Blooms

 Summer, glorious in all its steamy heat and languid nights, is full upon us.  Greens in deepest shade are darkly purple, midnight blue, cooling our sun-shot eyes and bringing a moment's respite of breeze through the leafy canopies.  Salmon pinks, coral reds, butter yellows, cadmium orange with lemon and glaze of alizarin in riots of poppies, hibiscus, roses, honeysuckle, daisies, and lilies in a myriad of variety fill us with love for  this season of endless visual delights.  We breath in the perfume of summer wishing we could store it to warm ourselves come those cold November nights.  I am compelled by blooming Nature.

Dramatic Glass Work by Syed Ahmad

As we work our way across the country to Syed's next show in nashville, I watch him sketching ideas for new series based on weather and another on trees.  The drawings are very much in the vein of graphic design.  The color is in his head until he gathers multiple sheets to begin the cutting and layering process.  I try to cut curves and get shards.  He cuts curves and gets undulating forms, moving liquid, rippling light!  You can see him at www.SyedArtGlass.com.

"Weather" One section, approximately 20" x 11" - May be used singly or in series for larger installation.

"Schooling" 15" x 15" x 4" each piece Ten pieces in the series.  May be hung in horizontal line or randomly spaced as a larger installation. 

"Flame" 10" x 24", relieved from wall 3"

Last 2 Days at Celebration of Fine Art - Spirit of the Warrior: A Reliquary on Display

Check out the slideshow (in the column to the left) to see the entire process.  We'll have this beautiful piece here at the Celebration of Fine Art today and tomorrow.  Find us at the corner of exit 35 off the 101, on Hayden Rd, in the Big White Tents. Let us know you saw this on my blog! Thanks!

Spirit of the Warrior: A Reliquary
2012 Collaboration from Joe Woodford & Whitney Peckman 

View of top of Spirit of the Warrior: A Reliquary

Sculptures Completed At Celebration of Fine Art

Completed at the show and on the floor now!  Only two weeks left in this year's show, so come and see this work first hand.  We'd love to chat with you. Don't forget that the show has moved to the corner of Hayden and the 101 loop, one mile east of the old location on Scottsdale Rd.  Easiest way to get there is from the 101 - exit 35.  Both pieces on mounted on revolving stands and so are meant to be viewed from all angles and sides.

Behind the Garden Shed
36" w x 32" h

Three Varieties
approx 10" w at  center point,
22" spread at top,  30" h

www.celebrateart.com

www.whitneypeckman.com

Celebrating Passion for Art - Whitney Peckman

Gourd Translations

The Celebration of Fine Art gets so many visitors from all over the world that I often find myself at a real loss when describing the material from which I do my sculptural vessels.  So, here is "gourd" in a wealth of languages!  And some pictures of fine art gourd sculptures I now have at the Celebration.

Full Bodied

Red Red Poppies

In A Poppy Garden

Translations of 'gourd' Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary

Sense 1: a type of large fruit, or the plant on which it grows.  gourd in Afrikaans: komkommer, karkoer  gourd in Arabic: يَقْطين، قَرع  gourd in Bulgarian: кратуна  gourd in Brazilian: cabaça  gourd in Chinese: 葫芦  gourd in Croatian: sušena tikva  gourd in Czech: tykev  gourd in Danish: græskar  gourd in Dutch: pompoen  gourd in Estonian: pudelkõrvits  gourd in Finnish: kurkkukasvi  gourd in Farsi: هر گیاهی از تیره کدو  gourd in French: gourde  gourd in German: der   Flaschenkürbis  gourd in Greek: (νερο)κολοκύθα  gourd in Hebrew: דְלַעַת   gourd in Hindi: कद्दू के वर्ग की सब्जी  gourd in Hungarian: (dísz)tök  gourd in Icelandic: grasker  gourd in Indonesian: labu  gourd in Italian: (frutto delle cucurbitace  gourd in Japanese: ひょうたん  gourd in Korean: 박과(科) 열매의 총칭  gourd in Latvian: (pudeļveida) ķirbis  gourd in Lithuanian: moliūgas  gourd in Malay: labu  gourd in Norwegian: gresskar  gourd in Pashto: اونورو شيانو په حيث كار ځ  gourd in Persian: هر گیاهی از تیره کدو  gourd in Polish: dynia  gourd in Portuguese: cabaça  gourd in Romanian: tigvă  gourd in Russian: тыква бутылочная  gourd in Serbian: tikva  gourd in Slovak: tekvica  gourd in Slovenian: buča  gourd in Spanish: calabaza  gourd in Swedish: pumpa  gourd in Taiwanese: 葫蘆  gourd in Thai: น้ำเต้า  gourd in Turkish: su kabağı  gourd in Ukrainian: гарбуз  gourd in Urdu:ی پیٹھا، گھیا، لوک  gourd in Vietnamese: quả bầu; quả bí

Images of 'gourd' Inappropriate image?

