Happy Holiday!

Here are those kids again!  They seem to have moved into my imagination and plan to stay there.
This is one of those times when I really need your input, if you would please.  What do you think of this direction?  Is it silly, simplistic, fun, funny, has possibilities, or junk this stupid idea right now.

The Giant's garden: Christmas Morning is the latest in this series:

The kids all seem to be pretty happy with what they've found - the puppy has yet to open her gift and is a little anxious about the whole affair.  The frog just watches.  And I'm wondering if I should be making these as woodblock prints, or doing them at all.

I'll be eagerly awaiting your ideas and comments and if they are not pats on the back, but more like pats on the head, I promise not to send the Art Exterminators after you --  ;-)

Fairy Queen

I'm assuming that you are also participating, or at least know of, the next monumental puzzle print - the babe of Miss Maria of the Monumental Mysteries.  You will recall that the last such endeavor was the City of the World, in which my contribution was a playground for children.  I used a photo of my oldest granddaughter, Grace, on the monkey bars in a park in Madison, WI,  for my inspiration.  I think she was about 4 yrs. old then - now she is an old woman of 15.

The theme for this year's Monumental Puzzle Print is a Fantasy Garden.  The puzzle piece I received reminded me immediately of a butterfly.  But, I thought there would be plenty of butterflies and I should do something that would reflect my younger granddaughter, Camille.  When Camille was around 4 yrs. old she was your ultimate faery queen.  Upon arising in the morning one of her first demands was, "Where is my crown?"  As soon as she located it she whipped on her wings, donned the crown and was good for the day unless they had to go out and then the wings would have to come off in order to get the jacket and and car seat accommodated.  It didn't take long for me to decide that every garden needs fairies - especially ones who carry on long conversations with lady bugs while the fire flies light the night.  (Camille loves bugs!  She thinks the baby leeches are just the cutest things, as they crawl up her arm...)

It will be great fun to see all of the other contributions to the Fantasy Garden and I'm looking forward to the next day and night Printing Party!  Meanwhile, I've decided to take violin lessons and see if I can play it after a hiatus of roughly 60 years.  My poor, long suffering, instructor will be here momentarily. 

BTW, I forgot to mention that Ms. Maria forbids us to proof our blocks.  They do unpredictable things having to do with humidity and lack there of when they have been inked and cleaned and then go to Las Vegas where she resides.  In order to proof both of these blocks I wrapped them in foil, put them through the press, inked and printed them very carefully.  Once they go to Maria they are pretty much gone forever - until she arrives with all of the pieces glued onto their matrix and ready to print the  w-h-o-l-e thing. I believe she said there will be 6 sheets of paper to complete the image - maybe it was more. I know there are a lot of us involved in this project. Printmakers have the most fun!!

A little distraction

Flags have had to go on hold for a couple of days.  A deadline of Apr. 15 descended upon me with gusto - no, not taxes this time, but another project.  The Peace Health Southwest Medical Foundation is conducting an auction to raise funds to add space and upgrade imaging equipment for their most fragile heart and vascular patients.  25  three foot fiberglas hearts will make their way to Vancouver and corresponding artists studios where they will be painted and towards the end of summer be put up for adoption by the highest bidders.  After that some of them, if not all, will be exhibited as public art around the city.  The sketches of what I plan to do with my giant heart are due tomorrow and never wanting to be ahead of a deadline I have valiantly upheld my tradition of being right down to the wire.  As I was singing along and getting ready to scan the images and printed forms and actually send them off A DAY EARLY, mind you, the scanner won't work.  I've tried everything: turned everything off and back on a couple of times (this is my cure-all and generally works, but not this time), downloaded a driver, tried to re-install the software, kicked, screamed, cried - well, not cried, but almost.  Nothing works, I just keep getting a notice that says, in a very cranky and irritating tone, "this is no longer supported --".  Can they do that?  Just order their machines to quit and not give a person any notice?  Probably yes, because they are the Computer Gods.  I have a call in to my favorite of all time Guru, but he is out of town until tomorrow afternoon.

There was no choice, well - truthfully, their was a choice - I could have bundled this all up and trooped down to Kinkos and had them scan everything, but I chose to photograph the sketches, write the little bio, and send that much off today with a note that the thing I really need to scan will follow tomorrow, one way or another.  I'm really, really, hoping that my Guru will tell me to click this and click that and the scanner will work again.  If I have to buy a new one I am going to be a wee bit upset, (translation: mighty pissed.)

Anyway, the sketches I submitted were:  my dancing women and children - kind of an old stand-by that I've done a million ways if I've done it once, but it is still fun to do:

The plan would be to have the girls dance all the way around - birds and butterflies in abundance and frogs and turtles, ladybugs and snails in the foliage.  Pure fun everywhere.

Or, I could do this - a kind of Remedios Varo type of image.  I've always been fascinated with her work and have many sketches of my own versions of which this is high on the list of favorites.  I could see this on one side of the heart with the tapestry going around to the other side where the rivers and oceans would be made.

 Unless someone makes the decision for me I will vacillate from now until the moment to actually start painting.  Which do you think is the more interesting?  Please help me decide!

