blue women

The large panel on the right is now installed in the studio window. It is reverse oil on glass with gold and other metal leaf. This was started in 1996, last worked on in 2000, i am going to finish it. There was an underlying myth, now forgotten, along with a reference to walking on water. What will it look like finished?

"3rd Eye" mixed media on manipulated digital self portrait,

What I did today:
I mounted this 5x5" digital print of this manipulated photo onto a 5x5" panel.


I layered silver leaf, gel medium, gloss medium, and acrylic paint onto the print.
I scraped through the layers.
I added many phthalo acrylic glazes.
I scanned the image into the computer and here it is.



copyright Debbie Clarke
2008
Gloucester MA

$175

Foiled Oils: Self Portraits 2007

this 20x20" self portrait gives me peace:



This is large 40x60"(?), another self portrait. I keep thinking about going back into it and introducing color, as well as, defining the features:


The following image is about the same size as the one above, another self-portrait that carries the same nagging feeling about going back into it:


The media is oil on linen with gold, silver, aluminum and combination leaf. These back-lit self portraits carry a retinal memory of The Revenant painting and drawings by Andrew Wyeth. I saw the work in one of the comprehensive catalogues of his work and have never been able to rid myself of his shadow when doing self portraits.

To meet and then Exceed my Own Expectations

Today I finally loaded some artwork onto my Saatchi Gallery site. This is the beginning. I plan to sell off all of my artwork. One of my marketing plans is to make my name synonymous with my nom de plume: pbsage. Pbsage is a unique identity that consistently appears with my work on the internet. A query of my real name Debbie Clarke hits way too many sites with Clark's, Debbie's, Debra's, Deborah's, many countries. pbsage is synonymous with just me. Debbie Clarke in Gloucester MA.

here's another artwork:



This approximately 18x20, oil on canvas. Completed 2006.
I like this painting alot. It has retinal memory, as well as, word associations. the soup tureen is more important to me than the painting. This painting is one of many that I could do of the soup tureen. The tureen is one unto itself, with it's own story. The tureen was scouped up at a church fair 10 or so years ago. It's ladel appeared with a big red ribbon as a Christmas present from one of my church school students. The tureen was then put to use as a teaching guide for my drawing students. I did 15 or so studies of this and many, many, teaching drawings. There are only a few left.

This painting will be priced at $1300. If someone wants to buy the tureen with the accompanying provenance, along with the painting, the price will be $4000. Why? Because part of my muse's livelihood will be taken from me.

Active Healing for ADHD and other brain developmental disorders

http://www.wickedlocal.com/beverly/archive/x481173251
Magnolia's Active Healing Center
http://www.activehealing.org

Active Healing is near my studio. Everyday that I have worked in my Lexington Avenue studio during the past 10 years I have seen the results of this work. They are patient, gentle, firm. The children, teens and the adults that work with them are mighty forces of joy. I have seen the autistic children learn to walk down the street and respond to external stimula, enabling children to overcome fears of intersections and cracks in the sidewalk, they learn to cross streets, look people in the eye, improve coordination, manage outbursts, become coordinated and so many other tactile, social issues.

One gentle child that placed her hand to my window was named Patience. She was radiant in her quietude.

PthaloBlue: when we lived on the river

oil and metal leaf on canvas. 48x54" (approx)
copyright 2007
debbie clarke
gloucester ma

the painting was finished mid-stride.
one moment the brush was loaded with red
the next moment the brush stopped
at the halfway point
between
it
and
me
the painting sounded
stop

today i noticed the dried red brush stuck to it's puddle of paint.
this painting is finished.
it can now leave my studio.
it only needs a wall
somewhere.

music during the painting cycle: Euphoria "lost on a river"

bananas, a dead rat, perfume and numbers

the store still carries the underlying musk of dead rat. yuck. two days working (yesterday and today) and my head is full of the stench. it's not real strong anymore, yet the scent becomes cumulative. it is a too strong attar, as civet and hungarian rose (while the best for long term under notes in perfumes) are a sickening aroma in pure attar. we keep burning incense heavy in sandalwood. it is making the musk darker. tried lavendar, it bites the nose, lemon too sweet, frankencense, too heady.

any ideas? i kept the door open today until it got too chill. my friend Sue suggested cooking tomato soup in the space.

and my head is full of pages and pages and pages of numbers. inventory time. the gray matter still chunks away at numbers like the pro i used to be when determining co-pays during my years as an insurance underwriter.

s

Bananas

We started smelling the musk two weeks ago. Last week we confirmed the musk was the rotting carcass of a rat caught between the floorboards. Ozium, Incense, closing vents helped, but did not eliminate the scent. The rats moved from the fire zone of the Lorraine Apartments to find housing in the basement grooves of the downhill Main Street stores.

When I opened the store yesterday the first thing that hit me was the underlying musk. It is not as bad as last week and the vintage clothes have not retained the scent. The scent, however, has remained in my head. yuck.

It is warm today. I will open the door to catch the fresh air. I hope the stench leaves soon, it gives me a headache.

Red Studio

This time last year, everything I painted was red. There aren't many choices when it comes to painting, paintings are either warm or cool or neutral. and that is all there is. Anything else is a garbage pizza.

The Beacon Marine

JANUARY 2008

The Bookstore of Gloucester at 61 Main Street, Gloucester MA features Gloucester artist Debbie Clarke's "Summer views 2007", oil studies on canvas. Debbie's work is in many local collections, including The Cape Ann Historical Museum's "Fisheries" collection.

