my 100th post: preparing for a show

Welcome to my 100th blog post, in which I'll share some new paintings of mine and some fine artwork from Toni Rica! ^_^

Not so long ago I received a note from Yuko in Japan, asking if I'd like to collaborate with her and some artists that she knew. We had only spoken briefly on twitter before (where she is @cocotia) so I was surprised but delighted by her suggestion. She had two venues, a "box gallery" and a cafe' where art could be shown. I hoped to find a couple show locations here in the Bay Area, and we decided to trade art so that artists on both sides of the Pacific could have their works displayed on the other side of the ocean.

I can hardly wait to receive the art from Japan so I can first ooh and aah over it, and then make plans for how and where to display it. I don't yet know exactly how many pieces are coming, or which artists ultimately decided to participate, so it's really going to be a lovely surprise. I'm all fired up!

I recently finished two paintings that I'll display on the U.S. side of things (they're a little big to send afar). One I've shared with you above and the other is below this paragraph. You may not recognize them, but I actually started these one year ago when I blogged about their first layers. They actually hung in my house, unfinished, for all that time. I knew they hadn't achieved their final transformation yet, but I enjoyed them anyway. Now that they're finished, I'm appreciating them even more. (Sometimes my art takes a very slow evolution.)

I titled this one: Resilience. But I think it could be interpreted many ways.

Toni Rica is one of the artists that will participate with me here in the Bay Area and then send her art to Japan for display/sale over there. She has been absolutely wonderful! From the moment I asked if she'd like to be a part of this collaboration she has jumped in with both feet and is full of ideas, warmth and positivity. So much fun! I feel so supported by her enthusiasm and am very excited that I'll soon get to meet her in person for the first time. We met originally on twitter (where she is @tonirica) and I feel so lucky that such a talented gal lives just 15 minutes away from me. It's quite fun to find a twitter friend that is also an actual neighbor.

Rica sent me some photos of some of the art she'll bring to our first Bay Area event in December. When I receive the art from Japan (and from any other local participants) I'll make an official flier but for now you can have a preview of some of the goodies to come from Rica's hand:

I find this to be so gorgeous!

The sea and hill make me think this is the Italian Riviera (though I've never seen this sort of elephantmouse there). I'll have to ask Rica what place she thought of when she drew it.

She's so good with the details! They flow out of her pen.

We have begun talking about how to display things and about further locales where we can hang our work. It's all new for us, and we don't know what will happen, but that is the fun of it ~ not knowing exactly what to expect, but being open to anything and enjoying the simplicity of creating and sharing what we've made with others.

And so my 100th post comes to a close. Thanks for reading!

sketchbook project 2012

I received my new sketchbook for the Arthouse Sketchbook Project 2012 the other day. Since then, I must confess that it has sat languishing and untouched as I spent all my free time on my sister's beautiful wedding. However, now that most of my duties for her are done, I will soon turn my attention to the blank pages that await me.

The topic I picked is Uncharted Waters and I'd like to use more collage, watercolor and (hopefully hand-carved) stamps this time, not just colored pencil and ink. Last year I was always worried about the thin pages and it affected my book. But look carefully and you'll see that this year's sketchbook is just staple-bound:

After hand-stitching 50 wedding programs (and even attaching beads!) I feel pretty confident that I could take this one apart and stitch it back together with thread/floss and thicker paper. The paper of this book is probably already slightly thicker than last year's, but I feel like I'll be freer if I dismantle the book and put it back together. Either that, or it's just in my nature to always try to make things more difficult... ha, that's probably it. :)

I played with one idea for the book on my latest mail art envelopes to @saylor_made and @tonirica, cutting out some ships from maps and letting my mind wander to imagine that which hasn't yet been explored ~ dreams? the deepest ocean? outer space?

I'm looking forward to starting the new sketchbook ~ I don't have an overall plan for it so progressing through and completing the project will be an adventure!

The Sketchbook Project 2011 comes to San Francisco later this week! Can't wait to browse some of the sketchbooks I've admired online. Let me know if you want me to check yours out.

earth day prints

Today I volunteered at the San Francisco Center for the Book's Earth Day celebration. It was a cozy, low-key event with lots of free activities to introduce people to printing, book-binding, collage, etc. I thought the fair was going to be outside, like Roadworks, so I panicked a little when I got there and didn't see the street closed off. But when I got to the front of the building, a sign reassured me I was there on the right day: Free Squid Printing on Saturday!

Some cute letter pressed bookmarks were made for Earth Day and free to attendees.

