The Year in Review.

This is the time of year I love. Post-Christmas, and just before the new year turns.

And this year, how exciting! We're entering a whole new decade, even!

I have high hopes for 2010, with some interesting possibilities (and certainties) in the making. These include two small solo shows (the third got moved to 2011), more community teaching for awesome area arts organizations, and an online teaching gig with the Art Institute of Pittsburgh! I am very excited about this. I just got finished with the required facilitator assessment course that was the final hoop before being assigned my first class, and received notice that I will begin teaching with them on January 11th. Newbies can only teach one class in their first session, but it is possible that I could teach two classes for each of two sessions per quarter, eventually. I've never taught art online before, so this will be an interesting experience, to say the least! I am looking forward to it.

I'd like to take the rest of this post to reflect on the all the things I managed to do in 2009. I am so thankful for all of the opportunities I've had so far—they've really helped me grow as an artist and as a person!

Here goes, in the order that I think of them.

1. My first solo museum show at the Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University.

2. Scheduling three more smaller-scale solo shows in 2010 and 2011.

3. Teaching! Thanks to the Buffalo Arts Studio, the Burchfield-Penney Arts Center, and the Western New York Book Arts Collaborative for including me on their roster of instructors. Also, two pretty great private lessons.

4. Artist presentations at Starlight Studios, the Castellani, and Alden High School.

5. An honorable mention award at the Big Orbit 2009 Members Show.

6. Winning an SOS Grant. Twice?

7. Having work selected for group shows at Artstream Studios in Rochester, NH, and at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, NH.

8. Having work chosen to appear in the Winter 2010 issue of Calyx Journal.

9. Having a studio visit with some prominent area curators as part of the selection process for the Beyond/In WNY Biennial (I didn't get selected, but having the visit was still pretty amazing).

10. Being Gordon's on-site artist during Buffalo's annual Garden Walk. Even if I did forget my paints. I made due with the colored pencils I brought with me as an afterthought.

11. Tabling with my pal Jan Nagle at the WNYBAC's Holiday Panic Sale, meeting lots of cool people and selling a few things.

12. Being accepted into the art education teaching certification program at Buffalo State College for fall 2010.

I feel like there are more achievements that I am proud of, but that will do for now. In 2010, I hope to have more time to dedicate to the studio, and I hope to get one or two artist residencies, too. As I said before there are other possibilities but for now, I will leave them as that and secrets, too.

Here's wishing you and yours a very happy new year!

Christmas Frida

This probably qualifies as more crafty than arty, but I finally got finished making my ornaments for the swap that was organized by my co-worker Nicole over at her freshlyblended blog and Swap-bot, where I have been pretty active as of late. For the longest time I just could not come up with anything clever or overly cliché for my ornament and so kept putting it off and putting it off, until I found myself way over on the deadline to send them. Frida Kahlo ended up being my muse and I found a great black and white photo to use to make a neat paper ornament.

In Photoshop, I cropped out Frida's figure (you couldn't see her feet in the original photo, either, which I really liked) and then selectively colorized it. Then, I printed the image out on cardstock, and glued it to a brightly colored piece of Canson paper, while inserting a loop of embroidery floss in between for the hanger. (This took some expert manouevering, by the way!) Finally, I carefully snipped, snipped, snipped away and came up with Christmas Frida! On the back, I stamped the phrase "Feliz Navidad." Incidentally, she is smoking a cigarette—so apropos!

*sung to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas*

TEN FRIDAS SMOKING...



And what she looks like, front and back. The color is more accurate in this photo:


By the way, I'm really not that into Christmas... it usually makes me more depressed than anything. But really, who doesn't like a little Christmas Frida?

Where Will I Be Today and Tomorrow?

Why, the Western New York Book Arts Center Holiday Panic Showcase, that's where!

I will be sharing a table with my good and talented friend, Jan Nagle, who makes clever jewelry items. I'll be selling the dozen or so little books I made for the event, as well as some of my art -- mostly framed collages and mixed media-type items.

I feel woefully unprepared for this, but I'll be there and I will have stuff to sell. I guess that's enough. I hope it is, anyway!

Maybe I will see you there?

Books books books

Someone on one of the book arts communities I belong to on LiveJournal posted this video, which I think is just amazing. So much time and skill and hard work goes into editioning a fine book like that. I'm not sure I have the patience for it, so I guess I'll probably stick to one-offs I can make at my dining room table... for now, anyway. This has really inspired me!

Enjoy!

Lady Godiva's Operation

In case you haven't visited my Etsy shop in a while, I just posted another painting there and should have another couple in the coming days... going through my inventory and getting ready to say farewell to things, I guess. It would be great to see a few things find new homes before the end of the year!

Available now is Lady Godiva's Operation, an acrylic painting on canvas, 30" x 42".



