Playing with the monkeys on my back

Working through the details for my New Years card design; the monkey’s the one causing all the trouble. Isn’t that always the way?

Life is a whirlwind around me these days with so many fresh starts––new perspectives, new babies, weddings, career moves––so many exciting and terrifying things whipping past, including whole years.

An article I read recently talked about measuring your years in the experiences they bring rather than the big, judgmental milestones we often drop on ourselves this time of year. What new friendships have you made or solidified? When did you learn the life lesson that gave you your new mantra? As the years tick by, it’s those moments that we should savor. Our experiences build us into who we are, one conversation and bedtime story at a time.

About four years ago I switched my holiday card mailing to the Lunar New year, which means I have a little breathing room apart from the standard holiday rush to enjoy the process. Today I’ve savoring the thinking, the noodling and doodling. 2014 is the year of the wood/green horse in the Chinese zodiac so I’m sketching ideas around that theme.

I’m pairing my whirlwind thoughts with the Town Musicians of Bremen folktale for playful twist on the way the years stack up around us, behind and ahead. No matter where we are, we’re just starting out. The three years winking ahead of the year of the horse are the sheep, monkey, and the rooster. What adventures await?

Sketching – Tea Towel Time!

Working on ideas for some new tea towel designs for the fall/winter craft fairs coming up. Mark your calendars!  I’ll be at the Hand to Hand Market in Greensboro Dec. 1st and Krankies Craft Fair Dec. 13th-14th. Gotta get cracking on some new prints, thinking about making some new mask posters, too.

And a big THANKS to my HankiePankie Print Workshop students for sharing Saturday with me at Sawtooth School for Visual Art . I had a wonderful time introducing them to the fun of screen printing and seeing the different, inventive ways people tackle the creative process. Truly looking forward to my next class, now! Here are a few pictures from the class, though I was too busy to take very many:

A student’s design–from sketch to screen to finished print.

In progress: “A nice bit of color she was, too.”

The studio is a mess these days. There are stacks of wet pulp, drying paper casts and piles of wild vintage cloth patterns spilling out of every corner. It’s chaos and I love it.

I’m currently collaborating with fellow SEED artists Millicent Greason and Nicole Uzzell on work for an exhibit opening in May at  Electric Moustache Gallery in Winston titled Amalgamated Transmutations. 

Nicole is a potter and papermaker who’s been graciously showing Millicent and I the ropes (or pulp) of paper in her lovely mountain studio. It’s been refreshing to learn a new process. As everything blends together in my brain I see new directions and ideas coming out in my other work as well. I’m working on a life-size dimensional portrait for the show built, in part, from paper. Each artist will create her own rendition starting from a paper cast, it will be interesting to see the different directions each artist takes this core idea.

I’m also working on another banner in my Flags of our Mothers series for the exhibit inspired by comments made by the artist James McNeill Whistler about his painting Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1, (better know as “Whistler’s Mother”). When confirming it was his mother in the painting he said “A nice bit of color she was, too.”

Here are some frames from the creation process to wet your appetite. The Amalgamated Transmutations exhibit opens Saturday, May 4th.

In Progress: TruLuv Sketches

The doodle from my sketchbook

 

Mapping out the design

More progress on the new HankiePankie edition; sketches for 1st of 4 new designs: “Don’t be Cruel”. You can see more about brainstorming for this edition here.

Sketchbook: TruLuv

 

Sketches for my new Art*O*Mat HankiePankie Series: TruLuv.
(See post on the inspiration here.)

The potential of you is vast

A few more images from my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project, in progress, including some notes I wrote to myself as I went along. A few of these ideas will make it into larger scale prints, I am sure. Meanwhile, I am enjoying the zen of slowly filling the blank pages and watching the layers build.

The Sketchbook Project – in progress

Hurrah for dirty paws. I’ve been spending the last few days playing with glue, sloshing watercolors and sniffing crayons for my submission to The Sketchbook Project 2012 (it’s due at the end of this month, so I was forced to find the time to start playing). Why is it that the starting is the hardest part? Now, my desk is covered with doodles and colored pencil shavings and I’m having fun. Thank God for deadlines. Here are a few in progress shots.