To the New Year!

'Hope' sign in the window at the Lucky Dumpster in Edison, WA

Here's to strong friends, healthy family, good cheer and happy life. 

Here's to the time, energy and inspiration required to tap into our potential. 

  

May we all catch a glimpse of enlightenment as we save our earth and live happily ever after

Cheers!

thoughts on a new year

'Marsh Time'  8x8" oil pastel, medium; Kathleen Faulkner

As 2011 comes to an end, some of us may be looking back on it and thinking about various amazing events, good and bad, that have taken place on our planet.  

Although Earth has a mess on it's hands, many good things have occurred and 

it sometimes seems as though a shift might be happening. 

Someone once said, 'change doesn't need everyone to make it happen, it just needs enough.'

I am and will remain hopeful for the future. 

Ode To Enchanted Light

Under the trees light 

has dropped from the top of the sky,

light 

like a green 

latticework of branches,

shining 

on every leaf, 

drifting down like clean 

white sand.

A cicada sends 

its sawing song 

high into the empty air.

The world is 

a glass overflowing 

with water.

           Pablo Neruda

           

Things that go bump in the night

'Bandit' linocut, 4x6"; Kathleen Faulkner

I grew up on science fiction and Twilight Zone. 

The first time I heard a raccoon in the night it scared me and, of all the urban wildlife in this area, raccoon is still my least favorite.  

There's something about their presence in the dark that makes me 

nervous.

I stay inside when I know they're around.
I wish them well, though.

The Toast

***

May you always have art to charm

your days, a sensible hearth

and friends as dependable as gravity.

May the wind and creatures be as music

to your evenings alone and may your dreams

leave you renewed.  May you have an appaloosa 

to ride the outline of blue hills, and nothing 

that sickens, and no black sticks.

                                  James Bertolino

*** unknown artist

Ode to OWS

'Small Fry' colored pencil;  Kathleen Faulkner

Never forget that not all the 1% are bad and not all the 99% are good.  

That being said, Viva La Revolucion!

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Steve Jobs

US computer engineer & industrialist (1955 - 2011)

The View from Here

'In My View' 25x36" oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner

Fir

indicates high views

with clear vision of what is beyond

and 

yet to come*

*unknown author

Forest for the trees..

'Forest'  20x20"  oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner

The rains have begun.  First storm of the season will be blowing in later today.  

A long, cold season begins and, to add insult to injury, the season before was not that fulfilling.  

The good news is that it is a most creative time.  

The ideas are starting to flow and I look forward to the dead of winter

cold

yet satisfying

Thoughts on the under appreciated

'Alder' 18x18" oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner

Ah, yes, the 'mighty' alder.  It's another bit of nature that is under appreciated.  

Alder's favorite place to live is in the Cascade Mountains.  We are very lucky because, without this tree, erosion happens.  After a fire, Alder is the first on the scene using it's roots to stabilize river banks and mountain sides while also providing shade protection for evergreen seedlings. 

Another excellent attribute of the Alder is it's nitrogen-fixing nodules that are located on it's roots. These nodules improve soil fertility and make it a perfect solution for reclaiming degraded soils and industrial wastelands. 

The indians used alder to make canoes since the wood will never rot in water: as a matter of fact, water preserves alder wood whereas air eventually rots it.  Different parts of the tree have been used to make dye,  health remedies and many other things.

When the whitish wood is cut, it turns red as if it's bleeding.  I always wonder what the world of a tree is like from a tree's perspective.

Ready, set

'False Pass II' oil and soft pastel, charcoal, medium;
Kathleen Faulkner

The weather is changing.  I'm back to sweaters again.  

Last night was an opening at the Edison Eye,  the last of the year.   As usual, a fun time was had by all with good art, good conversation and perfectly cooked salmon.  I came home inspired and ready to start a new series.

There's a chill in the air today.  With sweater in hand, I'm on my way down Whidbey to see what I can see and, we'll see where it goes.  

