How to craft a meaningful talk

Nancy Duarte give this TED talk that shows exactly how powerful speakers present their dreams with others and inspire them to have their own dreams.

Salt Creek Trail

7" x 10"

Watercolor and ink on paper

Salt Creek 

50 degrees in January 

Wood and Harrison

These artists have a show in  the Frist Center in Nashville, TN this month. They combine art, science and a very dry humor to their work. Enjoy!

Drawing as Signature

Kelsey's Panda

9" x 12"

graphite on paper

Recently Kelsey and I set up our nerdy little drawing stools in the Field Museum for an afternoon of drawing.  It makes me smile to look at these 2 drawings side by side because they say much more about the artists than the animals we represented. Kelsey's refined and sensitive portrait next to my rather brutal scribbling says it all.

My Dingo and Companion

22"x 18"

Graphite on paper

The Blues

20" x 15"

Graphite on paper

PVC#2

Perhaps I've overdone it a bit in the blue department.  I have 14 different blues......and I love them all.

Rhythm

A Certain Price

10" x 10"

Watercolor and collage on paper

More Geometry

4" x 6"

Watercolor and collage on paper

 This week, I've been thinking about how all projects have their own rhythm and timing .I've scheduled art shows  until December 2012 in the Art Gallery in the Police Station. (More on that in a future post)  

I'll be speaking at the 19th Century Charitable Association on the 20th of this month about my police work.

 I've got some ideas for a new project (as I have been hinting about for awhile). Various permissions are moving along. The beginnings of all projects have a certain excitement and anticipation.  This week, I've been enjoying experimenting with materials and shape. 

January Cleaning

Cotton on Linen

7" x 9"

It's a New Year and New work is percolating in the studio. I have spent a good part of today clearing and cleaning. This is always a good sign. I cleaned off my pallet and pulled out the colors I hate. I sorted out all the hopeless drawings from the ones that I want to salvage and re ordered my drawers. Even though it's January, I feel like my recent creative surge and this attendant cleaning binge holds the promise of Springtime growth.

Circles, Cycles, Rings

10" x 10"

Collage on paper

Central Idea

10" x 10"

Collage on paper

Epicenter

Seems like I'm not the only one obsessed with circles lately. Go check out Carole Reid's Circle journal

Janet Echelman

Janet Echelman's brilliant sculptures hug the cities she builds them in.Now this is thinking outside the box!  I also  love the part of this story where she is rejected from 7 art schools!

Beatrice Wood

I am always on the look out for artist's who live a long creative life.  Beatrice Wood is one of my heros both because she died with her boots on, and worked nearly up until the time of her death at aged 105 but also because she worked in a joyful, experimental way.

PVC Vessels

20" x 25"

graphite and oil pastel on peach Canson paper

 Nothing delights my husband more than if I, the professional purger of unused household things, discover a use for something I had formally tagged as detritus. I found, lying in a dusty heap in a deep, dark corner of our basement , a bunch of PVC piping left over from Craig’s monumental  re-plumbing of our bathroom. Washing them off I saw to my delight, that they very nicely mimic, in miniature, the kind of industrial landscape I’m interested in right now.

 Drawing geometric forms also keeps an artist honest. Their forms are uncompromising!

9" x 12"

Graphite on paper