These preparation days never seem to go as planned! I had planned a full day in the studio yesterday with no interruptions, but instead had help come forward to assist with getting supports and framing done. Of course, I said yes! But no painting until after dinner. Here's an earlier image for the show.
2/23/16 My video for the show is up!
I'm getting so excited about my show "Disrupted," opening on March 3rd at 6 p.m., at Gallery 114 in the Pearl District. Still have lots of prep, but things are coming right along. Hope to see you there!!
"Diana Bathes," 60"x80," acrylic on paper
My March Show opens 3/3/16!
Join me for my March show, with the opening reception on March 3 from 6:00 - 9:00. I have been making big (enormous!) pictures that have emerged from a scad of mythological, literary and art references about the Roman goddess Diana and also the medieval story of the Lady of Shalott. Hope to see you there!
Location: http://www.gallery114pdx.com/
2/8/16 Continuing show prep
Leaving work has been out of the frying pan in terms of business! So much to do! Some images back from the photographer. Love Dan Kavitka's work.
1/23/16 From my daily practice
Thinking about vesssels - how I am drawn to draw them. Find myself gathering paint or pencils when I see a group of objects on a table. Little altars everywhere.
1/18/16 Study
I was unable to volunteer today, so took the opportunity for enforced quietude to do some studies for another large painting.
1/9/16 Picking up after the holidays!
Literally. Spent a good portion of today putting my studio back together from the flurry of making Christmas gifts, finishing up (at least for the moment) a big painting that was on the wall, and getting the new music situation in order. Disrupting the studio in any way always means a day of resettling. Wish it wasn't needed, but it's hard to move forward when you can literally hardly move in the space!
11/30/15 Comparisons
As of today, I have drawn twice as many daily drawings as I did by the end of December last year. With only 12 more drawings, I will have drawn a daily drawing for half of the year. This has become an incredibly important part of my practice, and also of transitioning out of my current work into the next step of making art my primary work. These drawings have mostly been small little musings and doodlings, and I am grateful that these small things stand in the balance with a weight and significance all their own. You can see my posts on the Facebook page for A Drawing a Day.
11/21/15 Recent
11/10/15 Will it be?
I'm spending a lot of time looking at the painting in my studio, and despite all my efforts it bursts the bounds I have set for it, and I am grousing about keeping up with the darned thing. This small breakfast doodle of an old Chinese teapot is a respite from all that. For the moment.
10/27/15 Like my Facebook page, please! →
So excited to have a Facebook page, and to have traffic on it! I'm there to share art with all of you - thanks for hitting "like!"
https://www.facebook.com/myraclarkart/
10/24/15 Jessica Jackson Hutchins "Confessions" →
Just got back from seeing Jessica Jackson Hutchins’ exhibit at The Lumber Room on NW 9th, and the Cooley Gallery at Reed College (yes, two venues). The Lumber Room show knocked my socks off. Plus, it is in the Lumber Room, which showed off her pieces with all the gravitas and sheer beauty of the space itself. This portion of the exhibit has been collected by owner Sarah Miller Miegs over the past 20 years, resulting in a certain sensibility and palate that gives the grouping a noticeably cohesive sense. I was struck by the emotional depth and resonance here, especially in the sculptures; robust and chewy at some points (Two Hearts), at other times poignant ("Stylite" and "Whole Mess of Tears") and surprisingly delicate and maternal in "Rope Stanza."
The Cooley gallery pieces were brought together from Hutchins’ galleries in New York and London. They are individually wonderful to look at ("Watches," 'Bored to Death" and "Third Eye" especially), but for me, when everything in the exhibit was taken together, they weren't as compelling a fit as the show on the west side of town – just had a more visceral response to the pieces at the Lumber Room.
The exception was the group of small works in Reed's academic library next to the gallery; these elevated the entire show to new heights. These objects – constructed around beer bottles, beer cartons and pills – seemed to be the stage for the title of the show. Encased in glass, much like archeologically recovered artifacts and surrounded by books such as “The Confessions of St. Augustine,” these pieces were at the heart of the exhibit. "Darkness," "Daily Pills," "Lowlands," "Couple" and "Candy Dish" were well worth the extended time needed to really look at them. As if wrested from burial grounds, they embodied shards of old memories, fragments of ancient states of mind and body offered up out of the muck for some sort of preservation, contemplation, perhaps absolution and maybe, just maybe, redemption.
