Jim Dine Hot Dreams at PACEWILDENSTEIN

It takes a lot of work to make 52 Books!

Waxed Mirror Drawing

The Waxed Mirror

wax, bevelled mirror, gold leaf, silver leaf, pigment, light

This mirror was completed three or four years ago. It is never really finished and it is always finished in its light changes effected by, the atmosphere, the viewer, the surroundings. each time i photograph it a new work appears that will only ever exist as a digital memory. and this one is quite painterly.

copyright debbie clarke 2008, gloucester ma

Katy 2008

"Katy 2008"

10x10" oil and composition leaf on canvas

copyright debbie clarke 2008

gloucester ma

Wendy 2008

"Wendy 2008"

8x10" oil and combination leaf on linen

copyright 2008 debbie clarke

gloucester ma

Nina 2008

"Nina 2008"

8x8" oil and combination leaf on canvas

copyright 2008 debbie clarke

gloucester ma

David 2008

"David 2008"

8x8" oil and combination leaf on canvas

copyright 2008 debbie clarke

gloucester ma

Linda 2008

"Linda 2008"
8x8" oil and combination leaf on canvas
copyright 2008 debbie clarke
gloucester ma

Carolyn 2008

"Carolyn 2008"

10x10" oil and combination leaf on canvas

copyright debbie clarke 2008

gloucester ma

Karen 2008

"Karen 2008"

8x8" oil and combination leaf on canvas

copyright debbie clarke 2008

gloucester ma

Holly 2008

"Holly 2008"

10x10" oil and combination leaf on canvas

copyright debbie clarke 2008

gloucester ma

Natasha 2008

"Natasha 2008"

8x10" oil and combination leaf on linen

copyright debbie clarke 2008

gloucester ma

Emily 2008

"Emily 2008"

8x8" oil and combination leaf on canvas

copyright 2008 debbie clarke

gloucester ma

Domenique 2008

"Domenique 2008"

8x8" comination leaf on oil on canvas

copyright debbie clarke 2008

Gloucester MA

Katherine 2008

"Katherine 2008"

10x12" combination leaf and oil on linen

copyright debbie clarke

gloucester ma 2008

Stephanie 2008

"Stephanie 2008" 8x10"
incised drawing in oil and combination leaf on linen
copyright debbie clarke
gloucester ma 2008

in this series of small gilded panels i am drawing from the memory of faces stored somewhere in my brain as a visual memory. i do not know the names of the faces i am drawing, when i draw these images. the names come to me slowly, then all-at-once. aha! this is Stephanie. the panels are small, about life size.

Hello. I cut my hair today.

Sometimes when I try to document my artwork, I find my own reflection. and, in this case, a whole new frame of reference and another artwork.

Good Questions!

My friend Joey from the fabulous GoodMorningGloucester blog asks:

Is it the process of creating that gives you pleasure and satisfaction and leaves you craving more? That insatiable desire to continue to produce something that has meaning to you and if it has meaning to others all the better?

Yes and no.
I produce art out of a nagging, an inner tug that sets me pacing. Sometimes there is a vague inner image, usually there is just this tug, a restless state of something's desire to be brought into creation. I am just the humbled, trained vessel that the art comes through.

When I am working, there are the materials, the process, and an inner 'this, this, this...not this, not this, not this.' I work until there is no more 'not this' and there is only the silence of 'THIS'. Then I stop and move on.

I have been painting for over 42 years. A lot of my art comes out of the discipline of an 'art habit'. I rarely have 'great ideas' for art, but frequently I find that just by practicing my craft, getting out of the way so the art can come through, will result in a successful work of art.

She was born in a dirt floor hut in the Kiamichi Hills

Nana. 1/2 Choctaw, 1/8 Cherokee
I have traced her family back to a mention in the Chronicles of Oklahoma where our grandfathers and grandmothers and grand uncles and grand aunts are found established at a fork in the river.
Sent to the Wheelock School for Orphaned Indian Children, she assimilated.
Later she would marry an Indian Affairs' man raised in Greenwich Village, favored with the services of St. Lukes in the Field, under the direction of "Father" Schleuter, after the death of my grandfather's father.
When I was 19 I witnessed her tears as she realized she no longer could speak the language of her birth.

