Please Read My New Blog Posts on my Website

From now on, please  click here to read posts on my renovated site. My website address is the same, https://kathleen-obrien.com/and it is all integrated now on a WordPress platform. Thank you so much for your interest in my art. Please let me know what you think about the new look.

Kathleen O'Brien, Talisman for Tibet, ancient Tibetan turquoise, beads, mica, paint, grapevine, fabric, 8 x 8"

On my new blog I have announced a new direction I am taking with beads...I will be showing these new things for the first time November 1 & 2 at this years Annual Open Studio ARTTOUR.

Collaborating part 3 print and draw with us

Leslie Patterson-Marx's etching of the bird silhouette inspired this collaboration.

©O'Brien & Marx, 4 Elements All Around, etching, drawing, 10x12", $250. unframed

I wrote my script on the straight lines of the etching. With colored pencils I drew the egg and the symbols of the 4 elements on the border surrounding the etching, and the ribbon.

We really hope you come in to try your hand at monoprinting and drawing - it is very fulfilling, and we'll be there to assist. 

NOTE: If you cannot make it to the printing day, May 10 and only want to draw on the 17th and 24th, do bring paper! the better the paper, the better results.

This piece is also a collaboration with lots of drawing on Leslie's silkscreen.

Collaborating part 2

The thing I like about collaborating is that there is a place to start from, instead of facing the empty white sheet of paper.

©O'Brien & Marx, Round & Round, silkscreen, colored pencils, petals, 17x14", $500. unframed

In this one, I drew a bit on Lesley's bees, and surrounded them with drawn circles and honey comb. I tore out a section at the upper left then glued the whole piece over a drawing I had started. Embellished with Hydrangea and Forget-Me-Not flowers.

Collaborating part 1

Part of the inspiration for the exhibit, Birds of a Feather, which opens in two days, has been collaborating with guest artist, Leslie Patterson-Marx, print-maker. The last time I created etchings or lithographs was in 1967, at Kunstshule Rodel, Mannheim Germany. So when Leslie suggested that she could demonstrate monoprinting as part of our exhibit, that sparked the idea to collaborate by drawing on her prints. She sent a few prints to me and I began to work on them with my pencils.

©O'Brien & Marx, The Fey at Play, etching, graphite, silver leaf, petals, 17x14", $500. unframed

In this one, I left Leslie's etching mostly untouched, except for the series of soft straight graphite marks along the bottom. On the border of the etching I added powdered graphite. On the top half are tiny dots of silver leaf, on the bottom, I erased circles and gave them their own shadows. Next,

Guest Post, Leslie Patterson-Marx, monoprints

Hello! My name is Lesley Patterson-Marx and I am happy to be a guest blogger for Kathleen O’Brien, with whom I am showing work in our upcoming exhibition at MS Rezny Studio/Gallery. Don’t miss our opening reception on May 9 from 4-7 pm. On May 10, I will be at the gallery from 12:30-3 with my small printmaking press, ready to demonstrate for you a printmaking process called “monoprint”. You will have the chance to make your own monoprint that day, and bring it back to draw on with Kathleen on May 17 or 24. Please stop by and try this simple process which yields beautiful results!

A monoprint is a single impression of a painted image or texture made from a repeatable matrix. Rather than printing multiple identical copies of an image, each monoprint impression is unique. At MS Rezny Studio/Gallery, I will be demonstrating the process applying printing ink to a flat surface and transferring it to paper. 

©Leslie Patterson-Marx

Step 1: In this image, you see that the roller is applying ink to the surface of a plastic plant that I found on one of my daily walks. It is also possible to make a monoprint impression of a real plant! Bring one of your own in to try if you like. The only rule is that it should be fairly flat.

©Leslie Patterson-Marx

Step 2: Once the texture has been rolled with ink, place it inky side down onto printmaking paper. The paper is now on top of the press bed. Cover with protective paper to protect the press blankets. In this case, I’m using newsprint. Fold the blankets down, turn the wheel and roll it through!

©Leslie Patterson-Marx

Step 3: Lift up the press blankets and unfold the protective paper to reveal your image!

I hope that you will stop by MS Rezny Studio/Gallery on May 10 to make a monoprint! Feel free to bring any small plants, lace, or other textures that you would like to try printing. I will have textures available, as well as all other supplies. This event, as well as Kathleen’s drawing sessions, are free of charge, but donations will be accepted. See you soon!

