Thing-a-day
Thing – a – day is an art challenge where you add a different medium each day – my most recent challenge was a 15 day effort while on vacation, so I used media on hand: marker, roller-ball, crayon, watercolor, white out, glue, scissors, acrylic paint, colored pencil, compass with graphite, tracing wheel, sharpie, hole-punch, stapler and pushpin.
Collage Studies
My experiments with collage technique have been evolving over the last 30 years since studying design in college – my most recent projects have involved paper that I have designed specifically for the subject of the piece.
Basic Needs Series
The horrifying rise in the local homeless population here in Berkeley, and the fact that so many are mentally ill inspired my most recent mixed media project. The “Basic Needs” series highlights those basic needs and the ironic nature of the liberal milieu of the bay area. While our collective hearts are all in the right place, the tendency is to provide the bare minimum where possible, via tents and dropped off food, but not to sully one’s life or hands with the real work of creating a meaningful life for our homeless populations.
Animalia Series
This is a detail from a mixed media piece I did recently. The piece is a panoply of animal life in various forms and sizes. The juxtapositions of the different backgrounds, textures, colors, media and scales creates a gentle and pleasant tension, meant to evoke the feeling one gets when out in nature. There is a sense of safety and calm, but with a vague watchful apprehension that something unpredictable could happen. The relationship between calm and awareness creates an exhilaration that is both grounding and exciting.
Lenabethe Media & Design 