About moi

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A short bio in pictures.
I started fooling around with art in college in the mid-eighties. I liked printmaking, at least partly as a way around my lack of drawing skills.

Study for Train print

Study for Train print

 

Train, linoleum print, 5 x 3 inches

Train, linoleum print, 5 x 3 inches

 

Blind contour drawing: Closet

Blind contour drawing: Closet

I took some figure drawing classes and learned that you CAN learn how to draw. My favorite technique to practice was the blind contour. You look at whatever you’re drawing, not the paper, and draw what you SEE, not what you THINK you see. All my confidence in drawing comes from this technique.

I practiced on everything. Bottles of shampoo, my bulletin board, my friends . . .

(My teacher said: “good”!)

Blind contour drawing: Kevin and Denise

Blind contour drawing: Kevin and Denise

Printmaking was at least as much fun as I thought it would be, especially intaglio and lithography.

New Hat, lithograph, 7 1/2 x 16 inches

New Hat, lithograph, 7 1/2 x 16 inches

Tanline, intaglio, about 8 x 10 inches

Tanline, intaglio, about 8 x 10 inches

Today I don’t do either, because I don’t like all the chemicals.

Blind Contour--cat

You can’t have an acid bath in the same room where you sleep. Especially if you have a cat.

And you have to have really big, expensive presses, and maybe a hydraulic lift to move your litho stone around. And it just wasn’t where I wanted to go.

Not the Coat, woodcut, 8 x 11

Not the Coat, woodcut, 8 x 11

After college I left art alone for awhile. I was writer-girl then.

Here’s a woodcut from around 1990 that I made when I started to miss printmaking; I needed an outlet besides writing, and an escape from it. This print got me started again. Also I think it was the first time my work started to show some freedom and my own style.

In grad school, as an elective to a publishing program, I took a year-long letterpress printing course at the studios of Pyracantha Press on the ASU campus. I studied the history of printing, learned the basics of movable type and printed broadsides and a couple of small books with text and linoleum print images. I always thought the cut linoleum block (left) was far more interesting than the finished print (right). Keep that in mind for the quiz later.

Grandma Wanda linoleum block

Grandma Wanda linoleum block

Grandma Wanda, linoleum, 4 x 5 inches

Grandma Wanda, linoleum, 4 x 5 inches

After grad school I had a momentum to keep making art but no idea what to do with it. I started doodling people hanging out in coffee shops and sold the drawings as greeting cards at bookstores.

Blind contours: coffee guy,

Blind contours: coffee guy,

hip dude and dudette,

hip dude and dudette,

ten dollars,

ten dollars,

napkin Barb,

napkin Barb,

napkin eric.

napkin eric.

Tending the Fire cover

Tending the Fire cover

Then I moved to Flagstaff in 1995 for a job at a small publishing company that isn’t there anymore. I made some linoleum prints for the publisher: our Christmas card one year, illustrations for a kids’ book about Maria Martinez, the potter from San Ildefonso Pueblo who was famous for her black-on-black ceramic pots.

Tending the Fire Title Page
Tending the Fire Title Page
The Artists Gallery, 8 x 10

The Artists Gallery, 8 x 10

And I sold drawings and prints in The Artists Gallery, a co-op on San Francisco Street (it’s still there).

Hong Kong Cafe, about 5 x 7

Hong Kong Cafe, about 5 x 7

I moved away from linoleum when I came back to Phoenix in 1999. I wanted to work bigger, use more color, and find a more immediate process. My first efforts were more like my doodle drawings than paintings:

Chez Fidal, 16 x 20, ink pen and acrylic on canvas

Chez Fidal, 16 x 20, ink pen and acrylic on canvas

That’s a really bad picture but it’s all I have. Here’s a detail:

Chez Fidal, detail

Chez Fidal, detail

Absconded, 16 x 20, ink pen and acrylic on canvas

Absconded, 16 x 20, ink pen and acrylic on canvas

The doodle paintings led to drawing with marker on a canvas covered partially or completely with black paint, starting with this one:

The Infinite Hotel, 40 x 30, marker, acrylic, and collage on canvas

The Infinite Hotel, 40 x 30, marker, acrylic, and collage on canvas

Then figures like these:

Tara with Candles, 36 x 18, acrylic and marker on canvas

Tara with Candles, 36 x 18, acrylic and marker on canvas

Lonny in Chelsea, 15 x 30, acrylic and marker on canvas

Lonny in Chelsea, 15 x 30, acrylic and marker on canvas

And landscapes:

Orange Sky (detail), 48 x 60, acrylic and marker on canvas

Orange Sky (details), 48 x 60, acrylic and marker on canvas

Orange Sky (detail)

Two Tables (detail), 48 x 60, acrylic and marker on canvas

I got into still life a little:

Tablescape with Mangoes, 36 x 24, acrylic and marker on canvas

Tablescape with Mangoes, 36 x 24, acrylic and marker on canvas

Then cityscapes:

New York, October, 36 x 18, acrylic and marker on canvas

New York, October, 36 x 18, acrylic and marker on canvas

Augie's, 36 x 24, acrylic and marker on canvas

Augie’s, 36 x 24, acrylic and marker on canvas

The lanscapes changed some after visiting Italy and starting to use my own photos as reference:

View from Montepulciano, 60 x 48, acrylic and marker on canvas

View from Montepulciano, 60 x 48, acrylic and marker on canvas

Yellow House in Cortona, 60 x 48, acrylic and marker on canvas

Yellow House in Cortona, 60 x 48, acrylic and marker on canvas

Somewhere in there I started doing this series of women inspired by Klimt:

Kiss Me Anyway, 7 x 5, acrylic and marker on canvas

Kiss Me Anyway, 7 x 5, acrylic and marker on canvas

Part Pirate, Part Fool, 60 x 36, acrylic, marker, collage, modeling paste, & gold leaf on canvas

Part Pirate, Part Fool, 60 x 36, acrylic, marker, collage, modeling paste, & gold leaf on canvas

Eventually all roads led here: Cityscapes on wood panel, a mix of everything I’ve done up to now. They’re marker drawings but not black on black. There’s mixed media with lots of texture, including carved areas, and collage using newspapers and magazines.

New York Times, 32 x 80, acrylic, marker, mixed media, and collage on panel

New York Times, 32 x 80, acrylic, marker, mixed media, and collage on panel

Broadway & 43rd, 28 x 36, acrylic, marker, mixed media, and collage on panel

Broadway & 43rd, 28 x 36, acrylic, marker, mixed media, and collage on panel

The Colosseum from Via di San Giovanni in Laterano, 28 x 36, acrylic, marker, mixed media and collage on panel

The Colosseum from Via di San Giovanni in Laterano, 28 x 36, acrylic, marker, mixed media and collage on panel

I’ve had some fun painting on glass:

Walking to the Piazza Navona, 12 x 5 1/2, acrylic on glass

Walking to the Piazza Navona, 12 x 5 1/2, acrylic on glass

Touring the Grand Canal, 15 x 20, acrylic on an old window

Touring the Grand Canal, 15 x 20, acrylic on an old window

And here we are.

Currently I’m working on something that’s been floating around in my head for a long time, the graphic novel:

Dogeater, 28 x 36, acrylic, various pens & markers, mixed media, and collage on panel

Dogeater, 28 x 36, acrylic, various pens & markers, mixed media, and collage on panel

They’re like the cityscapes in that they incorporate so many of my favorite different mediums and techniques: marker/pen drawings, mixed media, collage, carving. And you get a story! Updates weekly(ish) on the blog page. Ta for now.