West Side story

'On the West Side'  34x28"; oil and soft pastel,
charcoal;  Kathleen Faulkner

The weather is different over on the west side.  

The fog stays longer, the wind blows harder and the temperature coming off the water is usually a couple degrees cooler.  The west side looks out to the San Juan Islands,  an area protected by the rain shadow.  Less rain, more sun.  I've seen cactus on some of the islands further west.

Today is all about the same.  Grey day, not too cold.  

A good day to walk on the west side

no wind.

I never walk in those woods when it's windy.

Greetings from Whitehorse Mountain

'Greetings from Whitehorse Mountain' oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner

The mountain we now call "Whitehorse" was originally called So-Bahli-Ahli, (The Beautiful Woman From the east) by the Stillaguamish.  


One day,  a long time later, a pioneer lost his white horse.  His neighbor, looking up at the mountain, saw a patch of snow that looked like a white horse and said jokingly, 'There it is, up there."  


From then on this mountain was called Whitehorse. 

Speaking of Gods..

'Jellyfish' 5x5" colored pencil; Kathleen Faulkner

God of the Jellyfish

The god of the jellyfish

must be a luminous, translucent bowl

the size of a big top,

drifting upside down

in an unbounded sea.

Surely this god, hung

with streamers and oral arms,

ruffled and lacy

as thousands of wedding gowns

and Victorian bodices,

created all the jellyfish of Earth.

Male and female, god created them

in god’s own image:

the cross jellies and the crystal jellies,

the sea nettle and the golden lion’s mane,

the sea wasp and the Portuguese man-of-war—

and gave them nerve nets instead of brains

to ensure their humility,

put statoliths like tiny pearls

in their sensory pits

to give them balance,

and placed spines on their nematocysts

so they could capture food

and would sting and burn any

living thing

that would harm them.

And the god of the jellyfish

gave them ocelli

that shine like the eyes on a butterfly wing

when they turn toward the light,

and now their god watches over them

with god’s own great ocellus

as they swirl and dive

in glistening cathedrals, and does not

expect worship or even praise:

the iridescence

of their umbrellas will suffice.

— Lucille Lang Day

From God of the Jellyfish, first published

in The Cloud View Poets (Arctos Press)

The Sky's the Limit

'Skyworld' brooch, 3x4" sterling silver, moonstones;
Kathleen Faulkner

Early morning 

sun coming up over the Cascades 

another beautiful day here on the Salish Sea.  

This is the time of year when things change.  

A substantial shift is taking place in my world.

It is good to know that things change.  It is good to make them happen.  

Another beautiful day in Paradise

Jewelry in process;  Kathleen Faulkner

September has arrived and we are finally experiencing summer.  That autumn feeling is in the air, though.   It's a very creative time.

I'm in the midst of a jewelry mindset yet, looking out my window, I think about the light and I feel myself shifting gears..

It will be a good morning to head down to the beach.

Early morning looking East;  Kathleen Faulkner

The whole equals more..

I love the fog horns.  

The thick white blanket slowly burns off  

slivers of lovely sunshine warm the back of my head 

I pick the blueberries in the garden..

It's been an interesting week.  All weeks are but sometimes life becomes Enhanced.

Artwork created at Smoke Farm: artist unknown 

I recently spent a day at Smoke Farm.  The experience opened my mind, pried open an area I haven't visited for awhile, reminded me that the world of ideas is very large and anything is possible and the world, although small, can be quite large as well.

I've been thinking about it all week.  I want more.

Neckpiece; 18"  found glass, sterling silver;
Kathleen Faulkner

I spent the rest of this week finishing up a body of jewelry work for  Artisans on Taylor Gallery whose grand opening in a new location is September 1st in Port Townsend.  This is a new gallery for me and the pressure has been on.  

Of course other life events such as a broken computer, again, distractions, sad news, happy news,  and surprising news all mixed together to create a unique reality.

A new week, new day.  

A bowl of blueberries from my garden.  

