New work

summer plateau

To let be or not to let be, that is the question. 

One of the more challenging parts of the creative process is to know when a piece is finished.  When I'm not sure if a work is done, I like to prop it up on my art desk and let it marinate.  Usually I know within a few days if a composition needs to be changed or if the piece just needs to be signed.

I went through this process three times with my latest work, summer plateau.  I'm not sure why some pieces are easier to finish than others, maybe it's attributed to hormones, the moon cycle, divine intervention, sheer luck, or all of the above.

On a few occasions, my work has sat for several weeks/months, and then I decide to paint over the entire thing.  I've painted over a piece before that I spent 40+ hours on.  My husband considered it a travesty, but I still have no remorse.  If I'm not emotionally connected to a piece, then it doesn't have any value to me.  The canvas itself actually becomes more valuable to me.

another recent work, just beyond the trees

The artistic journey is a beautiful thing, but one that can often be laborious.  Many folks unfortunately equate talent with ease.  They think,  If I was a naturally gifted artist, then this would come easily to me.  During my time as an art teacher, I regularly had students who wanted to give up on a project too quickly.  But the value of the creative experience does not solely come from ability.  Self-discipline, fortitude, and patience are also key factors in an artist's success, as well as a bit of inspiration and luck.

. . .  all things that I'm challenged by daily.  

Young Picassos all around us

Marla Olmstead.  Painting on the right: Dory, 36 x 48 inches, painted at age 5 (2005).  [image sources: map, marlaolmstead.com]

Kids love art.  Walk into any preschool class, and you'll find children coloring, making a collage, or fingerpainting.  When I was an elementary art specialist for a year in the public school district, I had the privilege of teaching the fundamentals of art to primary students.  Even when there was only copy paper and #2 yellow pencils available at a school, children were excited to learn something new with art.

The younger kids, in particular, were much more uninhibited about diving into an art project. They didn't worry about making "mistakes," so their works were more spontaneous.  It's this innocent, child-like approach that many famous artists have strived for in their professional career.

Akiane Kramarik, Planted Eyes, 36 x 48 in., painted at age 8 (2003). [image source: artakiane.com]

Art is a learned skill, but some children have artistic abilities that come naturally. The three young artists whose works are showcased here are undoubtedly all very gifted children.  Akiane Kramarik was only eight years-old when she painted this large portrait of an African woman.  It was her first oil painting, and she finished it within 15 hours, which includes the preliminary drawing.

In the past couple of weeks, 4 year-old Aelita Andre from Australia has been spotlighted in the media. Her large scale works are currently showing in a Manhattan gallery and selling for tens of thousands of dollars.   

Aelita Andre, age 4, Autumn, 30 x 36 in. [image source: aelitaandreart.com

These three talented girls come from different backgrounds and places, yet there is one common denominator that plays a significant role in the girls' artistic pursuits and success.  They all have parents who support and foster their aptitude for painting.  Four year-old Aelita even has her own art studio (bigger than mine!).

Below is a short documentary of Aelita painting in her studio.  It is quite fascinating to watch the creative process of such a young girl, especially when she is given so much freedom with art supplies. In the ten years that I taught art,  I've worked with a number of truly gifted kids.   And it makes me wonder how many more young Picassos we would run across if every young child who has a propensity for the arts was given ample supplies, time, space, and parental support.  

The magic of pinhole photography

Leigh-On-Sea, Geon Park, United Kingdom

In a few days, many pinhole photography enthusiasts around the world will be grabbing their makeshift cameras and uploading their images onto this site.  Sunday, April 24th marks the annual Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.  Pinhole photography involves taking photographs using a light-tight container with a tiny hole on one side.  Light travels through the pinhole opening and exposes photographic paper or film on the inside of the container.

When I taught high school photography, pinhole photography was one of my favorite class projects.  I wanted students to grasp the idea that a camera is basically a box.  The word camera comes from the Latin term camera obscura, which means "dark chamber".  Some students would choose to build their cameras out of cardboard, and others would bring shoeboxes from home. 

The first day of shooting and developing pinhole pictures was always an exciting time. And the learning curve was high as students problem-solved issues concerning exposure.

mon velo, Ginou Hocedez, Belgium

This photo of a bike wheel is very similar to the kinds of photos taken by my students.  There was a bike rack outside my classroom, so every year, I would see a number of photos featuring bicycles.  And, like this photo, the images taken by my students were negatives.

