Ascender Rises Above

Heard It In A Love Song; Prints, Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:28:46 +0000

Detail of The Luckiest Girl In The World #2

~~~

Love has crept into her sealed heart
As a field bee, black and amber,
Breaks from the winter-cell, to clamber
Up the warm grass where the sunbeams start.

Love has crept into her summery eyes,
And a glint of colored sunshine brings
Such as his along the folded wings
Of the bee before he flies.

Song (“Love has crept…”) by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

Facebook friend Sarah asks: Best Love Song Ever? Sticky-sweet? Or sappy? Or genuinely romantic?

Some of mine:

Brand New Key by Melanie

Happy Together by The Turtles

Maybe I’m Amazed by Wings

Something by The Beatles… and pretty much everything on Across The Universe.

Building A Mystery by Sarah McLachlan

I Want You To Want Me by Cheap Trick

Alison by Elvis Costello

Unforgettable by Nat King Cole

I’m Already There by Lonestar

I Will Possess Your Heart by Death Cab For Cutie

What are your favorite love songs?

1) The Luckiest Girl In The World #2; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

2) Be Kind #2; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Bird Stink Eye; Photos, Prints

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:09:37 +0000

Bird Stink Eye; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

Stink Eye sideswipes into you
out of nowhere
where somebody been thinking
evil thoughts about you,
wishing bad luck to blow bad breath upon you,
knock you down,
forget your words,
drop your tools,
make you sputter and drool.
Under the bed,
in Stink Eye’s room,
get one picture of you
stabbed like one pin cushion
with so many needles, stabbed
like one cactus, stabbed like one porcupine.

Stink Eye by Cathy Song

Detail of Be Kind #2; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view.

Detail of Be Kind (#1); Collage on Paper Print.

1) The Luckiest Girl In The World #2; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

2) Be Kind #2; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

1) Be Kind (#1); Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

2) Annie; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Rent Free!; Prints

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:44:33 +0000

Detail of The Luckiest Girl In The World (#1) print

~~~

Come live in my heart and pay no rent.

Samuel Lover

The Luckiest Girl In The World (#1); Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Why send a valentine, when you can send a poster?

These prints are at the affordable price of $17.00 – a great opportunity to purchase one of these 50 assorted images. They won’t be listed here again at this sensational price.

1) Tightrope Walker; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling

2) Laying With The Lily; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

See full line A limited run (25 ea.) of my top 50 images, 11″x17″.

These posters are printed on 80 lb Dull Cover paper with HP Indigo Inks on an Indigo 5000 press (a commercial printer, not a home printer!

Printed to the border, signed on the back and dated. Cropped as shown. Copyright notice is to protect the digital image. It will NOT appear on the actual print. I ship flat inside a sturdy nonbending envelope using First Class USPS mail to assure it arrives to you in newborn condition. Shipping: $4.95

Let’s Loiter; Prints

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:02:35 +0000

Unknown painting at the Huntington (anyone know the title?)

~~~

To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.

Jane Austen

Austen’s plots are fundamentally about education; her heroines come to see themselves and their conduct more clearly, and become better, more moral people. Most critics agree that her novels highlight how some female characters take charge of their own worlds while others are confined, physically and spiritually. Almost all of her works explore the precarious economic situation in which women of the late 18th and early 19th centuries found themselves.

Jane Austen inspired blogs:

1) The No Good; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

2) Do Things, Doing Things; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Saddlebag, Mixed Media, Collage

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:14:08 +0000

Saddlebag, Mixed Media, Collage. Inquire to purchase a print.

~~~

dark
presences slowly
focus
revelation of
tulip blacks, delicate
browns

A March by Denise Levertov

Horse Totem:

The horse symbolizes freedom and the power that comes with being free, although taming the horse wasn’t easy, as their spirit for freedom was a fire that burned within them.

Those with this medicine can be fiercely independent and have little tolerance for anything or anyone that limits their free expression. Those with this totem are teachers to their partners, friends and family showing them how to stand solid within themselves. Individuals who choose to be involved with a horse person do so because the need for self empowerment is strong. They seek the horse and the power it holds rather than the horse seeking them. Intuitive and wise they make excellent therapists. Horses need a close-knit group of friends and family, as, despite his independence, the horse is also a herd animal.

If horse has come to you, you are being offered a gift of safe movement. Is there somewhere that you want or need to go? Horse can help you get there, whether the place is physical or spiritual. The horse asks you to awaken your inner power and move forward with courage.

1) Soft Lullaby, Speaking Rain; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

2) I’ve Read Of Bravery; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Find more of my limited run (25 ea.) of my top 50 images here, 11″ x 17″. These posters are printed on 80 lb Dull Cover paper with HP Indigo Inks on an Indigo 5000 press (a commercial printer, not a home printer!) Printed to the border, signed on the back and dated. Cropped as shown. Copyright notice is to protect the digital image. It will NOT appear on the actual print. I ship flat inside a sturdy nonbending envelope using First Class USPS mail to assure it arrives to you in newborn condition.

Farewell; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:24:53 +0000

Farewell; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.”

J.D. Salinger

Moonjuice/; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:19:38 +0000

Moonjuice; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

Feel of rain in the face
moonjuice/
partial to poets
the lady’s tears

Tony Scibella

Tony Scibella was a member of a Beat Generation colony in Venice, California—nestled on beach front just south of Santa Monica—that flourished briefly in the late 50s before it was publicized into ruination.

Scibella begins from the blue-collar Italian childhood that he spent so much time trying to break away from. In recognizable Beat Prosody that comprises fractured grammar, ragged margins and angular rhythms, he swings back and forth from young urban impressions and memories of wartime propaganda…

Scibella has somehow managed to capture the immediacy of life in Venice, not just his life, but street life in general, all in his nonstop hipster patter. It’s infectious, powerful testimony. We can use as much of that as we can get.

Lone Gull; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:19:30 +0000

The Dying Sea Gull by Elhiu Vedder

~~~

Fly on, sea-birds!
fly sideways,
or wheel in large circles high in the air;
Receive the summer sky,
you water,
and faithfully hold it
till all downcast eyes have time
to take it from you!
Diverge,
fine spokes of light,
from the shape of my head,
or any one’s head,
in the sunlit water!

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Walt Whitman

The American artist Elihu Vedder (1836-1923); an American symbolist painter, book illustrator, and poet; is little known in contemporary art circles.

Vedder made a small living by undertaking commercial illustrations. He was involved in the bohemian ‘Pfaff’s’ coffee house group, and painted some of his most memorable paintings notable for their visionary nature, romantic imagery and often Oriental influences. Paintings of this time include ‘The Roc’s Egg’, ‘The Fisherman and the Genii’ and one of his most famous works, ‘Lair of the Sea Serpent.’ In the USA he sought out and became friends with Walt Whitman, Herman Melville and William Morris Hunt.

At the end of the Civil War he left America to live in Italy. He married Caroline Rosekrans and had four children. His daughter Anita Herriman Vedder played a vital role in handling the business of her father, who was notorious for his general aloofness towards details. Elihu’s son Enoch Rosekrans Vedder was a promising architect who married jewelry designer Angela Reston.

Elhiu Vedder often painted scenes of tragedy and death. In The Dying Seagull one bird from the flock of Black headed gulls has fallen to the beach. Gulls are monogamous and the dying birds mate remains with it while their flock flies away in the distance. The paintings’ poignant meditation on the loss of family had particular resonance for Vedder; who two of this children had died before he painted this image.

To create paintings such as the dying sea gull Vedder combined observation of nature with fantasy. A similar seascape appears in several of Vedders’ paintings and is most like based in a beach in Italy where he lived much of his adult life. While the setting is from Vedders experience the artist’s subjects came from his imagination memory or literary sources.

Click on image for larger view.

1) Blessing the Birds; Collage on Tile print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

2) Tropical Altar; Collage on Tile print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Find more of my limited run (25 ea.) of my top 50 images here, 11″x17″; one time price of $17.00 plus 4.95 shipping!

The Quest Of The Purple-Fringed; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:14:00 +0000

The Quest Of The Purple-Fringed; Photos. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

Hers is the savage splendor of the swamp,
With pomp of scarlet and of purple bloom,
Where blow warm, furtive breezes faint and damp,
Strange insects whir, and stalking bitterns boom

The South by Emma Lazarus

Strange insects whir, and stalking bitterns boom… Detail of “Unscene; Scatterlings©”.

Scatterlings© is a collection of self-directed enchantment art which combines actual foliage with watercolor and color pencil mediums. Hidden among the actual and rendered foliage are an enchanted assortment of Scatterlings; mythical animals and fairies. These one-of-a-kind folk art pieces take up to a year to complete as flowers and leaves are collected, pressed, preserved and finally hidden within a vision that evolves continually. (Mixed Media; Pressed Foliage, Watercolor, Colored Pencil, Pen and Ink on Handmade Paper. See more of this “Unscene”© here

Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See remaining prints here. These posters are printed on 80 lb Dull Cover paper with HP Indigo Inks on an Indigo 5000 press (a commercial printer, not a home printer!) Click on image for a larger view.

~~~

I always enjoy reading on others blogs which search engine terms bring viewers. Search terms are words placed in search engines that led innocent reader to our blogs. Said terms are frequently amusing, intriguing, and unrelated:

the quest of the purple-fringed

filippo brunelleschi demonstrated the geometrical method of perspective

Lagardo Tackett eggheads

monster truck

bird feather composition and origin

hair raising images

mourning parlor door

ascender sandal

hearing voices running water bipolar

photo images for drunk in a midnight choi

desk phone with see you see me

tightrope walker photography falling circus

picture of 4 feathered birds used in cooking

7th child accident prone

A few misspelled words bring visitors. :

caaligraphy abstrauct painting

toilet to tap signs on hgihway

picutre of hair raising

strawberry firleds. art. stipling

I can’t help but wonder who’s doing these searches and why – I’ll probably never know. I guess I will go on a quest for the purple fringed accident prone tightrope walker Ascender as I hear voices and see drunk midnight images of four feathered birds while painting abstrauct hgihway and firleds picutres.

What terms bring people to your blog?

Land Meets Sky; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:21:55 +0000

The Soul Can Split The Sky In Two; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,
No higher than the soul is high.

The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,

Renascence by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I mentioned to Aravis yesterday that I would try to find out more on this building on the rocks near Pacifica. I have been unable to get a non-blurry photo of it… and I must have 100 blurry ones. It is in an area called Devils Slide on Highway One. It is the remnants of a WWII bunker, similar to those at Fort Funston; a highly protected area that is nearly impossible to explore.

“Prior to 01 July 1940, the War Department acquired 9.61 … acres for a triangulation station and observation site. Devil’s Slide was one of a series of observation posts during pre-radar days and was a part of the Harbor Defense of San Francisco. Military personnel would use binoculars and compasses to search for ships at sea and relay the position … using information received from other observation posts. Improvements to the site began in 1943, and included three observation pill-boxes, one electric generatorbunker, one communications and command bunker, and an observation tower.” ( see non blurry photos at artificialowl.net)

Map of bunker one and bunker two

Bird flock splitting the skies on Highway 5 on the way to LA

Sunset behind palms near The Grapevine on Highway 5.

Near Gilroy

Cattle, sheep, horses; all along Highway 5.

Speaking of land meeting sky… did you notice that I place all 50 images of the limited run (25 ea) 11×17 prints on it’s own page while supplies last. Thanks Aravis, for your kind words about your Scatterlings© print purchase!

It Was A Dark And Stormy Day; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:32:21 +0000

I’m A Little Bird #5; First Time Limited-Run Prints of (More!) Collage

AscenderRisesAbove — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:42:46 +0000

I’m A Little Bird #5; First Time Limited-Run Prints of (More!) Collage

~~~

I am
reduced to bird
watching.

just thought I’d
let you
know,

8 count by Charles Bukowski

~~~

Ok… This is the last prints from the promotion of my first time offering a limited run of 25 prints each, size 11×17. These prints are at the affordable price of $17.00 – a great opportunity to purchase one of these 50 assorted images. They won’t be listed here again at this sensational price.

These posters are printed on 80 lb Dull Cover paper with HP Indigo Inks on an Indigo 5000 press (a commercial printer, not a home printer!)

The Luckiest Girl In The World #2; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

The No Good; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Soft Lullaby, Speaking Rain; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Do Things, Doing Things; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Annie Oakley Had Orange Hair And A Rifle – Escape; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Annie; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

The Skating Rage, Double Turns, Figure Eights, Skating Backwards; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

The Parlor Door; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

The Trick Is Not to Rid Your Stomach Of Butterflies, But To Make Them Fly In Formation; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Be Kind #2; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Close Your Eyes And Pretend You’ll Be Strong Soon; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

I’ve Read Of Bravery; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Paying Jobs, Detective, Doctor, Lawyer; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Special Medicine Woman Healing; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Tightrope Walker; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Laying With The Lily; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

The generally monochromatic backgrounds, either cool and dark, or hot red instill a hypnotizing and relaxing, maybe even a drugging effect. The light, (though scarce) appropriately blurry and milky, concentrates on the edges, as an afterglow. Additional recurring motifs include masks and religious sculptural inlays. The sum of these elements creates a whirlwind of subconscious impacts, most of which, I personally find difficult to isolate and define — and this is the part of the appeal of the viewing and interpreting experience. It’s like taking a plunge into an oozy river, or, just sticking one’s toes in it — depending on the viewers’ commitment. Read more of this critique by Elijah at Art and Critique

I’m A Little Bird #4; First Time Limited-Run Prints of Collage, Collage and more Collage

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:33:21 +0000

I’m A Little Bird #4; First Time Limited-Run Prints of Collage, Collage and more Collage

~~~

Perhaps God
Is a bird. Sometimes I think this.

The White Pilgrim: Old Christian Cemetery by Brigit Pegeen Kelly

Continuing with the promotion of my first time offering open-ended prints (a limited run of 25 prints each, size 11×17) … I am kicking it off by offering these prints at the affordable price of $17.00! This is a great opportunity to purchase one of these 50 assorted images, these won’t be listed here again at this sensational price.

Hopes and Promises; Collage on Tile Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Offering Gold; Collage on Tile print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Dreams of Queens; Collage on Tile print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Practically Swept Away; Collage on Tile print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Blessing the Birds; Collage on Tile print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Tropical Altar; Collage on Tile print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

The Luckiest Girl In The World (#1); Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Sing Me A Lullaby; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

It’s A Slippery Hole; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Be Kind (#1); Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

These posters are printed on 80 lb Dull Cover paper with HP Indigo Inks on an Indigo 5000 press (a commercial printer, not a home printer!)

The generally monochromatic backgrounds, either cool and dark, or hot red instill a hypnotizing and relaxing, maybe even a drugging effect. The light, (though scarce) appropriately blurry and milky, concentrates on the edges, as an afterglow. Additional recurring motifs include masks and religious sculptural inlays. The sum of these elements creates a whirlwind of subconscious impacts, most of which, I personally find difficult to isolate and define — and this is the part of the appeal of the viewing and interpreting experience. It’s like taking a plunge into an oozy river, or, just sticking one’s toes in it — depending on the viewers’ commitment. Read more of this critique by Elijah at Art and Critique

I’m A Little Bird #3; First Time Limited-Run Prints of Acrylics/Pastels/Collage

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:54:59 +0000

I’m A Little Bird #3

~~~

My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water’d shoot

A Birthday by Christina Rossetti

This is my first time offering open-ended prints (a limited run of 25 prints each, size 11×17) and I am kicking it off by offering these prints at the affordable price of $17.00! This is a great opportunity to purchase one of these 50 assorted images, which won’t be listed here again at this sensational price.

These posters are printed on 80 lb Dull Cover paper with HP Indigo Inks on an Indigo 5000 press (a commercial printer, not a home printer!)

Three In The Bush – Acrylics on Canvas print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here.

