New Studio

Here are a few photos of my new studio/office. Its small, and somewhat cramped (especially right now because there are still more art supplied to find proper put-away places for), but it makes me so happy! I have a window that opens to the back yard and our neighbors' terrific sunflower garden, I have a closet, and best of all, the room has a proper ceiling* and is right off the dining room. It feels real.

It is a bit small, and it does double as a guest room, but I have put that to my advantage, using a stack of twin mattresses for a table. I think its a rather ingenious solution, thank you! They can be spread out for a makeshift guest bed (takes up the whole entire room!), and when they are stacked they are the perfect height!


And the walls still need that coat of white paint. That will feel good.


My cds are in here because they are too embarrassing to have out in public (mid 90's alt-rock hits anyone? Remember the Calling?)


And yes, I already need to tidy! That's what having a studio is all about though: it's totally being used. So much in the works already.


*I have read that ceiling height has been linked with creativity, with higher ceilings being more inspirational. At my old house, my studio was spread out over the upstairs, and I really do think the low, slanted, dormer ceilings were somewhat a stifling. So a proper, square ceiling has been my dream for quite some time. And it came true! How lucky am I?!

Some Prints

A very dear friend from High School visited this weekend, and we managed to get in some quality printing time together. Actually, once we started, we could hardly stop! It was great fun working together - we had no specific ideas in mind when we started, and we both worked on all the pieces, adding touches separately or together. Th big pieces are my favorite, but they don't fit on the scanner bed, so I will show them when I figure out how to get a good picture.




All images are water-based printing inks on rice paper. Around 5x6 inches.

New Taste of Stowe Arts Festival!

This weekend all the work of the last seven months starts to pay off - our first Art Festival of the Season! If you are local, please do come by, there are some really amazing artists and artisans selling their work, and the food is going to be simply incredible. The show is in Stowe, Vermont, a top-quality resort town for those unfamiliar with the area, and several of said resorts will be attending the show, offering spa treatments and gourmet menu samples. If you are in the area, you can visit craftproducers.com for details.

We are so hoping for these crazy thunderstorms to pass on by!

Its been a Big Week

Wow, ok, where to start? As claimed in my last post, I did indeed get a slew of miniature paintings painted - fun! Also some other projects with which I am quite pleased. But those didn't happen so much on the weekend as on the days I had to stay home from work due to an unhappy run-in with an ill tempered zebra mussel resulting in a late night trip to the emergency room.


Not so much fun.

The new paintings are going in the shop, and I will share pictures of them here over the next few days, but first I want to show you the other things I made.


Ever since I made the abstract cover for my quilt book, I have been wanting to create some fabric flags or banners. I had patchwork ideas like the quilt book cover in mind, but I also wanted to incorporate some text, simple words or phrases. Turns out the awesome wooden type I found works quite as stamps! I brushed them with india ink and stamped words onto the fabric. They are watersafe and I really like how the letters are a little wonky.


The words I could create were somewhat limited by the fact that I neglected to get a letter "R". Oops!

I stamped the letters onto colorful cotton and stitched them onto a natural linen backing. There is a channel at the top for hanging.


I would like to try a few more of these, but I also know how my brain works and instead of mass production, it is quite likely I will move on to something else new... !

(These hangings will be in the shop shortly as well)

Paintings in Miniature

I went ahead and added these to the shop. To show them off in a pretty way, I put together this simple little tripod made out of bamboo skewers.


My intention these days is to learn how to work like a real adult and also do all the creative things I dream up. How do people manage this? I have a sneaking suspicion that if I spent less time on the computer (checking out other people's craftiness!) I might end up producing more myself. An interesting idea...



This weekend, I declare to let the computer rest a while and dream up a few new miniature scenes.

Room Transformation

C. has been out of town for the majority of the past couple weeks, so this weekend I took the opportunity to start a transformation of his house, with the help of the trusty paint can and roller brush! The house is a sweet little 40s or 50s dream home, pretty wood floors (need to be refinished, they had carpet on them until recently), paneled glass windows, and neat little scalloped boxes around the tops of the windows (the name for those is escaping me at the moment, but you will see what I mean). Very cute. But painted a horribly unfortunate shade of green-tinged off white throughout, with the exception of the kitchen and bathroom which are pink. Very bad. But none of us have had the impetus to get this huge repainting job to a start until now. I am quite proud of myself!