New Year Plan

It's hard to believe that it is mid-spring and that I had a new year plan. That's not true, I do revisit my plan regularly, it's just that I am such a Present Moment Person, that some things I foresee manifesting take longer than a year because I forget how slow I am. As soon as I returned from Twinrocker paper mill, I began this drawing, so it is the first in the series that will premiere at Birds of a Feather exhibit, May 2 at Rezny Gallery.

©Kathleen O'Brien, New Year Plan,
drawing on Twinrocker Linen paper, 20x15"

My plan (i.e. describing the symbols in this drawing) : be with my grandson and family as much as possible, be open to guidance from above, add every color (in every sense of the meaning) to my life and being, continue to care for the bees, make my plant spirit medicines, and LISTEN to the messages from my dear guide, the hawk.

Prayer Sticks

Have you ever made a prayer stick? I learned how from the Hopi to, especially for the Winter Solstice, make what they call Paho. As the feathers are attached to the stick prayers are said. They are placed in the earth for safe keeping.

©Kathleen O'Brien, Flicker Prayer Stick,
drawing on Twinrocker Linen paper, 22x15"

I made this one last time I was in Colorado, before the floods of last year. West of the Mississippi River, flickers are coral underneath, instead of yellow in the East. I drew a few correspondences from Sun Bear's Earth astrology: as Flicker represents the month of Cancer, the flower is rose, the mineral is carnelian agate, and it is the Strong Sun Moon - Summer Solstice, yes, when I was there.

©Kathleen O'Brien, Hawk Prayer Stick,
drawing on Twinrocker Linen paper, 22x15"

Pictured here is a Prayer Stick of Hawk feathers I found walking my dogs on my land. they are attached to a paint brush that has dried paint.

The texture on this Twinrocker 100% Linen paper takes pencil marks so well. The graphite is so easily extended with a tortillion, and you can add and add more graphite, continuing to create great shading. Also with the colored pencil, I found I could add many layers without the paper becoming saturated. In some areas, like the top blue area I just wanted it to look like pencil strokes, not blended.

Spring, Eagle, East

Years ago I learned from my spiritual teacher, Grandfather Wallace Black Elk, about correspondences between the seasons, the direction and the animal who guards that season and direction. East is the direction we face in the Spring, with Eagle flying guard. There are other correspondences like the color yellow, the time of rebirth, and the time of youth. This drawing of an eagle feather was done in 1985, and it was the inspiration that called me back to drawing at the beginning of this year.

©Kathleen O'Brien, Helpers, drawing, 17x14"

There is something so soothing about rendering beloved objects as observed, and also laying out the design from imagination. This was done on smooth Bristol paper that allows for subtle shading. I think this might have been the first time I drew cascading ribbons, symbolic of descending energy, that appears in almost everything I draw now. That rainbow has stuck with me all this time, and long before. Do you recognize the artists who I like to imagine looking over my shoulder?

This will be in the exhibit Birds of a Feather, NFS - I framed this one for myself, but want to share it for the merry month of May with you at Rezny Gallery.

coming soon, Birds of a Feather

In preparation for our show, birds of a feather, Lesley sent me a few of her prints for me to draw on. It's been a fun challenge to draw off her inspiration. The texture provided by the ink has such a different and enjoyable quality for taking pencil marks. She is staying over from Nashville to demonstrate how to make a mono-print at the gallery the day after our reception (see below for details) and visitors can make a print. I wanted to have some samples to show people who return to the gallery to draw with my pencils on two May Saturdays. This piece drawn on silkscreen turned out to be the one we're using for our postcard invitation.

©O'Brien & Patterson-Marx, Birds of a Feather, drawing and collage, mica on silkscreen, 18x14"

Birds of a Feather

works on paper and found object sculptures

Kathleen O’Brien & Lesley Patterson-Marx

May 2-31, 2014

Reception May 9, 4-7 pm

 ask about on site Mother’s Day weekend specials...

MS Rezny Studio/Gallery

903 Manchester Street, Lexington KY 40508

msrezny.com                  859 292 4647

Monoprint demonstration with

Lesley Patterson-Marx on May 10, 12:30-3.

Make a print to bring back and draw on with

Kathleen O’Brien on May 17 or 24, 12:30-3. 

Art Movement Gallery

What a wonderful way to welcome spring today - meeting the vivacious Sandy Davis of Art Movement Gallery. It was instant friendship as we dallied in the sunshine. She graciously drove here to pick up my Liminal Space to bring to the Gallery.