She would be 102 if she were alive today. She lay to rest the first morning Clinton became The President Elect.

Uncle Steve said she made no big deal that Clinton was from her home state, she voted Republican. She once told me that she always voted as the men directed, 'they must know more about these things than I do.'

sometimes I think she chose to leave this world just to get away from the men, and that when she went into her secret voting booth she voted for Clinton as an act of self-determination and an up-yours, finally voting for her choice.

who knows

It was not a smile that I saw on the corpse, it was a defiant grimace.

good for you Nana! no more false smiles.

may our names bring joy to our ancesters.

$200 art

My friend Tom had a show last month and sold a lot of work, small drawings reminding me of cherries: one cherry, two cherry, four cherry. if not fruit, fruit like. very well executed. overheard: "the presentation is excellent" "which one did you buy" "this is mine, i call it the asshole" "that gives new meaning to freudian slips" "hell, that gives new meaning to the show" and i looked around.

yup, cherry red twists.

so, he made a few thousand, and this will get him through the winter.

just before i left
and
re-iterated to me
over and over

that is what you should do. you should put up a show, $200 artworks.

i could. i will close with a $250 artwork. i have a lot of these 'drawings'. "they seem to only make sense to me" i told Susan. 'maybe this is not my market. people say: your glasswork. so i make smaller glasswork, no sale. people say: more gold, so i do more gold, no sale. people say: harbor scenes, so i do the harbor, no sale. people say: have a show, i have a show, no sale. people say: to expensive, not big enough, not this, not that and i say: the Hell with it and just do what i want. after all, if i'm not going to get the high of the sale, at least i will have some fun.'

'

will exchange studio visits with Susan Erony soon. it will good to have fresh eyes on my work.

portfolio returned from another gallery. no note.

still waiting to hear from New York.

need to print up new portfolios, will mail 10 out before my 55th birthday on the 29th.

still in the boat, going with the stream,
enjoying the view.

as always, do whatever it is that gives you, and perhaps a few others some joy.

de b.

same painting with/without flash

oil and metal leaf on reverse and front of greenhouse glass panel. vacuum sealed with tar and aluminum liner. i've been trying to separate the liner, but the tar is stuck fast to the glass sandwich edges. i rarely leave my work in such an abstract state, but, this time i am. it is a heavy 47x30" piece of glass. the work can be framed or mounted directly to the wall with heavy mirror clips or brackets.

there might be fish...maybe not, then again, maybe

once again, whatever gives you and maybe a few others some joy, do it.

deb.

Her Shape Too (23k gold leaf and chalk on panel)

just finished. 12x12" panel
under 2 light sources, without flash:



with flash:

Composition Leaf Sculptured drawing (her shape present state)

This is the present state of the drawing known as "her shape". The canvas is resized 22x22". This jpeg taken under natural light and a long exposure. The values are close in pink and gold hues.

same work under flash reveals the subtle modelling of the underlayers and the burnishing tool marks.

detail, raised the contrast and brightness to reveal yet another view of the ever-changing surface. these foil works seem to continually change as the light plays upon the surface. sometimes sculptural, sometimes flat, sometimes blindingly bright.





and one more to show the everchanging light and surface. the painting goes from gold to pink to green, to blue, it all depends on the surroundings.

23K highlight is all that is needed before signature.


as always,
continue to do that which gives you and others some joy.
deb.

blogs i follow and if you are reading me...

i have just discovered the blogs i am following link. now, i just might be able to stay up-to-date with folk without having to jump all over the place. i know, i can use my bookmarks and other links, but it is so much easier having it all in one place. this is a feature that i really like. maybe i will start writing and following more. it brings 'community', something i have been missing here, but have always appreciated about livejournal (9 years writing over there). the first blog i have added is Kathleen Valentine's www.parlezmoiblog.blogspot.com. we have been internet 'friends' for 10 years or more. amazing. she is an accomplished writer, designer and knitter extraordinaire.

anyway, if you have stopped by, please say hi and tell me a bit about why you are here, and if there is anything you would like me to post about, well, just let me know.

as always,
do what gives you and maybe a few others some joy in this bright, sometimes dreary world.
deb.

