Poem for ordinary time

Looking out over the sky, you are.

Looking down into my lap, through my hair

shining in the sunlight, too bright to see

heating my back through black shirt.

Keeping our faces shaded

squinting briefly toward the sky.

Listening to the motors

cars or motorcycles or whatever

the passing of tires on the road

the dog's lips smack

a single bird's...         not a song, not a noise

only

the sound a bird makes.

Pacing

      and looking out.

Sitting

      and looking in.

un moving through the moments

no ticking of any clock

stillness

marred by progress

anxiety of all the All

Looking back into the sunshine in my hair

the dog's curious nose at my back

glowing, streaking threads

listen, sniffing curiosity

As the jet flies over,

the dog growls.

He knows something's no good.

Don't we all?

We don't.

He patters away to look after you.

cross-stitching-again-again-again-again-again-again-again

spending time
again
with thread and needle
with my face
and yours
spending time
again
and again

resisting the restlessness
exploring ordinary
time
with my self
and you
and the thread
and the needle
and the tiny
moments
and the meditation on
each pixel
a stitch
another stitch

yours
and mine

and everything in between
the fabric

quilt quilt quilt quilt quilt quilt quilt

If I say the word over and over it starts to sound unfamiliar and I have that bizarre feeling of not knowing the word nor its meaning.  I'm doing this as a way to disassociate with the traditionalist understanding of the quilt and stay grounded in my "I'll do it myself" mentality.  Once again, I've used an antiquated (though certainly rising in popularity again), homemaker's media to express concepts of dream symbolism, theories of color and design and to recognize and experience the meditative work of repetition.  I made a post about my quilt before as I've been working on it since last December, and now it's basically finished.  Yesterday, I sent it off to the quilter, Amy Wade who will use her computerized long-arm sewing machine to connect my top layer of piecework to bamboo viscose batting and raw silk backing.  Pre quilting:

The colors are all dyed 1 - 5 times to reach desired saturation and shade.  The dark blue is made using indigo - a totally new dyeing process for me.  The overall dimension is 80" x 88" and each square (of 2 triangles) is 4" x 4".  The Anni Albers textile design and color theory inspiration comes from her artwork, Triadic Series D.  For me, the principle definer of my design was not the triangles so much as it was the orientation of diagonals for each 20" x 20" area (each 20" square area rotates to create a diamond pattern within the grid).  

Anni's screenprint: 

Anni Albers. “Triadic Series D.” 1969. Lithograph

Anni Albers' work was more about pattern design and textile fabric design - her work was so crucial for modern textiles and she paved the way with her design theories and inventive ideas for fabrication.  For me, she paved the way for my planning in making this quilt.  I knew I needed a pattern and though I wanted symbolism incorporated, the pattern was most important for a textile I planned to see regularly in my bedroom.  Anni's patterns and design theories lend themselves to the gaze - harmonious repetition with just enough variety to keep us meditatively looking.

The dream symbolization for this blanket is just that: a blanket over our dreams.  Of all the things we can lay over ourselves each night, I wanted to create something to inspire and evoke dreams.  Mentioned before, I have been  seeing a psychotherapist and she is particularly adept at recognizing my visual nature through discussing my dreams and other visions.  I find myself now more dedicated to the stories of my dreams and I place more intention into the work of remembering them.  Beyond dream symbolism, this quilt certainly marks the place where my husband and I share the most intimate space in our home.  The rectangle of yellow and blue-gray is placed over our hearts as an offering of and recognition for light. 

Yes, this is my latest art work, though it doesn't yet have a title.  Yes, it is also the most functional artwork I have ever made, and we will be using it, inhabiting it as that might be it's real completion.

total number of pieces: 880.  I wonder if there's any auspicious meaning to that number....

Direct Connect Denver

Direct Connect Denver's "What If..." as seen at one of 3 venues, GroundSwell Gallery.

Late summer of 2013, Don Fodness and Sabin Aell approached me and my partner (at GroundSwell Gallery), Danette Montoya about putting together a project for artists in Denver.  The basic goal was to create a project for as many artists as we could manage to collaborate with other artists internationaly.  Almost right away, we four felt the awesome energy of people who work well together.  Not only did we begin to organize and define this project, "What if..." but we also began to organize and define ourselves as Direct Connect Denver (DCD).
The purpose of our new group began to unfold as this:  to create opportunities for ourselves and other artists in Denver and to connect directly with artists, galleries, and general culture in other cities and/or countries through our art work.  The realization we've all made was that most of the events defining success in our careers have been connections, relationships, and experiences with other people in our field.  Read about DCD and "What if..." in Westword and at Colorado Public Radio's website where Danette was interviewed about the project. 

