Jane Booth

I Ching Series: Tossing Coins 1  64 x 54

Part Color Field, part Abstract Expressionist, part Lyrical Abstraction--all wholly uplifting.  Jane Booth's large scale, delightfully happy canvases make me want to dance with wild abandon.  By pouring and pushing (often with her hands) paint directly onto raw, unprepared canvas, Booth achieves a blurred, out of focus effect.  The paint permeates the canvas, absorbs into it, bonds with it, giving the effect of a watercolor--although they are painted with acrylics. The effect of this pure color stain technique is often Helen Frankenthaler-esque:

Sand Hills  66 x 66

Evolve Series: Osmosis 32 x 42

Vessel  78 x 56   Looks like a "feminine Rothko"

Says Booth, "Drawing from vast skies and land that surround my hilltop (Kansas City, MO) rural studio, I'm interested in the space in which everything moves, and how the senses are touched.  I see painting as a snapshot from  the open aperture through which one peers" 

Mount Fuji  62 x 48

River 144 x 60  When this hung in Jane's home, she said they "drank in the blues"

Evolve Series: DNA Showing  54 x 42

Facet Series: Scattered  68 x 68

Often the enormity of Booth's inspiration demands and dictates her size of canvas-such as the large-scale "Channel", which is 142 x 65

Channel

The director of Kansas City Artists Coalition said "These paintings are so luscious you could eat them with a spoon."  I must agree. I'll have a triple scoop, please!

Jane

Click here to see Jane discuss her creative process in a beautifully produced short video

To see more of Jane's work, visit her website

Pureed Vegetable Soup (also known as Clean Out the Refrigerator Soup)

I've been thinking about my Mom a lot lately, and one thing that always reminds me of her is her luscious, yet healthy pureed vegetable soup.  The thing that's so wonderful about this soup is that you can basically clean out the left-over contents of your fridge, and it will always taste delicious.  

Start with a drizzle of olive oil or butter (or both), and sauté chopped onions, garlic, or leeks, as I've done here.  

Saute till the leeks or onions are starting to brown.  The more caramelized they are, the richer depth of flavor they'll add to the soup.

Here's the fun part.  Gather whatever veggies you have in the fridge--left over cooked veggies, the old carrots you forgot about at the bottom of the bin that are slightly flabby, the half tomato that's been in there for a week but you forgot to use, literally anything that doesn't have mold on it!  I've used some random radishes, asparagus spears, a sweet potato, forgotten about carrots, some cooked haricot verts (that's green beans to you), I even threw in some leftover pesto I had made the other week.

The key is to chop everything up into similar sized pieces, so it will all cook at the same rate.

I've dumped the contents of my veggie bins in here, but you can also use just one vegetable--like cauliflower, if you want to.  It will come out just as yummy.

Now pour in a liquid to cover the veggies--I've used beef stock, because I happened to have it in the cupboard.  But you can use chicken stock, or just plain water.

Put the lid on, and simmer for about 30 minutes or till the veggies are tender. This is where I usually pour myself a glass of wine and turn Food Network on to see if Chopped is on!

Once  the veggies are fork tender, let the mixture cool down a bit, then transfer to a blender.  You can use an immersion blender if you want to.  I'm using a Vitamix because I'm a sucker for demonstrations, and the Vitamix guy at Wegmans managed to convince me I couldn't live without a $400 blender. Oy.

Add as much or as little of the liquid to achieve the consistency that appeals to you.  I like my soup a bit thicker.  Transfer the whole batch back to the dutch oven, and season, season, season.  Very important!  Obviously add salt and pepper. I've used my favorite all-purpose seasoning, my friend  Chef Donna's "Adoro" from the Spice and Tea Exchange.  Curry would be wonderful with cauliflower---maybe a few dashes of Siracha if you want to add some heat.  Anything goes!

Add a little milk, or heavy cream if you want a richer soup.  I usually just add a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream to my individual serving.

There is no right or wrong with this recipe.  It all works, whatever ingredients and spices you pick! 

And the best part is that the entire batch is only 10 calories! (or something like that!)

If you want to drop a few pounds fast, eat this for lunch for 2 weeks.  Seriously!

As Mimi would say...Bon Appetit!  

Miss you Mom!  XOXO

Hannah Holliday Stewart: A Pure Artist

What is "Pure Art"?


Many think of it as art created solely for the purpose of expression---the inspiration coming from within, without any other influence or purpose behind the creation that would dilute or contaminate it's purpose.  It is art totally devoid of commercialism.

