New Series in the Works: Music

Music Series:  Blues Guitar

Music Series:  Jazz Guitar

Music Series:  Rock Guitar

Music Series:  Jazz Sax

Reworked version

Music Series:  Jazz Trumpet

Reworked Version

Music Series:  Rock Bass

Mary Lou Zeek ARTBLOX: My take on it...

The Portland Art Collective always has an art swap for our July Picnic. This year we are swapping an arted up (front and back) wooden block. We are swapping one, but giving others to MLZ. These blocks are for sale at Mary Lou Zeek's Gallery in Salem, OR. They are sold out of an old cigarette vending machine for $10.00 apiece. You don't get to choose which one you get as they are covered. The proceeds go to help artists in need. See below:


Call for Artists-ARTBLOX

The Mary Lou Zeek Gallery announces a call for artists to participate in our “ARTBLOX Project”, an ongoing promotion for artists.

ARTBLOX is a small vending machine that dispenses small blocks of artwork. We are asking artists to submit a jpeg showing their artwork to the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery. The gallery will respond after receiving an image to see if the artists work fits this project.


The ARTBLOX project promotes each artist while helping artists in need. Artists helping artists has been an ongoing project at the gallery with the Face The Public Show each October. Over the last 8 years, the artists have given their time to help other artists who are less fortunate and have encountered medical emergencies. The gallery will promote each artist who submits to this project with business cards and bios. (these will need to be included when submitting the blocks.)

Please contact the gallery if you are interested in our project. To read more: see www.marylouzeekgallery.blogspot.com

For more information, please contact the gallery via the contact on the webpage.

Collage Flowers using Handmade Papers

It's spring and I'm starting to think about flowers again as they burst forth toward the sky in my garden.  It's always amazing to me how quickly they just all of a sudden appear.   Early this month, my friend, Debi Koenig, inspired me by her wasi tape flower card.  In the past few years, I have spent many days creating collaged flower cards.  I gather a pile of papers in front of me and create using whatever is there.  Each time I do them they seem to take on a new persona.  It reminds me of how the flowers suddenly appear in the garden only to die away and allow attention to be paid to another bloom. 

Playing with Gelatin Monoprinting

I was inspired to try gelatin monoprinting while at the March PAC meeting.  I googled and read up on it and thought it would fit in nicely with my art style.  My next 2 days off were spent playing with it.  I have a frozen one in the freezer to try on Sunday!  I am amazed that the gelatin is lasting so long just sitting on my garage studio table. 

What to do with these backgrounds?  Well of course make original cards!  I tried using embossing with them and it works nicely.  More ideas are percolating.

It's always a red letter day...

When my red headed finches arrive back in my yard after their long winters' journey. I am always in awe at the differences in their red heads.  I am always happy to see them.

Are the male species really the most attractive? 

A Birth Painting for a Friend

EACH MOMENT A WHITE BULL STEPS SHINING INTO THE WORLD

                                     by Jane Hirschfield



If the gods bring to you

a strange and frightening creature,

accept the gift

as if it were one you had chosen.



Say the accustomed prayers,

oil the hooves well,

caress the small ears with praise.



Have the new halter of woven silver

embedded with jewels.

Spare no expense, pay what is asked,

when a gift arrives from the sea.



Treat it as you yourself

would be treated, brought speechless and naked

into the court of a king.



And when the request finally comes,

do not hesitate even an instant –



stroke the white throat,

the heavy, trembling dewlaps

you’d come to believe were yours,

and plunge in the knife.



Not once

did you enter the pasture

without pause,

without yourself trembling,

that you came to love it, that was the gift.



Let the envious gods take back what they can.


I decided to do these pieces for my friend, Ed.  In January of 2011, he visited me.  He had just been diagnosed with throat cancer.  Late one night he brought out a book of poetry and read this poem to me.  It made tears come to my eyes as I grasped the meaning of the poem.  I have revisited it many times since and each time I have come away with a new meaning.  In October, 2012 he pushed me to let him go and I agreed.  I "plunged the knife."  During the time I've known him, he regularly told me that I was never out of his life even though I was not with him physically.  I want him to know that I have come to believe this.  He hasn't been out of my life since I met him.  No one can take him away from me--not even him.  He is still here and I will always love him.  He touched me in so many ways and I have grown from that experience.  "That you came to love it, that was the gift."

Thank you, Ed.