The Gathering

Bad photos of somewhat interesting Artist Trading Cards
I made last week. More description below.

I was pleased at last week’s Artist Trading Cards (trade ‘em, make ‘em, and trade ‘em, a monthly fourth Thursday meeting) to be seated between Bill, a long-time ATC maker and Mylan, a youngster in about fourth grade, two very able artists in their own rights. It was especially fun to sit beside the young lady who was this meeting making ribbon cards inspired by a card she’d received from another card maker Sue, who was seated across the large table from where we were working. To be surrounded by artists is always a thrill for me, an inspiration to my own artwork and sense of being an artist hard at work! To be surrounded by artists of all ages seems especially fine.

I traded cards at the beginning of our session, new ones I’d made even though I didn’t know what the theme of the opening trade was. That’s always okay with group members. The given topic was cereal images. I made black Christmas trees—sparkly trees on a black ground. After that I gathered some pre-cut grounds pre-printed in light blue and light green, glue, scissors, a knife, a black fine-point pen, and several magazines. And I went to work. I had no idea doing what, but a folded cloth photo caught my eye, a simple flower design in black and white. In another magazine I found some photos of broken sticks with bark still attached. I tore them out and then looked at what I had.

As I worked I became aware of the girl’s frustration. She asked me advice on how to integrate a ribbon she’d just glued on that didn’t easily go with the rest of her design. I gave her a suggestion that she liked and watched as she improvised on it to nice effect. Still she was not satisfied, so I gave her another suggestion and found that we were both searching for the right string to make it. Eventually she found the perfect string to glue in place. I gave her advice what glue to use and how to get it started so it wouldn’t be too much. She showed me her other pieces as they developed and asked me my opinion of a thing or two. I gave her advice on cutting off the edges of the ribbon so they’d cut easily and neatly and watched and complemented her on her work.

Milan’s mother watched and commented. She seemed to be getting a kick out of our interactions. There were a few exchanges. I said I’d worked with children for many years, especially planning art projects. Milan’s younger sister said with surprise, “You worked with children?”

“Yes, I assured her for many years and I had two children and quite a few foster children at home as well.” Children often seem amazed at the long pasts of older adults! Milan’s project was quite successful. Another adult at the end when we present our cards for viewing and swapping said of them, “These are really beautiful.” I agreed.

The evening was wonderful in many respects: working with a child, Beating snacks (especially snacks made by Bill), some white wine, Bill’s cards that are always neat (his combination of images and colors in collage), and the rest of the artists that night.

I also liked what I was doing, the combination of torn images and finishing them off with ink drawings. Sue and Bill and Jerry liked them as well. The girls did too. Mostly, though, just being there talking with and working alongside other artists, seemed right, meaningful, wonderful—a great Christmas week event for me.

Hope your holiday also has been merry and bright.

Denver, 2014

Christmas Present

My Christmas card a few years ago when I was
into Punk Rock Angels.
Block print by Phillip Hoyle

For the next few days I’ll be looking at and working on designs, simplifications, and abstract of things seen and felt this year in order to get my next year's Christmas card underway. I want to do this while the spirit of Christmas is still strong in me. Actually the sentiment of Peace on Earth is at the core of the Christmas vision. It works all year long. for me, the spirit of Christmas is the festive feeling fostered by all the decorations, brisk winter air, seasonal music, parties, and so forth. Oh, I didn’t mean to leave out shopping for gifts.

I’m hoping in the next three days to make something of that! I think I’ll experiment with my designs by making Artist Trading Cards that I will make today and tomorrow and trade on Tuesday night. Of course, I’ll make copies of them for reference! Guess I’ll also post them next Monday—on the fifth day of Christmas as in the old liturgical calendar and the current Christmas popular song.

We’re keeping the tree and decorations up a few extra days due to out-of-town visitors and the Denver tradition to keep holiday lights burning through the National Western Stock Show. Maybe I’ll get these things done after all. It’s my hope but certainly not an old year’s resolution.

Hope your holiday is bright and artful.

Denver, 2014

At the Museum, part three

Someone was there! Hand and footprint petroglyphs at the
Shavano site have always got my attention.
Acrylic washes on paper by Phillip Hoyle.

For a year and 9 months I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I enjoyed the Philbrook Museum and the Gilcrease Museum. I made many trips to these two while living in there. I liked seeing the art and studied it with rapt attention for I was at the time also studying with working artists at the Oklahoma Art Workshops. 

Now I live in the shadow of the first art museum I ever visited, the Denver Art Museum. I’ve held a membership there for over fifteen years and make monthly trips to look at some special display or simply to walk the halls of my favorite parts of the collection.

What are those favorites? Did someone ask? I’ll tell anyway.

I always visit the western art display, the two floors of contemporary art, the Native American collection, and some traveling show. Often I visit the rather new and greatly expanded fabric arts displays, the photographic displays, and some part of the Asian collection. I like to go alone or with one other person (at a time). When with others I watch their reactions in order to gain new perspectives related to my favorite pieces. I sometimes walk through the displays in order to enjoy the architecture of the buildings. Occasionally I sit in one of the small libraries to page through books, watch a video, or simply to read my own books. I people watch at times, play with children in special interactive displays, or sit in the gift shop sipping coffee.

