juices are a flowin'

i feel like i'm sort of on a roll. i've not written anything here in so long and with each one i add pics to, i realize how much i still have to do. i am intending to publish them in chronological order, however i may skip one or two. bear with me. there's a lot of ground to cover.....next.


inkjet transfers have been a fascination of mine for years. i've never really mastered it to a point where i'm comfortable using it in my work until this earlier this year. for a long while i was drawing all the time, like everyday and accumulations of these drawings that are just doodle-y swirls starting creeping into every crevice of clutter in my house and studio. and with the move, i sort of decided that something's got to give. i need to use these "spider webs" as zander refers to them, and incorporate them somehow in something. usually i scan and they are the foundation for my digital collages. great, i've got like 4,317 of these things - digitally i can't keep up. so i cut back on drawing and never really resolved a way to de-clutter our space of these little artworks, however, i have begun to use digitally rendered drawings in other ways. they are the foundation of my new favorite mixed media pieces. i've been using a 4 different drawings, all cut up into thumbnails as a transfer onto canvas boards. the thumbnail is the departure point for a sort of painting collage. these pieces give me a great sense of release when making them as they fulfill my interest in transfer techniques, they indulge my new love for gouache and finally satisfy my obsession with shiny, gooey surfaces which i seem to stumble upon in many local and contemporary artist's work.



what is most interesting to me is how one little drawing which is replicated 5 or 6 times can inspire a vast array of outcomes within a series. it's one of those things that i just don't see myself becoming bored with for a while.






i love the scale too. they're small yet in a series of 3 or 4, they have the potential to be a respectable size. i'm playing around with how to present them and i've sort of fallen for mounting them on a board and framing them in with small 1/2" wood. i think it gives a finished looked, but more importantly gives each the space they need on their own without cramping them with their siblings. oooh la la.


the best discovery yet, Zander and Desi LOVE to paint with me, even better! here's a shot of the older concentrating on his own process of mixing colors

a story of a sewing machine

a very, very sad one indeed. my mom gave it to me i think in college, or maybe it was grad school. regardless, i've busted it out once in like 20 yrs it seems like. no really. it's very sad. i remember chris' mom gave him one about the same time, a much older and heavier version. so for years, literally we've schlepped these sad and useless machines back and forth across the country, from town to town and house to house. each of us making a pact to use them, or at least try to learn how to use them. did we? no never. until a couple of months ago, after moving the darn thing around AGAIN, i decided that i'd needed to do this and now. somewhere along the way, during another move we ditched one of them (not mine). i knew that mine was next if i couldn't make this happen and soon. so, the poor lowly singer - emerged from it's case. dirty and sticky - who can imagine why. anyway. i immediately dove right in. bear with me as a turn a very short story into a novel.

right after moving i got it in my head that i wanted to be a street artist down on the embarcadero. well, believe it or not, there's actually a very comprehensive screening process, in which each artist has to present a fairly large number of completed and half-completed pieces to a committee. so, i had a TON of prints made in preparation for this wild, hair-brained scheme. i've been trying to re-work the digital print pieces in such a way that they pass from pen and ink, to digital rendering, and back to a more "real" vice, such as a third textile element, maybe fabric or paper or something. it's been this open-ended conundrum for me as i haven't been very certain as to what the thing should be. and then i realized that my fantasies of sewing my drawings would be perfect for this.


