Shining

Worked on Air,  mostly the front of the fan's wire cover and another layer on the curtain. There is something about shining that I just love.


For the last three days I've walked around in my studio building a new still life, placing and moving props like chess pieces in a game I play with myself.

There are broad parameters - a drape above, a wooden surface below - but within that beckoning space, I combine and break apart, add and subtract. It's an elusive visual goal I'm chasing, a kind of balance of form and color that is both firmly rooted and on the cusp of destabilization. Time disappears. I forget to eat. I don't hear Robert talking to me. It feels like a trance, some kind of self hypnosis that hooks up allegory with intuition.

I don't know exactly how I'll finally get there, but experience assures me that when I see it, I'll know it.

Air, Fire and Led Zeppelins

Got the front of the fan well underway. It still makes my eyes cross, but I can get there from here.


Made changes to shape and location and transparency of the flames at the top of the book edges in Fire. Moving right along




From time to time I get an email inquiring about a movie I was in back in the seventies, The Song Remains The Same, a documentary/fantasy about the band Led Zeppelin. The other day I got one of those inquiring emails, and I clicked on a link that took me to the fan forum on Led Zepplin.com. There was a thread from June 2011 speculating on her identity - was she English, was she a friend of the band, etc. On pure impulse, I posted this.

An American girl from the south played the part of the princess in the tower. I was working in London as a model and was booked for the job by my agency, Models One. I don't really know why I was cast, but I suspect it was my hair - I did a lot of cosmetics and hair product ads back in the day. I wasn't an actress. Doing editorial pages for English Vogue, Queen and Honey meant more to me in terms of my career.
At the time the shoot was not a big deal to me - just another day of work. Who knew the age of the Internet would extend the movie's shelf life from a couple of years to eternity? My on screen time only lasts a few minutes. It took longer for the hair people to get my straight hair curled with tongs than it did to do the take. I was told to 'look at the camera and don't smile.' Mostly I stood around and tried not to wrinkle the costume.
Post-modeling career, I was a journalist for 20 plus years and have been a fine art painter since 2001. Every now and again someone does a Google search, and emails me from my website, asking if I did the movie.
My kids get a kick out of it. Two of them work in the film business and often the director of photography is familiar with it.
The Song really does Remain the Same in the age of Google and Youtube. Glad you have fond memories of the film.

Turns out these people could not have been nicer.  It's not the kind of topic that comes up in daily life, so it was fun to have somewhere to talk about it. For those who are so inclined, here's a link to the section I'm in, albeit briefly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKsx5bEWnOk

Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains The Same/ Part 6

3:21-3:26, I appear. 3:33-3:36, I look away.  3:39, I look back.  4:21-4:33, I appear behind flames and vanish.

Total: 21 seconds on screen.

Atlanta Burns

Worked on Fire, mostly on the cover of the Atlanta book. It will get smoke and ash scumbled over it on the next round, and more work on the flames licking the corners.

I worked on Air yesterday - a little on the base but mostly the back half of the wire basket that covers the blades. Very slow going - again, mostly abstract dashes and dots. It's the first of many layers. The wire will get sharpened up a good deal.


Ridiculously happy painting shiny objects.

Chrome-alicious

Today's effort; working on Air.

Got a layer of paint on the fan base and the beginning of the wire cover over the blades. Love the wobbly reflected light on the base, which reminds me of the stand mixer my Mama used.

Took my jumpdrive to Wolf photo to see if they can do better color prints from the jpgs for Fire. I'm going to draw from my glued together source and mix color from the - hopefully - better prints.

Shadows on curtains

Bocked in the curtain, fan shadow and corner of the mantle. The saturated color is delicious to me.

Working on the branches of the trees reflected in water. A breeze after doing the limbs of trees in Boomlift. Again, the saturated color is like a cup of strong, milky tea and toast with butter dripping from it - such a pleasure.

Air, Implied

Started Air yesterday. Painted mostly negative shapes and the leather table top.



Although I took many photos of the kiln firing, none of them are beseeching me to paint them. I am thinking I should wait until October, when the days are shorter and they might run the kiln at dusk. Also thinking of tracking down a wood-fired pizza oven. Or a crematory.

Meanwhile, more progress on LightGrid. Added sky behind the tree canopy, more texture in the pasture and on the dirt road.