What the World Needs Now is Chicago, Want-to-be Olympic Heroes and Art

What the World Needs Now Is Want-to-be Heroes of the Chicago Olympics in 2016 and Art from the Heart of our Child inspiring that WE CAN all be all that we can be with a HEALTHY work ethic. What the world needs now is love sweet love, not just for one but for everyone. Chicago has excellent basic athletic and art venues to nurture the Olympic spirit. I wish President Barack Obama and Michelle well in their quest to bring the Olympics to Chicago.
For examples of art from the heart of our child click on the icecream cone. For my process and paintings of vases click on the label below.

Reflection Abstracts

These 12" square oil paintings are made with rags, pallette knife and fish head bones. They are a step in making more paintings of vases about what is most precious. They may remain finished as is and only help me in painting vase paintings. I like them as they are paintings of the similarity between ceramic glaze and water.

I f you like these abstracts click on the Label below.

Vase of My Sparkling Dreams

We took the boat down the Siletz into the bay and dropped six crab pots. We were very busy dropping and pulling up the pots so I did not paint then. I did notice how the fog created a dream world which I tried to capture from memory. The Vase of My Sparkling Dreams is as big as all outdoors the sky, the waters and the earth. This vase is one of a growing series on vases expressing what is most precious to me. I am continuing to be open to ideas for other vases that express what others value most. A seven year old boy also said he valued his dreams.

Bounce light from vase of "Love" onto vase of "Long Good Life"

Glossy glazed ceramics placed in the sun light glisten and bounce reflections upon all that surrounds them. Like a gossy glaze the River Siletz waters, rippled by a breeze glowing with sunlight, bounce a light show on the river's banks. Looking at the river inspires a new vase in my most precious most wonderful thing series. This inspiration is based on science as well as emotion. Ceramic glaze is a glass and glass is a liquid like water according to physicists. The eternal ever lasting connection between what we observe outdoors and the characteristics of ceramics reminds me of humane life. So I painted a painting of the vase of "Long Good Life" symbolized by a surrealistic vase on a river bank.
One granddaughter made this vase about what is most precious to her - love. I'll focus on the appeal of expressing the wonderment I felt as a child.

Sunday Chinook Bone oil painting of water

The sky is overcast and the water is almost still.

River Abstract

Oil painting on location need not be complex. This painting required a half dozen colors, a small rag torn from an old sheet, the bones removed from my fish head soup, a leaf and inspiration from the Siletz River.

I have a little forethought on wanting to go where I never have been before. I am still thinking about the ceramic project and looking for similarities between the appearance of water and the glass glazes.

Fish story today but tommorrow a painting

Fishing luck today at 7:00 AM just as we left the dock we had a strike. We went back to the dock and I spent the morning making soup from the head. This afternoon I tried using the head bones to spread the oil paint. The bones break easily. I don't know what I think of the lines in the paint. tommorrow I will try painting again.

Series of nine ceramic vases

I have, in addition to making the vases, painted three paintings related to my summer project. To see the paintings scroll down. To learn more click here about the vases. http://vaseswidlerwenzel.blogspot.com/

Precious Vase - Rejuvenating Garden

A painter sculptress also a grandmother and care giver. A lady who is living a sandwiched life says the most precious thing is her garden and appreciation of nature.

Tomorrow evening I hope to have the fired ceramic vases to share.

Honoring Ancient Mariners Vase

When I hold a vase with a long neck and trumpet shaped lip to my ear, I hear the ocean. Vases remind me of treasurers found in ancient ship wrecks. This painting comes from many inspirations. A most important inspiration is honoring the ancient mariners who spread the technology of ceramics in the Mediterranean. The idea of firing clay could also have come by Ocean currents carrying ceramic bottles.
This painting will be a key part of an exhibit of my ceramic vases.

"Relationships are Precious Vase Painting symbolized by cows Elsie and Plutonium and Pb

Update Sept. 7, 2009 My painting of Relationship Vase is about a fitting relationship that works. I have also completed a clay vase about Relationships that do not always fit nicely. The vase can be seen with all the other ceramic vases on my other blog.http://vaseswidlerwenzel.blogspot.com

Update August 20. My concept of symbolizing all relationships has developed as I painted. Today the painting of the relationship vase has been saved by scrapping the many symbols decorating the vase in order of making the idea of a vase itself being the relationship most valuable. When dirt and water is mixed a clay that can be formed is made into a vessel and fired into hard ceramic - a symbol of creation and of ourselves. Ceramics have brought about the most humanizing changes like food storage and agriculture. Vases have replaced human sacrifice. Vases have democratised the observance of death. some uses of ceramic at first seemed destructive of human virtues but can also be seen as a learning challenge. Ceramic shells can withstand the heat of catalytic atomic explosions.

On the 18th I was making a more complex multiple array of relationships. I painted a shaft of wheat poised above Pu reminding me that fowl smelling manure fertilizes wheat from which we make bread that sustains us. I have also added the relationship of clay mixed with water and then fired to make pottery. Pottery is often used to symbolize relationships. I am now looking for examples of pottery from other cultures and times. I am almost ready to make a ceramic vase about all relationships. I am not completely satisfied with the painting because it has so much happening. I want to communicate at an emotional level and the chemical symbols might not communicate as well as the foods.

The "Relationship Vase Painting" is oil on a 12" square canvas designed to hang in the corner of the room. The idea for this painting was contributed by Rain. Rain is a woman rancher and blogger. She wrote me that relationships are most precious to her. Relationships are valuable not just the lovely, nice fitted ones but all of them. Relationships that do not work for us are ones we learn from.