All the photos shown here are part of an online pinhole gallery, with thousands of photographs catalogued.  These are several of my favorites.

Rowboats Beached on Misty Day, R Aber, United States

pinhole on the cliff, Teerapan Leelavansuk, Thailand

*, Petr Mahdalik, Czech Republic

untitled, Xavier Brunetière, France

Laatefoss, Bjorn Rannestad, Denmark

sweet home, Volkmar Krause, Germany

Check back this Sunday for the 2011 exhibition.  Even if you're not planning on submitting a pinhole picture, you don't want to miss out on more amazing pinhole photography from artists around the globe.

My Week

Apparently, I'm digging reds and greens right now . . .

my latest work, Cherry Blossoms // it just got snatched up as a swapathon trade

a favorite on sunday afternoons- tomatoes and basil on baguette

value drawing lesson for 10 year-olds in my dining room

bouquet of flowers we've enjoyed all week

a dear family friend (and former art student of mine) recently got engaged, on our front porch! 

i snapped some photos of the sweet couple this weekend

Blast from the past

Today, I spotted a bumper sticker that I had designed over 20 years ago for my high school!  Just to make sure my claim was correct, I went home and rifled through my memory box.  And there it was- my one copy of the bumper sticker.

In my memory box, I also found a sketchbook from one of my high school art classes.  On one page, my teacher wrote, "Are you trying to draw from actual objects?"  The comment made me smile because that was something I repeatedly stated to students when I taught high school art.  I guess the practice of observational drawing can never be overstated in the art classroom. 

The art of pojagi

[image sources: Jung Yul Park, London Korean Links, Sri Threads]

A pojagi is a Korean wrapping cloth, normally hand-pieced together from fabric scraps.  For many centuries, pojagi wrapping cloths have been used in common and royal homes.  In this post, I mentioned digging out from the cedar chest the pojagi my grandmother gave me (top right photo).  My grandmother was a teenager when she made it, so I'm guessing it dates back to the 1920s.

When she first showed me the pojagi, she pointed to the center and said the flower was one of her first embroidery works.  I was amazed by the precise and even stitching.  Embroidery has a long history in Korea, and it's not uncommon to see it adorning household items and clothing.  I recently read here about a debt that a Korean ruler owed the emperor of China during the medieval times.  The emperor requested that the most skilled Korean embroiderers be sent to his court, and this settled the debt.

Whenever I see a tied pojagi, it brings back a lot of childhood memories of my grandmother wrapping containers of food and articles of clothing.  I didn't realize there was such an international following of the art of pojagi until just a month ago!  I was browsing art blogs one morning when I came across two separate posts on pojagi. The Brooklyn-based textile gallery, Sri,  posted these beautiful images on their blog:

And here's a video on pojagi that the Rhode Island School of Design put together.  If only they offered  a class like this when I was in school!

Small Treasures

When I taught high school art, I had several tackle boxes in my classroom.  Inside the tackle box compartments resided tiny natural objects, such as shells, seed pods, and insect carcasses. As a drawing lesson,  I would have students study and draw one of these objects for at least 30 minutes.  I even passed out eye loupes so that students can see the objects' textures and patterns close-up.   

When I was at the beach this weekend, I stepped into a store that carried a variety of tiny sea objects {many of them imported from warmer coastal areas}.  I couldn't help but get all giddy about starting another miniature collection.  Shown above are some of the items I got at the local beach shop.  The barnacle is first on my list to draw!

Portland art shop and artists helping local schools

I went bridge jumping once, and all I got from it was a sore bum.  My adrenaline rush doesn't come from extreme sports, it comes from shopping for new art supplies. So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered another local art supply store called Muse Art + Design.  Located in the popular Hawthorne Street neighborhood, Muse Art + Design has an impressive concentration of professional-grade products.  The space is small, but the supplies are well-organized and easy to find. Spanning one wall are paint collections from notable companies like Gamblin, Daniel Smith, and Sennelier.  I was even pleasantly surprised to find in the store an extensive collection of Sumi-e materials. 

