little black journal

I took my art off the walls of the cafe last weekend – a few of the pieces sold, which was exciting (though surprisingly difficult – I’ve found that I become way too attached to my work!), and the remaining prints will find a place somewhere in our house.  But before I tuck anything away, I wanted to share a few of my favorites.  All of the pieces are a mix of collage and print-making, with a little hand drawing thrown in here and there.  The collage comes from photos I’ve taken – I like the idea of abstracting images of skies or grasses or sandy beaches to form shapes and create gradients of color (for example, the mountains in ‘ice land‘ were made up of a photo of a cloudy sky that I snipped up and rearranged).  The printmaking was all done with inked stencils run through the presses (with a few handy tricks used for the spotty skies or the thin white lines of relief).  The final days of pulling this together were a bit touch-and-go (with only 5 days till show-time, I had yet to feel like anything was finished), but somehow everything came together in the end to form a pretty sharp collection.  And…voila:

desert city:

boardwalk:

ice land:

glacial view:

minnesota cabin:

kenzo:

horizon line:

I’ve taken a break from any art-making for the past month, devoting my spare time instead to Harry Potter and old episodes of Friday Night Lights, but in the past couple of days, I’ve started to feel the creative itch again.  I’m browsing Pratt’s latest course offerings, picking up my neglected sketchbook, starting to formulate some new ideas about printmaking and drawing and collage.  I’m looking forward to spending some time in the studio just ‘playing’.  I want to pretend for awhile that I’m not actually a fine-lined perfectionist and instead focus on freedom and chance.  Could be good, could be completely terrible – either way, expect to see dried paint under my fingernails in the next few weeks (the mark of a quality day at the presses).

Wowzers…it’s been an intense week, but the finishing touches have been put on the very last piece and it’s all up on the walls – this collection is d-o-n-e!  I had my doubts about how it would all come together, and I may have had a late-night freak-out or two (thank God for Sex and the City reruns and that freezer stash of mint chocolate ice cream sandwiches), but seeing it all in front of me tonight, I gave myself a mental high-five – it actually looks pretty good.  I don’t want to toot my own horn, but…toot toot!  Come hang out with me on Saturday morning for the opening – we’ll be at Q Cafe from 10:30 to noon, and I’d love for people to come have a latte and see what I’ve been up to.  Hasta!

As my next art show draws nearer, I’m beginning to feel the pressure to really get things done, so I purposefully set aside this weekend to 1) get creative and 2) get organized.  I was up early Saturday morning, and after whipping up a quick batch of blueberry muffins, I threw the mixing bowl and muffin tin into the sink and cleared the counters for a different kind of mess.  Our living room and kitchen became a temporary studio, as I littered the island with trace paper and photographs, taped sketches on the wall, and queued up a string of Friends reruns on the TV.

I hardly left the house all weekend, getting out only for a coffee date with a girlfriend, a short stroll around the neighborhood to take in a breath of fresh air, and a very rushed 15-minutes-before-closing run to the art supply store for more paper.  Thank God for the row cherry blossoms around the corner from us – a walk beneath their boughs was just what I needed when I started to feel cramped and cooped up.

It is both daunting and exciting to see things starting to come together – there are moments when I feel overwhelmed with the amount of work left to do and wonder, ‘What did I get myself into?’, and there are moments when I find such fulfillment in seeing a piece take shape that I wouldn’t trade my art-making for the world.  It felt good to be focused and productive, to be completely caught up in the act of bringing weeks of doodles and sketches into something that will eventually hang on the wall as a collection.  It might have been the first time ever that having a messy kitchen didn’t bother me in the least.

I realize that I never gave an update on the products of the printmaking workshop I took a couple of weeks ago.  In truth, I actually left the class feeling a little overwhelmed/frustrated/wanting for more.  I didn’t end the weekend with anything that I felt qualified as a ‘finished piece’, which was disappointing – the beauty of printmaking is that patterns/images/fields of color can be applied relatively quickly, and so I figured I’d be cranking display-worthy art out of the presses after just a couple hours of instruction.  What I failed to take into account was the importance of walking into the studio with a prepared plan.  Sometimes experimentation and studio play-time can lead to really stunning works, but I have found that I need to come to the presses with a concept and supporting materials in order to walk away with something I’m happy with.  All of that said, once I quit beating myself up for not truly finishing anything, I was excited by the fact that I learned a couple of new techniques and made a couple of new discoveries that can definitely be incorporated into the work I’ve been doing recently.  And I can’t wait to get back into the studio – I’m full of all kinds of new ideas that are just waiting to be run through the presses.  I’m playing a lot with thread as a mask, and stitching onto the paper as a way to create really ‘taut’ linework.  I’m also really, really stoked by the discovery of Pronto Plates – images can be copied onto these sheets of thin polyester, then inked and run through the presses.  Waaaay faster and less finicky than paper lithography, and a very cool way to incorporate some of my photos into my prints.  I see some good art-ing on the horizon…

I have been asked to do another art show at Q cafe in June, and so I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what my next ‘collection’ will look like. The latest sketches I’ve developed are leading me in a direction that is a bit cleaner/simpler/more hard-edged than the encaustics, utilizing much more perspectival hand drawing and architectural subject matter. I’m liking the few things I’ve rough-drafted so far, but with each piece, I’m left scratching my head, feeling like something is missing. I’m missing the depth and the richness that painting or printmaking lends itself to. In a stroke of sheer artistic fortuitous-ness, I checked Pratt’s Spring course offerings a few days ago and saw that they were offering a weekend workshop on ‘Layering in Your Prints’. I cleared my schedule, pulled my ratty, paint-spattered sweatshirt out from the back of the closet, and signed right up. I’m leaving for the studio in just a few minutes and am really excited to get back in there, after several months of being away from the printing presses and the cans of paint and the drying racks full of so much other inspring work. The class has no supply list – the only instructions I’ve been given are ‘dress for mess’. I really like the sound of that.

