My Blog Has Moved!

My new blog can be found here:

http://marydanielhobson.com/blog/

For those of you who signed up to get my latest posts in your email inbox, you have to set that up again on the new blog, by going to this page:  feed://marydanielhobson.com/feed/  Then in the lower right column, click on "Subscribe in Mail".

I also invite you to sign up for my e-newsletter (thru MailChimp) and stay up to date about my art events & news. 

Lastly, you can also find me on:
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The Wolf is Here!

I am so excited to share that The Wolf Who Ate the Sky has been published by Heyday Books! 

When my daughter Anna was 3.5 years old, we created this story during car rides to and from preschool. In telling it again and again, it grew into the story that is now in this book. My father, artist Charles Hobson, did a fabulous job illustrating and designing it. This 3-generation project is now on Amazon, heydaybooks.com, and in local bookstores. Signed copies will also be at my next Open Studio on April 25 & 26 in Muir Beach.

Here is a taste of the plot: "A very hungry wolf eats the sky, plunging the whole world into darkness, but a brave boy and a menagerie of animals are determined to bring back the light."  

To learn more about the book and the illustrations in it, please visit Charles Hobson's web site.

Below is a very sweet video of Anna at 3.5 years old telling a version of the story. Enjoy!

Artist Talk at Gallery 291: Watch It Online

I am so excited to share that my Artist Talk at Gallery 291 can now be seen online thanks to Steve Wynn at Bayside Entertainment. He did a beautiful job recording and editing it. 

In this talk, I start with my photography background and how my graduate studies of Surrealism led me to work in mixed media. Then I share the stories, inspirations and techniques behind the six different series on view at Gallery 291 - from the layered collage of Mapping the Body and Milagros, to the sculptures of Bottle Dreams and the still lives of Sanctuary and Evocations. I conclude with my newest work, mixed media collages that are about reaching into the darkness and finding an unexpected gift or blessing. 

You can watch the video here on Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/113934940
I would love to know what you think. 

Gallery 291 - Installation Shots

Here are a few pictures of my exhibition at Gallery 291 in Mill Valley, CA. This is the biggest show I have ever had, with 105 pieces of art! Some works were made as long ago as 18 years while others were completed just days before the show opened. I am really looking forward to sharing the meaning and inspiration behind this work at the Artist Talk on Thursday, November 13th at 6:30pm. If you are in the area I hope you will be able to make it. 

Regeneration, Open, Twice and Blessing #5

Mapping the Body & Bottle Dreams

Milagros and New Work

Mapping the Body

My newest collages

New Work

Today I am sharing a few of my new pieces. I am so excited to have them be part of the Gallery 291 exhibit, opening this Saturday, October 18th at 6:30pm in Mill Valley, CA. For more details, please visit www.gallery291.net. If you are in the area, I hope you will get to see the show, which is up through the end of November.

Image Info (top to bottom):
Reverie, mixed media collage, ©2014, 14 x 17"
Solace, mixed media collage, ©2014, 7 x 8.5"
Nesting #2, mixed media collage, ©2014, 14 x 10"
Blessing #6, mixed media collage, ©2014, 7.25 x 7.25"
Open, mixed media collage, ©2014, 14 x 10"

New Work - New Show!

I have been busy in the studio, creating a new series of mixed media collages and am really excited to be sharing them in a solo exhibit this October and November at Gallery 291 in Mill Valley, CA. At the heart of the new work is the experience of reaching into the darkness, the unknown, and having an unexpected gift or blessing arrive. Gallery 291 will be showing these pieces plus works from my 5 previous series as well - so it feels a bit like mid-career retrospective. If you are in the area, I hope you will get a chance to check it out and come to the reception or artist talk.   

Mary Daniel Hobson: Mixed Media Photography

October - November 2014

Reception: Saturday, October 18th, 6:30pm

Artist Talk: Thursday, Novembe 13th at 6:30pm

Gallery 291 (at The Image Flow)

401 Miller Ave, Mill Valley, CA 

415-888-3585 

Image Info: Invocation #1, ©2014, mixed media collage, 14 x 10"

Just Do Your Work - Wise Words from Kiki Smith

 
“Just do your work. 
And if the world needs your work, it will come and get you. And if it doesn’t, do your work anyway. You can have fantasies about having control over the world, but I know I can barely control my kitchen sink. That is the grace I am given. Because when one can control things, one is limited to one’s own vision.”
-Kiki Smith

Image: Studio Work Table, ©2014 Mary Daniel Hobson

Making Art Together - The Traveling Postcards Project

Six of us, myself included, gathered on a recent Monday evening in my studio to celebrate a friend's birthday by making postcards for the Traveling Postcards Project. Amid the sounds of shuffling paper, scissors slicing and easy conversation, we each crafted a 4 x 6"card for an anonymous woman in need of support. It was a lovely way to channel our creative energy into a meaningful gift for someone else while enjoying tea and chocolate birthday cake.

