 Chasing the Sun. That’s how I see the compulsion that drove my grandparents across the Atlantic to start over in this fresh, new country. Making a break with the cold, dark winters of northern Scandinavia each one came with different expectations of this new life. Optimism and ambition were stronger forces than the ties that would keep them entrenched in the cold and dark, mourning for the sun.
In this damp and cloudy place I now call home I’m driven to chase the sun, hanging onto every ray, afraid I’ll miss the last bit of warm bright light. Have I made the most of the sunshine days?  "Almost Landscape II" encaustic, 10x10 “Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos” Saul Bellow  "Almost Landscape III" 10x10, encaustic  Painted Desert, National Park Series, Mixed Media in 3 parts each 12 x 36 There are places where the earth is broken open, slashed through to expose the guts of the place.
 Chasing the Sun IV, 6.5 x 7.5, encaustic with collage elements My ancestors struggled in the cold grey of Scandinavia. They immigrated, worked hard, and made it easier for me to work for what I wanted along side what I needed. So I ask, am I making the best use of my place in the sun?
 Broken Hallelujah, 40x30, Encaustic/mixed media Beauty even in brokenness--I think that's what Cohen was writing about...
“...There’s a blaze of light In every word It doesn’t matter which you heard The holy or the broken hallelujah?” Leonard Cohen, composer “The wound is where the light enters you” Rumi, 15th century Sufi Mystic  Chasing the Sun: Daybreak, 12 x 36, Encaustic with photo bits Searching & Chasing the Sun — I’ve done some paintings with the idea of “Chasing the Sun.” These are a side trip along my Searching for Beauty in a Broken World journey. These paintings are visual metaphors which focus on bright bits of optimism with strong mid-day yellows, sunset oranges and reds, and occasional piercing metallics.
 BB. He's a blue frog, supposed to be green like the rest of the frogs in the pond but he's lacking yellow pigment--kind of like an albino but he's only lacking the one color - which makes him blue instead of green. He's stunning. Or he was. He's been missing since I saw a large snapping turtle in his area of the pond. ugh
 Embedded Grief II, Encaustic with gravestone rubbing I’ve done a lot of painting lately, entered some gallery shows, set up a solo show in July/August, made sketches of ideas and written a lot about this whole idea of Searching for Beauty in this Broken World. I’ve been settling out the different elements of this theme: How & where do we Search? What is Beauty anyway? Why is it so easy to see what is Broken? And when can we see that sometimes a break is what we really need?
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ArtWorking...A journey through the creative process, working and traveling in the Northern Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
AuthorI practice artworking in several different media: encaustic, collage, egg tempera, block printing, and digital Archives
November 2018
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