Fran Meneley

Mandala and Studio Love

The last of the boxes are unpacked and I'm officially in my new studio! People have been curios, so I'm posting a few more pics. It's a spacious, light-filled studio in a tree house. I've even carved out a little time to finish up these mandalas in my journal. I love the bright cheery radish mandala - ode to summer - and my zentangle mandala (thanks Mardie and Pam for the tutorial).

My old work table got a new companion - a kissing cousin - kept clean just inviting new projects. I swear I'm going to keep it cleaned off so when I need to space I have it. But nature, and it seems studios, abhor a vacuum, so we'll see. So far so good. It's also guest artist space. All my supplies are now tucked away in cabinets under the windows with pull out drawers and shelving - truly a dream.

The view from the guest artist/project work table - my sink tucked in under the window. I've got plans for a tool filled peg board in the space behind the door. The old flea market lawyer's book cabinet holds odds and ends and tea supplies.

My inspiration board is edited and up, ready for new pins...

...and my bead cabinet made the journey from the old studio and sits next to the Taos doors, now hanging from a barn door rail. Keep your dreams alive, some days they come true!

Speaking of Mixed Media

Well hello there. I've been away, I know. Getting into a new house and out of the old has been a much bigger task, in every possible way, than I had expected. The new studio is coming together in a beautiful way and I'm itching to get to work on some new things. All in good time.

If you are looking for a fun Saturday event, stop by Two Hands Paperie tomorrow at 10:30 to meet The Pulse of Mixed Media author Seth Apter and hear a panel discussion with myself and three other contributing artists in the book - Lisa Hoffman, Sarah Fishburn and Marie Danti. We'll be speaking about what inspires us and moves us to make art - a book signing will follow.

I've just started a wonderful new book, The Anthropology of Turquoise and felt inspired to share this little snippet:

"But colors are not possessions: they are the intimte revelations of an energy. "Colours are the deeds and sufferings of light," wrote German poet and dramatist Johann Wolfgang von Geothe. They are light wasves and mathematically precise lengths, and they are deep, resonant mysteries with boundless subjectivity.

Colros challenge language to encompass the. (It cannot; there are more sensations than words for them. Our eyes are far ahead of our tongues.) Colors bear the metaphors of entire cultures. They convey every sensation from lust to distress. They glow fluorescent on  the flanks of a fish out of the water, then flee at its death. They mark the land of a woman deity who controls the soft desert rain. Flowers use colors ruthlessly for sex.

 Moths steal them from their surroundings and disappear. An octopus commincates by color; an octopus blush is language. Humans imbibe colors as antidotes to emotional monotony. Our lives, when we pay attention to light, compel us to empathy with color." - from Ellen Meloy's excellent book, The Anthropology of Turquoise. Wow.

Hope to see you tomorrow at Two Hands Paperie!

New Studio View and an Aesthetic Intervention

Hello again! The move is mostly complete and I'm settling into my new studio above the garage. We are having spring about a month early this year and so already the trees are leafing out and I have this fabulous feeling of being in a tree house! I'm loving it and can't wait to get the move completed so I can get back to the pages of my journals and who knows what other great schemes and projects now that I have more space!

 

As spring makes it's return, I wanted to share this really sweet video about Steven Wheen's guerilla and miniature pothole gardener art project from the O Gallery (thank you Andrew). "The idea is simple but the effect on the everyday mundane traveler and pedestrian on the paved over city environment is dramatic. It is a place where nature will eventually win... underfoot in the cracks and holes of our streets and sidewalks." Love the beautiful serendipity of this!

Keep Calm and Carry On

 

This would be my motto this week as we pack up our house of 13 years and move to the new house we have spent 3 years planning, designing and building. Whew! Lots of memories, the house I raised my kids in, now 19 and 14. Keep Calm and Carry On...that's my motto this week. In light of this I thought I'd share this very fine little video about the origins of this much used and hilariously misused saying. Charming. I want Barter Books to be MY neighborhood bookstore!

I had a dream last night that I had a key but couldn't find my house and spent countless dream hours going from place to place, trying to use the key! Keep Calm and Carry On!!

