Openings Connecting: Sas Colby's Studio in the Sky

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Sas Colby's Studio in the Sky

It's almost time to start packing for the return to TAOS, and to another week of workshops at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House with Sas Colby from the bay area who is a mixed media artist/bookmaker and the best teacher/facilitator that I know. Here are some of the pictures from last year. . .In the studio, artists going into all sorts of directions by the end of the week. The mountain air, Mabel's spirit, and Sas's incredible talents are drawing us into our own processes.
There will be 14 participants, 8 that are returning. The group dynamics, the cool nights in the old adobes, the fabulous 3 meals a day, and open studio 24 hours a day...are frosting on the cake that Sas creates with her vibrancy and the activities through which she leads us. I'm posting one of my paintings from last year of seed pods, the magic of materials yielding surprises to me. Beginning on my slow journey into art investigations at the age of 60 has provided me with just the way to occupy my mind and challenge my hesitancy during PART 3 of my life!!

I'll be up in those mountains an additional week to poke around with my camera, my newest best friend it seems.

I'm excited to be in my favorite place, see some of my favorite people, and find out what Sas evokes in me, and us, again.

4 comments:

Leslie Avon MillerJuly 2, 2009 at 10:37 AM
I loved my week at this workshop - almost 10 or so years ago now. Enjoy! I'll look forward to hearing all about your New Mexico trip.
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Caterina GiglioJuly 2, 2009 at 3:00 PM
you two are gonna have so much serious fun!!! cannot wait to hear all about your trip!!! ciao bella!
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Renee HowellJuly 4, 2009 at 7:28 AM
Here - here! Heading to Guiry's for the art supplies - wonder if it's open today....being the 4th and all.
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Fran MeneleyJuly 5, 2009 at 7:02 AM
Hi Neva - So looking forward to another summer at Mabel's! How lucky are we?? Loving your posts of Taos then and now and you then and now - so beautiful, integrated. Lovely to have young memories of Taos and friends. Love the picture of you and Dennis! See you in a couple of weeks!! xo fran
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FOUR DIRECTIONS/FOUR VISIONS: Two Graces: First showing for me, JUNE 3, 2011

With no directions home, I found Taos in the late 60s. It felt like home immediately. It still does. I know this sentiment is familiar to countless others.

The mountain stopped me in my tracks, and I stayed for several years. Since that time, I circle back annually.

To me, that circle is symbolic of this body of work at Two Graces. This is a time in my life when I've been fortunate enough to experiment with art making. Not surprisingly, I found myself drawn back to the images in the Ektachrome slides that I'd taken in the early 80s of Chaco Canyon, the San Francisco de Asis Church, dusty roads, and the ever changing skies of Northern New Mexico. The spirit of this adobed land lingers in my core and manifests itself within these works.

This past Michigan winter was spent creating enlarged negatives from my thirty year old slides, pulling part of my past into the present via today's tools of scanner and computer. Using traditional silver-gelatin darkroom processes, these resurrected and modified negatives acquired a new life. The majority of these prints are the result of this mediated reincarnation.

The smaller images took me into photographic processes from the mid-1800s. These handmade platinum/palladium prints are created coating vellum, for translucency, with these metal salts and exposing them to ultraviolet light. They are then bathed in the alchemy of the darkroom. The tonal qualities are unique in each print. Finally, 24k gold is layered to the backs of the prints, emanating the warmth, glow, and depth of these beloved places.