girls on the island, originally uploaded by bbmarie.

This picture was from a fun day we took our oldest two daughters and a couple friends out to an island in the river that you have to risk your life climbing down from an old train tressel to get on to. The old camera was pulled out of a dumpster in our neighborhood and has since been sold off for much needed cash. Our girls love fashion magazines and enjoy creating good out fits. I feel blessed to be constantly surrounded by so much beauty. Here I share a little of it with you. This island is currently deep under the icy river swollen from the spring thaw.

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unlikely friends, originally uploaded by bbmarie.

I am doing a series of woodcut class over four consecutive Thursdays beginning April 16th and ending May 6th. There is a $65 deposit which I will use to buy your materials. A class is $40. Each class will build on the other but you may take one class or all four or any combination.
When you finnish you will leave with your own tools, ink and know how that will enable you to continue making prints in your own home. Why not take the time to open up your life to deeper creativity and insight?

The classes will be taught in my studio at 106 Fuller SE Grand Rapids MI. For questions call 616-356-5586 or 616-666-4503

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open, originally uploaded by bbmarie.

It is my birthday tomorrow. I will be 49 years old. I have discovered that I like to wear ties and sport coats. I like rustic spaces and unfinished projects.

My favorite Picasso painting is his portrait of his first wife Olga which was left unfinished. Her face, figure and arm chair are completely rendered but the rest of the painting was never done. There is raw canvas where he wiped off his brush as an afterthought. My life is this unfinished canvas, a work in progress. Who knows what is around that next corner.

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artist and model, originally uploaded by bbmarie.

I have been using my children as models for years now. Beyond the obvious reason that they are readily available, is the idea of working together with your children on real life stuff and in the process your lives stay connected in a deep and organic way. The way I grew up was punctuated by my father going to something called the office every work day and mom going off to teach while the kids went off to school. When the family was all home for the evening the kids were in the den watching television while dad helped mom grade papers. It all felt pretty disconnected and thin.

I have really enjoyed having our children interwoven into our life together which includes our family business of art making. It is a constant challenge to keep the train on the rails but it is a worthy challenge because there seem to be few examples today of what a family really knit tightly together looks like. So we continue to struggle to find a way that works. What works one year may not work the next so it is necessary to continually reevaluate our methods.

Yesterday we had an impromptu art show in our front yard and carriage house studio. It was great fun with the whole family, the neighbors and the people driving by who stopped out of curiosity.
Rose sold $40 of her textile art and we sold $40 of cards. We met new people and reconnected with some friends.

It would be great to hear of other families ideas on keeping things sewn together in ways that feel natural and growing.

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RBH.BraidedVision.72dpi, originally uploaded by bbmarie.

This is a new painting finished last month. It is called, “Braided Vision”. It is in a series of paintings that deal with my pondering over the verse from the Bible, “We do not look to the things that are seen but the things that are unseen for the things that are seen are passing away but the things that are unseen are eternal”. With this verse the question becomes, how do we look at things we cannot see, what are these things and where are they?

When Moses came down to the Red sea with the army storming down behind him with the lives of all his people in great jeopardy, all he had in that moment was his stick and a promise. The promise of course was from God, that he would be remain with Moses and always help him take care of his people in every situation. The promise was not something Moses could see in that moment. The immovable sea he could see. We know how that story goes on to turn out but Moses didn’t before he raised his stick. If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you will know that Brenda and I live in this wonderful if not scary reality all the time. It is a walk of faith to make art, interact with our children and neighbors, cook meals, garden and just go on day to day living our life and the whole time trusting God that there will be enough money to pay the next bill due and trust that there will be enough to buy the food for the next series of meals. God has always been faithful in his provisions even if his timing is often a bit scary but then that last minute rescue seems to be a running theme in many of the Bibles best stories.

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RBH.GirdledGirl.72dpi, originally uploaded by bbmarie.

I continue to feel a great desire to be connected to the natural world. We have been gardening and caring for animals by keeping egg laying chickens and breeding rabbits in the back yard. Wednesday Shepherd shot a squirrel with his 22 pump gun and we butchered it together. We ate squirrel vegetable soup for lunch today. Winter has had us in a vice grip for 3 hard months. I gave up trying to keep my carriage house studio warm with the wood stove so I moved into the basement ’till spring. We came back from our year in Brooklyn with a great hunger to connect with the soil and rediscover relationships with animals beyond having them as pets. We are on a journey that feels like it has just begun.

I bought a 1949 series catalog a few months ago and have been enjoying it as a touch stone with the past. The women’s underwear section is particularly interesting for how different it is from what might find in a Victory’s Secret catalog. The girdles look like they may have been designed by the same men who where designing suspension bridges and Pontiac bumpers. Women found liberation in the 70s or did they? And what is the connection between women’s foundational undergarments and trying to connect with nature? I am not sure but I hope to begin to find bridges of understanding as I make these paintings.

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