little love

Valentine's Day seemed to me like a good excuse for making some cookies. My mom always turned Valentine's Day into a fun day- we'd come down to find the breakfast table decorated, a little surprise at our seat and red food coloring in the milk for our cereal! Later this evolved to college care packages filled with anything and everything she could find that was red- gum, toothbrushes, socks, snacks, etc. So that's the tone I like to take on this particular holiday. I don't load it up with expectations of grand declarations of love- I just use it as an excuse to pink and red surprises into the day.

much to say about nothing

I've been wondering what I'm supposed to post about when I don't have any new work finished up and ready to share? I've been super busy, but due to the new (to us) house, the small kids, the dog, the snow... a lot of my creative energy has been directed toward painting the kitchen, stripping wallpaper in the bedroom and thinking through Bakugon-themed birthday party plans for my almost-5-year-old. Uncreative energy has been going toward shoveling. I'd be happy to share all of that if I thought anyone was interested, but feel like I'm "supposed" to have art to post.

Luckily, this piece I ordered from the amazingly talented Ashley Goldberg arrived today:

Other than being excited to have something to post about, I'm totally in love with the colors, the texture, the quirky houses. It made my day! (please note that the original image is cropped in this photo)

I know that one of the things that drew me to this piece is that I've used simple house images in my own work for ages. Every time I think I need to branch out and find a different subjet, I just can't find anything that says what I want to say like a house does. To me they can speak of family, safety, shelter, community, tenderness...but also sometimes secrecy, isolation and obligation. I wonder if I'll ever find a way to say so many things with a different image?

I love the way these other artists have used the image of the house...such a broad range of interpretations:

Sarah Ahearn is one of my all time favorites- the little houses sprinkled around in many of her mixed media paintings feel so sentimental.
Lucy Summers creates the most wonderful, intricate designs which she then uses to print her own gorgeous fabrics.
Heather Kirtland is someone whose work I just discovered, and I love her use of encaustics to create floaty, ethereal houses.
I've also just discovered Lily Stockman's work, and am completely blown away by her "Homestead" series. Breathtaking...so far out of my realm of ability, but inspiring me anyway. After visiting her site, I've been working on these:

A little experiment, I guess. I'm giving a go at working on a panel instead of paper, and more of a painterly approach to image making, over the collage-driven pieces I've been doing for a while. I'm nowhere near as comfortable with them as with some of my other work, but it's a good time for me to be playing around, as I have no shows booked until June- there's nothing to be making art "for", other than for the sake of exploration, I guess.

So as it turns out, I guess I did have something to say...but be warned...next post really might be all about a Bakugon themed 5-year-old birthday party!

together

Well, I got back into my studio today and it felt really nice. I have built myself a schedule that leaves Monday and Tuesday mornings open for studio time, so I'm going to try to get back to honoring that. I finished up this piece- called Together. I'm pretty happy with it...I think I'll use the sewing machine to mount it as a finishing touch before framing it.

I definitely need to learn a little more about photographing my work...I'm ready to start submitting pieces for potential shows etc., and I need to figure out how to capture the colors and details more accurately. Anyone have any suggestions?

cheerful

I did a little sewing this week...some celebration bunting! I made it double sided- bright, general happy colors on one side and all reds and pinks on the others- since Valentine's Day is coming. This and another one are heading out to friends who've recently had babies...I always figure there are lots of days to celebrate in general family life: first days of school, ballet recitals, Birthdays, lost teeth...big and small- and you're always ready to party if you've got an 18-foot bunting at your disposal!

letting go

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that this little guy found a new home...thanks so much to the person who bought it!

fabulous and wonderful

Well Gallery Night was absolutely fantastic...I am so thankful to the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre for inviting me to exhibit in the great space at the Broadway. The work was hung in a way that made it very accessible, it was lighted nicely, and it just looked great. There was a constant flow of people through the space, and everyone was so interested and encouraging. A number of people asked wonderful, engaging questions, and the general response to my work was very positive...so thank you so much to all who came out on a cold night, and came up to take a look at my work!

Thanks too, to my wonderful, supportive and helpful family! My being able to do this is definitely a group effort at times!

What a great night...I'm so motivated.

disaster area

This is a shot of my studio desk during production. At one point, I lost a tiny, miniscule clipping from an old dictionary, and it took me about 5 minutes to find it. (It had fallen onto my lap)

I'm embarassed to admit that when I'm this focused on getting ready for a show, the entire rest of the house and my family suffer extreme neglect. The boys haven't had a bath in several days, I'm passing up good food in the fridge in favor of McDonald's because I don't want to break momentum and cook and the living room rug is still covered with shards of sticks I let our dog and my parents' puppy chew on two days ago. (Letting dogs chew on sticks in the house is a messy idea, by the way- but I really needed to work, so it helped keep them occupied). I hang the show tomorrow morning and promise to make an attempt to restore order as soon as possible after that.