The Traveling Postcards Project was founded by Caroline Lovell, and the cards created are delivered by her organization to women in shelters recovering from abuse. As Caroline says, "Creating postcards that incorporate both art and words may seem like a small action, but it is exactly what most women want; voice, visibility and compassionate caring. Receiving a card that is both beautiful and meaningful from a stranger is empowering. Knowing that you are not alone and that someone is trying to help can create resiliency. None of us can hope to effect change single handedly, but together, through collective action, we can help each other."

For me, it was so inspiring to create art as an anonymous gift for someone else. I also loved offering a hands-on artmaking event in my studio. I realize, although I have hosted many events - from Open Studios to mentoring, group critiques, artist gatherings and more - that I have rarely pulled out the art supplies and invited people to just create with me in my studio. It was such fun and I look forward to doing something like this again soon.

You could see the postcards we made that night on the Traveling Postcards facebook page. If you are interested in learning how to make your own card, please click here. 

Creativity & Grace

Wishing you a new year full of creativity and grace!

Image Info: Wish ©2013, mixed media collage, 4 x 6"

Getting Ready...Open Studio Tomorrow!

I have been having fun and working hard this week getting the studio ready for my Fall Open Studio tomorrow, Saturday, October 5th. It's always a treat to re-hang my art for these events and see it fresh. Plus I have been organizing paints so kids can decorate flower pots, and baking biscotti and other treats. Here are a few photos of the studio as it is getting ready. If you are in the Bay Area it would be great to have you come by!

Muir Beach Open Studio & Garden Sale
hosted by Mary Daniel Hobson, Wendy Johnson & Peter Rudnick
Saturday, October 5 from 10am - 4pm
1795 & 1815 Shoreline Hwy, Muir Beach, CA
Offering fine art, organic plants, art activities for kids and tea & treats and more.
Questions? Please email me.

Image #1: Machu Picchu II, Conserve Ecology, Ascend, and a new piece called Open.

Image #2: I always love offering some of my favorite quotes about the creative process - folded up so people can pick one intuitively. 

Image #3: A panoramic shot of three walls of the studio

Celebrating Fall with an Open Studio

I have always loved the fall season. The back to school energy feels like a fresh start. The abundance of apples and garden vegies makes me appreciate the generosity of nature. The summer fog of Muir Beach gives way to crisp bright sunshine. I feel sharper and brighter myself. 

It's a wonderful time of year to open my studio, and so I will be hosting an Open Studio in Muir Beach on Saturday, October 5 from 10-4. There will be a wide assortment of my mixed media art from photographs bottled in mineral oil to layered collages and more, plus postcards & notecards for sale. There will also be art activities for kids and tea & treats, and my neighbors, Wendy Johnson & Peter Rudnick, will be opening their home garden and nursery too. Please see details below, and contact me with any questions. If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, it would be lovely to have you stop by!

MUIR BEACH OPEN STUDIO & GARDEN SALE
hosted by Mary Daniel Hobson, Wendy Johnson & Peter Rudnick
Saturday, October 5th from 10am-4pm
1795 & 1815 Shoreline Hwy, Muir Beach, CA  

Image Above: Sanctuary #9, archival pigment print, 16.5 x 11", ©marydanielhobson

New Ideas

"New ideas always find me this way way, ramshackle, delightful, and unexpected. And I am convinced that ideas are everywhere, like wild daisies, there for the picking. We all have access. Anyone can snag the corner of an idea and give it a tug, pulling down from the firmament some fragment of greatness. It's not a lack of ideas that stops us from creating great work; it's that we make too many excuses and lack the courage to dream thing real. It's that having the guts to yank an idea out of the ether and toss it into a cycle of rapid prototyping, drafting and revising requires focus and risk. The creative process is always an encounter with the unknown, and demands a willingness to veer off course and be transformed." - Christina Rosalie from A Field Guide To Now

New ideas are finding me. I am working with them, chipping away and bringing them into form like the new series of prints in progress pictured here on my studio work table. I am practicing diligence and patience. And I am feeling very blessed to have the capacity - the space and the time (though I always crave more) - to take my visions and make them tangible and real.

