Oaxaca Street Children Benefit

You've heard of the "butterfly effect", which theorizes that a change in something seemingly innocuous, such as a flap of a butterfly's wings, may have unexpected larger consequences in the future.

I think this project is a perfect example of that, although we may never be direct witnesses to the end result. This is where faith comes in.

This is a fundraiser, an on-line auction for the street children of Oaxaca. The monies raised from this event will go directly to the children and provide them with a chance for a high school education. You see, in Mexico, when a student reaches the high school level, they have to apply for it and pay the $50.00 application fee. Not much to you and I, but this prohibits many from continuing their education. If they had that fee, they can go on to continue their education. Sadly, many cannot.

Here's where you and I come in. I, along with many other artists have created a Cigar Box Shrine with a Day of the Dead theme (I did a very loose interpretation of this). These shrines become part of an online auction. Here's where YOU come in. You can bid on any of the shrines created. If you win the bid, you get the shrine! By doing so, you will have a hand in providing an incredible educational opportunity for a child in Oaxaca. I call this a "win-win" situation.

The following images are the progression that my shrine took:

I started with a simple cigar box of Volcano Cigars from Hawaii (very appropo for me).

The interior of the shrine with the doll before the transformation (fig leaf for modesty!).

Here she is about halfway through her transformation.

And, a little bit closer to completion.

This is the front of the shrine about mid-stream. The image of the Raven not only represents death, but also, a new beginning. It is a photo that I took in the parking lot somewhere in Arizona!

The completed front section of the shrine.

The completed interior of the shrine.

The dress of the doll is comprised of one inch squares of sections of a dictionary. The dream catcher that she is holding was gilded in gold. I hope that the significance of this is obvious!

The name of this shrine? "El Cazador De Suenos". Translates to: "The Catcher of Dreams".

Go ahead, make a dream come true for a child or two in Oaxaca. Click here for the link to the Oaxaca Street Children Benefit (the Shrine Gallery is under construction but, should be done soon!).

RRAA "New Works" at Loma Colorado Library

The works you see here are on exhibit at the Loma Colorado Library as a part of the Rio Rancho Art Association annual juried show, "New Works". Happily, all three of my entries were accepted!. The exhibition runs from Sept. 1- 29th, 2009. If you are interested in attending the reception, it is on Saturday, Sept. 12 from 2-4 p.m. at the library.

“In Vacuo”
(25" x 25" framed: $650.00)

Medium: mixed media on paper

“In Vacuo” is Latin for, “in a vacuum”. In a way, it is very much so related to my other mixed media piece in this show, “You Don’t Know” because not only were they executed at the same time, but the content of both pieces are not completely dissimilar. It too is a process painting.
The underpainting of this was from another artist. I had bought the paper at an estate sale of someone who had passed away. It felt strange to buy a piece of art that was only in it’s development stage, but I felt compelled to do something to it to finish it. It felt like a collaboration with someone in another realm. Here’s what it looked like:



In this image, I had already begun to introduce my marks, but for the most part, the integrity of the original image is still there.
This piece has to do with isolating one’s self; protecting one’self from the bombardment of life. The only way one can successfully do this is to keep themselves in a vacuum. Whether or not that is a good or a bad thing, I’ll let you be the judge.

“Colors of Time”
(16 1/8" x 24 1/4" on canvas: $350.00)

Medium: Photography on canvas

One of the things that I am most passionate about in my photography is capturing images of things that most people walk right by. I’ve named this approach that I embrace a “celebration of the mundane”.
This image is no exception to that rule. I was at the Petrified Forest State Park in AZ soaking it all in. And taking lots of photos, of course. This piece of petrified wood is near a curve on the pathway. It caught my eye (I love detail). To get this shot required my being on the ground (which happens often); which is why most people probably just pass it by.
What I was most astounded with was the amount of color in this band of wood. I found it to be absolutely breathtaking. In real life, the actual size of the image area you are looking at is less than three inches. I thought that making the image over sized was a good treatment of the image.
I’m sure you ‘get it’ as to why I named it, “The Colors of Time”.

“You Don’t Know”
(16" x 20" Framed: $650.00)

Medium: Mixed Media on wood

By Paula Scott

Often, when I work in the realm of mixed media, an event occurs with me that I call, “spontaneous combustion”. The piece just unfolds itself on its own right before my eyes. That is exactly what happened here.
The image came to me intuitively; nothing about this painting was pre-planned in the conscious sense. This kind of painting is often referred to as, “process painting” where one gives up the habitual modes of painting and gives in completely to the intuition. I find the process approach to be very liberating and satisfying. Not only is this process liberating, but often it is cathartic and healing.
The name of the work, “You Don’t Know” speaks of the raw emotion that we keep bottled up inside ourselves as a result of conflict or pain. It is a vulnerable state to be in. It involves intense emotions.
I believe that the eyes are the windows to the soul. We spend all of our waking hours keeping the curtains drawn on these windows; not allowing anyone a peek inside. Hence, the name of the piece.

It is Time...Save this Date!!