I would like to state here that I love color. I love paint. And I love to pick paint colors. But, sometimes it gets overwhelming, in part because I do like all those colors so much, that I can't narrow down the choices. That is one reason why I love the "Oops" cart at Home Depot or Lowes. I get a gallon of paint for $5, and I don't have to choose. The only decision I have to make is where to put it. I have stockpiled a nice selection of oops paint, so now my decision process for painting a room is to choose a color or two from the collection. Much simpler! I have had these two cans for quite some time, a peachy rusty orange and a dark greenish grey brown, specifically intended for C.'s living room. And I really like how they look. It is amazing what a coat of paint can do.



And yeah, I can't help it. I have to put pictures up. Sometimes before the paint is dry.

Spring!

Spring has now unwrapped the flowers!
Day is fast reviving!
Life in all her growing powers...
Toward the light is striving!
All the world with beauty fills,
All the world with beauty fills,
Gold the green enhancing....
Flowers make glee among the hills
and set the meadows dancing!

Cherry blossoms, warm breezes, tulips and daffodils! Spring in the North is almost enough to erase the memories of the long, cold Winter past. Almost.

I am back from a week long vacation to the extra sunny south, and once I get my house back into order, I have so many projects itching to be made! Plus a few that are horribly overdue. I'll be back soon!

Extreme Baking

About a week ago I developed a craving for chocolate cupcakes, particularly of a home made variety. There is something of a time lapse around here, so the baking didn't happen until last evening. I thought I would document the process with some lovely kitchen + homey photos to share here, but as it turned out - they came out fairly dull. So I messed around a bit, and came up with a series I like to call "Extreme Baking".

Allow me to illustrate...






Yum.

Fun with Food

Potato prints! I had not made any potato prints for ages and ages, but was inspired by needing a project for two young boys to whom I teach art. So I broke out the potatoes and the exacto knife and set about making a prototype.

It was fun. Why do I not do this more often? So easy, so necessarily simple, so satisfying.

In a Holiday theme, I cut out a steaming mug (of cocoa I presume) and a snowflake, and printed in red block printing ink. After a few tests, I recalled the big package of white tissue I had recently acquired. Soon a sheet was covered in cheerful red snowflakes and I was determined to hand-make all my wrapping paper for the year!



As it turns out, I had many other things to take up my time, and after a little more fun with potatoes and ink during the boys class, no more printing took place. And so I had one sheet of precious handprinted tissue, which was promptly used and now sorely missed.

Perhaps I will have to make Spring tissue paper!

Feeling Christmas-y

It snowed big, white, fluffy flakes last night. We had to take a middle-of-the-night walk with the dog, and it was her first real snow experience. Very amusing. She just couldn't seem to believe that it was all real!

While I find the early and intense commercialization of Christmas to be quite bothersome and actually somewhat sickening, after Thanksgiving is passed, I am ready to jump right in. Things like soft powdery snow and twinkling lights make me feel honest-to-goodness warm and fuzzy, and the smell of gingerbread always seems just tantalizingly out of reach. I will make some soon, and hopefully share the joy with a few neighbors, but for the time being I have contented myself with some holiday decoration.


Besides my sparkly candelier, a Christmas tree of sorts is now sharing its warm glow in my home. A real, live, green, nice-smelling tree isn't really practical for me yet - I will travel for Christmas and don't spend nearly enough time sitting at home to properly enjoy it - so I opted for driftwood. White lights and golden jingle-bells dress it up right now - after the swap I have a feeling it will be much more fun! It needs a bit of adjusting, another trip to the rock shop (aka beach) should put things in order.

***after having a look at this picture again, I just have to add that my poor little tree really looks much nicer in person. The lights should have been the kind on white wire, I know, and the whole thing looks rather as if it will go tumbling over at any moment, but its actually very sweet! :) ***

Splatter Creatures

These are a few pictures of my favorite piece made during my splatter and drip experiment a few weeks back.


I especially like the little amoeba/spider shapes in the ink. I think this one is trying to learn to play ping-pong and dance at the same time. At least it (he? she?) is having fun!


Here, two shapes meet (on the middle-left). They aren't completely sure of each other, but they will cautiously try. The one on the right, meanwhile, has dropped a jar of raisins and is trying to collect them all before someone else comes and eats them up.

Is this an art project or an ink splot test?

Living Traditional Arts

I have (finally) gotten around to updating my parents website, Living Traditional Arts. We are still trying to figure out what, exactly, is the purpose of the site, but for now it is a portfolio of the various artistic mediums in which they work, and also includes some work of family and friends. The idea is a gallery of the ongoing life of traditional arts, I guess.


