Artist Denise Hartley blogs about art, painting, murals, and philosophy.
As an artist I seek balance in my life. As a healer, I use healing in my art process to address the healing of our planet.
A study of the painting, Aquamarine, by Maxfield Parrish.
For the fans of Parrish, I began this study to learn how to create the glowing intensity of his works.
My study was created in acrylic paint. A larger work will follow, created in oil.
Aquamarine, 1917, Oil on panel, 15 ½ x 19 ¼”
Photo from Maxfield Parrish and the American Imagists,
Laurence S. Cutler, Judy Goffman Cutler, and the National Museum of American Illustration, 2004.
Work in Progress:
Study of Maxfield Parrish, D.A Hartley, 2021
The mountains of Sequoia National Park, foreground Lake Kaweah.
So to know yourself is to forget yourself. This is to say that when we make friends with ourselves we no longer have to be so self-involved. It’s a curious twist: making friends with ourselves is a way of not being so self-involved anymore. Then Dogen Zen-ji goes on to say, “To forget yourself is to become enlightened by all things.” When we are not so self-involved, we begin to realize that the world is speaking to us all of the time. Every plant, every tree, every animal, every person, every car, every airplane is speaking to us, teaching us, awakening us. It’s a wonderful world, but we often miss it. It’s as if we see the previews of coming attractions and never get to the main feature.
"Mitochondria I", mixed media and gold leaf on wood, 4' x 6', 2002. Private collection.
"Mitochondria". Each of our cells can contain thousands of mitochondria. They are used by our bodies to convert molecules into energy. They are independent, and genetically distinct from the cell nucleus, and can manufacture their own proteins. It is thought that mitochondria originated as a separate single-cell organism that became symbiotic with their hosts, as to be indispensable. Mitochondrial DNA is a remnant of a past existence as a separate organism. Mitochondria contain their own DNA, which we only inherit from our mothers, and can be used to trace maternal links (The American Heritage Science Dictionary).
“Jade Disc”, acrylic paint on canvas, 4’ x 6’, 2002.
“Jade Disc”. This disc is called a bi disc, it is a flat jade disc, with a circular hole in the center. They were used in Neolithic times, burial objects, undecorated, about 3000 B.C.E. The jade objects represent Heaven and were laid on the diseased.
Tao”, mixed media, acrylic on canvas, 4’ x 6’, 2002.
This painting represents the beginning of the universe. The red rays
piercing the disc, are the sparks that create the Ten Thousand Things in our
existence.
Verse 1.
The Tao that is unnamable is the Source of the Heaven and
the Earth.
Verse 40.
The name, once introduced, becomes the Mother of the Ten Thousand Things.
Returning (to the basis) is the motion of Tao,
Yielding is the work of Tao,
The Ten Thousand Things in the universe are born of being,
Being is born of nothingness.
Verse 42.
Tao begot one.
One begot two.
Two begot three.
And three begot the Ten Thousand Things. Lao
Tzu, The Tao Te Ching
"Silent Passage", oil on gessoed wood, 4' x 6', 2003.
Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching.
The reason water can keep changing its form is because it is essentially
formless. Its form is determined by what is around it. Put it in a cup, and it
will be cup-shaped. Put it in a ravine, and it will be river-shaped. It needs
no form of its own, because it harmonizes with everything around it, taking
other beings as its outline, instead of imposing itself upon others.
“Zen Drawing”, mixed media on wood, 3’ x 4’, 2002. Private Collection.
“Zen Drawing”. Enlightenment, the first principle is possible acknowledging the everything and everyone is Buddha-nature. Enlightenment is possible to everyone. Enlightenment in Buddhism, or for the Taoist sage, is not expressible in words, or logical thought. Intuitive understanding is necessary, acknowledging that eternity is here and now. Fredric Liberman
Nature Series:
My art consists of a combination of video installations and paintings, which form an exploration of the sights and sounds of water. Focusing on a natural vista, the viewer may experience the crashing of waves, the roar of a whitewater river, and the sounds of a brook working its way downward, in the cycle of movement, back to the ocean.
Photo by D.A. Hartley
My paintings create a tactile experience for the viewer, transforming the gallery into a visual world of life sized natural forms which mirror the existing environment. The paintings are sculptural, created on large wood panels, with deep texture, stains and oils are worked into the wood. The videos are of natural events, surrounding the viewer with the gentle or crashing sounds of water, designed to include the viewer within the artwork.
"Lost Canyon".
Paintings in this video: “Lost Canyon”, mixed media on wood, 4’ x 6’, 2005. Private collection. “Blossom Peak”, mixed media on wood, 4’ x 6’, 2004. Private collection. “Aspen”, mixed media on wood, 4’ x 6’, 2002. Private collection. “Starlight”, mixed media on canvas, diptych, 76” x 54”, 2004. Private collection. “Old Friends”, mixed media on wood, 4’ x 8’, 2001. Courtesy of the artist. “Old Oak and Rock”, oil on canvas, unfinished, 2017-2018. ”Cypress and Basalt”, mixed media on wood, 4’ x 6’, 2006. Private collection. “Aspens”, mixed media, gold on wood, diptych, 6’ x 8’, 2006. Private collection. “Tao”, cast bronze, 10.5” x 22”, 2002. Collection of the artist.
