Studiology

Sup

So much is up, and it's all good. I am rearranging my life right now with a few major changes. I have retired from Oak Hill, after 15 years. The drive out of the estate on my last day may have been one of the saddest of my life. That job was so wonderful and such a happy place, it will be greatly missed. For me it was time and the physical aspect of the job was taking a toll, I would like to save a bit of that for myself and maybe my garden. I took this photograph on my last day at work, my view on a daily basis and a glorious one at that.

Then there was the jump over to Merrifield Gardens for my annual holiday flower arranging. That will end at Christmas and I encourage anyone that is looking for an arrangement, advent wreath, or outdoor pot decorations to come and visit. Of the 3 locations, I am at Fair Oaks on a full time basis. Few things cheer someone up like a bouquet of flowers. 

In my creative space it is time for Krampus. These were delivered to the gallery yesterday. 

Prior to that it was Thanksgiving with my daughter's family and grandkids. Felicity is sprouting up and a delightful person, Quinn is the constant zombie killer (yeah, no zombies here), and little Junie is just adorable. 

So for now, the wassup is all good, and the forward trajectory is filled with twists and turns. I hope your journeys and daily events are all positive. I know that's impossible, but maybe more good than bad, how's that?

Street Art, Plant Art, Art Art in Mexico

From the everyday meals or walking the cobblestone streets, art and color come in so many glorious forms in Oaxaca, Mexico. Elevated for Day of the Dead, as it is for the Radish Festival, the Guelaguetza  (Ethnic Folk Festival), or The Festival for the Virgin of Guadalupe, flowers are present in abundance, brightly colored dress is commonplace and decorations compete from door to door, shop to shop. These are some of the store fronts and large Catrina's set up along the main cobblestone street. The majority of shops and our hotel have a low tray for customers to step into and then dry as a form of sanitizing your shoes. Many also took your temperature and all gave you hand sanitizer as you entered.

The use of plants, particularly as architectural accents is amazing. This bench and climbing epiphyllum were in the stamp museum, the others in a small shopping mall.

Street art is rich and apparently wildly accepted.

I could add an entire blog just about the cooking class, which included a stop at the market for these fresh squash blossoms, among other things:

The house where the class was held, the courtyard, the table settings and food, everything was artfully creative.

And the reason for being there was a class for building a heart shrine. Our host, the talented and fun to be around Michael deMeng guided us through the various styles of heart symbolism and we set out to complete at least 1 project. I created 2 and was very happy with them, which is not always the case, but put me in a very good mood (plus a little mescal).

I added some ribbon down each side once home, so now it's really finished.

    

In the end, I was so happy that I bravely traveled to Mexico. Once I was deposited in the hotel and met my fellow art family, it was a week of companionship and art. I leave this adventure with a few more photographs of street people and ofrendas.

 

 

 

Just Wow!

With my trip to Mexico and back, I feel so thankful to have made it there and home again with no alterations in my plans. The art group met after a 2 year absence and it was so wonderful to be back with each other and doing what we love. Add to that a whole lot of adventures and meals that were some of the best I have ever eaten, I think that it was a delightful trip for everyone. The country was prepared for tourists with extra precautions at almost every stop, sterilize shoes - take temperature - apply hand sanitizer, and wear masks. 

My last photograph with my iPhone may have summed up the trip, but there are many taken with my real camera. This was the evening before the early morning (3:30) cab ride to the airport. There are certainly overlapping themes, Day of the Dead, bright colors, skilled artists, and a town that lives for tourism. 

A lot of the pets were also prepared for Halloween and Day of the Dead. Some were real show offs.

The street artists and art are as colorful as the surrounds. Houses are painted in bright colors, the local woman wear gorgeous dresses and aprons, it's truly a land of bold colors.

Trips to local towns took us to specialized communities of clay, wool, and candle artists. With each stop we were introduced to how the products are mined, harvested, and created, almost all built and managed by women. 

Just about all of the women work in these incredibly colorful clothes which are very traditional. The tools here are corn cobs, and pieces of soccer ball to shape this Comal, used for heating food, especially tortillas. A clothesline outside the house held more of their brightly colored dresses and aprons, the house was painted purple.

The candle makers are very specialized and I think the photographs will illustrate the skill which is passed from generation to generation in all of these pursuits.

This single candle is for a wedding. They are also made for engagements, the larger the candle the more likely the forthcoming nuptials. The details in the flowers is astonishing.

