Oregon. Empty beaches. Tilamook anything. The Pearl District.  You can go skiing in the mountains and get to the beach within hours.  From wine country to Crater Lake, to the “fruit loop” near Mount Hood, Oregon is wide open to explore.  And a well kept secret.  Is it on your bucket list?  Probably not.  Get ‘er on the list!  It is another one of those “color places” that sparkle.  We recently ambled down the coast, road tripping from Lincoln City to Florence and then over to Crater Lake.  Why is there not a “Crater Lake Blue?” paint that I can buy?

Blue!

The snow had just melted enough (in August!) to drive around the perimeter of the lake.  At one stop, I felt like someone had pulled down a giant backdrop so that we could get the perfect photo of my daughter.

Is that background real?

And then there was our stay in Yachats.

Rocks dripping with star fish.

Rocks dripping with starfish

Tidepools bursting with purple sea urchins (I’m thinking Freddy the Fish would love this place) .  OK.  So it’s about art on this blog.  Getting a little carried away here. I won’t even try to paint anything in indefinable Crater Lake blue.  When you get there, someday, you’ll understand how this is impossible. But I did try to capture the notion of little creatures scurrying around underwater–between rocks, clinging, at the mercy of the tides.

Beneath the Ocean

Lean over and take a look (but don’t touch!).

Sky and Water

Life under the water, life that’s there somewhere between your knees and your ankles.

Colors of Bretagne

Summer lasts about 10 minutes in Minnesota so you have to drop what you’re doing or you’ll miss it.  Because summer = color, it is a great time of year to seize inspiration where you can find it. Last summer was all about the sparkling colors of Bretagne, France. We stayed in a charming rental house in the village of Tréguier (www.maisondegranit.com) and were in awe of the countryside in all its vibrancy. On the coast of Bretagne, hydrangea come in shades of blue, purple, orange, pink, maroon, red, and more. The French love their gardens and it is common to see a stunning garden planted in a roundabout in the middle of nowhere.

Back home, I was inspired to create a set of three tiny 5×5 pieces

Colors of Bretagne

in honor of these colors as well as a nautical scene of the English Channel and and its wonderful sail boats.

Can’t wait to tell you about what I did this summer…more colors, this time, of the Oregon Coast.  More in my next post.

The colors of the English Channel

Lilies of the Nile

I have worked as a professional artist for the past 20 years.  Most of my sales are through third parties–vendors, art consultants, galleries.  It is only in the past four years, from my studio in Northeast Minneapolis, that I have sold directly to the public.  And as visitors make their way to my studio during our twice-per-year art crawls, I am asked all sorts of questions–like, what kind of flower is that in that bouquet outside your door, or, what color is the paint on the wall?  Mostly, thankfully, the questions are about my artwork, and art in general.  The question I am asked most is: where do you get your ideas?  My art is about color and texture and abstraction; inspiration is drawn from travels, my backyard, events in my life.  And often, my work is pure serendipity.  I was working on an abstract piece one day, pondering anew series when my daughter–a senior in high school–called me from the girl’s bathroom (phones forbidden in h.s.) to tell me that my advice not to worry about not wearing a white shirt to her senior class photo was ill conceived.  Earlier that day, she had explained that everyone was to wear a white shirt for the photo.  She was not thrilled about the idea.  I told her “you are all teenagers, nobody will be wearing a white shirt.  Don’t worry about it.”  Turns out everyone wore a white shirt.  Except my daughter.  The principal was not amused and draped a white something or other over my daughter’s shoulders and she became the picture of conformity.  After school that day when my daughter had come home from school I told her I was sorry I couldn’t do anything to change what had happened.  But I could name my new series in her honor:  Don’t Wear Your White Shirt.

Back in the day when I was working on my MBA and studying for the CPA exam, I had no idea there was such a thing as the “art business.”  Surely I knew people went to art school (so that’s what that funky looking building is over on the West Bank). But I had no clue people actually built a career around art.  Fifteen years of spreadsheets later, I found myself entering the art world as an art rep. Wow. What a brutal and painful job.  I bow down to all art reps everywhere.  Not really feeling the art rep thing, my successful artist cousin, Jody Brimhall, suggested I bag that idea and start creating art myself.  Much more fun, much more rewarding.  But still slightly painful in that the art (insert air quotes here) business is comprised of creating art AND selling it.  And that’s the secret they never tell you.  To make a career as an artist, one must create, market, promote, network, get out of the studio, start over.  We introverted types find this all grueling except for the create part.  But if you create an artwork that is never seen, does it

really exist (work with me, I’m trying to make the falling tree in the forest analogy)?  The goal of my blog (they tell you are supposed to have a goal to your blog so your audience knows they’re the audience) is to let you in on my little world of being an artist, creating art, sharing art.  In revealing my world, I hope to offer some texture to what you have perhaps purchased from me, seen in my studio, or perused on my website.  So, let’s have some fun.  Because fun is good and art is life.