The Strength of the Spirit of Nature:
Have you ever walked down a path, road or a sidewalk and noticed seedlings and plants trying to make their way through the barriers that mankind has constructed to keep them out? I have long observed and given these tiny bits credit for trying so hard to make it through anything that we put down! Of course I have been a perpetrator as well, and a puller of "weeds" or plant life in the wrong places, but still, I see beauty in the growth, and a tenacity of spirit for these seedlings, to push their way through and venture into life. There is something settling about the way the natural world eventually topples us, slowly, and efficiently, and with great strength of spirit!
At the moment I am working in Baton Rouge, where I have set up a little make shift studio and going on walks to find new and adventurous ways to realize that life continues.
The images you see are varied, a crack in the pavement, an anthill slowly wearing away the pavement in my driveway, A little flower making its way in what looks like no crack at all, a mixture of driveway cracks that have a multitude of life, and one just barely begun, a plant that found it's way up to a rooftop to insinuate itself on a garage!
Finally the big day came: every painting was placed in its frame, and all of the paintings loaded in the van. Mark Mitchell (wood worker) and I arrived at the Grand Rapids Art Museum ready to hang, and found just the perfect wall waiting for us. It took five hours to hang, with Mark being very exacting in his measurements and exacting in the placement. When we were finished, we were delighted with the entry's appearance! I was the first of 43 artists with my artwork up!
I spent a couple of weeks of wrapping the frames with the copper, applying the chemical to make a patina, & then applying elbow grease with steel wool to burnish them down. I think they are now close to done! I still need to apply the wax to the frames and polish. The paintings are now mounted on board and ready for putting in the frames, so I took a moment this morning to assemble them on the floor, and was excited to see how the copper looked around the paintings. 
Another ArtPrize Exhibition is drawing near! I have been working on mine since January- you can see the beginnings of it in an earlier post. (A short recap: my project is a group of 16 images, all to do with the idea of "The Tenacity of Nature" and deals with how nature makes it through man-made elements no matter how we pull, stomp and push back. And it's good.)
On March 21, 2010 I had an opening at Park Church Congregational Church in downtown Grand Rapids. A friend took some photos of the opening and I took a few photos of the walls.
The Strength of the Spirit of Nature:
Have you ever walked down a path, road or a sidewalk and noticed seedlings and plants trying to make their way through the barriers that mankind has constructed to keep them out? I have long observed and given these tiny bits credit for trying so hard to make it through anything that we put down! Of course I have been a perpetrator as well, and a puller of "weeds" or plant life in the wrong places, but still, I see beauty in the growth, and a tenacity of spirit for these seedlings, to push their way through and venture into life. There is something settling about the way the natural world eventually topples us, slowly, and efficiently, and with great strength of spirit!
