Besides all the usual activity going on - I just got confirmation and dates for the big Holiday Craft Fair here in Provincetown. Which means lots of ordering and administration to do to prepare. Later today I plan to buy a new, much needed granny cart, I've already ordered more mugs, greeting cards and giclees. I also spent the morning working on my online store and it's finally open - check it out. https://maureenmccarron.com/shop

Okay, back to work - Onward!

 This is Claudia, finally. I originally planned to do a cardinal for a holiday card, but decided to make it a yellow female instead. In theory, I could reverse the image and paint it red to make the card with and I still might, but now I'm painting a scarlet tanager. That's a red bird, it could work. Also, I'm now listed in the Paris Collage Collective Registry as well as having a profile on the Creative Ground website, along with updating my own website and Saatchi account. That's a lot of admin work this week on top of cleaning house, my job, doing an expense report for my accountant, applying for a spot in a craft fair in town, and oh yeah, making art. Got a little crazy today thinking I needed to order more frames, giclees and greeting cards without knowing if I'll get a booth at the craft fair yet. So, I didn't order any of it. What I did get though was a couple of Arches Watercolor blocks in 12x12", my preferred size at the moment - one in Cold Press for painting and one in Hot Press for drawing. I'm supposed to be making art, right?

Since I enjoyed posting about one of my CoVid collages last week, here's another. It's titled Swallows and has 5 elements in it - the artist, the window frame and desk, the landscape, the two swallows, and Whistler's Fireworks, which I xeroxed in black and white, cut up and then rearranged to create the background foundation to the rest of the piece.

I've been thinking about the lockdown because I just got vaccinated again and as usual, it knocked me flat. This time it was the Moderna version and as bad as I felt, it was not nearly as bad a reaction as what I've had in the past to Pfizer's. Was this the 6th or 7th? I can't remember, but that's a lot of shots to have for one thing in only a couple of years.

Known primarily for the bird portraits, I also do analog collage that incorporates birds into the imagery. Both approaches can be provocative and unworldly but each exists between mystery and fantasy in their innate if elusive narrative. This piece, titled Aria, is one of my favorites. And like most of the bird portraits, it has a gilded background.

Ah, winter's on the way - I feel an episode of collage making coming.

What a relief, I can wear cashmere again! Not that I hate summer, but this one and the one before were almost unbearable. It did fly by however because I've been so busy with the new website and all the administrative tasks involved. And the Garage Gallery, where the birds have been all season, closes next week so they'll be coming home. Next up, I'm putting together my online Shop - stay tuned!

Speaking of the birds, this is Scout, a brand new Mixed Media on Paper piece that went through quite a few changes that you can view in my Process page on the website. Now I'm working on a female cardinal which might be finished in time to post here next week. I'm calling her Claudia - get it, or is the reference too obscure?

 

 Yesterday, a friend from out of town came to see the birds I have in the Garage Gallery. We were greeted by this guest who had placed itself perfectly. Everyone is a critic, but my friend, who is a well-known writer, said the work had "an eerie beauty, both unworldly and of this world at once." He is not the first person to say they are unworldly - perhaps I should add that word to my artist statement.

This is Professor. He is available, sans spider, at the gallery until the end of the month.

 It's been almost a month since my first email blast, and this beauty was the first piece to sell in response to it. Yesterday, I went to the post office to send out one of the CoVid 19 collages that sold because of the blast as well, so it seems to be working. Oddly enough, the hawk is Freya and the collage is called Frida, and I can't help noting the coincidental similarity of their names.

In other news, I entered an exhibition opportunity in London and have had a rather rude awakening about what would be involved in getting the piece there if it got accepted. I'll spare you the details and just say it would be cheaper and easier and frankly more fun if I pop it in my suitcase and fly it over, stay in London for the opening, go visit my friend in Newcastle while the show is on and if it doesn't sell, pick it up, pop it back in the suitcase and fly it home. Can you say VATs and complicated courier services?