This week's Project Big Sky

Our assignment for the last couple weeks was to paint a painting whose main feature is a dramatic sky.  This is my take on the subject.  It is on my ebay auction this week.  If you want to visit my ebay gallery, click here.  If you wish to purchase anything you see there, consider contacting me through blogger and I can lower the price slightly as I won't have to pay ebay fees and would be happy to share the savings with you.

Persimmons against a blue sky

This painting won entry into a recent Plein Aire Exhibition here in Tulsa.  I really enjoyed painting outside on this cool fall day and was glad that there were a few spots of color left.  One had to look up to see it though.
This is listed at $395 on my ebay galler but those wishing to purchase directly from me may do so for $350.  To see other paintings on my ebay site, you may click here.  Feel free to contact me through blogpot if you wish to make a purchase outside of ebay as I can lower the price slightly here as there are no fees that I incur on blogspot.

Yellow Tree and receeding Storm SOLD!

You are invited!

And now for something completely different.... Disaster Averted

                It takes a lot to get me into that chair.  The promise of laughing gas has helped throughout my adult years.  Childhood dental trauma has me stressed and worried weeks before my appointment for a simple checkup and cleaning

This day I arrive early, as is my nature.  After all who wants to piss of their dentist?  My hands already clammy, and my body tingly,  I check in, and find a spot in the tiny waiting room.  I know the office is designed to create an atmosphere of calm, complete with ambient instrumental music, low lighting, comfortable furniture, a mini waterfall, and an essential oil diffuser that releases calming scents into the air, yet still I am anxious.   

                There are three others quietly looking at magazines and cell phones.  No one else appears to be the least bit nervous.  This is how adults are supposed to be, I think. 

I reach for the magazines and pull one from the pile.  ‘What is Killing These Girl Scouts?’ the headline reads.  I am drawn into the mystery.  As I read the tales of the now grown up Girl Scouts, who all have cancer, it sparks a distant memory of my own experience at summer camp with the Girl Scouts when I was a child. 

I remember that we used lake water, sand, and pebbles to scrub our pots, pans, and plates.  We boiled lake water to rinse them and hung them to dry in our individual mesh bags.  Later, each sporting their own home made ‘sit-upon,’ we gathered to sing songs, eat s’mores, and tell stories around the camp fire.  But the most memorable thing about our weekend at camp was seeing strange fish and ducks.  I remember telling my mother that there was a fish with two tails, one with a bent back, and a duck with a foot growing out if its back.  This was to be my first, and my last Girl Scout camp out as our family’s’ three year stint in that town had ended, and we moved on. 

                The article relayed story after chilling story of women experiencing cancers of the reproductive organs, and went on to say that there was an alarming rate of men who were dying of brain cancers. The author described the idyllic little town, and the nearby lake that housed the Girl Scout camp.  The lake, she said, had been built next to reclaimed land that had once been a toxic waste dump belonging to a now defunct chemical company.  The men and women of the town, who ironically were all around my age, had been fighting to find answers to the questions of whose negligence was responsible for their pain, and who would help them as they fought their own personal battles with cancer, and their desire to protect future townspeople from the still present menace. 

                I was reminded of the strange and awful smell whenever the wind shifted our way.  Not knowing its source I remember my parents joking that there must be a city sewer nearby. 

                The name of the town was shared at the end of the article, and as I was beginning to suspect, it was the town where my family lived for three years of my childhood. 

The stories left me frustrated, and sad for all those sweet little girls,  their husbands, and children, but grateful that I had never had cancer. 

                Disaster averted……

                I had a moment in the quiet of the waiting room to take it all in when the door opened, and the hygienist, clip board in hand, called my name.

Art of Healing at Hillcrest

As Hillcrest celebrates 100 years in Tulsa, I am revisiting some of my own work there.  This was one of my favorite patients.  We really got to know each other as she was with me for many weeks.  For someone confined to a bed for weeks on end, she always surprised me with her upbeat attitude and willingness to find a positive focus for each day.  There was a happy ending to her story.  :-)  You may always make a donation to the future of this program through ahha with a memo that funds should be applied to the Art of Healing program.