Sandy Davis with Liminal Space

Sandy's mission is Kentucky art to the people through local businesses. Feeling that work spaces should inspire and be refreshing, she works with businesses who can create gallery walls. Art moves in The Art Movement Gallery and, each season, a new piece of local art replaces the one before so each piece can be seen by as many eyes as possible.

She is very enthusiastic about selling artist's work in this innovative way. She is very open to finding new artists from the Commonwealth, as well as businesses that want to uplift their environment with art.

Artists and businesses: she has made it very easy to be accepted into her fold! Look here for submission process.

©Kathleen O'Brien, Liminal Space, 38 x 30"

Lesley Patterson-Marx, printmaker

for my solo show this May at MS Rezny Studio/Gallery, Lesley Patterson-Marx will be my guest artist. Ever since I saw her in a show we were both in - next to each other- at Art of Collage and Assemblage, Halpeth Hall College in Nashville, Tennessee, I have been entranced by her work.

©Kathleen O'Brien, with my and Lesley's work.

Her tiny worlds are made with great care and decision. 

Lesley Patterson-Marx, Flower House, photo KO'B

They are places of warmth where it is easy to reside.

Lesley Patterson-Marx, Homeing Pigeon, photo KO'B

Please stay tuned for more posts about our show. We still need to give it a title and she has sent me some etchings for me to draw on. So I still have lots of work ahead, to add to the drawings started in January.

Re: Rethink Recycling

The Community Arts Center's 2014 blockbuster exhibit, "RE," encourages our community to rethink recycling. The exhibit explores art made from recycled or repurposed materials and the impact its creation has on the artist, the arts world, our community and our environment. It runs through Sunday, March 30. Check their site for workshops and activities.

In the upstairs gallery there are samples of artist's works using recycled objects. I have about 6 objects there, some dating back to 1971 when I was doing bead-work combined with found objects. I love bringing out some oldies but goodies, like the ones below.

©Kathleen O'Brien, Perspective, 1978, drawings, run-over glasses frame, lenses, mallard feathers, chain, phone wire

©Jerry Downs photo, Window Seat, 1986, oil painting, painted box, mirrors, porcelain doll, marble, lucite spacer, feathers

©Jerry Downs photo, Kiva, 1987, oil paintings, cedar box, ant hill pebbles, tiny figures

Floral Freeway Project

What an exciting project for us 25 artists, a real challenge, and for such a good cause. Join us form Lexington gallery hop February 21, and read on...

©Becky Ochenkoski, Floral Freeway announcement

I'm going backwards, here, showing my pre-wrapping. Transporting it was a challenge but I had the perfect box. I added the Give into the Groove label that came in the mail.

©Kathleen O'Brien, surprise art inside

©Kathleen O'Brien, Bees Nest , 12x5x5"

This is the finished Bees Nest. You can't see all the jewels hanging down. The fun part was chooseing vintage beads, some 200 years old and semi-precious stones and charms. That's a giclee print of Bee's Eye View collage. When unfolded it reveals a lovely Yeats poem, “The Stare's Nest by my Window”.

©Kathleen O'Brien, 3 cuffs woven into a nest seen from underneath

I used 3 of the cuffs weaving them together with cord and strips of paper. It is lined with an abandoned bird nest.

©Kathleen O'Brien, the package from tribeca trunk opened

It was a nice surprise to get this in the mail with an invitation to participate in the project.  Link to the 25 artists and read more about the project here, and do join us. It will be fun to see what everybody has designed from the cuffs.

H'Artful of Fun, Nightfall, this Friday

The Living Arts & Science Center’s 24th Annual H’Artful of Fun, Nightfall, will set the stage for an elegant and unique evening of fabulous entertainment, delicious appetizers and desserts, wine, beer and bourbon tastings, and, as always, incredible art. 

©LASC, Nightfall Poster

Building on the excitement and energy of last year’s event, the 2014 H’Artful of Fun will be held again at the Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park on Friday, February 7 at 7 p.m. It's my favorite art party of the year. Many artists have donated art in support of Living Arts & Science Center.

©Kathleen O'Brien, Hermit Thrush Song, 12x9"

One thing you have a chance to buy is Hermit Thrush Song. This artwork was chosen to hang in First Lady, Jane Beshear’s office for the Kentucky Treasures exhibit, June 1 – October 28, 2013. I was fascinated one day to discover several bird songs that had been transcribed into musical notation. This inspired a series that included  drawings of a bird, its notes and egg, and local botanicals. Two separate drawings were then fused together with beeswax.