Check out the quilts especially - there are quite a few pictures of my great-grandmother's quilts. Gorgeous, and a bit intimidating in their complexity.

Feeling sparkly

For some reason, I started feeling very wintry and sparkly this afternoon. It has nothing to do with the weather, which was incredibly pleasant here. Usually I feel this way when there is a light dusting of snow and big flakes in the air, bundled up in a scarf and wishing for gingerbread. Maybe it was Martha did it, with her crafty ideas and wealth of wreaths and ribbons and glittery candles. Anyway, I happened to have come across a wealth of copper in the form of a discarded electrical cable, so, with a desire for candles and craftiness, I set to work.

It was simple to strip off the outer layer of protection. The inner layers are a bit more difficult. Lucky for me, not feeling up to too much effort at the moment, one strand of copper was not covered. I decided to leave the others be.

My plan was to create a candle-ier; a twisted copper hanging candleholder. Here is how I went about it...


I folded the copper length in two, and looping the middle around a door handle, pulled the ends tight and twisted them together all the way down.



I then spiraled the twist, with the loop at the top for hanging.


For a while I have had a pile of cute little tart tins in my pantry. I am sure they would be lovely for tarts, but tarts are rather fussy and it occurred to me that the pans would also make very sweet candletrays, affixed to my copper base.


So they were pulled out and, with the help of the handy glue gun (note: I used a cute little itsy-bitsy glue gun. Don't follow my example), fastened at intervals along the copper.

The spiral was bent, stairstep style, along the way in order to hold the trays flat.


Ta-da! A pretty glittery candle-ier!

I think I will tweak it a bit to hang better - the trays could use some leveling and the entire piece needs to lowering. But it has a nice warm, holiday-ish glow. Now I just need some gingerbread! Or maybe some patience.

Drawings and Sketchings and Playing in Photoshop

These are two copies of one of my drawings, scanned and minimally messed with in Photoshop. Nothing fancy, just a little color. What I think is neat is how different they look with the different color schemes.


I would like to do some serious color theory studying, one of these days when I have nothing else to accomplish. Along with my serious dive into graphic design theory and how to effectively illustrate and how to make the perfect chocolate cake. Why must I have so many interests?


People think artists live an easy life, playing with paint and doodling in ink. Any serious artist can tell you it is sometimes closer to a curse, this overwhelming drive to create against all odds.

Ay me. Do I sound a little scattered? Its been a long day. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to show you some little people who have recently come to stay with me...

ok, so I'm addicted to Etsy...

I'm not going to lie. I have been spending waaaay too much time lately perusing the pages of Etsy.com. I'm not quite sure why, even. I guess it is just that there are so many talented people all gathered together, and they are real! I especially like the forums, getting the inside scoop on the artists and artisans. Fun. And time consuming.

If this is going to work for me, I need to get off the internet and get working on items to post and, ideally, sell! I have a couple little needle felted dolls who will make an appearance once they are clothed and presentable. And some embroidery. And possibly some drawings... I have lots of in-progress projects going on, but no pictures of them at the moment.

In lieu of my own photos, have a look at some of the totally beautiful things I came across in blind obedience to my addiction:

>>>exquisite simplicity
>>>brilliant!
>>>so clean and modern
>>>adorable, in a kinda creepy way
>>>lovely, as are all the rest of her pieces

Now I will move away from the computer... maybe there is time for a bit of my own creativity before sleeping!

Bread and Puppet

We took a Sunday trip to the Bread and Puppet Theatre in Glover VT recently. I had been last summer, and had been wanting to return ever since, mainly because the huge puppets, the basic materials, and the overall genius of the place are so inspiring. It seems to me they just have it figured out. I am sure everyone puts insane amounts of work into the production and the puppets and all, but they make it look so effortless and fun. I leave thinking how complicated I make things, how I put things off because I don't have exactly the right paintbrush, or wire, or plain white cotton cloth. At Bread and Puppet, re-used cardboard boxes seem to be the most common base. Black and white paints are the most common materials. And they create absolute magic.

Home again, home again... or almost

Well, I'm just about home. Back in the United States, heading home in a couple days. Belize was amazing - I taught art for four days to some really incredible children (the fifth day we went on a field trip - yikes!). There were about 140 of them in all, divided into four groups, so it was a lot of work. The youngest were about 3, and the oldest were maybe 15, with a general array in-between. Facilities were sad - rat poo on the rickety benches and a red ant infestation in our original classroom. And it was amazingly hot. But the kids were polite and helpful, and they totally got into each project and were excited and friendly and talented. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to visit and work with these people, and I hope to return!






