Life Is In The Balance

On September 9th, I had the wonderful opportunity speak with an enthusiastic group of Narrows Botanical Gardens visitors about the Life Is In the Balance series of drawings. I briefly discussed my academic background and related work from my fifty year career as a professional artist. There were questions about the materials used in the original drawings and how they were reproduced to be weather resistant. I talked about each one of the drawings in the order they were created and identified the plants and where they can/could be found in the gardens, when seasonally appropriate.     Photo:Luz Diaz The most informative for the visitors, and the most fun for me was to go around the gardens and visit a few of the locations where they could see the plants that inspired me.  As luck would have it, the milkweed seed pods were "ripe" and full of seeds. We reminisced about our intrigue as children with the floating seeds. We all had forgotten how soft they are. Photo: Luz D...

In my beloved Chinese redwood grove at Narrows Botanical Gardens   Please join me on Saturday, September 9th  from 2 - 3pm at Narrows Botanical Gardens in Brooklyn  for my Artist's Talk for the exhibit Life Is In the Balance Learn about my process in making the drawings, the 40 year history of my making work that has a very similar structure in sacred geometry and radial symmetry and how my four years as a volunteer at NBG informed this project.  Find out where each drawing's subject matter is located in the garden. I look forward to answering your questions and talking about the art and nature and visualizing the connection of all life on Earth.  If you have questions, please contact me at krharris46@gmail.com.

Chinese Redwood Grove at Narrows Botanical Gardens On Saturday, August 19th I taught a drawing workshop at Narrows Botanical Gardens in conjunction with my Life Is In the Balance exhibition. I was thrilled to welcome 15 participants to our drawing studio, inside a grove of Chinese redwoods in the Gardens. We had artists from 4 to 70 years old. My students from the Bay Ridge Center were well represented and a welcome addition.     I brought a number of drawing pads and pencil and as I introduced myself I handed out the supplies. The students first task was to open the tablet and write; My Nature Notebook and their name. I challenged them to  continue to fill the notebook with drawings from nature after they left the workshop.     For those who chose an alternative to drawing the trees (complex subject matter) I had a collection of natural object for them to draw. There was a cicada, a few seed pods, a small branch from the redwoods complete with pinecones. ...

At the opening event for Life Is In the Balance, I had the delightful opportunity to have conversations with about 25-30 park visitors about the artwork. It was so gratifying to hear how much the work was appreciated and how it added to their experience in the park. Narrows Botanical Gardens are truly a valuable resource for the community. I am so happy to make this contribution for the two months the artwork will be on display. Don't miss out. July 15 - September 15   Kristin in front of newly installed artwork: Narrows Botanical Gardens, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn I got an interesting array of questions, most frequently what were the materials used to make them. Seeing drawing reproduced on vinyl is not something that happens everyday and many thought they were paintings on canvas. I informed them that the originals were mixed media on paper, which of course could not be displayed outside. I explained that the work was inspired by the gardens and all of the plants/fauna exist in the par...

I am so pleased to see this series of drawings completed. That said, there is much more to come in the Life Is In the Balance project. Details will be provided when exhibition dates are firmed up. Funded by the New York State Council on the Arts, Life Is In the Balance is a visual reflection of the connection of all life on Earth and the continual give and take as life self-regulates and perpetuates in balance.   I find this a wonderful miracle. The specific subjects were inspired by a park in New York City. My choice was Narrows Botanical Gardens in my neighborhood of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. As a result of this series, I have a new awareness of the process of drawing as a conversation between the artist, the subject and the paper and tools used. These drawings were definitely a collaboration. Every step of the way created a new reality that was a factor moving forward. That certainly makes it more of a challenge and so much more satisfying than believing I know where I'm going...

  Life is in the Balance_Drawing 5: Apple Blossoms I have been delinquent in keeping the blog updated....not in drawing. (It's too much fun to stop for very long)  Apple Blossoms with dandelion flowers and bees is a tribute to spring. I have been gaga just drifting from one flower or flowering tree to another.  A current obsession is writing haiku. These two are appropriate to express my mood and how it is visualized in this drawing. Still under the spell  from one flower to the next It's finally spring   Gift of renewal Energized the whole world The glory of spring   This drawing is just about finished. Thanks for your interest in my work. Learn more about my artwork to inspire careful observation of the natural world on my website, KristinHarrisDesign.com .  

I needed the break I took the last few weeks. I jumped into this series full steam ahead and needed a rest!  Very happy to have acted on my strategizing of the last few weeks and put pencil to paper today. This spring there have been an abundance of flowering trees in my neighborhood. They inspired me to indulge in a favorite pass time, writing haiku.                Cherry trees in spring                The flowers like falling stars                Bringing me such joy  Narrows Botanical Gardens has a number of blooming apple trees which did not disappoint. There are many flowering plants at the Gardens now but the apple blossoms really captured my attention. They are especially beautiful but maybe it's also in my father's memory I celebrate them now. He was a great fan of apples and apple trees. He nurtured many an apple tree in his days as a ...

Monarch and Milkweed; in progress     Today I am laying out Monarch and Milkweed, the fourth drawing in my Life is in the Balance series funded by the New York State Council on the Arts. These drawing are inspired by a lifetime of immersing myself in the natural world and my experiences as a recent transplant to Brooklyn, NYC. The series is influenced by Islamic geometric art - a beautiful marriage of science and art. I have been creating art referencing this geometry for over 40 years. I appreciated it on a purely visual level but as I am learning more about the philosophy, I realize it is the patterns that are important. Syed Jan Abas and Amer Shaker Salman in Symmetries of Islamic Patterns indicate that the geometry mirrors the harmony of nature and defines that which is infinite and perfectly beautiful. So  it is actually a marriage of science, art and spirituality. It is the significance of seeing those patterns in life that really hit me emotionally. I don't always ...

                                 Waterlilies, mixed media, 30"x30", Caran d'Ache on paper, 3.7.2023   The light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. What I need now is a bit of magic. I am adding fish to create a more realistic scene and adding black around the blue circles and rushes to unify the imagery.  I want to also add reflections in the water.  TBD is it pulls it all together!  I do like the silhouette of the dragonflies. I think they would be lost other wise.   I want to remember that a major theme of this work/series of drawings is patterns and seeing patterns. What does that mean and how do we do it? I am pondering that question.

  Waterlilies, 30"x30", mixed media, work in progress     I frequently tell my art students you have to confidently move forward because you can't react to what you can't see. In this case I am calling it jumping into the deep end.  The purple/water will look very different as this image resolves itself but this is the base/beginning. Laying out the entire image helps me see how they balance each other as they evolve. Water gardens are beautiful havens of tranquility. They also represent one of the most basic threads that unite all life, water. The first organisms on Earth evolved in water/mud. Our bodies are 66% water, the Earth's surface is made up of 71% water and the atmosphere contains from .2% - 4% water. We need to drink water to stay alive.  Stay tuned as I work on this drawing as a tribute to the numerous water features at Narrows Botanical Gardens and the calm beauty they provide for the community.  Learn more about my work at KristinHarrisDesign....