My approach to the place is always varied slightly and I have never been disappointed in a visit there. It’s not like being at church, but the experience satisfies something deep within. I do feel a kind of reverence and awe there. And I always like to see new pieces on display whether they are recently added or presented from the huge collection most people have never imagined the museum curates.

I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world when I’m at the museum and come away refreshed, intrigued, full of ideas, inspired to continue in my own art work.

Denver, 2014

At the Art Museum, part 2

"Wild Things" after two Ute petroglyphs in Shavano Valley
Acrylic washes on watercolor paper
by Phillip Hoyle
I appreciate this weasel? and wild paw print and that the
Native artist who chipped it into the boulder approached
the images creatively. A seven-toed whatever it is? I know
from an old Cherokee petroglyph that the story may be about
some now unknown mythological creature. Who knows?

After I moved to Missouri in 1981, I visited the Nelson-Atkins Galleries and the St. Louis Art Museum. Sometimes I went just to experience the places. On other trips to the museums I was researching visual images to use in various curriculum resources. I was especially interested in the artwork of primal cultures to modify into art projects for children, but I saw much more.

Later, in the 1980s, I visited a friend in Los Angeles and got to see The Huntington (with its art collection and botanic gardens), LA County Museum of Art (where I was mightily impressed with the ancient collection, especially a gateway from Persia or Babylonia), and the Norton Simon Museum (where I first experienced a positive emotional response to Hindu sculpture). The experience at the Norton Simon surprised me. I had seen plenty of such sculpture at the Nelson-Atkins Galleries but finally realized that the lighting at this new museum had made possible a deep affective response from me. I found myself ready to join Shiva in a dance of affirmation or destruction—which one I wasn’t sure. Perhaps I was learning more about art due to my visits. Certainly I was learning more about myself.

When in 1990 I moved to New Mexico, I discovered a new world of art. There I visited the Albuquerque Art Museum near where I lived. I also made many trips to the New Mexico Museum of Art and while there also saw many, many galleries. There were more museums of folk art, American Indian art, on and on. In fact, the whole state seemed to me like an art and history museum! Favorite galleries kept me abreast contemporary and traditional Native American art. A friendship with a gallery curator introduced me into a world I had never imagined. I grew in my understanding and got really hooked!

Since those days I have always been ready to make another trip to the museum, any museum, but especially the art museum.

Denver, 2014

The Art Museum

The Coyote has got my attention as in this piece after a Ute
petroglyph. Acrylic washes on paper by Phillip Hoyle.
Native American art still influences the way I see things.

The first art museum I visited in my early teens (early 1960s) was the Denver Art Museum, the American Indian displays that back then were housed in an old mansion, the Chappell House, located along Grant Avenue on Denver’s Capitol Hill. I viewed the place as an Indian Culture museum since it seemed similar to the pieces I knew from the Kansas State Historical Museum. I also realized it was called an art museum and knew there was much more art elsewhere (but didn’t see the other displays for many years. In Denver I also visited the Denver Natural History museum and really liked its Native American collection. All these American Indian things seemed like art to me, beautiful hand-made items that I might easily desire to hang on the walls of my room, yet ones I’d never be able to have due to their rarity. I liked that I could view them free or for a modest fee. And I determined to make similar items of such rare beauty.

Finally as a young adult I visited the Wichita Art Museum with curiosity. I enjoyed my visit but recall that I couldn’t fathom why people acted so excited by it. I had read somewhere back then that the art museum had replaced the cathedral as a place of worship, but perhaps because I was not Catholic, I didn’t relate to the writer’s evaluation. For me, the museum didn’t compare with the art galleries at Wichita State University. I wondered why. Was I just undereducated? Would such places grow on me as I matured? I had no real idea. Still, at the Wichita museum I realized the museum was more than simply its displays. It was also a membership organization.

Over the years I added more art museums to my experience. For instance, while attending graduate seminary at TCU in Fort Worth, TX, I often visited the Kimbel Art Museum (a collection of European and Asian art), the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (meaning largely cowboys and Indians), and occasionally the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum (post WWII art). In these places I saw paintings and sculptures that sometimes connected with my personal interests and that often pushed me to look more deeply at the pieces themselves in search for understanding or simply to see. An offshoot of this activity was that I began going into commercial art galleries as well. The world of fine art was expanding for me.

Since those years I’ve visited many other art museums and have come to feel a special relationship with them, now as a working artist. My appreciation has grown, my insight amplified by education and experience and the insights of friends with whom I visit these places that sometimes thrill, cause me to laugh, or open my eyes to another person’s vision of the world. Maybe that’s why they serve a kind of religious visionary role. I stand in awe before some of the most beautiful or most horrifying. I now understand why one influential scholar created a methodology in which he claimed the Arts raise the questions that philosophy and theology seek to answer. That’s the large picture. For me, the painters, sculptors, and others ask me to think anew about my own work and my life. I go to art museums with regularity and need, something indeed akin to religion.