Loads more pictures here, and more stories to come, if y'all don't mind...?

Art-to-Go

If you happen to be around the Burlington, Vermont area tomorrow evening, and are in need of something totally awesome to do, why not stop by Studio STK at 12 North Street and take in some crafty, do-it-yourself, handmade goodness! Chic and hip are the new "craft" buzzwords - you won't find any fitsy-futsy doo-dahs around here. What you will find are handcrafted jewelry, silkscreened clothing, ceramics and pottery, and quite a bit more!

If you don't happen to be in Burlington, but are feeling left out - come on up next month! or the month after! This is going to be a montly extravaganza (small art gallery style - I don't want to lead people astray with my enthusiasm).

Learn more about the whole deal over on my other blog, Art-to-Go!

My bag

I left for Toronto on Friday afternoon, after finishing up summer camp, biking around town in the interests of my fish, and generally trying to do everything last minute that I should have spread out over the past week. With half an hour to spare before leaving the house, I decided I absolutely must have a new bag.

Luck was with me (having deserted me the night before in a linen pants incident about which I am not quite ready to think), and the bag creation went smoothly and ended up pretty much just as I wished!


This lovely canvas-type fabric was a sort of impulse buy during my quilt fabric shopping spree, bought with the specific intent of making a new bag. I am ever so proud that I actually followed through.

Naturally, with more time, there are a few extras I would have added - interior pockets, probably an exterior pocket between the straps. It has a sort of secret pocket perfect for my fast approaching Central American travels - a flap from the outside folds over to the inside, the perfect size for passport and money protection.

I really just love the colors. Lately I seem to have been developing an unconscious affinity for dusty pink (the flowers are pink. Upon viewing my picture I see that this is somewhat indiscernible. Oops. In real life they are actually quite prominent). My mother says that it is generally a sort of grandmother color, but then I have always had elderly qualities :)

I think this post takes the prize for the most parentheses. Yay.

So tired.

I am teaching a summer camp this week all about monsters. I have three neat little guys in the camp, and we make monsters of all sorts! It's really great, but Im so tired! I don't even really have a viable excuse, since the camp is only half-day and there are others around to help. But man!



This is one of the monsters created. Now we are trying to stick to a smaller scale in order to not totally freak out the parents! (how many giant octopus monsters could you fit in your home?)

Postcard wall

This is a portion of my postcard wall where I hang the cards I have been sent.



There are several of my friends with whom I correspond in postcards, some I have not seen or talked to in a few years and our only contact is on a roughly 3x5 sheet of paper. We often make the cards ourselves, or re-use found cards from shows or advertisements. I like to see the history of our correpondence, the assorted styles and messages of the different people, all hanging together.

Spring Songs

I call these paintings "Spring Songs" because they were painted from the joy of finally having Spring.



They are both acrylic on canvas, with the addition of layers of vintage sheet music and embroidery stitching. Finally they are coated with gel medium to protect the surface. Both are 16x20".



I was going to put them up for sale by starting an Etsy shop, but the images did not want to upload so I took that as a sign to wait a bit. If you would like to make them yours, however, feel free to let me know!

I would love to make my living from what I can create, as the process of creating is when I am happiest and feel most fulfilled. It's a difficult thing though - sometimes I think that what makes a great artist is not so much their abilities in drawing or painting etc, but their ability to put themselves out into the world.

What do you think?

Book Magazine Book

This was my entry in Book Magazine Book issue #22 "An Unnecessary Machine". I have since passed the book on to S.R. Wild, so if you want to be a part of this issue let him know soon. I was horrible and kept it for far too long - all that end of school stuff sort of took priority for a while. I was also the first entry of the issue - a daunting task. I'm not thrilled with my contribution, I wanted to do something provoking and all that jazz, but it will do.

Craft Fair Fun

I have been busy these last couple days putting together the Art-to-Go DIY Show and Sell. It has been quite exciting - a flurry of activity! Registration is now closed, but if you head over to the Art-to-Go blog, you can sign up for the mailing list and learn how to sign up for the next installment in August! Yes, this will be a monthly deal, and I am pretty excited about where it could go. I have all sorts of grand scenarios worked up in my head... I like to dream...

The daily sketching worked well for a few days, and then I got caught up in other activities, but since they were also creative and crafty I feel ok about the situation. Actually, Im pretty tickled with a couple projects in the works, and will post pictures as soon as I figure out how to make tiny little black shoes.

(that's one of those cliff-hanger endings, where you're just left in suspense until I post again...)