Clearing the River

"Be wild; that is how to clear the river. The river does not flow in polluted, we manage that. The river does not dry up, we block it. If we want to allow it its freedom, we have to allow our ideational lives to be let loose, to stream, letting anything come, initially censoring nothing. That is creative life. It is made up of divine paradox. To create one must be willing to be stone stupid, to sit upon a throne on top of a jackass and spill rubies from one’s mouth. Then the river will flow, then we can stand in the stream of it raining down." -Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run with the Wolves 

I have been blessed this week with time to "clear the river" --  meaning large chunks of time in the studio to open the flow of creativity. Today I started a new journal with this quote above, cleaned my space, and shot fresh images of my hands. I am excited to see where all of this will take me. 

Image above shot this past Saturday at Muir Beach with my iPhone 4S ©marydanielhobson

Prayer for the New Year

Wishing you a New Year full of 
Creativity and Grace!

Prayer ©2012, kodalith and mixed media collage, 5 x 7" (framed)

My Favorite Books of 2012

When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice

by Terry Tempest Williams

Written by one of my favorite authors, this is a book about voice, silence, motherhood, family, loss and creativity. One of the highlights of my year was seeing Terry read from it at Commonweal in May – you could hear it too, thanks to the New School’s podcast.

My Dakota 

by Rebecca Norris Webb

It is a rare thing in my experience for a photography book to possess the depth of emotional content that this one does. Rebecca Norris Webb made this series of powerful photographs after the untimely death of her brother, and I could feel her grappling with the edge between the living and the dying in these pictures. Her handwritten text runs throughout the book adding personal and poetic meaning.

Sunburn 

by Chris McCaw

Chris McCaw has created a fabulous series of photographs that are simple yet profound renderings of the path the sun and moon make across his paper negatives – literally burning the paper at times with the extreme length of exposure. I love how one of the very first images has a burn mark right through the paper page as if it were one of his prints – it’s so tactile and succinctly describes his process.

We Are in a Book  

by Mo Willems

With two young girls in my house, most of the books I read are for the 2-4 year old. Mo Willems is a master in that category. This is my personal favorite among his many wonderful titles, because he did something so clever in this book that breaks down the distance between the reader and the characters of Piggie and Elephant. I will let you read it to find it out, as it offers a good chuckle for kids and adults alike.

Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being An Artist 

by Austin Kleon

I am always on the look out for a good book about the creative process -- this is my pick for 2012. It is light-hearted in size and style, but the wisdom is spot on. One of my favorite bits of insight was the permission to work analog even in this digital age – to work with the tools that best suit your own rhythm. This book is one I am keeping in the studio to flip through whenever I need a little creative inspiration.

Making Mail: Holiday Open Studio Cards

Relishing the meditative practice of handwriting envelopes, adhering postage and return address labels, and embellishing envelopes with rubber stamps...my next Open Studio card is in process today. I love the tactile process of making mail. It helps build my anticipation for my next Open Studio in Muir Beach on December 2 from 11-5. If you would like to receive a mailed invite, just send me your address.

Work In Progress: Ocean Music

This bottle has sat on my studio shelf for months with just an image of the ocean inside, waiting.... Today I finally picked it up, literally dusted it off, and began to form it into the piece you see here. I layered sheet music and a handwritten text about the music of the ocean. I rolled some of the sheet music into scrolls - one in the front, and three in the back. The big breakthrough for me was placing the scroll in front of the photo inside the bottle...I have never tried that before, and I really like the effect - it pushes the photo away from the glass, giving it a little more space to move. I poured in mineral oil so that the elements can move and shift together like they would if they were in the ocean's water. It still needs to have its lid adhered with silicone, and then I will take a more professional photo, but for now I just wanted to share the progress made today.  

I have been thinking a lot lately about how nothing is wasted...there are so many ideas I have for art, so many objects and images I collect in my studio, and all in due time the parts come together to form new art. The trick is patience. This piece reminds me that completion is not a race, but rather a gentle allowing and trusting my own timing.

