As 2011 comes to a close

Untitled Mixed Media Layered Glass mosaic

I’ve been thinking a lot about this year as it winds down and I believe I have a love/hate relationship with 2011.

I’ve exhibited and sold more work this year than any other year in my artistic history.  I’ve been more satisfied with my creations and more confident in my direction.  A cyber friend told me “You’ve found your voice.”  That sums it up very nicely.

I no longer consciously think about technique or flow – it just presents itself as part of the process.  That does NOT mean that everything that comes out of the studio is fabulous.  Trust me, there are things down there that will NEVER see the light of day.  I know what went wrong, and in most cases I know the mistakes so as not to make them again.

I’m happy with the direction my art-life has taken this year and I will do everything I can to facilitate it into the future.

Crimson City - Mixed Media Layered Glass mosaic

Now comes the hate part of the love/hate relationship.  We’ve had family troubles and financial troubles.  Nothing earth shattering or devastating.  Nothing that can’t be risen above with a little tenacity and time.  I think the reason I “hate” this part is that it’s a severe distraction to my art-life.

That may sound self centered and self serving, but when one considers that I have put my art-life on hold for over 20 years to raise and nurture my family, volunteer in my community, and generally be a “giver”, one might see how this can be true.

I look forward to 2012 with great relish and energy.  I will continue producing  the “Ice Series.”  Although it’s now a year old, I wonder if it’s a series any longer?  What would one call it?  A phase? A period (like “his blue period”)? Hmmmmmm . . . will have to cogitate on that one.

I thank my clients, my collectors, my friends (both cyber and real), and my family for the encouragement and kindness shown to me over the past year. I’m  humbled that you like my work and thrilled with the feedback offered.

Splintered Circles - Mixed Media layered glass mosaic

Happy New Year!  Thank YOU for following my blog.  I resolve to update more regularly in 2012.

Glass

I use a lot of clear window glass in my work.

A LOT.

Will it go 'Round

I layer it over mirror and color it with alcohol inks and sometimes there are up to 8 layers of glass in one piece.

I was raised by Depression Era parents who wasted nothing and they passed that ethic on to me.  When I replaced all the original 1950′s windows in my home a few years ago, I wouldn’t let the installers throw any of them in the dumpster.  They reside snugly in my attic waiting for my next project.

In the meantime, friends, neighbors, and locals who know me give me old windows.  LOTS of old windows.  The frames are falling to pieces, they are covered with fly spots, old layers of paint, and more dust and grime than I  thought possible.  The wood smells musty and the hardware is rusted.  But the glass is fabulous.

It’s simple, 1/8th inch thick clear window glass.  As ubiquitous as air.  We’re surrounded by it.  We look through it every day.  We measure our days through it gazing at a sunrise or sunset, watching children play, watching the seasons change.  This glass has held back countless storms, snow, wind, hail, oppressive heat, and bitter cold.  This glass has been there for the beginning of journeys and at the end of homecomings.  This glass has history,  yet it is as clear, shiny, and flat as the day it was made.

Most people don’t know that glass is a liquid.  It’s a liquid that flows very, very slowly over centuries rather than minutes.  When looking at a hundred year old pane of glass, it is clearly thicker on the bottom than on the top, due to the effects of gravity on this liquid.

I like to think that I’m taking this shiny, hard, sharp, liquid and elevating it.  What went on around it through its life is now added to my work and my artistic vision.  The colors that the glass reflected are now on its surface and changing its character. Viewers no longer look THROUGH this glass, but rather into it.

I like to let the glass “speak” to me when I manipulate it  (I’m not crazy, it doesn’t actually say words ).  When glass breaks in an unexpected manner it seems to be pointing me in a direction I hadn’t considered.  When it won’t lay properly, it seems to be telling me to try something else.  When I listen to it, really listen to where it wants to go, then the glass, and the artwork resulting from it, sings.

Pat

X-Scape Exhibit at Maplestone Gallery

X-Scape opens July 6th at Maplestone Gallery in Creemore, Ontario, Canada.  I had three pieces originally accepted into the show and two of them sold without ever going up on the walls!  You can see the remaining piece (Fabric of the Sky) through July if you’re in the area.

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New Show – “Inspired by Words”

June 29th through July 28th at Latitudes Coffee House on Hwy Q and Pilgrim Road in Germantown, WI.

Stop by for a coffee and some fine art by the members of the Art Guild. Each year our resident Poet Maggie Brooks picks several of her poems for the visual artists of the Guild to interpret. The resulting works are then shown in an annual exhibit called “Inspired by Words.”

This year my mosaic entry is called “The Middle of No Where” based on a poem called “Salami and Candles in the Middle of No Where.”

Middle of No Where

Art on the Walk – May 28th

This weekend the Village Center is holding Art on the Walk as well as sidewalk sales in downtown Menomonee Falls.  We’ll be on Main street near the Mill Pond.  Stop by and say hello.  You can see lots of local artists and our wonderful Village Center.

