"Lost My Bearings", 30" x 30", oil on canvas.

An abstract painting can be about how it looks and how it makes you feel. I started the painting with horizontal and vertical tracks. It felt like it could represent a woven textile or city road grid. The spheres added a feeling of motion. I felt the spheres could represent train wheels. I thought of the phase “going off the rails.” I finished the painting feeling it had gone from orderly to chaotic.

Van Gogh and the Olive Groves at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Wild Turkey

We have been seeing wild turkeys in the neighborhood for several years, but this is the first time we"ve seen them in our yard.

Practice Painting People Project Continues

Practice Painting People Project Continues

The Fighter of the Spirit

At the 24th st. entrance of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts are a pair of 18th century style Chinese lions and this 18 foot tall bronze sculpture by Ernst Barlach. This is one of two copies of the 1928 untitled sculpture by Barlach, who said, "that it shows the external representation of an internal process." It has been titled "Der Geistkampfer" (The Ghostfighter) or "The Fighter of the Spirit". The winged man holding a sword is standing on the back of a wolf/lioness/beast and may symbolize the victory of the spirit of goodness over evil.

Sonnet for the Sparrows

Sonnet for the Sparrows

I watch the sparrows scatter seeds
Into deep snow where once were weeds.
I take my bucket, footsteps slow.
To fill their feeder, fill their needs.

They watch me from the elm.  I know.
And hear the last seeds as they flow.
They wait until I reach my door;
By then they're peeking in a row.

These pale skies chill us to the core.
Bright spring is what we're longing for.
Then, under the feeder and warm rays.
Sunflower sprouts begin to soar.

Soon taller than I, they'll bow a ways
Toward scattered seeds of winter days.

                                     -Robin Stryker

On the Horizon

Plein Air Events

I had fun participating in the Port Wing, WI and Grand Marais, MN Plein Air Painting Events this summer.