Back to the Drawing Table

 Sunday, March 10, 2013
Women's Art: A Conversation with Elizabeth Ostrander and Shanna Wheelock
3:00 p.m.at the Eastport Arts Center
36 Washington Street, Eastport, Maine
Click here for Shanna Wheelock's website.
Click here Elizabeth Ostrander's website
Click here for the Eastport Art Center website.

 

 

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Machias Women's Forum

5:30-8:00 p.m.

Helen's Restaurant, Machias, ME

Presenters: Shanna Wheelock, Elizabeth Ostrander, and Sherry Ashby Cunningham

Topic: How Spirituality informs and inspires our artwork

Save the date and check back for more info.

 

 

Been drawing images of "Factory C" 

(Shanna Wheelock, Lubec, Maine)

 

 

Factory C

(Lubec, Maine)

 

 

Interior View of "Factory C"

(Shanna Wheelock, Lubec, Maine)

 

Photo of "Factory C"

(Lubec, Maine)

 

Back in early college years my ceramics professor told me that being able to draw is a critical skill, even for a potter. Though I enjoyed drawing I fumbled around quite a bit. The fine arts program leaned on the heavy side of drawing credits and for that I am thankful. From those years I developed a love of figure drawing and conte. Drawing for me, though, is one of those things that gets put to the side when there are dozens of mugs or a sculpture needing to be done. I do genuinely love to draw, and just as with weaving or clay work, I can get lost for hours in shading and line.

 

Soon after I visited the ruins at Factory C, I knew that I wanted to draw the images that were burned so deeply in my mind. What I didn't account for was that it had been at least three years since I had picked up a drawing tool to do a serious drawing.

 

I was a bit apprehensive as my logical self laid out ideas for matching paper sizes and a grouping of drawings all executed in one material. I soon realized that I was far more rusty with my drawing skills than previously thought. A few rough starts in pencil then grumblings with shading and tendencies toward detail even thought the material was not well suited for that, I forged onward. A mix of pleasure and pain, if you will. I eventually got into my groove and reminded myself that I don't need to have it all figured out before the first line is even drawn.

 

Four drawings later, I am starting to find my zone and zero in on what I'd like to do. The first few drawings are like getting back to the wheel after a few months away. At first it feels awkward but eventually the hands remember the right pressure and speed. Drawing is meditative in the same was as clay or fiber, and messy in its own right.

 

I plan to use the drawings as a means to an end. They will be studied, dissected, enlarged, then transferred in some fashion. Right now I just catch glimpses of a plan in mind's eye. As with most of my projects, I don't know the end result until I know the end.

 

Drawing can be addictive but right now I have quite a few things to juggle so that obsession will have to be squeezed into allotted blocks of time over the next few weeks. I just spent the past two weeks fully immersed in the factory study from clay work to drawing, ruin site visits, time at the library, and online research. I took a small hiatus from the bulk of meetings that I normally attend and other semi-social functions for that focus, but the roster is once again full and I am at that moment in the calendar year where I take a deep breath, hold up my feet, and move full steam ahead. The next few months until January 2014 are blocked with commissions, vending, stocking shops, speaking engagements, workshops, MFA classes, farmer's market, and community work with Lubec Arts Alive and (newly added) committee work for the Schoodic International Sculpture Symposium project.  (YES! It looks like Lubec, in most high probability, will be one of the 2014 sites! I'll post updates as I know them.)

 

Happy Birthday Mom!

 

 

We just returned from the Samoset where we celebrated my mom's 70th birthday with a lovely evening out on the town. The visit was too short but ended on a fun note with mom and Chris singing all kinds of songs from the 50's. Let's just say that Elvis was one of the faves and when the first line of Hound Dog began the two of them were twisting across the room while belting out the lyrics. It sure was a sight! I hope that I am this energetic and free-spirited at seventy. Crossing my fingers those genes are well ingrained. Thanks, Mom, for forty three years of unconditional love and nurturing, and thank you for being such a wonderful guide and supporter of my artist self.

 

In the downeast area this coming weekend?

 

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Women's Art: A Conversation with Elizabeth Ostrander and Shanna Wheelock

3:00 p.m.at the Eastport Arts Center

 

While I was in Rockland and tooling around the streets, I came upon this lovely mermaid resting contently in a window box along Main Street. This is the work of Elizabeth Ostrander, an Eastport artist with whom I will share the stage this coming Sunday as we present a talk at the Eastport Arts Center.

 

Mermaid by Elizabeth Ostrander

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Full Circle

The big project this weekend was the cleaning of the barn loft. I hadn't looked up there in nearly eight years, and had never before actually walked up there. Eight years is plenty of time, apparently, to accumulate a lot of junk. We weeded through boxes, old painted house trim, chairs, easels, windows, rope, pipes, camp bed, squirrel nests, and rugs. The neatest find was an old box of artwork that I had made maybe twenty years ago. I had the realization that my artwork, though it has evolved and grown, has not necessarily changed all that much, rather, it has kind of come full circle. I found an old drawing that I did, nearly 20 years ago, of peace symbols and guns. Interesting, I thought, since my "Machine Series" the past few summers has been about War. Then I remembered that yep, I was heading in an activist direction from an early age. In a high school of nearly 1000 students, I was the only kid to join the group "Beyond War". So that was interesting, to revisit that part of me from the past.

The loft looks great - all cleared out. Chris and I are thinking that down the road we might be able to turn that space into a little reading/writing or some sort of creating nook. But for now, we have bigger remodel plans with the new studio/office addition that we are having built. Finally! An indoor studio space that can be used year round. It has been such a challenge these past few years to not have a winter space for clay. Especially frustrating since the passion and ideas don't stop flowing just because the winter months have arrived. If all goes as planned, we should begin building the end of July. Lots more updates on that project down the road.

We also moved the greenware pots out to the barn. Yey! I think we are in the clear of below freezing temps at this point (hope so anyway!) and the pots should be safe. So happy to have the pots out of the house and the kitchen table and floor back for their proper use (piling-up other junk and papers, of course!).

I have been busy writing for various projects. The big student art show is this Thursday at school, so that meant pulling together an art newsletter of sorts, kind of the year in review. Wow. We accomplished so much this past year in our arts program! I am trying to get things finalized for our field trip to the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland next week, and the following week, we have this super cool presentation by Figures of Speech, a Bunraku puppet theater performance of Nightingale.

Aside from all that (my head has been spinning the last couple weeks) I am applying for an MFA program, which requires lots of essay writing. Also, the Lubec art project planned for this summer is moving forward. I have been working closely with Maine artist Natasha Mayers to bring some great artists to our area to lead several site-specific art projects in a week-long arts event in August. I will add updates on that as we get closer to the date (and decide on the actual name to use in publicity!). I just had a group of super neat local artists and art lovers over last week to get things moving. It's a project that requires great passion and energy, and I know we will pull it off - and it will be grand! Now, crossing fingers that we get the grant.