10, Decad, Happy Sixth Day of 2014

Following in yesterday's track, here is Decad, the nature of number.

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Decad, 12 x 7.5"

Decad is a Golden Rectangle.

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Decad, detail, square

"Based upon the appearance of the first 4 numbers all other numbers emerge. Step by step they approach the decad, or number 10. Step by step we move beyond the ordinary numerical interactions and geometric relationships and find a new beginning with the decad, the beginning of a journey into limitlessness."* Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Decad, detail, Golden Rectangle

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Decad, detail, square

The Tetraktys, an equilateral triangle made up of 10 dots,

.

.     .

.     .     .

.     .     .     .

displays that the power of 10 lies in the number 4. (1+2+3+4=10) Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Decad, detail, Golden Rectangle

The ephemera is of Pomegranate, and the ten botanicals are little white flowers. What are your associations about ten?

*Words in Quotes are from Divine Proportion by Priya Hemenway

5, Pentad, Happy Fifth Day of 2014

Following in yesterday's track, here is Pentad, "the next level of cosmic design... symbol of life itself."*

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Pentad, 12 x 7.5"

Pentad is a Golden Rectangle.

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Pentad, detail, square

The method of construction is complicated, was kept secret until Luca Pacioli (da Vinci's teacher) published Divina proportione in 1509. Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Pentad, detail, Golden Rectangle

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Pentad, detail, square

The geometry of the Pentad is see often in nature, like the seeds of the apple, a starfish, our own hands. Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Pentad, detail, Golden Rectangle

The ephemera is of Forget-Me-Not, and the five botanicals are Forget-Me-Nots. What are your associations about five?

*Words in Quotes are from Divine Proportion by Priya Hemenway

4, Tetrad, Happy Fourth Day of 2014

Following in yesterday's track, here is Tetrad, which relates to 3-D volume.

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Tetrad, 12 x 7.5"

Dyad is a Golden Rectangle.

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Tetrad, detail, square

A square is formed within the vesica piscis when two lines are drawn between the two midpoints of the circles and the intersections of the vesica piscis. Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Tetrad, detail, Golden Rectangle

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Tetrad, detail, square

"Four is the first number formed by the addition and multiplication of equals (4=2+2 and 4=2x2). The square represents justice"* and the earth. Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Tetrad, detail, Golden Rectangle

The ephemera is of Hellebore, and the four botanicals are Lilacs. What are your associations about four?

*Words in Quotes are from Divine Proportion by Priya Hemenway

3, Triad, Happy Third Day of 2014

Following in yesterday's track, here is Triad, which relates to surface. "Three is the firstborn, the eldest number."*

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Triad, 12 x 7.5"

Triad is a Golden Rectangle.

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Triad, detail, square

"The triangle encloses the smallest arena within the greatest perimeter. It is the initial shape to emerge from the vesica piscis"*, created by joining the two points of the line with the upper intersection of the vesica piscis. Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Triad, detail, Golden Rectangle

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Triad, detail, square

"Ancient mathematical philosophers referred to the triad as prudence, wisdom, piety, friendship, peace, harmony, a statement about relationship and balance. Trinity is the preeminent symbol of divinity."* Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Triad, detail, Golden Rectangle

The ephemera is of pineapple, and the three botanicals are Larkspur petals. What are your associations about three?

*Words in Quotes are from Divine Proportion by Priya Hemenway

2, Dyad & Happy Second Day of 2014

Following in yesterday's track, here is Dyad, which relates to line. "One and two are the parents of all other numbers."*

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Dyad, 12 x 7.5"

Dyad is a Golden Rectangle.

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Dyad, detail, square

From the center of the first circle one finds the center of the second, between which is a line. The shared space is the vesica piscis. "Duality, polarity, simultaneously divides and unites, repels and attracts, separates and returns."*  Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Dyad, detail, Golden Rectangle

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Dyad, detail, square

"Two reveals itself as the door between the One and the many, between Monad and all other numbers."* Taking this square away, the next Golden Rectangle remains;

©Kathleen O'Brien, The Mystery of Numbers, Dyad, detail, Golden Rectangle

The ephemera is of sesame, and the two botanicals are Clary Sage petals. What are your associations about two?
*Words in Quotes are from Divine Proportion by Priya Hemenway