Why Saxapahaw?

A month ago I moved to Saxapahaw, an unicorporated community 15 miles west of Chapel Hill/Carrboro in neighboring Alamance County. The town is named after the Sissipihaw Indians who used to live in this area. It was something of an impetuous decision adding 15-20 miles to an already long commute to Raleigh for the real job. My work day now starts with me leaving my loft at 6:40, driving 17 miles to the park and ride, catching the bus to Raleigh, another 30 something miles, arriving at 8. If I catch the 5:40 bus back I make it to Sax at 7, for a 12 hour day.

Why, you the average, sane person might ask, would I do that? Well my third floor loft is in an old converted cottom mill with beautiful redone maple floors, a 15 foot ceiling and 2 big windows looking out over the Haw River (photo above). I watch the sun rise and set over the river, I walk along it listening to the river running over the rocks and see Venus rising bright in the west.

A big heron lives here and today, home because of the weather, I saw wood ducks and mallards (I think) and several other species of birds. At dusk I saw what I assume is a beaver swimming upstream. Maybe a river otter.

30 years ago the Haw ran red, yellow, blue or green depending on what dyes the textiles mills were using that day. Now, 10s of thousands of North Carolinians have lost their jobs at those mills but 100s of thousands of plants and animals have benefited. The river is now a haven for canoeists and kayakers and flows (reasonably) clean.

Soon I'll have a kayak and I'll be able to put in right by the mill. There is great camping downstream on islands and bank areas. So I accept the commute and the lack of civilization. And I paint.

Getting in the paint mode

I've read that many artists start each painting session with some exercises to get themselves into a "painter's mode". I've taken to grabbing a book of Man Ray celebrity photos and just doing a quick drawing. It makes me practice more realistic work and calms me. I still end up working on mostly abstract and/or non-representational stuff but the structure of the portrait seems to be a good starter. I take 5, 10, maybe 15 minutes.

This one is of a young Ernest Hemingway. That left ear is a problem. ;-)

Conte pencils

When I'm Stuck I Steal

...or borrow or copy, whatever you want to call it. I look through my art stuff and find an artist whose work intrigues me and I'll try something similar. Most of them are dead anyway.

Alexander Calder is known for his mobiles but he went into a gouache stage (gouache is a type of opaque watercolor) and I really like the results. So I did a nice, bright, happy piece ala Calder. It's pretty big, 22" by 30" or so.

"Little Blue Leaf"

Mixed media, oil pastel crayons, gouache and acrylics

The second is a take off on Serge Poliakoff, a Russian painter of the 20th century. It's called "Some County in Iowa".

Mixed media, oil pastel crayons, gouache on matboard, 15" x 18"

I have had a helluva time...

...getting a decent photo of the 2 pieces here. The first is small, 6 x 6. The second is just so dark. But I promised I'd post something so here it is.

The little one with planet earth is called Revelation 11:18. Look it up. The hands are from a Robert Mapplethorpe photo. Irony.

Mixed media, collage and acrylics on canvas

The second is called, okay I don't have a name. I sort of like it and I'll try to get a better photo.

Mixed media, Tibetan rice paper, ink, acrylics on canvas, 16" x 12".

It's been too long...

...since I posted something here. I've been in a painter's funk. Nothing turns out right. I have failures and disasters laying everywhere. After 6 or 8 months of constant painting it seems the muse deserted me.

I finally decided to say screw it. Just paint. No preconceptions, no goals, no timelines. Just me the paper and the paint. So finally I have a couple of new things that show promise and one piece finished that I'll photograph and post tonight.

The walls of my new loft are full of my work. It is strange, for me at least, to be surrounded by things I created, paintings, photos and furniture too.

Just so that there is something visual in this post, the photo is of a small family burial plot in southern Virginia. The tombstone on the right, for a child who died after 16 days, says "Budded on earth to bloom in heaven."