Unraveling Yellow – Acrylics on Canvas print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here.

Daffodil Opposition; Watercolor on Paper print. Click on image for larger view.Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here.

Growth Spurt, Pastel on Paper print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here.

The Crucible of Changes, Pastel on Paper print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here.

Shut Up, Pastel on Paper print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here.

Today I Visited The Jungle; Acrylics and Collage on Canvas Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here.

Cherries Jubilee, Collage on Board Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here.

I Still Seek You, Collage and Acrylics on Canvas Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here.

Ascender’s collages present liquid and mystical, often downright unreal surrealism (I know how strange that sounds) with consistently incorporated urban insignia and allusions. It would probably be correct to say that the latter is organized in the manner of the former — and so the artist may be communicating her take on modern life, proponing both chaos and hierarchy. Ascender composes an original visual idiom when intermixing those. Because the art form included contemporary icons and symbols from its inception, composition and organization have taken on extra creative value — and the artist discovered her own language while maximally exploiting it. The result is a series of captivating works of art. read more of this critique by Elijah at Art and Critique

I’m A Little Bird #2; Pointillism; First Time Limited-Run Prints

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:28:55 +0000

I’m A Little Bird #2; Pointillism; First Time Limited-Run Prints

~~~

it yields to a secret
stirring, a small gold bird on a spring
suddenly appearing to sing a small song

Fabergé’s Egg by Elizabeth Spires

In my print run of my top 50 inquired images I included these 5 pointillisms. As with my Scatterlings© prints, I ran a limited run of 25 prints each, size 11×17 prints.

As this is my first time offering open-ended prints I plan to kick it off by offering these prints at the affordable price of $17.00! This is a great opportunity to purchase one of these 50 assorted images, which won’t be listed here again at this sensational price. Printed to the border, signed on the back and dated. Cropped as shown. Copyright notice is to protect the digital image. It will NOT appear on the actual print. I ship flat inside a sturdy nonbending envelope using First Class USPS mail to assure it arrives to you in newborn condition. Shipping: $4.95.

These posters are printed on 80 lb Dull Cover paper with HP Indigo Inks on an Indigo 5000 press (a commercial printer, not a home printer!)

Pointillism was first introduced in the 1880’s, in the wake of impressionism, by the French artist Georges Pierre Seuret. The pointillism technique is when dots are grouped together to form an image. The closer the dots are together: the darker the tones. The farther apart the dots are: the lighter the tones. When looked at from afar, usually depicts a finely detailed picture making a powerful statement; elegant, clean, and honest.

A Passion For The Past; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here and here

A Touch of Culture; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here and here

Decade of Growth; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here and here

Sombrero Surprise; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here, here, here and here

A Few Of My Favorite Things; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more here, here, and here

I see these images as engravings of dreams. Pixelated and disintegrating dreams, they morph one into the other and then dissipate, dot by dot, until awakening. The pieces in front of us capture the last most vivid vision. In fact, this brings me to the notion that one possible way to recall dreams forgotten right after the awakening moment could be by dots — a simple and elegant solution! The lack of lines deprives the viewer of a continuous visual reference, hampering focus; as a result the paintings appear to be covered by a gauze (made of the innumerable microscopic white dots), which further enhances the dreamlike quality…

Critique of Ascender’s Poinitillism/Stippling by Elijah at Art and Critique

I’m A Little Bird; Scatterlings© First Time Limited Run Prints

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:07:51 +0000

A Little Bird Told Me; Scatterlings© First Time Prints

~~~

I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.

Sir James Matthew Barrie

AscenderRisesAbove is proud to present a huge selection on a limited run (25 ea) 11×17 prints. To introduce these images I chose my 50 top images and ran a limited run of 25 prints each on them. Of course I included my Scatterlings© line!

These posters are printed on 80 lb Dull Cover paper with HP Indigo Inks on an Indigo 5000 press (a commercial printer, not a home printer!)

Fading Light; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more of “Fading Light”© here

Flights of Childhood; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more of this “Flights of Childhood”© here and here

Beyond the Visible Terrain; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more of this “Beyond the Visible Terrain”© here and here

Yesterday’s Dream; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more of “Yesterday’s Dream” here and here

Afternoon Swim; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more of this “Afternoon Swim”© here

Chasing The Wind; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more of “Chasing The Wind” here

Unscene; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more of this “Unscene”© here

In Search of a Miracle; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more of this “In Search of a Miracle”© here, here and here

Bird’s Eye View; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more of “Bird’s Eye View”© here and here

Sanctuary of Grace; click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling. See more of “Sanctuary of Grace” here

Elijah’s Scatterlings critique at Art & Critique

COPYRIGHT: This piece of art is protected under copyright laws and may not be reproduced in any manner without my express written permission

We Have Liftoff; What’s On My Desk

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:30:48 +0000

Scatterlings© prints are ready to go!

Details tomorrow.

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho; Photos, What’s On My Desk

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:56:47 +0000

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho; Photo. . More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

I work even in the middle of the day, in the full sunshine, and I enjoy it like a cicada.

Vincent van Gogh

Back to work for me means to get these framed prints into shops and cafes; and offer them on to my blog. Each frame contains a different print, the top 50 requested images on my site. What is getting back to work for you?

Pen and Ink sketch from about ‘95 when I was working in strictly black and white.

Go Phosphorescent; What’s On My Desk

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:55:26 +0000

Work in progress, hoping to show you the properties within Golden’s Iridescent and Interference Acrylics.

~~~

Alone
on the fantail
I hear the grind of rigging, and
Darwin is beside me, leaning on the rail,
watching the wake go phosphorescent.

The Voyage Home by Philip Appleman

A team of physicists has just determined the exact mechanism behind the luminescent beauty of the feathers in a peacock’s tail. Peacocks and other structurally colored animals and things, such as rainbows, soap bubbles and the blue sky, instead get most of their color from light reflection. “If you change the view angle, color is not altered. In peacock feathers, color is produced by the reflection of light with frequencies within the partial photonic band gap. If you change the view angle, the partial photonic band gap will shift to short wavelengths for oblique incidence.” “The formation of the eye pattern must be the result of evolution,” Zi said. “The coordination of individual barbules in the formation of the eye pattern must be controlled by the instruction coded in genes.” Peacock Beauty Secrets Revealed

Peacock stained glass window at the Huntington.

Looking through the stained glass window; painting of Charles Wellford Leavitt looking at a security guard who is not looking at me.

Charles Leavitt (by Cecilia Beaux), was a successful engineer. A pioneer in the field of city planning, he developed plans for West Palm Beach, Florida, and Wilmington, Delaware. In this portrait, Beaux depicted Leavitt next to the tools of his trade, conveying a sense of the sitter’s assured confidence through his direct gaze, crossed arms, and calm demeanor. As a young woman, Beaux recognized the need to support herself and worked hard to become a successful portrait painter. Her seemingly effortless brushwork was often compared to that of John Singer Sargent. In 1899, William Merritt Chase declared Beaux “the greatest woman painter of modern times.”

~~~

What’s On My Desk? I am continuing working with the Golden’s Iridescent and Interference Acrylics

An Interference color is laminated mica pigment that “flip-flops” from a main color to a weak complimentary one. The phenomenon is similar to naturally occurring light interferences such as gas or oil on water, or a butterfly wing. The position of the viewer and the direction of the light source create interesting visuals. In direct light, the main color, such as Interference Gold shines beautifully, but with indirect light, a translucent blue color appears.

Iridescent Acrylics are one of the most unique products available to artists today. They offer highly reflective metallic variations when mixed with colors. Iridescent colors achieve their reflective properties by synthetically reproducing several natural phenomena – the nacreous, or pearlescent, qualities found in fish scales or the dust of a butterfly’s wing, and the shiny and reflective qualities found in certain metals and minerals.

I was inspired to run across Robert Glenn’s advice to Tim concerning the long trek from his sofa to basement to paint…

You need your studio right at your home. You need to have your paints always squeezed out and ready to go. You need some paint already on your canvas so it’s not a blank one anymore. With one stroke already down, you’ll find the energy to leap over your couch and put on another. You need to stop thinking about ends and think of processes. This comes automatically when you live with your stuff, even when you’re bagged out. (Painter’s Keys)

I think I am going to begin the year with this one little change in my morning routine.

More sign of the crow. What is he (she) trying to tell me?

Secret Hand Signs; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:29:57 +0000

Secret Hand Signs; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

Albert Einstein

I have a secret, but I can’t tell you here. I told Seth at The Altered Page who is telling everyone’s secrets.

Over 200 (!) artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse’s ‘State of the Art’ survey in words and pictures of the online artist community.

The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals.Their responses will be presented as a series of online and print projects. And the first continues right now!

Join the The Altered Page every Sunday for “Secret Sunday.” Here the secrets of all your favorite artists will be revealed. It could be a technique, a product, a secret source, a little-known website, a hidden shop, an inspiration, just about anything! If you missed any, no worries. You can find links to all the secrets on the sidebar of Seth’s blog. Today’s secret: The Essence of Art!

Seth is a mixed media artist and photographer from New York City with a love of paper, bookmaking and bookbinding, textures, layers, text, altered images, artistic collaborations, visual journaling, abstract art, ephemera, and so much more. His blog is a visual journal of my own artwork and photography as well as a showcase for artists he admires. His work and words can be seen both in print and online, available for purchase in his Etsy.

One more before you go… I found this secret Santa scene; a Christmas tree and fireplace in a parking garage. The last place you would look for something like this.

Change On The Horizon; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:17:11 +0000

Change On The Horizon; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

The Beatles

Crows on my path yesterday on a morning walk. A little ominous looking. Let’s forget all the talk of them being bad omens…

Crow is an omen of change. Crows live in the void and have no sense of time, therefore being able to see past, present and future simultaneously. They unite both the light and the dark, both the inner and the outer. Crow is the totem of the Great Spirit and must be held with utmost respected. They are representations of creation and spiritual strength.

Crows are messengers, telling us about the creation and magic all around us, that is available to us just for the asking. Look for opportunities to bring into being the magic of life. The striking black colour of the crow represents the colour of creation. It is the womb out of which the new comes into existence. Black is the colour of the night, giving birth to the light of a new day. (Shamanic Journey site)

As crows are adaptable to all environments and will eat almost anything, they can survive in almost any situation. Crow is surrounded by magic, unseen forces and spiritual strength. If crow enters your life, get out of your familiar nest, look beyond your present range of vision, listen to the message(s) in its caw and act accordingly

Many cultures consider crows to be the keepers of the Sacred Law, for nothing escapes their keen sight. To have a Crow as a power animal is extremely powerful stuff. (My power animal is actually the horse.

Crows often appear in groups, and though there seems to be no variation in their caw-ing to each other, each caw actually has a different meaning. Their complex vocabulary is one sign of their intelligence, and is also a sign of their significance as power animals. When a crow explores something new, others watch closely to see what happens and then learn from it. They often make great noise when hunters are around, warning deer and other birds. Crows recognize potential danger and hence always post lookouts when feeding. This is their most vulnerable time. This helps us understand that we must watch what we believe, to test our habitual ideas about reality against a more universal standard…

We are all connected, infinitely and composed of the same ’stuff’. We need to realize that hurting others only hurts ourselves. Crow is the bird which represents this transcendence. Crow can also teach us to be mindful about judging people automatically. Be an individual, think for yourself, don’t necessarily follow the crowd (Shamanic Journey site)

Crow/Raven: Sep 22 – Oct 22. Highly enthusiastic, and a natural entrepreneur, the Crow is quite a charmer. But he/she doesn’t have to work at being charming – it comes easily. Everyone recognizes the Crow’s easy energy, and everyone turns to the Crow for his/her ideas and opinions. This is because the Crow is both idealistic and diplomatic and is quite ingenious. In nurturing environments this Native American animal symbol is easy-going, can be romantic, and soft-spoken. Further, the crow can be quite patient, and intuitive in relationships. Left to his/her own devices, the Crow can be demanding, inconsistent, vindictive, and abrasive. (What’s Your Sign) (My sign, according to this site, is the wolf: deeply emotional, and wholly passionate… Juxtaposed with fierce independence… a contradiction in terms.)

Need more of my birds (plus assorted objects)? Check out these birds on wires:

(Hitchcock) Bird On A Wire I,

(Let’s Talk) Bird On A Wire II,

(Leonard Cohen) Bird On A Wire III

(Heard It From A Friend…) Bird On A Wire IV

(Water Soaked) Bird On a Wire V

(Tangled Up) Bird On a Wire VII

(On Edge) Bird On A Wire VIII

(Twitter/Tweeter) Bird On a Wire IX

(Uninvited Guest) Bird On a Wire X

(Let’s Do Lunch) Bird On a Wire XI

(Birds Of A Feather) Bird On a Wire XII

(High Wire) Bird on a Wire XIII

(Bird Over A Wire) Bird On A Wire XIV

(Bird On A… Post) Bird on a Wire XV

(Bird On A Branch… and off) Bird On a Wire XVI

(Blessed By A Bird) Bird On a Wire XVII

(Bird Screameing on a porch) Bird On a Wire XVIII

(Bird In A Bath) Bird On A Wire XIX

(Birds Pasadena Style) Bird On A Wire XX

(Bird Is The Word) Bird On A Wire XXI

(Birds at Dusk) Bird On A Wire XXII

Parents Eaten By Pigeons; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:29:57 +0000

Parents Eaten By Pigeons; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

Venice was and is full of lost places where people put up for sale the last worn bits of their souls, hoping no one will buy.

Ray Bradbury

Venice is a zone, a modern monastic zone where the artist is secular priest.
Tony Berlant

This is the only place that I don’t feel out of place, because everyone here is out of place.
Arnold Schwarzenegger

Bohemia by the bay, paradise on the skids…. a burg rife with swamis
Ernest S. Corfine

Venice is as far west as you can get – in every way.
Keith Kirts

Venice is a place where the past is still hanging around, waiting for an appointment with the future; but the future hasn’t shown up. In the meantime it is a kind of no man’s land, given up by default and occupied by irregulars and their dogs.
Jack Smith 1976

It’s America’s global village – a place where the visitor becomes part of the spectrum of what is happening. It’s all about sharing talents, skills, music, food and art. A message in a bottle of what California is all about.
Marc Madow

Nowadays it has become chi-chi for the smart set to roller-skate on the Ocean Front Walk in little satin shorts and to sit drinking Perrier or white wine at its sidewalk cafes, while we colorful local inhabitants continue our lives, observed.
Patricia J. Campbell

The allure of Venice Beach is the relative freedom which still exists there. It doesn’t have the most beautiful sand or ocean. It doesn’t have anything unique except its freedom and its tradition of this freedom.
Mark Madow

Venice is the only place in LA where a confused person on drugs might think he’s in Greenwich Village, if he doesn’t notice the beach.
Mark Lindquist

Venice Beach: proof of the biological impossibility of imagining a person being simultaneously good-looking and poor.
Douglas Coupland

Here at this far lost end of the continent, where the trail wagons had stopped and the people with them….
Ray Bradbury

… core of an urban melting pot, a tough and vital scene where expressions of freedom play and utter outrageousness can flourish…. a big jolly playpen… a marvelous scene of commerce and social interaction… It is one of the most peaceful, alluring, puzzling, beautiful, funny and free places I know in the world.
Marcia Seligson

At one time the corner of Hollywood & Vine was the symbolic heart of Los Angeles, the place one took out-of-town relatives just so they could say they had been there. Today, that honor belongs to the Venice Beach Boardwalk.
Westways Magazine, May 1993

…one of the last remaining strongholds of individualism in Southern California.
John Austin

More Venice Beach Quotes at Virtual Venice!

Life’s A Beach, Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:28:33 +0000

Life’s a Beach; Photo. Pacific Ocean Park (POP) as seen from Venice Beach. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.

