About Me

My photo
Documenting a period in my development that could become pivotal

Friday, December 23, 2005

Immigrants' Dream

This painting is not for sale.
Maybe these changes to the Kirnville produce stand painting will be the changes that sum up my involvement. The same pioneering spirit alive here in Oregon today is the same spirit that my great grandparents had in the 1890's in Palestine. Their dreams for their children were what they were about.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Produce Stand turned to Welcome Immigrants

This painting is not available for sale.
Starting in October I painted on location at the Barking Dog Produce Stand in Kirnville. After painting over the first rain splattered runny colors, I gave much thought to why I was drawn to the site. I was especially interested in how discarded trash metal was made into bird sculptures and rod ironwork. Here was an example of art and agriculture coming together to make community. Here in Oregon I saw the restoration of the original farming communities in Eurasia. But when I painted the Asian drinking from a bowl that just didn't say enough. I felt that I had more in me needing to get out. I became aware that I wanted to paint the spirit of pioneer communities. This spirit is here and also in my ancesters past. Almost everybody has immigrant ancestors some where in their family tree. Some of mine were immigrants to Palestine at the end of the 19th century. My great grandfather David Widler was appointed by the Ottoman Empire powers at the time to be in charge of helping Jewish immigrants. So I have painted my grandfather learning to watercolor. Also painted his sisters with a great uncle learning to be still with animals and love music. Another great uncle studied photography. I have no pictures of them in Israel but I have gone and retraced their steps. Why have I painted them? Because it was their hopes for their children to repair the world through agriculture and art making community. In this painting there are emotions beyond words.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Fishing the Crooked River

This acrylic painting on canvas 33 1/2 " x 27 1/2" framed , 22" x 28" image is for sale. $500
Near Prineville, Oregon the pines along the Crooked River have such beautiful bark. It is a pleasure to paint these trees in a natural river setting while my husband fishes for the Red Side Rainbow Trout.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Oregon Cross Country Race

Not available for sale, this painting was completed around 1996.
I like walking in the rain but cross country running is a challenge under slick conditions. I did this painting from a sketch I did under a shelter at Avery Park in Corvallis. Then I di watercolor and liked the subject so much I did an acrylic painting.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Rocking Chair at Kyra's Home

This one is not for sale.



















I might make more interior paintings especially during the winter months. I like windows especially so the outdoors is always present in these paintings. In this painting I was charmed by Kyra's hospitality and it shone through my hand. I think I have touched on Kyra's romantic personality here.

Friday, November 18, 2005

As in Early Civilizations Farming, Creative Arts and Community are One

These are not for sale.














I have been painting over and over this one since September. In the process I realized that I wanted to paint the idealistic pioneering agriculture in late 19th century Palestine where my family was. I realized that the same spirit was in the produce stand in Kirnville, Oregon as well as many other places in the world at various periods of history. I really don't know which came first. Was it community, creative arts, or farming? Most likely all three occured at the same time. And possibly my forebearers believed we would all enjoy life more if we cultivated these three all together.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

"Painting in Tibet" and "The Jaffa Train to Jerusalem"

Both acrylic paintings are for sale for $500 each. "The Tibetan Monk Painter" is 24" x 20" and "The Jerusalem Train" is 28" x 22".



















After my trip to China Tibet in 2002 I painted my memory of an artist I met and his monastery studio. I loved his set up of paint pots and yak butter tea. He sipped tea while he drank Sprite soft drinks. I would like to paint in his place perched in a window looking out on barren, rugged rocky mountains. What calm he must feel working on his meticulous religious thangkas painting. He has more than anyone else in Tibet. He has the best of two worlds - modern consumerism and the painter's spiritual path. Without tourists there would be no incentive to keep the appearance of tradition.
In 1994 I retraced my grandfather's steps and rode the Jerusalem train. Then in TelAviv I found what information and picures I could on the train station in Jaffa in 1892. Using some imagination I painted my great grandmother and grandfather boarding the train. Later family confirmed my hunch that they did go to Jerusalem on the train.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Me at my August Show at Pegasus Gallery, Corvallis, Oregon

The painting of my grandfather and the vase is not for sale.

"What My Grandfather's Vase Means to Me - Giving Gifts" features some of the paintings I did as a tribute to my grandfather and my parents. Doing these paintings brought back memories and made me curious to do research into the relationship of the beginnings of making porcelain to making the Chinese Empire cosmopolitan. There was back and forth exchange of ideas throughout history. No civilization can exist by itself but is stimulated by cultural exchanges.
UP DATE September 28, 2009

The process I was going through understanding the significance of giving gifts of vases as a bridge to competing powers and their history has given me the idea for the Children's Ceramic Project.

A Cactus is a Water Vessel

This 1965 acrylic collage painting on canvas is for sale for $500. 45" x 31" It was painted in Tucson Arizona when we first arrived there and my husband was studying for his Masters Degree in Chemistry. This sequaro reminded me of a painting by Diego Rivera inwhich the cactus was like a hand stretching for water. The sequaro is a vessel of water and I appreciated seeing it swell during the rains.

from observing the sequaro in the dry season and the wet ones too, I can learn to appreciate shapes of vessels and vases and even human gesture.

Shared Treasure

Sold

A dragon feels light and free being able to speak out. I have felt this way when I loaned a vase to the Jordan Schniter Art Museum, University of Oregon.

Without intention my twisting twirling style sometimes makes form that are like dragons. to see a hidden dragon look closely at "Primeval Sea" and loop back to the beginning of the tour by clicking here.

Green Horizon Jar

"Green Horizon Jar" is a quarter sheet watercolor unframed and is for sale. $90

Jars do not pour well; they keep their contents bottled up sometimes calm and sometimes stormy. If there were no waters there would be no storms like we know. I hope all the water melting at the ice caps of our earth is stored in the atmosphere and we will remain a green earth. I hope life here will continue for my grandchildren's children for as long as can be imagined.

UP DATE, September 28, 20009 I am continuing my interest in the meaning of shapes of vessels in my current Children's Ceramic Project.

Flower Vessel Overturned with Torn Connections

This is a detail of "Connections" and is sold.

Sunrise, sunset, sunrise the spiral of time turning clockwise like a dancing vessel. War time rips into the fabric of time, the circle dance is either coming together or flying apart as in Matisse's Dancers, 1918. The chrysanthimum photographed by my grandfather in 1930 moves with cosmic time. Is it cut off from the earth? Will it survive? In the cycles of the seasons there will be another Spring and a rebirth.

UPDATE : September 28, 2009. I am continuing my interest in the expression of our humanity in the Children's Ceramic Project.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Birth of Flowers in Seed Pod

This half sheet watermedia painting is for sale. $ 100
I saw a dried up daisy sprouting new life in our yard. It got me to thinking. The seed pod was a vessel like a womb. The vase also like a womb is my symbol for creation and the beginnings of all time. Out of the dark comes life again and again.

Vessels

This half sheet watercolor painting is for sale. $100 Our planet earth can be thought of as a vessel holding water and life.
UPDATE: September 28, 2009 All of my past paintings of vessels and vases prepared me for symbolizing what people feel is most precious to them.

Watercolor Painting Passion

This is on a 30" x 20" watercolor board. For sale. $ 250
UPDATE: September 28, 2009 This is a painting of the hidden insides or basic core of my antique Chinese Mille Fleures Vase made around 1920. I have tried to look down the neck of the vase and can not see the entire interior. It hides something. Something more than physical. I can no longer talk to my grand father who gave it to the family. It has potential that i am exploring in the Children's Ceramic Project.