BooM!

'Volcano' necklace 18-20" chain 2-2.5" discs,
sterling silver, gouache, paper, glass lenses
Kathleen Faulkner

It's almost a new year.

Although the days now will be getting longer, they're not there yet.  

Heavy rain, short days make for some good pondering.

Career:  I have a plan.  My new year is already full.  It is what I've wanted.

Personal:  I also have a plan.  I'm breaking loops.  It feels good.  

Resolution:  be kinder.

“I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of 'em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures.”
― Gary Snyder

Winter Solstice

'Neither Here nor There'  24x36" oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner.  

Another Solstice party come and gone.   

It is the event I look forward to every year.  I have a wonderful time with old friends,  full of history,  and new friends, too.  Good food, good cheer, stories and laughter.  It's that shot in the arm that one finds helpful in the darkest hours.  

It's all downhill now.  

Diehards

'Vista'  29x32" oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner

It is a cold December   bitter winds from the north.  

The trees here are pretty tough   they seem to weather it all  

I hope they live forever

despite our wretched Humanity.

history

'Passage' oil pastel, charcoal,  28x33"   Kathleen Faulkner

The river glides in silence.

The night is deep, like a

  loving mother.

A silence goes back and forth

  through the marsh.

The same silence that was here

in my shack waiting for me.

  It was always here.

I was gone so long, now

the silence is so much deeper, and

  I sink down into it.

The sadness I met in the world 

  falls away from me.

One by one my dreams return.

Robert Sund  from 'Shack Medicine'

it's just over the next hill

'Hills I Have Known' 33x28" oil pastel;
Kathleen Faulkner

I always knew what I wanted to be when I grew up but I never had a plan.

I still know what I want to be and I still don't really have a plan.


Even though we can't say what the future holds,
I will keep on keeping on because

I think that what I'm looking for is

just over the next hill.

remembrance

'Classic Cones'  29x33" oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner

What can a friend say 

good heart

gentle spirit

creative genius

sometimes the brightest light burns quickest

Tide's out

'Mudflats' 29x33" oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner

It's a good, long walk.  

Way in the distance, I see Refineries;  all the while I try

 to imagine how this place looked 

a few hundred years ago.  

We're all friends here

'Island Residents' 18x24" oil pastel on panel;  Kathleen Faulkner
Donation to 'Friends of the Forest'

There is a trio of evergreens in a place I know.  I go there to study them and take photographs now and then.  They grow and, hopefully, I grow, too.

I have finished two paintings of these trees and have put away another unfinished that I need to not look at for awhile.  The first, 'Dancing Trees',  is oil pastel on paper under glass.  This one, 'Island Residents',  is fixed oil pastel on panel and will be framed without glass.  I have donated it to 'Friends of the Forest' for their 2013 Annual Auction.

We are blessed in this community with a substantial forest area called the Anacortes Community Forest Lands.  Friends of the Forest's mission is to preserve the Forest Lands through education, outreach and stewardship.  I am honored to be this years featured artist.

New Tricks

Gouache  noun \'gwash\  A method of painting with opaque watercolors. 

I was fortunate to be able to take a week long gouache workshop at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Washington through Gage Art Academy.  I was familiar with the instructor, Karen Hackenberg's work and was really looking forward to the week.  I was not let down.  

Karen is a fabulous instructor, patient and precise with excellent communication skills.  She is also a master at gouache.  I learned more than I had hoped. 

  

Maybe the best part of the adventure was the time created for painting.  I am a working artist but the days usually get interrupted by the business of living.  Rarely do I have a long day (let alone week) to devote exclusively to painting.  

#1 test: rubber faucet thing.   This was about the paint,
how it handled and the exciting discovery that it really
could cover itself. It reminded me of painting with
oil except that the paint would dry within a minute.
Kathleen Faulkner

#2 test: broken plastic fish pen.  The goals were a smooth background
and the look of plastic.  With gouache, one can go back and
fix problems such as a couple that I can see above.
Kathleen Faulkner

#3 test: plastic easter egg dye bottle with water.  
I wanted to master the little devil and that tricky
shadow.  It was a struggle.  I also practiced spatter
as a background effect.
Kathleen Faulkner

'It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.'