Isaac Newton

We spent this Christmas on Venice Beach, known for its canals, beaches and circus-like Ocean Front Walk, which features performers, fortune-tellers and vendors; home to early Beat poets and artists in Los Angeles. There was an explosion of poetry and art. Major participants included Stuart Perkoff, John Thomas, Frank T. Rios, Tony Scibella, Lawrence Lipton, John Haag, Saul White, Robert Farrington and Philomene Long.

Prominent residents of Venice include singer Brandon Boyd, actresses Julia Roberts, Kate Beckinsale, Valeria Andrews, Lana Clarkson and Anjelica Huston, actors Tom Conway (brother of actor George Sanders), lived here in the 1960s, Nicolas Cage, Chaney Kley, Tim Meadows, Robert Hegyes, Mark Valley, Michael T. Weiss, Fairuza Balk,Taylor Negron, artist Martha Alf, and musicians Perry Farrell, Evidence of Dilated Peoples, Saint John of Saint John and the Revelations, Joshua Kadison, John Lydon (who owns a sizeable amount of rental property in Venice), Ozzy from Survivor, architect Lawrence Scarpa, John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tommy Mars of the Frank Zappa band, Fiona Apple and Mike Muir and most of his Suicidal Tendencies bandmates. Photographer Lauren Greenfield has lived in Venice since 1972.

Actor Robert Downey Jr. kept an apartment on the boardwalk during the 1990s. Harding Avenue is also where the Lennon Sisters of Lawrence Welk fame grew up. Jim Morrison lived in Venice for two years where he met Ray Manzarek to form the nucleus of The Doors. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s acting career began after becoming a regular bodybuilder at Venice’s famous Gold’s Gym, whose present facility claims to be “The Mecca of Bodybuilding.” Restaurateur Wolfgang Puck has owned and operated noted eateries in the area since the 1990s. Other notables include actors Viggo Mortensen, Rutger Hauer, Bryan Callen, and Elijah Wood, and film directors Vadim Perelman, Henry Jaglom and Paul Mazursky. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Host Ty Pennington both resides and owns his own Home Decor store in Venice. For many years, pro wrestlers Hulk Hogan and Sting were announced as residing in Venice Beach as well. Standup comedians, such as Nick Swardson, Eddie Ifft, Paul Provenza, George Carlin and Zach Galifinakis and street performers have proliferated in Venice, Wavy Gravy and Swami X being two of the more recent hippie busker alumni. Political contributions have been sent from homes in Venice from the actor Dennis Hopper and Simpsons creator Matt Groening. South Park co-creator Matt Stone lives in Venice as well.^[11] Harry Perry, the famous street entertainer, is one of the boardwalk’s key performers. Photographer Helen K. Garber maintains a studio on Ocean Front Walk. Graffiti/Street Artist and painter Jean-Michel Basquiat lived in Venice in the 80’s. Immature, an R&B group from the 1990s, used to perform on the boardwalk prior to becoming famous. Other notable residents included comedian George Carlin.

My two beautiful daughters on Christmas Day 2009.

These are just a few photos from the trip; expect to see more in the coming weeks.

On The Road To Christmas; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:04:44 +0000

On The Road To Christmas; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

On Christmas Day, Kathleen and I
propel a raft with plastic spoons
through the hissing fur of surf,
stirring as we go
an Alka-Seltzer sun.

We pass Bolinas-Stinson School,
the fire house, and Smiley’s dive;
extinguished geodesic domes
along the mesa road
where Cream Saroyan lives.

With a telescope, my sister spies
the erstwhile chemist of Argonne
who left his post to polish glass.
As penance, he engraves
a glyph of hydrogen

on the blank face of every cliff
from Monterey to Inverness.
Beside us, cormorants describe
the chop in grunts, then plunge
through thirty feet of grease.

I try to hold my breath as long
and cheat or fail. As evening comes
we pass the final spit of land.
Once more around the Horn
and then we’ll make for home.

The Golden Hinde by Devin Johnston

Turtle Mail; Mixed Media, Collage, Two Sided Tag. Remaining available two-sided tags.

We are headed off to spend Christmas with family in Pasadena. Usually we go down for Thanksgiving but this year we’ve switched.

You know how I love my shots along the road. Here’s some from Christmas past…

This one reminded me of Wyoming’s No Dineros Ranch

Zooming down Highway 1; this woman standing on the edge of the hill looking down at cars speeding by. I don’t think she approves.

Got Milk? On the way to Davis University.

Life is a highway… I’m gonna ride it all night long.

I dunno. A circle of sticks in a field. Anyone?

Palm trees near LA; I think this is on the 5. Or the 77? or the 90? Kidding I have no idea the roads down there.

In between the 5 and Gilroy.

Curious… all bald trees except one with leaves; and two chairs looking at nothing. On the way to Santa Cruz.

King kong and a hay maze, also on the way to Santa Cruz

Christmas tree farm near Half Moon Bay.

Trees growing over a bridge; Gilroy to San Jose

Pigeon Point looks like it is on the highway, but it’s not. On the way to Santa Cruz.

Near Point Reye.

On the way to Walnut Creek. Hotel California?

Near Half Moon Bay

On top a mansion in Atherton.

I will return on Monday with a whole not stack of shots from the road.

I hope to finally receive those limited edition prints that I mentioned before and can take some photos then. Looking forward to hearing how all your holiday weekend went.

Looking at me, looking at you, looking at the tide; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:34:05 +0000

Newport Lighthouse by Albert Bierstadt; 13 1/4 x 15 1/2 in; Oil on board.

A day all blue and white, and we
Came out of woods to sand
And snow-capped waves. The sea
Rose with us as we walked, the land
Built dunes, a lighthouse, and a sky of gulls.

Here where I built my life ten years ago,
The day breaks gray and cold;
And brown surf, muddying the shore,
Deposits fish-heads, sewage, rusted tin.
Children and men break bottles on the stones.
Beyond the lighthouse, black against the sky,
Two gulls are circling where the woods begin.

Land’s End by Weldon Kees

Albert Bierstadt was a German-American painter best known for his large landscapes of the American West. In obtaining the subject matter for these works, Bierstadt joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion.

Though his paintings sold for princely sums, Bierstadt was not held in particularly high esteem by critics of his day. His use of uncommonly large canvases was thought to be an egotistical indulgence, as his paintings would invariably dwarf those of his contemporaries when they were displayed together. The romanticism evident in his choices of subject and in his use of light was felt to be excessive by contemporary critics. His paintings emphasized atmospheric elements like fog, clouds and mist to accentuate and complement the feel of his work. Bierstadt sometimes changed details of the landscape to inspire awe. The colors he used are also not always true. He painted what he believed was the way things should be: water is ultramarine, vegetation is lush and green, etc. The shift from foreground to background was very dramatic and there was almost no middle distance.

Lighthouses are used to mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals and reefs, and safe entries to harbors and can also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and replacement by modern electronic navigational aids.

Seagulls near Santa Cruz

Pigeon Point, near Santa Cruz

Fog around Pacifica in November. We had heard the tides were high this year so went to see if we could catch some.

You’ve probably heard that residents of a seaside apartment building in Pacifica were evacuated when a cliff began crumbling into the ocean Thursday?

Looking at me, looking at you, looking at the ocean tides…

The tenants of a 12-unit building at the top of a bluff at 330 Esplanade Ave. were ordered to evacuate after a large chunk of earth fell from the cliff into the ocean. The mandatory evacuation was issued due to fears the building might collapse if conditions worsened.

Looking at you, looking at you, looking at the ocean tides.

The cliff is comprised of compacted sand and soft sandstone, and there has been significant erosion over the past two years. The building owner applied for permission to build a rock barrier last year, but there was an issue with property lines that delayed the permitting. Engineered Soil Repairs, estimated that the cliff had receded as much as 15 feet in recent days because of unusually high tides.

The California Coastal Commission is responsible for the permitting, and the agency could not be reached Friday due a state-mandated furlough. (Sigh.)

A contractor began building a rock barrier at the bottom of the Pacifica bluff Friday evening to keep high tides from further eroding the cliff. A crane dumped 4- to 6-ton boulders at the bottom of the cliff. Unusually high tides washed away about 15 feet of the bottom of the cliff in the last few days.

Got Moo?

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:55:43 +0000

Got Moo? More Moo on this blog.

What’s On My Desk; Acrylics

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:23:03 +0000

What’s On My Desk; Acrylics on canvas using Golden’s Iridescent and Interference Acrylics. In progress.

~~~

Dream tonight of peacock tails,
Diamond fields and spouter whales.
Ills are many, blessing few,
But dreams tonight will shelter you.

Herman Melville

Taking Flight, Photos, Tile

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:06:04 +0000

What is joy? It is a bird That we all want to catch. It is the same bird That we all love to see flying.

Sri Chinmoy

Crows circling between storms.

Blessing the Birds; Illuminated Tile. (more) (purchase)

San Francisco, the clouds were painted on the building behind the eagle.

Between San Jose and Gilroy

Waiting For Tomorrow; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:48:29 +0000

Detail of Unraveling Yellow, Acrylics on Canvas

~~~

We must not run after it, but we must fit ourselves for the vision and then wait tranquilly for it, as the eye waits on the rising of the Sun which in its own time appears above the horizon and gives itself to our sight.

Plotinus

Here comes the rain, our winter. It has been pouring all day and will continue into the weekend. My blog has been down due to my modem. I spent the day waiting (and waiting) of the repairman and planning my next year; as much as one can plan the next year. I’ve been pulling together details with the printers on my upcoming limited edition prints and waiting (and waiting) for a shipment of acrylics to arrive from DickBlick. It is very hard not to continue working on this canvas as I wait for just the right ‘gold’ to arrive.

What are you waiting for? What do you fill your time with while you wait?

Frosting; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:56:28 +0000

Frosting; Photos. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

This morning the world’s white face reminds us
that life intends to become serious again.
And the same loud birds that all summer long
annoyed us with their high attitudes and chatter
silently line the gibbet of the fence a little stunned,
chastened enough.

Early Frost by Scott Cairns

Watching The Moon At Dusk; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:41:30 +0000

Watching The Moon At Dusk; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come
and press its face against mine. Breathe into me.
Close the language-door, and open the love-window.
The moon won’t use the door, only the window.

Rumi

Need more of my birds on wires (plus assorted objects)? Check out these:

