Sticks & Stones: Creativity Exposed:

For me, the sensory process is as important as the results--if not more so. I've always been a hands on, hands in, 'dirt under my fingernails' kind of girl. This includes art-making. We are, after all, washable. I'm not opposed to using traditional tools and mediums, but I'm happiest using fingers and found objects, and experimenting with earth's raw pigments. Life is messy. Art is often messy too, and it's good to embrace the mess.

It suits me to express myself in playful, loose, gestural, full-of-surprises ways. As Einstein says, "play is the highest form of research".  So: I 'play'. Explore. Experiment. See where it leads. Even if the product is sometimes destined for the bin, or left behind in its temporary environment rather than destined for a wall somewhere,  it's all worthy work. 

Play with a new stick and ink

STICKS & INK~~FINGERS & GESSO
Painting with fingers and found objects began years ago, when on an art excursion I forgot any brushes or pens to use with my ink. I picked up what I could find: a stick. A pine cone. A feather. And I was hooked.
 
Adding acrylic gesso (white priming medium) started as a happy accident. Surprise: the creamy translucent quality creates changing values and tones, depending on its use under, over, or mixed with ink & washes. Hooked some more.

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Ink & gesso on grey mat board, using sticks & fingers

Things I’ve tried that worked:
    (though they may disintegrate along the way & leave bits of themselves in the work. A plus.)

• Sticks & twigs
• Feathers
• Weeds/flowers
• Pine cones

• Fingers
  
• Lichen
• Seed pods
• Grass

Things I’ve tried that didn’t:

• Dead leaves (they crumble)
• Rocks. (I know, I know. But I had to try)

SO: rocks don’t work with ink and paper. But they do work on other rocks. Another surprise. 

Discovery: drawing with rocks on rocks at Lake Erie

mixing different earth and fire pit samples from my yard with matte medium as a binder.

'Fall in the Sumacs': ash, mud, grass stain, charred stick finger painting on grey mat board.

Small collage in process. (mounted on larger board, which will also be collaged, an integrated frame.)

Crushing & scrubbing leaves & petals in the 'drawing' process is hard on the thumb., but part of the delight

'Autumn offerings' completed.. using wild grapes, honeysuckle berries, green & yellow leaves, bark, grass, osage orange fruit

COLLAGES
Some years back, I hadn't painted in a number of years, and I felt stiff, the work tight and uninspired. So I started a collage as a way of coming at painting 'through the back door.' The result was another delightful discovery.

This is a fun, tactile, messy process. I surround myself with an array of raw materials, apply the varieties of torn papers with acrylic medium, and glue natural objects in place.

Many layers and drying times are often involved.  Rarely do I add any paint.

PAINTING WITH EARTH’S PIGMENTS:
Finger painting/scrubbing/crushing/smearing with what I find around me was a natural progression from using found objects and fingers with ink and gesso:

• Mud, various colors
• Ash & charcoal from the fire pit
• crushed leaves, berries, flowers
• Bark, soft sticks, grass...

Each make unique and unpredictable marks. Including my thumbnail, which makes surprisingly fine lines. (With the earth and ash I add acrylic matte medium as a binder:)

'Young Aspens' Finger painting with mud & fire pit remnants

"Gathering The Storm" - the collage that started them all. Various torn papers, (acrylic paint, gold sky only)

Excerpts from my sketch journal:
"Think Play. The fruit of a vivid imagination. Exploration. Risk. Discovery.
     Listen. Sniff. Touch. Look. Take your time: Look Long. Look beyond looking. See.

"Think drawing: Linear translation of a voluminous world: gestural essence. Exquisite understatement.

"Gather what's been discarded. Seed pods. Broken mirrors. Snake skin. Shells. Let them speak.  There is treasure everywhere.

'Balancing Act' 1999--ink, gesso, bamboo stick and brush drawing. (Self portrait from adventure 1973 in Baja)

"Think creation: Creator & created.
Creativity & captivation
Awe, appreciation, absorption.
Power & peace, conflict & resolution,
delight & dreadful beauty.

May my heart and eyes and ears
always be open,
my hands ready." 
                                                        --Lee Baker DeVore