New Year's Resolution

"But I have attached great value to drawing and will continue to do so, because it is the backbone of painting, the skeleton that supports all the rest. I like it so much, Theo..." Van Gogh's letter to his brother, Theo, 1862.

For the past two years, I have been obsessed with collage and the intrigue of integration of elements on a two dimensional surface. I resolve in 2008, to return to, and to develop better drawing skills. Van Gogh saw the value in the 19Th century. I see it in the 21st...

Happy New Year!

Welcome Holy Child

Titian, The Holy Family and a Shepherd

I love color and texture! I love abstract modern art! I can "disappear" in a Rothko with ease and great pleasure and return groggily to the "real world." I also love the works of the Italian Renaissance Old Masters. There is something magical about Titian and his use of color in the 16Th century. Until last week, I considered my loves very different and completely disconnected in any obvious way. I tend to have wacky taste in many areas of my life, including art.

However, last Saturday, I was browsing 2nd ed. Booksellers, a used bookstore in the RDU airport, and responded to a book calling my name: Matt's Old Masters. David Sylvester, the late British art critic and curator said of Matthew Collings:

"One of Collings' great strengths is his insistence that
in art things are not either/or but both/and."

Matt's Old Masters focuses on Titian, Rubens, Velazquez, and Hogarth. I found myself fascinated by Collings writings about Titian during a short airline flight, followed by a LONG drive in a tiny rental car to my husband's family home in Montezuma, GA. Collings adeptly makes a connection for me between Italian Renaissance and modern abstract art as follows:

"Titian-style color isn't just bright colour,
which is what people usually think 'colour' means in art.
It's colour worked and organised and constructed,
so it's doing something more than you would get
if a modern designer chose some colours from a colour chart.
It's producing something symphonic and harmonious
out of a lot of differences so
there's a sensation of surprise and delight.
This description would fit a Paul Klee or a Matisse,
or a Pollock or a Rothko--which is right,
because that kind of modern art, small like Klee or vast like Pollock,
harks back to the sparkle and suavity of Venetian painting."

Ahhhh, sparkle and suavity; my kind of art!

Jingle All the Way

Merry Christmas!

Beauty in Unlikely Places

After a week of watching focused students making great art in the artroom, I was cleaning brushes that had been sitting in what appeared to be a bottomless wash tub for several days. Soaking brushes for days is not recommended care for brushes; however, if I have to choose between working with students or washing brushes, I choose students EVERY time! As I washed and rinsed and washed and rinsed and washed and rinsed, I eventually found the bottom of the tub. The remaining paint swirled and flowed and made me smile. Art is ALL around us...even in the bottom of a tub of dirty paint brushes.

Marking Time

I met my teacher, mentor, and friend yesterday for lunch and a crit of the work that I have produced thus far in preparation for a show that opens in February. Woo-hoo! I am really close to being finished and not far off from a visit to the framer.

Cloudy, Cool Afternoons

Signs of winter (at least as much as North Carolina can muster) are abundant these early days of December. They remind me of much colder winters in Baltimore years ago, during which I enjoyed tea and conversation with a neighbor and friend.

Even Better Than Elizabeth Murray!

Like Elizabeth Murray, I also got my start in art by teaching teens. Last year, several of my very gifted students used Murray's art as a springboard to create a collaborative project. I was impressed! Unlike Elizabeth Murray, I don't see myself leaving the high school art room. My life is enriched by the creative heart beats of my "girls."

The Shaped Painting and Elizabeth Murray

I first became aware of Elizabeth Murray's work nearly two years ago while taking a class at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado. Inspiring work. And to think that she was a high school art teacher. There is hope for all of us!

A Blue Afternoon

"Cautiously Optimistic"

Lori Easterlin

mixed media

"She Wore White in the Moonlight"

Lori Easterlin

mixed media

Meet the Girls!

I found these dolls at flea markets from Florida to Virginia during the past year and one half. They are the inspiration for my upcoming exhibition.

Red, White, and Black Friday

Yes, I confess! I was at the mall this morning at 6:45. A first for me...maybe a new tradition. On the other hand, maybe not! Yawn.....

If at First You Don't Succeed...

Another amazing day in the studio and away from my workplace! I describe the VERY TECHNICAL process behind this piece as: paint on...paint off...paper on...paper off...images on...images off...new images on...new paint on...different paper on...and again...and again....and again!

Give Thanks!

Ahhh...A day off from work to make a mess in the studio. I am thankful!

La-la Land

Oh, to escape to a place where giant flamingoes, dogwood blossoms, and tiny dolls dressed in party clothes frolic together!

"La-la Land" by Lori Easterlin, 2007

Childish Things

"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I grew up, I put childish things away." I Corinthians 13:11

Well, not EVERYTHING! Paper dolls, for example. A precious friend just returned from Philly and many museums and brought me a book of Frida paper dolls. I love the gift!

One Year Later

Just over one year ago, I had the great privilege of showing two years of collaborative altered books with three dear friends. We called ourselves "The Changelings" and the exhibit was housed at the Horace Williams House in Chapel Hill. I recall the opening on a Sunday afternoon; an afternoon of fresh flowers, refreshments, and friendship.

Shortly after our show, one of us moved to Charlottesville, Va. We have not heard from her since her move. I hope that she is painting with intensity and oblivious to the outside world. And now, another of us is on her way to Australia for two years! I am inheriting her drafting table and bicycle and will be the owner of one of her original paintings.

And so, there are two of us left in the area from the original "Changelings." I am sad. The four of us were good together!

Cookin' Up Somethin' In The Kitchen

I find myself back in the kitchen preparing meals with my daughters after a two year hiatus during which time my husband was home during the day and I was working full-time outside of my home for the first time in 20 years. It has been a rude awakening as I Do Not Enjoy Cooking! I also Do Not Enjoy Grocery Shopping! I especially Do Not Enjoy Cleaning Up the Kitchen Following Cooking! In order to make the task more palatable, I have fashioned an apron in my art studio. The apron provides a little silliness in the midst of the tedium of cooking and cleaning up.

Making Art from "Nothing"

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to view the work of Dan and Lia Perjovschi at the Nasher Museum and to see and hear a slide lecture by curator of the exhibit and Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke, Kristine Stiles. WOW! I am now momentarily obsessed with making art from "nothing." I have SO MANY OTHER projects that I should be working on and yet, I am tearing apart an index book from 1970 and am making a mess if nothing else.

States of Mind: Dan and Lia Perjovschi is a mid-career retrospective of the work of these Romanian artists. The exhibit hangs through January 6, 2008. It is a powerful exhibit!

Working REALLY SMALL!

With lots to do these days, I find myself working REALLY SMALL! Necklaces for friends are the result...Thanks to Cheryl Prater, a friend that I made at Arrowmont School this summer for introducing me to this small scale and the opportunity to create easy adornments!