Rain's "Relationships" is truly a challenge. For symbolizing all relationships, I can't make a sweet pretty gem of a vase. So I have painted an oil painting of a vase with proportional relationships that makes me feel good. This is a historic classic Chinese shape. A vase of this shape was given as gifts or treasured for their reminder of diverse people having similarities in common. In the background I have the periodic table. http://dayah.com/periodic/ and a solar spectrum similar to a rainbow.http://www.solarobserving.com/pics/hydrogen-spectra.jpg. I give two names to the black cow who is like Jekyll and Hyde - Fissile Pu after the radio active isotope plutonium. She has a calf escaping the field of the vase. The calf's name is Pb, the abreviation given to lead because one element that is formed in the radio active reactions is lead. The calves break through the barrier and become their own element symbolizing a relationship in decay and the seriousness of relationships that could be the ultimate destruction or if we learn our lesson well Plutonium could be key to an energy filled future. The other name I give to the cow is Elsie and she is in relationship with sunshine, cow's milk, bee's honey, and wheat bread.

Here is my first sketch for a painting about relationships.

Link to article on the effect of photography on painting

Arts Fine of the UK listed my blog in their directory and asked for a link. On their site is an interesting article about painting style and the camera. http://www.arts-fine.co.uk/BuyArtOnline/Understanding_Art.html

"Society Allowing, and Celebrating Diversity is Precious to Me"

This vase was created in response to Cath's contribution to my ceramic ideas. She wrote "The longer I live in my home town, the more strongly I realize that society allowing and celebrating diversity is precious to me." Cath keeps a blog of her latest art series including mapping abstracts inspired by Aboriginal art. She is a librarian and care giver for her mother in New Zealand. http://cathsheard.wordpress.com

I enjoy painting in the public Sure fire Design Studio in downtown Albany, Oregon. Below are pictures of the vase before firing and the drawing I made before sculpting the vase.

I am working on the Children's Ceramic Project with my grandchildren and from suggestions in blogger comments. So please share with me a subject for a vase - share with me what is most precious to you. Or ask a young child what is the most wonderful thing in the world. One granddaughter made a bowl decorated with what she thought was precious - valentine hearts symbolizing love. The bowl will be fired and ready to paint the middle of next month. As for me after making and collapsing several first attempts in clay, I drew the idea pictured here. This is a plan for the next hand built vase that will be completed next month.

The most special thing in the world to one veteran's wife is simplicity

I have made a small unglazed cylinder vase to depict simplicity made precious because it is ceramic. This hand built vase is based on the response of a mother of four boys and the wife of a veteran who has served repeated tours of duty.

This is the first completed vase of a series defining what is most wonderful for all from age 1 1/2 to 90 with responses from all over the world.

Sketching at home and Nichols Garden Nursery

Last night I spotted the steers for the first time in over a week. They are definitely gaining weight. Then this morning I did color studies at Nichols Garden Nursery, 1190 Old Salem Road NE, Albany Oregon. http://www.nicolsgardennursery.com. Many of the Albany Painting Enthusiasts enjoyed the cool garden. The flowers were exciting in color and interesting shapes. I am so pleased to discover this gem.

Details of changes on "Bovine Catching Lily's Song"

I just can't do daily paintings. I start out fresh with a feeling but sometimes that feeling goes to desperation. Like yesterday when I made this great departure leaning towards fantasy. The other factor was I have more than doubled the size of my surface and it took some doing to completely cover the canvas without using solvents that cause headaches.

This afternoon I was pleased to work into the still wet paint in order to reclaim the happy song of the lilies.

There maybe more steers. Tomorrow I will paint with the Albany Painting Enthusiasts. and will be able to build on the series at Nicole's Nursery.

Number Eleven, Bovine Catching Lily's Song

"Bovine Catching Lily's Song" #11 of the Mother Wood Lot's Well Cared For Steer Series, Oil on 24" square canvas, $400. I moved my easel to the front yard to view are magical lily jungle framed in water drops.

Children's Ceramic Parties and class lesson plan projects

Front and back views of an earthen ware pot I did of my daughters and husband in 1975. This pot has always been precious to me because I love these people. The colors were clays of different colors and the green was poster paint. The shinny finish is Verothane. The yellow clay body came from British Columbia, Canada.

Looking through the archives of children ceramics is truly humbling. Themes of peace and international participation are note worthy. The ambitious projects are awesome. There have been similar art works with children to what I would like to do described in an earlier post.

Looking through the Google index I found:

An archive devoted to Children and ceramic work from all over the world. The examples of mosaic walls are splendid.http://www.ecfs.org/Projects/FieldstonLower27111/

High School Story Pots http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/high/Linda-story.htm

What is most precious on a precious ceramic vase.

I am painting on vases because ceramic vases are seen as precious and remind us of life. Children are our future and have a real sense of wonder and know what is important. What a delight it is to vicariously share their joy in what is precious to them. I want to incorporate their sense in some vases. Sometimes copying their art by incorporating their pictures into a strong statement that will interest those who will construct our future like politicians and entrepreneurs. To be seen I will possibly make a u-tube show of the vases.

These are of a vase called "Children Running Free is most precious of all for me" It is 5 and 1/4" tall and was made at Sure Fire you paint it ceramics in Albany, Oregon. It cost me $15.

Please comment with ideas of what is most precious to you. And I am open to ideas on how to get more responses for me to work with.

"Geranium and Black Animals" evolved with the development of a series

"Geraniums and Black Animals" is oil on canvas 14" x 18" with a white wood frame 15" x 19" x 1 3/4" custom crafted by my husband. Sale pending for $330.