My Day at The Cape Ann Museum

last Saturday and Sunday I spent the afternoons demonstrating and chatting about art.  my daughter Elizabeth Bollenberg came to the Sunday event and took some great pictures!  the set up was on the third floor of The Cape Ann Museum  where "The Rule of Four" exhibit is on view through May 2012.  I'm working in front of four of the Species paintings that I created for the museum in 1995.  There are Nell Blaine drawings on the wall behind me, and Lynn Swigart's photographs are glimpsed in the corner.

It was fun greeting folk, the old gray matter kept firing, amazing me at the accumulated knowledge that I was eager to share.  The most difficult/exciting part of the demonstrations was introducing folk to concept of change that is inherent in my process and final product.  Many folk wanted to know how I knew when a work is finished, since I have no preconceived idea of what the finished work will look like.  All I could say is, I just know.  There's an inner sense of knowing, all of the dynamics of the drawing work, the tension is just right, and I just know.  Some work happens fast, and other work happens over time.

best,

deb

as always, comments, questions are welcomed.  now, it is time for me to put my studio back together so that the work can continue.  

"Winter Flounder" aka "Flounda"

"Winter Flounder" was created in 1995 for The Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester. The painting is reverse glass with oil and metal foil (aka verre eglomise) with a mixed media canvas support. It is one of 7 paintings on permant exhibition at the entrance to the museum's "Maritime Collection". size 24x36" copyright debbie clarke, magnolia ma 1995.

Gloucester photographer Mike Lafferty took some great pics for the museum and provided me with images. The zoom level really shows off the brush strokes and leaf poking through the layers.

The reference to "Flounda" is to my friend of blessed memory Anthony Orlando. He was an aspiring/very talented cartoonist and artist. The last time I saw him he was 20 years old and battling leukemia. May he rest in peace. most of my work has underlying stories to people, events and seasons of my life. this is just one.

"The Species" permanent collection of The Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester MA

copyright 1995debbie clarkegloucester ma
This is the view from the second floor elevator. to the right is the entry to the Maritime Exhibits. to the left is the stairway to the 3rd floor with the special exhibitions, the contemporary collection. To the left is an overview into the Graham Gund designed atrium, with Walker Hancock, George Demetrios and Charles Manship. The Walker Hancock basketball players are on the ground level. The model would become an Essex cop and my youngest sister's paramour for a few years. My drawing teacher Andy McMillan studied with Demetrios and his wife Virginia Lee Burton. Manship designed the gold statue at Rockefeller Center. The Folly Cove Designers are displayed in the Auditorium. My grandmother made me a shirtwaist circle dress from those fabrics. I wore the dress in the forth and fifth grade. A Max Kuehne silver gilded desk is in an alcove at the top of the stairs. and The next big painting is of five little girls dancing in a field. American Impressionst 1908. In 2003 I sat with one of these girls, Mrs. R, when Mrs. R. was 98 years old. I was her companion for a few hot summer weeks. We sat on her porch and watched the sea. she said to me "Ah, there she is Beauty! and that is Maize"
(I think i am the first woman artist entered into the fairly new contemporary collection. Sharon Worley was the curator that asked me if I would provide visuals for a rather dry show about scientific side of the industry. Nubar Alexanian's b&w photos provided other visuals. The museum could not secure the use of photos of the individual species. They asked for illustrations: I gave them these fish.
oh, and downstairs in the Captain's house is that 'other painter of light' Fitz Henry Lane. This beautiful little museum holds the largest collection of Lane's paintings. I can see the 'Stone Jug' from here. my mother lived over there before Urban Renewal took all of Pugh Court and left the artist's studio standing.
This is the second referral from the museum in 3 months. Very interesting. I must go to the museum soon and take a look at my work.
(secretly i call this series 'bait' with gladness and humor. I have been commissioned by a private collector to do 'fish' painting. They have admired this work at the museum for years and have decided they would like to own one.)