The Response: Recollections of Liberty — Cheryl I keep returning to my paintings and starting new ones to use as fodder in my multiple exposure and composite images. Combining them in this way seems like a perfect synthesis for me.

The Call: The Right Direction — Cheryl Now that I’ve found this artistic place that feels like home, I discover something new and wonderful every time I pick up my camera. This four-shot multiple-exposure image was created with the corner of a canvas I’m painting, an odd camera angle, and a little tweaking in Lightroom.

The Call: Eye Cannot Explain — Cheryl It seems like a great deal of my life has been centered around explaining who I am or what I mean. Being understood was of the utmost importance to me. Now, it’s not. I once read something like, “If an artist could express himself in words, he wouldn’t […]

The Response: Paper Flower with Stars, No. 1; a Flower as a World —Cheryl She [Georgia O’Keeffe] painted flowers as no one else painted them: in enormous close-up. You feel the flowers pressing against your face; you smell them; you sense the silky petals. The flowers are partly realistic … and partly abstract. … The […]

The Response: Revelations — Cheryl Sometimes the truth smacks you in the head; sometimes it simmers in the back of your brain; most of the time, it fractures your carefully constructed world.

The Response: The Line Between — Cheryl I think, at its core, art is about rubbing out the line between what is tangible and what is felt or known instinctively. The challenge is getting that line to disappear. Few are able to accomplish it, at least on a consistent basis. The rest of us end […]

Fifth Call: Bird of Many Colors Yesterday, I wrote about Jessica being my own personal contemplation trigger. Today, I’d like to explore at least one of the thoughts she put into my head. First and foremost: I’ve discovered that Jessica and I (seem to, at least) approach art/photography in completely different manners. Jessica, please correct […]

The Call: Vincent — Jessica Today, I finally went on a field trip with my homeschooling daughter. We went to the National Gallery of Art because I really wanted to see the Pre-Raphaelite show before it ended on Saturday. But imagine my surprise when I turned the corner in the main gallery and saw the […]

Over the Fireplace — Cheryl Dennis and I bought this painting outside our local Safeway years and years ago. He tells me that the style is not original, but it’s real paint on real canvas. All I know is that its beautiful, rich colors and rounded shapes make me happy. The Response: Easter Basket — […]

The Call: Returning Order, Slowly — Jessica We do this for the art, not the adulation. I’d rather our music get liked and we get ignored. I don’t want to be adored for anything other than the music. — Andy Partridge This sums up, pretty nicely, how I feel about photography. While it is nice […]

The Call: Supper at Emmaus — Cheryl When I began teaching my kids at home twelve years ago, I became interested in art history, and while I appreciate works from many different periods, I find myself especially drawn to painters who seem to be especially drawn to light and shadow: Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer. Of those […]

The Call: Baby Time — Jessica I was watching this video on double exposure this morning. I love Kai — he hates communists and is very funny. However, he does use some colorful language that we (ahem) try not to use over here. If you follow the link be careful that little ears aren’t nearby. […]

The Call: Years in the Making — Cheryl Years ago, I came across a great idea in Martha Stewart Living: remove the staples from one end of a stretched canvas; slide an unframed, magnetic dry erase board between the canvas and stretchers; re-staple; then paint and hang for a personalized memo board. I already owned […]

The Call: Traffic Sign Truth — Jessica “Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art, if it is not art itself. Metaphor is our vocabulary for connecting what we’re experiencing now with what we have experienced before. It’s not only how we express what we remember, it’s how we interpret it — for ourselves and others.” […]