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My sister is in the choir at Grace St. Luke's Episcopal. I grew up half Presbyterian (my parents' church) but also half Episcopalian because I would go with my grandparents to the 7:30 service at the cathedral. I loved the older words of Rite 1, which sadly has fallen out of general use these days. My presbyterian church is still my home since it has my community and since I'm reformed enough to still feel awkward about genuflecting to objects... and also since incense makes my lungs crazy -- no one bothered with that stuff at 7:30 am. But GSL had an unusual Rite 1 service at 5pm yesterday, and I went over to hear my sister sing some of the anthems their choir will be singing in Wells Cathedral this summer, and as a surprise bonus to enjoy the ancient words of my childhood. It was exactly what I needed this week. It was a small service, and I had the balcony completely to myself, so I also was able to worship unmasked, which was a real treat. With my long covid, I'm still masking in public places. We sang lovely hymns, had a brief but meaningful message, and the music was exquisite.
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I had an energy crash at the end of the week, but fortunately I found roses on sale a few days ago at Fresh Market, so I have them to brighten my sofa retreat. Newland Archer in The Age of Innocence always gave his young fiancee May lilies of the valley, but he sent "glowing yellow roses" to the intelligent, divorced, bohemian Ellen Olenska. Ellen showed me an alternate path to the stifling social milieu of high school, and I periodically buy myself yellow roses to celebrate my life choices. I got a one month pass on HBO Max to watch the Gilded Age, which I've been wanting to see, so they feel doubly appropriate.
I made it to church for the first time in a while last week. Advent is my very favorite liturgical season, even though my church seems to have largely abandoned the plainsong Advent carols I love best. It was good to be back, and I sketched the church with its wreaths. (Presbyterians are a little unreliable on the liturgical seasons, and we've always decked the church the weekend after Thanksgiving even though it's weeks early. It does still look nice though.)
I made it to church for the first time in a while last week. Advent is my very favorite liturgical season, even though my church seems to have largely abandoned the plainsong Advent carols I love best. It was good to be back, and I sketched the church with its wreaths. (Presbyterians are a little unreliable on the liturgical seasons, and we've always decked the church the weekend after Thanksgiving even though it's weeks early. It does still look nice though.)
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My friend Christina is taking a Liz Steel architecture sketching class, and I'm reaping the benefits. Churches were the assignment, and there are two within a couple of blocks of my house, so Henry and I got to go out sketching with a friend. Her class and Inktober both have been keeping me out and sketching more this month, and it's a great pleasure.
For a second time in a row, the church looked deceptively simple to sketch until we really got started. I got the light grey too dark, but it was still fun to do.
For a second time in a row, the church looked deceptively simple to sketch until we really got started. I got the light grey too dark, but it was still fun to do.
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The Stanley Brothers had a classic album called Saturday night and Sunday morning of hard living songs and then gospel songs. Here's my take on the same phrase.
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It's the start of Inktober today. I'm beginning to think about sketches for the new Memphis book I have planned, so I'm getting back to some ink and wash sketches right on time (for once) to go with a larger, external theme. I always enjoy seeing people's ink sketches, and I join in with ones that are from my daily life. I never do the daily subject matter prompts. I'm doing great if I manage to sketch in ink more days than not through the month. I'm not great at daily challenges either. But it's fun to get the sense of playing along with other artists in a larger project, so here I go.
I got an early start on Inktober the other day at Crosstown. They had lanterns up for a festival this weekend. The ink I'm using is waterproof, which isn't my normal way to go these days, but black gets super muddy very quickly if you add paint. The waterproof ink kept the jewel tones of the lanterns nice and clean. It's a new ink I'm trying, document black from DeAtrementis. I've used brown or green or grey with watercolor that melds and blends in for years now, but I want some black line sketches for the Memphis book, so I'm trying it out in my new pen. So far I'm happy with the pen and the ink.
I got an early start on Inktober the other day at Crosstown. They had lanterns up for a festival this weekend. The ink I'm using is waterproof, which isn't my normal way to go these days, but black gets super muddy very quickly if you add paint. The waterproof ink kept the jewel tones of the lanterns nice and clean. It's a new ink I'm trying, document black from DeAtrementis. I've used brown or green or grey with watercolor that melds and blends in for years now, but I want some black line sketches for the Memphis book, so I'm trying it out in my new pen. So far I'm happy with the pen and the ink.
