Three

Trois. 8"x8". Paper, Photograph, Seashell, Glass Beads, Fabric Trim, Found Objects.

More!

Here's another collage: 8 inches square. Newspaper, catalog images, printblocks, paint, metal. It was an exercise in composition, mostly. More to come. Currently exhausted from a day of toddler-wrangling. Fully intend to go and bury myself under many layers of blankets and rejoice that the day is over.

Collage!

Hello All! I meant to upload ALL the collages that I have finished, however I was only able to do this one. So here's a teaser. It's 8 inches square, and is composed of a vintage photo, maps, tissue paper, stamps, and other papers. A good way to keep busy in between the tatttooing. Speaking of tattooing, there's a convention this weekend and I really want to go. Aaron has to go away on business, so I don't know if I'll get to but OH I REALLY WANT TO GO.

More pictures!

Hello to all! It has been a while because I have been too lazy to upload and post photos. But I have been creating--both on skin and paper. This post is all about the tattooing.


This is Aaron's second tattoo. I did the outline in navy instead of the traditional black just to see what kind of difference it made to the end piece. It turned out fairly well, and I learned a lot. Namely that if you have a good-looking celtic knot you had a talented tattoo artist. I also learned how to work with the curvature of the body, and I think that is evident in the next tattoo.

This is the outline for Aaron's third (and current) tattoo. Meet Saint Barbara! She's the patron saint of Artillerymen. The above is the outline--note how much more even the lines are--and the below is with shading. We are waiting for the shading to heal before we add color. St. Barb is about 5-6" tall. I call her Babs.

I haven't shaded the face yet, I wanted to hold off on that b/c I want to be really extremely confident before I attempt it. Otherwise she may look like she's impersonating a fish. But I am pleased with how the drapery looks. Anyone who has done fabric will tell you that it is difficult and sneaky.

Next time...more photos. Probably of work on paper.

The thing is...

So! Tattooing!
It's a lot like this:

Take one of those fat crayola markers you used in elementary school, attach a grapefruit to the top of it and wire the whole thing to vibrate like an old school electric toothbrush. Then go draw on a surface that isn't flat and provides very little resistance.

All that aside, I really enjoy it. I will say that it's the outlines that are getting me right now. But I've only done 2, so I figure that the more I do, the better I'll get. Right?

Ha ha! Photos!

So, before you view the photo, you should be forewarned that this is my first time ever tattooing and Aaron is an amazing man to let me at him with a tattoo machine in hand. That being said you should also know that he chose the color. You should also know that the machine reacts differently to different surfaces. And I know that I need to work on my line quality. (Deep breath) here you go.

Behold the awesome power of the dragelephant:

More pictures as more become available.
Kiss kiss!

Brand new medium!

So, best anniversary present ever: tattoo machines.

That's right! I am now practicing the ancient art of Tattoo! Aaron is my willing canvas. I have done one so far and I have to tell you, I really enjoy it. It's almost as satisfying as getting one.

Once I acquire a new USB cord, I will post photos.

I am excited!

(And yes, I am following all safety precautions regarding exposure to bodily fluids. I may be goofy but I'm not an idiot)

Well hello!

You've missed out on so much! I haven't been hiding I've been moving.

We moved from a ranch that backed up onto I-80 into a cape cod across from an elementary school. I have a studio again! And I have a pear tree.

I have been working on a wide array of projects. And I have finished very few of them. I will post photos soon.
It's hard to get online and post when I could be working in the studio.

How was class? Part 2.

The final week of class was critique and then work-work-work. We were supposed to end the class with 2 final large pieces and 2 smaller experimental pieces, but I only wound up with 2 larger final pieces because I am too old to do an all nighter...or rather, it is in the best interest of my children that I get sleep and not turn into Momzilla, destroyer of fun.



This started out with maps of the greater DC area and the Roanoke-Salem area of VA. I was trying to figure out how to relate them to each other, and John wandered by and said that the smaller map looked like a bush, so I went with that. This one leaves me with a sense of blah. It's such a heavy subject, and there's so much baggage attached to where one grows up, it was really hard for me to effectively communicate all of that on an 11"x14" piece of paper. Plus I'd sort of visited the whole idea of my home state before.


If looking at this makes you dizzy, that's because it was photographed during a thunderstorm with out a flash and without a tripod. (the hazards of a having an overly curious child is that you put things out of their reach and then forget where you've put them) I'm sure that at some point in the nebulous future it will be re-photographed and possibly re-posted, but I make no promises.
This was one of those pieces where I started with a bunch of images, a line in my head (in her dreams, there was always Paris), and then set about to create a story with images and unwritten narrative. Which is way harder than it sounds. This took a lot of arranging, rearranging, sketching, and sleeping to get it just so. I think ultimately it's really successful b/c it evokes a mood and draws the viewer in for closer inspection.

