conceptual, literary, and visual artist
Artists and writers have faced the blank canvas / the blank page and chronicled so much about the experience. in 2014, taking my first film class, I made a short student film to address the mood on a dark and rainy day on Maui. My partner, artist Shane Robinson, indulged me and played the part of the brooding artist. Continue reading “The Blank Canvas”
I’ve been a “peace nik” since my high school days, when I canvassed my Republican neighborhood in protest of the Vietnam War. (Results: Fail. I don’t think I changed a single mind.)
Years later, my activism and my performance art instincts came together when a friend of mine, Carolyn Lee, organized a naked “peace in” in Santa Fe, NM. (Photo by Jennifer Esperanza.) Continue reading “Women Baring Witness 2003”
Here are a few of the abstract photographs I took when re-learning how to use a DSLR camera. I first learned film photography in college (1974!) and fell in love with the ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) photos my partner was creating back in 2014-2016. Shane moved on to abstract painting and taught me some of the secrets behind this type of abstract photography that is made entirely in camera. No photoshop tricks or digital manipulation here. Continue reading “Abstract Photography from Maui”
Monday, July 9, 2018
6-7 pm – Artist Remarks at 6:30 pm
Sip Me
7 Ka‘ahumanu Ave, Kahului, Maui
Free and open to all
Scroll down to see photos from the event and read a few comments.
I’ve been noodling on this idea for several months and am going to just share it out loud and see where it goes. (I’ve updated this post to feature the preliminary canvas we’ve created! The original blue canvas was by Yves Klein, the French artist who is credited with bringing body printing to the art world.)
I am inspired by the early body print paintings of Yves Klein, a prominent and controversial French artist, that were created in the early 1960’s.
I’m also inspired by this question: Who are You? Continue reading “Call for Figures & Quotes: Maui Community Art Project”
I originally applied to the Spring 2018 International Juried Exhibition at LACDA, the LA Center for Digital Art. It was curated by Leigh Gleason, Curator of Collections at the California Museum of Photography. My work was not selected for this show.
A few weeks later, though, the gallery director, Rex Bruce, emailed and invited me to participate in the Electron Salon, April, 2018. “You were selected based your submissions for competition(s) or Snap to Grid as being among the best that were contributed.” OK, that felt really good to read.
Continue reading “Electron Salon, 2018”
With hindsight in my hands, I now think of this experience as my first ‘performance art’ piece. I had been studying the scientific benefits of touch when I traveled to New York City to run a 5K race at midnight on New Year’s Eve in 1989. It was also my birthday and I wanted to do something wild and weird to celebrate it.
So, I committed to roaming the streets, offering free hugs to anyone who would like one, aiming for 37 hugs to 37 strangers on my 37th birthday. At the time, NYC was quintessentially “New York,” aka as far from touchy-feely California as I could get. My Manhattan friends’ offered dire warnings for my safety. “It’s dangerous to get so up close and intimate with strangers in New York!” Continue reading “37 Hugs for 37 Strangers, 1989”
This photograph is part of my “I AM” series, which are nude portraits of myself exploring the natural states of the female form as expressed in the midst of nature itself. As a 65 year-old woman and emerging artist, I’m curious about the lines between nakedness and sexuality, between self-expression and exhibitionism, between acting and resting, between body perfect and body positive.
The statement in 1s and 0s repeated on the image is the actual binary code for “I AM.” In computer programming, the 1s and 0s represent a binary choice at each step of execution: on or off, yes or no. This appears at first glance to ground the universe in black and white thinking, but in reality, the infinite combinations of 1s and 0s is what creates extraordinary diversity. This diversity is well documented in nature and is becoming ever more appreciated in humanity as well. Continue reading “I AM: Resting in the Redwoods”
An Interactive Installation
I am very interested in the exchange of energy, especially as it relates to the creation and experience of art. This piece gives the gallery visitors numerous opportunities to give and receive energy in the presence of the art. I have created an energetic space, to offer two “director” chairs, one each for directing the energy of giving and the energy of receiving.
The chairs are not fixed but are meant to be arranged by the visitor to create an experience with another visitor (itself an act of art) or to engage with the art in the gallery from the perspective of “receiving insights” or “giving appreciation” as an example. Continue reading “Energy Chairs, 2016”
There was a time in the mid 1990s when I had gone through my second divorce and was waffling between careers. I was living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an artist’s Mecca. I signed up for a watercolor class in the evening, joining a room full of mostly women (mostly older than I was) as we learned about paper, paint, color, and shape. I had no art training whatsoever.
All of my paintings were made from photographs, except the “goddess” paintings. They were inspired by postcards I found on a trip to Maui. I loved the original images, and, wanted to use them as inspiration but not to exactly copy them. I wish I had the originals as I would like to credit the artist who inspired me. Continue reading “Watercolor Paintings from the 1990s”
My darling partner, Shane Robinson, gave me a blank canvas that he made himself on my birthday, December 31, 2015. He wrote a special message on the canvas and it came with these conditions:
“Make a painting by your next birthday or the panel reverts to me.”
Fair enough. The blank canvas sat in my office on the floor. Months went by as I started gathering ideas. Things coalesced in the spring and in the span of less than a week, I created this painting. It was barely dry when I dropped it off for jurying, 15 minutes before closing time. The next day, I received my acceptance email. #Ecstatic! I took the I AM binary message and stamped it on a black top that I wore to the art opening. I enjoy creative expression without concern for whether it’s “high brow” or “low brow.” Continue reading “Voyaging, 2016”