Rainy Day

It's a wet and chilly first day of Open Studios.  I thought the rain would have seriously deterred traffic, which it probably has, however the flow has been quite nice and I've been anything but lonely.

Here are some shots of the studio today - the fruits of many weeks labor are up on the walls and have received good response.  Now, let's hope it continues over into to tomorrow.  Fingers are crossed.

just too darn pretty

to cut up...not that the ones that get the chop aren't nice, but some I just can't bring myself to divide.

summer

so it NEVER occurred to me that summer meant, no school. duh. well, with that said, i had the opportunity to take Zander, my 5 3/4 yr old with me to the MCCLA to print, one fine sunny and scorching hot day. it was quite an exciting adventure as the fire dept showed up and evacuated the building as one of the alarm sensors was having some "issues". no fire, but who knew that the fear of it would such a thrill ride for a youngish child.

These pics of of tmy digital drawings. I have been hoping to step away from the digital process and get my hands back into the messy stuff and have
found screen printing to be a perfect solution to replacing the digital media.

once the drawings are finished (i'm done layering), I'm dividing them up into 6" squares and reassembling them on 10" or 6" panels. I'm letting the lines and color dictate how they are reassembled.

summer studio

This summer has been amazingly productive for me, which is a bit shocking since this is the first summer in which I had my kids home more than not. I've also started working again part time which also eliminated many of my "free" days when the kids are off on adventures on their own (no, this doesn't mean I give 'em a bus pass and direct to go explore aimless through the city) (it's an organized thing). Regardless, it's all good stuff and has really allowed my to use my time as efficiently as possible. I've been learning screen printing as was fortunate to meet a fellow named Ryan McJunkin through the Compound Gallery (of which I'm one of the Art In a Box Artists). I really love his work and the line quality of his prints and he graciously facilitated a private workshop for me to teach me the basics.

This view shows the prints underneath the FingerPrints pieces that are comprised of digital drawings. These drawings are 27x32", and are layers of the screen printed drawings with layers of gouache and dry pigment.

I'm pretty happy with this so far. I hope it's not beginners luck. ;)

more from the wax

When I started these pieces I used an ink dropper to make small circles with various inks, and then would rotate the paper around creating a freeway of lines and drips, allowing the ink to merge into itself. Where the lines would merge, I would inject more ink with metallic flecks and various colors which would give depth and iridescence to the lines. Once the inks cured, the water would evaporate from the lines and surface of the ink line would be striated and reminiscent of an oil slick. I then added dry pigments such as pastels and graphite to the negative spaces between the lines, pulling forms from the lines.

now...they've evolved into entirely new creatures.

I promised Chris I would stop futzing with them....I will do by my best.

threadings

I began this little body of work early this year when I was really deep into the sewing-my-drawings phase. These 9 little pieces are sewn from a drawing on the other side of each piece of paper. Done by hand and experimenting with black and white thread only, I feel a sense of calmness when I look at these. I'm a wee bit reminded of Charlotte's web, when her baby spiders fly off into the world, carried by a single thread, with nothing but enthusiasm and vigor to lead them into the unknown.

Perhaps I will revisit these in the upcoming months. It's hard to say, I haven't touched my sewing machine since spring. Somehow, despite the pleasure sewing gives me...I've moved on.

the studio

This my "working wall" - currently covered in wax pieces.

These little ditties are a new series I'm creating for Compound Gallery's Art In a Box.

I'm still interested in boxes and crates. I've got quite a collection and am getting closer to actually finishing something. The black pieces on the bottom are soap/bath trays from Ikea and the top natural box is a flatware organizer (with the organizer part removed). The artwork inside are pieces from the inkjet-gouache series.

The "wall" and the wax table (the chopping block). The long plastic container is the "catch-all" for my latest process - scraping off the wax and starting over, which is precisely what I did. More 'bout that to come.

back tracking

A lot of things have been happening since Open Studios last fall and for the purpose of my own need to document this stuff, I will spend a few posts on covering those events...

In July of '09 I was contacted by SF Perinatal Associates about showing a large series of work for a 6 month period of time. Ironically, I had all of my prenatal testing for Desmond done at this amazingly beautiful and contemporary space in 2006. The clinic itself is located on the 2nd floor of a high rise condo building on the corner of Van Ness and Daniel Burnham Court, and the clinic sprawls throughout 3 space, 2 of which are the exam/medical rooms. The lobby has beautiful light and is surrounded by windows. anyway, the needed a lot of work so I decided to show my encaustics, which were before, ink drawings that I showed at Lotus (aka: Sproos) in 2007. While ink drawings they were very colorful and vibrant and one of the Perinatal physicians found me there while getting her hair done. The transformation into encaustic took the drawings from vibrant into a more organic and visceral place - one that in hindsight, I think wasn't really a good fit. Whatever, hindsight is the past and going forward I will approach an opportunity like this in a different way. The only other thing to note is the beeswax in the encaustic caused a bit of a disturbance in that it was too fragrant for pregnant women. Duh. Personally I would have been the crazy lady licking the paintings, however, that was not an elicited response from the other and more current prego ladies. Going forward, and note to self - no beeswax for pregnant audiences

...some shots of the pieces in the Perinatal clinic can be seen in a much more previous post.

So what I am doing now is showing a few before and after shots of these pieces. They've really changed a lot:

heads up

Wow, how embarrassing that it's been 6 months since I've visited my own blog. I'm trying to recall what exactly I've been doing this whole....oh, yah: WORKING!! Okay, so things are good, actually great and my New Year's resolutions are just kicking in as the beginning of the year has been a s*&tstorm. I've got a lot of pieces and their progress to write about so heads up! For now, here's a shot of one of the series I've been working on...

These pieces came back from the SF Perinatal Show from last year. The white drawings are new - I think it may be important to note that I've been layering these pieces for nearly 10 years. One of the next posts will be about their "finished state".

back to the basics

Because it has been so long since I've kept up with this little project, I feel I need to reflect on all that has gotten me to now. I feel like I've participated in a lot of events and show, relatively speaking and each one has offered me an opportunity to mutate a bit and grow. My work has changed substantially in the past couple of years and each time I present my work or sell a piece, something in my overall interest in what I make, changes. I also get bored quickly, so maybe that's what's really going on.

At Open Studios last fall, I focused primarily on the thumbnails Fingerprints, collaging a bunch of different drawings together. Now, I'm taking it back a step and instead of chopping them all up, I'm leaving the drawing once it's been sewn as is, and adding resin. I'm using the 10x10 finished as the thumbnail though I haven't quite collaged them together yet. It's still just an idea because it seems like when I finish enough to do so, I sell a few and then I have to start over. What a conundrum, eh.

BTW, the glossy stuff is resin. These have all been sewn and are now framed and the property of the BaySide Oral Surgery Group.