Springtime in Sedona

It is springtime in Sedona. The cold front came with the wind and rain. Then it moved on, and the sun started shining.  Outside of my studio are blooming the luscious,  purple, bearded Iris shown in this  picture.
 In Greek mythology, Iris was the goddess of the rainbow, attendant of Zeus and Hera. When you look inside of the flower, there are different layers of  purples, the light and dark,the whites, and the yellows. That is often the case with  colors, certainly  in my own arts of ceramics and calligraphy with watercolor. 
  Your first view often sees the one dominant hue. When you get up closer to the paint, or the  glazed surface, often there are layers inside that reveal themselves to the viewer. That is one of the fascinations of the creative process. And no one does it better than Mother Nature.

The Power of Words

This is a close up of an 8 foot long wall hanging I created for a show. The title is Words. Since that is the art media I am using  at this very moment while writing my blog, I naturally think  about their impact.
  Words have a lot of power , don't they? They can influence us to have certain feelings. If they are good words, or words of praise , than we feel very happy. If they are words of criticism or anger then we might feel upset or angry also .
When I look at this watercolor, I notice I am using lots of colors to bring in my desired impact to the audience. Certainly colors evoke reactions, or subtle mood alterations, don't they? Isn't red a color  that jumps out, like the oranges and yellows? The greens, purples,  and the blues are more subtle aren't they?   Consider  the contrast of which colors go next to each other. These are certain artistic choices we make when we we are looking at a blank page, a  clean slate, the  tabula rasa.With our color choices,we artists can have an effect on our  audience.  With our words, we can all have a lasting influence on each other.Whether verbal or written, our  words can stay out there in time and space, or on a page, for a very long time.
 Any thoughts on times your words had more impact than you expected?

The Color Green

Well today it's all about the color green. The color of trees; emeralds; the leaf on your flower ;mint; jade; asparagus and avocados. It is the color of the bottle of Perrier that sits in front of me here at my desk while writing this blog. And , of course, it is also the color you get when you mix your blue and yellow watercolors in your palette.

But this blog contains a photo of a recent book I made that is in my current show entitled Rock, Paper, Fire, in Jerome , AZ . It is part of my series of hand made books and the boxes that hold them. This is called book arts. Not only is there a green book,with my handmade porcelain beads, but it lives in the cigar box covered in gossamer green tissue paper and other decorations. I wanted it to return to a nice home .