I'm back!

Eep! Way too much time has passed... that's because it is well into spring, and to be honest, I've been spending much of my free time in the garden, which I have come to realize is just another way to be creative.

Anyway, I was surfing around the old internets and found Society6. I thought it looked really interesting and signed up right away. They offer grant opportunities and yet another networking community. So far I see some quality work there, but I need to explore some more.

As for me? I need to get into the studio and soon. I'm going to be in a group show at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, NH in August—all landscapes that include six of my house paintings! I visited the space while I was in NH a couple weeks ago, and it is fantastic, such an honor to be included there.

In lieu of paintings, here are a few photos I took on my NH trip:

Ayers Lake near Strafford, NH


A view of my dad's vintage camper "Tini-Home"


A couple poor old houses along the way (I took Route 20 across New York state on the way there, and then Routes 5 and 31 on the way back)

Wow: Sunny

Going through my daily reads (see sidebar), on which incidentally I had gotten a bit behind, I found this incredible artist via the most awesome Dear Ada blog. Her name is Sunny Belliston, and just holy cow! Her skill and versatility bowl me over; I love her sense of color and contrast especially. Check it out!





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In more personal art news, I am very pleased to announce that I have been invited to participate in a group show at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, NH in August. I'll be including six of my house paintings (all new, most likely, including some NH houses if I am lucky on my next trip there in June).

Need to get painting!

The Incredible Print Show

I had a very busy weekend and was remiss in neglecting to mention again this wonderful exhibition I feel so honored to be part of in Rochester, New Hampshire. The Incredible Print Show at Artstream Studios is on view both online and in person until June 27th. There are 50 artists from around the world showing all types of printed work: linocut and woodcut, photos, silkscreen, monotype, intaglio, etching, digital prints, and more! All the work is for sale and priced under $400, with many available for under $100! There's some amazing stuff.

You can go here to view some of the art as well as gallery installation shots.

I can't wait to see the exhibition in person! (I will be there for the June 6 art walk that happens once a month in Rochester.) But based on what I have seen online, here are some works that especially caught my eye:

Ana Ventura


Heather Smith Jones


Stacey Durand


Helle Jorgensen


Wayne Pate


Along with five others, I submitted this work to the show.

U-Men


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Photo: CAM staff photographer (Note: You can catch a glimpse behind me [standing] the table o' zines! Click to enlarge)

On Sunday, I had an incredibly good time at the Castellani Art Museum presenting my workshop about zines called Invisible Voices: Zines as Art, to a small but very enthusiastic group. After a short slide show in which I covered a very encapsulated history of zines and talked specifically about old zine friends Emily Lyon, Sonja Ahlers and Emily Larned, we had a quite lively discussion about, among other things, the relevance of the zine format in the 21st century compared with blogs and social networking venues like Facebook. My pal Jan Nagle and I also talked about how we put our respective zine "dummys" together in a very low-key demo fashion, and the rest of the time was spent, understandably, gushing and cooing over the fantastic zines I brought along from my collection (well, actually, I brought my whole collection!) It made for quite a display spread out on a couple large tables. I can't believe I forgot to take photos! Tsk.

It was especially great because the workshop really seemed to spark genuine interest in all those attending (even the curator, Michael Beam!), which included people who had never even heard of zines before. One of my old high school friends who came said she found one zine on the table in particular that she ended up reading all the way through—she liked it so much she couldn't put it down! I think it was a copy of Kyle Bravo's These Are the Days, which definitely warrants such a response. It was really representative of the entire workshop, I think. And while it may not necessarily have produced any future zinesters, I know that someone is surely to become a regular reader of zines, if anything. I saw a lot of eyes sparkling, that's for sure.

Yay zines!

Designer by Day

(click for larger, more detailed view)

Here is the desk where I spend all my weekdays, designing catalogs and advertisements for a small, independent book publisher. I don't have much else to show you today.

Lately, life has been full of dying kitties :( and home & garden upkeep. Our 10-year-old cat, Azrael, was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure last week and his decline has been quick and steady, so sad. Much of our time has been spent with him, as well as on the inevitable spring cleanup, inside and out. Not much time left for art-making, unfortunately. I really would benefit from a nice week-long residency somewhere, that is for sure. Hopefully one of those I apply for in the coming months will come through, but in the meantime, I really need to figure out how carve time out for art, even a few minutes at a time would be better than nothing.