When my mom bought a couple of picture frames last May and asked me to draw something to put inside of them for her Mother’s Day gift, I gladly obliged.  I love the thought of my art hanging in my parents house – makes it feel like a special little piece of me is gracing their walls. I started on the project right away.  Then I was asked to put together a show for the Q Cafe, so the drawing project took a temporary back seat.  Then we went to Canada for a week.  Then I read some books, took some photos, did some sketches, and earned myself an A+ in the art in procrastination.  Felt like I was in college again…  But finally, after pulling my ideas together, buckling down, and putting pen to paper, I finished up these two pieces, just in time to tie them up with a red and green bow and try to pass them off as Christmas presents (my mom wasn’t fooled for a second).  But I think (hope) they were worth the wait – I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.  The first drawing is of a building in Seattle’s Pioneer Square and the second is of a street in Portland’s Pearl District.  I realized as I was working on these that it’s been a really long time since I’ve worked on a well-crafted drawing, and I really like the crispness of a series of perspectival lines drawn in ink. Anyhow, Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!  Better put your order in now for next year’s Christmas present…

Since the opening of my art show last month, I’ve done almost no art-making.  And I suppose that’s ok – I’ve come to accept that sometimes my creative endeavors will take a backseat to things like work or home projects or time with friends, but still, I’ve missed the feeling of a paintbrush or a pen in my hands. So when a friend asked me if I wanted to join her for a 3-hour figure drawing session at a gallery in Pioneer Square, I cleared my schedule, grabbed my sketchpad, and settled in for an evening of art-ing.  This was my first-ever figure drawing session, and I will admit, I went into it with a little concern over the awkwardness that may come from drawing a nude model, but once that big, lovely woman dropped her robe and we all started sketching, any reservations were put to rest.  I immediately became absorbed in my drawing, studying the model the same way you would study a landscape or a bowl of fruit or any other artistic subject.  The structure of the session was really good for me, as the bulk of the poses were only two to five minutes, so I didn’t have time to get stuck in the details or try to make anything perfect.  The length of time that the model stayed in any one pose gradually increased, and we wrapped up the night with a couple of 15-minute poses.  I walked out of there with a fat stack of sketches and a smile on my face – a totally fabulous evening.

FYI, these sessions occur on the third Tuesday of every month at La Familia gallery in Pioneer Square.  Entry is only 10 bucks (and well worth it!).

These are a few of my newer favorites, hung as part of the show.  The general theme was ‘mixing media’, as I have completely fallen in love the way that encaustics allow me to use everything from my photographs to bits of fabric to old maps from the glove compartment in new and interesting ways.

Note that my next exercise will be in learning how to properly photograph art, but these should give you the jest of things…

pdx, 24″x36″, mixed media encaustic (map on tissue paper, painted nylon netting, photo transfer of trees):

mountain creek, 16″x16″, mixed media encaustic (nylon netting, photo transfer of trees):

rue st martin, 12″x16″, mixed media encaustic (nylon netting, photo transfer of parisian rooftops):

porto, 36″x24″, mixed media encaustic (painted nylon netting, photo transfer of bridge and screen wall):

Eeek – it’s been awhile!  Life has been a whirlwind the last 10 days, with a faux wedding to throw (more on that later), lots of goings-on with friends and neighbors, and, finally, the opening of my art show on July 1st.  My weeks of planning and working and art-ing all came to fruition on Thursday night, as I gathered with some of our closest friends to share the collection I’d put so much of my time and heart into. And it was perfect.  I’d held back on making a big deal out of the event, based on my own fears and insecurities, but when Shane and I arrived at the cafe on Wednesday evening to hang my work, and the barista asked, “Oh, are you the artist?”, I actually got to respond with an emphatic, “Yes!”, and was suddenly eager to share my work with anyone willing to take a look.  I’m embracing and living up to the title of ‘Artist’, no longer calling myself a wanna-be, or a poser, or just ‘pretending’ like the work I do qualifies as art.  This has become a part of who I am, what I do, and how I relate to people.  Being in a room surrounded by 15 pieces of my art was an amazing feeling.  But what made the night infinitely more special was being able to share it all with our Seattle community – the cafe was filled with people that have encouraged me, cheered me on, and reminded me that creativity is most beautiful when it is freely shared.

Huuuuuuge thanks to everyone who came out – it was an evening I will never ever forget…

Well, folks, the countdown has begun – in just 7 short days, my artwork will be hung for my first-ever art show.  Through some very fortunate connections, I have been asked to put up my work in Seattle’s Q Café as their July artist.  Exciting?  No doubt.  Motivating? Definitely. Intimidating?  Yep, that too.  Throwing some pictures of my art up on my blog is easy, because I don’t have to physically watch anyone react to them – I can’t get my feelings hurt by uninterested glances, upturned noses, or (God forbid!) the occasional eye-roll.   And this is one of the first times that I will attach a price tag to my work; asking people to pay money for something I hold so dear opens up entirely new avenues for rejection.  But the fact is, I’ve put a lot of time, thought, and effort into the pieces that will hang on the wall next Thursday, so I’m going to go out on a limb and indulge in a little self-promotion:  If you live in the Seattle area, check it out – the show opens on July 1st and will run through the month.  The bulk of the work will be mixed-media encaustics, with a small sampling of my print-making work as well.  And if you don’t live in the Seattle area, some of my work will soon be available for purchase online, so stay tuned for that.  Now, back to work – I’ve still got art to make.  Zoiks!