I’m taking a little break from making art before I launch in to the next body of work. I have a show scheduled for March at Foster/White. I’ve been a feeling a little dry with my ideas and tight in my process. I’ve known it was time to rediscover pleasure in my work so I’m taking a few weeks to play.

I’m a big fan of Larry Calkin’s work. He’s a local artist who also teaches at Pratt. I feel there is a similarity in our work, more in our process than in any visual style, and we co-taught a class a few years ago. I like that he isn’t constrained by any particular medium but his work is still distinctively his own. He does encaustic, sculpture, jewelry, and sketchbooks. His work is rustic and I’ve actually seen him throw a piece on the ground and walk on it before picking it up and continuing to work on it. I admire him as a teacher and thought he’d be a good resource in my goal of loosening up. So I took a trip out to his studio in Issaquah this week for a sketchbook day. He teaches a sketchbook workshop but the dates didn’t work with my schedule so I arranged a semi-private lesson for me and my studio-mate, Pam.

toner transfer, sumi ink and walnut ink

It was another one of the beautiful Fall days we’ve been having and there were four of us there set up under the trees working in our sketchbooks. Larry’s two dogs, Lizzie and Archie, and his chickens were wandering around as we worked. I made a lot of marks and some mud, literally. Larry uses many rustic tools and techniques including using native clays as pigments. It reminded me of working in the Solstice Parade workshop as I only had to look around on the ground for some bit to incorporate into my work.

Larry uses a toner copier for doing transfers. I brought some copies I had made of my fabrics and used acetone to transfer them into the sketchbook. Then I used walnut ink, conte crayon, charcoal, and collage over the top of them. I also used some sumi ink. It’s a pleasure just to move the brush across the page. It’s good to make marks freely and not be attached to the outcome. It’s good to just give myself permission.

It’s good preparation because I’m going on an artist mini-retreat to Orcas Island next week. Really looking forward to taking this open feeling up there and seeing what happens.

collage, walnut ink, conte crayon