Direct Connect Denver is now our four person team devoted to creating one project per year for  artists to engage with other artists/galleries/communities nationally and internationally.  Our first project, "What If..." just opened on March 14th in Denver, CO, USA and March 15 in Berlin, Germany with over 100 participating artists.

The framework of the project was this:  Sabin Aell catalyzed the relationship with Neurotitan Gallery in Berlin to do a collaborative art swap with artists in Denver.  Each team, DCD in Denver and Neurotitan in Berlin, enlisted 53 artists/art-groups to participate in the project.  Each artist/art-group was asked to pose a "what if...?" question and then was paired randomly with another artist/art-group in the opposite city.  The "what if..." questions were swapped and having receive the question, each artist/art-group had to begin an art work in response to that question.

 I was one of those artists and the question that I posed was, "What if I finally took off my East-Coast-Conservative-Protestant baggage and got naked?"  My partner was Xueh Magrini and her question to me was, "What if all is just an illusion?"  Xu's artwork, as seen on her website, was delightful to see because, being randomly paired, her work fit right into my hope for this project: to let loose! 

If you know my work, you know that I'm not prone to work loosely with pastels and I tend to draw very formally, so you can see what of this collaborative work was made by Xu (though elaborated upon by me) and you can see where my style works in.  I felt that this artwork was an invitation to keep working on artwork for myself (as I have been learning to do in the last year), but to also make it more vulnerable by showing it outside of my studio (or this blog).

All 53 artists in Denver and all 53 artists/art-groups in Berlin got to work responding to their questions knowing that their work would be finished by the asker.  After a month of working, all of the artwork (in Denver) was due to GroundSwell Gallery so that we could ship the artworks to Berlin for the artists there to finish and then exhibit at Neurotitan.  Likewise, Neurotitan had to collect all of their artists works and send them to Denver.  (Organizational note:  Always send all the artwork in one package, one time if you can.  Sending multiple packages on different schedules does not seem to make a schedule run smoothly.  Repeat: Ship everything at once.)  In late January, early February, artists received the artworks that their collaborator started in response to the question they had asked.  Everyone had to work on responding to his/her own question AND responding to another artist's interpretation of that question.  Finally, all of the artworks in Denver were exhibited at Hinterland (Sabin's gallery on Walnut St.), Showpen (Don's gallery/artists' residence on 9th & Santa Fe) and at GroundSwell Gallery.

Left: Sara Guindon & Sophia Martineck, Center: Andrew Huffman & Vela, Right: Travis Hetman & Johann Büsen.  These 3 artworks each became an enmeshed synthesis of the collaborators' styles.  Sara and Sophia's styles seem one in the same, Andrew Huffman transformed Vela's (barely discernible now) gnome into his more rare stream-of-consciousness work and Travis had to break from his negative-space and work within Johann's frenetic overload of imagery.  In my opinion, these are awesome collaborative efforts.  (click on this image to see it larger...  find the gnome?)

In my experience I found it interesting that I had had an idea in my mind of how I would respond to my own question, but when I received my artwork from Xu, I had to re-think, re-imagine my visual "answer" to my own question.  As an organizer of this project, having looked at everyone's original questions, it became evident that some asked "what if..." with a plan for themselves and others asked as though "anything can happen!"  I can't say for sure, but I imagine the latter askers may have felt more free as they attempted to work on another artist's work and deal with the existential problem of answering our own questions.  Of course there is also the issue of working right on another artist's work.  I applaud the artists who boldly negotiated this problem for themselves and created excellent works while dismantling (ahem... destroying...) their partner's input.  I think it was important for artists to see this as a project where it was appropriate and expected that we just do-what-we-have-to-do to make an artwork. 

Left: Tyler Beard & Andres Villareal, Right: Jeffrey King & Nat Hamon.  Both Tyler and Jeffrey dismantled or destroyed their partner's work as a means to making work that is their own.  I point out that their partner's work is collaborative in that it is used as the medium for the artwork seen here.

