I love a good rock

What is it about a good rock?

The way it fits in your palm?  The smoothed grit of a surface tumbled hard by the surf?  The dull clang of a trio packed tightly in a back pocket?  The way they hold the heat of the day and the chill of the ocean?

Or is it the way they whisper softly, in their low rocky voices...

"paint me"

?

Seven Degrees of Discerning: Be Here and Now

From my newest series, Seven Degrees of Discerning. These pieces are part personal messages that I need to be reminded of daily, part love of totem animals (and recognizing them as stand-ins for self-portraiture) and partly birthed from studying ancient belief systems of connecting our physical bodies with our emotional being.

And so I'm delighted to show you the first in the series, the root, the reminder of Earth, of survival, of stillness, of being present, "Be Here and Now."

:: Be Here and Now ::

I press my feet against the earth, plant my heels down in that rich soil.

The future is coming, after all, isn't it always? But as I pull this atmosphere into my lungs and sense the touch of sky upon my skin, what happens tomorrow seems a long way off.

Right this second, ten thousand microscopic creatures are carrying about their lives unseen below my toes. Right now ten tons of water is being released into the air with little more than a whisper by the foliage standing upright. Right now the moon is pulling the tides and the earth is obliging it's heavenly path.

Right now there is no other place I can be, no other place I want to be, no other place I'm supposed to be. So I am.

Here.

Now.

I press my feet against the earth, plant my heels down in that rich soil.

"Be Here and Now"

Oil on Canvas, 8" x 8"

2010

:::::

Prints of "Be Here and Now" will be available in the shop tomorrow morning, Friday the 6th along with a small company of other new-to-etsy prints (WHAHOO!). I'm not planing on placing the original painting in the shop any time too soon HOWEVER if you are interested in owning the Original please feel very free to drop me an email at kclarkstudios[at]gmail.com.

On that note, I'm headed South to the country for a day with my sister, stopping only for lattés, lunch-to-go and anything else two sassy fems may feel like on a Thursday afternoon.

Somedays

Somedays:

... I walk into the studio and the light dances up the walls and glazes softly over my canvas.

... I mix paint with such a fervor the whole room sings with the slap of my knives on a glass palette.

... I can't be bothered to find new music after an album ends, and work to the sound of brushes sliding over canvas and the rhythm of my own breathing.

... I wonder how I could possibly be hungry after I had just eaten lunch (and then realize it's after 11:30 pm).

I've started a new series. All at once it's familiar and foreign and fresh and bold and subtle. It's the combination of small slices of self-evaluation and the meshing of five separate ideas. It's full of messages, reminders to myself, spelled out for the world more clearly than I've ever worked.

I poured myself into eight square inches yesterday and created something that's looking back at me now.

I can't wait to show you.

Charmingly Contrary and the Big Secret

Do you know those birds, the ones get away with unmentionable amounts of sass while we coo and awe? The ones who blink and trill then turn tail-feather with an inappropriate flash of white, stealing the seed right out of our fingertips, without so much as a please or thank you? Troublesome little bits, but we let them get away with murder just because they're so flippin' adorable?

Yep those ones.

You know you've fallen prey to their wily ways, and given a second chance, will fall just as hard again.

The thing is, they know that too.

"Charmingly Contrary" 4" x 4"

Currently being shown with Venation

When I first decided to immortalize Miss Contrary, little did I realize just how much she would live up to her name. I swooned too quickly over her wide dark eyes and flirty cheeks but that little ball of feathers, she has a mind of her own.

It started off during the first round of photography. All the little smallies lined up, gussied and primped for their glamor shots, posing just so (with energy now, turn a little to the left, and smile... perfect!). But Miss Contrary was in a mood for mischief. She gave a little puff and left a downey feather stuck right in the center of her painting. She stretched up and caught the light of glare in her eye right as the camera snapped. She refused to stay put and bounded out into the sunshine to tease the little critters who call the rhododendrom their home. I should have been irritated with her but she was just so darn charming I forgot all about it.

She behaved quite well all through the tedious day of installation at the gallery, and positively shined during the opening (as all saucy creatures who know the levels of their charm do). The following day as I compiled everyone's portraits, tidying them up and slipping them into lovely little albums I realized that I didn't hold a single decent image of Miss Contrary. I had to make a whole photography trip into town just for that one bitty chickadee.

Sassy little bird.

But you know what?

I wouldn't have her any other way.

*********************************************************************

In completely unrelated in any way to the story of "Charmingly Contrary"I DO have some news for you. TOMORROW, Wednesday, marks the start of the biggest UmberDove blog contest to date so don't let your computer mouses slack!

It's so good.

I want to tell you RIGHT NOW!

But my lips are sealed.

**** Second Side Note: In case you were wondering about the state of large sunglasses and me, I assure you it has NOTHING to do with coolness, but rather an eyesight condition that I refer to as "blind as a rat in the sun." I'm a bit of a vampire, loving my gray skies and fog for the simple reason that I can SEE in them. Ah well. Maybe I do have something in common with that whole Twighlight deal. ****

The Opening

This is exactly how I felt last night.

And maybe a little of this too.

Both images, photo credit: Mme. Bookling

Venation officially opened last night, and Seattle's art-lovingest types braved the drizzle and tromped out into the slick city streets for the First Thursday Art Walk.

Shiny and Fabulous. (photo credit: Mme. Bookling)

Menfolk, BC and The Saint, holding down the fort, toasting with Scotch.

(photo credit: Mme. Bookling)

One of my favorite art appreciators of the evening.

(photo credit: Mme. Bookling)

The turnout was amazing (and humbling), the response overwhelming, and by the end of the night my cheeks were sore from my perma-grin. But more than anything else, the connections that I was able experience with those who came in to see the work was exhilarating. Watching people read, really read, the individual painting poetry then look, really look, at the artwork is astounding. And then to speak with them, to hear what they see and feel, to explain my own inspiration and influences, to know that the work touches them in some way,

well,

I really just don't have the words.

It's amazing.

But "amazing" still seems to fall short.

But the truth is, I feel incredibly blessed.

And unendingly thankful.

And ridiculously gleeful.

Pre-opening, pre-party, in the quiet, everything just so.

The wall o' smallies.

And Best Mmes to boot.

(photo credit: Mme. Bookling)

To all of you well-wishers and love-senders: I received it ALL and wish (and WISH) that each of you could have been here last night.

I really do.

To see the individual works in the show...

Facebook photo album

or

Flickr photo album

I'm off to do absolutely nothing for at least a whole day

LOVEY DOVE to YOU

and You

and you

and you

- Umber

p.s. If you happened to be the lovely one who knows something about "T-shirts, and Haiti, and Kerin Rose" - you know who you are - I want you to know that you COMPLETELY made my day. Thank you. From the widest part of my heart.