The weavers work with many natural dye ingredients, particularly cochineal for red, a scale insect on the local cactus. In the weaver's town, looms are in every house, on most porches, possibly in some bedrooms.

In a tropical climate, the use of plants combined with architecture really caught my attention in the town of Oaxaca. That and a cooking class, our own art class, and more adventures will be in the content of my next follow-up of Mexico in 2021. 

Ya Me Voy

With much planning and finger crossing, I should be in Mexico this week to celebrate Day of the Dead. Joining the group that I often travel with, the art supplies have been gathered and the bags are almost packed. We are making heart shrines, or an object or two along those lines. The area we are traveling to is on the "green list" aka the non-red list, and there are a number of protocols that have to be followed, including masks everywhere. All of these outings were cancelled last year, so of course I'm eager to go back and embrace the culture. 

I've been taking Spanish lessons online for a month, to be better prepared and I'm even taking a cooking class while I'm there. So ya me voy, it's gonna be an adventure!

 

A Witch's Broom

The lingo of gardening is full of odd terms. A few that come to mind are deadheading, pricking out, pinching, and witches's broom. The latter is not in every horticultural glossary, nor is it common knowledge, but it's a very real thing. In defining the term, or even describing the abnormality, common words include disease, deformity, and even a place where a witch landed. To look up the term on "Google" you will have to scroll past the literal brooms of witches to get to any horticultural reference. 

photograph by Janice LeCocq

Visually a witch's broom is a tree or shrub branch that has developed a tight cluster of smaller branches. At first look you might think bee or squirrel's nest. To some it's a prized rarity, to others a threat to crops, specifically the brooms caused by a fungus that attack chocolate trees in tropical areas. 

There are eight different reasons for the tight forking of branches. Insects, fungi, virus, even solar radiation at high elevations can be responsible. A dwarf mistletoe which occurs in the northern states and Canada causes wide spread brooming as it disrupts the growth hormones at the growing tips of trees. 

Of interest to those in horticulture are the cuttings and seeds from these anomalies when propagated. Cuttings will remain tight and dwarf, seeds will develop into variable offspring, even the cones on witch's brooms are significantly smaller.  Many of the dwarf plants sold at nurseries began life as a broom, often with a name that reflects that  i.e., Tsuga canadensis 'Fantana Witch's Broom', Picea abies 'Millstream Broom', and Picea orientalis 'Shadow's Broom'. In this scenario the brooming can be financially beneficial, drawing witch broom hunters to popular areas, haunts like the Rocky Mountains, the Cascades, and central Europe. Some climb trees to harvest cuttings but many literally shoot them down, armed with rifles. 

photograph by Janice LeCocq

In my lifetime I have only found three. The largest of my three sightings was in a cedar or Juniperus virginiana in the cemetery in Upperville, VA, located on route 50. I watched it for years, a sizable broom. Eventually the juniper was cut down and disposed of and it's unlikely that the broom was propagated. The other two were on white pine, the result of a broom mite that injects saliva and creates adventitious buds (buds that emerge in areas they do not usually develop). One white pine broom was at the National Arboretum in Washington DC and the other in my own garden, only recently discovered. I see it as a gift, a prized freak of nature! All who visit are soldiered out to my tree, informed that they are about to see my witch's broom. A nongardening friend was quick to comment that she had been waiting for this day, true to form and always the clever one, I think she was disappointed. It's true, it won't take me places, but I'm good with that.

Show Time

October is my month, a deadline, a theme, and a purpose. My goal every year for my show month is to have 20 new pieces and I made it to 19. The show is in the gallery I manage and in the space as you enter the door. Who ever operates as manager is allowed to hang their art in this prime piece of real estate in a gallery that houses 24 other artists. Over the years I have covered various themes; dreams, sea, circus, travelers, and saints (with sinners). This year it's fairy tale with a focus on Alice in Wonderland. The real excitement for me is to see it all come together, when every piece is hung on the wall. 

But of course there is nothing like seeing it in person and taking it all in. The show will be there for the month with a reception on Saturday, October 16th, from 3 to 5. To help you understand, I am showing some process photographs, taken in the studio as early as January when I began the real building of various pieces. Alice falling took the longest because of challenges in the process. It began with a frame, Styrofoam, aluminum wrap, and a coffee can. The roots are rolled up paper held together with wall paper paste. The final layer was paper mache and mulberry paper. 