(Hitchcock) Bird On A Wire I,

(Let’s Talk) Bird On A Wire II,

(Leonard Cohen) Bird On A Wire III

(Heard It From A Friend…) Bird On A Wire IV

(Water Soaked) Bird On a Wire V

(Tangled Up) Bird On a Wire VII

(On Edge) Bird On A Wire VIII

(Twitter/Tweeter) Bird On a Wire IX

(Uninvited Guest) Bird On a Wire X

(Let’s Do Lunch) Bird On a Wire XI

(Birds Of A Feather) Bird On a Wire XII

(High Wire) Bird on a Wire XIII

(Bird Over A Wire) Bird On A Wire XIV

(Bird On A… Post) Bird on a Wire XV

(Bird On A Branch… and off) Bird On a Wire XVI

(Blessed By A Bird) Bird On a Wire XVII

(Bird Screameing on a porch) Bird On a Wire XVIII

(Bird In A Bath) Bird On A Wire XIX

(Birds Pasadena Style) Bird On A Wire XX

(Bird Is The Word) Bird On A Wire XXI

Madonnas; Illuminated Tiles, Two-Sided Tags

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:33:04 +0000

Madonna and Child attributed to Adrien Ysenbrandt (Isenbrant).

~~~

I shall paint
God in the midst, Madonna and her babe,
Ringed by a bowery, flowery angel-brood,
Lilies and vestments and white faces, sweet
As puff on puff of grated orris-root

Fra Lippo Lippi by Robert Browning

This sixteenth-century painting titled Madonna and Child is attributed to Adrien Ysenbrandt (Isenbrant). (Oil on a panel). It was common practice for major artists, such as Isenbrandt, to paint only the major parts of his paintings, such as faces and the flesh parts of his figures. His faces and flesh areas are set apart by brown pigment. The background was then filled in by assistants. The end quality of a work depended largely on the quality of the execution and the competency of the assistants, leading to an uneven quality of his works. These assistants also painted, as this was common practice in those times, many versions of the “Madonna and Child”, that were then attributed to Isenbrandt, giving him the reputation of having had an enormous body of work.

The Blessed Virgin Mary has been one of the major subjects of Christian Art, Catholic Art and Western Art for many centuries. Literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of Marian art covering a range of Marian artistic topics have been produced, from masters such as Michelangelo and Botticelli to humble peasant artists.

Half-length Madonnas are the form most frequently taken by painted icons of the Eastern Orthodox Church, where the subject matter is highly formulated so that each painting expresses one particular attribute of the “Mother of God”. Half-length paintings of the Madonna and Child are also common in Italian Renaissance painting, particularly in Venice

Pintoricchio Madonna and Child. The works of the Perugian Renaissance school are very similar; and paintings by Perugino, Pinturicchio, Lo Spagna and a young Raphael may often be mistaken one for the other. In the execution of large frescoes, pupils and assistants had a large share in the work, either in enlarging the master’s sketch to the full-sized cartoon, in transferring the cartoon to the wall, or in painting backgrounds or accessories.

The earliest surviving image in a Western illuminated manuscript of the Madonna and Child comes from the Book of Kells – magnificently decorated in the style of Insular art, the drawing of the figures can only be described as rather crude compared to Byzantine work of the period.

Madonna Art. Madonna is a medieval Italian term for a noble or otherwise important woman, and has long been used commonly in reference to images of the Virgin Mary. These names signal both the increased importance of the Cult of the Virgin and the prominence of art in service to Marian devotion during the late medieval period. During the thirteenth century, especially, with the increasing influence of chivalry and aristocratic culture on poetry, song and the visual arts. Representations of the Madonna and Child often take the form of large altarpieces. They also occur as frescoes and apsidal mosaics.

The Adoring Madonna is a type popular during the Renaissance. These images, usually small and intended for personal devotion, show Mary kneeling in adoration of the Christ Child. Many such images were produced in glazed terracotta as well as paint.

Francia Madonna and Child with Saints Anthony and Francis. In Medieval examples the Madonna is often accompanied by angels who support the throne, or by rows of saints. In Renaissance painting, particularly High Renaissance painting, the saints may be grouped informally in a type of composition known as a Sacra conversazione.

The seated Madonna and Child is a style of image that became particularly popular during the 15th century in Florence and was imitated elsewhere. These representations are usually of a small size suitable for a small altar or domestic use. They usually show Mary holding the infant Jesus in an informal and maternal manner.

More images from the Huntington on this blog.

A few Madonna Illuminated Tiles and Two-Sided Tags remain.

Bad Mojo; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:34:33 +0000

Bad Mojo; Photos. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

“There, I’ve failed again!”
Vincent van Gogh

I’ve begun to thin out some of my art stash; pieces going back to my years in college. There are some that are pure garbage but I keep them because I recall what was going on in my life when I created them, and want to keep the experience. But there are others, mostly first time attempts at a new medium that fail, these are the dogs I have been burning. I see it as making room for abundance of better works.

I tossed one canvas board with layers and layers of acrylics and gels into the fire place thinking it would burn wonderful colors, but instead it smoldered and sputtered, leaking toxic smoke into my apartment. Bad mojo. It was cold but regardless I flung open the windows so the smoke alarm wouldn’t go off and ran the air purifier.

I got curious and checked around on the internet to see what other artists do…

“Recently I’ve had my knuckles thoroughly rapped for recommending one of my favorite creative acts–burning bothersome paintings. Environmentalists have pointed out that it’s not only anti-social, in some places it’s illegal. Chastened, I’m now turning your attention to the fine art of hanging onto your dogs. And what to do with them.
… PMII (Put more into it). This doesn’t mean cluttering it with another element–a new figure in the foreground or more birds in the sky. It means looking for the essential drama that already exists in the work, and building on it. Make storms stormier. Let lights shine brighter. Let flames burn higher. (Oops)” (The fine art of hanging onto dogs – Painters Keys)

“… How should an artist properly get rid of their art? The question was bandied about fairly often, resulting in no answer. But when one of the artists found herself dying, the question required an answer.
As part of her final arrangements, the artist placed &/or willed her art to family and friends; yet she found herself with works she didn’t want left behind in the hands of others. The group of artists settled upon the old idea of an art burn, in which art is literally burned in a ceremonial fire. The first event, held over four years ago, was so successful that the group decided it should not only be an annual event but open to the public as well.
Offutt explained his experience with the burning of art. Artists understood that art may not be desirable; they have plenty of works they don’t want ‘out there’. But they are appalled to spot artworks sitting curb-side waiting for the garbage man, or in thrift stores — right next to the paint by numbers and ‘Hang in there’ kitty posters. Art isn’t the same commodity as a ‘Hang in there’ kitty poster, and as such warrants a different, a better method of disposal; but without such a method, undesirable works fill their studios, their closets, their homes. Offutt briefly described how burning has long been a form of destruction preferred to discarding things to the trash — it’s why we burn flags, for example. Placing art works in ceremonial fire isn’t just getting rid of them, but honoring them too. With an organized art burning, artists could both control what works are ‘out there’ as well as cleanse ceremoniously. (Got Art To Burn? at Collectors Quest)

“… Our reach often exceeds our grasp, as well it should. Our brush will, over time, gain ground. It doesn’t always happen as quickly as we’d like. Painting can be frustrating and painful when we don’t see some progress. We may think we lack the talent. We may even stop for a time. When the pain of not working exceeds the pain of working, we start again. And there in lies the seed of success. We have to keep working. It helps to realize that the vast majority of our work is done learning how to do our best work. Viewed in this light failed paintings are learning experiences. They are not meant for show. Each failed painting puts us one step closer to our best. It is common knowledge that Thomas Edison conducted thousands of experiments making the light bulb (please see my comment below) before he found one way that worked. Why should it be any different for artists? I recently read that a certain well known landscape painter has ritual bonfires twice a year to get rid of his failed field studies. He’s at the top of his game and has enough failed compositions to burn them twice a year!” (How To Succeed As An Artist by Robert J Simone)

“… What happens if the painting itself never works out? What if it simply is a dreadful painting? Frankly, it is perfectly ok to burn a canvas. Sometimes that is the best thing to do with certain canvases.
The truth is that failed paintings often are more helpful than the ones that easily succeed, because easy success does not cultivate an awareness of the elements that actually created the success. Failed paintings, however, when fully understood, are great teachers of the elements necessary for success.
Bad paintings are simply part of a progression to better paintings and can be significant mileposts along the way. Better yet, with a healthy attitude, they can be creative launching pads for unexpected success.
I once knew an artist who took this approach to interesting extremes. Disgusted with a painting, he might bury it in his backyard or throw it in the swimming pool and leave it there for several months.
When he retrieved the work, he had to replace the stretcher frame as it generally was ruined by then. Sometimes great chunks of paint peeled off as well. The painting was greatly changed from when he quit working with it. He would get excited about new possibilities in the wreckage and go on to create a satisfying work from it.” (Creativity and Fear of Failure by Energies Of Creation)

“…Every so often we need to get busy and chuck—just in case some executor or offspring makes the mistake of thinking something’s okay. There’s enough bad art in the world already and we don’t want to add to it by leaving substandard stuff out and about. I don’t know about you, Roscoe, but that reflection you mentioned can be a living nightmare as well. We grow. We get better.” (Should We Destroy Them at Red Bubble)

What do you do with your rotten canvases and board? Do you reuse them? Create collages? Tiny little ACEOs?

Say Hello to December; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:22:54 +0000

Say Hello to December; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

glowing incandescently, the season
opens to itself, as if a familiar stunt
in a traveling show, a fabulation only

from Four Good Things by James Mc Michael

I hope you had a lovely holiday (not here in the US?… a lovely regular) weekend! Our Thanksgiving was a welcome break from a wave of work, and we had a nice time cooking way too much food for ourselves. One of the advantages of adult children is not having to do all the cooking! I enjoying my break hanging out with family & friends – we drove to the butterfly preserve (below) and played in Scrabble tournament with friends. I was not able to take our Scrabble set as I had altered it into art years ago.

December in California – I am still not used to it and we have been here over ten years. These photos were taken down by Half Moon Bay. Remember back when they predicted a El Nino winter for us? Not happening. We went to the beach in Pacifica yesterday and it was well over 75 degrees, yet, there are signs of Christmas everywhere.

Ready For Change, Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:24:59 +0000

Ready For Change, Photos.

~~~

“Who are you,” said the caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation.
Alice replied, rather shyly,
“I—I hardly know, Sir, just at present—
at least I know who I was when I got up this morning,
but I think I must have changed several times since then.”

Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]

My daughter and I went to the Monarch Butterfly Natural Preserve in Santa Cruz yesterday. The park’s Monarch Grove provides a temporary home for over 100,000 Monarchs each winter. From mid-October through the end of February, the Monarchs form a “city in the trees.” This is the only State Monarch Preserve in California.

I am happy to report that I will soon have limited edition professionally printed poster sized prints of my Scatterlings© line.

The Santa Cruz preserve is inviting art and poems on butterflies – I hope to have prints available there during the February Migration Event.

The length of a butterfly journey exceeds the normal lifespan of most monarchs, which is less than two months for butterflies born in early summer. The last generation of the summer enters into a non-reproductive phase known as diapause and may live seven months or more. During diapause, butterflies fly to one of many overwintering sites. The generation that overwinters generally does not reproduce until it leaves the overwintering site sometime in February and March.

Here’s my butterfly whisperer, Alicia, home for Thanksgiving.

Ducks in ponds in the preserve; covered from the green of the eucalyptus trees.

Self portrait; passing Pigeon Point.

The Greater Bay Area is lucky to have several monarch layover spots:
San Leandro (1-510-577-6085 or email butterflynaturalist@earthlink.net);
Fremont (1-510-796-0199 or visit ebparks.org/parks/ardenwood);
Santa Cruz (1-831-423-4609, 1-831-420-5270, 1-831-429-2850);
Pacific Grove (1-831-648-5716, 1-831-648-5730 or pgmuseum.org);
Point Lobos (1-831-624-4909). Be sure to go on a mild, calm day.

Off Highway 1, midway to Santa Cruz.

The butterflies do not like wind. It is a truly awesome experience to stand in a eucalyptus grove and look up at thousands and thousands of monarchs fluttering in the sunlight and shade.

Near Half Moon Bay… I witnessed no pumpkin shortage in our area.

Floating With The Lily, Illuminated Tile; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:10:57 +0000

Floating With The Lily, Illuminated Tile. Purchase today.

From the third series of illuminated tiles combining traditional and contemporary images… a smooth peach colored tile; a mixed media collage consisting of paper, illuminated acrylics and shine, bubbles of irredescence, highlights in gold and silver, ribbon, stars, sparkle and shine. The flight of the butterfly was determined by the natural pattern of the tile. Protected with a non-yellowing indoor/outdoor matte sealer (not to be placed outside). The sides and back are altered and painted all the way around. This piece is best free standing and meant to be picked up and handled from all directions. 3.5″Squared. Each original tile is titled and signed by the artist on the back. Price: $55.32 which includes shipping, insurance and tracking.

Purchase today through PayPal. See more of this tile and read what others have to say here and here.

Remaining illuminated tiles for sale here

Brush With Orange; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:37:13 +0000

Brush With Orange; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

The visible carries all the invisible on its back.
Tonight, in the unconditional, what moves in the long-limbed grasses,
what touches me
As though I didn’t exist?
What is it that keeps on moving,
a tiny pillar of smoke
Erect on its hind legs,
loose in the hollow grasses?
A word I don’t know yet, a little word, containing infinity,
Noiseless and unrepentant, in sift through the dry grass.
Under the tongue is the utterance.

A Short History of the Shadow by Charles Wright

How Now Brown Cow; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:30:57 +0000

Mountain Landscape with Cattle by William Keith. Oil on canvas. 30 x 50 in. More Huntington on this blog.

The great naturalist John Muir called William Keith a “poet-painter,” referring to the lyrical quality in Keith’s art. The idea for the Sierra Club was first formed in Keith’s studio during conversations with Muir, Dr. Joseph LeConte, the first president of the University of California, and Warren Olney, a prominent San Francisco attorney.

In 1891, he shared his studio for several weeks with East Coast Tonalist George Inness, Sr. [1825-1894]. Both men painted in a similar style and were followers of the mystical teachings of Swedenborg. The Swedenborgian Church of San Francisco: Described as one of California’s earliest pure Arts and Crafts buildings, this complex represents a unique collaboration of many influential architects and craftspeople.

Among the locations where Inness and Keith painted together were Monterey and Yosemite, and it was reported they discussed art from every possible angle. Under Inness’ influence, Keith painted more than ever in a Barbizon-influenced vein with many sunset and twilight scenes. More barbizon artists on this blog.

(detail of cow stare) Mountain Landscape with Cattle

Cow I captured staring while speeding 80 mph down Highway 5; I am rather pleased with this shot – what are the odds that it would be looking at the highway.

Whether lying in a straw-filled stable or lazily grazing in a grassy meadow, the many images of cows captured the rural lifestyle and conjured up a simpler time when man was more tied to the land — a subject that was popular at the time when modernity was sometimes viewed as a threat. This “cow craze” made the market for cow paintings very profitable and the images most fashionable — even for turn-of-the-century parlors.

Cows dotting the horizon near Gilroy. It reminds me of those Happy California Cow Commercials. Vote for your favorite today.

Sagebrush lined highway near Point Reye. I like the lush golden colors, hills in the distance, ocean beyond those.

My mother, from Missouri, used to say “That’s money you’re smelling” when passing large commercial cattle lots. (aka cash cow)

In the hills near Gilroy. Agenda of cow: meander to tree in the morning, picnic and a nap, meander back home at night.

I’ve been pulled into the Farmville craze. Have you?
Milk (Regular Cow), 1 day, 6 coins
Strawberry Milk (Pink Cow) 1 day, 12 coins
Chocolate Milk (Brown Cow) 1 day, 18 coins
Milkonium (Bovine-09) 1 day, 18 coins

(Sick of Farmville Cows on Facebook)

Oh, will you be my neighbor?

Glance In The Reliquary; Dry Pastels

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:22:26 +0000

Glance In The Reliquary; Dry Pastels. More Ascender’s Dry Pastels. Purchase a small print.

~~~

And this, then,
is the vision of that Heaven of which
we have heard, where those who love
each other have forgiven each other,

where, for that, the leaves are green,
the light a music in the air,
and all is unentangled,
and all is undismayed.

To My Mother by Wendell Berry

It’s Electric; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:38:34 +0000

It’s Electric; Photo. Inside a light bulb at The Huntington. I think it looks like a tiny opera singer? More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

Art begins with a lie
The separation is you plus me plus what we make
Look into lightbulb, blink, sun’s in your eye

The Lie by Anne Waldman

From the Huntington science exhibit… a hundred historical light bulbs, including three test bulbs labeled by Edison himself. Displayed in a case filled with Nitrogen (in case the seals on the bulbs were broken) and put a few watts through some of the old bulbs. Edison’s and many others’ bulbs were designed to maximize the length of filament that was inside the bulb, by looping the filament up and down in a circle. Modern day light bulbs are made with very thin filaments, tightly packed in coils.

Near San Jose

I’ve Got The Whole World In My Hands; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:58:35 +0000

I’ve Got The Whole World In My Hands; Photos. More Ascender’s Photos.

O world invisible, we view thee,
O world intangible, we touch thee,
O world unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!

The Kingdom of God (In No Strange Land) by Francis Thompson

Make your own paper mache world. What you’ll need:
* Balloon
* Heavy medium-sized bowl or large glass measuring cup
* Newspapers
* 1 cup flour
* 5 cups of water
* Medium saucepan
* Scissors
* Gesso (optional) (recommended: Liquitex Basics Gesso
* Acrylic paint: gold, brown, green, white, light blue
* Paintbrushes

How to make it:
1. Line your work surface with several newspapers. This is a messy project so you want to make sure you cover everything.
2. Blow up the balloon and tie. If you have a more oval shaped balloon, don’t blow it up all the way, try to keep it round. Place balloon, knot side down, onto medium bowl or glass measuring cup. This will act as a holder/stand for your project.
3. Mix together the flour and one cup of the water until completely combined.
4. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Add the flour and water mixture to the boiling water. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool.
5. When flour glue mixture is cool, move the saucepan to your work surface. Be certain the pot is cooled completely!
6. Tear additional newspapers into 1” strips.
7. Dip strips into the flour glue and run the strip through your fingers to squeeze off the excess. Place the wet strip of newspaper across the balloon and smooth it down onto the surface until it sticks. Continue adding strips until entire balloon is covered.
8. Cover saucepan with plastic wrap; push the wrap down onto the surface of the flour mixture. Allow balloon to dry overnight.
9. Reheat the flour mixture so it bubbles and then allow to cool.
10. Repeat the process of covering the balloon with newspaper strips until a second layer is achieved. Allow to dry overnight. You can do a third layer, but two layers should be sufficient.
11. Turn the balloon over so that the tied end is up. Holding the tied end, use a pin or another sharp object to pop the balloon. The balloon will slowly pull itself away from the sides of the newspaper, leaving the round shell in place. Remove the balloon.
12. Paint the globe with a layer of gesso. If you don’t have any gesso you can paint the balloon with white paint. This will create a layer of white that will cover the newsprint so the words and pictures printed on the paper do not show through. Allow to dry.
13. Paint the entire balloon light blue and let dry.
14. Print out a world map to use as a stencil. Cut out the land masses and trace around them onto the balloon.
15. Paint the land masses with brown paint. Add some green paint using a dabbing method on top of the brown in random areas.
16. Add clouds, using a dabbing method with white paint. This is a great way to cover up any pencil lines that may be showing from your tracings. Allow to dry completely.
17. Turn the balloon over so that the hole where you removed the balloon from is on top. Paint the bottom of the globe, about 2” around the hole with gold paint. Allow to dry.)

Tips:
* Liquitex Basics Gesso is a craft medium that provides a surface for paint to easily adhere to and is available at your local craft supply store.
* You can speed up the drying process by using a hair dryer or placing the wet balloon near a heat source such as a space heater. If you do this follow all the manufacturer’s safety guidelines for using such an appliance.

Standing Still and Still Life; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:33:48 +0000

“Stand still. The trees ahead and bush beside you are not lost.”
Albert Einstein

Still Life With Flowers And A Birds Nest; Oil on Panel; Severin Roesen

Originally a porcelain painter, Roesen came to New York about 1848, possibly as a result of political upheavals in his native Germany. His lavish, highly detailed still lifes celebrate nature’s bounty while showcasing his technical virtuosity. Such depictions of abundance reflected the increasing availability and variety of fruit in this period, the result of improvements in cultivation and transportation.

While Roesen’s paintings reveal a meticulous attention to detail in their precise arrangements and close brushwork, his subject matter, even down to specific motifs, did not change throughout his career. Sometimes he made near copies of paintings, but usually he merely rearranged and reassembled stock elements.

Although Roesen was famous for his work in the Williamsport area, it wasn’t until 100 years after his death that his paintings were brought to the attention of the larger public by First Lady Jackie Kennedy when she hung several of his paintings in the newly refurbished White House.

Three In The Bush; Acrylics

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:39:07 +0000

Three In The Bush; 20″ x 24″ x 1-1/4″; Acrylics on Canvas. Not yet priced.