This painting was recycled from a previous work, some remnants of which still remain visible, but fully integrated into the new work. I was inspired by those gorgeous Italian Renaissance portraits in profile, as well as the crazy cascade of my own hair. It was named after the Velvet Underground's amazing song, which came into my head as I chose to leave the disconnected heart in the new painting from the old. It was such an apt title! I consider this painting among the few real jewels of my collection of own work. I hope you will think so, too!

Books books books

On Saturday I taught a bookbinding class at the WNYBAC to a group of seven very cool ladies. We had amongst us a rocket scientist (yes, really!), a chef, a museum worker, a women's studies professor/writer/poet, an actress, a writer/homemaker, and an artist, a full range of ages, 20s–60s. The class had a great energy that I as a teacher just thrived on. In fact, it was the best class I ever taught, student-wise, and my performance as a teacher-wise! So many books were made, the class just took off with the techniques I showed them and ran.

I've been asked to come back for the winter session and teach another class or two, including a continuation of the beginner's class, so that is good. I am glad that they were pleased with how I did, too, obviously.

We managed to cover quite a lot of territory in the seven hours we had together, everything from that simple one page folded book to a single signature hardcover book with wrapped covers. Each student walked away with at least five books to take home; some were still working even as class time was over and I was walking out the door! (Alas! I didn't take photos... too busy teaching/binding!)

***

In other news, I haven't been making much art per se lately, although I have been pretty active over at the website Swap-bot, writing letters, putting little packages together, and even making the occasion art-like item. Actually, one of the things I was really pleased with was a doll quilt (not necessarily for a doll, but a quilt that is quite small, less than 24" on any side) that I made for a swap. I had a quilt top that I had put together a couple years ago and never figured out what to do with... so this was the perfect opportunity to use it! I really enjoyed the process of hand-quilting and see this as a potential new medium for me to tap my creativity. I'd see them more as art pieces than anything functional, at least at this point.





Not too shabby for my first time out. And wouldn't you know, I forgot to measure it, even? It's probably about 7" x 12" or so. I can always ask the person to whom I sent it.

Swap-bot has been good for me in that it gets me doing creative stuff, even if it's nothing "big" or "important". It's also helping me get better working with deadlines, getting things done in time because someone else is waiting on you. Not to mention, it's a nice place to "get around"—that is, to see and be seen, so to speak. More exposure for my work when people look at my profile and decide to visit my website or whatever. That's always nice. And there are some interesting folks there! (Some not so interesting, too, but isn't that the case anywhere?)

I'd say anything that keeps me making stuff is a good resource. Even if it is just things like handmade bookmarks and typed-out stuffing recipes and doll quilts.

In MORE other news, I'm signed up to table at the WNYBAC's Last minute gift buying panic marketplace on December 11 and 12. Here's their description:

At the main gallery, 1st floor of the Western New York Book Arts Center
468 Washington St at Mohawk in Downtown Buffalo
Friday Dec 11, 4-8pm and Saturday Dec 12 12-6pm
Free admission and open to the public
Artists, craftspeople, printers, & other handmade/self published/locally produced items. Perfect gifts for giving or hoarding.

So, if you are in town that weekend, you should stop by and check out all the lovely, locally-made wares! I plan to have available some of my old zines (hm, mayyybe a new one!), some little blank journals (hard and soft cover), and art. In fact, my idea is to make a new series of house paintings, but quite small so that they will be very affordable and accessible. I'm still working out what sizes and grounds would be best for these, but I do hope to churn out quite a few for the Marketplace (and beyond, like my Etsy shop). I'm excited about this! I tend to produce and perform best when I have a deadline.

Never-before seen

I just got photos of these paintings sent from Nahcotta Gallery in Portsmouth, NH, where they have been living since the beginning of August, when they were included in their annual Landscape Show. They'll be coming back to me eventually (unless they sell, of course), but they asked to keep them for a while longer. Stupid me, in a mad rush before I delivered them to the gallery, neglected to document them, write down dimensions, anything! Bad, bad practice indeed, and won't ever happen again. Anyway, it was almost like Christmas when I received the photos yesterday. I'd forgotten how nice they were (if I say so myself!). Hope you enjoy them, too!


Little Red, 12" x 18", acrylic on canvas, 2009.


Big Red, 18" x 24", acrylic on canvas, 2009.


Things We Lost, 36" x 24", acrylic on canvas, 2009.

In other news, I submitted my application to the NYFA Fellowship, cutting it close to the deadline! I've applied several times in the past; maybe this will be my lucky year! Of course, I have a long wait to find out... not until April 2010 or so. It's going to be a loooong winter...

I also have another thing up my sleeve but can't talk about it. It's an exciting prospect, though! Keep your fingers crossed for me.