This masks begin as a simple plastic form and is modified with cardboard, bits and pieces of things and covered in paper mache with tissue paper as the last layer. I used some clay, beads, and a glass eye  and like the others, there is a wall hanger so it can hang like a piece of art, or be worn to a party.

Rabbits rule and are made of various materials. I'm extremely happy with this one with the background painted in an abstract pattern. 

With each show I learn something new and this show was filled with new techniques. Possibly my favorite was bending wire and then coating it with paste to harden. The process allowed me to create vines and filigree additions. Jack in the Beanstalk was really good for this and the little pea pods dangly loosely.  

The Mad Hatter's hands were also made this way as he holds his tea cup.

The piece de resistance is my crazy March Hare mask. He should be worn with a large wig and a crazy outfit. I painted bravely and it scared me. But it worked.

As one final note, this is as colorful a show as my circus themed year. I humbly believe it's a real joy to behold and something that will bring a smile to your face. 

 

 

Slipping

The month of September slipped by, slipped under, and fell out of sight. Although I remember it well as the month of too many tomatoes, too many Birdie walks, a lot of work and a tight show deadline. 

As for the tomatoes, I planted late, June 5th to be exact. With the hottest summer ever, it was not a good thing and the plants sulked. Every Saturday morning was a visit to the local farmer's market to buy heirloom tomatoes at $4. a lb., and they weren't nearly as tasty as the varieties I had planted, all 51 plants. Then came the last week of  August and all hell broke loose. The kitchen table was topped with at least 30 tomatoes a day, sometimes 50. I was determined that not a one was going to get away from me, so I froze salsa nearly everyday. I use the recipe in Craig LeHoullier's book with a few modifications. That salsa is then used to make huevo's rancheros for breakfast, which are much better with my own tomatoes, particularly the yellow varieties. The recipe is simple and here is mine:

6 large tomatoes (deskinned and cut into chunks)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 to 2 scallions - diced

1 Poblano Ancho pepper - diced

teaspoon of salt

Place all ingredients in blender and puree

fresh ground pepper top the eggs after they have been placed in the hot salsa

The first thing I do is crisp up corn tortillias in olive oil, remove. Pour in the salsa, a bit more than you think because it thickens as moisture steams away. Drop in the eggs, ground pepper on top, cook the eggs as you prefer and serve up. Lately I break up the tortilla before adding the sauce and eggs to make eating easier. 

My favorite yellow and orange tomato varieties are 'Lillians', 'Sweet Sue', and 'Kellogg's Breakfast'. A salsa with just these is sweet and very, very tasty. The fruit is full with small seed pockets, so slicing is like cutting into a melon, there's a lot of meat.

If anything, there is a lesson to be learned in planting late, it's good for a second crop and as October has arrived, it's nearly over. 

The arrival of September did see a bit of relief from heat and a return of rain. The hardy cyclamen popped, cool season perennials perked up, the weather has been magnificent as we turn the calendar to October. The gardens I work in really responded to all of my hard work.

And not to bore you again with my night garden, but my enormous Brugmansia 'Frosty Pink' had over 200 blooms one night. As cool nights move in the show ends, but it was a very fun summer! At one point there were 5 sphinx moths here to cavort and entertain. 

Lastly, Birdie is well, such a sweet girl but still a crazy nose driven beast on a leash. The show is up, and I look forward to October. I hope you are well.

Down the Rabbit Hole

I think we are all falling down a rabbit hole of one sort or another, caught in a voyage or an escape. For myself it's been a delightful escape into fantasy and fairy tale, all happening in my small studio to prepare for the fall show of the same title. I have shared a bit of the rabbit builds and now I can share some of the other characters, all slated to be for sale from October 1st to the 31st at Art A La Carte Gallery in Occoquan, Va. A "Meet the Artist" evening is scheduled for Saturday, October 16th from 3 to 5 and I'm sure there will be discussion on how things were built. 

These first 2 are in boxes that rotate, so Little Red Riding Hood becomes the Big Bad Wolf and the crazy March Hare becomes the White Rabbit.

Knowing the title, there has to be a Mad Hatter, in this case we've caught him on a tea break.

And just finished, the piece that is quite literally the fall down the rabbit hole, Alice and the White Rabbit. Her skirts are made of mulberry paper, layer after layer of treated mulberry paper.

