Cay Denise

From a recent 'Colossal' article, I was just reminded of Gretchen Scherer's art.  She does paintings of older historic buildings being reused as museums, heritage sites, visitor destinations, etc.  In some cases, she reimagines some of what their interiors look like and adds period painting imitations to the walls.  I love this piece especially the ceiling pattern, chandeliers, the wood flooring pattern and how she has dealt with perspective (you can tell the table is long).  It is so well done!    To see more of Gretchen's work, visit her website at:   www.gretchenscherer.com Note:  Colossal is an online art magazine that celebrates contemporary art and visual culture across a wide range of creative disciplines.  I find assorted interesting stories, and it's free.  For more information, visit  www.thisiscolossal.com

Today, I'm celebrating three years of work filling this 6"x9" Moleskine journal!  Yes, it is thick.  That is from the assorted zines in it.  (I love doing zines and it was natural for me to include them, but that's not for everyone.) This word journal was started in 2022 when I chose a word for the year as a theme to focus on.  Similarly for 2023 and 2024, I chose a different word for each of them.  As you know 2024 hasn't ended yet, but I've run out of pages in this first word journal.  So, I'll be starting another Moleskine to finish up the year and begin other years down-the road.   Focusing on a word for a full year is an intriguing experience.  It is a journey of thinking about your experiences, thoughts, emotions, etc. from the perspective of the word and in a sense -- drawing more of the energy of the word to you.  In my first year of doing this, I took a class with a very supportive and fun group of people, and through it, I've been a...

As a novice poet, I recently received a recommendation from a writer friend about a valuable writing program.  It is Jack Grapes' 'Method Writing'.  His first book is very readable, and his approach is based on Stanislavski's Method Acting that he learned as part of his graduate work in theater (his undergraduate work was in History and English).   (Book Cover) The first assignment is a practice of writing at least two pages in one's journal daily.  The primary goal is to write like you speak - nothing fancy - and your writing is to be about self not other-focused.  Putting your pen to paper, you start writing about you -- not having thought about what you were going to write in advance.  This is not writing to create a product.  It is writing to find your voice. Today, I finished Week #1 of doing the work.  First, I noticed that I use a couple of words as fillers when talking - that I never use when I write, and I don't want to.  So, I'm als...

Susan Lenz is a fiber artist who creates imaginative and novel works, especially those in which she upcycles found objects over problematic vintage quilts into fashionable and fun mandalas.   This latest piece is not a mandala but, to me, it echoes the landfall of Hurricane Milton that spun off several tornadoes while crossing Florida last week.  In it, she has used a portion of a hand-stitched, stained quilt -- topped with a piece of blue netting to define the tornado area.  Then, found objects (surplus doodads that can't be used in a mandala) were added by hand-stitching each one down on to the fabric base. Ultimately, she's been so successful in conveying the sense of motion and fury (as well as a suggested 'eye') through the piece.  Bravo, Susan!    Found Object Tornado II You can find out more about the artist and her work at  http://www.susanlenz.com/default.shtml#