Category: Process

Not many pictures of me remain due to theft and loss. So I am sharing some TBT art instead. I dug this baby out of storage this week. I painted it in the early 1980’s before I was Bessesdotter. Oil on canvas. Soft spiral shapes over a landscape, surreal and not yet complete. There is more to add to the composition and now that its out of storage I plan to make time to paint in oils again.

In childhood I painted spirals and abstracts but then tried to work on representational art. Abstracts, psychedelics, detailed line work and spirals became my signature not long after I met Allan Carter in the early 1980’s. He was bigger than life and he called himself ‘Big’ and so did we all. He was a character one could say, amiable, kind, and he made art from air or anything he could find.

I loved him–I still do. It was a youthful crush on an older artist who painted boldly and lived to create.

Allan liked my work and told me to paint what I paint, what came from inside me, not what other people want to see. “Be the artist” he would say to me. He didn’t have transportation and I would drive him to the art store where he would pick up a few supplies. Mostly though Big got his supplies from dumpsters behind art shops and print shops. He lived to make art and I honor his memory. Here is to TBT and Big.

I love to move. There must be viking, nomad or tinker blood in my family somewhere. Moving is the greatest event and I relish it where some people prefer to stay put. It is motivational, cleansing and inspirational. Moving should commence about the 18 month mark.

This move is early but just feels like its right on time. 14 months from the acquisition of my Banana Factory studio – I’m moving UPSTAIRS to 248a on the second floor at the Banana Factory.
Packing up today and hope to be moved in by tomorrow. I’m leaving my gorgeous floor on the first floor–mom and I put the floor down together. Now I will have a concrete floor and I am looking forward to a new experience.
Art is on hold until the move is complete–that’s where patience comes in–waiting to hold the tools in my hand and paint again.

Do you really love what you do? I hear people say they love their jobs. I believe that because I am an artist I should not have an art related job. Avoidance of art related work has been my goal throughout my life so far. Its a personal choice of course–many artists take on work as administrators, teachers and other art related jobs that I have no interest in. Recently going through another period of growth I’ve come to realize that I was correct and working in an art related area is not for me. In the past I’ve chosen to have a myriad of jobs that are not art related. I was a grower in a greenhouse–a job I liked a lot–but we didn’t use a lot of pesticides like many greenhouse companies. I have worked in offices–that was the least favorite of my jobs because being inside the sterile buildings isn’t as much to my liking. But the actual work itself was fine. Retail–I had a short stint in retail at a Costco, when they promoted me to work in their vault and staff their EDP. Working at Costco was a great–they have high standards, fairness and equality are important, teamwork is vital, they take employees ideas seriously and pay above standard wages. Beekeeping–a real challenge in this time of colony collapse and serious pests and disease–was one of my favorite types of work. I owned about 60 beehives while I was starting up an organic flower farm. It was all very hard physical work, but the sales were fun and easy and meeting people was a wonderful part of the job.

But being an artist is not my job. The Artist. It is who I am. Not what I do. The paintings and other things I create are part of a universal truth. I know people intrinsically understand it and that is why they are drawn to the work, they crave owning it, staring at it, holding it–as if peering into the soul of the universe.

A favorite work of my art for many people, “Baroque Love Glisters Molten Gold” won another award last night. It always feels pretty darn good to be recognized by my peers and not only to be juried into a show but to win an award. Feeling grateful. This is a small detail of the work.

I changed my cover pic on Facebook this morning to a cropped photo of a recent floral painting. A friend, Bathsheba Monk commented on how much she likes my flower binge that I’m on lately. I like it–Flower binge! Bathsheba is a writer of course. Brandishing words about is her talent.
I’m out of the studio on business today which will provide some necessary rest from painting. I’ve been working 15 hour days painting and then dreaming about more paintings. The dreams are detailed and colorful – they are film-like and deeply moving. In the dreams I’m brushing lush color…working patterns and scumbling, dry brushing and layering glazes. This an exciting creative adventure! An abundance of colors and techniques are already in my mind. I can continue to pick from the dream field and paint this ongoing series of vivid fresh blooms.

I am painting flowers this spring – Tuesday it rained all day, the cool spring rain that soaks the earth and makes a muddled grey light to paint by. I opened the blinds, let all the grey in and painted a soft yellow tulip in the mist. Its still sitting on the easel in the photo.

Composing composition of tiles. New work. The photo is black-and-white but the art is painted in full color. Some of this work will be exhibited in May at the banana factory in Bethlehem PA.

It’s coming up on my 1st anniversary at the Banana Factory. My studio is beginning to show the change that’s been incubating since January. I’m hiring a moving van and relocating some large pieces to the Log and Stone house and my moms home in Emmaus.
Working in several mediums is challenging in my studio, but the change is not all about moving equipment based on the medium for which it’s intended.
This move is about expansion of ideas and images. More room for a new series of work, larger but not literally in size. Open. Loose. Growth. Freedom. Those are some of my thoughts and feelings that are driving the bus right now.
Got my painting setup moved across the room and tomorrow stuff goes out!!