Denver, 2014

Go Primal

I have long been interested in primal images of life, especially those related to several tribes of Native Americans. I read stories, made costumes, learned tribal and inter-tribal dances, and attended powwows. In short, I spent a great deal of my childhood pursuing such images. As a teen and adult I collected artifacts and bought Indian-made jewelry, dream catchers, and paintings. I still follow some Native American writers and usually scan the daily paper for any articles of American Indian news. 

ATCs with a few primal designs by Phillip Hoyle

The topic for this week's Artist Trading Cards swap and make is "Go Primal." I am delighted with the topic, one I may have submitted sometime back, and have collected idea after idea. Here at the first of the week I have made only five cards. Guess I'd better get into my studio and make some more. Over several years I've already made quite a few such ATCs: cards related to tribal masks from Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and others related to American Indian petroglyphs and pottery designs. Of course now I'm looking for something that contrasts with those things.

A few days ago I decided I needed to get out some materials. I chose leather, feathers, fur, rafia, sand, dirt, and so forth. I hope to use them in mixed media collages that could invoke a primal feel. Now for the feeling part of the assignment. 

Cutouts of some Ute bighorn sheep cutting up. My three new cards.
ATC by Phillip Hoyle. Acrylic washes on paper.

Since I have so few new ones done, I've added some from the past and in so doing hope to find the inspiration for a new batch! I have until Tuesday--that's tomorrow--to complete several new ones. I'm hoping for the best, new images to post next Monday. And I hope to surprise myself and any readers who open these pages!

Go primal. Remember that a lot of European painters of the early 20th century were inspired primal designs. Those images can still stretch an artist's imagination.

Denver 2014

Art Dreams

A group of Artist Trading Cards I made at an
evening meeting of artists in a local studio.
My friend Sue and I go to ATC events together.

These days I have a friend Sue who loves to drive around town and suggest how a certain house could be just right for her. Once I said one of her houses would be too much for me. “But you’d need a room for a studio, one for writing, one for living in, and on for sleep,” she insisted, “and maybe a second bedroom for company.” 

“No. That would be more than I’d ever want to clean,” I responded.

“But when I fantasize,” she rebutted, “I always assume a large house comes complete with a staff: a person to clean, one to cook, one to take care of the lawn and grounds, and one to drive me around.”

“Oh. I just don’t have those kinds of fantasies.”

“Well maybe you need some,” she retorted. 

I suppose her challenge to me is to dream bigger in order to clarify just what I want and need. We are different, my friend and I. We talk together a lot and although we differ on our housing fantasies, we do sometimes dream together of having a large studio together where, away from the phone, our families, and other interruptions, we could spend serious time painting, art printing, making collages, creating mixed media works, and probably talking until our throats were raw. Actually we may end up tiring our voices over this fantasy because already we’re clarifying just what we want to do, what kinds of equipment we need, and the like. We haven’t yet let anyone else know we have these dreams. We still seem insecure about where the visions will lead us.

I am reminded of my childhood friend Keith with whom I would fantasize about many things. We’d lie on the twin beds in his room and talk and talk about all the things we would do in a kind of duet daydream. The big project we undertook in this fantasy world was to dig out his family’s basement so we could build a rifle range. We actually did remove a few wheelbarrows full of dirt before we gave up on the idea. I guess we grew out of that kind of communal fantasy when our lives started becoming too different, our interests diverging—his into hunting, woodworking, and messing with large machines; mine into making music and studying language. Those kinds of changes happen to seventh graders.

But my friend Sue and I as adults continue driving around Denver talking, wondering if we will ever get to work in the same art studio. The dream seems possible when we work together in another artist’s studio we make Artist Trading Cards. Working alongside other artists stokes one’s enthusiasm and encourages creativity. Having such a studio is a dream I’d like to pursue, so I guess I’d better start dreaming about how to get the money to do it! Sue’s already watching for vacancy signs. I’m still dreaming. Maybe I’ll go out and buy a shovel. Who knows where this dream could lead.

Denver, 2014

A Day at the Gallery

Same picture as last week but one referred to
in this post.
Acrylic washes on paper by Phillip Hoyle

Fortunately I found my folder that morning last week. I needed it for the security codes that provide the key to enter and the ability to turn off the security system of the gallery where I was scheduled to work. The gallery sits on the main street of Georgetown CO, a small mountain town high in the Central Rockies west of Denver and just a few miles east of the Continental Divide. The historic town sits at around 8500 feet above sea level, an old place that grew due to the discovery of silver. Today it’s mainly a tourist spot near scenic passes, alpine skiing, and a small lake that is fished all year much of the time through thick ice. Tourists can ride a narrow gauge train to another mining town, tour the train and mining museum attached to the depot, visit the old Hotel du Paris museum, enjoy good food, gather curios, and shop at the two art galleries including the Colorado Mountain Art Gallery where I was headed.

I joined the co-op gallery a year ago and was fulfilling my monthly obligation by working there. My partner for the day had not arrived so I opened the door—successfully I was glad—and began turning on the lights. There are many lights to highlight the art of nearly sixty artists in a building that is about half a block deep. By the time I made it to the front of the building, my partner had arrived and was waiting for me to let her enter. Then we shared the opening process.