Inspiration and a mind full of new thoughts and ideas 

Living by the Salish Sea: fog, sunny, sweet, salty sea smell,  my favorite.  

Life is good.

Organic blueberries from my garden.. yum

Ode to a Bird

'Ode to a Bird' sterling silver, brass, graphite, patina;
Kathleen Faulkner

There is an owl that graces my world now and again.  It's been awhile since I've heard it's hoot.  It is always an excellent surprise. I wake this morning wondering if I remember, in the night, a dream or the return of a friend.

In the Ether world, Owl is medicine and clairvoyance..  Owl can see that which others cannot.  

Owl helps us see the truth which is always helpful.

Living in Paradise

'High Water' 17x17" oil and soft pastel, charcoal

It's mid August,  coolest spring and summer I remember.  This morning offers a glimpse of fall.

The rest of the country is wilted from high temperatures and no rain and some say that eventually 'environmental refugees' will migrate here because we still have an abundance of water and reasonable temperatures. 

The weather forecast is for rain yet I watch as the neighbor water his perfectly green lawn and wish for that water.   I am very careful with my allotment.  I have rain barrels that water my garden and we all know I don't water my 'lawn'.  I pay attention to every drop.  I imagine the  future possibilities.

In the town where I live the city council is pushing through a bottled water plant.  When I ask why they say, "It'll bring jobs."  

Someday we may dream of the old days, the days of water abundance and wish we had taken better care.

My Excellent Adventure

July was an interesting month.  My computer was dead but I didn't miss it one bit.  Instead I spent 60 hours carving a 3x4' linoleum block (among other things) to be printed by a steamroller during the Anacortes Arts Festival.   

Upon receiving the linoleum, I immediately went into shock: the largeness of it was a bit overwhelming so, I started carving and carving and carving.

Virgin linocut

The bottom half is starting
to look like something.

Here I'm adding Mt Baker to the mix.

Finished and ready to ink..

Then the day came for the printing. We worked in teams.  Jean Behnke and I were the scheduled artists for our two hour time slot and had help from many friends, without whom, it would have been much harder and definitely not as successful.

Here we are inking the lino.. a dirty job,
but somebody's got to do it..

Ready to print

We are placing the linocut  and will then
cover  it with the paper.

Here comes the steamroller!

Artist Proof

A friend generously offered space in
her workshop to hang my prints while they dry.

Looking up at a couple of prints drying.

This project was made possible by a grant from the Anacortes Arts Festival.  Nine artists participated in this two day event.  All materials were provided including, of course, the linoleum,  the best oil based ink (Daniel Smith) and Lenox paper not to mention gloves, aprons, rollers, the steamroller and everything else needed to make this happen including lots of encouragement!  

Two prints from each artist will be auctioned off by the Festival to provide funding for future events such as this.  For anyone interested in viewing all the different artist's prints and possibly bidding on any, I will post the auction details when I receive them.

It was a great experience and I'm so glad to have been a part of it all.  I'm looking forward to  next year!

Bits and pieces..

Neckpiece; 7"+ chain; found objects;
Kathleen Faulkner

An old friend is on my mind a lot lately.  He has been gone at least a decade yet I still run into bits and pieces of  him here and there when I least expect it.

Yesterday evening, for example, a dear friend of his  (that we all thought was dead)  came walking down the dirt road where I live.

Earlier in the day I had toasted his memory with a friend in Bellingham.  That encounter, too, was serendipity.

I found these shards recently at the beach by his old house.  

It is the same every time I walk by:  I always remember and it always aches a bit but I would rather have an aching heart than an empty one.

  

Friends make us fuller.

When friends leave, their light stays behind.

It is like the blue sea

that supports the white breakers 

that come and go.

No matter how far I go

I long to return and be with friends.

It is never the same fire I left,

but beneath it are the ashes

of all our meetings that have gone before.

