protections.
Let's look forward to our new normal and enjoy some art!
This year I began working with a new medium, drawing directly into paint, like Agustí Puig. These are action paintings, dare I call them New York Abstract Expressionism?
Whatever 'ism' they fall into, they express a joyous time vs. the 50's post-WWII.
Untying a Celtic Knot
16" x 16"
latex on mat board
There are multiple layers of color, and the line is drawn while the top layers are wet. It is a kind of orchestrated scribble in the surrealist tradition of 'Automatic Writing' that I began working on years ago. The geometry of rhyming lines gives it structure, while the playful turns of chance give the rhythm a lyrical feeling.
This smoldering cloud of line has glimmers of lavender playing off yellow and orange on a brown ground. Like a thundercloudd rising in the sky, it is filled with energy.
This painting was crowd-titled on IG & FB. It sold immediately to a dear friend of Aztec descent in Palm Springs and is part of his daily meditation.
Aztec Sunrise
20Mar20
latex on paper
20” x 16”
SOLD
This painting was drawn horizontally with the circle up, and should be framed to accommodate all orientations.
Capitola Skies
20Mar20
latex on paper
16" x 20"
I just returned from Santa Cruz, CA to be with family at the passing of my Mother from Alzheimer’s. We were very close, talking almost every night on the phone. Her ultimate journey was peaceful and our family was comforted by the beauty of the lovely towns including Capitola, CA.
Here the labyrinthian line connects the sky and ground. A soft celadon sun rises in the center as the geometric grid of lines finds its humanity. Flat and pictorial, we fall into this deeply incised line on a peach sky and dark earth.
Cubescape 6
watercolor
11" x 14" (17" x 21" framed)
This is from a series of watercolors from 2005, inspired by New York architecture. Individual 1 inch thick lines of watercolor were drawn through the space. Each overlapping line made the colors darker and more chromatically nuanced. This scaffold of lines was a significant building block in the development of my current Labyrinth Series.
Gardening the Jungle:
Life After Eden
Watercolor & gouache
14" x 11"
This mini tour-de-force recalls the poetic time when humankind realized that we did not have to accept the whims of nature.
Changing from hunter/gathers, our ancestors gardened the jungle to have a reliable food source. Additional inventions and discoveries allowed us to control our own lives, like arrowheads, nets, clothing & fire. Birds fly south for the winter, humans develop technologies.
"Life After Eden" seemed especially timely now, as we manage our microbiotic jungle.
“Although the world is full of suffering,
it is also full of the overcoming of it."
- Helen Keller
This post is dedicated to:
BUBBA CHAVEZ
My close friend for 25 years.
Bubba lived up to his bigger-than-life name.
He was in the hospitality industry his whole life
& knew how to make people feel like Superstars.
Bubba loved to bake & always brought in treats.
Nothin’ says lovin’ like something from the oven!
I love it when I hear his laugh in mine,
remember his outrageous way,
funny things he said, and all that he taught me.
I mostly miss our talks and knowing he was there.