Rest

I've been learning a lot about rest these days. Adam gave a message as Campus House on the topic of rest and it struck me that I'm not doing it as I should. It's been a long process trying to figure out my priorities in life with Campus House, my art, and what I think I would like my future career to be/ look like and I think I have come to (a start of) a plan by knowing that I want rest to be included in my life. I want to always work with the things I love around me. Whether it is creating art from my studio at home or more times than not on the couch in the living room with kitties on either side of me-- or meeting with girls from CSF in my living room. I want my life to be a beautifully creative and warm and while I want to accomplish much, I want to also have a balance of rest in my life.

Here are a few pictures that I have taken. My sweet kits Keela and Fiona, and a chair in my best friends home. All images of rest to me.

You're an ACE in my book...

This was a fun piece that stumbled on. I was playing around with simplified shapes of leaves. After creating 10-12 different shapes I noticed that there were some recognizable shapes that were emerging... spade, diamond, club, and heart. So I started with the 4 Aces. I'd love to create an entire deck... It's a project for the future I suppose. Until then I have titled this piece "a screen of impenetrable foliage".

Alphabet Watercolor

Here is another watercolor that I did that involves the alphabet. There are 7 separate sections in the piece. Each section is a play on a landscape/ horizon lines.

line and shape studies (fine art)

Here are a few line studies that I did. These were actually done during grad school and were part of my thesis work. My grad school body of work and even my fine art work now is very much about lines mimicking nature. The shapes I created in these pieces were just organic forms with no clear subject matter in mind. I was trying to use varying shapes vs. open lines. After creating about 7-8 of these drawings I was left with these 2 which I believed to be the most successful. Composition wise they are pleasing and I feel like there is an element of intrigue in them... as if they look like something familiar yet abstract.

These are closer to my fine art work than my craft work however looking back, I had a blast creating these and am thinking about starting over with this basic exercise again to get some fine art juices flowing.

Next time won't you sing with me?

Here is another screen print that I did. I really appreciated the "not so perfect" line up of the letters.

As basic as the alphabet is I think it makes a pretty interesting subject matter. Also, with the variety of fonts these days it really can set a mood even with the simplest of compositions. The green print is poster size and the brown is 12x12.

I think it would look pretty perfect in a nursery or even as a nice graphic print in a living room or office. If you are interested in prices, let me know.

Cel-e-brate good times, COME ON!

I created a series called the "Celebration Series". It was made of simple triangles from various book pages and strung as a bunting banner. I did a few on a solid white piece of paper (example above) and after those were done I decided that if these were truly celebration pieces that the environment surrounding the banners should be celebratory. I created about 6-7 celebration pieces with various backgrounds from 2 "enemies" shaking hands, an infantry riding home with a victory, a child getting a part in the school play, etc. This piece below is my favorite. It is an illustration from a random childrens book. I added the ground and sky color and then used paper triangles cut from another book illustration to create the banner. Enjoy!

Botanical Alphabet

I created a series of watercolors (again for the Starry Night Festival) that was a botanical alphabet of sorts. Each letter also had the silhouette of a plant with a name that begins with the same letter (ex. F (Fiscus)) The plant name could be either the scientific or common name.

The pictures above are just some of my favorites. I had a full set but since Starry Night I have about 13 left. The remaining letters are: B, C, D, F, G, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, and R. Each watercolor is $10 or I could be commissioned to do an entire set for $150. Also, I would love to do names/ smaller sets and can work out the price for that should anyone be interested.

Fall

I love when the oak trees drop the helicopter seeds. They are amazingly designed aren't they? They fly in order to have the best chance of survival/ taking up root. Amazing that a seed could grow wings. This colored pencil drawing is titled "the fluttering of untried wings".

past present future

I found a small booklet of prints of Raphael paintings in an old art history book in my studio. The booklet was not bound so the pages were loose and I was in the mood to make some small scale collages.

The pages I chose all had beautiful architecture in it so adding modern architectural elements within the collage seemed to fit nicely. I also use quite a bit of cut paper in my work so cutting out a portion of the paper-- whether it was a window or a door gave the piece a sense of mystery. I then chose a few botanical elements t be emerging from the open space. Once the compositions felt complete I studied them to find what my subconscious might have been thinking about as the pieces were constructed and whether it was intentional or not I felt they were a great commentary on past, present and future.

Here is the series in closer detail shots. They could be a set or individual pieces. As with any of the work posted here, feel free to contact me if you are interested in purchasing any of them as well as checking my Etsy page for what is currently for sale there!

Yeah... won't be making that mistake again!

This was a simple print that I did for an art festival called "Starry Night". The festival was in West Lafayette, IN on October 1st. The festival had a cause that they were supporting through the festival which was literacy-- so naturally the theme for the event was 'Story'. I decided to do all things word related. I did an alphabet series, a literary phrase series, and a series of pieces that were made from or made on book pages. This piece above was printed on pages from a book titled "The Three Things". The pages had some nice yellowing that showed it's age and I was excited to use them somehow. So, I chose an image that would be fun in a kitchen or as a simple graphic print. After printing I was pleased but realized I had made one big error...

I didn't read the pages that I was printing on. I had no idea what the book was about and really until I read it didn't realize it would matter...

If you look right above the fork in this image you will see the phrase "Rabbi lay dead"...

and the line directly above the spoon in this image reads "Damn- Damnation"...

The book was all about war. About a boy who was reluctant to join the armed forced and was in turn completely traumatized by his experiences in war.

I laugh at it now and made sure to explain my oversight to anyone interested in this piece. Thankfully I had a few people who found the blunder quite comical and purchased the print
(for $3) anyway. If you too are amused, let me know! I still have plenty of these prints for sale!
$3.00 a piece for the War/ Silverware prints. : )

One of a kind drawing to multiple prints.

Recently I learned how to screen print. Printmaking was one of my favorite studio classes in college but screen printing was never covered. My friend Stephanie was gracious enough to let me invade her studio and teach me this method. For my first try I chose a pretty tricky image but the result paid off. I used the photograph of "the melodies of birds and bees" and did some manipulation in Photoshop to create a more graphic version of the piece and then screen printed it in 2 colors. I was very pleased with the result and have since purchased my own screen printing materials. More of my prints coming soon. : )

Finding what's next...

After finishing graduate school for my Master of Arts, I was sent out with a body of work that was strong, guided, and had a lot of room to grow. But outside of the environment of regular critiques, encouraging peers, and the sharpening that happens in a community of artists, I find myself becoming stagnant and cloudy in my artistic direction. My painting professor and my committee chair told me that when I left grad school it would be up to myself to form that sense of approval that I would normally receive from them and my fellow art grads. While I am making art I love I am still working on that sense of "This is good and worthy to be called art".

Something that I I found to be helpful is having a more "craft-focused" outlet-- being able to spend a few hours a day working on art that I think is beautiful and while it may not be the most conceptual and focused work I've created, it is just deep enough to keep my feet wet.

I am hoping that this blog will allow me to share some of the "not-so-fine-art" pieces of work and give me a forum in which to talk about them a little more.

This image is titled "the melodies of birds and bees" (formerly titled "Nest").