JOURNAL 1
After the Sanctuary installation ended in February
the voices continued.


So I began their “journals” 
with paraphrases inspired by actual memories.


I stained thick Arches paper with coffee and charcoal
to reflect the resilient grit of the refugees 
and folded the paper to make the front and back 8.5” x 11”
and a centerfold 11” x 17” = 3 images each page.


These are the first 9 steps of what will be a long journey.
“How could a girl like me reach the other side of the world
where all dreams are possible?”
“I looked at the horizon, searching
for a measure of peace in the hills.”
“My hands helped me not to cry.”
“Mom said don’t run around.
If you get lost we will never find you.”
(This is how a stained centerfold looks before the drawing.)
“It was gone – my home, my life, all of it –
Nothing but rubble, nothing but dust.”
“There was no help coming.”
Screaming. Someone was screaming
Get out get out get out get out get out get out
“We thought we would go back.
That was years ago.”
“Even today I can see the ashes falling.”


*


MORE PAGES COMING NEXT MONTH!
(Spoiler: The people will make it in the end.)
SANCTUARY 25
INSTALLED! Finally, all of SANCTUARY can be seen
from Jan. 20 to Feb. 13 at TAG Gallery.


These installation photos by LA Art Documents
give you just a glimpse of Part 3. 
Entering the rooms at the back, these two girls greet you.
Notice the white footprints on the floor.
They walk all the way from the front door
suggesting the journey of the refugees.
The canvas behind the girls is an abstract painting.
“Mama Holds Up the World” frames the theme
on the opposite wall amidst bark and discarded bottles.
Behind people warming their hands in a shelter
you can see the background mural 
and the abstract painting that forms their roof.
Beside it, a child in a pink hoodie
watches her mother hold her face in her hand.
What can they do?
Next to them sits this barefoot man
with a one-room school in the background. 
Some of the school-children seen closer.
The other half of the room is a clinic
where these patients wait for help from
Doctors Without Borders
for which the show aims to raise funds.


This brief tour is only a hint of a huge display
filling 4 rooms in 5,000 sq ft.


Please visit if you can or join the zoom talks
 Thursdays 1/28, 2/4, 2/11 at 3 PM:


Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84388634425…
SANCTUARY 24
After 3 years in development, just a month from now 
ALL of SANCTUARY
will be installed – 50 elements in 5000 sq. ft –
at TAG Gallery, 5458 Wilshire Blvd., LA 90036
Jan. 20 to Feb. 13
Meanwhile, “The Faces of Sanctuary”
10 small drawings of the figures in the show
are available in the holiday sale at TAG.
Each is just $250, matted, framed, ready to hang.
Visit or contact the gallery at (323) 297-3061
or ask me about getting any of these
or 27 more faces that will be available
at the big Sanctuary show.
Proceeds from these sales benefit
Doctors Without Borders
I wish you all a healthy holiday
and I hope to see you, even if only virtually,
for the big show in a better new year.
SANCTUARY 23
While Sanctuary Part One continues at Gallery 825 until Dec. 4 –


I keep working on Part Three including this big drawing.
Yeah, it’s invisible if you’re reading on your phone
but it’s 6 feet wide and 5 feet high 
so please come see it in January!
Not quite an homage to Pieter Breugel’s 
“Children’s Games” painted in the year 1560…
…still this drawing is rich with details of daily life.
Remember these two little girls?
Now they will greet visitors to Part Three.
Drawing them in the landscape is a wink to “meta” reality.
Within Sanctuary Part Three, a symbolic clinic honors 
Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres),
for which the show will raise funds.
I made this collage of their posters for the clinic tent.
Figures line up for the doctors, including this kneeling dad.
Anyone who ever held a screaming infant will recognize this face.
This older couple waits in line.
I love his tenderness supporting her.
Lying inside the clinic, a patient wears a mask we recognize now.
She was the first walker when I started Part One in 2018.
But her face is bas relief, not drawn, and I decided to draw instead
so I set her aside.
And now she’s revived 3 years later in Part Three.




Meanwhile, Part One is still up at Gallery 825  
open by appointment: (310) 652-8272
SANCTUARY 22
Part ONE of Sanctuary 
will reprise in a solo show 
at the Los Angeles Art Association / Gallery 825
from Oct. 30 to Dec. 4…
…just as Part TWO comes down at TAG Gallery on the 31st.
What a time, with everything else going on!
Apart from visiting the gallery, the best way to see Part Two
is this wonderful video by LA Art Documents:
https://youtu.be/dVdXWs22f-M.
Meanwhile, please enjoy some Part Two installation images.
“Holding On”, 47” x 72” x 64”
“Prayer for Safe Passage,” 49” x 36” x 64”
“Grandma Tried to Dry Our Clothes,” 36” x 36”x 36”
“What Is Left,” 26” x 75” x 88”
Installation view of Sanctuary Part Two
“All That Matters” from Sanctuary Part One, 84” x 36”


No reception is planned for Part One at Gallery 825 
but it is open by appointment:
(310) 652-8272
825 N. La Cienega Blvd., LA 90069
Please visit if you can.
SANCTUARY 21
It took 4 weeks, 8 hours a day even through the heat wave
to make the 36-foot mural that will hang behind the tents 
in Sanctuary Part Three.
Finally I spread out the mural in my driveway.
Seen from the far side, that’s me on the distant ladder.
I was relieved because…
…this is my funky outdoor studio
and I couldn’t see the two 18’ sides together until now.
The table in the center is 3 feet by 7 feet 
(an old screen door on horses)
so the canvas crunches on the ground as I move it.
Here’s a finished detail about 4 feet wide.
The sky is acrylic and pastel, the top mountains are pastel,
the bottom foreground is found objects and plant pieces, and…
…the “mountains” in mid-range are stapled creases of canvas.
The only way to drag each half
from the driveway back to the workspace
was to wear it as a cape.
Here goes the second 18 foot cape.
Yay! The mural is done until Sanctuary Part Three 
hangs in January with the entire series!!!


