"Space Travel","Industrial Man","First Class"."Elsie", and "Beetlebasket"

Here are a few more of my recent collages - the human presence continues to haunt me, plus some bugs. It must be the approach of fall and Halloween.

Human Invasion, Sort Of

Some of my most recent collages, at 11" X 13" unframed a bit larger than previous ones, have incorporated human images. This comes as a shock to me, because for years I've been explaining the flowers in my work as possible metaphoric people. But REAL ones? And is this impulse from my unconscious or a ghost in our house or outer space?

My passion for Sudoku, an unexpected trip to the circus, a garage sale find of Fortune magazines from about 1933, and our family's interest in green tea have provided much of the material for these recent works, but I wonder whether human imagery will soon also crop up in my paintings. Then I'll need to totally re-think what the work is about.

From the top, the titles of these collages are:

Sudoku+

Earth to Kooza

Tea Time

Green Tea

Tea Quilt

More On "Brushes" And My IPHONE

Most of my battery life has been used up painting on my phone. Not such a great "phone" at that, considering the failed and dropped calls, but such an amazing tool in other ways. My new sketch book, address book, calendar, news source, e-mail tool. I feel as if I've skipped a century, technologically speaking. Now if I could just get through a phone call without having to call back and apologize for the lost connection!

Airplanes and IPhones

Four images painted during a recent airplane trip are shown above. It's amazing how my new phone can make the time traveling bearable. The hours speed by. I used only my fingers as a tool, and the "Brushes" application. A stylus would perhaps make the drawings more exact, but I enjoy the clumsiness, which prevents me from being compulsively accurate.

"Out of the Mud"

Just finished this canvas of the waterlily and lotus pond at Hudson Gardens in Littleton, Colorado. I've painted several versions of this pond - the frustration of always looking at it through the reeds and grasses which surround the water seems a metaphor for so much of life - futilely reaching for that object of desire.

"The Blue Tree"

The first painting I've completed from my recent workshop in Santa Fe, a gate in the midst of Mrs. Bobb's garden.

"The Art of Women" In Downtown Denver

Andra Archer and the Archer Concept Group have curated a surprisingly strong show consisting of very diverse images from 31 of Colorado's women artists. I'm pleased to be included. I was unfamiliar with a number of the artists, and enjoyed seeing all of the work, mostly wall pieces but some sculpture.

The show is co-sponsored by Brookfield Properties and the Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce, and continues until August 19th on the main and lower levels of the Republic Plaza, in downtown Denver.