Folk Art Mary

Guest Artist - Brian Brogan

Here's what guest artist Brian Brogan has to say about his work:

"It has become a souless world in a veil of amnesia of what it is to be human. Lost wandering, and ghostly clever souls consuming the planet, and all its rich diversity of spiritual light. Objectified material base consciousness stripping the living mother earth, and awakened consciousness along with it. But all souls are not lost, with our need to keep reseeding ourselves in the ritual fire within, reuniting with our unique integral flame - is co-creative and inter-dependent with all life. Let our courageous fire bring light to the world and burn off the mind numbing dross that those in power are serving us."

Brian writes that he works in a variety of mediums including paste, stucco, polymer, pumice and acrylics. Check out Brian's video, Tribal Connection, a Painted Story .

Celebrating with the Ancestors.

 

Soul Vision, Seeing Your Soul

 

Where I identify with Brian's work is in the theme I am working, people in nature.

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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands- Done!

Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands is done! Birthed at last. Success.

I can stop with this final version of the art work. Thanks for bearing with me as I went step by step through the gestation of Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands. I thought of not posting on this piece since I struggled so much with making it, but then I thought perhaps people might be interested in seeing the difficulties I had and the solutions I came up with. Perhaps I'm too much of a perfectionist, but I just can't stop working until my gut and my emotions say that a particular picture is finished.

I feel most comfortable describing myself as a self taught folk artist, and I certainly learned a lot through the making of this piece.

folk art mary

Canoing in the Adirondacks - Carving Rock Through the Frame

 In my earlier painted trial to see if it worked to pierce a rock through the frame, I liked how it looked (see below)...

So the next step is to carve the rock and take away the frame, a step that cannot be undone.

 

Looking good... Changing the frame color also helps this one to sing.

folk art mary

Camping in the Adirondacks - Starting to Cook

Ok, the blue in the frame and the shapes of the rocks at the bottom are working, so I've committed further to the idea by painting still more layers of paint. I decided I needed an extension into the inner frame of the island at the top left. I've made other painting changes, but too many to describe. This piece is starting to cook.

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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands - More Painting in the Frame

I've committed to the idea of adding weight to the bottom and bottom left and right parts of the picture. I decided I need to continue the blue water line into the inner left and right frames. So far I have done no extra carving as I am still trying to feel out whether this new idea works.

folk art mary

Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands- More Rocks

After trying to visualize it, here is the solution I came up with - adding more rocks to the bottom of the picture. I don't want to commit to more carving before I try it out in paint first. Painting can be painted over. But once I carve wood away I can't put it back.

So first I paint a few rock outlines on the bottom part of the frame...

 

I think the above looks good so I paint some more, including running the water into the left and right parts of the inner frame...

 

Here's what the picture looks like from a distance once I've made these changes.

folk art mary

Canoing in the Adirondacks - Gold Leaf Doesn't Help

I thought maybe putting on the gold leaf would make the Canoeing in the Adirondacks art work sing for me. But I'm still bothered by the empty space at the bottom, and now I'm even beginning to be bothered by the empty space to the left of the canoe.

 Usually a piece comes together at the end for me, but not so this time. What am I going to do? I've got to think about this for a few days.

folk art mary

 

Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands - Discouraged

I've painted more but this just isn't working. I'm still bothered by the bottom of the piece -  too much empty space there, it distracts me from looking at the canoe which is where I want to look first.

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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands - Dark Outlines

In this next version, as I look at it, something is starting to not work for me. I've made a number of small color changes including dark outlines around all the major shapes, but I'm starting to get bothered by the large expanse of water that lies between the boat and the bottom of the inner frame. My plan is to keep working with paint to make this piece sing.

folk art mary