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I don't do a lot of this. I have been known to sketch an occasional wedding, but I haven't wanted to get more fully into that business because it's mentally exhausting, and you generally have to book a year out, which my traveling life style simply doesn't allow for. However, when my church's new pastor said that the gift he wanted from the committee was for me to live sketch his ordination (they knew he liked my work and offered him several options within that framework), I was delighted. I've been hesitant about large live events, and we're still streaming church as well as having it in person, so for the first time ever, I could work at my art desk with a huge table next to me with the space to let sketch after sketch dry instead of trying to fit myself and my work into a pew somewhere. I was tied to the video and couldn't see the "offstage" stuff, but the offset was a LOT more freedom and range of movement to sketch and discard quickly instead of awkwardly balancing in my lap and having no drying areas. I'm still limbered up for dip pen and ink from Inktober, so a lot of the really rapid ones are ink. I feel like I did a better job of being nimble within the service than I ever have before. I wanted to be able to include all of David's special people who were invited to participate in the service. I haven't even counted, but I had a table full of sketches when I was done, and I think they might make a nice scrapbook for him.
I'm still scanning in work, but here's a preview of what I did.
I'm still scanning in work, but here's a preview of what I did.
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I’ve been pretty quiet here lately because A. My art time has been doing a commission I can’t really show. B. Memphis has had two weeks of ice storm, unprecedented snow (at least in my lifetime), and now water troubles. We’ve been boiling water for days with no end in sight, and I’m washing my face at the kitchen sink with leftover tea kettle water. And C. Mr. Darcy is on hospice care in the middle of all this. His cancer is back. I’m hoping for a little more time with him now that we finally have good weather, but time is definitely short.
Above is a small detail of the commission. I’m designing the logo for the 2022 Music and Worship conference at Montreat, a huge Presbyterian center in Black Mountain, NC. I went to youth conference there every year as a teenager, and it was a really special place and event for me. I’m delighted to be asked to do this project. It’s taken a lot of sketches to get to the right place, a lot of carving, a lot of colors and rollers to print it this morning (I bought a few more small, 2” rollers to be able to use a bu ch of different colors together on the one plate and keep them clean), and there will be a decent bit of digital work this week once it dries enough for me to scan it in. They’ll need different shapes for all the various platforms (wide web banners, a vertical for the booklet, a square for IG, etc.). It’s been more of a project than I expected, but I need to just know to factor that in for church work, and I’m happy to be doing it. Above is a small detail of the finished print, since I can’t show the whole thing. It’s so nice to have your work sought out.
Above is a small detail of the commission. I’m designing the logo for the 2022 Music and Worship conference at Montreat, a huge Presbyterian center in Black Mountain, NC. I went to youth conference there every year as a teenager, and it was a really special place and event for me. I’m delighted to be asked to do this project. It’s taken a lot of sketches to get to the right place, a lot of carving, a lot of colors and rollers to print it this morning (I bought a few more small, 2” rollers to be able to use a bu ch of different colors together on the one plate and keep them clean), and there will be a decent bit of digital work this week once it dries enough for me to scan it in. They’ll need different shapes for all the various platforms (wide web banners, a vertical for the booklet, a square for IG, etc.). It’s been more of a project than I expected, but I need to just know to factor that in for church work, and I’m happy to be doing it. Above is a small detail of the finished print, since I can’t show the whole thing. It’s so nice to have your work sought out.
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One of the crazy fun things about having artwork at Dixon Gallery and Gardens is being able to go out and do a tour on various afternoons. For me, as an artist who works mostly at home in solitude, it’s great fun to get to dress up, go out in public, and talk about art, ideas, and where my work comes from. I love getting to answer questions and see folks interacting with my work. This year, of course, things are different, but Linley Schmidt taped me (outdoors in the cold, bless her, because I didn’t want to take off my mask indoors, and I’m terribly muffled talking with it on) in the gardens and shared this video for a virtual “tour.” It’s a little harder to just wind up and go without questions or feedback, but fortunately talking is one of my comfortable places. And I do really love the chance to have to put into words the less formed ideas floating around in my brain while I’m working. It pushes me and clarifies my own thinking. Being in this show is a huge honor, and I enjoyed getting to draw the through lines from the St. John’s gospel back through the history of marrying art and text.