Finally, I'll just say that this project has been a joy to co-create because of the co-creators.  The best parts about working with Danette at GroundSwell Gallery for the past 3 years have been our ability to lay everything out honestly, our naturally mutual objectives and our equal willingness to work hard with attention to the balance between our workloads.  Working with Don and Sabin on this project has resulted in a similar working style and the four us seem as surprised as we are delighted and motivated to continue working together.  Group projects are not often this easy and fair.

Direct Connect Denver plans to document this project carefully and create a pdf book as well as a print-to-order book of the artworks.  DCD also plans to do another project in 2015.

cut

In the midst of cutting around 900 pieces of fabric to sew, I remember how much I love doing repetitive tasks and zoning out on a sunny morning. 

Anni Albers... again and again.

Anni Albers - Second movement II - intaglio print

I'm working on making a quilt for my bed that is at once my bed-spread and my artwork.  I'm unabashedly a person who likes to make all the "things" in my home count and mean something to my soulful-living-self.  At the start of this undertaking, I went back to my favorite textile designer of all time - Anni Albers.  Wife and partner to Josef Albers, she was also a student of Bauhaus, and the two of them came to the United States as part of the mid-century Jewish flight from Europe that so enriched our culture in more ways than most of the American public has any understanding for.  Both of them, through their teaching, design work, and art work made strong marks on the American aesthetic we take for granted today.  They did that through the framework of color theory and design theory that many attribute to Bauhaus, but Anni and Josef were truly unique voices nonetheless.  They integrated art with design in a way that significantly elevated public and private environments and culture.  Without going on and on about who they are - everyone should look them up, books listed below - I'll just share a few images of Anni Albers' printed patterns intended for textile printing.  These are the inspiration - through their aesthetic and theory - for my own design.  It is my intention to ride the inspiration of her design theory and art work to create a quilt that reflects my own soulful place in my bed (along with my partner Christian).  I'm dyeing the fabric now... process pictures are in order I guess, so I know I'll be posting about this project again.

 

Anni Albers - Triadic Series D - lithograph print

The sketch that I'm working with, color palette in progress:

Books:
Anni Albers : Selected Writings on Design - The fifteen essays gathered here illustrate Anni Albers's concept of design as the pursuit of wholeness.... (wow, seriously changed my work when I read this).

 Josef + Anni Albers : Designs for Living - this book was given to me by a mentor who gets me, Michael P. Johnson.  He pointed out that my husband and I have much in common with this dynamic pair and I am forever inspired by that comment.
 
There are SO MANY books on these 2 most influential artists/designers.

newest

(detail)
from my newest drawings and interdisciplinary work referencing simplicity and clarity - Primary Platonic.

This is a retro-self portrait.  Myself when an infant, wrapped tightly in primary colors and platonic shapes - the most basic and simple elements of form and color. 

This is part of an exercise with my artwork to meditate on basic self-understanding and self-knowledge while putting intention toward simpler and clearer thinking and experience.

Tinnient Campana... public.

Completed throughout last summer, installed in 2 exhibitions last Fall and installed early January 2013 in Russel Christopher Hair Salon - Tinnient Campana. 

click on images to view larger

This sculptural installation of 99 bells engages the viewer's own sensory knowledge and curiosity.  To engage a bell is intuitive despite the Bell's ongoing antiquity and gradual obsoletion. 

The spatial relationship one has when near a bell is often magnetic as we are drawn to hear its tone and resonance.  Each bell is completely unique and offers the classically peaceful experience of hearing sound and feeling subtle vibration.

So thankful to Russ and Shannon to have this lovely black wall to install these bells.
Visit the salon to see the installation at 3221 E. Colfax Ave. Denver, CO 80206.
Tinnient Campana is available for purchase; if interested, please inquire.

this we have now

This we have now
is not imagination

This is not
grief nor joy.

Not a judging state,
nor an elation,
nor a sadness,

Those come and go.
This is the presence that doesn't.

-Rumi

Remembering 10.10.10, and remembering our wishes for our lives and our love.