I had not worked in retail since I was a kid and found myself facing old but new challenges in my membership at the gallery. With so many owner-members—probably some with even less experience than I—the gallery provides a detailed list of daily duties. It covers opening up, cleaning, clerking, running the credit card machine, and closing the gallery. (If you’re curious, keep reading.)

I was pleased to be working with Lisa who is a fast and endless worker as well as a wonderful and experienced painter. Between us we counted the money, turned on lights in jewelry display cases, started the paperwork that must be done daily, set out the sign, bench, and chair on the sidewalk in front, cleaned the restroom, ran the sweeper, washed the front window and doors, cleaned the glass tops and fronts of the many display cases.

We also had each brought more artwork to replace or change out in our own displays. Lisa decided to re-hang her display. She removed the paintings, pulled out nails, filled the holes with putty, and painted the spackle. Then she worked to hang at least one or two more paintings on the wall. Later, I did something similar except I was not planning to redo my whole display. I simply added to it some smaller pieces and changed what was hanging in the front gallery with another painting, this one of a petroglyph of a Rocky Mountain big horn sheep in preparation for last Saturday’s Big Horn Sheep Festival in Georgetown. Of course, when one hangs more paintings or adds pottery or sculptures or whatever, there is bookkeeping to be done. We adjusted our inventory records and made printed and hung wall tags.

We worked pretty steadily with the many projects through the eight hours we were at the gallery, well until the last hour when we were done with our work, itching to get out of there, and had no more customers. Actually on this midweek day in November, we had only seven or eight customers, but we talked with them, sold a few pieces, and enjoyed both their personalities and the diversion they provided us. Nice people, elders on fall outings, mostly from the Denver area yet also two from England, folk Lisa remembered had visited last year. At 4:00 we sat together in the front gallery and talked—swapping stories and art concerns—until it was time to begin closing up. That last hour the air also began to cool. We were extra glad we were leaving in mild weather and not having to battle a snowstorm on our ways home. On my way out I did remember to gather all my belongings, including the folder that had eluded me all last month!

Denver, 2014

Still at It

This past week and over the weekend I dedicated quite a bit of time to my current art project that I described a couple of weeks ago. I have completed six of the projected twenty-three pieces. I'm pleased with the results and am looking forward to displaying them soon. 

Bagged, acrylic washes on watercolor paper
by Phillip Hoyle

I've been messing with these petroglyph designs for many years and have never tired of them. I'm working with some designs that are familiar and others new to me this time. It has been fun to try a few different colors and shades. The great breakthrough for me was when I began to use masking medium in the process. By building up washes close in color and texture to the "exposed" rock (that that has weathered less than the face of the rock) and then applying the design in masking medium, I create the effect of the subsequent washes being the weathered rock. The design can look like color was removed. At least that is how I have learned to work. 

By not using flow enhancer in the acrylics I get a more rustic look that seems compatible to me for the look of sandstone. Anyway, I love working with these primal subjects and ever changing artistic ways and always seek to treat the designs in a manner respectful of the people who made them in some cases many hundreds of years ago. 

Hope your art projects are bringing you the same kind of buzz.

Denver, 2014

The Haints

Yesterday we purchased treats to give to neighborhood kids on Friday. We usually have fifty to ninety costumed visitors. Few are frightening although I’m sure this year we will have to suffer quite a few of the walking dead. I get joy from handing out the goodies and seeing the kids—and their parents—all dressed in celebration of this pageant that has become as popular with adults as with kids. We have plenty of candy to keep ‘em happy.

I’m reminded of my years in Missouri where among Ozarkians ghosts are sometimes called haints, an archaic spelling and pronunciation of the old word haunts. I like using that word and found it an apt title for some paintings I made of a petroglyph of Osage origin from Mid-Missouri. The figure appears in William Clark’s journal from the Lewis and Clark expedition, an entry made in June of 1804. At one stop they made Clark drew figures from the cliff, large figures he described in spooky terms. 

Acrylic washes on paper by Phillip Hoyle

My “Haint” is a tribute to the Ozarks. The tree-covered hills and valleys did seem a fitting habitat for haints. I wonder if any will ring the doorbell on Friday. Happy Halloween

Denver, 2014

Save That!

In a week-long painting workshop I attended years ago, in which I learned a particular approach to using acrylic washes on paper, my teacher had us lay out all our first designs and went around to talk with each of us. He saw one of mine and pointing at it, said, "Save that and hang it in your studio." I was somewhat amazed for it seemed like just a few paint strokes and lots of dribbles in basic colors. He went on, "You will rarely get that free again." AND he was right. So I framed the thing and hung it up where I'd see it every day. 

An assortment of Ute designs

Last week I finally got around to beginning a painting project of smaller pieces, petroglyph designs I could sell at a low price at the co-op gallery up in the mountains. I chose to use all Ute designs from the tribes that roamed what we call the Central Rockies and the Colorado Plateau these days. It's a project still in process, but here's what has happened. I selected sizes and designs. I drew the designs on the designated areas of large pieces of Arches 140# watercolor paper. Then I washed the background with two coats of similar color, the second one slightly darker than the former. and upon washing the second one sprayed a mist of rubbing alcohol on it. The droplets push back the paint leaving a stippling effect similar to the way I see the sandstone rocks where these designs were made. 

The masking medium is shiny and resists the washes leaving
the undercoat untouched.