06Aug

Breathing New Life into the Art of Healing

Some mothers come to the hospital weeks and even months before their baby’s due date. Hearing the whoosh of the baby’s heart beat from the fetal heart monitor can be welcome news that everything is OK. It also serves as a continuous reminder of why they are here.  “A lot of people – before I came to the hospital – said, ‘You really have to go to the hospital for two months?’” says AuraBelle “Belle” Laskey.  “And I said, ‘Where would you be – I’m sorry (fighting back tears) - if the doctor tells you that you have a 50 percent chance of losing your babies after 24 weeks. There was no thought to it.” Belle sits among a table of three other expecting mothers, telling her story as she slides shiny pink beads onto a brass wire. “I’m having identical twin girls and they are monoamniotic, which means they share one sack. It is rare. Only one percent of identical twins share a sack.”

Making two dainty pink bracelets for her daughters, Aessiah and Aurbany, whose ultrasound images are taped to her hospital refrigerator, Belle is able to take her mind off the heart monitors and onto her jewelry design. She has scheduled her 30-minute break from continuous monitoring for the art cart – a time patients on the Peggy V. Helmerich Women’s Health Center high-risk floor gather with an artist to make jewelry and crafts. It is possible through a program called Art of Healing. For a few moments, Belle doesn’t have to think about her babies’ movement, heart rates and if their umbilical cords might tangle. It gives her time to unwind and recharge. “I try to be patient and content,” she says of spending more than 20 hours a day in her hospital bed. “The nurses are surprised that I’m so patient, because I’m in that bed so much, but what else can you do? This is where I have to be.”

“These women have absolutely no outlet,” shares Margee Aycock, an artist and member of the Art of Healing team since the conception of the program in 2002. “With all the studies they’ve done on how a mom going through stressful times and depression can affect the infant and on into adult life, I just really thought it was important that there is some sort of outlet.” Margee wheels her art cart onto the high-risk floor every Monday and Wednesday at 1:30 in the afternoon. She often walks into the room to familiar faces, as mothers are hospitalized several weeks to months during their pregnancies. They schedule ultrasounds and breaks from monitoring and bed rest around this valuable time. “It is a job where everybody likes to be here. They have very fond memories of this place. They tell me, ‘You coming is the only thing I look forward to all week.’”

A lifelong artist, Margee says art revitalizes her spirit. “Something about art feeds my soul, brings me happiness and relieves my stress.” Not only does she love what she does, Margee has countless stories of the impact this program has had on patients. “I have seen how it has calmed patients - reduced their anxiety and pain.” When budgets for the program are tight, Margee has even volunteered her time, knowing what it means to the patients.

History of Art of Healing

Originally a gift from the James D. Harvey Foundation at Hillcrest, Art of Healing began with a small committee of interested employees, physicians and senior staff in partnership with the Art & Humanities Council of Tulsa (AHHA). “AHHA has provided Hillcrest Medical Center with trained artists and musicians that serve our patients and family members by incorporating the arts into their health care,” explains Art of Healing committee leader and Administrative Director of Cardiovascular Services at Oklahoma Heart Institute, Nat Torkelson, MS, RN. “At its peak, we had a program coordinator, several artists-in-residence who served clinical areas in the hospital, as well as numerous visual arts activities in the hospital throughout the year.” Nat says it would not be uncommon to walk into the lobby of the hospital and hear the strumming of a harp or catch a dance performance or poetry reading. There were even occasional care-for-the caregiver sessions for staff – one of which was called a drumming circle that served as stress relief.

“The idea behind the inclusion of the arts in the hospital, a nation-wide movement to enhance the patient care experience, is to lift spirits, reduce boredom and lessen anxiety; studies have even shown that integrating art into the care of the patient can reduce the need for pain medication,” Nat adds.

Studies on Arts as Healing

The arts are healing, research has found. From recovering from disease, to reducing stress, anxiety and even the need for less pain medication, music, painting and creating art have both mental and physical benefits. For example, music may be one of the first arts we are introduced to as a baby listening to nursery rhymes. It is also one of the last things some experts believe those with Alzheimer’s disease let go of when severe memory loss sets in. When we sing, researchers say, a natural pain-killer substance is released. Singing also builds trust and bonding by releasing hormones. From a molecular level, just listening to music boosts our immune system.

