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Posted on 9/30/2024 2:44:18 PM
By Susan Gainen
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Max-the-Cat invites you to the Saint Paul Art Crawl
INTERESTING TIMES: We live in them.
"Interesting" is an elastic term in Minnesota. It can mean "genuinely engaging" or "that's an 'interesting shirt;' go home and burn it."
My life has been engaging to me during the past few months. Much art-making. Three times a week as a Demo Lady at Costco (still one of the most fun jobs you can have standing up in public). Reading amazing books. Altogether too much fretting about the upcoming election.
The Fall 2024 Saint Paul Art Crawl
Join me Friday October 4 from 5-8 at Chelsea Heights Elementary School (near Como Park) at 1557 Huron Street, St. Paul 55108. I was originally schedule at the Como Park Streetcar Station (where I vote and serve as an Election Judge), but the station needed a new roof and the artists got the boot. Chelsea Heights was sponsoring a student art fair, and the PTO graciously invited the Como Artists to join them.
How I've spent some of my time
Instead of focusing on fretting, I've focused on tiny shapes and tiny spaces, always supervised by Max-the-Cat, who regularly sends Healing and Comforting Purrs to those in need. He has also been busy organizing Minnesota's Million Meow March, and serving on the Executive Board of the Minnesota Chapter of Catnappers for Kamala. One result of the 20,000-cat Zoom call of a few weeks ago, is Catnappers' bylaw change. Because so many cats advocated on behalf of their non-feline house partners ("I live with a dog...I live with a ferret..."), Catnappers now admits all non-human creatures.
From left: Floating Planets (in progress); Truly Wild Flowers (in progress); Gifts from Max. Bottom: Mr. Fish, Chief Climate Warrior.
Posted on 7/15/2024 12:52:26 PM
By Susan Gainen
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The beginning of Really Wild Flowers
Really Wild Flowers - Acrylic Ink - Carbon Black Ink
Posted on 6/17/2024 5:09:19 PM
By Susan Gainen
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Really Wild Flowers pencil drawing in progress
Really Wild Flowers: Start With Wretched Excess and Scale Up
Between 1985 and 1992, when I gardened in Baltimore on a tiny (26x92 feet) plot of land that had a house on it, I developed a garden philosophy: "Start with Wretched Excess, and scale up."
If it had a striking flower or if the flower had a wonderful scent, I planted it. There was no room for the scentless (this means you, Peace Rose). If I could make a wildly whimsical statement, I did it, and threw a hundred crocus bulbs onto the front yard, and dug them in. The next spring and in all of the following springs, they came up before the grass. The little lawn looked wonderful.
Really Wild Flowers Meet Painstaking Exuberance and Acrylic Ink
This painting is a clear example of Painstaking Exuberance, my painting process: make a pencil drawing, cover it with clear gesso, using a tiny brush, paint inside the lines with acrylic ink, and, finally, outline each shape with carbon black ink from a Platinum Brand Fountain Pen.
I began this painting in 2023 and came back to it in early 2024 when I needed to focus on tiny shapes and tiny spaces and to NOT be in a hurry. (Left: January 29, 2024. Right: June 17, 2024).