Is it bad that I am admitting this here? I'm probably too open for my own good.

*sigh*

Creativity in all forms

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted here in a week, for shame! I've been admittedly lazy and a bit down, truth be told, and when weather permits taking my creative impulses out to the gardens. (I even started a new blog about my gardening experiences, Garden By Chance!) This is a prime example of how even when I am not actively "making art", I try to live as artfully as possible. In the past this has involved things like the interior decorating of my living space and surrounding myself with aesthetically pleasing things, making zines, and carefully considering everyday dressing almost as costume (though you'd never guess that nowadays).

Lately, there is nothing better to me than getting outside and soaking up the sunshine and digging around in the dirt, and I have big plans for my little backyard this season. Last weekend I spent some time continuing to clean up the beds and prune some bushes, but also ended up rather unexpectedly expanding some of the beds! And, being an artist, I can't just make a regular square bed, no... I had to get a little fancy:







I obviously have plenty of work left to do... but it was a good start. And I found that the process of creating the shaped beds was very similar to that when I am working on a new artwork... very intuitive and organic, seeing where it takes me rather than vice versa. I hadn't really planned to do this, but it just suggested itself in the clearing out process. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

That's not to say that I am not anxious to get back into the studio and work on some house paintings, though. I have all those photos that I took a few weekends ago to work with, and I am excited to see what comes of it.

On another somewhat related note, let me remind you that I will be presenting my last exhibition-related activity at the Castellani Art Museum next Sunday, May 3rd titled Invisible Voices: Zines as Art. In addition to a slide show and talk about what zines are and their surprisingly lengthy history, I will demonstrate how a zine is put together using various techniques, with the opportunity for YOU to get hands on—complete with a tour of her extensive personal zine library, which includes zines that she's collected since the early 1990s.

AND, my dears: if you would like to bring some materials to make into your own zine (writing, images) PLEASE do! Let me know if you have any questions.

It's free to attend, though you should register an RSVP with Curator Michael J. Beam at 716-286-8286 or email mjbeam@niagara.edu. Space is limited.

Dreams

I haven't yet read the whole article, but just the first few paragraphs were interesting and well-written enough for me to want to share it with you immediately. Mira writes about opportunities (grants, awards, residencies) for artists, and this particular post is really great because it talks about how she came to be the "Grant Queen" and gives lots of good, sound advice about how you can get funding for your dreams, too.

Right now, my "crazy" dream is to win a residency at the MacDowell Colony. I say it is crazy because it feels like the sort of thing that only well-known and really great artists get. But, it wasn't too long ago that I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams that I'd have a one-person exhibition at a museum, either!

You have to dream big. So, I'm going to apply for a winter residency, which gives me plenty of time to prepare a really good application before the September 15th deadline.

And if I don't get it the first time? I'll keep trying until I do.

Dreams propel you through life. Never give up on them.

From the archives:

Equilibrium, Gouache and pencil on paper, 11" x 8.5", 2004. In a private collection.

Cigar bands redux

As promised, I have photos of the two latest cigar band pretties to show you! You can click on the images to view them much larger if you wish.

First up: Ed, Jed, and Marshall on a Sunny Day, 4.5" x 4, 2009.


This piece is dedicated to artist Jed Jackson (and will probably go to him). Three of the cigar bands that I used came directly from the men referred to in the title, who gave them to me outside on the patio of the Castellani Museum on the day of Jed's exhibition opening. And yes, it was a unseasonably beautiful, warm, sunny day.

And All the Ladies (CALM), 8" x 7", 2009.


I love how the word "CALM" is spelled out vertically among the cacophony of color and design in the rest of the piece. This truly developed organically. I was very glad to find that odd double band that had one totally blank area, torn away from a previous effort, I guess. How fortunate that it tore away totally retaining the gorgeous shape of the band! It reminded me of a cloud, which in turn inspired the pale blue sky-like area at the top, also a result of being unable to bear interfering with the line that was created by the topmost bands. It just all came together fortuitously, and I am quite pleased with the result.

I expect that I will squeeze out a few more of these before I run out of materials. The process of creating these is indeed calming, meditative, and just plain fun, to be honest. I don't know about you, but as an artist it is imperative that I have fun. Otherwise, why bother?