                     Robert Sund

Weather forecast

'Weather Series'  12x12" each, oil and soft pastel, charcoal; Kathleen Faulkner

Here in the Northwest, there's something about heavy weather that, although it can be hard to live with, has a bit of a comforting effect.  It is what we know.  It is a factor of our being.

Orchid interviews Scott Schuldt

Scott Schuldt in his canoe.

Hello Everyone.  My name is Orchid and I am the guest blogger today on Art Talk.  I recently had a nice visit with Scott Schuldt, a Seattle based artist working in a variety of media including, but not limited to, beadwork, mapmaking and video.

Orchid: "Hello, Scott.  It is a pleasure to meet you.  Thank you for taking the time to share some of your thoughts with us and allow us a glimpse into your world.

So, let's begin.

Will you tell the audience what it is you do?"

Scott: "It turns out that I am a self-taught interdisciplinary artist.  It took me a few years to figure out that is what I do.  So, I bring a lot of content-science, history, politics and nature into my work."

 Orchid: "Why/how/when did this all come about?"

#1 of 3 panels; Scott Schuldt

Scott:  It's actually a rather natural thing for me to do.  I am fairly well balanced in a left brain - right brain context and I am very comfortable going to either side.  I have a degree in mechanical engineering, so my math and science skills are up to snuff enough that I can plow through data and technical papers, but being a jack-of-all-trades in my core, it would be hard (dull) for me to specialize too much.  I've learned to tap into the emotional side as well.  That is when the wild ride happens...I love the feeling of hanging on for dear life to an artwork in progress that just has a mind of it's own."

#2 of 3 panels; Scott Schuldt

Orchid: "Why beads?"

Scott: Pure chance,  I was studying native american art forms and found that the art historian's texts made more sense when I was actually making the work - I's started with NW coastal carving, and when I moved on to look at some apparel designs, I decided to sew some beads so that I would understand what the various stitches were... I actually don't get all that worked up about beads, they're kind of like paint to me."

Orchid: "Why canoes?  

#3 of 3 panels; Scott Schuldt

Scott:  "I grew up in Minnesota.  I always liked canoeing, but when I got to be 17 I started mountain climbing and did that more or less until I moved to Seattle (1985).  I'd moved out of my climbing social circle and found it not so easy to find someone that I both liked and that climbed at my level.  Instead, I bike raced for several years, built some sea kayaks, got bored with them.  Then, 3 years ago I bought a used canoe,  Got in and loved it.  Loved everything about it.  To me, there's no better view than there is when I am kneeling in my canoe.  And, more than probably any other vessel, it is the jack-of-all-trades, which is who/what I am also.  It's easy to jump in and out of, easy to carry, fairly seaworthy (but not so much as a sea kayak), great for paddling in the shallows and in tight narrow places.  You can carry some substantial stuff in one, also.  I've hauled out of the marsh, a 100+ lb truck tire and a 150 lb block of foam.  it's also a great boat to sit in and write or photograph, explore, etc.  My canoe has about 360 trips on it in the last 3 years."

'The View From the Canoe

Orchid:  "Why video?"

Scott: "Pure chance again.  I was recording my daily trips, because I was making observations on a daily basis that I thought might have some value to somebody at some time, especially with climate change.  So I started a blog, started shooting lots of photographs,  Then, I wrote my daily piece in the canoe.. and that was better than anything I'd yet written.  So, most everything is written in the canoe.  Then, I decided to podcast a couple of good pieces,,, and then it made sense to make those into slideshows.. and my friends said, "those are great, but you need some video."  So, I shoot video.  They were right, of course.  I'm also doing photography, hand-surveyed and hand-drawn maps, a series of technical engineering drawings of beaver structures, and I'm up to about 20 hand -carved functional art canoe paddles."

Installation of the paddles at
Maude Kerns Art Center

Orchid:  'Will you tell us a little about your thought process?"