This last piece was started in January and measures 34 inches tall and 18 inches wide. The tree began as a coffee can, the roots are rolled up paper treated with wall paper paste and covered with many layers of paper Mache. The core is Styrofoam, foil, and some cardboard. The painting literally took weeks as I swung back and forth on low and highlights. As mixed media as any one object can be, this was a real stretch for me, a project that left me with more questions than answers but ended up just as I imagined it would.  So look at your calendars, take some time to come see these and many more in October.

 

 

 

Summer Battles

As summer thins so may the gardeners resolve. In a climate with four seasons, the battle of maintaining waivers after the heat of July and August. The results leave many annual weeds free to bandy about and great battles are lost in a short time. A younger gardener may not feel or even know the challenge, they are armed with energy and a positive outlook, or so it seems as I look over areas of my garden that have been overtaken with a layered sea of morning glory. How did these seeds travel so far? Birds and/or ants may be culprits, dropped from a distance, no evil intent or lack of respect. 

One morning glory, or maybe all, were brought to the garden on purpose. The cardinal climber was a favorite for its spider-like leaves and small red flowers. Now it cavorts with others, scrambling up everything. Hummingbirds love it and my surrender to the battle always comes in August when I feel like the hummingbirds need it and I'm too tired to continue. 

A particularly aggressive morning glory, Ipomoea acuminata was an experiment while I still had the nursery. Deep purple flowers on a hostile vine quickly led me to discontinue growing it. Alas it followed me home, some small seed tucked in with something else. I have managed to eradicate it, or it became the soft blue of 'Heavenly Blue', the vine that may have swallowed sleeping beauty whole as she slept the summer away. On a positive note, who needs to tie up tomatoes when you have morning glory?

The one annual weed that may be the end of me is mulberry weed or Fatoua villosa. New in the scheme of things, a pest from Japan that is spreading to every state and many continents in record speed. I'm sure it's entry into my garden came from something I purchased; a few seeds is all it takes. Capable of flowering with only three leaves, by late summer it may be two feet tall and loaded with minute flowers and seed heads. Easy to pull but alarming in its coverage, a word of caution, if you are pulling the plant check your hands where there will certainly be remnant seeds (you may be moving it around). Hand pulling is something that must begin early and continue nonstop, a chore that seems impossible. One method to thwart mulberry weed is to lay newspaper (5-6 layers) on the ground and top with wood chips. In areas that are void of spring bulbs; under shrubs or flower border edges, cardboard will last longer, also topped with mulch or wood chips. Similar to other warm season weeds, the seeds will be viable for many years, so be ready to relayer or patch where they sprout anew. In my own garden I have targeted areas where I will newspaper this fall in an attempt to diminish the population.

At this point I find it hard to believe I will finish the battle of annual weeds versus me. Other vengeful players are the perennial vines like oriental bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, and ampelopsis which are a battle of another sort.

Ah but the zinnias are lovely and my tuberose are blooming - I'll take heart that it was worth it and wait for cooler days and a new energy.

Rabbits

In October I will once again open a show and this year the theme and title is "Down the Rabbit Hole". I began in January to design pieces and begin the build process. The obsession with rabbits has been pretty bad, I have made them from tissue with paper and then wire with clay. I believe the count is 12 so far. The real challenge was to make the perfect rabbit for the scene with Alice falling down the rabbit hole with a rabbit below her that doesn't look like he's looking up her skirt. A realization that caught me mid-rabbit making as a big mistake. 

The best rabbits are created with a wire armature or skeleton, then covered with foil, and finally covered with clay to sand and paint. The idea of using foil is for building up the body without using just clay, which is expensive. I've gotten pretty good with these wire armatures, and am finally excited about my last rabbit, he is perfect. 

The process of finding the right rabbit design began with simple drawings which helped tremendously. Initial bunnies were badly postured, he had to look like he was falling.

The body is sanded (after the clay hardens), the jacket is not and a pocket will have a pocket watch falling out. The size was also important, not as big as Alice and good with the scale of the piece, which is very large.  

Next Saturday, the 21st of August, I will be giving a demonstration with my rabbits (the process and the paint techniques) at the gallery in Occoquan from 5 to 7 PM. If you are at all interested in sculpting with epoxy clay or painting with layers on 3D objects, stop by and see how I do it. 

The gallery is Art A La Carte in the historic district of Occoquan, Virginia at 310 Mill Street.