August 9, 1945

Across the years, I often have wondered about the moments before the Atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. I wanted to convey some of that imagined landscape in this collage. This date is one of the most tragic days in recorded human history. 

Before  (collage, M.A. Reilly, August 2021).

Four Horses by David Whyte

 

Blind Faith (M. A. Reilly, West Milford NJ)

FOUR HORSES

          —By David Whyte

On Thursday 

the farmer

put four horses

into the cut hay-field

next to the house.

Since then the days

have been filled 

with the

sheen of their

brown hides

racing the fence edge.

Since then I see

their curved necks

through the 

kitchen window;

sailing like swans

past the pale field.

Each morning

their hooves fill my

open door

with an urgency

for something

just beyond my grasp

and I spend my whole

day in an idiot joy,

writing, gardening,

and looking

for it

under every 

upturned stone.

I find myself

wanting to do

something 

courageous,

wide ranging

slightly stupid 

and lovely.

I find myself

wanting to walk up

and thank

the farmer for those

dark brown horses 

and see him stand

back laughing in his

grizzled and

denim wonder 

at my

innocence.

And I find myself

wanting to ride

into the last hours

of this summer,

bareback and

happy as the hooves

of the days

that drum toward me.

I hear the whinny of

their fenced 

and abandoned

freedom

and feel happy

today

in the field

of my own making,

writing non-stop,

my head held high

ranging the boundaries

of a birthright

exuberance.

Blue Sea: A Dozen Photographs Made in Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

 

Blue Islands (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska)

Serenity I (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska)

Serenity II (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska)

Serenity III (M.A. Reilly, August 2021)

Serenity IV (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska) 

Sailboat (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska)

 Islands (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska)

 The Boat and the Glacier (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska)

Sailboat in Redemption Bay (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska)

Fishing (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska)

Turning (M.A. Reilly, August 2021)

Tugboat (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska)

Seeing Nome, Alaska

These are a few images I made a day apart in Nome, Alaska. 

Fog (M.A. Reilly, July 2021)

3 Windmills (M.A. Reilly, July 2021)

Shack on the Road from Nome (M.A. Reilly, July, 2021)

 

House on the Bay (M.A. Reilly, July 2021)

Bay (M.A. Reilly, July 2021)

Bering Sea during a Storm (M.A. Reilly, July 31, 2021

Storm Waves (M.A. Reilly, July 31, 2021)

Just Beyond Yourself by David Whyte

Blue (M.A. Reilly, August 2021, Redemption Bay, Seward, Alaska)

I love the idea of self-forgetting and all of the possibilities that get folded into it such a state. It's what I experience when I am involved in something intense, like making images, painting, teaching, or deep learning.  This poem by David Whyte reminds me of the importance of movement. All things living move. Some mornings I wake and wonder, what road beckons?  What path just beyond myself--be it made of dirt, asphalt or water--do I now need to know? 

Moving beyond myself--the often too-comfortable place--is in fact where I most need to be. 

JUST BEYOND YOURSELF

     -- by David Whyte

Just beyond

yourself.

It’s where

you need

to be.

Half a step

into

self-forgetting

and the rest

restored

by what

you’ll meet.

There is a road

always

beckoning.

When you see

the two sides

of it

closing together

at that far horizon

and deep in

the foundations

of your own

heart

at exactly

the same

time,

that’s how

you know

it's where

you

have

to go.

That’s how

you know

it’s the road

you

have

to follow.

That’s

how you know.

It’s just beyond

yourself,

it’s

where you

need to be.

…

Concertina Journal

4 Panels in Concertina Journal 

I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to begin painting in a concertina journal in order to see how ideas flow from one page to the next. Although the work is abstract, is there a recognizable narrative that moves across the panels? Working with a limited palette creates a sense of cohesion through color. I also was cognizant of establishing lines, although not consistently. As I worked I began to see a landscape emerge reminiscent of photographs I made some years ago on a foggy and rainy afternoon in the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina.  The colors on the panels are quite different, but the movement of fog across the mountains feels similar.

All of the colors used on these panels are derived from 2 colors (cadmium orange, phthalo blue) and titanium white and mars black acrylic paint. Additionally, I used black ink, newspaper, matte medium, LYRA graphite sticks, and white marker on the panels.

Below are the first 4 panels. I plan to continue the work in the journal. Seeing them separated provides a different understanding then seeing them aligned (top image). 

Panel 1

Panel 2

Panel 3

Panel 4

A Look into an Art Journal: Using journal pages to experiment and try out motifs, colors, marks

I thought in this post I would show a few pages of current art journals where I try out ideas, colors, shapes, movement, collage, brush marks, companion pages, rough painting, mark makings, mixed colors, abstracts, and the use of mixed media.  What these pages have in common is that they are unfinished and did inform more finished works.

I plan to begin working in a concertina journal tomorrow to explore how ideas cross pages. 

Two journals I am working I often at the same time. The larger journal shows a 2-page spread (you can see earlier work on the pages below) and a smaller square watercolor journal with very heavy paper.  Working back and forth across the two pages and in another journal helps me to be patient. 

A page in a 8 1/2 x 11”  watercolor journal. This is the facing page to the page below. 

Facing page to the one above. I like the blocks of color on this page.

2-page spread: limited palette with collage papers. These pages are too light. Hard to know where to look. I am drawn to the the block of dark blue on the bottom left page.

A large watercolor sheet and a smaller watercolor journal. In both I play with a similar color palette. 

These are two pages page where I got lost and could not find cohesion. I do wonder if sections of these two pages might work better.  I do like small sections, like the horizontal white lines. 

A journal page where the color mixing got away from me. Way too busy.  I have let this sit. This started loose and then got very, very tight.  I do like the black mark making on the upper left side.

Trying out dominant, vertical orange mark with very limited palette and lines. This is a motif I keep returning to. Experimented here with making marks into the wet paint. 

Collage page on a paper with found papers including dress pattern, tissue paper, primary yellow, primary magenta, white and black. Not my usual colors. I love the little block of pink.