PO Box 170621, San Fransisco, CA 94117, us
About the art:
“Door to the Gold Mine” 2018 42x42 inches. Found Metal and gold leaf. Inquire for price.
Gold is forged in the death of stars, yet we humans dig for it in the ground. This door to an abandoned gold mine (gathered with permission) has been crafted into a statement of the fact that what we seek, we already have. The beauty of the gold shines, picking up the slightest light in the room and amplifying it as if the explosion from which it came still continues. The real star is the beauty of entropy, the beauty of the slow patina of the metal, the dissolving of the wood so that a door is no longer functional, it is discarded, useless for its original intent, but still beautiful
“Toy and Tool, Together At Last” 2020. 27x14 inches. Found objects, board, screen, clay, veneciano, pigment, 23k gold leaf. $7800
Toy and Tool were found by the artist under an old Victorian Home in the Fillmore District. There they lay, right beside each other, close and cozy in the dry dirt. Immediately Stone knew the story of their long saga. Toy, a children's shovel, and Tool, a workers paintbrush, fell in love when they first sighted each other across the yard. Toy was in the hands of a young child, playing in the sand still bare beside the newly occupied home. Tool was hard at work painting the outside walls. They fell instantly in love, and saw each other periodically over the years as they were each employed in their very different tasks. Toy lived in a bucket in the children's room. Tool lived in the rear porch tool cabinet. As Toy degraded slowly from hard use, Tool still loved them so. One day Tool was left a little too long with paint drying at the base of their bristles, and an irritated worker tossed Tool under the house, out of sight, out of mind. But Toy was often played with in the dirt and could see Tool there. Toy degraded more and more until one day, Toy was able to pinch the child just a tiny bit, right when the child was near Tool. The child exclaimed in pain and threw Toy under the house in anger, where Toy landed right beside Tool. Maybe they were used up. Maybe no one loved them any more. But Toy and Tool loved each other, and that was what mattered to them above all else. Toy and Tool, Together At Last.
“Love is Like Oxygen” 2008 12 inches. Found Objects, Gold Leaf. $900.
Love is like
Oxygen
You get too much
You too high
Not enough and you’re gonna die
Love makes you high
-Sweet
“When the Saints Go Marching In” 2016 Found objects, wrench, veneciano, pigment, gold leaf. 20x13 inches. $1550
What if all atoms chose what they are? What if everything has an inherent ‘life’ because it has a choice to be a part of a tree, or a bit of iron in the ground? Humans have transformed the natural world into so many ‘things’. Yet what if the things we make have their own spirit? This piece explores the spirit inherent in ‘things’, even after entropy has ground down their sharper edges. Perhaps anything can be a ‘Saint’ as you define it. Perhaps anything can dance in a ‘Second Line’, bobbing a decorated umbrella and waving a handkerchief to my Mothers favorite song?
“Solar Eclipse” August 21, 2017 Found metal, gold leaf. 27 inches. $6000
Humans move within a grand ballet of planets and stars, and the more we learn about how these things work, the more we quest for knowledge. The James Webb Telescope is proof that we throw epic amounts of energy and thought into learning more about the origin of the universe. And still, on our one small rock, we can observe the moon eclipse the sun. This piece is a celebration of that moment, when the birds grow still, and the midday darkens, and we feel… whatever this event brings us to feel about our rare place in space.
“Lost Soles” 2012. 16x43 inches. Leather beach soles, found metal objects, wire, gold leaf. $5500
Like shipwrecked sailors tossed onto the shore, these two lost soles were found covered with sand but still determined to retain their lives. Clearly from a distant time, the durability of these Lost Soles is impressive. Found at a beach front dump that closed around 1948, these two earned their place of honor on this wall, in a frame upon a frame, honored by gold.
“Disciple of My Heart” 2008. 15x23 inches. Found Metal, Maps used to drive around America, gold leaf, metal photo, contact photo, paper. $5000
Everyone has the choice to see life as they wish. We make maps and stories and we navigate using these tools. This piece affirms being called to journey, yet being pulled back again and again to a place that feels like ‘home’. These are the actual maps we used to navigate the world before there were other options. They are the maps of ‘home’. This Disciple has no mouth because listening to the heart and staying open to the magic of where listening leads does not require a mouth.
“Living by Ecological Terms” 2002 12x46 inches Found objects, silver halide prints, bees wax, pigment, wrench, gold leaf. $900
The small print in the lower box says ‘living by ecological terms rather than economic terms”. This piece was inspired by a difficult day traveling through clear cut areas of the Olympic National Forest, where large signs posted by the side of the road called the area a ‘Mixed Use’ forest. This piece affirms life, it affirms standing up for life in every way one is inspired to do so. This idea is put forward on an old, weathered board. Over time some natural beauty has returned as the tree's structure has reasserted itself again. One proposal is that when we destroy something beautiful we affirm that what we make from it will be at least as beautiful, and hopefully as wise and humble. To aspire to build a world as magnificent as a forest is a worthy endeavor indeed.