When they were dry I tore the papers into the marked sizes and painted the designs with masking medium--actually a product used with watercolor washes but that I discovered also works with acrylic washes. It's a resist medium made of latex and ammonia that when the paint dries can be removed with an eraser. It will be left on the paintings through several more washes.

My current "Save It" guide
acrylic washes on paper by Phillip Hoyle

I'm not referring to that first "Save It" piece, but this time using a painting of a petroglyph I made several years ago, one that attracted the interest of collectors and artists. I will this week paint the other layers of washes and next week let you see what happened. 

Art is always a process, and for me it is a process that may go on for weeks. Whatever work you do, get to your studio and get it underway!

Denver, 2014

Spider Mania

Spider ATC by Phillip Hoyle

Perhaps I am just trying to emulate the enthusiasm of some of the artists I hang around with, but I found myself making more preparations for Halloween Artist Trading Card swaps. In addition to the spiders I made last week, I have made even more. These critters are on orange grounds made from photographs of shadows of fall plants as they appeared one night on the sidewalks in my neighborhood. The street lamps cast an orange glow. I added spiders! Don't get scared or have spider dreams.

Spider ATC by Phillip Hoyle

I drew spiders and then added a clear coat to their bodies to give them depth and a creepier look. I think it added just what I wanted. At Saturday's ATC swap several people thought the spiders were stickers I had put on the cards. I explained that they were drawings with a spot of shiny! I traded all 18 of the spiders on orange! I was pleased; also I am enjoying the many cards I brought home from the trade.

Spider ATC by Phillip Hoyle

Spider ATC by Phillip Hoyle

Spider ATC by Phillip Hoyle

I also traded all but two of my black and white spiders. (See some of them in last week's post.)

Halloween is coming; get your costume ready. I, too, will be busy because I am proposing more sheets of spiders, these as Sci-Fi characters.

Denver, 2014

The Holiday Approaches

Halloween spider ATC by Phillip Hoyle

A few posts ago I warned that Christmas is coming. I made the public announcement in order to motivate myself. Thankfully I got all my cards printed and am ready to rework my mailing list!


But of more imminent concern is the quick approach of Halloween, which concerns me not because of a costume. I won’t dress up this year. I don’t worry over candy; my partner takes care of that. But I do go to Artist Trading Cards swaps twice a month, and every October the theme is Halloween and Day of the Dead. The people I trade with get intensely interested in images related to human death—sometimes grossly, sometimes humorously. Usually for the October trades I have made miniature masks (2.5 x 3.5 inches) inspired by primal cultures or made up on my own. But this year I have turned, at least initially, to spiders. 

Take a look at the cards, but don’t get scared. I’ve been observing these interesting creatures as I clean the house and yard. I hope what I’ve done entertains you.



Denver, 2014

Pushing the Season

A few weeks ago when the media were trying to make engaging news of the annual laying out of Christmas retail products for sale —an topic that picks up some olden time sentiment but fails actually to be news—I was reminded of days years and years ago when in August Lucille M., one of our great volunteers, told me we needed to look at the Christmas decorations in the large downtown church where I worked. It was time, she told me, to put in our order for fresh greens that we’d hang on the first Sunday of Advent. To me that time was a long way off, but to her orders needed to be placed immediately if we were to get what we wanted. So all these years later when the media was working up people’s feelings about a non-issue, I realized I, too, was still directly involved. 

Presenting goods for public consumption is only a marketing concern and such concerns seem always to be in the American consciousness. I had to quit moaning because as an artist I have a challenge before me. The reminder from the retailers always helps me since I print my own holiday greeting cards. It's time for me think about that task and get to designing what I am going to do! Luckily I am a long way from being surrounded by endless tunes of Santa Clause, reindeer, angels, and the baby Jesus. I realized I’d need to figure out what to do this year because I might need the cards early if I again shared a booth with my friend Sue in a holiday crafts fair. Those events start weeks before Thanksgiving!

To the studio! I have to manufacture a Christmas mood in order to get going. I considered beginning with spiked eggnog, but I don’t even like eggnog. Would I be able to tolerate Christmas music? No. So I started leafing through a huge volume of Gothic art. I looked and looked and even began sketching, but didn’t get caught up in anything. I thought I’d go another direction, American Craftsman traditions since I live in a neighborhood of Denver bungalows, many of which are definitely craftsman in design and appointments. I decided to do something with long needle pine branches and began looking at the trees, their needles and cones, and the designs I might be able to emulate. That turned out a worthy topic, one that I have yet to figure out!

I got out my printing supplies and messed around with some other projects using those methods, something to get me into the mood. I cut a couple of lino blocks and kept drawing pines. So this weekend, before this blog shows up, I have to meet the challenge. 

Here's what happened in picture form.

 I started drawing after looking at trees, photos of trees, craftsman examples of pine cones and long pine needles. I messed and messed and finally got a design I hoped I'd be able to actually carve on a lino block.

I traced the design onto tracing paper, then turned it over and taped it to the block. By again drawing it, the original pencil transferred to the block leaving a backwards copy of the design. Just what I wanted.

