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.