so anyway, after detailing and semi-restoring my poor singer, i attempted this drawing with sewing-machine layer for the first time. what a disaster. i had so much to learn. who did i think i was? i haven't used a sewing machine since 8th grade. really. i know i used this machine for something before, but i have no idea what it was. anyway, defeated i decided i needed different needles and thread and i really, more than anything else needed a mentor. well, mentorless, however fully loaded with a variety of needles and thread, i attempted again and quickly learned that it was so much more satisfying to simply use the machine to make holes - regular and perfectly spaced. i liked this. it wasn't what i imagined i'd be doing with this idea, but it was nonetheless totally fun and liberating. as i may have mentioned in other posts, i am not a perfectionist. in fact my ability to create something that has flawless utility or more relevant in this case, is masterfully created is horrible. for me, it takes the fun out of the job. i have rules and guidelines, but usually, they are mine and mine alone. technical applications, such as sewing a functional anything is beyond my interest. getting the thread and needle to work harmoniously with the paper was disenchanting. i lost interest completely. HOWEVER, drawing with the machine was AWESOME and the result was really exciting for me. i will always admire and one day hope to acquire a piece of tucker's work, but for now, i will simply stick to this new fun tool.





i saw a book exhibit at the Legion of Honor years ago and a local artist created these unbelievably simple, yet delicate and beautiful landscape drawings on thick white drawing paper, using thin, white thread. it was love at first site. it's rare that i'm completely smitten by someone's work without knowing anything about them, but there i was. totally dazed. of course, being the disorganized person i was/am, wrote her name down in some random place, never to be found again. i walked into dick blick a couple of weeks ago, and there she was, a book of textile artists. random and thrilling all at the same time. ahhh, the inspiration i needed. i had no inspiration. i will never be able to create pieces like her's but i do admire them and am absolutely taken by the idea. it's brilliant.


i've taken the holes and used them as a template for needle and thread - by hand, layered with paper and glued in such a way that the paper has it's own presence, not resembling paper. then i have to ad yet another element which is the premise of most of my series' and that is that they each (drawing that is) run into each other. the lines always connect. so i'm chopping the drawings up in quarters and collage 4 different drawings together to make one. the lines of digital ink eventually converge, but ultimately connect by thread and paper. It ain't no Tucker Schwartz, but it is very much a Renee DeCarlo Johnson.

drawing, drawing, drawing

i've made it back in the studio - FINALLY. and i'm all over the place. i must have 300 projects going on and i want to work on all of the simultaneously. it's nuts.
i think the best thing to do is just write about each one a little bit at a time.
starting with: the sewing machine

moving sucks

well doesn't it??? i've moved so many times in my life, as a child nearly every 2 years, as an adult - i've not done much to break that tradition. in fact, sometimes i increased the frequency, doubled even tripled it. since living in SF, we've moved 3 times - to SF, from the hood to the city burbs, and now to the most amazing neighborhood in city (in our opinion) and i swear it this time, NEVER AGAIN. it was so hard, the hardest and i don't admit it that often. it has taken me 3 months to write about here, and in 3 months, very few of our closest friends have actually seen our place or even know where we are. shame on us. i do apologize, sincerely.

i think the only reason i'm even writing about this in the first place is so that when the discussion to move comes up again, i can reflect on what i write here to dissuade our decision to entertain the idea. IF it comes up.

i must admit, the kids love it here, we actually really engage in the outdoors with more frequency and we are lulled to sleep by fog horns. ahhh, the romance. we live on the same street as the Palace of Fine Arts for crying out loud! i'm not bragging, i'm simply reflecting. since moving we've had swine flu, respiratory infections, and Zander has had 3 viruses in 30 days - woohoo. there should be an award or something to accomplish so many illnesses in such a short amount of time and not really have anything major wrong. not that an award would make me feel at all better. in fact, i'm ready to move on and pray for the best of health and jump on every healthy tidbit bandwagon that comes my way. really, i am.

needless to say, i love it here and actually feel like this is my favorite place i've ever lived, ever, ever. and the boys are happy - so that's really all that matters. now that i've documented this, i'll shut up about it. don't move, don't. never. it sucks.

SF Perinatal Associates

I'm pleased to announce that I am currently showing my ink and beeswax pieces from now until January of 2010. There are 13 mixed media pieces that are hung throughout the offices and lobbies at One Daniel Burnham Court, Suite 230C San Francisco, CA 94109. For more information on hours and access to the show, please email me.
Here's a sneak peek of a few of the pieces:





for more pics, you can find them on my flickr page.