I carved the easiest parts first. I was afraid of the needles since they'd need to be more delicate. I'm not very delicate myself, and I sure didn't want to have to start over again!

I made a proof print, then compared the original drawing and it to find out where I needed to go back in and clean up or re-cut some details on my block.

Finally I was fairly pleased with the results. Now I'll take a variety of papers and a stack of white card blanks and another of brown card blanks and get to work! Wish me well, you know, good luck with the different colors of ink, the clean up, and eventually finding the current addresses of my friends and relations I want to send cards to this year.

And if you try something artsy this Christmas, I likewise wish you all the best. Oh that's so far away.

If you are putting off your holiday planning, I urge you to get to the planning and work. You can still hurriedly address and mail your cards at the last minute and get that holiday rush. I worry that if I don’t get this underway immediately, I’ll never get to it until next year or even the one after that! Merry Christmas!

Denver, 2014

Life Art

I spent last week saying goodbye to a long-time friend by attending her memorial service and then saying hello to the Missouri portion of my family. I heard on Labor Day of my friend's accidental death. I met Gerry in 1981 when we began working together on educational projects at First christian Church in Jefferson City, MO. Gerry and I not only collaborated; we became friends and intellectual buddies. We worked together creatively but even more enjoyed long discussions about history, Biblical studies, theology, philosophy, literature, politics, and economics. Over the thirty-two years we shared ideas and a rather deep sense of connection. I am missing her and feeling sad about it. Still, the memorial service was a time of enthusiastic celebration of a life well lived, a sparkling intellect, and independent thinker, a fearless yet tactful communicator, a beautiful woman, a beautiful woman, a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. 

I also enjoyed some healing time being surrounded by my own very lively family--kids, eleven grand kids, ex-wife--and several friends, a wonderful antidote to my sadness. We attended the memorial service together, also a wedding reception at which three grand kids entertained, and a birthday party for three celebrants. We played cards, drank coffee, and talked endlessly. The reunion was as joyful as they always are in our family.

And there was art in the beautiful tribute given by my friend's daughter, the music made by grand kids, art projects underway to make birthday presents, and mostly by the people who surrounded me--the result of their dedication to the ultimate art, that of living a full and meaningful life.

I'm home and back to my studio. That, too feels really good. Sorry to have missed making a post last Monday. Check in next week. I have something to share about my Christmas preparations.

Model in chair, torn paper collage
Phillip Hoyle

A Gathering of Bears

I’ve long been fascinated by bears, those large lunky denizens of zoos I used to watch with admiration and fear. I bought a figurine of one in Estes Park as a child, a figure I kept with me into my adulthood. Then I discovered bear paw prints and bears in a panel of petroglyphs on the south-facing escarpment of Spring Mesa west of Montrose, Colorado. They thrilled me. The panel has been dubbed The Three Bears since three carvings of bears climbing trees appear there. The symbol is still current in the traditional bear dance of the Utes who used to spend time each year in the valley. Perhaps they held their annual vernal equinox dance there. 

Recently another Ute bear petroglyph image has captured my imagination, one from the Gunnison River some miles north east of the three bears. This bear looks ferocious to me. I painted it several times and have now used it in a lino-block for printing. This past week I printed. My artist friend Sue suggested I try printing on different kinds of art papers to see what would happen. So I printed on roadmaps, hand made papers, papers with seeds or leaves or strings embedded in them. I hd fun with my brayer, baren and tiny Speedball press. And I’m pleased with the results.

Some of these prints will be shown at the Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown. Going on a color drive into the mountains soon? Stop by the gallery and see all the additional colors there as well. Oh, the food’s good up there, too.

Denver, 2014

Opening My Eyes

“Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.”

John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Penguin Books (New York, 1972).

Nice outing on Saturday to see the Tom Wesselmann display “Beyond Pop Art” at the Denver Art Museum. It was my second gander at it, this one with my friend Deanna and the former one with my friend Diana. Although their names are almost the same, their interests and insights are extremely different. The contrast reminded me of John Berger’s book Ways of Seeing , a book I read many years ago when learning how to see objects and their surroundings in drawing. Berger asserted, “Today we see the art of the past as nobody saw it before. We actually perceive it in a different way” (p. 16). That is even true in the time between my two trips to the museum. The context in which I viewed it changed.

Two weeks ago while seeing the show with Dianne, I found my attention going to the large picture of what was there to be seen. Dianne had received her art education by living in Paris with artists and eventually working in a gallery there hanging art shows. While her education was not formal, it was intense, and she has a remarkable eye and memory. The immersion method prepared her to make design and historic connections with other artists—especially impressionists and pop artists. She opened my eyes to perspectives I’d surely have missed had I viewed the show alone. Having been a clothing model, she also was very interested in Wesselmann’s treatment of the female form. We talked a lot about all these ideas and insights.

Yesterday with Deanna, I took quite a different look at the retrospective, one related to her interests. Her technical questions informed by studio training pushed me to look at how the artist attached his canvasses to his frames, how he approached gluing on his collage (for instance, did he first paint and then glue? she asked), and the relationship between his drawn and constructed studies with the eventual finished artworks. Reviewing the display from these differing points of view opened my eyes and left me with a flood of new images and ideas, and a deeper appreciation at what the artist had accomplished.