~~~

The bush was in a strange garden, a place
So old it seemed to exist outside of time.
In one spot, great stone steps leading nowhere.
In another, statues of horsemen posting giant stone horses
Along a high wall. And here, were triangular beds
Of flowers flush with red flowers. And there,
Circular beds flush with white. And in every bush
And bed flew small birds and the cries of small birds.

Black Swan by Brigit Pegeen Kelly

I have finished with this canvas. I struggled with a few spots but really enjoy the end result of that struggle. This is the second of an acrylics on canvas series which are influenced by antique wallpaper details. My first being Unraveling Yellow and much relieved to read the comments there saying I was successful in my process of painting them to appear aged, yet new. It is the Fresh Perspective line that has pulled me in this direction. I aim to have them priced and on my site by early next week.

Bird Is The Word; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:15:29 +0000

Bird Drinks Creek Dry, Fish Escapes; Oil on Canvas by Edward Ruscha.

~~~

Open wide, now, little bird;
I who sang you your first word
Soothe away every sound you’ve heard

Magda Goebbels (30 April 1945) by W. D. Snodgrass

Since 1964, Ruscha has been experimenting with painting and drawing words and phrases, often oddly comic and satirical sayings. When asked where he got his inspiration for his paintings, Ruscha responded, “Well, they just occur to me; sometimes people say them and I write down and then I paint them. Sometimes I use a dictionary.” From 1966 to 1969, Ruscha painted his “liquid word” paintings.

In his drawings, prints, and paintings throughout the 1970s, Ruscha experimented with a range of materials including gunpowder, blood, fruit and vegetable juices, axle grease, and grass stains. Stains, an editioned portfolio of 75 stained sheets of paper produced and published by Ruscha in 1969, bears the traces of a variety of materials and fluids. Ruscha has also produced his word paintings with food products on moiré and silks. Ed Ruscha site. More Huntington on this blog.

Birds and Words outside of San Jose

Birds in formation, Santa Cruz

Birds in an odd star formation, south of San Jose

Bird batch on the beach, love birds in distance; Half Moon Bay

Need more of my birds on wires (plus assorted objects)? Check out these:

(Hitchcock) Bird On A Wire I,

(Let’s Talk) Bird On A Wire II,

(Leonard Cohen) Bird On A Wire III

(Heard It From A Friend…) Bird On A Wire IV

(Water Soaked) Bird On a Wire V

(Tangled Up) Bird On a Wire VII

(On Edge) Bird On A Wire VIII

(Twitter/Tweeter) Bird On a Wire IX

(Uninvited Guest) Bird On a Wire X

(Let’s Do Lunch) Bird On a Wire XI

(Birds Of A Feather) Bird On a Wire XII

(High Wire) Bird on a Wire XIII

(Bird Over A Wire) Bird On A Wire XIV

(Bird On A… Post) Bird on a Wire XV

(Bird On A Branch… and off) Bird On a Wire XVI

(Blessed By A Bird) Bird On a Wire XVII

(Bird Screameing on a porch) Bird On a Wire XVIII

(Bird In A Bath) Bird On A Wire XIX

(Birds Pasadena Style) Bird On A Wire XX

I Still Seek You; Moo

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:25:22 +0000

Moo of I Still Seek You. More Moo on this blog.

~~~

One last time I unlock
the house where they lived

and fought and tried again:
the air of the place,

carpet with its unchanging green,
chair with its back to me.

On the TV set, the Christmas cactus
has bloomed, has spilled its pink flowers

down its scraggly arms
and died, drying into paper.

At the round oak table,
ghosts lean toward one another,

almost a bow, before rising,
before ambling away.

Where They Lived by Marge Saiser

Empty Window; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:08:41 +0000

Empty Window (Tiburon); Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

Classic emptiness it
sits out there edge of
hierarchic roof top it
marks with acid fine edge
of apparent difference it
is there here here that
sky so up and out and where
it wants to be no birds no
other thing can for a
moment distract it be
beyond its simple space.

Helsinki Window by Robert Creeley

Following my post-Halloween On The Ledge post, I thought to share some more local windows with you.

My favorite – Berkley; Are we learning yet?

San Francisco empty window

Foster City empty window

San Francisco Sushi Window

Pacifica flowerpot window

San Francisco moldy window

San Francisco Camera Window

San Francisco, not an empty window

San Francisco lattice window

Pacifica along the beach window

San Francisco, creepy window. Pee Wee Herman?

Where Scribbles Of Weeds Defined; What’s On My Desk

AscenderRisesAbove — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:11:17 +0000

What’s On My Desk; Acrylics on Canvas.

~~~

In the simmering sea, where scribbles of weeds defined
Uncertain depth, and the slim fishes progressed
In fatal formation, and thought

The Second Voyage by éilean ní Chuilleanáin

Sit Still; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:08:19 +0000

Chair sitting in an unused Children’s Garden at the Huntington. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

sit still
and fold your hands—
empty your heart of thoughts,
your mind of dreams.

Autobiography: New York by Charles Reznikoff

Detail in the arm of the chair in the children’s garden. I don’t know how I got into this area of the gardens. I realized when I came out of it that it was roped off and no one was supposed to be in it. Technically, is this a statue or a bench? Are you to sit on it or look at it?

There’s so many nice places like this to shoot at the Huntington Botanical Gardens. I walked through this roped-off mini forest and ever couple hundred yards, there would be a little area like this with a bench.

Love is a common theme among the garden sculpture, most of which dates from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, although some are the works of twentieth-century American artists such as Anna Hyatt Huntington, the wife of Archer Huntington. The 17th century limestone statues on each side of the North Vista depict characters from classical mythology and folklore. Each statue was originally matched to a stately palm.

Mr. Huntington personally decided on the exact location for each piece of garden statuary. Some of the statues were moved as many as three times until Huntington was satisfied.

Unraveling Yellow; Acrylics on Canvas; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:20:02 +0000

detail of Unraveling Yellow; Acrylics on Canvas

~~~

In its unraveling loom
we find a flower to take,
with some late buds that might still bloom,
back to your room.

Heart’s Needle by W. D. Snodgrass

This is the finished piece; Unraveling Yellow – 20″ x 24″ acrylics on canvas. Not yet priced.

I attended last nights demo by local artist, Judy Gittelsohn. She is a Golden Artist Color Working Artist in Northern California who gave an advanced technical explanation of acrylics and their possibilities: types of pigments, paints, grounds and color mixing, various gels and mediums. We also learned how to make surfaces for watercolors, graphite, charcoal, colored pencil, oil and soft pastels. Free literature and free samples of paint and gels (woot!) Judy opened and teaches at Art for Well Beings in Palo Alto.

On The Ledge; Photo; What’s On My Desk

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:31:34 +0000

On The Ledge; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

All Souls’ over, the roast seeds eaten, I set
on a backporch post our sculpted pumpkin
under the weather, warm still for November.
Night and day it gapes in at us
through the kitchen window, going soft
in the head. Sleepwalker-slow, a black rash of ants
harrows this hollow globe, munching
the pale peach flesh, sucking its seasoned
last juices dry. In a week, when the ants and
humming flies are done, only a hard remorseless light
drills and tenants it through and through. Within,
it turns mould-black in patches, stays
days like this while the weather takes it
in its shifty arms: wide eye-spaces shine,
the disapproving mouth holds firm. Another week,
a sad leap forward: sunk to one side
so an eye-socket’s almost blocked, it becomes
a monster of its former self. Human, it would have
rotted beyond unhappiness and horror
to some unspeakable subject state—its nose
no more than a vertical hole, the thin
bridge of amber between nose and mouth
in ruins. The other socket opens
wider than ever: disbelief.

It’s all downhill
from here: knuckles of sun, peremptory
steady fingers of frost, strain all day and night—
cracking the rind, kneading the knotted fibres
free. The crown, with its top-knot mockery
of stalk, caves in; the skull buckles; the whole
sad head drips tallowy tears: the end
is in sight. In a day or two it topples on itself
like ruined thatch, pus-white drool spidering
from the corner of the mouth, worming its way
down the body-post. All dignity to the winds,
it bows its bogeyman face of dread
to the inevitable…

Totem by Eamon Grennan

I am continuing with this acrylic on canvas; unsure of where it is going to take me next.

Apple-Cheeked Girl and Apple Betty; Illuminated Tile

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:40:30 +0000

detail of Irish Girl by Robert Henri; Oil on Canvas

~~~

We seek thee. We seek thy pink thighed tingeing. We seek thee in nighttime. We seek thy
ample cheeks, thy apple cheeked seeking. We seek thee. Thy swinging skirt. Thy flouncing
to the earth. Thy soft soft cheek. We seek the breath of thee. We speak thee lovely rounded
sonnets. We speak thy rounded lips. Thy flowered lips. We seek the unfurling pinking the
flowered lips the sonnet persuasion. We seek thee. In a glade in a forest in a cousins lap
we seek thee. Between us and it a meadow of thee.

Jane Sprague in Shampoo

Irish Girl by Robert Henri; an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art. From 1927 to 1928 Henri painted over 140 portraits of children on tiny Anchill Island of f the northwest coast of Ireland. The girl’s ruddy cheeks suggest the cold, windswept climate of Anchill.

Apple-cheeked
Pronunciation: \ˈa-pəl-ˌchēkt\
Function: adjective
Date: 1847
Defined: having cheeks the color of red apples

Apple Betty; Illuminated Tile. Illuminated Tiles on this blog. Remaining Illuminated Tiles for sale.

Orange You Glad It’s November; Photos, What’s On My Desk

AscenderRisesAbove — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:39:44 +0000

Work In Progress; Acrylics on Canvas. What’s On My Desk

~~~

Listen. . .
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.

November Night by Adelaide Crapsey

Another of my (master gardener) neighbors’ roses

From the Huntington Gardens

From Point Reye

From Half Moon Bay

A couple more shots from the San Mateo Halloween Fun Fest last week

I liked this; like little mimes.

Wild Thing. Doesn’t she look like Ramona Quimby? I think I read every one of those Beverly Cleary books. A d o r a b l e.

A couple of my favorite shots from last night.

Ghosts Of Halloween Past; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:34:47 +0000

Ghost of Halloween Past, Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

A process in the weather of the world
Turns ghost to ghost; each mothered child
Sits in their double shade.
A process blows the moon into the sun,
Pulls down the shabby curtains of the skin;
And the heart gives up its dead.

A Process in the weather of the heart by Dylan Thomas

Haunted Hotels Boast of Ghosts – some of the spookiest spots around the nation, where ghosts may never check out!

Giving Up The Ghost: A Guide To Basic Cable’s Paranormal TV Shows – The bottom line is reality TV is out, and unreality TV is in.

How Britain became a nation of ghost hunters – Rachel Dixon asks why we became so interested in the paranormal – and whether we’re wasting our money

Haunted This Halloween? Call a Real Ghostbuster! - Appearing on a special Halloween edition of CNN’s Larry King Live! Friday, a host of ghosthunters, paranormal activists and psychics

‘Ghost Adventures Live!’ on Travel Channel is a Friday TV pick – Trans-Allegheny Asylum in West Virginia

Ghosts, Spooks, Spectres, and Things that Go Woof in the Night – There are many canine hauntings throughout the world. Can deceased pets haunt?

Punkin’heads; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:25:01 +0000

Ghost Pumpkin; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

I SPOT the hills
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins.
On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle round me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvest moon;
I am a jack-o’-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know
I am fooling.

Theme in Yellow by Carl Sandburg

Some punkin’heads around my neighborhood last year. The top one is a boy carrying a lit pumpkin.

It rained here last year so I tried to go out in between downpours which explains some of the blurriness. Fortunately dark and creepy adds to any Halloween shot.

Halloween is a particularly difficult holiday to shoot because most of the action occurs after dark, when low-light conditions make it difficult for your camera to get a sharp shot. You’ll get your best Halloween photos at dusk. For that hour or so while the sun is setting, you’ll have enough natural light to easily forgo your flash while still capturing the glow of your jack-o-lanterns and the bright colors of your costumes.

After dusk, use a high ISO setting (400 or more) and hold your camera as steady as you can (or use a tripod) to capture action without a flash. The rich, dark colors characteristic of Halloween are essential in setting a spooky mood, so make sure your flash doesn’t overpower them. (Photojojo)

Jack-o-lanterns make for a unique and beautiful Halloween subject, but capturing their inner glow can be tricky. This is a case where it’s crucial you turn off your camera’s flash so it doesn’t overwhelm your candlelight. Your jack-o-lanterns are not going to move, so your best bet is to use a long shutter speed and set your camera on a steady surface or a tripod…

Sure, you can stick a dozen candles in that puppy, but unless you want to risk a smoking jack-o-lantern, try adding a flashlight instead. Keep an eye on your angle so your camera can’t see the flashlight or its beam of light directly. (If you do opt for more candles, cut a hole in the upper, back part of the pumpkin–it’ll act as a chimney and allow your candles’ heat to escape.) (Photojojo)

Pumpkin Shell; Collage, Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:42:06 +0000