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Last year I was thrilled to get an invitation to be artist-in-residence for a worship and music conference. The themes were creation and Celtic Christianity, so right in my wheelhouse. Sadly the conference itself fell through (and would have by now anyway, if it hadn't before), but I tend to dive straight into ideas as I get them. So I did a bit of experimenting in paths that are not my normal art practice. I played with metallic acrylic paints in a series of self portraits, and I also did a small set of almost abstract (as abstract as I can get, anyway) paintings based on each day of creation. This very strange Easter felt like exactly the time to scan them in and share them. I think I'll put up one a day on facebook, but it's not bad to gather them all here to see together. I'll put them up on my liturgical sets page as well. Occasionally churches buy jpeg images to use in worship. It's powerful and uplifting for me to have my art used in worship by people I don't even know.
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On my recent swing through the Midwest, I saw two excellent museums plus one special exhibition, the St. John’s Bible. It was a profound moment for me. My dad had raised me on Celtic knotwork from the Book of Kells (which I incorporated into my first handmade quilt in my 20’s), my grandmother and I saw the Lindisfarne Gospels when I was 17, which made a huge impression on me, and I was both a religion and art major, with a lot of time spent on the art history illustrating Biblical scenes. I knew there had been a long term project to create the first full illuminated Bible, and I had seen a number of images from it, but I had never seen it in person.
This project had an enormous personal impact on me when the Presbyterian Church U.S.A, inspired by the beauty and artwork of the St. John’s Bible, decided to commission artwork to illustrate the denomination’s new Book of Common Worship. I was lucky enough to be the artist to receive that commission, and it has been easily the most important project of my career.
The St. John’s Bible pages are huge. Far larger than I had pictured. They had a number of the painted pages, and (fascinating for me) they also had the collage mock ups that the artists did before beginning in on that actual vellum. The exhibition also included some Medieval French illuminated psalters.
Standing in that room with that long line of Biblical artwork made me feel enormously privileged to be a part of that line of artists through centuries who have interpreted and illustrated the Bible. The book I illustrated will never get the museum attention that the enormous St. John’s project has, but it is in use nationally and beyond for the next 25 or 30 years. I am deeply grateful to have been a part of it.
No photographs were allowed in the exhibition, which I was sad about. I would love to share the collages alongside the finished pages. It was a fascinating journey. But my partner kindly surprised me at the end with the Book of Psalms from the gift shop. I’m thrilled to have a small piece of it to bring home and to remember standing in that space that spanned time, belonging to a long line of artists who contributed to this ongoing work of retelling and interpreting the word. The Book of Common Worship was limited in colors, which suited my printmaking focus, so it has a very different feel. But here are a few photos of my illustrations alongside the St. John's Bible.
The St. John’s Bible pages are huge. Far larger than I had pictured. They had a number of the painted pages, and (fascinating for me) they also had the collage mock ups that the artists did before beginning in on that actual vellum. The exhibition also included some Medieval French illuminated psalters.
Standing in that room with that long line of Biblical artwork made me feel enormously privileged to be a part of that line of artists through centuries who have interpreted and illustrated the Bible. The book I illustrated will never get the museum attention that the enormous St. John’s project has, but it is in use nationally and beyond for the next 25 or 30 years. I am deeply grateful to have been a part of it.
No photographs were allowed in the exhibition, which I was sad about. I would love to share the collages alongside the finished pages. It was a fascinating journey. But my partner kindly surprised me at the end with the Book of Psalms from the gift shop. I’m thrilled to have a small piece of it to bring home and to remember standing in that space that spanned time, belonging to a long line of artists who contributed to this ongoing work of retelling and interpreting the word. The Book of Common Worship was limited in colors, which suited my printmaking focus, so it has a very different feel. But here are a few photos of my illustrations alongside the St. John's Bible.
