The suits are done!

Step one, begin to add the leaves. Step 2 : test out more foliage in Photoshop. Step 3: Add that foliage. Step 4: perfect the blacks, sharpen up the figure, add a bit of color to the suit.

the final triptych begins

progress and corrections the "final triptych" on. The day was short and the prairie was beautiful. Instead of the treadmill at the rec- center, I went for a lovely long walk in prairie and woods. Hmm, the sleeve is like a giant tube worm about to eat her...

Moving on and moving my body.

I finished the triptych after lunch today. I've been slow and sleepy today. But, I exercised at the Rec Center and finished the piece. My reward was to go snowshoeing on the prairie!Alan Isaacson made these snow shoes and loaned them to me for the duration. FUN!!! I like these pointy snowshoes much better than the bearclaw ones I had tried out at the ARC Retreat Center. Back to work! First the stripes and then the whitewash. See the difference? Now the lovely Lisa is at the center either being birthed or returning to the womb. I am undecided about whether to put pattern pices in the background as I have in all the others. Since she is wearing a pattern...perhaps that is enough.

1/25/09 at Ragdale Friends & work

Today I got to see Karen Hanmer , have lunch and tour her studio. Great fun. I had tool envy! What a lovely space, great light, giant board shears and a printer I lusted after! Ah.... Got back and got an hour or so in before dinner and about 20 minutes in before movie time. The photos show how I use photoshop to help me make decisions. The piece began the day like this.I was having problems with the right hand side and with the placement of the feathers/petals. So, I put an image in photoshop and played around a bit, figuring out the compositional issues. It ended the day looking like this. Nearly done. The lower left needs some value adjustment and the upper right, obviously needs work as do the hanging head-feathers. Getting there.

1/24/09 at Ragdale

Probably the best thing about today was the red wine and the nap in the recliner! Nothing like reading in your sleep. It's not been a bad day, just a slow and sleepy one. I made good progress (and may make more this evening) on the next triptych. I figured out how I wanted the inset "Lisa" to be enveloped. But my fingers got tired of being dried out by the pastels. So I went for a delightful sub-zero walk in the sun. When I got back I remembered that I had planned to film the process. So I went through my tapes from last year and began to put it into the computer so I could see what I have: TOO MUCH! I kept getting this signal. I stripped out the sound, trashed it, and began again. Got the message over and over. Removed sound over and over. Filed my giant thumb drive ( Which had more room than my internal hard drive) to over flowing and did not get it all on there. Oh well. I hate video editing anyways. I have to decide if I am filming more of the process. Not sure there is much more to be seen, except the emerging Lisa's. Maybe I will just shoot tape of the completed pieces. Stay tuned...I guess.

Ragdale 2009 day 1

The first full day at Ragdale, 2009. I perfected the Triptych I did in December. You probably cannot see the difference, but I pumped up the lights and darks. I began the next one with an inset drawing. Much crawling on the floor to do that, but at least I have floor space and many pillows to kneel on. I did not know that my knees could do that! Then I began a picture of the lovely Lisa that will be inset later. She will be sitting atop a suit, newly born, wearing the pattern pieces that will build her own power suit.

Ragdale residency 2009 begins

It is getting late. I arrived just before dinner. An uneventful drive through surprising ice fog in much of Wisconsin. The trees and bushes were elegantly shrouded in the most delicate frost. My room is on the first floor of the Barnhouse. It is the handicapper room, which means I have a private bathroom! No tub, but a giant shower. I have a wall of windows looking out on the grounds. I have hung the last completed drawing and across the room, the sheets to begin the next. To my horror, in good light, I realize I have more work to do on the last drawing. Sigh. So it goes. Tomorrow is soon enough.