EB[s 25th Birthday. Cambridge 2008

retinal memory and seeing Reubens again
we had a fun time touring the highlights of the harvard three lots of little gilded bronze buddha's to delight these eyes klimt and the saturated canvas jaspar johns 'dutch wife' did not excite me as much as it did in the savarin can days of discovery redacted to david: it didn't excite me. the surface reminded me of a group jerk off in carefully measured spews. this morning i crack myself up. dutch wife, glory hole, body pillow, spew...hehehehehe i got it right yesterday i could not remember, kept telling, redacting the painting, it's a, what do you call it? it tells a story...? a literar? no, narrative, YES! and thank you eb for filling in the blank and this morning i tell myself i need more intellectual stimulation meatier conversations living lightly on the surface and only diving down deep in paint time and yesterday i showed eb the reubens, three panels. he is my favorite a better draughtsman than michelangelo have you ever seen the displaced sizes and drives of some of those figures on the sistine's ceiling? and yesterday i said: the paint is so thin my memory of thirty years is of juicier surfaces it is the thin layers which allow a painting on linen to survive for centuries cezanne was thin van gogh surface not as fat as remembered and his canvas of acid green now under glass. could not smell the man i smelled at23 when my eyes were bright and i thought i danced with those guys an afternoon lament to eb my surfaces are just crusty and dense and why because i keep changing my mind oh there were the florentines, the venetians, and the siennese panels side-by-side i could tell the different schools the coloration and how many layers of egg tempera, many many, and here painted upon the leaf by a lesser painter than botticelli re-telling the humours of spring

EB's 25th Birthday yesterday! with left over candles from a b'day long ago

PWA: Emily Sinagra's "Dory Project" at the Intershell cement bldg.

Emily's dad wrote a story The Wharf Rat's Tale. Emily received a Searts grant under the Partner with an Artist program. The kids transformed the cement block building into a graffiti filled building with images, words of the present, past and future. what will they take from yesterday and today that they will find in their 'dory' when they set off from gloucester into their future?

oh, and debbie clarke artwork provided some visuals to the story installation. the kids took off with the 'reflective' stuff and even painted on the windows (inspired, i trust, by my glass work).

fun was had by one and all, but i had to miss the party. i was working girl down at banana's the day and night of the event.

Work in Progress: Madame B. stage 2 and 3

Above is stage 2. the canvas is 30x32, mixed media with aluminum leaf, oil, egg tempera, chalk. this has been in the works for 2 years. I pulled it from the racks a month ago and started to rework it. Below is stage 3, as of yesterday afternoon. The values are very close, so i had to up the contrast and intensity, so that it would photograph. The work needs to be removed from the stretchers and re-stretched or placed on a board. The painting has been sanded and re-colored, the drawing refined. I am 'in-between' looking within, trying to determine if gold should be introduced.

My posts will continue to be intermittent. No internet at home, trying to live within a very tight budget. Until the next time the signal gods grant me some air time, dream some, write some, look some, paint or doodle or google or whatever fills you with joy, do it.

deb.

drawing: cripple cove boats

drawing: 'cripple cove boats' 9x18"

copyright debbie clarke, gloucester ma 2008

egg tempera and metal gild on distressed linen

work in progress: drawing for 'her shape too'

drawing for 'her shape' 12x12"
copyright debbie clarke gloucester ma 2008
sanford sharpie and dale & rowney egg tempera on panel

Work in Progress: Her shape

"her shape" 30x30"
copyright debbie clarke gloucester ma 2008
m/m: oil, chalk, foil, egg glue on canvas to be applied to panel.

Little Mako in the foreground

what goes on inside the white tent on the dock? that is the dock, right? and the pier is fixed?

and what is the name of the cobalt blue boat that ties up just beyond the Grand Isle? it never stays in port long and when i finally had my camera for a pic, off it went. what does it fish?