So what I took away from all of this grueling work and crazy schedule is as follows:
1. you cannot create a successful work if you do not create crap first.
2. push yourself! you are capable of more than you think.
3. nobody will die if they eat hot dogs for dinner 3 nights in a row
4. in my next life, i will be wealthy enough to have my own studio space and hire someone to do the washing up

How was class? Part 1.

In a word? Sublime. There were 5 students (4 women and 1 man) and our instructor was John Parot--he was wonderful. He was able to identify exactly what my strengths and weaknesses were and he did it in a way that allowed me to improve on my own. I had forgotten how rigorous studio classes were--we created 6 works in 2 weeks. Which means that while I was in class little things like laundry and dishes fell onto to somebody else's to do list.

At any rate, here's a visual run down of week one:


This was an in-class assignment/warm up exercise. We were given a set period of time and told to do a work that was red. It was really interesting to see how the 5 students worked within the parameters of the assignment.


This was another exercise, we did part in class and part at home. The assignment was to play with scale. The critique that came out of this work was really fantastically useful (and kind of obvious in hindsight); I was told to think about the background and to try to give a sense of narrative to the viewer. As in "what's going on with that stuff?" I think I got a little better on the next two...

This was homework. The text reads: come to my window, my baby, with me, and look at the stars that shine on the sea. I was trying to evoke a mood and I think it came off pretty well. To do it again, I think I'd tone down the tree and emphasize the crow a little more.



This was part 2 of our assignment: do something that's the opposite of the first piece. The text here reads: Bird, o Bird! Come under my bonnet, and you shall have bread with honey upon it, You shall have sugar with coffee and tea, and play every day with baby and me.
Here I started with the text, and sat and thought for a while. And my head went to The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear. In that particular work, it's the owl that woos the cat, and I wondered how it would go if a cat tried to seduce an owl. At any rate, this work is probably my favorite because it's a little weird and unexpected.

A sparkly!

Check me out! I haven't even started my class, but here I am with images. While Mom was here for a visit, we had a collage nite--wine was drank, things were torn, pasted, painted. A good time was had by all. Below is what I came up with:


It measures 5.5" x 7"...ish. It was a good exercise, it was fun, and while there are things about it that could probably be re-worked, I'm just going to chalk it up to a learning experience and move on. Which brings us to the next image:


Which measures 6"x4" ish. I did this last night while waiting for No Reservations to start. In the bottom is a picture I took in Athens (circa 1995), minus my hand. I have finally found a use for all of those otherwise unusable vacation photos. I'm fairly pleased with it as far as composition goes, and once again, I could sit down and re-work pieces, but I feel that as an exercise in speed and spontaneity it all turned out fairly well.

Art Institute!

I will be taking a 2 week course at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Yipee! And hopefully that will lead to more regular picture posting, but it would be inadvisable to hold your breath for such an occurrence.

Outside, Inside, top, bottom

Yet another mysterious box. .. enjoy.


The top (closed) is monoprinted using acrylic paint & cling wrap.


This be the interior. A print on textured paper, a map, shells, sea glass, and some grosgrain ribbon.

The print, up close.


The rest, up close.
This was pretty much an exploration of adhesives. I am trying to find what will handle all of the banging and clanging that the U.S. Postal Service will bestow as part of their delivery. I can tell you that hot glue doesn't work on things like shells & glass, and while there is a small amount of satisfaction in wielding a gun of molten glue ultimately you're just going to have to re-glue it. Elmer's white school glue works pretty well, unless things get warm. I have found that Tulip brand Fabric paints work surprisingly well, and come in a variety of colors to mimic whatever is being adhered.
And that's all I have to say about that.

bribing you with visual treats

hullo me lovlies! I have been long absent, it's true. I have been wrapped in a self-indulgent case of the doldrums. But the end of February is nigh and that means that I am finding myself busy busy and overly ambitious in the realm of art. Below is the evidence.

"As the crow flies" (another in the bird series. I still need to stitch the middle to the lovely blue background (hence the pins at the top) but it's mostly done and I have been doing other busy things as well. Look!


This is a metal tin that once held cigarettes (not mine). Now it is a lovely, outside and in.

This is the interior of the tin. All manner of collaging and digging through huge piles of paper.


This is a close-up of the bottom half of the interior. It's a photo down a street in Pompeii--that mountainy bit in the back is Vesuvius.
In the long ago I was lucky enough to venture to Europe, many times. I have lots of photos that are quite good, but for the inclusion of stranger's elbows--I figured some severe cropping and rebirthing as art would be proper.

And I am keeping artly busy, so maybe I can talk myself into updating more frequently.
Don't hold your breath, though.