New Mexico Natural History Museum: On Being There

Being There: Photographers in Their Natural Habitat

I must admit I'm a little late on posting this. It's a submission to the New Mexico Natural History Museum call for photography. The exhibit opened a month ago and will be up all summer through the end of August.

We were supposed to take you to a place in NM that we love to do what we do-photograph nature. The catch was that we were to include ourselves in the photo.

I was laughing so much to myself when I was doing this; grateful that I was out in the middle of nowhere-a wilderness area in the four corners region of the state called, Ah Sli She Pah. Laughing because I was going back and forth to the camera to set off the timer and running into the picture frame hoping that I was placing myself well and then striking and holding a silly pose before the camera went off. I feel awkward posting this image since it contains all of me. Ugh! But, there you go. Goofy herself.

It was a juried show and I got one of three honorable mentions. I'm thrilled. I only submitted one photo! You could submit up to three I think.

To see all the other images in the show and the prospectus, click on this link here.

2009 Rio Rancho Foundation Seats and Eats Fundraiser

Many artists have contributed to this fundraiser (Seats and Eats), including myself. The event takes place on Friday, April 24th 2009 at the Tamaya Resort. Sorry, there is no current website available for this and if you Google it, you will get stuff from previous years.We were given a choice of doing a coffee table, child's chair, larger chair, end table and so forth. We each picked up the unfinished pre-made furniture (made locally and from recycled materials). From there, we got to do what we want with what we selected.

"This fundraiser is a collaborative project that involves artists and local restaurants (hence the name, Seats and Eats). The furniture gets auctioned off and the monies raised goes towards the Rio Rancho Public Schools Foundation. It helps to provide grants for the teachers in the district.

As of today, there are 15 local restaurants participating and the Rio Rancho Astronomy Club is preparing to take anyone who is interested on tours of the dark beautiful skies that evening (which, by the way is the new moon, so it doesn't' get any 'darker'!).

The staff of the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort will be creating a wonderland in the grand tent on the Bosque. It should prove to be a spectacular night!" For ticket information, please email Cindy at: cindyhibler@aol.com. If I can track down a website and phone number for everyone, I shall come back and update this post with that information!

In the meantime, here's my contribution:

"Medicine Woman"

Coffee Table: 22”W x 47”L x 17”H

Artist Statement:

I took the Native American symbol of the medicine elder (represented here in the female gender) and used it as the primary image on this table. Medicine Men and Women are called upon to be facilitators between the physical world and the spiritual world; sometimes for the sake of healing disease or even in healing the psyche. Sometimes help is sought in promoting harmony between groups or between man and nature. In any case, it is for the benefit of the entire community. These medicine elders also have incredible wisdom and insight which, at times, is imparted to individuals or the community. They are leaders and teachers.

It should prove to be a fabulous evening. I got to see the furniture contributions done by the other participating artists and I must say that the submissions are amazing! Such talent and such variety!

With all the budget cuts that have had to take place in this fiscal year, the schools need your support now more than ever!

Broken Skateboard Art

So, what do YOU do with broken skateboards? I'd venture that if you do a lot of skateboarding, you either have a 'broken board grave', or they perhaps ended up in a landfill.

I'll admit I'm too damned old to be skateboarding. But, my 17 year old son does. And, if you're serious about it, you go a lot and you end up with a lot of broken boards. That's just the way it goes!

The inspiration for this came from Jesse Reno. He has done the graphics on some boards for a company in California (amongst a million other projects and a kazillion awesome paintings). My son and I thought it was pretty darned cool. It was my son's idea to use his broken boards to do artwork on.

So, you know who (that would be me) embarked on a new adventure of recycling his boards and using them as a substrate for art. You have to put a lot of stuff behind the board in order for it to hang on the walls properly (otherwise the bow shape of the board makes it sit cattawonkers on the wall). I used pieces of scrap lumber and a bunch of corks from wine bottles and a couple of eye screws and wire and you're good to go!

These are all mixed media pieces. I haven't officially named them. I guess I should. No matter, I can't sell them as they are going on the wall of my son's room (he claims them as his since they are, after all, on HIS boards!).

Maybe I should call this one, "Stop Looking At Me!"

"Two Crows". How unimaginative a name!

This one does have a name. It's the "Jesse-fied Fish". Kind of a collaborative work between Jesse and I. I did most of it and Jesse added his marks to it when I was done.

Solstice I

Solstice I

Mixed media 4" x 6"

A friend of mine and I kept talking about playing around with a plaster technique (inspired by Stephanie Lee) nearly all of year last year. Y'know, one of those, "let's do a play day" kind of thing. Between being sick, being out of town, teaching, shows, family obligations and so forth, it took us nearly a year to sit down and do that play day! It's not as though we couldn't have experimented with this technique on our own.

But, the energy and flow is indeed different when you sit down with a friend to try out something new to both of you. We 'winged it' as far as what we thought we were supposed to do and had a great time. We had no expectations, no judgment, no worry about the outcome.

We sat there and mixed up our plaster and used all our so called 'tools' (one of our favs was a potato masher). Things got mooshed around, objects were imbedded. Lots of funny stories and laughter. The art was more of a secondary thing next to enjoying each others company.

Plaster on canvas with acrylic and oil.

You can see what my friend did here.