Fragments: Steeped & Brewed

Four Corners                                         2010

Holy cow! The press release for my show at Dobra Tea got posted on Maine Today.

So excited to be part of the very popular First Friday Art Walk on July 6th. These folks really have it together. From their site, you can download a map of all 30+ locations with listings of what is showing at each.

The tearoom is just lovely with a great staff. Really looking forward to seeing some old friends and making some new ones.

This piece, Four Corners, is currently hung in the rear window at Dobra. Comprised of all sorts of things besides glass--shell, stone, pewter buttons, marbles, wood and lead--found itself quickly and kind of magically!

It was made in the backyard of 77 Lime Street in Newburyport, MA in late summer 2010. In attendance was what had become my pet dragonfly who visited every single day for several hours. In my life, 2010 was a year besieged by dragonflies, but more about that in another post! Stop by Dobra Tea if you're in Portland...

In A Mermaid's Tears

In A Mermaid's Tears                          2011

Last summer, a friend commissioned a small work to represent her "journey to wholeness and balance." Knowing the story of some of her life's pains and pleasures, I looked to her astrological birth chart for additional clues on what visual imagery might best resonate with her. Additionally, she told me that following a relatively recent life passage, she had become very interested in mermaids.


Without getting too technical, I hope, there was a stunning juxtaposition of the Sun and the Moon in her chart. In astrology, the Sun rules the sign of Leo--fiery, fixed and aggressive--the Sun also represents the "outer-self" in a chart. Conversely, the Moon rules the sign of Cancer--watery, fluid and nurturing--and represents the "inner-self" of the person. In her chart, these two placements are exactly reversed -- Sun in Cancer -- Moon in Leo -- and each is egged on by other planets in conjunction with them. So here was a pretty obvious imbalance, setting her up for issues and lessons to learn. This became the imagery focal point for the four corners of the piece.


Working toward the center are obstacles and pathways in diagonal mirror image comprised of diverse elements--various types of glass, stone, shell, wood, copper and feathers. The central eye contains a perfect heart-shaped shard of sea glass, offering a place of peace and balance from which to operate.


I feel a bit of Divine Intervention was at play since the majority of the work came together on 11/11/11--World Meditation Day!

Contents Under Pressure

Contents Under Pressure          2006

This window has been shown the most of any of my work. It's big-- 19" x 30"--and heavy--about 30 lbs. I don't often do representational images, but this volcano is anatomically correct, made in 2006 at a somewhat rough point in my life.

Early in it's career, it got shown in several MA group shows: Salem, Lynn and Marblehead. Later, as part of a two-person show at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport.

Retired since 2008, it was juried in to the Transformation show in Beverly, MA in June 2012.
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Also, I recently used it as a teaching tool for "anti-peace" in the natural world with a group of elementary school children. Since its return, volcanoes have begun erupting all over the world. Wonder what that means?

Ingredients include sea glass, light filaments from an old Sylvania plant, stone, shell, pottery and wire. People seem to love it, but I don't know where would be the right place for it to find a permanent home...except my living room where it currently resides.

Imaginal Cells

Imaginal Cells                            2012

Every creative person needs inspiration. Recently, this arrived in three separate doses. First, my friend Lee Wolf---proprietor of The Lobster Shanty in Salem, MA (yum). gave me a bucket full of flat glass that had been collecting dust in his basement for years. He was glad to get rid of it and I was thrilled!

Next, I traveled to Maine to install 11 pieces of work at Dobra Tea in the Old Port in Portland. Closed for the day, the staff of the tearoom were busy cleaning everything from top to bottom and rearranging furniture. During six hours of hanging my art, I was intrigued with the interplay between the simple beauty of the "tea culture" and the bohemian feel of the tearoom itself in this beautiful old Victorian commercial building --complete with all sorts of events-- music, tarot readings, cribbage and a knitting group, to name a few. The staff is fabulous, the culinary offerings wonderful and my art feels like it was born to be there.

Upon returning home, I was prompted to make a new piece, using some of some of Lee's discards along with other materials. It reflects the two distinct feelings of being in the tearoom for the day.

A few days later, here it is. But what to call it? And here's the third inspiration: While visiting a friend at Ye Olde Forte Cabins in Pemaquid, ME, I was given a most beautiful gift--the WE'MOON 2012 calendar, entitled CHRYSALIS from Mother Tongue Ink. It was suggested that I enter some of my work to be included in their 2014 calendar called RADICAL BALANCE. On page 74 is a written piece called "Spring Equinox" by Frodo Okulam, who writes:

     "Recently, I learned that caterpillars have something called 'imaginal cells'--cells that able to imagine becoming a butterfly. In the Chrysalis, the imaginal cells come to life and transform the caterpiller into a bright being of wings and flight.

      At Spring Equinox, 2012, the Chrysalis of the world begins to break open a new age. Each of us who listens to the Earth and all her creatures, celebrates the Goddess, or imagines a new society free from patriarchy and power-over, is an imaginal cell of the transformed world."

So, Imaginal Cells it is: 8" x 10" -- made from Lee's flat glass, blown glass, marbles, copper wire and sea glass and shell from Maine-- it is bursting with hope.