The angst of a blog writer

As you may or may not have noticed I haven't posted in almost 2 months.

Thinking goes like this.

It's a lot of work. Does anyone even read it? Is it relevant? Does it help me?  and better yet does it help anyone else?

So while fretting over the question at hand,  "Do I want to continue my blog postings?" I received this email today:  I'd love to talk to you about art journaling--I hope to have an example for critique :-) I very much enjoyed your blog post about the book your daughter handed down to you. It helped me feel less intimidated. I know it doesn't have to be *perfect* but that white paper is really scary! 

When I responded that I appreciated her comment because I was thinking about giving up on my blog- she commented: Don't give up! It was just what I needed when I needed it. Thanks!

Well I think I have my answer!

Here are some new pages from my journal.

I like using maps in my journal while I am traveling. I like to take out the journal at the end of the day when everyone is sitting around visiting with each other. I am not good at sitting still so this is a good way for me to be a part of the group.

While traveling, the journal is also part diary with out being boring.

It's fun going through all the papers I collect and cut out what is useful for me to tell my story. It's also a good way for me to reuse items that would normally be thrown away. 

I hope I have inspired you, remember: don't give up!

Reflect on Your Life

 The focus of this mixed media piece is my life after retirement from teaching.  It's about moving out west and at age 50 taking up mountain biking and working through some of my fears of height and speed. 

More Bike Art

8 1/2" x 11" Collage with bike parts

As I wrote several weeks ago I have been making a lot of bike themed art as this year I have really gotten into mountain biking.  In November I  received a really nice 29" mountain bike from my husband, which made riding so much more fun. We had a very puny snow year so I got to ride all winter. (in the mornings when the ground was still frozen) 


Then came spring and I participated in the Whiskey Off Road in Arizona, raced at the local ski resort in Idaho...qualifying for Nationals!  This year I also road for the first time on slick rock in Utah, sweet single track in Oregon, and across the Golden Gate bridge onto the single track of Marin County.  This combined with my passion for making art from cast off items = no brainer, bike themed art!!

Working Night Light made from rear cassette and found objects

side view of night light

6" x 8" collage with wax and found objects

Bike Jewels SOLD

Collage/Assemblage with Resin 7" x 9"

Bike Gear Star 5" x 5"

Bike Wheel collage/assemblage 25" round

side view of Bike Wheel collage/assemblage

Bike Art

 My two passions this past year have been Mountain Biking and making art. I have now started a series of bike related art works. The first one is rather large and will be proudly displayed on my back deck (if I don't sell it first)

Last year one of my husbands friends gave him this bike wheel to give to me to see if I could use it in a piece of art. It went into my storage room until I could decide what to do with it.

When we moved into our home almost 5 years ago, this piece of round wood was in our storeroom, I put it up to the bike wheel and it was the same size! I had my husband drill a hole in the center to I could attach the bike wheel.

 

 I then started to add paint and paper to the wood. The theme of the piece is biking in Idaho.

I then added bike gears that I got from the Boise Bicycle Project. As well as other 3 D objects.

The side of the wood has a bicycle chain and 1/2 screwed into the sides. The chainbreaker used to take the chain apart to make it fit, broke...so that was also glued to the surface! The edge of the wheel, were the tire would normally be, I glued orange and green gems all the way around. This took some time as I could glue about 10 at a time while it was standing on it's side so they wouldn't slide off.

The finished piece- and the wheel actually spins.

Fixing my old tattoos

These are the existing tattoos that are on my back. They are approx. 17 years old and not very great. The one on the right (the darker one) was the first one. I got this on 6th Street. in Austin TX. I wanted one that I had drawn but to get all the detail the tattoo artist said it would be HUGE and I wasn't ready for that at that time. As these things tend to be now or never and I wanted to get it that day,  I thumbed through their book and picked out the flower. The round one was done a year or two later in sketchy part of Dallas near where I lived that has since been torn down and a Super Target was built on the grounds. This one was a Japanese Crest. It was 1997 and the year of Japanese art in the Dallas Public Schools.

 This is a sketch of how to combine the two existing tattoos into a coherent scene. I would get a second Japanese crest and the two of them would form the bicycle wheels.  The foreground would be in color and the background in black and gray. Two of my friends and I are planning on going in August and getting our tattoos all done at the same time and then going out for drinks (or going home for ice packs.) When I showed the guy the plan, he said "wait, let me guess, this fits your back exactly."and Marianne said, "well, she is an artist' I also designed her tattoo which is a dragonfly. He seemed a little sad as he said designing the tattoo is part of what we are paying him for!

Here is a photo of the bike I want in the scene. (April 2012, St. George, Utah)

Spring Mountain Biking Vacation

Art of the Brush Workshop at the Boise Museum

 My workshop at the museum a few weeks ago went well. I had 10 participants. We toured the galleries and then went back to create quite the plethora of calligraphy and sumi-e paintings.

Drove through, Nevada, Utah and Arizona

Immediately following the workshop my husband picked me up from the museum with the truck and trailer in tow and we left  for 2 weeks out on the road in our little T@B trailer with the mountain bikes.  We had a wonderful time. 

trying our new awning out for the first time

In Arizona I raced my first mountain bike race at age 52! and didn't do so bad. I came in 59 out of 105 including men and all ages. It was a 19.1 mile course, which included technical singletrack and 3000 feet of climbing!

The Whiskey Off Road

Time for gallery hopping in Jerome, AZ

and then off to Utah for some slick rock riding....

Road Runner territory

and in Nevada a local showed us a sweet single-track out of an old cowboy camp...

We rode five miles and 2000 feet up to the snow line. The descent was much more fun! 

...where I picked up a bunch of nicely weathered metal. 

When I arrived home my daughter left me a surprise in the studio....a small cabinet door that her roommate thought I could put to good use!

 This week on the art agenda.  On Monday I am hosting the TVAA board meeting at my house and I have a docent meeting at the museum Monday morning- the Nick Cave preview!  I am also getting ready for RAW, coming up the following week.