The Pulse Of Mixed Media

Hey Y'all! Great new book just out by the wonderful Seth Apter of The Altered Page. Wonderful color pages of mixed media art and thoughtful, well laid out dialogue about questions relating to art, being an artist and making art. What began as an on-line survey is now a full fledged book! Bravo Seth! 100 artists have contributed (including yours truly) both their art and their insights into the process of creating a wide range of mixed media art. A great book to add to your library or give as a gift. Check it out on Amazon here. And if you just can't wait to have it delivered to your door - they have a Kindle version! Kudos again Seth, for bringing us all together and creating such an inspirational and beautiful book.

PLAY Inspired Journal Pages

Some pages from a new journal I just started inspired by my time at the PLAY journaling retreat. 

I picked up a Holga camera I had gotten for my birthday a couple of year's ago and Tracy helped me figure out how to load the 35 mm film - old school! - and off we went on a lomo walk. Tracy has an enthusiastic passion for all things lomographic and he is a patient and inpsiring teacher. 

Fort Worden was the perfect place to wander and shoot. The black and white just adds to the nostalgia. It's such a differnt experience to work with film - you get what you get and you don't find out for a while! It's a series of little surprises when you tear open the envelope and peer inside.  I'll be loading up some more film this weened as I walk the streets of NYC visiting my daughter. We'll see where it takes me. 

A page of remembrances to capture the weekend. I love making a grid and filling it in!

A wander down to my favorite beach for inspiration and solitude. Loved the sea tossed nests of tangled sea vines as well as the beautiful stones and churning water.

And a map to remember where I was and where I stayed. I have really enjoyed the addition of maps to my journals recently. It's such a great way to enhance our experience of place. Happy Journaling!

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

 

I know, I know, another movie review - but I just have to share the good ones I come across - they seem to be too few and too far in between.  I had a chance to see Jiro Dreams of Sushi yesterday at the Boulder International Film Festival. A wonderful, wonderful film about a dedicated artist. Amazing. It reminds me of this Todd Oldham quote about "bothering" that hangs on my studio pin board -

"Somebody bothering to bother. To think that a man would devote basically his life's work to just the facade of the entrance to one building with the most intricate inlay - it was so great that someone bothered to bother. Because very few people bother to bother - it takes a lot of time and effort." 

I think it's a good life motto, no matter how we embody it - and Jiro has done it exquisitely.

I'm going to see Salmon Fishing in the Yemen tonight. Add them to your Netflix queue or watch from them on a screen near you - Jiro opens nationwide March 12th.

Dance, Dance Or We Are Lost - Pina

 

If this movie comes to a theater near you...RUN to see it. Mesmerizing, beautiful, haunting, disturbing (in a good way) - it's a full on right-brain experience you will not want to miss - just gorgeous. Click here to go to the official film website. Be sure to add it to your Netflix queue too - I'm sure it will be out soon. This is a don't miss film.

p.s. If my embedded video has an annoying ad, or doesn't seem to be playing right, go here to see a better trailer. 

p.s. This is playing now at the Century Theaters in Boulder...several people have asked and I thought I'd share. I think it's having a fairly wide release, so look around.

PLAY Spaces

Some more inspiration from the PLAY retreat. This page from my friend Leslie's journal just blew me away with it's insight and wisdom. She had taken a class at the Artfest Annex in Seattle with Jesse Reno and this quote above came flying out of his mouth. And seriously. When you think about it, how true is that? Kind of puts it all in perspective for me. 

There was so much creative goodness in our big studio in the Commons. One morning, early, I just walked around and looked at people's work spaces. So, so inspiring just to see the temporary creative encampments people had set up...

...really, really amazing stuff. And that wasn't even the work they produced! But work we did and here are a few snapshots of my cohort's talented journal pages.

LOVE this finished mandala by my friend Mardie. It just sings with energy and color and beautiful directionality. Hope you enjoyed the tour of the room. More of my PLAY journal pages in the next post. 

The Sketchbook Project 2012

Just back from the PLAY journaling retreat in Port Townsend. It's such a wonderful get away in the depths of January. And so great to reconnect with all the creative souls that make the sojourn. I mostly worked to get my Sketchbook Project journal finished. Which I did and mailed off yesterday, within a hair's breath of the deadline. Above is my workspace in the great hall of insane creativity. The theme for my sketchbook this year was, "In Ten Minutes". It was a challenge to keep it to ten. I work s.l.o.w.l.y. and not all pages kept to the ten, but most did. More on the PLAY retreat in upcoming posts. In the meantime grab a cuppa and have a little virtual tour.