Yesterday I picked up a new paper pad that I had been coveting since my last visit.  It is called Canal Paper, and it is made by Saint-Armand, a small paper mill in Montreal.  Flax straw and offcuts of t-shirts and denim are used to make the paper.  The texture and color of the paper is amazing, and the oblong shape of the paper is perfect for landscape drawings.  I can't wait to test it out!

For the entire month of April, Muse Art + Design is running an event called An Artist A Day.  On each day in April, a Portland-based artist is at the shop working on an original piece of art.  The thirty pieces will then be auctioned off on Thursday, May 13th to benefit Schoolhouse Supplies, a local program that helps teachers stock their classrooms with needed classroom supplies.  For a full list of participating artists in An Artist A Day or for more details on the event, go here.  Shown above are two works just completed this week by Rachel Austin and Addie Boswell, and seen below is artist Jason Kappus working on his original piece yesterday.  Each art work will start at a minimum bid of $75, which is a steal considering the finished works are 16" x 20".  What a great way to add to your art collection and help the local school district! 

How it all began

My mother dropped by yesterday with a box of memorabilia.  Included in the box were my class pictures from elementary school.  Here's my 2nd grade class picture; that's me in the upper right hand corner.  I remember how much I loved that vest! The back was this pink, satiny material. 

Miss Newson was my second grade teacher, and I adored her.  She had a cool silver streak in her hair, and she was always so kind to me.  I remember one day I was coloring a picture with a ship in it.  She asked me if I wanted to be part of a program for kids who wanted to learn more about art.  I enthusiastically said yes, and for the next six years I was regularly pulled out of my classroom to participate in art classes taught by specialists in the Portland area.  I took courses in weaving, still life drawing, and even clay animation. 

My artistic abilities and passions grew in those formative years.  Because of these experiences and teachers like Miss Newson, I became a public school teacher myself.  So, this picture is more than a walk down memory lane.  In a way, it represents the start of my journey as an artist.

Portland/Brooklyn Artist Series: Kate Bingaman-Burt

I'm thrilled to be partnering with Art Hound in a six-week series featuring some of the foremost independent artists from Portland and Brooklyn.  Each week,  we will be interviewing a different local artist from our respective hometowns.

This week's featured Portland artist is Kate Bingaman-Burt.  To young aspiring artists at Portland State University, Kate is called "Professor."  But she is known to many of her fans as the artist behind Obsessive Consumption, a blog documenting the daily drawings of personal consumption.

photos: Anthony Georgis

How would you describe your work?

I like to incorporate a variety of materials and create an environment, but I don't get the chance to do this very often.  For the past eight years my work has been about personal consumerism, guilt, excess, silliness, and the mundane.  I try not to take myself seriously, but I take working hard seriously.

Kate's drawing of Anthony's camera. She only draws with Faber Castell pens and uses Strathmore paper (8" x 10" to be exact.)

What are the greatest challenges of being an artist today?

One challenge that I have is balance and knowing when to stop.  I have a hard time stepping away from a project.  I also have problems with saying no.

Sometimes focus is a challenge for me, so I created a system of rules, such as daily drawing and a schedule.  This helps me create in ways that I need to create while still having a structure.

Layers of Kate's favorite images.

Tell us about the biggest risk you've taken as an artist.

Moving to Mississippi after graduate school.  I exited a community of friends and makers and entered totally new territory.  It was scary, but I am so glad that we lived there for four years.  It really taught me that you can make your own space wherever you are.

Kate dreams of a room filled with plants.  Fortunately for her, she lives across the street from a plant shop. 

What do you love most about Portland?

I like that I can sit at my desk all day and still feel like I am part of the neighborhood.  I live in an area that is pretty active.  I live above a coffee shop, so I can hear the patrons in the coffee shop and I don't feel like a total recluse.  I also love the fact that I can go to the ocean in 90 minutes and the mountains in 60 and into the forest in 10.  Amazing.

One of Kate's favorite Portland food cart items.  Mmm, they are delicious!

What makes Portland/Brooklyn such a great place for independent art?

Even though I have only been here for a year and a half, I feel really supported in what I do.  I don't feel negativity or competition, but more collaboration and support.  

Kate is releasing her first book, "Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?" this spring.  An upcoming show and book release is scheduled for April 2 at the Land Gallery in Portland.  

Maybelle, Kate's studio buddy.


This week's featured Brooklyn artist is Jacqueline Bos.  Read her interview here.