Last night I said: Hey Look!

to which David said: Capt Joe isn't having a carnival. It's the reflection of the harbor lights on the truck!

The Trapper John, signed

It must be done; I signed it yesterday and put the painting in the stacks.
"The Trapper John" 30x32"
copyright debbie clarke 2008
egg tempera, chalk and metal leaf on canvas.

portfolio selection: drawing, 10x10"

towards the budder room

one of my high school friends had lived in Nepal, family attached to the embassy. one of the rooms in her home was dominated by a twenty foot budda. she always referred to it as the budd"ah" room. i thought she meant butter. we sat for long periods caught between the feet of the budd"ah" and the sands of the essex river bay.

June said: You gotta see this artist's house!

it is so inspiring!

i replied.

and i should have shown them that one.
and elizabeth said i should hang that one.

David said: Why didn't you show them this one?

...oh, he means the one on the right.

Progress Report: New Work, 1st and 2nd light

"Jahna's Chicken" 10x10"
egg tempera and silver leaf on panel
copyright debbie clarke 2008

"Elizabeth's Cardinal" 10x10"
egg tempera and silver leaf on panel
copyright debbie clarke 2008

Progress Report: The Trapper John and The Dog & I drawing

This drawing is done. needs to be sealed. then the final light will be applied. stay tuned.
"Trapper John and The Dog & I" 30x32" copyright debbie clarke 2008, gloucester ma. chalk, aluminum leaf, wax, sharpie on canvas.

oh,

and
I must send off thank you notes.
will do.

fitting all of the pieces together

i'm re-doing my portfolio, smaller images, more reference information such as:
where is the work now?
year, media
consistent titles on all portfolios
sending a copy to update my files at the museum and any galleries that used to show my work.
will send the up-dated version to new york

wow.
pats self on back.

art marketing 101

here are some descriptive words about painting that i found in the Gallery Guide inre:gestural abstraction

the older generation: 'angst ridden'
'crusty surfaces and tortured brushwork'

the young painter: 'thoroughly joyful'
'a spirit of improvisation and spontaneity.'

the shoes that flew to ny, er...took the trains

KAT and Eye on W25th Street

we took in a lot of work straight out of the marketing machine. the work looks pretty. lots of technical expertise with exuberance. painting after painting, show after show of artists doing the same painting over and over again. even when there was lots of color, the overall 'show' turned bland before my eyes. disappointed. i wanted 'more of it', but saw no it. i kept thinking: 'slick and big, but, are they having any fun?'

KAT and I had a lot of fun during the whirlind of my 24 hours in NY. we talked art constantly from media to marketing to the 'it'. you gotta have the 'it' to be the 'it' girl. but you gotta have a bit more than 'it', you gotta have some grit, some determination, some stick to purpose, some artistic fortitude and endurance to keep making art after the 'it' has lost some of its shine.

i walked alot in my orange nike slippers and i got no blisters this time.
the 7 1/2 train ride home was the most exhausting part of the trip. oh, and The Gallery was closed, but i didn't know it until after i rang the bell, but they invited me in for a preview of the emerging talents they are hanging for their season opener. i was very quiet and looked around, then left. oh, and i left my book.

i went to the Guggenheim and saw Louise B's work. got vertigo at the top. and i love the Rheinhardt Black painting just the way it was. they should never have tried to restore it. as in fabric such as silk, it is in art, the slubs and nubs are inherent to the material.

i think i'll put a note on the back of my work: keep your hands off it!

oh, and i took a 50' taxi ride to the Guggenheim. momentarily disoriented i jumped in a cab and asked him to take me. he didn't turn on the meter and drove 50' to the curb. it was right there hidden behind the tree i was walking by. 'here you are.' he said to me. i started laughing so hard, i said how much? he waved his hand. he was laughing. i said 'let me at least buy you a cup of coffee.' so i took some folded ones and handed them to him. the last i saw of the cabbie he waved and laughed then shook his head and said 'I love you!'. good-bye. i hope i gave him enough ones for a cup of joe.

keep thinking about LB's work with a warning shot: if you got any daddy issues, you better get over them, or you will still be dealing with them, working it out out when you are 97.