But don’t take my word for it. Get to the display before it closes September 14. See it for yourself.

Today I thank John Berger, Dianne, and Deanna for my continuing perception of the world of art and the world as art and art subject. Thanks, thanks, thanks. Thanks to DAM, too.

Denver, 2014

Kiddos

Artist Trading Cards, the latest ones, inspired by
circles and triangles and that turned into birds!
Phillip Hoyle

I noticed the boy peeking in the door off the patio between the gallery and a restaurant. His family was next door eating, but he just couldn’t keep still. He stepped into the gallery to see if there were toys he’d want to shop for, but saw only artwork. He left and apparently didn’t encourage his parents to take him to our displays.

I was keeping shop at Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown, Colorado, the co-op gallery where I show some of my paintings and once a month keep shop. I wondered if the boy would bring his parents. He didn’t, but others did! They, children with an interest in art, make the time I spend there seem even more interesting than the occasional sale of paintings, jewelry, or other artworks. That day last week, three other kids did bring in the adults they were accompanying. 

The first was a ten-year-old girl who brought her grandmother. Her eye swept the first gallery, a display of single pieces of artwork from almost all the artists who show there. She seemed interested and her eye fell on a wooden game with marbles made by one of the artists who makes interesting furniture from old skis, snowboards, snow shoes, and other mountain cabin items. She wondered how to play it and when I demonstrated talked her grandmother to play it with her. Grandma won! 

Then she saw the jewelry and wanted to try on some. Both of the pieces she most liked, due to their cost, seemed more like Christmas presents than souvenirs from a summer trip. Her grandmother must have agreed since there was no move to purchase either item. Still the girl liked the artwork and showed me a couple of pieces she especially appreciated. Grandpa came in when they were ready to leave and seemed happy they hadn't done any Christmas shopping.

The second child was a very young boy who was looking wide-eyed at photographs and paintings. I said, “My name is Phillip; what’s yours.” He hesitated and then told me his name. I said I was pleased he was looking at the art and asked if he did artwork himself. He nodded yes and then added, “I’m four,” holding up his fingers to show me. I smiled at his mother and encouraged the family to take their time. Then I asked him what kinds of art he most enjoyed making. His mom said he seemed to like everything he tried. I encouraged him to keep up the good work!

The third child that day was an eleven-year-old boy who entered the gallery with confidence and darting eyes as if he were trying to take in everything there all at once. When I asked him about his art, he said he liked to draw. His mom told me he draws constantly and really likes to make cartoon characters. He agreed and told me of his favorites. His mom added that he also did other artwork in an art class he attends in addition to school. I told him he reminded me of my son and one of my grandsons, both of whom are artists.

Other people enriched my day, but my tiny investment with these three children made the day seem most important. I love that in the gallery I get to foster young artists with my attention and conversation. It feels like an extension of all the work I did in arts programming for youngsters. Their interest inspires me and urges my continuing adventures in an art world full of designs, products, procedures, experiments, and artists, young and old.

Denver, 2014

Time to Print

I’ve had a lino-block in my studio for some months, one I made an image for and carved, but all my experiments didn’t work out right. I couldn’t print from it to my satisfaction. Mid-week I decided to do something about it and got out my knives, gouges, other equipment, printing inks, brayers, and medium-size baren. I was going to rework the block and get busy. I wanted to use if for a card to send one of my grandsons for his birthday.

I really liked the design, one inspired by a Ute petroglyph out in western Colorado along the Gunnison River. I’ve seen drawings of the original and photographs but have never encountered it on the cliff wall where it shares space with a couple of other impressive carvings. I looked at it, tried it one more time with a different ink, but still decided it need more strength, the kind that comes from contrast. The original is a work that one anthropologist described as new-style given that the chipping that creates it simply removes the outer layer of weathered rock to create the design. In contrast to what he called old-style, the artist did not make deep gouges into the surface but seemed contented with the color contrast. So I figured it might work better if I were to remove the lino right around the figure itself and finish it with a border. Parts of the figure would interrupt the border. 

I set to work, selecting a medium large gouge and taking care not to let my fingers get in the way of the sharp instrument should it slip. Oh it did slip a few times, but mostly I was safe and am pleased I didn’t end up with bandages like sometimes I’ve done this work. I brushed off the waste into the trash and wiped the block with a damp cloth. Then I gathered a few pieces of paper to make some proofs and see what I had got. I like what I did and used the rest of the ink to print another block I made years ago. What ink was left on the surface where I rolled it out I drew into and lifted another print from that, an abstract I may mess more for a mixed media piece. I try not to waste any product.

And along the way I found I wanted to hang a few small prints at the Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown. Guess I’ll have to work quickly since I work up in the hills this Tuesday. 

Denver, 2014

Going to the Fair

Denverites for the fourth consecutive year can go to the County Fair. I went a day early riding on the 0 and 48 busses to the National Stock Show Complex to set up an interactive Artist Trading Cards booth, a place where folk of all ages can sit for a spell and make their own miniature art pieces. The booth was located in the Fine Arts section along with its Blue Ribbon Art Show, an annual feature of the Fair, and about twenty booths of artists and art cooperatives. And the ATC booth sits next to a candy vendor and close to a stage where movies are shown, a spelling bee is held, and contests like texting for speed is held. Hard to beat that for a place to be inspired.