Thanks for your support

The Mosaic Auction to benefit Doctors without Borders is over and together we raised over $20,000 for a great organization.  100% of the pieces sold and  they are being shipped to their new owners on Monday, May 2nd.

If you are interested in seeing more of my pieces, and you live near Toronto, I have three pieces in a show called “Abstraction” at the Maplestone Gallery in Creemore, Ontario, from May 4th through June 30th, 2011.

Pomegranate Ice

Iced Over

Sun Dance (sold before the Exhibit opened!)

A week left in Mosaic Art Auction!

The Auction benefits Doctors without Borders and you can bid on one-of-a-kind mosaic art by artists from around the world.  There’s sure to be something that tickles your fancy and the entire price goes to Doctors without Borders.  My contribution is pictured below, but don’t feel bound to bid on just my work.  There are over 125 original pieces from which to choose.  Why not use a portion of that tax return for something that benefits others!

Mosaic Art to Benefit Doctors without Borders

Veneration by Pat Mitchell

I finished it . . . .

I finally finished Atlas Shrugged.  Just in time for Atlas Shrugged Part I (the movie) to come out.

I adored listening to the audiobook, even with all the hours of rephrasing the same philosophy seven or eight different times,  and all the extraneous and despicable characters I was forced to endure.

The Movie?  Not so much.

I think in all fairness it was a good attempt at some lofty material.  I understand that creating a film from a book such as this can only be difficult, at best.  The rich, intricate language, ideas, and philosophy are what has made the book a classic.  Translating that into a cohesive, intelligent, and entertaining film never quite materialized.

I liked the actors who played Dagny (Taylor Schilling) and Hank Rearden (Grant Bowler – who knew Henry could be such a hottie?),and LOVED  the actress who portrayed Lillian Rearden (Rebecca Wisocky).  She played Lillian with ice in her veins and mooching in her soul- which was so very true to her character.  The inaugural run of the John Galt line was outstanding.  The burning of the Wyatt oil fields looked too much like the burning of Atlanta in Gone with the Wind.  Just a wee bit cheesy.

Now I can move on to reading (listening) to  other audio books.  Any suggestions?

Atlas Shrugging

I’m about to reveal something of which I’m not proud, but is necessary to reveal.  I read Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) about 20 years ago and I never finished it.

I got about two thirds of the way through it and realized the only purpose it was serving in my life was as a sleeping pill, so I put it aside for other pursuits and have never returned to it..

I am a conservative person, politically speaking.  Atlas Shrugged is the conservative/libertarian manifesto, and I couldn’t finish it.  It was my dirty little secret and now it’s not . . .

Fast forward to a new century and new technology.  I am now listening to Atlas Shrugged on my Ipod via audio book download.  And I’m almost done!!  I turn it on while I’m creating or watching baseball and listen to Scott Brick read to me.  Scott Brick is a gifted narrator and reader – he has excellent diction (I’m a stickler) and a wonderful command of how to make different characters obvious simply by the tone of his own voice.  I’ve fallen in love with Francisco D’Anconia again,  hearing him voiced by Scott Brick.

I never liked to be read to – even when I was a kid.  If someone read to me I couldn’t create the character’s voices in my head – I could only hear the narrator.  Now I seem to like to be read to.  Maybe this is a precursor to my old age when I’ll have grandchildren reading to granny wench . . .maybe it’s just the old dog learning new tricks.

Part One of Atlas Shrugged comes out in movie form on April 15th.  I have to drive to a different state to see it, but it’ll be worth it.

Writing and life

I have a love/hate relationship with writing.  I was told at an early age that I had a talent for it and that it was what I should concentrate on as I grew up, so I did.

By the time my first year in college rolled around I was in a university I vehemently hated (chosen FOR me rather than BY me) in a degree program I despised, following in the footsteps of a relative who was a questionable human being . . . because I was told I had a talent for it.

I rebelled like most young people do, by dropping out of that college after a year.  I wanted to make and pay my own way in a direction that made no sense to anyone but me.  I worked for a time to raise money to pay my own way through college, and then returned to a much different university to obtain a Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in Ceramics.

Is there any more useless degree in the world?  No classified ads for corporate potters, no openings in anything for which I was remotely trained.  I never felt compelled to teach art anywhere, so I never pursued a Master’s degree.  I wanted to DO, not to teach.

Fast forward more than a quarter century and I have yet to put my degree to use.  Not the ceramics part, anyway.  I use the design and fine arts portions of it daily in my pursuit of producing mosaic art.  I occasionally pick up pieces of polymer clay and sculpt them to my wishes.  But true ceramics/pottery?  Not for a moment.

My degree was not wasted, not by any means measurable.  Most importantly, it serves as a shining reminder that I CHOSE what I wanted to do with my life and did it by my own means and ambition.  I paid back every cent of student loans granted to me, and now produce works of beauty and light that come straight from my head and my heart.

If I had followed the path set before me all those years ago, I’m sure I would now be a burned out drunk clinging to my job in the newsroom of a television station or a newspaper office  as the world around me made me irrelevant.

I’m happy with the path I’ve chosen and followed.