As part of the artist interview series, we are inviting readers to participate in a dialogue about Portland and Brooklyn's art communities.  Both cities are considered epicenters of the independent art scene, but how do you think the two art communities differ?

Brush up on your art vocabulary

When I teach drawing, I spend most of the time talking about perspective, which is the method used to create three-dimensional space on a flat surface.  Here are three terms on perspective that should be part of your art glossary.

Foreshortening is when the subject goes back into the picture plane and is perpendicular to the horizon line.  Art historians agree that the most famous work that exemplifies this is The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (1480) by Andrea Mantegna. 

Aerial Perspective (also called atmospheric perspective) is the visual effect of atmospheric haze in a painting or drawing.  The closer an object is to the horizon line, the more subdued the colors and contrast. If you were to look at a mountain range, for example, the mountain furthest away from the viewer is always the most muted.  The objects in the foreground, on the other hand, have the greatest contrast and hue intensity. 

Masaccio is attributed as being one of the key Renaissance artists (along with Leonardo di Vinci) that used aerial perspective in his works.  In his painting below, The Tribute Money (1427), you can see colors and details fade as they recede towards the horizon line. 

Chiaroscuro (kee-AR-o-SKOOR-o) is an Italian term that refers to the use of light and dark to create dimension in a painting or drawing.   Normally, chiaroscuro pertains to a dramatic contrast of light and dark, as seen in the works of Caravaggio and Rembrandt.  Below is one of Rembrandt's famous self-portraits. 

Bones, a great subject for value drawings

My favorite art class to teach is drawing.  I believe that drawing is the foundation of all other art forms.  It's also one of the more difficult art skills to master.  I tell students on the first day of art class that it's like magic.  Drawing is creating an illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface.

To help students see and capture depth in their drawings, I like to do a lot of still life drawings in the classroom.  Drawing a bone, in particular, is a great way to learn how to differentiate light and dark values.  For this activity, I normally prefer using vine charcoal (which is really soft and brittle), but an all graphite pencil (shown below) is a lot cleaner and easier to handle.

I set up the lighting in the room so that there is only one light source shining on the bone.  This creates lovely cast shadows, which are important to include in still life drawings. Since bones are relatively white, it's much easier to capture the variance of values on tinted drawing paper.  For the lightest areas of the drawing, I instruct students to leave blank.  Only at the last stage of the drawing will I pass out a white pencil or charcoal and have students highlight the brightest edges. A couple of other rules of thumb: try not to outline the bone when starting the drawing, and the darkest values should be on the subject itself, not the cast shadow.  

Students are always surprised to find out how difficult it is to draw bones.  I tell them that objects that look simple often times are the harder ones to draw.  The lack of details in color and form push the artist to look for slight variances in other elements, like value.

If you're wondering where to find bones to draw, I actually found the one in the photos at an antique store!  (It cost me $25, but I had to have it.) A natural place to find bones is the desert.  Once I found an intact cow skull in Eastern Oregon that I hauled back to the classroom.

While we're on the topic of cow skulls, here's a beautiful painting of one by Georgia O'Keefe.

Cow's Skull with Calico Roses, 1931.

Henri Rousseau's jungle paintings, an inspiration to young artists

A few years ago, I left the education field to open a shop.  Although I'm not in the classroom every day, I'm still passionate about arts education.  I try to do my part as a parent/arts educator by going into my daughters' classrooms several times a year and teaching lessons on drawing and painting. 

This week, I'll be teaching in my daughter's first grade class a lesson on landscape painting using the art of Henri Rousseau.  Rousseau is best known for his lush jungle paintings, and kids love his art for the bright colors and exotic creatures.

Tropical Forest with Monkeys, 1910, National Gallery of Art

French artist Henri Rousseau didn't actually pursue a career in art until his forties.  Rousseau was a self-taught artist and was mocked by art critics for his child-like painting.  At a Paris exhibition in 1905, he was showing one of his jungle paintings near an emerging artist's painting.  That painter was Henri Matisse, and from that exhibition and on, Matisse and other young French painters were called Les Fauves (wild beasts in French) by critics for their impulsive brushstrokes and use of bold colors .  Art historians believe that the term Les Fauves was derived from the nearby Rousseau painting showing wild animals in a jungle.   

