Rusty the Collie

Meet Rusty, the studio dog. (here he is, standing by more rusty stuff)

Kelsey Excelsior Letterpress & Type Cabinet

Typefaces and fonts are some of my favorite things. The texture of cotton rag paper and the feel of raised letterpress print are mesmerizing. Some of my new artwork is done on a letterpress case. The case is a sectioned drawer that holds lead type in a cabinet. One of these days, I'll actually set a block of type and print it! One of these days.

More is More

Less is more? HaHaHaHaHa.

More is more and sometimes not enough. I fill my artwork with textures, colors, patterns and use as many tools and mediums as possible. Quite often you'll see coffee stained canvas, thick acrylic gel combed in a pattern, layers and layers of color, paint applied and rubbed off, and found treasures glued to the surface of my art. I use acrylics, oil paint, latex house paint, gouache, encaustic, colored pencil, oil bar... I never met an art medium I didn't like.

I also like to keep my tools and brushes in unique vintage containers. The bright purple box is a repurposed silverware box—perfect for holding tubes of paint. (other boxes and more and even more stuff can be seen on the shelves. Also notice Easy Rider poster on the ceiling)

Uncle Albert

Albert Einstein is one of my inspirations. He's always been in a prominent place in my studio or work areas. 

"Imagination is more important than knowledge, for while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create."   Albert Einstein

When you come to a fork in the road—take it.

Piano lessons in 4th through 8th grade and I thought I'd never touch a keyboard again. But, I do. Especially during the Holidays and summertime for some reason. I love the classics and plunk away on my very old, out of tune upright. Mozart, Beethoven and assorted show tunes  don't sound too awful. 

Go past the piano, through the Green Door and you're in the garage Studio! 

A Working Table

Through the Green Door

The Studio space I use is mostly the entire house. Dining room table, guest room, downstairs kitchenette, garage, anyplace that's left uncluttered for an instant becomes fair game. But, in all fairness to my family, I am working on setting up the garage for my ART. We haven't parked a car in any garage here in the Pacific Northwest for the past 20+ years anyway. 

This is the door that leads to the garagestudiocreativeartspace.

1970s Vintage Paint

I bought these oil paints from the University of Montana bookstore in the early 1970s for an 'Intro to Painting' class. With no real instruction, we were told to paint what we feel.

 At the end of the quarter, the instructor told us to choose our own grade.  We all got A's. 

 I'm OK. You're OK.

The Beast in the Studio

The Beast

This is the new art table. 

It's 4 feet x 8 feet x 3 feet tall.  

On wheels.  

It's a display table from a department store.

Great storage and a perfect height to work on. 

ReStore is my new favorite store. 

www.re-store.org

That's where I found this beast.

The Happy Bungalow

Our sunset views are spectacular—this is looking out from the deck over Saratoga Passage with Whidbey Island in the distance.

Introductions

I am a painter, horseback rider and a fair to middling piano player. I have always been an artist—I sold my first blue-ribbon, award winning painting when I was about 13 years old at the Missoula County Fair in western Montana.