Landscape of Love, 10.10.10, photo: Charlie Smith - Awen productions

[Again and again, however we know the landscape of love]

Again and again, however we know the landscape of love and the little churchyard there, with its sorrowing names, and the frighteningly silent abyss into which the others fall:  again and again the two of us walk out together under the ancient trees, lie down again and again among the flowers, face to face with the sky.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

new to the collection

Currency Andrew Speer, oil and acrylic on linen, 16" x 20"

Thrilled to have a new painting in my art collection!  This work by Denver Artist, Andrew Speer, was just a part of GroundSwell Gallery's exhibition, Provisional.  Andrew's paintings, however provisional they may be, are refreshingly of the moment.  The title, Currency, may be as much about money as it is "the quality or state of being current."  This currency for me is the moment of release - when you've let go of the work and it's flying off to the sky though you still feel the energy in your heart and hands from making it.  Thank you to Andrew for giving rise to this feeling in me each time I pass near your work in my home.

Westword's Mastermind Award 2013 - Visual Arts

Danette Montoya & Rebecca Peebles (photo: Bianca Bourgeois)

Just as thankful as I can be to work with such an extraordinary lady, Danette Montoya.  We started GroundSwell Gallery in May of 2011 with a good intention, love for art, and willingness to work hard.  We wanted to use the opportunity that GroundSwell Cannabis Boutique provided - a sunlight filled empty room - to provide a gallery space unlike any other we knew of in Denver.  The idea was to work pro-bono to create a niche for artists looking to show their work without the hype of convincing anyone that their work is easy to sell.  We didn't intend to make a profit, so we wanted to afford the opportunity to show for installation, performance and nontraditional/new media.  On top of that, we knew this kind of gallery space - beautifully lit, good location, and professionally managed was what many up-and-coming artists of Denver (and surrounding areas) needed in order to exhibit their work with integrity and confidence.

Today, we were announced as one of five winners of the Westword's Mastermind Award for 2013!  "Recognizing that artists need not just creativity, but money to help things go — and grow — Westword started the MasterMind Awards program in 2005, to honor the city's creative geniuses in the categories of literary arts, performance, multimedia, visual arts and fashion/design; we've inducted a new class every year since."

Danette Montoya (photo: B. Bourgeois)

Wow.

We are so pleased and honored to receive this distinguished award and to stand amongst some of the most wonderful people we know in Denver's art community.  With big hearts, we look forward to using the award money to increase the potential for the many artists scheduled to show with us in the months to come!  Thank you to our peers.  Thank you to Westword for this amazing program, which  affirms so many hard working hours and efforts.  While I'm at it, thank you to GroundSwell Cannabis Boutique and all those affiliated with it's existence - we are deeply grateful for your contribution to Denver's cultural wealth.  Lastly, another huge thanks to my partner, Danette - I can hardly describe what a phenomenal partnership we have.

October and November

I got busy.
busier than normal and then I had to decompress after all the business.

Most of October I did one of 3 things: Worked at Pablo's coffee where I always work on the weekends, worked weekdays at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver where I do install on contract a few times a year, and worked on a large cross-stitch.  I also spent a few days with my amazing, artful friends, Nina and Craig who visited from Wisconsin and I also did the work of GroundSwell Gallery because we had another opening (as we do every month).  Here are a few notable pictures from that time:

MCA's Postcript show up through Feb. 3, I helped hang the many grid layouts

Lindsay St. Antoine opened at GroundSwell Gallery Nov. 10,  I bought this painting.

field trip to Clyfford Still Museum with Christian, Nina and Craig.

Pablo's Coffee...  mmm, latte.  I can sling a lot of lattes in 5 - 7 hours

This is the project that it's been all about for the last 8 months.  Showing one more week at Redline Gallery for the Art by Craft exhibit. (click image to see full size)

The month of October was especially important for completing this cross stitch project.  Spending Time, a double portrait of my husband and myself created from a photograph that I took and then pixilated.  Each stitch recreates the image pixel by pixel.  Formally, this work nods to early American needlework and the tedious work of commemorating family through stitches.  Conceptually, the sustained work of cross stitching over 8 months, spending time with the image of us together, builds to a meditative practice.  I felt the work became compulsive as the deadline for the Art by Craft exhibition neared, though I doubt it would have been so, had there not been a deadline.  This piece is immediately very personal to me.  Maybe that's obvious, but unlike other artwork that I have made, I feel more protective and private about this.  I want it to be as simple as it is and as monumental as it is without elaboration.