*
Please join me (virtually or in person) for upcoming shows –
Sanctuary Part Two (the rafts) will be exhibited from Oct. 6 to Oct. 31
At TAG Gallery, 5458 Wilshire Blvd., LA 90036.
Appointments are available by calling (310) 829-9556.


AND Sanctuary Part One has a solo show
at Gallery 825 from Oct. 31 to Dec. 4.
SANCTUARY 20
These little girls try so hard for you to accept them
holding “Hi” and smiley signs
that belie the worry on their faces.


Perched against a painted wall, bare feet dangling,
they are the greeters welcoming you to Sanctuary Part 3.
They appeared as sketches in Sanctuary Part One,
but look at the difference since I freed them 
from the canvas and gave them legs with pants!
The “wall” behind them is re-purposed too
from this abstract painting made years ago.
This is how the canvas drapes behind the wall.


The reclaimed materials reflect a theme throughout Sanctuary:
value everyone and everything.

************************************************************************

This family just arrived…
…with a mother’s anguish…
…and her quickly stuffed suitcase
spewing whatever clothes she could grab.
(It’s another rescued element: my battered handbag.)
She holds a roll of film but it has no pictures.
Did she plan to photograph her home before it was gone?
Or is she keeping it for a future she doesn’t know?
Another salvaged painting forms the roof of her tent,
torn and weathered like her.
But they’re safe now. They’ve arrived
in Sanctuary.
SANCTUARY 19
The one-room school in Sanctuary Village
overflows with kids from all over the world
arrayed in rows at desks made of bark.
At the back, a mom brought her baby,
a daughter who clutches mom’s dress,
and a son who shows off his Nike shirt.
Beside them 3 little girls try to cope:
the biggest clenches her fist,
the littlest grasps an incongruous charm,
and a brave girl raises her hand.
In front of them, these kids discover new notebooks.
But this girl sits alone. Everyone here is a refugee. 
What did she lose?
Crouched at the other side, 
she’s 14 and sees no path forward.
What can this school do for her?
The brightest spot in this story of the one room school
is at front: a colorful map of the world
and the children’s delight.
This part of Sanctuary 3 is still in progress. 
It won’t be in a black box (that’s just for the photo).
Next the school gets a grass floor
set against an 18 ft. mural. 
That will happen in August!
SANCTUARY 18
SANCTUARY has always been symbolic.
Yes, it’s about the journey of refugees
but now we are all undone
in the winds of revolution.


Amidst the passion and action of protests…
…this traditional woman
only wants to protect her children.
She keeps her daughters in traditional clothes,
safely home she believes.
But this little boy loves his Lakers shirt,
proof that heroes who jump so high
they almost fly are possible,
somewhere he’s never seen.
And this kid, 7 or 8, is outta here
as soon as he’s old enough.
Mama won’t be able to stop him.
Or protect him. 
Making this piece involved a dress pattern.
Here it is on my studio table, ready for the backing.
The final piece is a cube, 3ft x 3ft x 3 ft. 
It represents the perfect balance 
this woman desperately wants 
to shelter her family.
*************************************************************************************
The second piece in June is “on series.”
SANCTUARY is a multi-part installation. 
Though I post individual structures 
this laundry place inhabits a context …
…where little girls…
…may seem hopeful.
The “water” is a painting on silk
re-purposed from my 2014 series,
and the metal ring came from a rotted wooden barrel.
I found the net in an alley.
It’s hung with clothes from a give-away bag.
The floor is used coffee bean burlap.
And with these humble materials
daily life goes on.
SANCTUARY 17
The second shelter in Sanctuary Part 3
is a refuge made of sticks and burlap 
like the simple hug we all need now.
This man emerged from charcoal 
and my job is to make him a place.
The armature inside the legs and arms 
is paper towel and toilet paper rolls,
nothing fancy or expensive here.
He waits on my workshop table
above the coffee bean bags on the floor.
I bent sticks with twine to make the arch of the shelter.
It’s drying on my back fence.
The structure is designed with duct tape on used cardboard. 
(The finished version is on foam core for strength).
Now he’s home.
**************************************************************************
For the next shelter in May
I found paintings from my 2013 Fire series…
…reinterpreted now for refugees needing warmth. 
Also from years ago I found an abstract canvas
that didn’t fit any other project.
The flip side of that canvas was always red
and now it reflects the fire in a habitat.
The tent was constructed with foam core 
and a found metal pipe.
The paintings are positioned.
And the canvas is draped as a roof.
Flame tea-lights illuminate the people 
in their finished home.