Layers of Pumpkin Shell; Collage, Photo

~~~

Totem by Eamon Grennan

Pumpkins were a favorite costume at the San Mateo Halloween Fun Fest last weekend.

I couldn’t help but to recall that there were few ready made costumes ‘back in the day’. A sheet with two holes in it (ghost); a plaid shirt and a stick with a bundle on the end (hobo). It was unheard of to purchase a ready made costume. Remember those hard plastic masks that you couldn’t breath in or see out of, with the elastic string that would get tangled in your hair? The night before was a Trick-Or-Treat for contributions to Unicef. You could go door to door on the East side of town one night, and the West side the next night. We had an elderly lady down the street who gave out cough drops. There were no penny candies; and many people baked their own treats; cookies; popcorn balls.

Driving By Pumpkin Patches; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:41:06 +0000

Driving by Hay Zombies; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

October, and the leaves turned late but strong.
Rock maples and the reds, clear brazen, blaze
long-burning feats of sugar through our ways.
Their strident hold upon the back roads pulls
our morning drive, out to where Oak Woods Road
crosses the river that they call Great Works.
The nearby fields so rich it’s hard to breathe—
the hay treacly with auburn, grasses bronzed—
we stop before a red farmhouse, just shy
of where the river runs, where maple trees
have laid the front lawns ravished with their loss.
From Booker’s truck we pull out sacks and tools,
proceed to gather up the autumn’s spoils.
He holds each big bag open, and I rake
the broad red leaves together and inside.
The crop is so much greater than our work
could ever capture, even as we press
it in, right close, to fill October’s urge,
but we have cleared a windfall just the same:
A clarity, the season’s morning hues,
and our sweet chore have worked an art of fall.
As autumn and the Great Works trickle by,
we skim as much brimmed crimson as these few
stout bags will hold within, enough to lay
four inches of the fall upon his fields.
October’s task has raked the colors high.
To turn ‘em in, the soil to bed with yield,
is just as good as planting winter rye.

Raking Near the Great Works by Megan Grumbling

Some Pumpkin Patch Drive-bys. (Drive bys are supposed to be blurry, right?)

Near Half Moon Bay

Near Pacifica

Near Pasadena

Near Half Moon Bay

Bird On A Wire, Pasadena Style; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:27:02 +0000

Blue Horizon; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

Still lurking behind the stars,
31 August 1995 …
The afterlife of insects, space graffiti, white holes
In the landscape,
such things, such avenues, lead to dust
And handle our hurt with ease.
Sky blue, blue of infinity, blue
waters above the earth:
Why do the great stories always exist in the past?

Black Zodiac by Charles Wright

Bird On A Wire, Pasadena Style; Photo.

I’ve done so many “birds on a wire” – here’s a unique angle; beneath a hummingbird on a wire in Pasadena. As difficult of an angle this was to get; it is going to be a bit more difficult to get the top of a bird on a wire. I grabbed this shot when we visited the Huntington Museum over Labor Day.

I was intrigued with this detailed bird on a post in the Virgina Steele Scott Gallery of American Art . This is an untitled collage by Joseph Cornell completed in 1967. I liked this feeling of being set in concrete and wondered how he created that.

Cornell worked on several pieces at one time and could take years to complete a piece. He began a series of clocks honoring the death his brother, Robert. The clock pieces reference the theme of mortality in general, while birds are symbolic of the soul’s ability to transcend earthly bounds. The clock sharing the same space as the bird; a space occupied by the constellation Cassiopeia. Brother Robert, crippled by Cerebral Palsy, enjoyed looking out the windows at the birds.

Another piece by Cornell, also Untitled – later to be identified as “Joyce Hunter“, an 18 year old waitress who “embodied his feminine ideal”. In September 1964 Hunter was arrested for stealing nine assemblages from Cornell’s garage, found murdered in New York in December. It was then that Cornell memorialized her in collage. Here she is surrounded by foreign newspapers suggesting she is in a far away place. On the back of the piece Cornell pasted a picture of a knife, fork and spoon referring to Hunter’s job at the diner.

“A teenage runaway and single mother from Pennsylvania … became Cornell’s first girlfriend, despite being forty years younger than him, and the elderly maker of collage and box assemblage renamed her “Tina” in his voluminous journals, praising her “adorable earnestness” and giving her several of his works as gifts (which she promptly sold, behind his back, to a private art dealer). She dropped out of his life in May 1962, and a lovelorn Cornell created his “Penny Arcade” collage series to commemorate the affair. In September 1964, Hunter and a new boyfriend raided Cornell’s unlocked garage and stole nine of his boxes; the artist reluctantly filed charges with the police, and Hunter’s arrest on September 18th made that day’s New York Times. Still smitten with the young woman, Cornell refused to testify against his one-time love and even attempted to bail her out of jail. Without the cooperation of the artist charges against Hunter, and her boyfriend were first reduced, then dropped altogether. Hunter met amiably with Cornell at least once after that, but two months to the day after her arrest, she was murdered by a mentally unstable acquaintance in her room at the Hotel Breton Hall on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The murderer, Lawrence “Frenchie” French, plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter and later died in prison. Hunter’s family showed no interest in claiming her body, and only Cornell’s intervention saved her from a city burial in a pauper’s grave. Though Cornell never put up a stone at the gravesite he purchased for Hunter, he made many visits to the grave over the last nine years of his life, and retained his collaborator, Larry Jordan, to make a short film of the unmarked plot.” (findagrave)

Sad on so many levels

Here is the last piece … with my reflection in it. (Now I am memorialized by Cornell!). Untitled in 1969. This is the quince tree that stood in the backyard of his childhood home.

On the back of his pieces Cornell recorded his struggles to create this collage. Initially he rejected the piece, finally finishing it in ‘69. An obsessive collector of objects and experiences Cornell fills his diaries with minute observations of the world around him. (Having done a few collages, my Scatterlings etc, I have found that one has no choice but to become an obsessive collector of randomness!) He often wrote of the activity of the birds and squirells that visted the quince tree and the changes in the tree during seasons. On the day that he completed this he noted that jays and a sparrow had squabbled in the snow covered branches

I like the idea of recording struggles on the back of each piece. I wonder how often artists do this?

Need more of my birds on wires (plus assorted objects)? Check out these:

(Hitchcock) Bird On A Wire I,

(Let’s Talk) Bird On A Wire II,

(Leonard Cohen) Bird On A Wire III

(Heard It From A Friend…) Bird On A Wire IV

(Water Soaked) Bird On a Wire V

(Tangled Up) Bird On a Wire VII

(On Edge) Bird On A Wire VIII

(Twitter/Tweeter) Bird On a Wire IX

(Uninvited Guest) Bird On a Wire X

(Let’s Do Lunch) Bird On a Wire XI

(Birds Of A Feather) Bird On a Wire XII

(High Wire) Bird on a Wire XIII

(Bird Over A Wire) Bird On A Wire XIV

(Bird On A… Post) Bird on a Wire XV

(Bird On A Branch… and off) Bird On a Wire XVI

(Blessed By A Bird) Bird On a Wire XVII

(Bird Screameing on a porch) Bird On a Wire XVIII

(Bird In A Bath) Bird On A Wire XIX

Perfectly Potted; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:57:19 +0000

Autumn Glow, Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

In the night I will drink from a cup of ashes and yellow paint.
In the night I will gossip with the clouds and grow strong.
In the night I will cross rooftops to watch the sea tremble in a dream.
In the night I will assemble my army of golden carpenter ants.
In the night I will walk the towpath among satellites and cosmic dust.
In the night I will cry to the roots of potted plants in empty offices.
In the night I will gather the feathers of pigeons in a honey jar.
In the night I will become an infant before your flag.

Nights on Planet Earth by Campbell McGrath

Having finished my updated table of ACEO’s … I begin doing inventory and updating a table showing remaining Two-Sided Tag’s available and researching art festivals for 2010.

(I just want to say in my own defense, this is not my perfectly potted rudbeckia)

Live rudbeckia are produced in daisy-like inflorescences, with yellow or orange florets arranged in a prominent, cone-shaped head; “cone-shaped” because the ray florets tend to point out and down (are decumbent) as the flower head opens. Rudbeckia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Cabbage Moth and Dot Moth

Living Near A Pumpkin Shell; Photo, ACEO

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:12:01 +0000

Living Near A Pumpkin Shell; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

Yes, dance.
Dance and dream.
Dream that you’re Mrs. Henry Jekyll of Harley Street,
dancing with your own butler and six footmen.
Dream that they’ve all turned into white mice
and crawled into an eternal pumpkin.

John Lee Mahin

Teardrop Waterfall; Two-Sided ACEO; Faux Encaustic Collage. Purchase. See more of this ACEO here.

Today I continue doing inventory and updating a table showing remaining ACEO’s available; doing paperwork, finishing a new canvas.

I’ve searched high and low for a method to manage scheduling of art festivals, my (art) work flow and personal time and finally selected the Action Day 2010 calendar. It isn’t one of the more well known day planners but I think I will soon become so. What do you use to scheduling your time?

… To be man or woman of action you need to keep three things in mind:
* First, to have the right attitude toward your work
* Second, you need to decide which walls you are going to build, i.e., establish your goals.
* Third, you have to lay the bricks that are needed to build the wall. Without action nothing happens.

It is comprised of two main parts.

The first part deals with the power of attitude, goals and actions.
* Attitude – The power of attitude and how you can form the right attitude about yourself, your work, and communication.
* Goal – The power of goal setting and how you can set your goals.
* Actions – The power of action, how you can form an execution process in order to get things done.

The second part of the book is the Action Day Planner…. (Action Day)

Children Of The Corn; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:43:51 +0000

Haystacks by Martin Johnson Heade

~~~

Our headlights slide
over a scarecrow
made of tumbleweeds
standing by the road.

He’s wearing a kimono,
a dark-blue stovepipe hat,
his shoulders cloaked
in a wreath of chrysanthemums.

We pull over,
back up,
and he disappears
into the pale-
grey darkness.

Cruising 99 by Garrett Hongo

“Of the hundreds of artists who have represented hay in their work, the one who has depicted hay most often is the nineteenth century American Luminist painter, Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904 ). Our virtual collection now includes about 120 (roughly twice as many as those produced by the second most prolific hay painter, Camille Pissarro). Most of these 120 can be reductively summarized to variations on the same motif cluster: several haystacks, usually one large and others diminishing in size to draw the eye into and across the landscape; a sinuous tidal waterway serving both as another perspectival device and a mirror to amplify the presence of the stacks; flat marshland, sometimes framed by willows or low fluvial terraces; sunlight and sky in the process of imminent rapid change, either at dusk or under the influence of passing storms or the filtering of transient fogs; and a barely conspicuous human presence, wagons being loaded, ruined wagons or staddles collapsing into the marsh, and tiny workers or hunters or fishermen, investing the omnipresent stacks with even more monumentality.” Hay In Art

The plaque next to the painting Haystacks states this red spot is a worker returning from the field; I think it is rather scarecrowish?

Have you noticed scarecrows “cropping up” on every block on the street? Every state, every town. I wondered if some if Target or Walmart were running a sale on them. Hay Zombies, I think… Children of the Corn.

You round the corner and there is one, your height, staring you right in the eye. Disturbing!

LA -> SF. Bright ribbons of tinfoil border the edges of the corn fields.

Offering Gold; Illuminated Tile

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:38:26 +0000

Golden Core; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

I try tearing paper into tiny, perfect squares—
they cut my fingers. Warm milk, perhaps,
stirred counter-clockwise in a cast iron pan—
but even then there’s burning at the edges,
angry foam-hiss. I’ve been told
to put trumpet flowers under my pillow,
I do: stamen up, the old crone said.
But the pollen stains, and there are bees,
I swear, in those long yellow chambers, echoing,
the way the house does, mocking, with its longevity—
each rib creaking and bending where I’m likely to break—

I try floating out along the long O of lone,
to where it flattens to loss, and just stay there
disconnecting the dots of my night sky
as one would take apart a house made of sticks,
carefully, last addition to first,
like sheep leaping backward into their pens.

Insomnia by Rynn Williams

Offering Gold; Illuminated Tile. Purchase. Sold.

Today I continue doing inventory and updating a table showing which illuminated tiles remain available. In addition to updating my blog I’ve been looking for some new places to exhibit, and chatting it up with people on FaceBook. Probably too much chatting — there is no shortage of art to be done. I am attempting to get back into my pastel work and pulling together a couple of new lines.

Speaking of FaceBook… I’ve added the widgets to the right side column … however they seem to slow down the page?

Last week I attended the Burlingame Art Society meeting in which Inna Polnar critiqued members paintings. I took in the original to Fading Light, Scatterlings© and received a favorable critique. (phew.) Prior to the critiquing process Inna spoke about painting in regards to light sources… fascinating information contrasting warm light vs cool light. I now see light in a new light! Inna was a wonderful teacher and gave excellent insight in her critiques.

New Header; What Do You Think?

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:13:33 +0000

I’ve been playing with a new header for my blog… what do you think? I was thinking I needed to tone it down a bit, color-wise, so that the center column would stand out more. This one looks huge. And I should probably find one a bit more autumn-ish? And I really don’t have a handle on the “fixed-width” and “fluid-width” etc of this blog layout, where in the template to change that; etc.

What’s this doing when you look at it?

Here are some of my favorite headers: A Designer’s Life, Anahata, Izabella, FirstBorn, Dispatch From LA, Dawn White, cobaltika, christine kane, camilla engman, Urban Baby, Whittaker Woman. I could go on and on but it’s time to paint…

Where is your favorite header?

~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ •

Updated 11:30 pm. I thought I would go a different route, recalling that white space is my friend. In addition I have been working on a new series of Scatterlings© (not yet shown) so am sticking with this theme for now. Perhaps the little feet will return next spring.

Expecting Rain, Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:57:41 +0000

Expecting Rain, Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

rain—what else
do you expect

of October?—
spilling from one

roof to another,
like words from

lips to lips

The Finality of a Poem by Michael Anania

Bee-for The Rain Comes – Bee’s Knees; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:25:52 +0000

Yes; it is time again, before the rain comes, for one more bee’s knees.

~~~

dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera

E.E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings

See more Ascender’s Bee’s Knees I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI

Signaling Summer’s End, Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:07:06 +0000

Signaling Summer’s End, Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

So what was she doing in that field among weeds and ice plant?
The yellow and pink blooms spiking around her feet like glory?
Cranking her elbow as surveyors do, to a bored watcher in the distance,
she fanned the air, clouds running low and fast behind her.

Ice Plant in Bloom by W. S. Di Piero

Summer’s last flower’s; pink and yellow.

Speaking of pink and yellow… the detail in Girl with a Parrot, really caught my attention. (nice segue?) To me it was a different style then the rest of the painting… or as if the artist stopped right there. Would it have really looked like this and been sewn (embroidered?) onto the seam of the lapel and even into the ruffle? Is there a special meaning to the parrot? To me it appears as if she is not really looking at the parrot.

Girl with a Parrot; oil on canvas,1744 by Allan Ramsay II

“Since the nineteenth century, the sitter has been called the artist’s niece, but the source of this identification is unknown. As none of Ramsay’s siblings married, she would have to be a relation of his first wife Anne Bayne, who died in 1743, and at present the sitter is considered unknown.

The sophisticated composition and handling in this portrait of an unidentified young woman demonstrate the strengths that accelerated Ramsay’s rise to pre-eminence within the competitive London art world. Here, his sensitive and dignified characterization of an earnest young girl highlights Ramsay’s gift for portraying children with disarming candor and sympathetic understanding.

Ramsay reportedly adopted a venerable Italian technique that was previously unknown in Britain, applying successive layers of transparent glazes over a vermilion underpainting in order to bring greater luminosity and clarity to the flesh. Equally indicative of Ramsay’s Italian education is his strong illumination of the figure, with the pale skin and reflective satin brilliantly lit, while the background and accessories dissolve into a tenebrous gloom.

One of the most striking features of this portrait–the parrot–entered British culture as icons of exoticism in thirteenth-century illuminated manuscripts, parrots retained their exotic aura as late as the 1630s. Ramsay has so meticulously described the bird in the present painting that it is possible to identify it as a White-headed parrot, now known as a Cuban Amazon (Amazona leucocephala), one of the first American parrots brought to Europe. It was valued for unusual intelligence, talkativeness, and obedience, which included a propensity to fly to its owner.

Although most of the exotic birds documented were owned by men (many of whom were devoted pet-owners as well as keen amateur ornithologists), it was only women and children whom portraitists represented as keepers of parrots and other caged birds. The demonstrable tameness of these once wild creatures reflected favorably on the civilizing influence of the sitter–the patient nurturing skills of women, and the maturity and responsibility of children–traits with which men, presumably, preferred not to be associated in their portraiture.

In the present portrait, the parrot is similarly intended to underscore the young woman’s excellence as an agent of domestication. The portrait reinforces the idea of her civilizing influence through the pink roses growing at her left elbow, some of which she has formed into a decorative spray affixed to her gown. Although the flowers would normally have been worn more discreetly, with the blossoms alone protruding from a small bottle of water tucked into her bodice, Ramsay has added a leafy stem in order to enhance the prominence of this important clue to the portrait’s meaning. As a bit of wild nature that the girl has cultivated and embraced to her bosom, the roses provide a metaphor for her relationship with her pet bird.

Contemporary viewers would have “read” the sweeping gesture of the girl’s arm as an indication that she was represented in the act of speaking. Stage actors assumed this position as a preliminary to delivering speeches–extending the arm from the body, with the palm turned up obliquely, the thumb and index finger straightened, and the other fingers slightly curled. Painters, too, frequently employed the gesture, and it appears in at least thirty of Ramsay’s portraits. Often the pointed index finger directs the viewer’s attention to a significant object in a painting (a ship, building, document, or companion), which we are meant to interpret as the subject or object of the sitter’s “speech.”

In this case, the girl is addressing her bird, and we are presumably meant to imagine that the melodious sound of her voice has, like music, tamed the savage beast. Thus, as an additional demonstration of her civilizing power, the girl may be coaxing the bird to mimic her own eloquence. Her earnest expression, deliberate gesture, and understated dress enhance the gravity of the situation and, by presenting deliberate counterpoints to the bird’s awkward pose and garish plumage, lend the painting a moral and quasi-allegorical dimension.

No parrot appears in any other extant portrait by the artist, suggesting that the bird was not a studio prop or pet that he casually inserted into the painting, but a consciously chosen feature–perhaps the property of his sitter, or a specimen borrowed to order from an obliging friend. Moreover, despite the popularity of the tamed-bird theme, Ramsay never repeated it in any of his extant canvases.

The format of the canvas is highly unusual: a half-length turned on its side to accommodate a horizontal composition. This is one of only four of Ramsay’s extant canvases that are wider than they are tall, and in each of the other instances the portrait appears to have been created for a specific architectural space. Without knowing the identity of the sitter, it is fruitless to speculate further on the unusual circumstances that may have occasioned her portrait. But the existence of so many tantalizing clues only adds to the fascination of this enchanting and mysterious work.” Huntington Gardens, Museum and Library

Ramsay gave up painting in about 1770 to concentrate on literary pursuits, his health shattered by an accidental dislocation of the right arm and his second wife’s death in 1782.

Caught In A Fog; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:41:23 +0000

Caught In A Fog; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

as if in a fog of feather-light
goosedown-silvery seed-thoughts
a rusty mind in its autumn
reviewed, renewed
its winged power.

Seedtime by Denise Levertov

Orange Ghost; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

Sitting On The Sidelines, Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:07:40 +0000

The Inner Studio; Oil on Canvas by William Merritt Chase

~~~

People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up.