Art Exhibitions for this series:
Water! 2008, Conley Art Gallery, Fresno, CA. Solo Exhibition
Icons, 2004, Three Person Exhibition, Fourth Street Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA.
Temporal Man in Nature, 2002, Cort Gallery, Three Rivers, CA. Solo Exhibition.
Birth of a Painting Series X, “Mountains, Clouds, and Streams”.
“The world is a world of becoming. To see being in becoming,
and becoming in being, that is enlightenment”. D.T. Suzuki
Empirical and experiential sculptural paintings, within a
natural environment, the paintings are a combination of massive sculptural
grounds, forming a reflection of nature, reflecting the temporal nature of man.
"Mountains, Clouds, and Streams", mixed media on wood, triptych, 4' x 6', 2005. Courtesy of the artist.
Nature Series: Themes of Taoism by Denise Hartley.
Sculptural paintings on wood.
“My paintings are influenced from real physical spaces that
exist in nature. The painting is intrinsic to the wood panels that I use. A
tree was cut down to create this panel; the life of the tree encourages the
finished piece. My paintings begin more as sculptural projects. I assemble, sand,
stain, and texture, with an eye to the wood grains. I apply the paint by
rubbing the surface. The surface inspires the art.” D.A. Hartley
Artist D.A. Hartley creates a series
of empirical and experiential waterscapes in a video installation that explores
the sights and sounds of water.
Water!: D.A. Hartley
Museumgoers might be expected to
imagine entering a natural vista, experiencing the crashing of waves, the roar
of a whitewater river, and the sounds of a brook working its way downward, in
the cycle of movement, back to the ocean.
The viewers are invited to
participate in a format of healing and reflection upon nature.
Water! A combination of large-scale
videos within an installation format includes an inner meditation room,
surrounded by paintings and the gentle sounds of water, designed to include the
viewer in the artwork. The paintings are sculptural, created on large wood
panels, with deep texture, oil paints, and gold leaf. The videos are of natural
events; “Lost Canyon Falls”, includes water and fire, in a meditative film;
“Lake Kaweah”, transforms two years of photos into a video time piece,
recording the beauty of each passing day; “Douglas Creek”, includes streams,
meadows, and the sounds of water.
Lake Kaweah, 2007-2008,
large-format video collection of stills.
Conley Gallery, CSU Fresno, 2008.
One Woman Show.
A video of stills,
documenting the rising and
lowering of the waters of
Lake Kaweah,
from the wild flowers of
early spring,
to the snow-capped peaks in
the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
Paintings:
"Cypress and Basalt", mixed media on wood, 4'x6', 2006. Private collection.
Douglas Creek is one of many small creeks that come directly
from the high-country snowmelt and natural springs. It is our drinking water
for our cabin in Stanislaus National Forest, located at 6,700 ft. where the
water is delivered by gravity flow. After passing by our cabin it enters the South
Fork of the Stanislaus River, which begins at (9,635 ft. (2,937 m) Leavitt
Peak, in Tuolumne County and eventually enters the San Joaquin River, and
drains into the San Francisco Bay.
This little mountain stream and river have sustained life
well beyond our time. There are parts of wagons used by the settlers trying to
cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There are obsidian points from the Miwok Native
American tribe and grinding stones. The tiny stream banks are lined with
willow, horsetail herb, mints, orchids, and many other wildflowers. As a child
I wandered where ever I wished, with the caveat that, if lost, head downhill. I
have slept outdoors with bear and mountain lions as possible visitors. Deer
have taken a nap beside me. Chipmunks and Golden Mantle squirrels have sat in
my hands. I trust the four- legged critters but keep a wary eye on the two
legged.
Climate Change is changing our landscape quickly. We had to
saw down six large beautiful Ponderosa trees this year alone. They are dying at
a rapid rate, from bark beetles (love the heat), and a fungus, which spreads
from fir tree roots. This was all predicted by a U.C. Berkeley scientist that
wrote about how pollution affects the photosynthesis process, especially in the
Ponderosa Pines. I watched a fire burn this summer across the river, tree
torches burning brightly in the night.
Nature influences my art, every aspect of nature in
the wild is so precious. In California we have been experiencing an extreme
drought, which is causing fires, and tree disease and plant die out in our
Sierra Nevada Mountains. We have lost thousands of trees in the last few years,
and the loss of natural habitat is shocking.
My painting “Nobe Young Falls”, is a landscape created in oil paints. Nobe
Young Falls are in Sequoia National Forest. I used to have a home in Camp
Nelson, and the falls were near my home. It is an area that was homesteaded by
my son’s great, great, grandmother, Nellie Marshall (the niece of John
Marshall, discoverer of Gold! in California). She homesteaded 200 acres near
Ponderosa, CA. in the Sierra Nevada’s of California, in 1870’s. She married
Nathan Dillon, a gold rush businessman, and owner of land that is now
Dillonwood Sequoia Grove in Sequoia National Park.
Nobe Young Falls are now a destination, when I hiked there it was an
unmarked trail. If you would like to visit these falls there are now directions
posted. https://www.world-of-waterfalls.com/california-nobe-young-falls.html
Here is a map of the Giant Sequoia Groves in the Sequoia National Forest.
Camp Nelson, Ponderosa, and Dillonwood are located on the second map: Giant Sequoia
Groves in Sequoia National Forest.