“Make A Wish” 2018. 26x11 inches. Silver halide prints, wood, pennies, epoxy, wire shaped into words. $750
The water sparkles, this may be your lucky day, and this may be the magic pool that houses the fairy who can make your wish come true. The water is perfect, and so clean you can drink it as you swim. Dragonflies sail over the surface, skimming by you as you dive, eyes open, under the clear, green waters. This IS your lucky day! Note: The paper photos in this piece are not protected by glass.
“Saint Seal” 2019. 17x29 inches. Gifted seal skull, paint and gold leaf on found metal object. 17x29 inches. $5800
Traditional Christian Icons are often identifiable because they are portrayed with the means of their martyrdom. One knows at a glance which Saint is which because Cathrine always has a wheel, Sebastian an arrow, John the Baptist can be gnarly, and so forth. Since Seals are often killed by Great White Sharks, this great Saint of The Seals is portrayed holding the eye of a Great White Shark. While I could have painted the propeller of a Cruise Ship perhaps, my artist's instinct told me that the whole planet is not all about humans, even though we do try to make that the case.
“Entropy” 2020. 75x35 inches. Found metal drum tops, corrugated metal, wood. $4900
Clausius initially described ENTROPY as transformation-content, in German Verwandlungsinhalt, and later coined the term ENTROPY from a Greek word for TRANSFORMATION. In information theory, the entropy of a random variable is the average level of "information", "surprise", or "uncertainty" inherent to the variable's possible outcomes. All spontaneous processes are irreversible; hence, it has been said that the entropy of the universe is increasing: that is, more and more energy becomes unavailable for conversion into work. Because of this, the universe is said to be “running down.”
This piece celebrates the truth of entropy. Entropy is a thing of beauty if you look closely. This piece instructs us to let the dissolution be the solution.
“What Works Is Sexy” 2015 7x15 inches Wrench, suede, gold leaf. $600
Any tool with a curve like that is sexy to me. Stamped on the wrench:
‘What works is sexy, our love works.’
Different strokes:
"Fog and Grass" 2022. Giclee print, 30x30. $295 unframed. $650 framed, plus shipping if needed.
To lay down one's head to sleep in San Francisco some nights is to be bathed in the regular pulse of the fog horns as the moisture seeps through the cracks in leaky windows and walls, if one is lucky enough to have them. The fog horns pull together all folks who can hear them, it is an auditory web that ties us together. On these mornings the fog horns call me to the sea, and there I lay in the grass and look. This image is from that simple place.
“The Butterfly Effect” 2022. 40x31 inches. Plywood, Hubcap, gold leaf, copper, aluminum and patinated brass, raw pigment paint. $1800
The James Webb Telescope launched on Christmas 2021. I have been excited to see what we will learn from this exploration into the history of the universe. I have slowly become hopeful over time, simply because pointing out all that is ‘wrong with the world’ has not helped. I hope that what we learn from the James Webb Telescope can act like the proverbial ‘Butterfly Effect’ and stir the winds of the world towards a storm of humble and grateful change. Of course, we don’t know what we will find yet. This piece, with its butterfly wing shape, giant eye, and specks of gold which reference the gold plated beryllium mirrors on the Webb, is a simple celebration of discoveries yet to come and hope for the effects they may have on the world and on human consciousness.
"Protect". Acrylic on board. 2023. $1000
Lynn Stones mother Joan has a wide array of wonderful photos. This is Joan with a broken arm and a very protective friend.
About the Artist Lynn Stone.
Certain apparently worthless and ruined things draw my eye. I pick them up and bring them to my studio, believing that they are somehow inherently more valuable than they appear. They lurk about until they are needed, like actors in the wings, expectant for their role. That is the work, the magic of changing a thing from base to precious. I listen, look, and am amazed by the ‘AHA!” moments that serendipity generates. I apply this process to my work whether I am making jewelry, art, photography, interior design or even an entire building. Since I collaborate, I cannot take all of the credit for the creation, or all of the blame. Yet nothing I make is completed until others engage with the object. When a person wears the jewelry, sees the art or enters the building, the work is completed by them, through their feelings, thoughts and experience. That is how something valuable is created from something ordinary, showing me that we all have the potential to be extraordinary. Then, the alchemy is complete. The ultimate success for my art is when a person is so inspired that they decide to create their own art from found objects, enlarge their own photos, build their own house. Becoming an artist is about seeing the world through an artist's eyes. We can all do that.