words + pictures from the studio of Joan Colbert
Formerly known as the Akron Art Prize, the High Arts Festival has more changes than just its name. This year the event features music and film along with visual art. Visit the High Arts Festival site for information on hours, venues and voting – and, of course, please stop by Summit Artspace and consider a vote for my entry, Herbal Roulette!
Tags: high arts festival
Scarlet Pimpernel
Anagallis arvensis
Tags: Anagallis arvensis, literary flowers, scarlet pimpernel
Sidewalk crescents during the 2017 solar eclipse: magical little moon-shapes among the tree shadows!
Tags: solar eclipse
Granted, the gardens do look a little beat in August, but they’re still holding their own despite the heat. It’s interesting to check out the view from the second floor – front garden above and a portion of the back yard below.
Tags: garden design, urban garden
A heartfelt moment in a year fraught with horrific news – the candlelight vigil for Charlottesville, downtown Akron, Ohio, August 2018
Breezy (but not raining) at Northside Street Gallery! Artwalk tonight, 5 – 9 p.m. I’ll be at my Summit Artspace studio – do stop by and say hi. Many thanks to Kevin Richards for the invitation and assistance.
At Summit Artspace the monthly artwalk is an indoor event, but in the Northside area artists have expanded into the urban outdoors. There are pop-up artists in the parking lot and, along the sidewalk, the Northside Street Gallery hosting a featured artist each month – my spot for August. The street installations should be somewhat impervious to the weather, so I needed to think beyond works on paper. For this project I wanted to combine several ideas and processes that I’ve been considering for months: carving a woodcut with the Dremel on the pear tree slice, printing on fabric using relief blocks along with the usual silk screen and, finally, giving the recently acquired serger an official test drive. The outcome is a series of pennants to be strung from trees and light poles. I’m happy with the results and am already considering similar projects and uses.
This serger originally belonged to Connie Bloom, a fiber artist and friend, who died last fall. I hope she’s not too judgmental on my skills.
Tags: printmaking, relief print, serger, silkscreen
Waterlilies ~ peaceful and calming
There seems to be no limit to uses for a large pear tree ‘cookie.’ This slice was salvaged from the base of a Bradford Pear that was removed a few years ago. Last year I used it as the matrix for a monotype a la Hundertwasser:
This year I carved a design into it with a Dremel and printed the woodcut on fabric for use in an upcoming project.
Herbal Roulette
relief print
“Amateurs fooling with plants in the parsley family are playing herbal roulette.” Steven Foster and James A. Duke, A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants
The sprawling Apiaceae family of plants inspires a recent addition to the As Potent as a Charm series of poisonous botanicals, Herbal Roulette. Although commonly known as the parsley or carrot family, relatives include poison hemlock and other miscreants, leading one botanist to refer to fooling with plants in this family as playing “herbal roulette.”
Apiaceae (or Umbelliferae), commonly known as the parsley family of plants, is the sixteenth largest family of flowering plants, containing 3700 species. Members include both culinary favorites and infamous poisons.
from top, clockwise beginning at Socrates’ goblet:
Hemlock Conium maculatum ☠
Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium
Parsley Petroselenum crispum
Water Hemlock Cicuta maculata ☠
Coriander, Cilantro Coriadrum sativum
Black Sanicle, Snakeroot Sanicula marilandica
Fool’s Parsley Aethursa cynapium ☠
Celery Apium graveolens
Carrot Daucus carota
Cow Parsnip Heracleum lanatum ☠
Queen Anne’s Lace Daucus carota
Angelica Angelica atropurpurea
detail views including the ‘corner crows’
Look for Herbal Roulette in Akron’s upcoming High Arts Festival.