Art Plus Life

I am getting ready for my next exhibition called "Art Plus Life," a group exhibition at a really lovely venue. Commonweal is a center for healing, research, and inspiration in Bolinas, CA. I will exhibiting some of my large-scale mixed media collages from Milagros. In this series, I photographed people's arms and asked them to write a wish for a positive change or miracle in their life, and then I created a collage combining the two with the intention of creating a visual affirmation of that wish. Pictured here is one of my pieces in the "Art + Life" exhibit - called "Kindness". And if you look closely at the original you will find the handwritten wish in the forearm, stating "What about kindness becoming infectiously popular - among close relations and strangers - unknown kindness mischief." I am so delighted to be showing this series at a place so committed to transformation and healing. I hope that if you are in the area, you will get a chance to see the exhibit.

"Art Plus Life"

June 23 - September 21, 2012

Opening Reception: June 23, 3-5pm

Commonweal Art Gallery

451 Mesa Road, Bolinas, CA 

www.commonweal.org

curated by Jacqueline Mallegni and Claudia Chapline

Artists: Bob Demmerle, Linda Gass, Mary Daniel Hobson, Elizabeth Jameson, Daigon Lueck,and Maud Zimmer

Image Info: "Kindness" from the series Milagros, 28 x 10", mixed media collage, $1750

Spring Open Studio & Garden Event

Today I am working away in the studio getting ready for my next Open Studio happening Saturday & Sunday, April 28 & 29, 10am-4pm each day. I always look forward to these events for a few reasons...

1) I get the opportunity to share my art and process in person, face to face. Having events like this in my studio makes it easy to show my working methods, techniques, and sources of inspiration. I love the feedback, good conversation, and sense of being connected to others who appreciate creative work.

2) I get to collaborate with my wonderful neighbors, Wendy Johnson and Peter Rudnick who host an Open Garden and Plant Sale at the same time. Wendy and Peter used to run the gardens at Green Gulch and are masters at farming and cultivating the soil. Hosting this event with them enhances the feeling of neighborhood & community.

3) It's a family friendly art event. As an artist and a mother, I love that this event integrates those two roles. My young daughters are here with me, kids come and play outside, and there are art supplies for them to explore. Last time, children painted pots at my studio and then took them over to Peter and Wendy's for soil and seed. I think we will be doing that again this time.

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, it would be lovely to have you come by for tea and treats, fine art, and springtime plants. See details below.

Muir Beach Open Studio & Spring Plant Sale
Saturday & Sunday, April 28 & 29, 10am-4pm
1795 & 1815 Shoreline Hwy, Muir Beach, CA
Click here for directions

"Femmescapes"

It was a wonderful surprise this past week to get an email query from a Mills College student about this piece pictured here called Nocturne. She is is helping to put together an exhibit from the collection of Lenore Pereira & Rich Niles which will open on April 14 in San Francisco. It is really delightful to hear out of the blue that my work is going to be shown publicly. Once a piece sells and leaves my domain, it finds a new home and depending on the circumstances, I may not even know where that is. This mixed media collage now dwells in some great company in a private collection focused on contemporary women artists. This exhibit, called Femmescapes, "explores the relationship of a woman’s place in the environment, woman as environment, and the environment as woman." It features artists including Ann Hamilton, Louise Bourgeois, Lisa Kokin, Ana Mendieta, and Kiki Smith - wow!

Nocturne was created in 1999 as part of my series Mapping the Body, in which I explored the emotions & experiences housed within the body. Here I layered kodalith transparency over sheet music (a Chopin Nocturne), torn paper and skeletonized magnolia leaves. Nocturne depicts that chrysalis state right before flight - the egg hatching and wings ready. While making this piece, I was thinking a lot about the experiences in life that crack us open - both the joyful ones and the very painful ones. That cracking can be quite uncomfortable, but ultimately yields access to a new territory within oneself...a new sense of self...a new internal rhythm or hum.

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area and would like to see this exhibition, here is some more information:

FEMMESCAPES
An exhibition featuring work from the collection of
Lenore Pereira & Rich Niles curated by students in the
Mills College Museum Studies Workshop
Opening Reception:
Saturday, April 14, 2012, 6–8 pm
Exhibition Dates:
Saturdays & Sundays, April 15 - May 6, 2012,11am–5pm
Location: 70 South Park, San Francisco, CA, 94107
Learn more by clicking here

Image Info: Nocturne, ©1999, kodalith and mixed media collage, 13 x 11" framed, edition of 10 (sold out)