Go if you can - open until November 8th. The Lumber Room has more limited hours. Portland is fortunate to have this artist here, yet it may be hard to see Hutchins' work unless you are in New York, London, or at her recent show in Rome.
10/22/15 Women & art →
I appreciate this article. My appreciation comes from my own framework of being a female artist., although not a street artist – the perspective on this was very engaging. Likewise the enormous art works.
It also led me to question – does my world view encompass enough sensitivity to gender and its implications? Am I listening enough to and for the stories of people that aren't the same as I am, and exploring ideas that are not the same as my own? Have I taken enough initiative to form a broad and inclusive base of understanding? An unendingly mysterious and energizing search. An interesting and engaging article.
http://hyperallergic.com/188992/why-arent-women-street-artists-just-street-artists/
9/11/15 Have you ever drawn this big??
I have been drawing pretty much non-stop this week, but can't always get them posted - starting at 9 and ending at 9 (drawing, plus critiques) barely leaves me with enough energy to get to my Airbnb home and then basically fall into bed. I am loving it! Truly a marathon.
9/9/15 Second Day Out
Second day, and I'm starting to feel like once again - I don't know what the f I'm doing. Parting through the volume of air to allow a form to emerge, attending to the spaces between forms. Maybe I'll get it later.
9/8/15 First day, Drawing Marathon
I was overcome by wanting to stay home and be in my studio in the days leading up to the Marathon. There is so much going on with getting ready to leave work that the thought of peeling off from that and going to New York felt like the worst kind of distraction. But then, I was walking up the stairs to the big painting studio and I sent a prayer of thanks - "Thank You for this, for reminding me who I am."
"Acknowledgement" 36"x36" Acrylic on wood
8/31/15 New show going up
The 2015 Member Show is going up at Gallery 114, and I'm pleased to have 4 pieces in it. One of them is the one I've posted - "Acknowledgement." It is the first abstract painting that I have made that did not have an original reference in life, but was instead a direct, non-representational response to "joining the concussion club."
On my mind today is the new work I'm doing which is the biggest I've ever done in the studio - 60"x80". Biting my nails on this one. Using big watercolor paper, and just getting it square and on the wall is a challenge.
8/29/15 Drawing for a print
“L’une des plus belles villages” stems from bike riding in France last summer. After seeing all of the beautiful towns, I could not believe there was yet another. This is the response to these wonderful places. It is also a print that is featured at Gallery 114 this month - a prize for filling out our gallery survey! I hope you will visit and enter the drawing for it. 1100 SW Glisan, Portland, OR.
8/28/15 New York Studio School!
NYSS here I come! So excited. Supplies, paper all ordered, delivered, almost all gathered. I never know if I will be able to go back, but this is actually my third Drawing Marathon! Several people with whom I have formed relationships with over time will no longer be there, and this has given me pause. However, the first time I went I didn't know anyone either. So - I am excited to go for the Drawing Marathon, as well as to see my brother and his family. I recommend the Marathons. An awesome teacher, Graham Nickson, and the focus on the basics of drawing have been invaluable in my development as an artist. See nyss.com for the school's website. Worth browsing just in itself.
It is difficult to leave work at this time - I feel I need to be present to my program/people as this is it. I will be gone in January. I have such a strong draw to be deeply involved, to lean in rather than out at this time. Nonetheless, advice is to develop this other part of me so that I will have something in place when I am gone. Plus, I have a show in March and I can't leave it all until February!!
Out the Window/Summer Heat Acrylic on Canvas 40"x30"
8/25/15 Submission
I submitted to the Verum Ultimum Gallery show in Portland, "Abstract Catalyst." This one was waitlisted, the same one that was accepted in the Seattle show. It's interesting - I like all three paintings that I submitted very much but the one I find most interesting, the first one, doesn't get chosen. Isn't this the way it is? Nonetheless, I can't let it stop me from making the art that counts most to me. I'm hoping the waitlisted one will make it into the show - it was an international call though, and it is clear that it is far more competitive that a regional or even a national show. But - those are the thoughts that are circular, never ending! I'm happy that one of the pieces was noticed and made it to the final round.