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A Change of Season

October 14, 2014 by Iskra Leave a Comment

I’ve been settling into my new studio. Wordless for now…..

Filed Under: Photography Tagged With: artist environment, Autumn meditations, coming to my senses, devotional art, Iskra photography, pinecone, still life at the table

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The Girl on the Beach, 2/35 Coda to the open hous

The Girl on the Beach, 2/35

Coda to the open house post, as another image left the studio today in trade for fixing my mailbox, which fell into the street during the event. Blame the northwest rains, which can apparently soak through and melt even the most stalwart pressure treated wood. I am very grateful that the community circle of art lovers includes those who can saw, bolt and pour concrete. Art is engineering of a sort, and I am honored to make an in-kind performance trade with a person with repair knowledge❤️

As we looked at the available work and talked, the alchemy of conversation brought the story of The Girl on the Beach full circle. As I’ve mentioned in a few earlier posts, the England work was begun in a morning meditative state in an oceanic bed in a loft in Saint Ives. I would get up, drink straight black tea out of a beautiful cup that turned out to be from IKEA (🤦‍♀️whatever) (I❤️IKEA) and reach for my iPad. My rules for this series were instinctive, inchoate, but I knew they had something to do with place and surface.

Because of working on instinct, not conscious thought, when I put this surface and this photograph together I didn’t realize that the surface was from a cemetery. The beautiful lichen texture is from a 16th century tombstone, just steps from the beach.

One of the things I loved about England was that history doesn’t end. In England’s ancient villages you are in a continuum of evolution, and time is not the enemy. Forget the tropes and dread of “aging” — you are actually IN time. Only in talking with my new friend, who made an essential repair to my life, did I realize this image was a portrait of a young girl deeply embedded in history, and the future. She was talking TO time, even when she didn’t know it.

A big thank you to all the people who came out to

A big thank you to all the people who came out to the open studio yesterday❤️ We even found a Peacock wine?!? I sold out of many of the new cards, and am happy to work with the local buyers who had hoped to pick them up in person to get the next printings to you for the holidays— do send me a note! And for swan lovers, the swan suite of cards will be in my shop as stationary in a week.

It was a truly wonderful gathering, and my most successful open studio ever. As an artist who works across many media and has changed methods over the 20 years I’ve been showing it was especially heartening to see the range of subjects and styles that sold. New collectors picked up my earliest work, along with experimental pieces from pandemic. Reminder to self: keep believing in the work that you like, and trust that if it has not yet found a home, it is just waiting for the right person. Feeling deep gratitude this morning for the path of art, and for the support of my amazing community. ✨

New swans for the open house, offered as cards and

New swans for the open house, offered as cards and prints. "White Swan on the Wensum" in gold and blue.

Well, this is exciting. Pre-orders are coming in f

Well, this is exciting. Pre-orders are coming in for cards to pick up Saturday at the open studio — I am completely thrilled that the work is speaking to people! The Elusionary Landscape stationary is in my shop now, two sets of 6 (top link in bio for England Inspired). Deciding which cards should go together is not easy, so I’m showing different photographs in my shop of pairings and sets so people can visualize. The way I work is so completely improvisational that I can never plan in advance exactly how to make things go together as companions. It is more like a wing and a prayer and sometimes I get lucky. With this series, I can put them together as color families, or as places, or content (and yes, for those who love swans, there is a whole series of just swans coming up soon.) The beauty of showing the cards to people in person is they can mix and match as they wish. In an online shop, you have to create some kind of control for the chaos or people get overwhelmed by choices.

Whew! 12 new images from Elusionary Landscapes. Wh

Whew! 12 new images from Elusionary Landscapes. When the world gets crazy I recommend escape: Art.

Hey friends, it’s been a rough couple of days he

Hey friends, it’s been a rough couple of days hey? There are people racing around on motorcycles waving flags super happy and there are people who burn flags weeping and wearing shrouds of mourning and there are people condemning these people and then those people left and right and right and left. The AI moderator says to me repeatedly “MAKE THE IMAGE BRIGHTER.”

Although I never followed instructions in the 3rd grade, for which I was roundly punished on Make a Long House Day (that would be Thanksgiving) for making the house incorrectly [yeah, today the whole project would be considered #culturalappropriation done so many ways I can’t even count], [but definitely I was a Karen making the house incorrectly] — I am definitely listening to my AI coach and trying to #maketheimagebrighter.

Meanwhile, I know you want to know what I’m having for dinner as much as I want to know what you’re having for dinner! Given that I have just five more days in which to finalize the 20 plus new works for my open house November 16, I am having Trader Joe’s Vegan Enchilada Casserole. This requires meticulously placing the carton on a tray and not the oven rack and lifting one corner of the seal exactly 1.5 inches. It also requires not getting lost in my work so that when the oven timer goes off, I run to the oven just in time for a vegan rapture. Wish me luck! As the focus groups say, what’s on your kitchen table?

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