And the fair has many marks of the rural county fairs common to American tradition. Folk bring homemade crafts, cooking and canning, produce from their gardens, small animals and much more for judging. Ribbons are awarded the best, and I wonder if there are gardeners, cooks, and bakers who have won blue ribbons all four years. 

On Thursday I also helped hang the ATC submissions in the art show. It looked good. Hope you got to see it.

Anyway I went back to the fair the next day with friends to experience it in a different way, to look at booths, to spin wheels hoping for a prize, to study arts and crafts, to watch dogs run their courses. The feelings were good. I felt quite happy to be there with a long-time friend, her artist sister, her sister’s son, and their mother and grandmother. 

I was planning to make ATC cards with my friends but we ran out of time probably due to extra stops to watch the flea circus, listen to singers, watch a video, talk with artists, and otherwise enjoy the event! Plan to go there next summer!

Fun, fun at the fair!

Denver, 2014

Family Artists

I’ve noted from time to time that one or another of my grandchildren is an artist. This past week visits from several of them reminded me that all of my grandchildren are artists. The first crew came with Myrna, my ex-wife, four of my daughter Desma’s six young artists. I will just give you a taste! Matthew distinguished himself in water colors in middle school and has continued drawing and painting in a number of media. Genaro is an actor, not just that kind parents enjoy in all their children, but one on stage. Again this summer he played in dramas in which he also sings and dances. He likes to dress in fashionable ways and does so very successfully on a very small budget! The two youngest, Ana and Maria, participate in drama and quite often send me samples of their artwork from school, art camp, and down time at home. I keep adding their pieces to my now rather extensive children’s art collection! My daughter’s two other children, Ricky and Lorissa, are also artists. Both are musicians with beautiful voices. Lorissa designs and sews costumes with her mother. She also has acted in dramas for several years in which she also sings and dances, and she continues to draw and to write with skill.

On Sunday, my son Michael stopped by with four youngsters, a son and daughter and two friends. Kalo, who is a composition student at KCMU’s conservatory, plays in a jazz band, experiments with improvised classical music, and on the upright bass accompanies his two sisters in many of their folk music performances, started out as a toddler by beating drums with amazing alacrity, rhythm, and sure meter. He also is quite a painter, movie maker, and writer. Ulzii, his sister, is a fine singer, violinist, banjo player, entertainer, song writer, a fine ballerina, an able actress, and recently a visual artist doing quite adventuresome paintings. I’ve had many pictures from her over the years, but now she seems to be working at it. Perhaps she waited for her older sister, Rosa, to leave home for college to take up the paints! Rosa not only studies biology but also plays cello and guitar, paints, sings, composes songs, writes both prose and poetry, acts, and dances ballet. The eldest child of this family, Evan, is a singer, composer, jazz pianist, and actor.

There was music around the house this past weekend plus listening to and discussing music. Topics included dance—Abby, one of the friends in Michael’s entourage, studies dance at university and provided the occasion for lively conversational perspectives. These young people’s lives are rich with art and artists. That seems perfect to me. If I sound like a proud grandpa, I assure you I am. And there are two more grandkids, a son and daughter of my informally adopted son Francis. Both of these young adults sing and play musical instruments. Some day before too long I’ll bring you up to date on great grandchildren! I’m sure my parents and grandparents would be proud as well.

December, 2014

Pop Art

M4C means Meet for Coffee
ATC by Phillip Hoyle

The next ATC trade I plan to attend has as its theme “Pop Art.” To me it seems as if most of the artist trading cards I have seen are in some way Pop Art. No matter what the topic, card makers are attracted to popular culture for at least some of their imagery. Of course there are exceptions: scenic paintings, drawings, and more. But the predominant tendency seems towards pop imagery. 

In the mid-1950s and throughout the 60s Pop Art was striving to make important statements concerning all fine art. To many artists the old traditions seem to have lost their allure or challenge. Already several earlier movements had concentrated on or at least integrated collage and assemblage into works. Following such departures from tradition, some Pop Art used images, wording, ideas and techniques common to commercial advertising. Other artists were drawn toward popular entertainment and the cult of celebrity that had made its way into world culture. Pop Art celebrated such images and people using a variety of media and often incorporating cutouts of various kinds. Their mixed media art made new statements. Of course now, some fifty plus years later, artists have to stretch themselves to make any new statements. Perhaps fulfilling such a goal is impossible, but still we try!

831 means I Love You
ATC by Phillip Hoyle

My encounter with texting suggested the approach I have tried to use with my current batch of ATCs, some of which are included in this blog. I’ve taken images from 1950s and 60s LIFE magazines (mostly advertising), messed with them, and added acronyms and abbreviations from texting and other social media to interpret or misinterpret them. The culture has changed. So in these pieces I am using popular images current in my youth and adding to them wording from the current language of my grandkids. Enjoy them if you can! 

Denver, 2014

BTWITIAILWU
means
By the way I think I am in love with you
ATC by Phillip Hoyle

GAGFI
means
Gives a gay first impression
ATC by Phillip Hoyle