Rousseau liked painting jungle scenes, but it is believed that he never ventured into a jungle.  His paintings were comprised of plants found in local botanical gardens and of creatures at the zoo.  He also looked through books for pictures of exotic animals. 

At my daughter's school, there's a great little courtyard with native plants.  I'm planning on having the kids draw observational sketches of the foliage to incorporate in their forest paintings.  Rousseau also used a lot of his own imagination in his paintings, such as fern-like trees, so I'm excited to see the children create new plants and creatures in their works. 

Virgin Forest at Sunset, 1907.

UPDATE: Some of the student work from the class lesson.

Exquisite chairs made out of paper

One of my favorite group projects for art students is the "Cardboard Chair." Students are in teams of 3 or 4 and the objective is simple- to design and build a functional chair from recycled cardboard.

It's always amazing to witness creative minds at play with this activity.  In just a short period of time, thrones, loveseats, recliners, and stools are fashioned out of paper and tape.

Creating the most basic furniture piece out of the most basic material is a fascinating challenge for beginning artists and seasoned designers.   Here are a few examples of paper chairs that I think are pretty amazing.

Ryuji Nakamura, Hechima 4 chair, paper, 2008.

Nendo, Cabbage Chair, paper,  2008.

Tokujin Yoshioka, Honey-pop chair, paper, 2001.

Plan a free family trip to the art museum

Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888.

Art is meant to be experienced in person.  It's hard to capture an authentic response to an art work when it's on a page of a book. I became a fan of Vincent Van Gogh, for example, only after seeing his painting Starry Night Over the Rhone in Musee d'Orsay. When I walked into the room, it was as if the heavens had parted and the angels were singing (granted there was a skylight). The colors and textures of the canvas were so much more vivid than its reproductions! 

Looking at art in museums is a wonderful way to expose children to different cultural worlds and pasts.  It's an enrichening experience that will help children grow in their confidence and knowledge of the arts.  It's also a great opportunity for parents to engage in significant dialogues with their children about different themes that they'll see, like war, romance, and religion.

Many established museums provide parents with tools and resources on how to look at art with children.  Here's one site I found on the Museum of Modern Art's website that has some great tips. There are also family programs available at the museums, such as guided tours and hands-on art workshops.  A lot of these programs are free with the purchase of admission.

If the cost of admission is an issue, there are free museum admission days throughout the year.  What a deal!  To help you start planning your next trip to the art museum, I've listed some of the special event days below.

Portland Art Museum.  Free admission every fourth Friday of the month, 5 - 8p.  Four free Sundays a year; the next free family day is Sunday, Nov. 8.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Free admission first Tuesday of each month.

Art Institute of Chicago.  Free admission Thursday nights 5 - 8p.

National Gallery of Art.  Admission is always free!

Museum of Modern Art in New York City offers family programs with free admission.  See details on their site.

Guggenheim in New York City.  Not free, but great discounted rate.  Every second Sunday of the month and Family Day, admission is only $15 per family.  The next Family Day is on Nov. 22.

The picture below is a photograph that one of my students took and gave me after visiting the Guggenheim with her family.

Wooden mannequins for drawing and decor

A live model is always ideal when drawing the human figure, but wooden mannequins are handy as a reference for proportion. The adjustable forms can be posed in still or action positions, helping artists to focus on the ratio of one part to the next.

Wooden mannequins can be found in different sizes and forms, such as male and female figures, hands, and horses.  They are great for young artists because their forms are simple, and it's fun for kids to move the mannequins into different poses.  However, being fully jointed, the mannequins are susceptible to damage with a careless jolt of an arm or leg. I, unfortunately, have seen many mannequin casualties in the classroom. 

Wooden mannequins also make great accessories in the home office, studio, or family room.  It's not uncommon anymore to see them in home decor catalogs. And being quite affordable, the element of art can be brought into any living space. 

Focusing on pattern in photography

One of the first assignments I would give my photography students is to shoot pattern.  Pattern is defined as an element that repeats itself, and it can be found in manmade forms and natural scenes.  Not only does focusing on pattern in photography help with understanding structure and composition,  it creates an interesting subject to look at.

Once in a blue moon

I was looking at some art on a couple of Portland gallery sites and found two works that would make for a great "comparing art" discussion with a group of students.