Number 64!

At Compass printing with Karen B.s Face to Face portrait.

#64!

Karen B. sat this week and sent me this shot of her portrait at Compass Printing. Karen is number 64 – two more today.

I will be taking a break next week to participate in a plein air event here. You may see me around and you will see plenty of easels about.

I will be back at Compass Printing the following week, to continue Face to Face. Call, write or email to book a sitting, or stop in at Compass while I am there.

The Mirror Image

Diane - Spring '14 Selfie

Yes this is me. One of my sitters had asked early on if I was doing a portrait of myself. The question jolted me like sticking my finger into an electric socket. I had not given it a thought. Then another sitter – a scientist – asked when I do it, would I turn it around? Another zap.

Here is the answer, with some musings. No I wouldn't turn it around. That would be two mirrors and asking for 14 years of bad luck if I proved less than graceful in my studio, which could be entirely possible. One mirror was enough.

The musing. When I see myself in the mirror what I see is a reverse of the real world. Sure it is what people see in a general way, but the reality is I do not see myself ever the way others do. I look and think of how I look from the moment I first peer in the mirror in the morning to the last time at night, brushing my teeth, as a mirror image.  That is a lot of time working on the reverse image in my head, don't you think? We all do that.

When I make a Face to Face portrait of a person, I am not seeing what their own perception of their own face is, what their mental image was from that morning.  I am working from what I see, not a mirror image.

Does that change how someone reacts to seeing their portrait after being worked on for two hours? I suspect that is a bit of it.

There are other factors. 

Making a portrait in a couple of hours with talk and other distractions is akin to live theatre. Kids want to wiggle, people want to talk, the body wants to be in motion. Some have other things on their mind and are not in the moment. It can be me too, not finding the right color, a bad start to a morning, "a piece of bad potato." Live theatre is no different, every performance is a little different,  timing on or not; a dropped line or all in perfect sequence.

After a couple of hours have gone by in the process of making a portrait, I feel like the person is looking at me from two places – the work and the person. About that time I feel I am real close to the raw but finished piece and I let the sitter look at it. Sit where I have been sitting and look at the image, I say.

This is the moment of truth for me. For the most part I have worked hard to catch the person in the painting, the essence, not every flaw or wrinkle (not enough time), but the person who has chosen to share a couple of hours with me to talk, listen and let me see them.  

I am learning, it doesn't always work. Sometimes that person just doesn't "see" themselves in the work. Hear the sound of the pin prick in the balloon?

I think some of that reaction, is the reality of how we see ourselves, mostly in reverse. Then maybe too I just haven't quite gotten who is there. That will happen.

I promise to always do my best to capture the essence of the person across from me. From there, I work on making best better.

How many do you know?

The Tyranny of a Full Moon in April.

Easter will arrive two Sundays from now.

I have returned from my sojourn in much warmer and sunnier climes. It is now mud season in the Adirondacks, and Easter as mentioned before, is two Sundays from now. What's with that and just what does in mean for my Face to Face project? I can't be certain but in Saranac Lake it will mean two things: one can land an airplane on Main Street for Easter vacation. The other is - maybe one cannot - if the Village has its way. (Think major road repair.)

What about Easter and the moon? - one says scratching the head perplexed. Easter has been pledged by the powers that be, to arrive only on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Consequently school is out and half the population of Saranac Lake is in Florida for the next two weeks. Next year Easter will fall on April 5. Pretty fickle if you ask me.

Bad timing for setting a time to meet Face to Face or maybe just yes, you do want come in and sit. Get away from the muddy driveway, the yard detritus that will need to be taken care of sooner or later, washing the windows to see, yep its mud season out there. Parking is easy because the population has migrated for a couple of weeks and the promised start to road work has been pushed back. So yeah it could be a good thing.

This is my convoluted thinking for April. 

Arnie - February 18

I have sittings starting Tuesday next week for Face to Face.
Call, email or stop in Tuesday, Thursday or Friday and pick a time. Sit for a couple of hours and you will be part of the project. You will get a full size reproduction of the portrait and bragging rights that you participated in Face to Face.

Hillary _ February 24

Spring Break!