Maya Angelou & Inspiration For A Painting

(This is a re-post from last year.  The painting is hanging at the Celebration of Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ until Mar 25, and is available for purchase.)

Inspiration is a full and varied thing, sometimes young and twitching, other times a vibrational note struck on a crystal glass.  It is a muse dancing in your dreams, a wood nymph catching your eye from behind the twilight lit forest.  It is shattered light from a glass clad urban high rise tossing itself across the candy apple red of your car hood.  It may be a grand philosophical book, read in fits and starts, embedding something unforgettable in your brain, or something inconsequential – a scrap of paper caught on the breeze, landing in your lap like a message from a parallel world.

Last fall I was reading Maya Angelou’s poem, I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings.  I had, at the time, been struggling with unresolved ideas for a series of large paintings about women and the patterns of their lives.  The original idea was not coming clear for me.   About to abandon the whole concept and taking a few days to get away from what I was feeling was a stuck spot, I closed the jars of paint, cleaned my tools and left the studio.  Landing on the sofa with a pile of books, I settled in for some quiet time.  Maya showed up. 

The measure of a good metaphor is how well it connects to the human condition.  The caged bird seems nearly limitless, as does the meaning of “singing” or voicing what is within.  The voice of inspiration nearly deafened me.  Books fell from the sofa in my rush to the studio.

Who knows why the Universe graces us with taps on the shoulder?  Not I.  But I do know, after 30 odd years of being an artist, that these gracious or raucous or accidental taps are better acknowledged and noted than ignored.

                                                                     **

Begin.  The surface lies before me – the caged bird sings of freedom -  I scoop texture paste onto the board and with the largest trowel I have, spread it in quick broad strokes, leaving trepidation behind – the free bird leaps on the back of the wind – trails and rivers, paths and raindrops show up under the tool, taking me somewhere, bringing someone to me – I feel a door opening – light? Quickly I mix a wash in creamy pale yellow – pour it on, catching it in the river/paths/raindrops – the free bird thinks of another breeze – and warm lemon curd yellow floats into my world.  Are you there?

Waiting.  Slow drying, but surprises appear.  I tape the poem to the wall, print big enough to make out as I work.  So many images surface in my mind’s eye, call to me, then drift only to be replaced, crowded out by others.  Returning to my work, I see a delicate head wrap, in tiny pattern, and then a sleeve, richly embroidered.  She’s here.  Waiting for me to give her voice.  Where is the window from which you watch?  A swallow brings you an offering of berries.  You gaze at me, Madonna of the Swallows.  I hear your voice.

Madonna of the Swallows

48" x 84"

                                                                     **

The universe sends Muse and Inspiration to whisper in your ear that there are fantastic things for you to do – soulful songs to write, luscious colors to mix into unpredictable combinations, elements and molecules to construct the never before seen.  There are birds to be let free and voices to hear calling.  

Husband/Wife Collaboration

After 23 years of marriage, Syed and I have finally collaborated on four artworks!  Amazing!  Not that we've actually been negotiating all these years...just that we finally got it together and figured out how to make two very divergent styles work.  And we did it without arguing...at least he did it without arguing... I, of course, had to argue a little.

So, this is how it went.  After a couple of years of trying to figure out how to actually mix our media (glass, metal, gourds, painting), we moved on.  Mixing all those things just seemed ridiculously forced and a little silly.  Next, we spoke about gathering mixed materials for the re-purpose style and mixing that with glass.  Appealing at a casual glance, but it just didn't come together.  Next we tried on the idea of me painting the glass.  Not.  How bout working bits of glass into paintings?  Really?  And we moved on.

This year, inspired by a young woman doing stencil work in Salisbury, we were able to see how my drawing and Syed's abstract glass and metal could come together.  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  We could easily see how to develop it after these first four were finished.  I won't talk about those developments, just to say that a door has opened and we can see the highway before us....it's going to be a great fun trip, and you will be seeing more of us in the future!  Till then, come in and see these pieces - jump off into an adventure with us - we've got some great ideas for larger pieces as installations.

     

Wildflower Series

Ranuncula Series

She Thinks In Color

 In my world of art I do a lot of things.  I paint, carve and sculpt, assemble collages from scraps of my paintings, work with mixed media, and time permitting, I like to build memory books for my family. So I am never really surprised when people come into my studio, look around and say, "Is this all you? You do so many things," with a somewhat quizzical look.

