"Stealin' Jazz"

Batik Art - 45 x 3.5 (Giclee Prints Available) I love the challenge of capturing hands and faces, and I have always wanted to do a sax player. This piece was originally done as a watercolor study from a photo I found in a magazine. The watercolor came out looking so much like a batik, which inspired me to make the batik to look like a watercolor.

"Afternoon Tea" |

Batik Art - 20 x 27 This batik was inspired by a photo that my friend, Mike Donahue, took on his travels to Africa. The process involved simplifying the image to capture the essence of this graceful gesture and the drama of the backlighting.

"Garifuna of Belize"

Batik Art - 31 x 36 (Giclee Prints Available) My sister and her family lived in Belize for a while and she sent me several outstanding photos of their travels. I liked the simplicity of this image and wanted to minimize the palate. I used the "low immersion" technique to dye the fabric before I transferred the drawing to the fabric, and the picture seemed complete after only six different dye baths.

"Two to Tango"

Batik Art - 26 x 26 I needed a little romance in my life and was struck by this image from a black and white photo. I'm not sure what they were advertising. What color is love? I had to wonder before I began this piece. The batik was initially very flat until I cracked the wax on the background and applied bleach to give a "reverse crackle" effect. This seemed to give the piece the energy it needed.

"Adrian"

Batik Art - 26.5 x 26 Sometimes when I find myself at a creative standstill with my batik, I'll take some time to play with pieces of fabric-randomly dye them in weird colors and textures. Often it is these pieces of colorfully dyed fabric that become the inspiration for my next batik. This is a batik taken from a pencil drawing I did of my son Adrian when he was just a tyke.

"Dahsom"

Batik Painting

These next three batik paintings were by far the most challenging works I have ever done. They were an experiement in batik realism. I had taken a drawing class and was intrigued at the ease with which one could achieve a three dimensional likeness with different shades of the same color. I thought it would be interesting to try this with batik. Each piece was done first as a finished pencil drawing (on paper) and using that as reference I proceeded to do a batik "under-painting" in five or six different shades of gray. Then I removed all of the wax and began dipping the piece in colored dye baths. Every subsequent color I dipped was influenced by the different shades of gray that were already there. After about 10 or 15 different dye baths I again removed the wax and began the process over again, this time intensifying the colors, and focusing on my darkest darks. The batiks just came to life after this third go round. I had spent many years working within the confines of traditional dip-dyed batik to achieve this sort of realism. Technically, these are some of the best batiks I have, or will ever do.

"The Original Tollhouse"

Batik Painting

"I'll Bring the Salad"

Batik Painting

"Cornucopia"

Batik Painting

 

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