Ha spring indeed. We have taken off for warmer climes. It was no mean feat either. The plan was fly out of Saranac Lake Wednesday morning, catch the plane to Mexico in Boston, travel, etc. Adirondack weather decided otherwise. No planes flew out of SL Wednesday OR Thursday. Motivated by the cold and reservations, we pondered options Wednesday and chose to drive in the worst messy snow imaginable to Boston to catch the plane to Mexico Thursday am. Passed several unfortunate drivers on the way. Then it turned to rain after Albany. Home free. Overnight with Son and his wife and took off - late I might add, for deicing, around 10:30 Thursday and we are now here. Ta da!
Sunshine. Mmm.
You can check out a painting I did here a couple of years ago on my website. Hotel el Meson. When travelling not everything is as facile to pop in images with iPad, so you will have to go look there.

Bumbling through a Cold

Having a cold that has made me sit still so I will catch up. There are 22 faces captured. One of them,  Karen asked, "What about you?" Of course I will have to do that. Just had not thought about it. Then realized probably at least a couple of them. If not once a month at least every other.

So much for internalizing. Cold medicine is a task master gone awry.

Here are a couple more faces.

Mary Jan. 28

Fred Feb. 25

Method to the Madness

While working through inventing the method for keeping the parts and pieces of my portrait project together, I was running into a supply issue. I have worked on a particular paper for a long time, Wallis sanded paper. I have bought rolls of it, mounted it on Perfect Mount so the paper is incredibly stable.  This paper, is made by one woman business entrepreneur Kitty Wallis. She does not own a factory but rents space when it time to produce the next batch.

About a year and a half ago I noticed suppliers were "OUT" of the paper. My favorite supplier had no pads left but did have a roll which I promptly ordered.

Then the Face to Face project found its legs. I knew I didn't have enough paper. Online Wallis was red-lined by every supplier. I started investigating,  calling Dakota Arts, my go to source for pastel. They did not know when the paper would be in but really thought it would be produced. Not good enough reassurance. I did not want to start on one paper then switch mid-project.

Larry - January 30

Panic in the back of my mind, I called Dakota again and placed a back order in December.

January slipped through winters icy fingers and suppliers dates for Wallis paper appearance moved to late March. Seriously contemplating this other paper but allowing the procrastination gene its due diligence, I held back on getting samples.

Kathy - February 12

Then, a phone call. Caller ID - Dakota Arts. "Hello Does this call mean what I hope it means?" Yes! Dakota had received a batch of Wallis.  They'd received the rolls but I am allowed to only order one. (The second one is, I hope, my lifetime balance supply.)

The first roll in the studio!

I am in business for the duration of the project. The roll has arrived. The second is on its way. For me, as an artist, having materials is being wealthy.

Onward.

Plunging Headlong into The Project

Now I am in it there are things that are popping up - like a woman with a stroller in an obstacle course.

Not in panic mode, the flow isn't hard, but it is full.

I have finally gotten my project for the year underway. Face to Face: Drawn to Saranac Lake. 125 - 200 faces in a year. One-foot square images of anyone who would sit for me in Saranac Lake. 

I am working in a small corner of Compass Printing across from the Town Hall.

I have been wanting to do this for a long time. Every time I wrote a request it had been turned down. Each time I tuned it up, made things clearer in my mind what I needed to do, what I wanted to do. The process of a grant is beneficial. The planning, the steps, the parts that you don't want to do but need to are all part of the planning process. Gathering up all the info the parts and pieces is like making a painting. One needs materials and a means to get them - Money. One needs some skills that become sharpened by use. Composition, design, color sense, balance.

Alternatively for a grant - numbers, in-kind services donors, location. Get it all together, dot the i's, cross the t's, balance the numbers. Tell the truth with passion and desire.

I got the grant. First notified in December then officially January 9. Not the money. That is another story.

Location, location, location. I thought I had nailed it, I was dreaming in technicolor about where I would be. It was gonna be terrific. I was starting January 15 then, arrghh, the floor fell out. Got a toe in the door for a different location but the longer I waited to hear the more I knew it wasn't gonna happen. It didn't.

The Chamber of Saranac Lake had a business networking event I decided partake to "Get the word out." Designed some cards with info to give out. When I picked them up at the printer - I knew where I could be. Had to ask, "How about here?" Compass Printing, John, said yes. Awesome! Went to the network event with my cards, with my location and started in "Getting the word out".

The event was just the beginning. Next - contacting those who expressed an interest, start the sign up process. It helps everyone if it is not too spontaneous, though the first portrait was all that. The second was close but the third was a plan. Next is press releases. One thing that really works is Facebook. There are a lot of great friends here and they too are getting the word out, connecting with the various circles that are Saranac Lake and environs.

A big Thank You all goes out to everyone. Now let the sign-ups begin.

First pics up shortly. 

One other thing. It seems the time is about two hours to sit and get your likeness.