USS Arizona Oil Slick, 11” x 14”, digital photograph on paper

 My photo, USS Arizona Oil Slick, won an award in the 36th Annual AVAA Regional Juried Exhibition. The photo was taken on a trip to Oahu, Hawaii.  My husband, Marvin, and I attended the wedding of his good friend Stuart and fiancée Marlene. When we weren’t spending time with the newlyweds and their friends, we were sightseeing.

 One of our sightseeing tours took us to The Pearl Harbor Memorial Center.  We saw a video about the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on the Navel Base at Pearl Harbor. Then a Navy Tour boat took us off shore to the memorial that is built over the sunken ship. The memorial building has a cut out in the floor where you can see part of the submerged ship. The USS Arizona sustained the most damage during the attack and is still leaking oil.  Click here to see an aerial view of the sunken ship.

I love photography, but I had never considered exhibiting any of my photos. While going through my reference photos, looking for ideas, I came across this image.  I like its artistic abstract quality.  The oil slick formed a pattern on the water.  It looks like a type of marbling called Suminagashi, which means ink floating on water.  Ironically, this is a Japanese marbling technique.  So more than 70 years later, a tragic event from our past created a work of art.

The York Bailey Museum at The Penn Center on St. Helena Island South Carolina,  presents Gullah Art:  A Legacy of Preservation.  This is a traveling exhibition organized by Gallery Chuma of Charleston South Carolina.  The exhibition opens on February 11, 2012, from 1:00 – 5:00 pm.

Nine artists working in various mediums bring attention to the Gullah culture, whose roots can be traced through slavery and back to Africa.  Sweetgrass Hat and Magnolia #22 is one of four of my paintings included in this exhibition.  The following artists are also featured:  Leroy Campbell, Tyrone Geter, John W. Jones, Judy Mooney, Irene Tison, Nakia Wigfall, Jonathan Green and Arianne King-Comer.

Casting a Net #4, 36″ x 40″, oil on canvas   Basketlady #16, 16″ x 20″, oil on canvas

Casting a Net #4 and Basketlady #16 are part of an exhibit which focuses on the Gullah Culture in South Carolina.  The exhibit was curated by the Art in Embassies Program (AIEP). The program was established within the United States Department of State in 1964 by President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie.

The goal of AIEP is to promote national pride and a sense of cultural identity by displaying America’s art and its artists throughout the world.  The program places more than 5,000 works of art in the public rooms of approximately 180 American diplomatic residences worldwide. Artwork is borrowed from galleries, museums, individual artists, and corporate and private collections. AIEP curators develop thematic exhibitions in collaboration with each ambassador, taking into account the host country’s artistic traditions and cultural mores.

The Gullah Culture exhibit will be on display for two years in Luanda, Angola at the residence of Ambassador Chris McMullen.   View all artwork in this exhibit.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler will be on display in the Mardi Gras Art Show in Whiting IN.  The exhibit, sponsored by the Whiting Arts Council, includes artwork dealing with New Orleans themes -  architecture, cafes, zedeco and jazz music, etc. It will open on February 4th at Studio 629 Gallery.

On October 2nd, I participated in an event called Arts Goggle.  Businesses on the south side of downtown Fort Worth, provided a venue for displays of artwork by local artists and music by local bands.  I was assigned to Spatenatiety, a new spa and nail salon at 618 S. Jennings Avenue. Owner, Missy Malone, did complementary nail treatments for visitors.  In the photo, I’m working on a study for a portrait of my father.

Below are two of my paintings that were on display.  I used fabric in both paintings; the dress and parts of the scarf in Waiting (11 x 14, mixed media on board), and  the dress in La Chantuese (the singer, 8 x 10, mixed media on canvas).  Waiting was inspired by the image of a woman that I saw in a news report about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur Sudan.  She was in a refugee camp across the border in neighboring Chad.

These paintings BP Deep Water Horizon Oil and BP Deep Water Horizon Oil Cleanup are in response to the BP Deep Water Horizon oil rig fire, and the resulting environmental damage to the Gulf of Mexico and the coastlines along the Gulf.  They show crude oil encroaching on pristine waters and the effort to clean up the mess. I’m from Louisiana, so this is very personal.  Last month both paintings were in the TexasWax 10 x 10 Exhibit of encaustic artwork at The Galleries at Sunset Center in Amarillo Texas.

Lately, I’ve been exploring abstraction, but I still like realism.  Painting animals is unusual for me.  I was drawn mainly to the image of this little girl dressed up like a sophisticated lady.  Puppy Love was appropriate for an exhibit entitled, Unconditional Love Juried Pet Art Exhibit.  It received an award for 2nd Place in the Water Media category.  The exhibit is sponsored by the Irving Arts Association.  It is on display at the Jaycee Park Center For The Arts, 2000 West Airport Frwy, Irving Texas through September 23, 2010.

Louisiana, my home, has been on my mind.  Jazz Man was inspired by New Orleans jazz. As some of you know, my first artistic outlet was sewing.  Lately, I’ve been looking for ways to include textiles into some of my paintings.  The collar in this painting is fabric.  The pattern on the shirt was made with a hand-carved stamp. The background has some stamping and layers of splattered paint.

 After 10+ years of painting with oils, I have become sensitive to the solvents used to thin the paints and clean brushes.  The odor, which never bothered me before, has gradually become difficult to tolerate.  A few years ago, to limit my exposure,  I started making a transition from oils to acrylics and watercolors.   At some point I may try the new water soluble oil paints that are now available to artists.  I’m not leaving oils completely.  But, for now, I’m viewing this as an opportunity to learn and to continue to explore painting with acrylics and watercolors as well as encaustics (hot beeswax).  I’ll talk more about encaustics at another time.

My painting, Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler (Cajun French for Let the Good Times Roll), was inspired by the Mardi Gras and Jazz Funeral traditions of New Orleans.  I took advantage of the versatility of acrylics.  Heavy body paint, similar in consistency to oil paint, was used on most of the painting.  Several colors thinned with water were splattered across the top of the painting.  The splatters start at the horn and go over and around the umbrellas. I wanted the horn player to be like a pied piper leading the procession.  The hat and umbrellas are fabric and paper. The pants and parts of the background are decorated with paint applied with stamps that I carved by hand.

My focus is on the layering of colors, textures and patterns. This is reminiscent of a time in my life when sewing was my main artistic outlet and I was surrounded by colorful fabrics. I am coming full circle.  In doing so, I am reclaiming pieces of my life that I had left behind.  I will be creating more artwork which incorporates elements from my life that allow me to make more personal statements about who I am.