I recently took several small paintings I had completed to my friend Bob Godwin at Image House Santa Fe, a fine art digital printing service. He scanned the pieces and printed them several times larger than the original paintings. The results were surprising as the prints are full of textures that are hiding under layers of paint in the original paintings. I now see this new body of work in several steps. The painting, followed by the print which once mounted on a wood panel can be painted into again. This whole process has opened some unexpected creative doors. This is one of the new prints called Awakening. 
Digital Printing: From Paint to Ink
April 5th, 2009Anticipation
February 28th, 2009I finished this cityscape painting in a class taught by Sandra Duran Wilson at the Santa Fe School of Art.
I started by laying down an assortment of acrylic gels and textures onto the board. My new favorite texture is white opaque flakes by Liquitex. You can see the results of this medium along the upper right corner of the piece sweeping down the side of the clock. The “buildings” are squares of the plaster cloth used for making casts for broken bones.
I covered the textures in several layers of color washes and then added the clock and the carpet with soft gel transfers. More color and texture was added. The nude figure is a digital print on a skin of Golden fiber paste. This 10″ x 8″ painting is a study for a larger piece.
Pet Portraits
January 28th, 2009
Tulip has a best friend who lives with Connie and Karen next door. They brought him home only a few days after they moved in this summer and Teddy quickly became an important part of our lives. He’s the best little dog; he’s sweet and funny and a bit of a doofus. About two weeks ago, he got very sick and had to have a barium x-ray, an endoscopy and several biopsies and still the vets didn’t know what was wrong with him. It’s been a worrisome time for all concerned. Seems he had some sort of bacteria that can cause ulcers but with a long course of antibiotics, I’m glad to say, Ted’s doing much better. Every day he’s more and more his old happy puppy self. I took this portrait of him and his bear around Christmas time.
Mixed Media Class
January 18th, 2009I had my first class with Darlene Olivia McElroy last Friday and it was great fun. The first lesson was focused on surface treatments. My favorites so far are saran wrap and Elmer’s Glue. I also like using rubbing alcohol and kosher salt as I did in the third background.
Saran Wrap
Elmers Glue
Alcohol and Salt
Mixed Media Explorations
January 14th, 2009
Here’s some new work that is coming out of my mixed media explorations. The piece on the left is a 5″ x 5″ canvas that uses my photographic images along with acrylic paints, gold foil and sheer cloth. The face is a statue I fell in love with in a cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. The dead rose was found in San Francisco. The piece is called “Memory.”
Change in the Air
December 30th, 2008Tomorrow is the last day of 2008 and it’s my last day as a partner at Artistas de Santa Fe. Although I will remain there as a consignment artist for the time being, I will also be looking for other representation for my work. It is time to cast my net farther out and move into a larger arena.
Change is both unsettling and exciting. At times I feel more motivated to create new work than I have in months. At other times, I feel overwhelmed and the best idea that I can come up with includes sitting and staring or perhaps sleeping. Tulip and I are great nappers.
My work has been changing also and I’m stretching to include more mixed media in the pieces. I’ve been painting more and recently took a six week mixed media class with Sandra Duran Wilson who is an excellent teacher. I’ll be taking another class with her in January along with a 9 week mixed media class taught by Darlene McElroy.
My plans include establishing more of an internet presence for myself so I will begin blogging on a regular basis. No more 18 months between posts! In the weeks to come, I’ll show you my new studio which is a lovely place to work and I’ll also post some pictures of my newer work.
And so I begin a new stage of my artistic life. Cate
Welcome Back
July 12th, 2007It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything on my blog. Don Long asked a question months ago that I only answered a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, the email I sent him bounced back. Don, I hope you see this post.
Don asked: “”I’ve been taking photos of other artists sculpture pieces–can I blend my photos into mixed media/photo images and sell them???”
Well, it’s a copyright matter and if it were me, I would request written permission of the sculptors to use their images in my work. Thanks for your enthusiastic response to my website. I’ve been an ambivalent blogger at best and when my hard drive crashed I lost all my passwords. It’s taken me awhile to return to the blog and read your message. I hope to be more timely in the future.
It’s been a busy spring for me with a studio tour in May followed by an opening at Artistas the next week. I still haven’t caught up on my sleep. The show at the gallery was a rousing success and a very satisfying experience for me. If you want to see the new images from the show, go to my website (www.categoedert.com) and check out the gallery called Dolls: Sacred and Profane and let me know what you think.
We broke ground on my new studio last week. I’m excited. I rented a studio this spring to prepare for the two shows I did and discovered to my surprise that I quite like going out to work. Even though this new studio is attached to my house, it is a separate space that will be dedicated to my work. I can hardly wait to reclaim my dining room where I’ve been working for the last several years.
I’ve expanded my photo work to include jewelry. I have a line of pendants now which feature my images set in silver. Check them out on the website.
Anyway, I wanted to touch base and let people know that I’m still alive and well in Santa Fe. I’d love to hear your responses to my revamped website. Cate
Nebraska Horses
February 3rd, 2007
My friend David recently said I had a “minimalist blog.” Although I like the way that sounds … very trendy and artsy … I guess it’s time to begin posting more frequently.
I’ll begin by talking about the series of Horse images in my New Work gallery. I was driving to my hometown in the midwest last summer taking backroads as a shortcut. I was somewhere in Nebraska and kept passing fields of horses, big and little. Even though I grew up in a small town in Minnesota, I’m what they mean when they say “city girl.” The only time I’ve been around horses has been a couple of trail rides and, once, a childhood friend let me help groom her horse. The only reason I remember that occasion is because I was very late coming home and there was hell to pay. I never had much use for horses after that.
So here I am in Nebraska driving past field after field of mares and their colts and thinking “too bad I don’t photograph horses.” After about the fifth field, I’m on the phone talking to my friend, Bob, and I can’t stand it any longer. I say an abrupt goodbye and slam on the brakes. I tell Tulip to stay, grab my camera out of the backseat and run down into the ditch on the opposite side of the road and start shooting.
As if they’d been waiting for their session, these immense grey mares walk over to the fence and begin to pose for their portraits. It was incredible. I spent about 45 minutes standing in that ditch and I will never forget those incredible animals. That’s the thing about photographing for me; it’s always about entering into a relationship with whatever or whoever the camera is focused on. By the time I finish, I feel I’ve experienced the subject in some way I couldn’t have expected.
So, now I’m a horse photographer and when I leave for Tucson soon, I’ll be scanning the sides of the road for more opportunities to spend some time with these magnificent animals. I’ll let you know if I find any.
Artistas de Santa Fe Holiday Show
December 6th, 2006December 6, 2006
Last Friday our annual holiday group show opened with 75-100 people in attendance. Many of them were local Santa Fe folks which is great because often our visitors are tourists. It’s good to have a night to meet our neighbors. We had a lot of fun and a lot of cookies.
I sold two pieces from My Paris Dolls series. It was a successful party all the way around. 
Artistas de Santa Fe has been in existence for about 4 years. Currently we are ten equal partners, all women at the moment, and we represent a few consignment artists. The gallery has been a way for all of us to have some input and control in our artistic lives. Our motto is “From the Artist to You”and we all like the direct contact with our collectors. I’ll write more about Artistas later but today is my staffing day and I have a lot of work to do. Talk to you later.
