Serving with Love Inc on Serve Day

So I was part of a team working on George Fox’s Serve Day last week at Love INC, a local non profit.  For whatever reason, the video crew from Fox decided to make us their project for the day.  Here me blather on about what we were up to below:

 

Triggerfish Critical Review

It’s fun to see work in a different context, this piece is found on one of the latter pages of the issue:  Flutter, (monotype, gouache, & collage, 23 ½” x 10″)

I am currently the featured artist in Triggerfish Critial Review, an on line poetry publication (issue #9).  They do a very nice job at presentation, and are featuring some of my ink/watercolor/gouache pieces, mixed media monotypes, as well as the mixed media oil and assemblage pieces; why a whole spectrum of my work!

Take a “poetry moment” and go read something and look at some fine art to boot.

Here’s the link:  http://www.triggerfishcriticalreview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=120

 

Maryanna Hoggart and Stones 1

I’ll take ownership that I always feel a special feeling after purchasing a piece of artwork.  It is a celebration of beauty and tipping ones hat to the goodness of life.  Several months back I dropped by Guardino Gallery in Portland (http://www.guardinogallery.com/) where I show my work to say hello.  That day, I discovered the work of Maryanna Hoggart.  Maybe it was because she is a transplant from Arizona, but there was a resonance I felt with her work.

Maryanna Hoggart: Stones I, Ink, Watercolor, Charcoal & Pastel on Paper., 10 x 14"

So I purchased the above piece because it some how spoke to me.  But have you ever gotten something and then suddenly had a realization about it?  Here was mine about this work:

You may know the example in the New Testament that a father, when asked by his son for bread, will give him bread not a stone.  Or if his son asks him for a fish, he will not give him a snake, he’ll give him a fish!  (Matt 7:9-12) But what if you did receive stones and snakes when you asked for food?  Perhaps you even kept asking because you hoped maybe once in a while you would get bread and fish.  There was a chance maybe things would change?   What I came to terms with was that over time maybe God can even redeem stones and snakes, and make them beautiful.  One can hope don’t you think? All things can be made new can’t they?

Maryanna’s piece has become a nice reminder of that, at least for me.  Here is her website where you can see more of her work:  http://www.maryannahoggatt.com/

 

A Successful Show

Set up for the booth for Friday- I ended up changing the configuration around for the last two days.

The Bellevue Festival of the Arts was a blast to participate in.

Some of the work as displayed (click for a bigger image)

Highlights were:

•  Getting the art seen by a wider audience.

•  Great conversations with folks about the work.

•  Meeting a swath of wonderful artists who do the hard work of trying to make a living doing art (and having great conversations with them about making art).

•  Seeing alumni, and teachers from Fox coming and cheering me on, as well as running into a fellow artist in Seattle who bought a piece of mine over 12 years ago at Seattle Pacific University (among other wonderful visitors).

the back "nook" area of the booth (click for bigger view).

•  Actually selling artwork! (What a concept!)

•  Figuring out how to “take Visa.”

•  Having a family of three help me till 2 in the morning install my tent and art.

•  Having a 5 year old after seeing my work and talking with me yell, “I like you very much!” as he walked away with his family.

The view of the booth on Saturday and Sunday as you walked by. Another view.

The "street" view.

 

Adventures in England and France

Traveling about in the Underground with students in London- it's a serious matter....

Well, I have to admit that I have been in England and France for three weeks here in May with fourteen students from George Fox.  We had a very good time and visited the standards of  Paris and London but also the delightful Stratford-Upon-Avon, Bath, York, Reims, Colmar, Beaune, Amboise, and Autun.  I’m a big fan of the small towns in Europe.

Caitlin, the other teacher I traveled with, was very good about keeping a blog about our journey with lots of photos.  You can check all of our escapades at:  http://gfuengland.blogspot.com/

Here we are in Colmar France at the museum of A. Bartholdi, the artist who designed and created the statue of Liberty. Are we happy to be there or what? Colmar is a gem of a town, and this museum was not half bad either; lots of small working models of all of the monuments he created.

 

The rest of the speech.

All the new illustrations for Clella Jaffe’s book “Public Speaking:  concepts and skills for a diverse society” are done.  Thought I’d give you a look see of the last two new ones:

Clella wanted an image on "structure" talking about the construction and "bones" of a speech. This was my visual solution.

my "organization" chapter image.

I was in need of getting these illustrations done, and was at a lecture and the George Fox Seminary in Portland in February.  The author Maggi Dawn was speaking, so I used her as my model.  She was delightful, was a good model and gave a very nice lecture on the arts.  Check out more about her at:  http://maggidawn.com/

 

Illustrating Diversity

Community is a diverse thing indeed - it keeps life intersting!

Yet another illustration for Clella Jaffe’s Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society.  I collected the most diverse bunch of characters I could locate and had them pose for a family picture.  I love my kachina (which I recall is a shooting star kachina) so had to have him be my central patriarch in the image.  The metal figure on the lower right I got many years ago when I was in the Philippines on a summer mission.  How about the saint with a Canadian Mounty hat?  Nothing like mixing a couple figures together…..

 

Speaking of Illustrations

Here is what will be the cover to the new edition of "Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society." I actually drew several folks speaking at several lectures I attended, using them as the basis for the images. The author and I also spoke of showing a number of public speaking situations in the illustration, so I took advantage of the board behind the speaker, to show a variety of venues.

As I commented on Feb 21st of this year I’m working with a communications professor here at George Fox name Clella Jaffe on her public speaking book: Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society.  I did the illustrations for the last edition, and she’s currently working on a new one.  So, for the new edition I’m doing five new illustrations for her including the cover.  Thought I’d show you what they look like here!

Here is a link to the book; not the new one- that’s in process here, but the old edition with my first set of illustrations:   http://www.amazon.com/Public-Speaking-Concepts-Diverse-Society/dp/0495566640/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303238690&sr=1-1

Here is the illustration for the chapter on research. I of course had to throw in a character or two for the image!

 

A Portrait of the Dog

"Portrait of the Dog," colored pencil on paper, approximately 8"x8," 2001, private collection AZ

Continuing the self-reflective colored pencil self-portraits from some years ago.  Here is number 6 of 7.  At the time I drew these I was teaching a class called “Sonoran sketchbook” at a university in Arizona, with a herpetologist by the name of Tom Jones (no, not the singer- this Tom Jones was a wonderful colleague and scientist who could catch rattlesnakes bear handed).  We had gone camping with the students in the Eagle Tale mountains and I had collected some items that I decided to construct this tromp l’oeil drawing out of.  My objective was to represent the side of me that is a little difficult to pin down and closer to the ground.  Blessings-

 

Illustratively Speaking

Getting to work on some ink and watercolor illustrations for a new edition of a textbook.

I gave permission for a number of my ink and watercolor images to be used as illustrations for a textbook on public speaking several years back.  “Public Speaking, Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society” 6^th edition had a number of my works in it.  Apparently it’s time for a seventh edition!  I have been speaking with Clella Jaffe, the author and a colleague and friend of mine here at work, and decided to do some illustrations including the cover special for her (before she exclusively used imagery that I already have).  It’s fun diving back into doing watercolors after being away from that media for a while.

Here is an image of me plugging away in the studio on some of the pieces I’m doing for her.  The large red image on the right is the front cover in process. I’ll show you the finished results when they’re good to go.