Ogden Nash

William Merritt Chase became known for a flamboyance that he flaunted in his dress, his manners, and most of all in his studio. At Tenth Street, Chase had moved into Albert Bierstadt’s old studio and had decorated it as an extension of his own art. Chase filled the studio with lavish furniture, decorative objects, stuffed birds, oriental carpets, and exotic musical instruments. By 1895 the cost of maintaining the studio, in addition to his other residences, forced Chase to close it and auction the contents.

(Detail of painting)

I was hoping to find some information on the identity of the female artist in the painting: I gave up.

Instead this:

Often guild rules would forbid women from attaining the various ranks leading to master, so they remained “unofficial”. As with all workshop production, the works produced would be signed by the workshop master, with the signature signifying a level of quality, rather than singular authorship. It is hard to differentiate the elements created by the various artists of any workshop, and until the late Renaissance few works were signed at all.

I was reminded of watching Antique Roadshow in Spokane last night ; featuring this still life by female artist Nellie Knopf in 1925.

“You’ve brought in a painting by Nellie Knopf, and interestingly enough, she’s actually from Chicago. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, and in the summers, up to the early ’20s, she went to Ogunquit, Maine, and studied with an artist there named Charles Woodbury. And then, after about 1923, she actually went out West and began painting mountains and pueblos; and for a woman at that period, that was very rare. She was almost like a pioneer, because keep in mind that Georgia O’Keeffe didn’t go out West until about 1929, so quite a bit later. She also was challenged in a couple of other ways. She was deaf, for one; and secondly, as a single woman, a single woman artist, she had a very hard road to travel. Because women artists, um, at this time, were not supported very well– even the ones that were married. Often they were overshadowed by their husbands if they were married to artists. If they had husbands that weren’t artists, perhaps they had extra support. But she really had to go out on her own and do that.” (full text; appraised by Debra Force of Debra Force Fine Art Inc)

Gender Disparity in MoMA’s Collection: Rays of Hope and Other Considerations – Edward Winkleman

Why are there so few? (Creative women: Visual artists, mathematicians, scientists, musicians) – Davidson Gifted

“In 1990, a U.S. study was conducted on Gender Discrimination in the Artfield. The results are as follows: 50.7% of all visual artists are female and women hold 53.1% of the degrees in art, yet 80% of art faculty are males. Male artists make 68.6% of the total art income, and male artists receive 73% of grants/fellowships. According to the Guerrilla Girls, art museums average 15% women in curated exhibits, and minority women only .003%. On top of that, only 4% of museum acquisitions are of work by women artists (Strawter).” Reclaiming Our Art by Kimberly O’Donogue

Now my fact filled post on anonymous woman in a painting has turned into a rant… Sigh.

Sitting On The Sidelines; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

HotHouse Flower; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:15:58 +0000

HotHouse Flower; Photo. . More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

Orchid-lipped, loose-jointed, purplish, indolent flowers,
with a ripe smell of peaches, like a girl’s breath through lipstick,
delicate and coarse in the weedlap of late summer rivers,
dishevelled, weak-stemmed, common as brambles, as love

Himalayan Balsam by Anne Stevenson

Initially a student of music, Stevenson earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Michigan, where she studied with Donald Hall, who encouraged her to pursue poetry. “If I couldn’t overhear the rhythms and sounds established by the long, varied tradition of English poetry … I would not be able to hear what I myself have to say. Poems that arise only from a shallow layer of adulterated, contemporary language are rootless. They taste to me like the mass-produced vegetables grown in chemicals for supermarkets.”

Stevenson slowly lost her hearing years ago, though her poetry continues to come first from sound. “Although I rarely write in set forms now, poems still come to me as tunes in the head. Words fall into rhythms before they make sense. It often happens that I discover what a poem is about through a process of listening to what its rhythms are telling me.”

“Ever since I can remember, I have been aware of living at what E.M. Forster called ‘a slight angle’ to the universe,” she says. “I have always had to create my own angular environment or perish. But that’s the whole point about borders. It’s the best place from which to be able to see both sides.”

What’s on my desk… Acrylic on Canvas.

Compassion at the Huntington, Photos, Pointillism

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:00:17 +0000

Quan Yin Statue at the Huntington Gardens. More Huntington photos. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

Remembering you, I remember also compassion.
I cannot explain this.
Nor how you live in a teabowl
or in a stone that has spent a long time in a river.

To Spareness by Jane Hirshfield

Japanese Garden at the Huntington. Begun in 1911, this is one of America’s oldest and most mature Japanese gardens. Japanese gardens became the height of fashion in Los Angeles, for those who could afford them. Many were small tea gardens, but in the Los Angeles area, two were built before 1910 that were the size of a large estate. One was by Myron Hunt, Huntington’s own architect. A second was by George T. Marsh, proprietor of the famous tea garden at the 1894 San Francisco exposition. When he returned to Pasadena, he decided to build a commercial tea garden in Pasadena. The effort was extravagant and Marsh spared no expense.

Occupying nine acres on the slopes of a canyon, this is one of America’s oldest, most elaborate, and gracefully matured Japanese gardens. A five-room house, pagodas and lanterns, and many mature plants were moved to the site from a commercial tea garden in Pasadena in 1912. A walled courtyard containing a rock and sand garden and a bonsai exhibition area was added in 1968. The garden boasts several beautiful forms of Japanese red pine, handsome spreading junipers, large cycads, arbors of wisteria, and thirty-foot-high sweet olives.

The koi were quite polite; steaming in two lanes and going opposite directions. The Huntington Japanese Tea Garden on u-Tube; here and here.

Guanyin is the bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists, usually as a female. The name Guanyin is short for Guanshi’yin which means “Observing the Sounds (or Cries) of the World“. She hears the cries of all beings. Quan Yin enjoys a strong resonance with the Christian Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the Tibetan goddess Tara.

In many images She is depicted carrying the pearls of illumination. Often Quan Yin is shown pouring a stream of healing water, the “Water of Life,” from a small vase. With this water devotees and all living things are blessed with physical and spiritual peace.

The Goddess of Mercy is unique among the heavenly hierarchy in that She is so utterly free from pride or vengefulness that She remains reluctant to punish even those to whom a severe lesson might be appropriate. Individuals who could be sentenced to dreadful penance in other systems can attain rebirth and renewal by simply calling upon Her graces with utter and absolute sincerity.

I am sure she will forgive me for leaving a Julie Through The Glass pointillism moo.

The Chinese character for umbrella is 傘 (sǎn) and is a pictograph resembling the modern umbrella in design. It was really toasty the day I went and I suggest bringing your own parasol.

Last Day Of September; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:58:06 +0000

Last Day Of September; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadowless like Silence, listening
To silence

Autumn by Thomas Hood

Copley and Emerson Go To The Dogs; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:45:45 +0000

Lord Western and His Brother by John Singleton Copley. More Huntington Museum photos

~~~

In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Charles Callis Western (Baron Western of Rivenhall) (right) and his brother Shirley Western (left) as painted by John Singleton Copley in 1783. Charles Western sat in the House of Commons for 42 years. Charles and Shirley were both quite small as boys and men, their appearance was that of a modern-day jockey.

John Singleton Copley, the foremost artist in colonial America, was virtually self-taught as a portraitist. By meticulously recording details, he created powerful characterizations of his Boston sitters. After he emigrated to London in 1774, Copley began to specialize in narrative scenes from history and joined the influential artistic institution, the Royal Academy of Art. Copley demonstrated a genius, in both his American and British periods, for rendering surface textures and capturing emotional immediacy.

No reference as to who commissioned the Copley work, has yet been found.

I liked the reaction of the dog to the movement in the boy’s arm. It reminded me of the dog barking at my daughter’s dog on the Half Hearted Kite Flying Day

Silly dog; Mona is blind and deaf and has no idea that the other dog exists. Mona is a Brussels Griffon

Two dogs discover each other at Music in the Park this last summer. (That’s not Mona)

Two dogs reacting the day of the Tiburon Arts Festival. Tiburon has a great assortment of dogs.

Mona in a stack of dogs at Tiburon. None were reacting to each other. I was just hoping none of them would relieve themselves on my Scatterlings© placed near the ground.

A somewhat blurry photo of this bloodhound in Tiburon reacting to my girls and Mona.

Frog Song; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:17:47 +0000

Frog Song; photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

Here is my bouquet, here is a sing
song of all the things you make
me think of, here is oblique
praise for the height and depth
of you and the width too.
Here is my box of new crayons at your feet.

Green as mint jelly, green
as a frog on a lily pad twanging,

Colors passing through us by Marge Piercy

Piercy was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a family deeply affected by the Great Depression. An indifferent student in her early years, Piercy developed a love of books when she came down with rheumatic fever in her mid-childhood and could do little but read. “It taught me that there’s a different world there, that there were all these horizons that were quite different from what I could see,” she said in a 1984 interview.

Piercy’s poetry tends to be highly personal free verse and often addresses the same concern with feminist and social issues. Her work shows commitment to the dream of social change (what she might call, in Judaic terms, tikkun olam, or the repair of the world), rooted in story, the wheel of the Jewish year, and a range of landscapes and settings. (The History of Tikkun Olam)

Sneak Peek; What’s On My Desk

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:44:11 +0000

Sneak Peek; What’s On My Desk, acrylics on canvas, work in progress

~~~

Painting is the pattern of one’s own nervous system being projected on canvas.

Francis Bacon

Wallpaper, using the printmaking technique of woodcut, gained popularity in Renaissance Europe amongst the emerging gentry. The elite of society were accustomed to hanging large tapestries on the walls of their homes, a tradition from the Middle Ages.

Early wallpaper featured scenes similar to those depicted on tapestries, and large sheets of the paper were sometimes hung loose on the walls, in the style of tapestries, and sometimes pasted as today. Prints were very often pasted to walls, instead of being framed and hung, and the largest sizes of prints, which came in several sheets, were probably mainly intended to be pasted to walls

Tapestry, located at Filoli; needlepoint design depicting scenes from the gardens done by the Tuesday Stitchers of the Assistance League of San Mateo County

Filoli tapestry detail

Strawberrying by Asher Brown Durand

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:16:32 +0000

Strawberrying by Asher Brown Durand. 1854; Oil on canvas.

(Speaking of strawberry fields forever…) Strawberrying depicts an American community in peace with nature. The girl picking wild strawberries, farmers tending a field, and grazing cattle have a harmonious relationship with the trees, shrubs and river – natural features that serve as a reminder that this landscape was wilderness in the recent past.

Durand spent summers sketching in the Catskills, Adirondacks, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, making hundreds of drawings and oil sketches that were later incorporated into finished academy pieces which helped to define the Hudson River School.

(I am curious of this figure in the center – walking towards the girl – with a giant heart-shaped strawberry?)

List of Hudson River School artists. While the elements of the paintings are rendered very realistically, many of the actual scenes are the synthesized compositions of multiple scenes or natural images observed by the artists. In gathering the visual data for their paintings, the artists would travel to rather extraordinary and extreme environments, the likes of which would not permit the act of painting. During these expeditions, sketches and memories would be recorded and the paintings would be rendered later, upon the artists’ safe return home.

The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism. As originally used, the term was meant disparagingly, as the work so labeled had gone out of favor when the plein-air Barbizon School had came into vogue among American patrons and collectors.

What’s on my desk this very minute….

Strawberry Fields Forever; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:36:27 +0000

Strawberry Fields Forever; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

Let me take you down, cause Im going to
Strawberry fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
Strawberry fields forever

Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles

Seasonal workers outside of Gilroy. Picking Jobs.

Fruit stand on the way to Half Moon Bay. Find a Pick Your Own Farm near you.

Detail of “Fruit Salad“; acrylics on canvas.

Fruit stand on the way to Gilroy.

Fruit Salad; Acrylics on stretched canvas. Original Sold. Contact to purchase a print. Inspired by artist Stephanie Hilvitz’s (Rodrigvitz Style) oil cloth aprons and designs; her the vibrant colours, the Mexican and folklore influences. Check out Rodrigvitz Style’s Dia de Bloglandia in this month’s Artful Blogging.

Wash your sticky fruity hands.

Genuine oilcloth, the real thing grandma had on her kitchen table was made from cotton duck, canvas or linen that was coated several times with linseed oil to give it a waterproof-ish surface. The fabric could be dyed or printed before the linseed treatment. Genuine oilcloth is biodegradable in a landfill. Make your own.

Strawberry Field was the name of a Salvation Army Children’s Home just around the corner from John Lennon’s childhood home in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool. Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” and McCartney’s “Penny Lane” both shared the theme of nostalgia for their early years in Liverpool.

Strawberry Alarm Clock, a psychedelic rock/pop rock band from Los Angeles, best known for their 1967 hit “Incense and Peppermints” took its name as an homage to ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.

Fruit stand on the way to Santa Cruz.

Fruit stand on the way to Point Reye.

What’s On My Desk right this very minute?

I Woke To An Orange Sun; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:23:52 +0000

I Woke To An Orange Sun; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

The heart is like a cup, or a coffer,
or a cave. It holds the image of the
sun within us. It is a center of illumination
and happiness and wisdom. To dream
of the heart is always to dream of
the importance of love. . .