Also installed at this exhibition, the Tinnient Campana installation (previously installed at Forest Room 5 in September). 

Tinnient Campana also on view at Redine through Nov. 29 (click image for full size)

This artwork refers to the proliferation of ring tones without bells in modern culture.  The bell itself (like latin and other obsolete forms of communication have done) is gradually becoming a lesser known object or tool for communication.  Lovely in tactile forms and unique resonances, I wanted to make the bells for this installation out of adoration for the antiquated object and recognition for its outmoded-ness highlighted by our dear cell phones.  Tinnient Campana literally means, ring the bell, and our unknowing of that meaning may leave us hesitantly reaching for the bell as though to ring it, unsure of our intuition.

This installation is difficult to photograph because it is about 25 ft. long in total.  Eventually, my website will be updated to include best images.

Last note:  Because I needed to get back to it, a thank you to Mark Bystrom for noting that my blog has been ignored since early September.

coming in for a landing!

My dear yoga teacher Alex will be having her first baby this October!  This bird is for her little.  It feels good to just make something for someone. 

About You

About You, Rebecca Peebles, 22" x 30," graphite, pen & colored pencil on paper

For the June show at GroundSwell Gallery (where I curate with Danette Montoya), we hosted a group show under the concept of Exquisite Corpse drawing.  Most versions of Exquisite Corpse drawing projects incorporate the rule that each artist participating has no idea what the other artist(s) are doing. The rules for our version also included that each artist creates a drawing using the same media and must utilize pre-drawn "starter marks" that connect each drawing to a left and a right drawing (see images).  I decided to participate with the project because I wanted to get in on that "surprise" feeling of putting all the finished work together to see what it all looks like, and of course I like to draw.

 The task of drawing "whatever I want" seemed simple at first.  Then the anticipation for the unknown drawings on left and right...  I had to put aside my tendency to plan and just let loose with the drawing. The only control I seemed to have (or thought I had) was effectively using those "starter marks" drawn from my margins across to anothers' margins.  I tried to think of them as bridges to another drawing.  Anyway, the drawing was satisfying work.  I felt explorative with the media that I wouldn't usually combine in one work.  I enjoyed placing my mind upon the irrationality of Surrealism and Dada (the art movements which originated Exquisite Corpse drawing) and letting go.  My drawing, titled, About You started with drawing my hands (seemed like a good place to start) and ended with a sensual and dynamic drawing.  I couldn't help but to footnote (in sign language) the main line from the Divynals 1990 hit song, I Touch Myself: "When I think about you, I touch myself." 

Putting all 16 artists' drawings together was, as expected, a delightful surprise.  Each juxtaposition of drawing to drawing was uniquely interesting and unexpected.  To see images of the works (each including some of the left and right "neighbors"), please visit GroundSwell Gallery's website.

Commons

An Interactive Art Installation in conjunction with the Taos Contemporary Exhibitions at the Center for Visual Art
(965 Santa Fe Drive Denver, CO)

Friday, June 15

6- 8pm (maybe earlier...).

The Commons - that resource which is commonly owned and used.  This art work represents the source from which we draw and to which we add as an arts community. This art work happens by the power of your addition. 
One night only!

pixel upon pixel upon pixel

Working on a long-anticipated project to plot pixels for this double portrait jpeg.  First half first.

The Four Dharmas of Gampopa

Grant your blessing so that my mind may move towards the Dharma.
Grant your blessing so that the Dharma may progress along the path.
Grant your blessing so that the path may clarify confusion.
Grant your blessing so that confusion may dawn as wisdom. 


FRIENDS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS

City Smiles

Today an Open House at City Smiles Dentistry, 100 Spruce Street, Suite 100 Denver, CO 80230.  Everyone is invited from 5:30p - 8:30p.  This is a great chance to see what Chelsea Mayer, DDS has done to build out a beautiful new dentist office that all who care about design and good space can really enjoy!  She smartly requested good art curation for the office and I reached out to local Denver Artists.  The result, the best dressed Dentist office I've ever been to!  I'm honored to work with the artists:
Sara Guindon
Sandra Fettingis
Rob Mack
Shayna Cohn
Debbie Clapper
Alan Kitchen
Paul Langway
Bethany DeMarco
Derek Keenan 
Jared David Paul