 Hannah Holliday Stewart (1924-2010), a pioneer in the world of female sculptors, could be considered a "pure artist".

In this age of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other online venues, it's common to see artists promoting and marketing their creations.  While few would begrudge them this, and in fact most applaud their efforts, as it exposes many to art who otherwise might not ever see it (not to mention allowing them to make a living), there is something so rare and special about an artist who creates solely for the process of creating.  

Despite achieving a high level of recognition and having her work exhibited in dozens of venues including the San Francisco Museum of Art, The Smithsonian, and the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Ms. Stewart mysteriously walked away from the public eye---leaving the Houston art scene and retreating to her studio in Albuquerque, where she continued to create works of art in total isolation.  She rejected gallery representation, instead devoting the next 20 years of her life to creating art in solitude.        

Icarus

Her work, mostly made of bronze, aluminum and stone, is rooted in mythology, primitivism, geometry, symbolism, classicism, feminism and futurism. It feels ancient and contemporary simultaneously.

Her sculptures make me feel empowered and emboldened!

Ms. Stewart with Einstein's Song, circa 1980's

In her studio

Aquarian Age

Ockum's Razor

Note the markings on "Phoenix", reminiscent of petroglyphs from Puye, New Mexico

Atropos Key public installation, Houston, TX

Ms. Stewart wrote in her journal:  "When I was eight years old, I asked my mother what the wind really looked like.  I remember spending hours...days...sitting with my hands open wide or running with my lightening bug jar, hoping to catch the wind.  I wanted to SEE the wind, that magical force that could bend the huge oak tree in a summer storm, gently caress me on a hot summer day or sing to me as it played through a tree or around the house"

"This early interest in natural forces has sustained me throughout my life as a sculptor.  My goal is to render visible the hidden realities of pent-up contained energy.  The direct fields of reference are Sacred Geometry, Astronomy, Myth and Physics...Each sculpture is an energy form, the movement arrested in space, a form sustaining an energy.  My work is a response to these patterns and delineations and communicates with viewers through the universality of symbolism and form".

Adam's Rib maquette

Atropos Key maquette

War Monger

Queen Golden Sheen

Genius Loci

Adam's Rib

Sitting beneath Rubicon

The unexpected treasure trove of work found in her studio upon her death in 2010 is being represented by  Matthews Gallery in Santa Fe, NM

The complete catalogue of her work can be found here

Click here for a brief video about Hannah Holliday Stewart

(all photographs and video courtesy Matthews Gallery)

The Incandescent Art of George Chaplin

In color field art, the integration of shapes through overlapping or interpenetrations blur spacial distinctions so there is almost no sense of the image versus the background.  George Chaplin's paintings, abstract and based in color studies, bring a visionary freshness to color theory.  More amorphous than geometric, Chaplin's areas of color create tension by overlapping and interacting amongst themselves.  His shapes seem to both emerge and submerge into the surrounding colors.

Now For Red

Expansive Red

Chaplin studied color theory with world renown Modern artist Josef Albers (a student at the Bauhaus in Germany) at Yale University of the Arts, earning both BFA and MFA degrees.  He is Chair Emeritus of the Fine Arts Dept. at Trinity College in Hartford, CT.  

Often referred to as "nature's transcendent painter," Chaplin draws inspiration from nature, as well as music.  The ocean is a particular source of his creativity.  Chaplin states, "It's a mesmerizing experience.  You look at the ocean, it's constantly moving.  It's always the same but it's constantly changing."

The same can be said of his paintings---there is movement as the colors blend into one another, creating the illusion that they are vibrating off of the canvas.

Bluuueeee

And Then

Aoi To

 Chaplin is expert in selecting color combinations that never overpower each other---they simultaneously create a sense of calmness and excitement in his compositions.  Art critic Shirley Gonzales wrote "Although he runs through the spectrum of what we usually think of as warm and cool colors, none of Chaplin's colors are really cool....The color fills the room, vibrates, and seems to fluctuate as if moved by currents of air".

Quiet Chord

Study for Green

Oh Yes

Says Chaplin:  "I see color as light and atmosphere, and celebrate it for its emotional impact and beauty.  The changeable nature of color, both intrinsically and from external conditions, fascinates me and I am particularly involved in how it can appear to alternately expand and contract."

For more of Chaplin's luminescent, incandescent work, watch this short film by Dore Hammond:

http://vimeo.com/33357348