Dreamer by Primus St. John

Little Robin Redbreast; Dry Pastel

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:07:05 +0000

~~~

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

There Will Come Soft Rains By Sara Teasdale

The imagery in the poem is dreamlike; the idiosyncratic use of the adjective ’shimmering’ in the second line to describe sound rather than light, and the phrase ‘wild plum trees in tremulous white’ makes the image seem ambiguous and hard to imagine, as plum trees are not white (plum tree blossoms are however white, so it seems rather likely that this refers to a blooming plum tree in spring) and ‘tremulous’ suggests a kind of shaking movement which we would not normally associate with trees (probably tremulous is used in a figurative manner here, as for example ‘a tremor of excitement went through the audience’, so it is simply used to describe a feeling associated with the vision of a plum tree in full bloom).

The use of metaphor in the poem to further illustrate the image of the robins wearing ‘their feathery fire’ implies the idea not just of the colour of the feathers but also how warm they keep the birds. The robins are also personified; their birdsong is described as ‘whims’, which contrasts them with the swallows whose appearance, despite the unusual way their sound is described, is far more naturalistic. This draws attention to them and perhaps suggests they are emblematic of something more than birds which have outlived humanity; they are perhaps a symbol of the leaders who have led humanity to its destruction. The poet also places them on a fence rather than a more organic perch, further connecting them with humans rather than the natural world. Some have suggested substituting on a low fence-wire with over a glowing myre to eliminate this connotation.

The poem “There Will Come Soft Rains” from her 1920 collection Flame and Shadow inspired and featured in a famous short story of the same name by Ray Bradbury.

Little Robin Redbreast; Dry Pastel. Purchase a small print.

Hosmer and Sargent on a Saturday; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 06:23:00 +0000

Heartbreakingly cute family touring the Huntington Virginia Steel Scott Galleries of American Art which opened in May.

Dad patiently points out all the things for the children to discover in each piece of art. They are headed towards the back to the Mid to late 19th century marble sculpture room in the distance.

One of the highlights of the installation will be Harriet Hosmer’s monumental marble sculpture, Zenobia in Chains, acquired by The Huntington in late 2007. Considered the artist’s most important work, it was believed lost until a few years ago, when it was discovered in a private collection. The 82-inch-high marble sculpture is on view to the public for the first time in nearly a century.

Independent and strong-willed, Harriet Hosmer defied Victorian expectations for women–marriage and motherhood–and by 1860 had become one of America’s finest sculptors. In Rome from 1852, she stood at the forefront of a famous group of expatriate American women sculptors whom writer Henry James famously described as the “white, marmorean flock.”

Detail of Zenobia in Chains. Hosmer studied anatomy with her father, a physician, at the St Louis Medical College, in Boston until 1852, then went to Rome, where from 1853 to 1860 she was the pupil of the English sculptor John Gibson.

On the left another Hosmer, titled Puck. Created by Hosmer during a period of dire financial crisis, Puck was designed for its marketability as a parlour sculpture. Her plan paid off handsomely: more than thirty replicas of the popular sculpture were sold at $1,000 apiece. The work is a prime example of the “conceit,” or “fancy piece.” Unlike idealized sculptures, which were meant to instruct and ennoble the viewer, conceits were playfully imaginative works designed solely to amuse and delight.

The character of Puck appears in English folklore and in Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, in which he utters the memorable line, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” The mischievous offspring of a young girl and a “hee-fairie,” Puck used his special powers to reward the good and play pranks on the wicked. Holding a beetle in one hand and a chameleon in the other, Hosmer’s bat-winged forest elf sits atop a massive toadstool, the tiny devil’s horns peeking from beneath his hair making it clear he is up to no good.

In the next room is this small painting is one of my favorites in a round frame. I have been curious about this one for years now. To me it seemed like the oddest thing; like a painting out of Angels and Demons. I wanted to find out more.

Sphinx and Chimaera 1916-21 by John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925).

Oil on canvas; a case study designed for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, using subjects from Greek mythology in order to link the museum – a modern day American palace of culture built to resemble and ancient Greek or Roman temple – with the birthplace of western civilization. Classical subjects gave him the opportunity to engage with masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque art which similarly portray the human body in complicated poses and imbued with symbolic meaning.

In myth the Sphinx and Chimaera are evil beasts made up of both human and animal parts. Sargent traveled to Egypt to research subjects for his murals and presumably saw the great Phynx of Giza

Happy Half Hearted Kite Flying Day; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:33:02 +0000

Happy Half Hearted Kite Flying Day; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

Don’t grieve for our kite; not the frayed string
that clings to your ankle, not the collapsed wing.

Separation at Burnt Island by D. Nurkse

They did eventually get the kite to stay up. This is how it turned out.

Saturday and Sunday is the annual Family Day Kite Festival in San Francisco. In 1978 Mayor George Moscone first proclaimed “Family Day” in San Francisco, hosting thousands of professional and amateur kite fliers, renewable energy advocates and sustainability enthusiasts from all over the world: featuring kite-flying, kite-boarding, kite-boating = windpower!

Sunshine On A Stick; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:48:45 +0000

Sunshine On A Stick; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather
And autumn’s best of cheer.

September by Helen Hunt Jackson

Hide and Seek, Photo; I Still Seek You, Acrylics.

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:15:36 +0000

Hide and Seek; Photos. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

Now it is always afternoon. How can I call you
when we have no names? I search
for the clover and violets. There are always enough.
My shadow is always the same length and shaped

with arms and legs. Between us, the distance of field is green
and exact; the sun gleams from its cloudless height—I know
that there is enough time, that there is always enough.
Please. Come to me, remember me: undo this world.

The Sheep Who Fastened the Sky to the Ground by Oni Buchanan

detail; “I Still Seek You”. Medium: Acrylics, Collage on Canvas

Title: I Still Seek You
Medium: Acrylics, Collage on Canvas
12″ x 9″ Stretched Canvas. $200 + Shipping. Purchase.
More Ascender’s Acrylics on this blog.

detail

Welcome The Rain; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:02:08 +0000

Welcome The Rain; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.

Self-Consciousness: Memoirs by John Updike

Some burn areas along Highway 5, on the way to Los Angeles over Labor Day Weekend.

Burn area near Gilroy over the Labor Day Weekend. On Thursday, Southern California heated up under the beginnings of a mini heatwave, but anticipated winds didn’t appear.

Firefighters returning Labor Day weekend from LA. Some fires continue on; another hot and dry day with highs in the 90s and low 100s. Hotshot crews from 14 states are among the 3,500 firefighters working the blaze.

The prolonged drought, is drying up vegetation and fueling a seemingly endless fire that has burned more than 250 square miles of Los Angeles County, could be the start of a fall siege in Southern California. California is in the third year of a drought that has contributed to extreme fire conditions.

Another fleet of firefighters returning over Labor Day Weekend. We saw five separate fleets returning on Highway 5 within six hours of each other.

Even with the drought, there’s plenty of available water to fight most fires, but pilots of firefighting helicopters and tankers fly farther and work harder to fill their buckets. Firefighters can use any available water — from the Pacific Ocean to backyard swimming pools, as well as lakes, ponds and streams. Firefighters are told to be careful to spread out their collection sources so they don’t dry out water holes that farmers and ranchers depend on. They have to go a little farther for a good bucket of water … trying really hard not to impact one guy over another

We saw several mini dust devils near the Grapevine. The Navajo refer to them as chiindii, ghosts or spirits of dead Navajos. If a chindi spins clockwise, it is said to be a good spirit; if it spins counterclockwise, it is said to be a bad spirit.

Visiting The Huntington; I was struck by this detail of a dust devil in a painting titled Halfway-House by David Gilmore Blythe.

Oil on Canvas, 1864. Many of Blythe’s most accomplished paintings offer barbed commentary on the American judicial system; politics; the pretensions of the burgeoning American middle class; and the daily activities of street urchins he encountered in Pittsburgh.

In Half-way House, a sleigh has overturned dumping it’s occupants onto a muddy road in front of the Halfway House Tavern in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He perhaps included the corked bottle in the foreground to suggest why the sleigh driver lost control. Or he may have been distracted reading the Pittsburgh Post. Blythe, a supporter of the Union during the Civil War, disliked the Post for it’s editorial position that the Union should compromise with the Confederacy.

Meanwhile, we in California have our own political drama concerning water rights. Sign reads “Toilet To Your Tap. Why can Stockton and Sacramento dump 200 million gallons of sewage into the Delta, the water source for fish and 20 million people downstream?” Indeed.

Almost laughable. Sit outside this reststop on Highway 5 and enjoy the view of a parched landscape. Caution – irrigation with non-portable water.

Welcome to the sunroom; Fresh Perspective

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:02:05 +0000

Detail of: I Wrote In The Sunroom; Perspective Rendering, Watercolor

~~~

Here you may see one of those white houses with green trim
That are so popular here. Look—I told you!
It is cool and dim inside, but the patio is sunny.
An old woman in gray sits there, fanning herself with a palm leaf fan.
She welcomes us to her patio, and offers us a cooling drink.

The Instruction Manual by John Ashbery

Farmhouses and urban row homes featured a covered porch as a place for the user to sit and relax. With the suburbanization of America, families increasingly used their back patios and gardens for this purpose. However, weather conditions often made patios unusable at times, providing an incentive for families to cover and screen in their patios for privacy and for shelter.

European companies discovered a niche market where customers wanted extra privacy. This meant that blinds and curtains were specially developed to be fitted into the sunroom without damaging the stability of the structure. Another market is for specialised flooring in sunrooms. In earlier sunrooms, floors were often tiled because of the possibility of roof leaks, and cold air entering resulted in the room becoming chilly.

I Wrote In The Sunroom; Perspective Rendering, Watercolor. From the new “Fresh Perspective” collection. 13″x 16″- framed and ready to hang. Sold. My Fresh Perspectives pieces combine years of experience painting perspective renderings with techniques acquired working in other mediums (Acrylics, Watercolor, Colored Pencil).

Understanding Clouds, Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:30:49 +0000

Free Floating Clouds; oil on canvas; by Samuel L Francis 1980

~~~

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

Joni Mitchell

Ok; I didn’t really ‘get’ Free Floating Clouds by Samuel Francis at the Huntington when I visited last week; so wanted to read up on it.

A work of overlapping layers of shimmering colors that measures more than 10 feet tall and 21 feet wide… Free Floating Clouds bridges two facets of Francis’ career—his earlier interest in grid-like structure and his later looser and more gestural style.

Artist Sam Francis is known for making abstract paintings that look to the future. Unlike earlier Abstract Expressionists who grappled with emotions, Francis, who died in 1994, explored perceptions of light, space, movement and growth and celebrated the joy of color in juicy little canvases and vast, mural-size compositions. (LA Times blog)

He was born in San Mateo, California (my hood), and studied botany, medicine and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley; served in the United States Air Force during World War II before being injured in a plane crash. In the hospital for several years, and it was while there that he began to paint. Once out of the hospital he returned to Berkeley, this time to study art.

During the final three decades of his career his style of large scale bright Abstract expressionism was also closely associated with Color field painting. During the last year of his life unable to paint with his right hand after a fall, in a final burst of energy he used his left hand to complete a dazzling series of about 150 small paintings.

Color Field painting is a style of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s. Color Field painting is characterized primarily by large fields of flat, solid color spread across or stained into the canvas; creating areas of unbroken surface and a flat picture plane. The movement places less emphasis on gesture, brushstrokes and action in favour of an overall consistency of form and process. An important distinction that made color field painting different from abstract expression was the paint handling. The most basic fundamental defining technique of painting is application of paint and the color field painters revolutionized the way paint could be effectively applied.

Color Field and related artists

Watching Paint Peel; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:08:04 +0000

Watching Paint Peel; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

Blog maintenance today…

Back To Work; Photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:41:44 +0000

Back To Work; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos

~~~

I work even in the middle of the day,
in the full sunshine,
and I enjoy it like a cicada.
Vincent van Gogh

As you work, the mood grows on you. There are certain images which suddenly get hold of me and I really want to do them. But it’s true to say that the excitement and possibilities are in the working and obviously can only come in the working. (Francis Bacon)

To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth. (Pearl S. Buck)

Your work is to discover your work – and then with all your heart to give yourself to it. (Buddha)

If work if so terrific, why do they have to pay you to do it? (George Carlin)

Work isn’t to make money; you work to justify life. (Marc Chagall)

When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after the first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cold and you warm as you write. (Ernest Hemingway)

There is no way to success in our art but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

My work is a game, a very serious game. (M. C. Escher)

When you work, you fulfill a part of earth’s fondest dream assigned to you when that dream is born. (Kahlil Gibran)

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. (Stephen King)

Work cures everything. (Henri Matisse)

I’m hard at work with four paintings under way; it’s now a matter of finishing them and doing four more and so on. (Claude Monet)

One works because I suppose it is the most interesting thing one knows to do. The days one works are the best days. On the other days one is hurrying through the other things one imagines one has to do to keep one’s life going… (Georgia O’Keeffe)

A man’s life is his work; his work is his life. (Jackson Pollock)

Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. (Rumi)

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; there is where they should be. Now put foundations under them. (Henry David Thoreau)

It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do that makes life blessed. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Au revoir; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:35:36 +0000

Blue Boy; Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

“Au revoir”

A day at the Huntington. Blue Boy (c. 1770), oil painting by Thomas Gainsborough. Perhaps Gainsborough’s most famous work, it is thought to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall, the son of a wealthy hardware merchant, although this was never proved. A historical costume study as well as a portrait: the youth in his 17th-century apparel is regarded as Gainsborough’s homage to Anthony Van Dyck, and in particular is very close to Van Dyck’s portrait of Charles II as a boy.

The painting was in Jonathan Buttall’s possession until he filed for bankruptcy in 1796. It was bought first by the politician John Nesbitt and then, in 1802, by the portrait painter John Hoppner. In about 1809 The Blue Boy entered the collection of the Earl Grosvenor and remained with his descendants until its sale by the second Duke of Westminster to the dealer Joseph Duveen in 1921.

In a move that caused a public outcry in Britain, it was then sold to the American railway pioneer Henry Edwards Huntington for $182,200, a then-record price for any painting. Before its departure to California in 1922, The Blue Boy was briefly put on display at the National Gallery where it was seen by 90,000 people; the Gallery’s director Charles Holmes was moved to scrawl farewell words on the back of the painting: “Au revoir, C.H.”

More photos of the Huntington to follow.

Surfer Crossing? photo

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:45:00 +0000

The last gasp of summer… We are off to Southern California, returning on Tuesday with a camera full of photos to process… a new blog layout to begin… emails and comments to reply to… Leave yours and I reply on Tuesday!

What’s On My Desk

AscenderRisesAbove — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:11:42 +0000

new perspective rendering…

new pastel…

new beading…

a new collage….

Red, Read? Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:38:00 +0000

Red on the Beach to Santa Cruz. Photo. More Ascender’s Photos.

~~~

She carried a basket
full of flames, but whether fire or flowers
with crimson petals shading toward a central gold,
was hard to say—though certainly, it burned,
and the light within it had nowhere else
to go, and so fed on itself, intensified its red
and burning glow, the only color in the scene.
The rest was done in grays, light and shadow
as they played along her dress, across her face,
and through her midnight hair, lively with bees.
At first they seemed just errant bits of shade,
until the humming grew too loud to be denied
as the bees flew in and out, as if choreographed
in a country dance between the fields of sun
and the black tangle of her hair.

The Girl with Bees in Her Hair by Eleanor Wilner

Red flowers in copper bucket at Tiburon

Red lai in front of Pigeon Point on Highway One, returning from Santa Cruz.

Strawberry Fields Forever, returning from Santa Cruz.

~~~

Sometime ago I was inspired by artist Stephanie Hilvitz’s (Rodrigvitz Style) oil cloth aprons and designs; her the vibrant colours, the Mexican and folklore influences. I painted an acrylics on canvas of a sugar skull (Calavera Confectionary) placed over a background to resemble oil cloth for my daughter.

Later, the next fall, Stephanie featured Dia de Bloglandia ; I (and many others) posted my sugar skull in honor of her efforts.

This month Artful Blogging featured Stephanie’s celebration; I was honored to find my sugar skull printed in the publication as well.

Take time to check out Rodrigvitz Style’s Dia de Bloglandia in this month’s Artful Blogging.

This year, she’s doing it again:

“We are happy to be joining with Rebecca to offer you the opportunity to create a shrine to be donated to the Shrine auction to raise monies for the Children of Oaxaca. The shrines that were created last year and the heartfelt stories that were shared seemed to be a perfect fit for those that want to help with Rebecca’s auction this year.

I’ll post more information in September so that you can prepare to open your heARTS …” (Stephanie Hilvitz)

A Feng-Shui Kind-a Day; Photos

AscenderRisesAbove — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:15:57 +0000

A Feng-Shui Kind-a Day; Photos. More Ascender’s Photos.

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Geng/ Yang MetalZi/ Yin Water (= Gui/Yin Water)
Predominant Colors: Metallic and Black

John Mini’s Feng Shui Ceremony for the Tiburon Art Festival on 08.23.09

Set up on day two

My booth; inside out

A lot of sight seers

And happy critters

My daughter calls this puppy “the chick magnet”.

an occasional zombie

exuberant children in general

Discussion on my Fresh Perspectives art

Dusk in Tiburon… 62 displays come down faster then they went up.

I have placed over 100 more photos on my facebook page including the other amazing artists exhibiting (search facebook for “Ascender Rises Above” and request to be added as a friend); also more photos at my fan page (search “fan page Ascender Rises Above”)