Humboldt Gallery at the Morris Graves, New Art for Novemeber, Ruska - Dusky Moth, Lucias from Dalarna & Cycling Lucias.

The Finns have a succinct word for fall colors: RUSKA - to me it conjures up flaming birches and aspens, as well as the spicy fragrance and crispy sounds of autumnal forests. My Dusky Moth, that you can see during November in the downstairs Humboldt Gallery at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, is a celebration of ruska.

I will also show two of my Cycling Lucias - Look Ma No Hands featured here - a limited series of fine art prints on archival hemp papers. I created these as a friendly wink to my husband and his cycling friends the Latte Warriors. :-) In the art bin you will find art prints on hemp paper of my original series of Lucias - mixed media paintings - these quote from the folkloric Swedish province of Dalarna, home to well known artists Carl Larsson and Anders Zorn. Note the floral "curbits" and the images of painted horses, "dalahäst".

These light-hearted pieces provide me a nostalgic solstice journey to the old country.

I am pleased to be included in the Humboldt Gallery at the Morris Graves as it gives me an exquisite permanent space to show my art here on the North Coast. Be sure to stop by during Arts Alive! on the fist Saturday of each month - from 6 to 9 p.m. The next art walk is on November 5. See you there!

I am about to embark on a new series of Lucia paintings. Follow me on this blog to be the first to see them!

Occupy MOMA? The Modern Museums of Art are my homes in large cities.

When recently in NYC I wanted to go to the Brooklyn bridge and paint the Occupy Wall Street protesters on my mobile art device - iPad - but did not find the time. I am feeling sympathy for the protest. I too worry about the skewed income distribution and the disregard for the public good, and the short sightedness of policies. I've come to the conclusion that only countries in which there is a general agreement to pool resources, in the form of taxes, for the common good, will function well in the long run. And, that the tax collection has to work well too - and not just for middle income salary-earners whose incomes are transparent and easily taxed.

But I find myself unhappy about my beloved MoMA being occupied!

When I was a student in Stockholm I spent as much time as possible at the Modern Museum of Art on Skeppsholmen, enthusiastically participating in all the avant grade activities. Pontus Hulten, who later headed the Centre Pompidou in Paris, was in charge. His mother, renown artist, Siri Derkert embellished one of the new subway stations. I remember walking through Niki de Saint Phalle's She, the arrival of op, and pop and all the other iconoclastic trends - those were exiting days. I seldom miss visiting the SFMOMA when in the City. A couple of years ago I discovered a series of transfer drawings by Paul Klee, which inspired me to pursue this technique used in my Cycling Lucia series.

When in NYC during first weekend of October, I made for MoMA my first day there. Had a lovely, expensive lunch then joined the large crowds checking out de Kooning: A Retrospective, and ended the visit by sitting down and making an homage to de Kooning on my iPad.

Here's an article about the protest at the MoMA. What do you think of this development? Are our large art institutions elitist? Do they exclude people? While a student in Stockholm I had very inexpensive access to all our museums and theaters, including the nose bleed section of the opera. Our beloved Ingmar Bergman had a say in this policy.

Images: "Smiling Cycling Lucia", transfer drawing; "Ripping off de Kooning at the MoMA", iPad painting, both by me; "She" by Niki de Saint Phalle - a walk though sculpture large as a room!

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2 fab JAZZ links: Monterey Jazz Festival, Redwoods Jazz Alliance

I have decided to add links to my favorite jazz sites starting with the The Monterey Jazz Festival. I have a new series of live paintings from this years festival which was the 54th. The link covers this one and shows what's being planned for the 55th in 2012.

I am also linking to our wonderful local Jazz organization: The Redwoods Jazz Alliance. The next performance will be with great drummer Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom. We have seen her with Dr. Lonnie Smith at the Monterey Jazz festival, and are very much looking forward to having her on our home turf at HSU on Sunday Oct. 30. I hope capture her on my iPad.

Here two live iPad paintings of jazz drummers: Justin Brown with the Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet, (red background) and Michael Formanek's Gerald Cleaver.

Stanford MBA '76 35th REUNION ART EXHIBIT

Participating artists: Seth Fearey: photos from the Kyrqyz Republic Pat Jones: landscapes and still life in oil, Avner Mandelman, oil and mixed media paintings shown a digital images, Claire Iris Schencke: oil monotypes and iPad paintings as signed limited series prints.

Here's an short video of my presentation of the art exhibit. Gordon, who had a great time at the reunion, made it on his iPhone.