For additional info about the artwork email to elli01930@yahoo.com

i was going to draw

eb and meg went for the christmas tree. the patriots were on and ellen needed the Direct TV reset. i was hero. the girls were heroes. the patriots won. it was the twenty third of december.

Blogging on Blogspot

I have tweaked the site a bit. Working this site is a clumsy experience.
The dashboard should be user friendly, but it is not as friendly as lj. The blogger community here is hard to find. Links time out after leading one down many, many links trying to get something accomplished. I am jumping all over the place trying to publish this damn thing. Trying to connect all of the dots. One part of this site wants more personal info. The link doesn't work. Well, technically it starts to work, but pings out flat. Ugh. Channel? Create a channel to track my stuff. Then it's all gobbledy gook. It should just be straight forward pop-up window, after all, google has all of the source material. I will have to come back another day. For now, something is up.

My brilliant idea of the day, as I am trying like mad to get myself out there in the electronic world:

There should be something on the web that is like a business card where one can give all of their personal electronic blab (no, not your ss#, your mother's maiden name) i mean the farflung electronic blips. i don't know about you, but my business card has all kinds of crap that I print out on an as needed basis with a variety of these: my email, my studio address, my cell phone, my photobucket address, my lj account, my home address, my gallery website, my youtube address, my banana's number. I know that homepages and webpages can contain all of these things. The universal search engines do not pick up and link all of these details. Some sort of electronic info card, in a data base somewhere, with the pertinent detail links; would go a long, long, way to help folk connect, find the peeps they want to find.

If I was really brilliant and had the know how I would make a site on the web for just this purpose. Maybe I will make a blog for just such a thing and include a websearch tool.

hmmm...

If you take this idea and get there before me and make a truck load of money with this idea, all I ask is that you at least consider me with a healthy gratuity.

well, maybe i will get there before you.

haskell st

here's another short shot.
the truck's driver's side upper ball jointsbroke yesterday. they were just replaced in september. ugh. david will take care of this on monday.

since i can't get to the studio, i make my art with whatever is at hand.

rainbow over rocky neck

david and i have been collaborating on videos. he composes the music, and in this case, the video. i am the video 'assit' on this one. i should be credited as the expert on this one, and as the expert i say: spell check, spell check, spell check.

i like the music.

egg glue

what i did today.

Today is my birthday and the moon is 19 days old. on the day of my birth, it was a 22 day old moon. 2 + 2 is 4. a cardinal number. the four square. a compass point with true north. east, west, north, south, all in one. a cross road figure. a blues singer with a guitar case supposedly sold his soul to the devil at the crossroad. and once upon a time i read that those with no souls in condition to ascend to heaven were buried nameless at the crossroad. turn the four square forty five degrees and it is the spokes of the wheel, the roman army coming to town, the jackboots trampeling the fields of Poland, the sanskrit wheel of fortune, the wheel of change, a captain's wheel. the captain of this ship needs to decide which way the wind blows, then chart an appropriate course.

Redundant to my journal entry 11/20/2007

i've been going to the studio on a regular, irregular basis, trying to determine when i might be able to work. the studio doesn't feel right. i need to move a lot of stuff and get rid of some more. the work tables are cluttered, these are the first things to clear. some personal items need to come here. what will i do with the sewing machine? it works. in it's console it is heavy. out of the console it is getting gritty. the console is now covered in paint. a decision for another day.

my fingers are itching and the deltoid is aching. the arm needs to stretch. the electricity needs to flow. i need to work. on what? no great ideas.

just start somewhere.

caught an odd glimpse of myself in a crowded mirror. grabbed a canvas, a tube of indian red, a little thinner, a good brush and began. it is an oil drawing in red paint. a bit lyrical. finished it yesterday afternoon. maybe i will just go through my supply of canvas and just use up the tube of red doing these drawings in paint.

kasha asked me about my painting yesterday. my reply: well, i am going to the studio. i have no great ideas, nothing earth shaking to tell the world.

i'm just staying in shape. drawing is a start. one thing will lead to the next. this is the way i usually slip back in to the winter studio work, my most productive time.

a small show for january at the bookstore. will need to strap up the paintings.fred has offered me some wall space for the holidays. will check this out.

today i go to marblehead to pick up the prints of Mait. darryl will stretch them for me.very good. finished on time. larry returns from St. Barth's on the 20th. yes. it will feel like a bonus deposit to my account because i kept forgetting there are funds out there for me. very good.

the art supply will close for good on Saturday. Darryl told me to go in on friday morning and see if there is stuff that i want. then he will sell off everything else. he will continue to stretch canvas for a few of us, cut some mats, strap up our work, from his home. 32 years in business, and no more art supply on the cape. now we will have to go Beverly for our supplies.ChrisLee DarRand was Ben Epstein's paint and color shop when i was a kid. the brushes, inks and colors were magic. the nib boxes all neatly arranged with bright shiny nibs. darryl will give these boxes to me. i rarely do pen and ink, but who knows. maybe the wooden boxes with little compartments and hinged glass covers will be a magic inspiration. a way to honor this journey of a life in art.

other people's shoes "Steve Madden" copyright '07 debbie clarke

A very quick oil study of some shoes worn by somebody else. It's not easy getting the heels to sit on the plane. The tension between the surface and the ground excites me, as well as, the speed of the stroke.

Another blade

my kingdom for a sharp blade.

Ebony Pencil

zen and the art of ebony pencil sharpening.