Henry David Thoreau

Summer fun

My Solo show, 'North by Northwest' is coming up,

My paintings will be on view at Island Gallery in Winslow, WA on Bainbridge Island for the month of August..  The opening is this First Friday, August 2nd from 6 till 8pm.  I've included some of the pieces in this show below:

'New Growth' 18x24" oil and soft pastel, charcoal on board;
Kathleen Faulkner

'South Beach' 12x12" oil pastel on board;
Kathleen Faulkner

'Burrow's Bay' 12x12"  oil pastel on board;
Kathleen Faulkner

'

'Ika Island' 24x18"  oil pastel on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

'Looking East' 16x20" oil pastel on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

'The View' from Above'  24x18" oil pastel
on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

If you are in the area, also stop by the newly opened Bainbridge Island Museum of Art  and see my jewelry as part of the 'First Light' exhibition on view through September, 2013.  It is a beautiful show and a beautiful museum. 

The Meaning of Wood

I have three pieces in the group show, "The Meaning of Wood' at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington.  This show runs from July 22nd to August 21st, 2013. 

Some interesting work is in this show and it looks to be quite wonderful.  If you're down in that area I hope you can stop in and see it.  If not, you can view the show here.

You can read the curator's statement here.

'Afterlife' oil and soft pastel, charcoal
on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

'Family Affair' oil and soft pastel, charcoal
on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

'The Wood Poets' oil and soft pastel, charcoal
on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

and the livin is easy

'Looking East' 16x20" oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner

In this part of the world, winter is long and the summer short.  

Sunday, the last day of June, 2013.  It is summer and I mean it.  Last week South Beach looked like it's picture, but not anymore.

There is not a cloud in the sky, the sun is up and a light fog hangs on the water.   

I'm warm, finally, birds are singing and my garden is exploding.  

the view this morning;  Kathleen Faulkner

seriously blue sky at 6am; Kathleen Faulkner

North by Northwest

'View from Above' 24x18" oil pastel;
Kathleen Faulkner

I will be showing my oil pastels at Island Gallery in Winslow on Bainbridge Island in Washington State during the month of August.  The opening is First Friday, August 2nd from 6 to 8pm.

I've never had the pleasure of a one person show in an actual gallery before.  I've had my very own show in a store (albeit an extraordinary grocery store), a theatre (also not your average theatre) and a wine store (the very special owners have excellent taste).   

I'm quite pleased and feel like I'm stepping up in the world.

give them an inch..

'Ika Island' 18x24" oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner

One day we walked out to Craft Island.  It was a very low tide, which allowed us access.

I looked west toward Ika Island and wished I could get over there.

The tide was just not low enough.

Farewell, friends

'Bamboo' earrings, 2x5/8"; sterling silver, paper,
colored pencil, mica; Kathleen Faulkner

I had been thinking of taking out the bamboo.  It had become wildly out of control and heading toward the neighbors.  It grew in the sunniest location and I wanted that space for a garden.  

One day my friend said that he had people who would want that bamboo and would dig it up and take it away.  They did that.  It was a gift.

'Pine' earrings, 2x5/8" sterling silver, paper, colored
pencil, mica;  Kathleen Faulkner

Many of the trees on my property were here when I moved in.  The previous owners planted tight and 'uniquely'.  

The pine grows too close to the house. I am cutting it down. Across and away from it is a beautiful cedar I've planted in memorial.  

bats in the belfry

'Love Me'  Necklace 18"long, bat 3x5"; sterling silver,
colored pencil, mica;  Kathleen Faulkner

Here's what the average human thinks:  Bats are ugly and scary and carry rabies.

Here's what scientists think: Bats are necessary for pollination of over 300 species of plants.  A single brown bat can consume 500 or more mosquitoes in an hour. The economic impact of the loss of bats in North American agriculture is anywhere from 3.7 million to 53 million annually.

Here's what the bat thinks:  I'm as afraid of you as you are of me.  I won't hurt you.  I just want to take care of my babies and eat bugs.  

Thoughts on community

'Our Town' Necklace 30" sterling silver, colored
pencil, paper, glass lenses;  Kathleen Faulkner

This is about another type of community: the one most of us don't see much or think about. 

We really can't say what a hungry white tailed deer's thoughts are as she's run out of someone's urban garden.

Can you imagine the stories and memories a spotted owl might have as he watches his home be destroyed so we can have toilet paper?

Consider the wolf, running for her life from the giant flying monster that's shooting to kill.   Maybe she's thinking,  "Please don't murder me.  I deserve life just like anyone else."

Everyone has a story to tell.

We do what we need to do

'Her Eyes a Bashful Azure'
sterling silver, colored pencil,
paper, mica; Kathleen Faulkner

I read Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, 'The Brook'.

I had been working on the Dictionary Necklace.  Azure was the last word of the 'a's' and I was trying to figure out how to draw the word without using the color.  I didn't figure it out and ended up drawing the word as it looked in the dictionary, all the while thinking about a line in Tennyson's poem.
I kept thinking about it.  I liked it so much I decided to make a necklace about it.

