Precious Vase - Legislation

May there be new beginnings of peace this Christmas.
In the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian on either side of the Lansdowne portrait of George Washington are arched niches

holding two large ceramic vases that are tall enough to carry a very large presence. These vases were on National and International News. In front of them and the painting of George Washington Nancy Pelosi held the press conference after the passage of the Health Care Bill by the House of Representatives. There must be some symbolic reasoning here.

Analyzing the body language of the vases they symbolize desirable law making. Their symmetry says balance. Their elongated bodies say law should buoy up the people. The shoulders are formed by hands that are pushing inward. The shoulders push the inner space inwards. They say laws should be stabilizing and add to balance. The shoulders are just above the heart meaning the laws should be made with a good heart. The neck says it is opening up and liberating. The glaze wafts in waves rising up in the chaos of smoke like the many differing desires of the people that are considered and buoyed upwards by legislation by the people.

Analyzing the relationship of the arches to the vases, The arches are far stronger like the arches of the Roman Aqueducts that carried life giving water to ceramic vessels that stored the water. The arches can also be compared to the structure of a temple or to the structure of a government and the vases can be the people under their own laws being buoyed up, stabilized, balanced with equality.

Vases like these are displayed in throne rooms like the Emperor of China's past. 1642 AD The "Great Fifth" Dalai Lama presented tow vases to the Manchu Qing Emperor of China to remind him of their common Buddhist religion in Manchuria. The vases replaced the traditional exchange of wives carried out to insure peace between two nations. So here in the National Gallery of Portraits the large vases places the United States as being an evolving government with stature. Or it could be interpreted as a religious symbol regarding the religious respect to nations of differing aspirations.

The portrait was also dignified presenting President Washington in a style befitting of a King only he was dressed like a well to do dignified citizen. The gesture of his hand addresses us and just below his hand is the goose feather pen and ink well used to sign laws and treaties. The painting was made at the end of his two terms of office. Stormy times were over and the future was bright with promise like the rainbow. There was some symbolism in choosing to have the news conference before these national treasures.

There was a controversial bill passed by the Senate today. The two arches holding the vases may be one for the House and one for the Senate. Or they might be interpreted as being the shape of the Ten Commandment Stones. I am not sure yet how I might paint these or sculpt them. Law is important and precious and could be a subject for my precious vase series.
I have never made a vase that closely resembles another work of another artist.

Painting from Accordion Folded Photo, Watercolor Study

There are many ways to use accordion folded watercolor paper books. They make great greeting cards. They store well in a shoe box along with photos for keeping memories. Here I will talk about how in the studio they stand up like a card next to my paints and pallet as an inspiration. I walked to a North Albany field a half of a mile from my house. I was traveling light with a camera and paper and field painting supplies. The stubble grass and distant shapes were similar to the free images Martha Marshal shared on her blog, Artist's Journal. She offered images as a starting point for others to use as inspiration. With just my camera and my Koi Watercolors Pocket Field Sketch Box I worked around Martha's photos pasted to my accordion folded watercolor paper. The object was to compare the photos to what I was seeing. Then I worked at matching the colors and textures and linear qualities employing the Koi set of colors and a brush containing a reservoir of water. Later I added photos taken on location to the collage. Finally I painted lines around the parts of the study that appealed to me. I wanted to find emotional content for a painting in progress of dream clouds. I will in a few days publish the dream cloud painting.My experience with going lightly in the field and more will be the content of my hands on workshop. All supplies are furnished free. The watercolor workshop at the Fall Creek Festival is just a week away. There is still time to register leaving your choice of work shops and vegetarian preference for lunch at 541-487-5512 or e-mail oregonhatchery.researchcenter@state.or.us

November 7, 10:00 AM to 4 PM. This year the family friendly workshops also has special children's activities in addition to workshops in leather working, fish printing, card making, wire wrap Jewelry, and basket Making in addition to my watercolor exploration.