Scott:  "Everything is connected.  You know, you spend most of your educational life having subjects neatly compartmentalized.  It's math only, history only, art only, science only.. Yet, the real world requires a person to know history, be able to metabolize creative endeavors, be able to forecast a budget, build things, understand a little about nature. There aren't any boundaries.  I really like finding those complexities and getting them into a piece of art.  When I'm on some art thing,,, I collect and amass images and facts.  I just keep going - following the subject wherever it is going until I have so much information that I can't help but to make and finish a piece of art."

'The Outpost'  Scott Schuldt

Orchid:  "How's this art life working for you?"

Scott:  "I'm happy, very happy.  I quit my engineering career in 2005 because the company I worked for decided to maximize profits by making a crap product.  The stress of that was killing me.  I got beaten up pretty bad trying to save their knuckleheaded asses.  I've had great support from my wife and we've grown closer since.  I'm not a good salesman, so I don't sell much.  Most of my sales have been to public art collections, Seattle and 4Culture, and the Museum of Arts and Design bought a piece,  Seattle has been a tough place to get started in. It's a lot of sales galleries, a lot of don't call us, we'll call you..  and, most art people haven't seen beadwork like mine anywhere, ever. so they don't get it until they see it in person.  Last year I did a 60 piece solo show - they promoted my photographs mostly, until they saw the beadwork in person.  It was great fun.  I saw some people crying while looking at the beadwork... it doesn't get better than that."

Anorak, 2011;
Scott Schuldt

Orchid:  "Where do you see this going?"

Scott:  I don't work that way.  Someone, who I hadn't seen in 5 or 6 years, was interested in my transition from engineer to artist and asked how that came about.  I replied, "I don't know, I just go where I end up."  ..He caught it.. that line came right out of my subconscious and, of course, what I said is backwards.  Most people end up wher they are going.  So, I had no idea where the canoeing thing was going, except I trusted that it would go someplace,, and I knew I would be okay to go there.  I finally have enough stuff that it looks like I knew what I was doing.  I can't tell you how much trouble I had when I was doing aptitude tests when I was 15 - the teachers just kept harping about 'having a plan' and I just couldn't figure out why anyone would want to live their life following a plan.  I just do the best that I can at whatever I am doing.  It does make it hard for me towrite proposals and grants - I have a hard time bullshitting myself.. making it look like I have a plan.  The grant process thing in art is very contradictory to the way that most artists work.  If it wasn't for the money, artist just wouldn't tolerate that nonsense."

"Calving Season" 2006
Scott Schuldt 

Orchid: "One last question, Scott.  If you had to choose another profession, what would it be?"

Scott:  "I don't even like to think about that.  I probably would just go off of the grid instead."




View from the Canoe
Scott's website

Scott's Art News

Signal Fire Residency

For R

'Out in the Field' oil pastel; Kathleen Faulkner

Out in the field we sit.

It is a place where

watching grey clouds slide by

while breathing summer sounds

is a good thing.

Livin' low

'Livin' Low'  18x18" oil pastel; Kathleen Faulkner

I seem to be in 'lowlife' mode.

I've always been partial to the underdog

all those under-appreciated irritants.

Let's continue our talk about barnacles, for example.  They are really not appreciated on manmade things and seem to be not good for much of anything.  

Whales appreciate them, though, because they clean the wounds on the whale's body, their own personal health care practitioners.

Then there is the little known fact that scientists are now making use of the barnacle's ability to absorb concentrations of heavy metals from the water.
One could say they are victims of service to their country. Hail the lowly barnacle!

Maybe sometime in the near future we will be appreciating those barnacles more than we now know.





postscript:

Thids doesn't like her name so she is changing it to Orchid.

Today is a partial solar eclipse.

Progress

Thids in progress..

Thids' bezels are soldered now.  She can, technically, wear clothes but there really is more to do.  I think the next step will be to get rid of the excess.

Thids is dying to interview for the guest blogger position.  Who knew?  She mentioned how she's always wanted have a radio show or to own her own station.
That tells me something.

Interviews won't begin until the characters are finished.

I forewarned her,  "no politics".
She asked,  "Is being an advocate for the earth political?"