This is the archive for the ‘inspiration’ Category

Musings at Green Cove

August 2nd, 2016

We’ve been away on vacation—a whirl wind road trip to Cape Breton and back. Hiking and sketching and eating and driving and driving…
After a long hike we stopped by the ocean and Bob took pictures while I sat and wrote the following in my sketchbook…

Cape Breton Rocks
I did take this picture.

Musings at Green Cove, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia 2016

water
waves
wind
rocks

young boy hopping rock to rock. I used to do that—like a mountain goat. But now, not so much. So I watch the young boy…

Bob goes rock to rock, not like the young boy but slower, watching, looking, seeing pictures in puddles that the young boy jumps over.

Saw a lot of birds at the end of our hike. young woman—not so young 53 but full of energy and friendship—works for the park—stopped to talk. I know her life history—her parents married, left Cheticamp for Toronto and returned. Her father loved the woods. I know all about her cheating husband. They were musicians, embarking on her perfect life, but… and she told us a lot about the birds.

Blue flowers hiding between the rocks—bright green leaves. Rocks with stripes—cracks and magma—each a painting.

Saw a seal swimming today!
Saw Canadian geese with a gosling.
Saw cormorants and lots and lots of sea gulls—

Tide waits for no man—nor woman for that matter.

We come and go and have hateful presidential conventions and the tide comes and goes—comes and goes—comes and goes.

The birds are on their rock, and the seal swims in the sea and we go about our petty lives—but Bob takes pictures others miss.

Beach Stones

June 13th, 2016

I love beach walking. Every time there is some thing new and my trip to NY was no different. The beach was long and at first looked uneventful, (except for the beautiful early morning light), but then I realized that things were white. White stones, white shells, white feathers. Here’s my haul from that day!


Beach stones and a feather

I bring these things home and set them out, move them about, and just enjoy looking at them and remembering that walk with its crashing waves and the only footprints were mine and the birds…mmmmmmmm….

This trip was the latest Hoax with my Garden Gal Friends from Moore (May 31-June3). Stayed at a wonderful house on the beach – my room looked over the ocean! Revisited Jack Lenor Larson’s Longhouse and gardens full of sculpture, and Robert Dash’s magical Madoo. We added a visit to Lee Krasner’s and Jackson Pollock’s studio and home in East Hampton and of course a visit to Mauders Nursery with balled trees and bushes as big as houses! Again, good friends, good food/drink, and lots of catching up.

leggings

August 26th, 2015

Took a workshop at Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia this spring with Kassem Amoudi. It was about seeing where your marks could take you and taught with acrylics. While I loved the class and the way of exploring a painting, it isn’t where I am at this time – but I did like some of the pieces I did that weekend. Thought two of them might inform society6’s leggins. Here they are: Thoughts of Spring and Patches! And… there are others with patterns created from walks in the woods.

leggins
new line of leggins at society6 based on paintings!

New Society6 Section

August 20th, 2015

Came back from Maine with lots of rock images which I thought would make good iPhone cases and the like. So… I opened a site at Society6 to showcase the work. Here are a few of the cases. I like the contrast of the rocks and technology.

iPhone case iPhone case iPhone case
These were all studies of rocks

These designs and others also come in framed prints and lap-top cases and skins.

They are available with other images at my shop on Society6.

China

July 29th, 2015

Saw a wonderful exhibit, China, Through the Looking Glass” at The Metropolitan Museum in NY. Displays made connections between the Western view of Chinese decorative culture and contemporary high fashion.

sketchbook drawings
Dress inspired by Chinese Manchu Robe

Spread out over three floors it was pattern after pattern after pattern. The exhibit was as much a piece of art as the fashions and the Chinese artifacts. Each gallery more wondrous than the next. Colors, ancient Chinese textiles and objects pared with current haute couture.

Contemporary ensamble and ancient bronze bell. sketchbook drawings
Style showing very early Chinese decorative elements, and on right From Wuxia, stories of martial arts, over 2000 years old.

blue-and-white porcelain sketchbook drawings
Decorative flowers every where – ancient, blue-and-white porcelain. The embroidered rose is from a shawl, representing the China Trade.

Bodice of dress made of blue-and-white porcelain shards.
Bodice of this dress and neck piece are literally made of blue-and-white porcelain shards.

Working/Day Off

July 12th, 2014

Have to get out of the studio from time to time… So, yesterday we packed a picnic and headed to the Poconos in PA for a working/Day off.

Beth Emmott Bob Emmott
Our idea of a day off!

Went to Hickory Run State Park – I used to go there many, many years ago with my parents when we lived in a little house with no air conditioning. My dad would pack us all in the car on a hot Saturday with a picnic my mom made and we’d head north for a day of lazing about in the woods. I always wanted to go “down the shore” but my parents were “up the mountains” folk.

Park hasn’t changed much, wasn’t very crowed, esp. on the trails, We hiked “Shades of Death Trail” which was well blazed and we just followed the yellow marks deeper and deeper into the woods, stopping to catch our breath and take pictures. (Upon hearing the name of the trail, my friend, Sally, asked if I was hiking with Harry Potter!)

Hickory Run State Park Hickory Run State Park
Deep in the forest.

There were several old dams which had been built many years ago by loggers. This was the highest.

Pocono Mountain Laurel Hickory Run State Park
Pocono Mountain Laurel

I was surprised that the Mountain Laurel were still in bloom but a ranger said they were late this year. PA has wonderful Laurel all through out the woods, usually in June but here they were in full glory. This trail while not too long was very rocky, up and down along cliffs above a creek. I later read in a brochure that it was “the most difficult”. How come I never stop and read these things before I leave my hiking stick in the car? This was a trip worthy of my cousin Stig! But it was so beautiful. At one point it opens out a bit and goes through tunnels of Laurel. There were iridescent dragon flies, birds and butterflies, moss looked like velvet and Indian pipes and mushrooms.

Hickory Run State Park
Rocky Heart

One the way back I saw this rusty color heart in the rock and it made me smile.