'Her Eyes a Bashful Azure' Back;
sterling silver, colored pencil,
paper, mica; Kathleen Faulkner

building blocks

'Construct' Necklace 36"
found materials, sterling silver;
Kathleen Faulkner

One day, while walking home from town, I saw a pile of construction debris in an alley.  It looked interesting so I had to investigate.  I found these shards of concrete lying in the rubble.  

They made my day.

'Construct' back; Kathleen Faulkner

Museum of Northwest Art's annual auction is coming up
June 15th.  This is my contribution courtesy of the wonderful Facere Jewelry Art Gallery in Seattle.

requiem

'The Journey' 12x12" oil and soft pastel, charcoal;
Kathleen Faulkner

Farewell, my friend

May the journey be gentle

'Death is a Dialogue between, 

The Spirit and the Dust'

Emily Dickinson

Ode to the wood

'The Wood Poets' 16x20" oil and soft pastel, charcoal;
Kathleen Faulkner

As for poets

The Earth Poets

Who write small poems

Need help from no man.

Gary Snyder

Turtle Island

Blood is thicker than the mud

'Family Affair' 16x20" oil and soft pastel, charcoal;
Kathleen Faulkner

"All that we did was human,

stupid, easily forgiven,

Not quite right."

                    - Gary Snyder

a little history

'Afterlife' 16x20" oil and soft pastel, charcoal;  Kathleen Faulkner

I did some hiking through the woods at Smoke Farm with my good friend, Scott Schuldt.  Being the Artist in Residence there,  his job was to document the area.  He was drawn to the 'Mother' stumps, as he called them.   I developed a great appreciation for these stumps.

There are currently ten old growth forests in Washington State.

and now a word..

'Webster's New World Dictionary,

Aardvark to Azure' Necklace, 38"

paper ('a' words), sterling silver, ink,

colored pencil, mineral glass;

Kathleen Faulkner

Webster's New World Dictionary: my companion for many years.

One day I open the book and the spine splits apart.  I stand there with a piece in each hand.  I continue to use it this way for many months.  I think about replacing it but I wonder what to do with this 'two part' book.  No one will want it.  I can't throw it away or even throw it in the recycle.  That is not what one does with a book.

I'm thinking about all those words.  I'm preparing for the show 'Women Working Words'.  I decide to recycle in a manner that does not leave me guilt ridden.

The story continues

'Dickinson' necklace 5.25x1.25" Chain: 24" doubled,
FRONT; sterling silver, paper, oilpastel, mica,
Kathleen Faulkner; photo: David Scherrer

When I am working on a body of jewelry, there is no such thing as planning designs as a group.  Ideas are scattered,  designs sometimes don't mix.  It is a conglomeration.  I just start with an idea and end up wherever it may lead.  Because of this, I sometimes end up over my head.  I guess that's good for growth.  

Fortunately this body of work came together and the overwhelm was overcome.  

The inspiration for this necklace began with a piece of scrap from an old oil pastel painting and a snippet of a poem by Emily Dickinson. her lovely words tell the story.  

'Dickinson'  necklace BACK;  sterling silver,
oil pastel, ink, paper, mica, Kathleen Faulkner;
photo: David Scherrer

'Women Working Words' at Facere Jewelry Art Gallery will open February 6th. Lecture at 4pm (RSVP) and champagne opening from 5-7pm

Short story

'Forest' earrings; 2.75x.75"; sterling silver, paper,
oil pastel, mica;  Kathleen Faulkner

'I have gone to the forest.' 

Knut Hamson          

I found this quote.
It reminded me of how I manage in this life.

Forest, the place that shakes off worry, stress.. feeds the soul, clears the mind.  Forest, the place that cleans our air, filters our water, keeps us cool and is home to most of the flora and fauna on earth, some we've not even discovered yet.

Forest is dwindling.

One and a half acres of rainforest is lost every second.  Over half of earth's forests are gone.

Magnetic Poetry

A portion of the refrigerator door;  Kathleen Faulkner

I've never owned 'Magnetic Poetry' but, still, bits and pieces have managed to find their way onto my fridge.  

'Magnetic Poetry' earrings; 1x1.75"/1.25x1.75",  sterling silver,
paper, ink, mica;  Kathleen Faulkner

These earrings are included in the show 'Women Working Words' at Facere Jewelry Art Gallery in Seattle, WA. Please join us on February 6th for a lecture (RSVP) at 4pm followed by champagne opening from 5 to 7pm.  This show runs through February 26th.

photo: Kathleen Faulkner