Working at Jentel in Wyoming

'Beginnings' in my Jentel Studio

Thoughts and materials often come together in curious ways. For me art is often more about 'doing things' than 'making things'. My artwork 'grows' in unique and organic ways fed by present moment awareness and deep listening. It feeds both on the worlds within me and those around me as I explore ways to connect, engage and integrate my inner and outer experience.

My month at Jentel was such a gift of time, space and support to allow me to focus on my creative work without the usual distractions.  Now that I am back home, my experience of it seems like a seed which continues to grow. 

But for now I will share some of my experience of that time, place and work done while in residency.

And after the wind...a triple rainbow over the artist and writers studio at Jentel, WY

Seeing and photographing the land below the plane informed my residency time.  I'm fascinated by the similarities of forms shaped by various elemental forces and the resemblance in micro or macro view. The two images below were taken during my flight to Wyoming.

This river form was created from melting snow running over the studio sidewalk.

These are copies of 'Fire Islands" I brought to work with while in Wyoming. The marks came from scans of burns I had created on tracing paper where the fire was extinguished by small pools of water on the paper.  I was impressed how much they looked like land forms on nautical charts.

I was thrilled by the small 'islands' of water and ice on the picnic table. One morning I scooped them with up with a spatula and placed them onto a blues cutting board. They melted within moments. The next day the ice-lands were more solidly frozen to the table.

One morning as I hunted icicles before sunrise, I found hanging strands of frozen spiderwebs that broke apart when I touched them and individual evergreen needles dripping with their own mini icicles.

Icicles from larger branches became elements for 'drawings' laid out on large pieces of petrified wood near the evergreen trees.

These 'drawings' led me to think about how ice and snow might engage a string circle like the one (below) which I had created in Washington years before.

"Being Here" Port Angeles Fine Art Center - Webster's Woods, WA

I didn't have enough time before the nighttime predicted snow or enough material with me to make a large circle space, however I was able to create this small one between the legs of a wooden chair. When finished I positioned it outside so I could witness how or if it would hold the snow and ice.

The next day I was rewarded with this...

I consider my work as experimental explorations, trying to leave judgement out of the equation until necessary. I never know what is going to 'work' or what wont...but I always learn something and never know what will serve some later creation.