Green, My Favorite Color

This morning on the Health and Well Being report on CBS 880 Radio, it was stated that spending time outdoors is good for your spirit and that exercising outside, such as walking, is better for your mental health than using a treadmill. The report also said that the color green is the "in" color this year. That makes me happy because green has been my favorite color since I was a young teenager. Thinking about this I was reminded of a poem I wrote at that age. Here it is:

Beauty Is

Beauty is the plants in my room.

With their glorious shades of green,

they bring color to my otherwise

dull windowsills.

Susan Franz (c) 1977

I was also reminded of a collaborative journal I created with a friend who lives in Portland, Oregon in 2004. I wrote this poem in it along with a section on my love for the color green.  I would like to share that.

"Sunlight through the leaves of the hops plants and through the canopy of oak leaves reveals several shades of green at once.

How can this image best be captured? Photograph? Painting? Words? All of these I try."

"Green has been my favorite color for as long as I can remember. When I was sixteen I wrote this poem:  (see poem above)

Green has a calming effect and I am a calm, quiet, peaceful person most of the time. I do like to play music loudly on occasion, just as I like a splash of orange and yellow in my gardens."

 Garden photos








 "As much as I love flowers of all kinds, I'd take the greens in all their varied shades and hues. I love my vegetable garden precisely for this reason. The deep rich green of rhubarb leaves growing alongside the wispy yellow green of asparagus and the bluish green blades of garlic. Lovage, tomatoes, chives, green beans, dill, strawberries and snap peas fill the garden beds with months of non stop color.

While every season brings its flowers of pure delight, it is the color of leaves that sustains me, just as the chlorophyll sustains them. The grasses, privet, Rosa rugosa, honeysuckle, bittersweet, rhododendron, violets, hostas, daylilies, birches and so much           more provide layer upon layer of light and shadow, texture and color."

"The long, dull brown and grey winter months are soon forgotten as the first tender leaves of spring emerge to be followed by the full chorus of beautiful greens.

Please do not misunderstand me. I absolutely adore flowers and have much praise for them, but just as an arrangement of flowers in a vase needs a filler of green to make them stand out, the landscape needs green as its back drop. If green were taken out of the picture, it would lack harmony.

So this is the foundation of my garden and the beginning of my journal..."

Incorporating Gampi Transfers with Printmaking

I came across this video by accident (don't you love serendipitousness?) I have printed photos onto my handmade gampi paper and love how it looks, but have been reluctant to incorporate them into my artwork knowing that the inks would smear if I applied acrylic mediums or any other liquid glues. In this video the artist, Darlene Olivia McElroy, instructs you to spray the image with a fixative and allow it to dry before applying the medium. I am excited to try this. A simple solution to the dilemma! My gampi isn't white or tissue-thin like the type she uses in the video, but if I have a background similar to the natural gampi paper it should blend well. If not, that is okay because this paper is beautiful and will add its texture to the finished piece.




Two photos taken while vacationing at Madison Cottages, Summer 2010. Sepia and black & white/green tinted photos inkjet printed on my handmade gampi paper.

    

I have done "ghost prints" on thin store-bought gampi and have used some in prints via chine colle, but the paper doesn't "disappear" the way it does when using acrylic medium as shown in this video. You can see that in this print where the paper on the right was adhered via chine colle to the print then overprinted with the inked oak leaves. Perhaps if I thoroughly wet the gampi paper (providing the ink printed on it is waterproof) as well as the backing paper, it may "disappear". If not, I can try to use a matte medium so that this section won't have a shine to it (from gloss medium which this artist uses), since the rest of the print doesn't have or require that look.