Tuesday, November 25, 2008

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

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Tuesday, November 18, 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.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

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.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

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.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

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.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

$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.

Monday, November 3, 2008

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.