Learning New Printmaking Techniques

First two student prints from new Berkeley KALA class on monoprinting with Charbonnel oil inks and plastic plates.  So much fun!  Printing originals, ghosts and offsets.  My one ghost was too ghostly (ie pale) so I'm going to paint or pastel over.  My one offset was so light, the top print is actually printed on the offset of the bottom print.

Photographing the reflection of the clouds in the sky in Sam's Eye

The reflection is as is - not altered! 

Best Ten 1x1 Cropped Nature Photos of 2019

From the Berkeley Botanical Gardens to the Oregon Coast Beach; from around the Neighborhood in Marin County, California, to the Pt. Reyes National Seashore, with a bonus of a few weeks in Paros, Greece.  We live in a beautiful world!  I hope we can stop wrecking it.

Strange Journey II and Back to Nature Collages

Top to Bottom:

1.  2nd in a series of Strange Journey Mixed Media Collage:  This one "Making Choices"  16"w x 12"h x 1" cradled board with illustrator Cadillac, die cut paper, fabric 3D photoshop bird and hand painted and die cut Cherry Tree.

2.  Back to Nature I:  Drawing/Photograph digital collage flowers with die cut insects on paper on board 10" x 8".

3.  Back to Nature II:  Digital collage of 3 Autrey Sisters with die cut flowers and bugs on paper on board 10" x 8"

Strange Journey: Trip to Chicago

Working on a new series of Strange Journey mixed media collages.  Life is a strange journey, and now with the benefit of age, I've seen, experienced and enjoyed most of it.

In this collage, I'm remembering a trip taken to Chicago, Illinois and Rochester, Indiana with my then 93 year old father E.A. Autrey.  Two of his many self portraits are in the car.  Another metaphor for the ups and downs of life, for me, is the mobile and/or balance, made famous by Alexander Calder and, to come extent, Paul Klee.  In my mobile, one can find the cows jumping over a blue moon, a star ball, some random insects, flowers and stars.  There are also some hearts and a photo of me by E.A. Autrey, which I later doctored up.  I'm experimenting with paper die cuts, combined with a variety of other papers which is a lot of fun.    Who knows where this journey will take me next!

Free Bird Evolution

In 2005 I painted the bottom picture of a bird.  The painting is 100% digital.   I liked it.  So, the next year, in 2006, I painted the same subject as an oil painting.  Now that I'm exploring paper collage, I decided to revisit my old favorite subject, and created the top picture in yet another medium.

Lucy's MOCA Class for families with kids starting this November

I've been spending a lot of time trying to come up with a fun project to do with families with kids that will result in a finished art piece in about 30 minutes.  This is for my paper collage art theory class at MOCA (link here: https://www.marinmoca.org/) this coming November.  I'm using nice washi paper and some recycled paper from an old telephone book.

For now, after some trial and error (see prior post,) I've decided on a paper collage portrait in the style of Yayoi Kusama.  This Pinterest link: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/230809549637151790/?lp=true includes Yayoi Kusama's 2016 self portrait  in yellow and purple.  It's simple, it uses complementary colors, and it's contemporary.   The image above is my self portrait done in somewhat of a Kusama style.

There are several great projects on-line for kids to create collage portraits in the style of Picasso, or Paul Klee or Matisse.  I thought it would be fun to do something in the style of a living, contemporary artist instead.  I have thrown in a few words of things I love to fill out the negative space.  Drawing the words out, inking them and painting them in, however, made the project take longer than desired, so the negative space surrounding the main object may have to stay empty!