“I truly believe that integrating the arts into a patient’s hospitalization is a unique way to enhance the care we offer our patients and families at Hillcrest,” Nat shares. “Hearing and reading comments from patients that the artists serve are compelling reminders of how important this ‘little program’ has been to the patients that have been touched.”

Some of those comments include:

“This program is a very effective and intriguing way for families to cope with the stressful waiting of surgery. It was a great escape from our thoughts and concerns about our dad’s procedures. Thanks!”

From a Kaiser Rehabilitation Center therapist: “This is the most this patient has spoken since he came here.”

“This is the best thing that has happened to me while in the hospital. This raised my spirits – I have been so depressed.”

Revitalization of Art of Healing

Nat says Art of Healing is not only close to her heart with more than 40 years of nursing experience at Hillcrest, it is part of who she is. “I grew up in a family in which music was a big part of our lives,” she says. Her mother was a professional pianist and organist, her father played both as well as the accordion. Nat chose the violin, while her sisters played cello and piano. “My mother spent her life volunteering and would tote us along to the nursing home to visit shut-ins and play music for them. I still recall seeing faces light up; some residents would get up and dance or in their chairs. I saw how music would lift their spirits.” The connection to the arts from her childhood has stayed with Nat throughout her life and fuels her passion behind not only keeping Art of Healing at Hillcrest, but ensuring its prosperity. “I would love to see us get back to the level we were headed 10 years ago.”

As part of her vision, “special activities planned monthly, artists in several locations every week, new patient populations served such as oncology patients who are in isolation for long periods of time undergoing treatment,” Nat would also like to bring the program to heart failure clinic patients and others.

To fund that goal, Nat has enlisted the help of a committee consisting of physicians, nurse management and other Hillcrest employees to garner hospital-wide support and fundraising. Events have been held throughout the year including the sale of Art of Healing t-shirts and a popular sundae sale, with more planned this year. Total fundraising to date nears $10,000 from funds raised and matched by Hillcrest leadership. Plus, all money raised is a tax-deductible donation through the partnership with AHHA, a non-profit organization. “While this is wonderful, we are trying to at least double that amount for our artists to be able to serve patients and families in many areas throughout the hospital, and also provide music occasionally in our lobbies and waiting rooms,” Nat adds. “The opportunities are endless.”

Funding the program makes possible the days Belle gets to temporarily leave the confines of her hospital room and walk into the art room to talk, create and think about something other than the day-to-day survival of her unborn twins. “This is very therapeutic for me,” she shares. 

Contributions to the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa may be designated to support the Art of Healing program at Hillcrest

16x20 and 20x24 paintings for sale

I am keeping less paintings on my ebay gallery these days and moving some to etsy and some to my blog here.  You may always contact me here if you are interested in purchasing a painting from me or having one commissioned.  Here is just a small sample of the 16x20 and 20x24 paintings available for sale at the moment.

Flowering Hemp SOLD!

Flowering Yellow Hemp original 8x10 oil painting.  This painting was a 2nd place winner in a regional Plein Aire Painting Competition last fall.  It was raining the day I painted this and decided that since it was raining, I would find something close to home to paint and ended up in the little Montessori school around the block where  neighbors had built an amazing permaculture garden for students.  This is a very tall, ( over my head nearly) flowering hemp which was to be tilled into the soil to build nutrients into the earth.  Meanwhile we got to enjoy the beauty.

To bid, Click Here or contact me for purchase.  Bidding starts at $175 with no reserve, or purchase directly w/o competition for $250

Commission portrait, Father Steve Mckee from Trinity Episcopal Tulsa

I thought I would share the process of this painting that I was asked to do.  Many long term priests have had their portraits made and hung in the great hall upon their retirement.  I was honored to be asked to do one of my favorite bridge partners, and retiring priest, Steve McKee.  He supplied a photo from which to work ( after asking him to retake the first one which, although I loved the idea, it was very blurry)  I also took my own photo of a window that was installed on his watch, and a candle burning, which actually I used the real candle to get a better rendition of one.  This is nearly finished but not quite.  I must say that it was really fun to capture that unusual lighting and working with breaking a couple of painting rules... with more than one light source but I liked how this portrait is so different from the stiff, seated portraits of the other priests.  I really liked Steve's artistic suggestion and I liked that it tells a little story with the obvious darkness and light metaphor and I decided to include a suggestion of the stained glass window behind him that was created after an entire family from our church perished in a plane accident.