Does it all look like me, I ask?  They look again.  Well...yes. But, but there are paintings and the gourds and pots and....

And all that is true.  So what is the unifying principle?  What is it that drives my work?  By what am I compelled?

Color.  All surfaces, all materials, all combinations of media are there for just one purpose - to be brought to life in living, breathing, passionate, subtle, intense, complex color. I dream in color, and am aware of color as I breath, move, talk, eat, think.  Pulsating sunsets come on the heels of days full of colors as simple as creamy white milk on silver dusted blueberries, the many hues of ochre and grey walking across the parking lot, the shades of lemon and grapefruit yellows in the glass cylinder on the desk at the show.  Then I am mesmerized by the complexity of transparent hues that create the moving sea or air that I find in Adolfo's work.  And on it goes all day long, until I head for home while the sun turns the desert air into streams and rivers of striated cadmiums, laced in violets, tinges of lime and all there to burn into my memory for resurrection in my dreams.

So, the next time you look into an artist's studio and see a variety of medium or technique or color, ask yourself what is the thing that unifies the work?  Is it the palette, as with my work, or is it something else? Is it subject matter - landscape interpreted in many styles, perhaps, or animals in paintings and sculptures, or abstracts in many colors and materials held together by the shapes used, or is it line that is the common denominator?  So many possibilities.  Just like with color.

So much experimentation to do.  So little time.  Back to work....See you soon!

Collaboration of the Celebration Kind

Here's a little tale of a happy combination at the Celebration of Fine Art - I started working on a little gourd with a new technique of layering 10-15 glazes for a dimensional effect in a floral design with a little yellow bird included.  As I worked I was thinking of how to finish the raw gourd top...the design seemed so elegant that the raw edge clearly wasn't right.  I had found an interesting old Victorian brass back plate for a door knocker while I was in San Diego over Christmas.  Just the right size and fit!  But, what to do about the hole...now that seemed unfinished.  You know, these "simple little projects" sometimes get away from you!  So, I wandered down to see what my friends Donna Armstrong and Donna Bernstein thought.  We all mulled it over.  Came up with some great ideas, but the best was to ask Kevin Powers if he would blow a small stopper for it...and so, back to the other end of the tent, where Kevin was working away on his glass.  Gracious guy that he is, he said, sure, let's do it...and after the show closed last night, he blew the sweetest little stopper with a delicate yellow flower in the center, just the exact colors of the work I had done.  And here is the  glass blowing process and the finished piece!  Sweet! Sweet! Sweet!

Slideshow of Setting Up the CoFA 2012 show

Syed working on the light structure for our studios

Slideshow of setting up the 2012 CoFA show! Click on this link to see the process of setting up the Celebration of Fine Art studios for this 10 week long event and experience what the artists do to bring an amazing selection of work for you to peruse, wonder at, be dazzled by and to share with your friends.  It is a daunting task and takes almost 5 full days to complete - often on opening day we wouldn't want you to open any closets for fear of what might tumble out!  But by mid week we're all at work in our studios and ready to share what we do, how we do it, and what inspires us.  This is an exciting venue, really unique in the country, and at our new location at the intersection of the Loop 101 and Hayden Rd Exit, stunningly beautiful as the sun goes down casting those AZ  colors on the McDowell Mts.

This show is a big part of our lives, spending 3 full months with almost 100 other artists, and it is inspirational and energizing, so watch for regular posts about what Syed and I are doing, what our artist friends are working on, and occasional philosophical musings.

And now, it's back to work!

Gorgeous Day At the Gourd Farm

Belying the stress prior to beginning the 2012 Celebration of Fine Art, I took December 31, a beautiful sunny day in San Diego County, and went to the Welburn Gourd Farm in Fallbrook, CA for an end of the year sale.  Sun shown through the live oaks, gourds were abundant (but none of the zucca that I went for), and it was blissfully quiet with only the singing of the birds.  And now, back to work!  Set up begins this coming Monday!

Working Hard In the Studio

dThought it was time to unveil the yearly hysteria in the studio as I get ready for the 2012 Celebration of Fine Art opening in Scottsdale, AZ Jan 14 - time to confess to how messy it is to be an artist (at least that's my excuse!).  And just one more thing - if you enjoy this blog I would so appreciate it if you would forward it to your friends - word of mouth is the best for artists!

3 waiting for varnish

    

Beginning a sculpture

Early stages of standing Salmon Poppies

Primula in process

Waiting to Become