Sockeye (work in progress)

Sockeye Salmon, oil and foil on reverse glass

the big movements are down, now to refine the details of the frenzied run to spawn.

the glass is leaning against my refrigerator door. the glass is so hard to photo. like the bowl on the floor providing a sense of scale.

SOLD! "Hake" oil on reverse glass with metal leaf

Yes! Sold this painting last week. This photo was taken when the painting was first started, I need to get a final photo. It is extremely dimensional, and is highly mirrored. It is now owned by the folks that have been collecting my work since the 80's. They call their gallery wall the "Debbie Clarke Museum". This is the first glass piece that they have purchased. They are also looking at the new foil paintings for their next addition, which will be within the next few years.

Twinned and Twined

Vincent Ferrini Project

Here's the current progress. Have introduced the silver mirror, refined some of the shapes. Will keep working both sides. It will be backed with thalo green light and gold leaf. I work everything out on the surface. I rarely use preliminary drawings, but, I do use reference material.

Vincent would not look at my unfinished work, whether in words or visuals.

He admonished: the poem comes fully realized, or it is not a poem.

ahem.

I try to leave each day's work 'fully realized', whole in that moment between action and inaction.

St. Peter's Windows continue

Today I noticed that this warehouse is being re-habbed, or overhauled. There is a dumpster outside these three windows. The windows are getting broken. The dumpster is filling. There is a bus parked outside one of the bay doors. The school bus looks as if it is someone's home. I think this warehouse used to be known as the FBI Bldg. Duh, as a kid I always wondered why our Federal Bureau was in Gloucester. Duh, it was a family logo. I think it was Frontiero Bros. Inc.

UP-DATED: Thank you Joey! This is the former GMF building, next door to the FBI building.



I'm just a Gloucester girl with lots of memory and the desire to document my soujourn here.

I want to produce paintings based on these photos in reverse glass with gold and silver leaf.

I am in need of windows to paint on.

Ferrini, beginning

I've had images stuck in my head of the first time I met Vincent Ferrini, almost 30 years ago at a party in East Gloucester. Two white hands came towards my head followed by a blurry white face with the words 'moon face', then a laugh and he disappeared into the dark. This artwork is the beginning of my attempt to document the various intereactions I had with him.

The painting is an 18x24" piece of glass, drawn on the reverse with white china marker and a Sharpie, then layered with egg glue and silver leaf. The egg glue keeps the silver from turning into a mirror. A mirrored layer will be applied after color is introduced and the shapes are refined.

I received an email yesterday that there is grant money available for 6 artists to do public art works based on Vincent's and/or other Cape Ann poets' writing. One must be a member of SeArts to apply. My work is not based on his writing, it is a visual response to his physical 'i am everything' .

I am not a member of SeArts (tight budget: $45 is food and gas for a few days! ouch!), so I will I not apply for the grant.

I will make the work.

Other images:

Vincent driving his red car to Magnolia (I often found him in front of me when I went to my studio).

Vincent battling dry weeds in a little weedy patch in downtown Gloucester (it no longer exists).

The clearest visions: his hands, hat, sunglasses and a jagged little mouth which he held kind of straight and tense when he spoke.

the art and artist are one

"Spoons"
this is the reverse of a mirror. i carved through the coating to reveal the metal, then painted with oil. reflection superimposed in photo.

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?