  

 

Art of Healing Mosaic at Hillcrest Hospital Tulsa, OK

Now for something completely different.....This took over a year for our group to complete.  I designed the mosaic for the Art of Healing group at Hillcrest where I have been artist in residence for over 14 years.  Usually my job intails working with patients and their families so I guess this wasn't much of a stretch from there as the project was completed by hospital staff, nurses, doctors, volunteers, patients, guests.  If you look closely you will see all sorts of unusual hospital supplies.  Its main ingredient is the bottle tops of all kinds of medications.  The design was changed slightly to accomodate the different colors that we were able to gleen from departments all over the hospital.  The supplies were collected all year, organized by patients, volunteers and Art of Healing artists by color, and the project moved to the cafeteria where it was all glued down.  It is so much prettier in person than these very pretty photos show.  This was made possible by donations from the greater community of Tulsa, ahha, and OVAC, and of course, the artists of Hillcrest's Art of Healing Program.

By the light of the Moon

Well this was fun!  I have always loved the night paintings at the Gilcrease Museum just down the road from my house.  Last summer on a visit to the country to a friend's house, we happened upon a Mexican rodeo and stopped to snap a few photos.  I used a couple of these photos and a painting from the museum to create this painting.  I have it on auction on my ebay gallery or contact me directly for sale at opening bid price if interested.  It is listed at $800  starting price on auction.  It is a 16x20.
If you want to visit my other auctions you may click here 

Cherries

We had some new students who just showed up in class and as luck would have it, I had a box of cherries on hand and a 12x12 canvas.  This was fun!  This painting can be purchased by request through this blog for $145 or try your luck at bidding for it on ebay.  Click here to visit my ebay auction ( for the next couple of days ) or Here to visit my ebay gallery

Ballet Dancers in Rehearsal

Every year we artists are invited to visit a rehearsal before the opening season in order that we might find inspiration for a new work.  These dancers were certainly inspiring.  This is the last one in the series that I completed from those sessions, and one of my favorites.  If you would like to visitthis in my ebay auction and see other gallery works, Click Here

Oklahoma Pastured Sheep on a Stormy Day

This painting began as a class project.  I brought in several photos of interesting clouds and also some cool pics of sheep and cows.  Everyone could pick and choose the things that they wanted to put together and make sure the light source looked believable.  This is my take on the assignment.  ( I always paint with them in case anyone just wants to follow me )
If you want to purchase, please contact me or if you feel like entering into an auction, click here to visit my Ebay Gallery Auctions

Bouguereau like painting...

In my adult oil painting class, when working on the portrait, we often start with a painting of a long dead master.  I like to have my entire class on the same page when teaching drawing or painting skills, both of which are taught during this process.  I also like to leave room for each individual artist to have fun and create their own image, rather than an exact copy.
Here are the original photos and my finished painting.  Notice the things I changed to make it my own. If you are interested in purchasing the finished painting, feel free to contact me.

Standing Nude

I really enjoy group painting and on occasion have a chance to paint the human figure in a local group of painters.  This is a painting from one of those sessions.  To bid Click Here  This link actually takes you to this painting but also has links within the ebay auction site, to my other art auctions.

Spring Creek in Oklahoma

A hundred degree day in Oklahoma sent us to the creek to play.  While there, between floating and foraging, I got a chance to just sit beside the peaceful, pristine waters and paint these two paintings.  They both started out as sketches and then were completed back home in the studio.  I still didn't want to lose the sketchy immediate, feel of the original response so I stopped here.