A Sunday in a Retired Painter's Life

This Sunday is a good day in the life of a retired fine arts painter – retired from a focus on sales shifted to an intensified exploration of my feelings for life’s forms and colors. I am searching for relevance in today’s world. As readers of this blog know my new series is of flowers in my yard and the steers in our neighbor’s pasture. With my new direction I have become on most days a stay at home painter.
I woke up at 6:00 AM and enjoyed my husband’s waffles with berries and Cool Whip. Then on the Internet I read a blog about a caregiver for an aging Mum and how she feels about the enriched relationship she has. I am impressed at how Cath can balance her creative development with care giving and work. Inspired by Cath’s continued sharing of her life, I had fantasies of making a difference from my past care giving experience. Maybe make an art u-tube movie from some video tapes of how my mother and I painted . She suffered from dementia and painting brought us closer together in many ways.
Then I checked http://www.recovery.gov/ I was almost assured that we are headed for prosperity in the long term. I felt elated by a generous sum of stimulus money for education. It is also sobering to realize that people must learn to watch and influence where that money is spent. With the transparency of the administration and the aid of computers, much more can be accomplished much faster and better than any time in history. I speculated more. People are still thinking we are in 20th century low gear and keep the usual fear of change. I had some fantasies of applying for an education grant for a Children’s Ceramic Project. A letter on CCP to Michelle Obama has not been answered and probably I need to start at another level. Or I should figure out how much it would cost on a small scale local program. Or maybe the idea would not work at all.
My husband called for me to steady his ladder while he climbed up to replace roofing on the patio cover. While waiting for him to come back down, I set up my paints and made some very poor choices of paint strokes on one of my new oil series. When my husband finished the roofing we went for an hours walk in McDonald’s Forest. Then we picked early blue blueberries for half an hour. At home we had lunch and I spent another half hour cleaning berries before freezing them.
I spread out 10 of my paintings for viewing and then looking at my original sketch I ripped into the calla lily painting and improved it heading it towards a resolution that will satisfy me. I tried to call a friend to confirm our visit tomorrow but I am not getting a response so probably she has left to visit her daughter in another state. I considered going to a Vistas and Vineyard paint out Wednesday but I won’t do it because I am so happy for the first time in 24 years able to say no to distracting activities.
Now, 8:30PM, it is time to relax and unwind for the evening.

photographs from California, Arizona, and Nevada Trip

Setting sun at the flat table a mile from Cebolia Lake. To reach this high nole we had to build up the road with big stones to repair where it had washed out. This was taken near the camp ground at Canyon of Fire, Nevada.

I always have an eye out for dragon shapes in the landscape and some of my paintings on this trip have a dragon shapes I think.

To see more of these Arizona paintings click on the link. widlerwenzelarizona@blogspot.com

Boat Trip up the Siletz River

The River Siletz brought us no fish today. We saw a twenty pound Fall Chinook caught at Chinook Bend. Up river from there I captured this blue heron on film. He was ruffling his feathers and strutting up and down the dock. Inspired by the stillness of the water I made some sketches of the grasses and their reflection. There must have been a half dozen different types of grass.

Inspirations Today

I am enjoying the texture of real oil paint. I took this picture at 6:45 PM when the sun was getting low in the sky picking up the texture. I love oil paint texture even though there are times I can not tell the difference between oil and acrylic in other painters' works. But when I am working oil the textural buttery quality is an entirely different experience from painting with convenient acrylics.

This morning at 7:30 AM I saw clouds with tree dragons and the moon was like the pearl often pictured with Chinese Dragons.

Mare's Tail Clouds

I am seeing more and more dragon shapes in nature to begin a new.

Seeing fantastic fancyful clouds was the only thing that saved me from a wasted half day yesterday in our very slow, traffic jamed, start and stop all the way trip from the Portland Airport back home. Mare's tails is what they call them here in the United States. My grandfather second generation living in China translated a story in which the Chinese looked for dragons in the clouds especially during a draught. Seeing a cloud dragon gave the Chinese hope of rain. Yesterday coming home from the airport was the worst traffic I have ever seen in Oregon. There are more and more cars and trucks meaning more people here. The wind has blown the air dirty with dust. Like in China of the ninteenth and early 20th we have cut a high percent of our forests. So too we have draught and see frequent mares tail clouds. The mare tail clouds often look to me like dragons.

Lens Eye Views

I like the camera as a tool for interpretation of the landscape. I like to paint what the camera can not reveal. I find my feelings flow also with small oil paintings. While I am painting though sometimes I get to looking mostly at my picture trying to fix a moments impression and then more views want to enter than the picture can hold. So then it is nice to get the camera out.