Sketchbook Project

Talk about being behind the eight ball, I am not only behind, I've been flattened.  Suddenly a bunch of February deadlines are taunting and cajoling and acting like great big bullies.  But the first of the Big Bullies is the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project.  When I signed up for this last Fall and it said due next January for some unexplainable reason that meant January 2014 to me.  Imagine my shock when it suddenly dawned about Dec. 18 that these people meant January 2013.

As soon as we returned home from Holiday travel to visit daughter and family I leapt into action in the studio barely taking time to turn up the heat and turn on the lights.  I ripped the sketchbook apart (it was stapled in two places, so not a difficult job) and proceeded to ink an 18" x 24" plexi plate, add some textures and throw down pages 4 at a whack and run them through the press - turn them over and run them back through, add more ink, 4 more pages, etc. until I had all the pages hanging on a drying line.  I used AKUA monotype inks and fortunately they were dry in two or three days. As soon as they were dry they progressed to the sewing machine and were put back together almost as they had arrived. (Next time I will number them  - it would be much easier!) Next came images with technical pens, gouache, color pencils, basically anything able to make a mark was employed.

Somewhere. at some time, in my Goodwill, and the like, visits I had picked up a rather well beaten copy of Great Expectations.  Pages and parts of pages were missing, so it was ripe for becoming art material.  The category of my Sketchbook Project is "mystery".  These categories are only meant to be jumping off points and are widely interpreted.  The books will eventually all be digitized and when that happens I will blog a link, but in the meantime, here are some pages to lure you in...

                                     

First we have the cover.  Not terribly eye catching, but the title is there: Expectations, Great  and an
implied "maybe".    
                                     
A little more interest and a hint of what's to come - could it be a rabbit in a hat?  Wouldn't you think a so-called creative person could come with something original? sigh  It turned out that the creative part came from finding somewhat appropriate text to aid my visual story...

A couple of sample pages

and a couple more...

• Stay tuned to the link for the whole book - or better yet! Watch for the exhibition to come to your locality where you can check it out - literally.  The exhibitions are interactive and treated as a library.  You  can "check out" 3 to 5 books and sit at a table and take your time looking through them.  The last time they came to Portland they were in the Ace Hotel across the street from Powell's Bookstore. 
• 
  
• So, I am fairly reeling at the fact that I have actually finished this early and it will arrive on time.  But, I can't reel too long because next up is a portrait for a show opening Feb. 1.  Today a small canvas and some oil paints actually came out and were smeared around a bit.  Onward and Upward!

Susanna and The Voyeurs (2)

When I posted Susanna the other day I somehow neglected to send the photo which could be enlarged. I hope I've corrected that this time. Susanna has been a big hit and was sold at the First Friday Art Walk. This state was printed 11" x 17" and hand color with watercolor & color pencil. The paper is Digital Media archival with Epson Archival inks. Once again, that wide format printer has paid off, by golly.

Susanna and The Voyeurs

Susanna is a composite image (worked in Photoshop) — the forest, a group of men, and Susanna in her bath. It is based on the biblical story of beautiful young Susanna who has dismissed her servants for the day and gone out to her tub for a nice relaxing bath. Some old men take advantage of the chance to watch her and then manage to get into her bath area, accost her and demand sex. She refuses, so to punish her they accuse her of hanky-panky with her lover. But, during the trial, Daniel surfaces and cross examines the men and they have conflicting accounts. Instead of Susanna being stoned to death, the two accusing liars lose their lives for bearing false witness. The moral of the story, I'm sure, is a lofty one about truth & innocence trimphing over lies & false accusations , however I choose to believe that it is if you are going to bathe outdoors do so with a watch-dog on duty. In the biblical story the accusers are pillars of the community, well respected elders. In my version they are a group of church men who have been on some sort of religious retreat. They are more the lookie-loos, than men who would do any harm. The print is digital with watercolor and color pencil. It was printed on a wide format printer with Epson Archival inks on Digital Media paper from Daniel Smith.

Another New Experience

Education continues, and this time it is in the realm of ketubahs, a word I had never heard before this assignment came into my life. My niece is marrying a wonderful man of Russian/Jewish heritage this weekend and they asked me to design and execute their ketubah, which (according to Wikipedia is) a Jewish prenuptial agreement. It is considered an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage. It states that the husband commits to provide food, clothing and marital relations to his wife, and that he will pay a specified sum of money if he divorces her. If he dies, leaving her a widow, the ketubah amount is the first charge on his estate. Not knowing really where to begin, I began on the web where I found approximately one cajillion examples. The kids sent me samples of their likes, and they were not even similar. The groom's choice was very ornate and geometric, and the bride's choice was organic and natural. So, I tried to combine the two. My approach was to go to the Victorian Language of Flowers site and choose: Bird of Paradise - magnificence, Asteracae - love, Wild Rose - perfect happiness, Star of David - Judaism, entwined ribbons - individual qualities joined harmoniously, and an abstract heart - the universal emblem of love. The rest of it is shape, line, space, color and value, the old stand-by principles, heavily influenced by Alphonse Maria Mucha, one of my favorite Art Nouveau printmaker/illustrators. The kids have not seen this, yet - I just hope it will not be something they hate, since it is supposed to be a "work of art", signed at the rehearsal dinner, that will be framed and hang in their home.... Yikes! I hate commissions. By the time the client sees the work I am tied in knots fretting furiously that they are going to gasp and turn pea green when they see it... Oh dear, Oh my...