Inside, I checked out the other booths before starting to work at mine (veggie printing). I went to see the main attraction first and found two large squid sitting quietly on the tables. One looked at me with a reproachful eye and seemed as though it might be alive ~ although at the same time it appeared too eerily calm for that to be true.

A volunteer was rolling ink all over the other squid. I felt a bit sorry to see them like that, but someone explained that the squid are donated to an educational science group by fishermen who accidentally catch them in their nets. The squid are frozen and then donated to schools for educational purposes or community groups like SFCB for making prints. I felt slightly better knowing that they hadn't been killed just for us. Now they would transcend death to become works of art... still, it was hard to escape their mournful eyes. I've printed with tiny squid before and didn't feel too bad or squeamish, but these large ones seemed to have a lot of personality. They did make grand prints, though:

Immortalized in ink.

Next I visited a postcard station where I ran a letterpress fish print, then drew on it some more and added collage to make a fine little card for Senator Feinstein to thank her for her earth-friendly actions and votes. Hope she likes it.

SFCB provided the stamp, address and everything ~ thanks!

Then it was time to report to my veggie-print-a-greeting-card station. It was pretty busy the whole day. We had potatoes, yams, carrots and onions for printing and used Speedball washable ink. Here's one made with potatoes and onions:

The dolphin shape is achieved by using a cookie cutter to cut the potato.

My favorite vegetable for printing turned out to be the onion because of its versatility and delicate effect. The concentric circles can be taken apart or stamped together and the texture of each ring can show through if the ink is not applied too thickly.

I had a great time at my booth and met lots of creative people.

At the end of the day I managed to bind a mini-booklet at another booth and had a brief opportunity to admire the items for sale by Maiden Hand and Gold Rush Press. I've come home with lots of printed goodies that I'm planning to start including in some of my mail art packages so I can share the bounty!

mailbox: from jessica gowling

The collage queen is delicious & the deer print divine!

Print artist and creative mind Jessica Gowling invited me into her mail art circle and sent me these beauteous items last month. With the Sketchbook Project completed, the time has come for me to send her something in return. I made one item already and have the easy part of the next one done. Can't wait to finish and mail my art to my Canadian pal up north! Thanks for the awesome art, @jessicagowling!

sketchbook project progress {part 5}

Flying deer

The sketchbooks have been mailed in. Artists are posting images of their sketchbook contents on the art house site (like Jessica Gowling) and on flickr, twitter, etc.

As for me, I'm running behind. After spending so much time making the sketchbook, I didn't have so much time afterward for sharing it! In fact, it's now 3:00 a.m. ~ the only time I've found so far to do this sort of thing.

Since it's late, I'll share just some random pages from my Lights in the Distance themed sketchbook that you haven't seen before. One day I'll make a page for them all to go in sequence, cover to cover, hopefully some time soon.

The colors on this one made me happy. The forest looked just as I remembered it.

Deer turned out to be an unexpectedly big theme in my book ~ specifically, the white fallow deer from Mt. Madonna.

More deer as well as two sisters that remind me of a lot of sister sets I know.

This one was just fun. Deer camouflage.

Deer, a cute piggy lament and two sisters with awesome hair.

design evening

Went to a talk this evening about fonts & music, and saw my design professor from two years ago.   It was so nice to see him again; made me want to take another class.  I learned that he had put one of my projects on display in a small exhibit in the design center, so I popped down to see it and to admire the other selected works ~ several of which I liked very much.  They were all self-portraits.  This was mine: 

As I recall, in that project we needed to create a self-portrait in Photoshop, also utilizing scanned physical objects.  I used pieces of my paintings along with some scanned objects from my childhood and a photo here and there.   When I look at it now, there are a few things I would clean up were I to do it again, but overall I'm still fond of it.

new life

A few of my friends have recently had new babies, so today I used rice paper and watercolors to collage some cards to send to them.  I have a pretty good collection of painted rice paper and handmade paper scraps to work from, so I didn't have to make any new collage pieces.

 Valuable scraps

As you can see, some of the pieces are even paper towels that I was previously using as a place to dab my brush between colors.  I saved them since they have such a random congregation of colors and an interesting texture, so they often come in useful.

Today I completed three cards, but I had the white balance off when I took pictures of them, so can only show you one of them right now ~ the least awful photo... the colors are still not true.  I'll post the pictures anew once I have a chance to rephotograph them all.

Hope to do so tomorrow, but it might not be possible as I'm going to be at Roadworks most of the day helping ink the plates for the steamroller.  It promises to be an exciting day so I'd better be off to bed now.  G'night!

... Update: 

Maybe too much red above?  I could tone it down a bit.

This one looks better in person ~ it's been tricky for me to photograph these.