To purchase either one you may send me an email.  $200 each, or take your chances on ebay where they are both on auction beginning at $145 with no reserve.  Click here to bid and visit the rest of my painting auctions.

bougainvillea in a vase with tea cup 8x10 oil on canvas

Over the winter I was asked to do a mini workshop at the Botanical Gardens in Tulsa.  I got to go to the greenhouse and gather plants for a still life and came back with bougainvillea ( gee I hope I am spelling that correctly)  Anyways I really liked the sweet little painting I came up with.  It is on ebay right now and you may click this link to visit it in my auction or contact me directly for sale.  It is 8x10 on canvas  The auction starts at $99 and if there are no bids and you want it, feel free to contact me directly.  If you do visit it in my ebay site you can also view other paintings on auction and at retail.

bougainvillea in a vase with tea cup 

Deep Thoughts, by Margee Aycock ;-)

I was out gathering curly dock seeds for future use and it occurred to me how artists and craftsmen and women are the reason our species has risen to the top of the heap. I was thinking, " if I were a cave woman, or a pioneer or one of the Native peoples, how would I make sure I could survive the winter? I would have to have some sort of vessel to store my gatherings. Bring on the potters! Then I wondered, If I were nomadic or was forced by weather or some other thing, to take to the road or the water, how then might I survive... Bring on the seamstresses who could work with leather to create warmer clothing, leather pouches or other skins to hold water and for that matter, those who work with wood to create a boat to travel to more fertile land. Where would the world be without those who create, who hone their craft, who work with their hands? And then there are those of us who are visual artists, dancers, story tellerys who just make all that living worth while. ;-)

Red roses transformed into a tornado.

This is what happens when you leave a painting with the artist for a long time.  This week I was clearing out the studio and ran across a few paintings that needed to be improved upon.  this painting was a boquet of red roses against a light background that never quite worked for me.  First I tried to darken the back ground and when that didn't suit me I thought I would just paint over it and decided to clean my pallet onto the canvas.  What started to appear was a tornado so I decided to go with it.   Black is so hard for me to photograph properly but the finished painting is very dark on the tornado part and the sky below is a medium yellowish color... kind of a combo of both of the last two pics.  

SOLD Harjo oil portrait

This is a painting that I did several years ago with a live model.  When cleaning the studio this week I revisited several paintings, this being one.  I made a few minor adjustments and added it to my ebay auction this week.  It is a 16x20 oil painting of one of the Harjo clan.  Once upon a time I could remember her name but I have forgotten.  It may be 'Joy' but I wouldn't swear to it ;-)  She is wearing her traditional ceremonial costume that might be worn to a pow wow.  She is holding a feather fan that is also used in blessing ceremonies.  If you would like to purchase this directly from me ( $200)  you may contact me through this website or visit it in my ebay auction where the start price is lower w no reserve.  Click here for Ebay

SOLD Sirens of Snake Creek

This is another painting that I revisited this year.  It is a montage of a couple photos and a little imagination.  The problem of using multiple photos in one painting is getting the perspective right.  If you aren't taking the photos with the intention of painting them in the future, this is a common problem.  I started with several photos of my friends at the creek and had a painting I was pretty pleased with.  Upon getting it back from a gallery I looked at it anew.  It bothered me that the furthest left figure just didn't seem right.  I think her head was too large for where she was in the painting, and in particular, where she was in comparison to the two other figures ( who were taken from the same photo)  I changed the size of her head and hat and now it seems better to me.  I also lengthened and widened the arm of the figure on the right.  I also decided there were too many girls in sunglasses and took them off of the far right figure.  There is one other change that I made.  Can you find it?
Contact me for purchase, or visit the painting on my ebay auction

original

final ( I think)

Your phone's camera.... the most useful tool in your arsenal

I pulled this old painting out of the studio the other day.  It was painted several years ago using a live model  With a live model you really can't go back and take another look because they are now home, cooking dinner or something ;-)  But, you can look at your own work and re evaluate and try to make it a better painting.  I have found that stepping away is by far the most useful tool ; I stepped away from this painting for a couple of years, but that is not really what I am talking about, although that too, really frees you up to make necessary changes.  I mean, stepping back to the other end of the room, go outside and come back in w your painting facing the door so you are surprised and looking at it freshly.  Since having access to an i phone and to always use it to post photos of paintings to my online auction on ebay, I noticed how many times I took a photo of a painting, thinking it was ready for sale, and only realizing mistakes after looking at the mini photo.  I started noticing how great a tool it was for 'stepping back.'  Here is a series of changes that I am making after viewing this painting from a photo.  Notice how the head shape changes, the eyes, hair, shadows in background, drape across legs, carving into the flesh around her tummy, lips...
This painting is on ebay right now and you can bid on it Here  or contact me for purchase

I started with this:

and ended with this:

You an see below subtil 

small changes... not in any correct order... seen below