success!

 This painting  ended up being a few inches shy of 3x4 feet after I stretched it.

This one is about half the size of the one above...sorry I didn't make any standard measurements. I get caught up in the process of painting and forget about practical things like documenting the progress or writing down the sizes. 

I'm excited because this is the closest I've come to replicating the look of my business cards in a large scale. I ended up using a lot of gesso and absorbent ground, but these paintings are on canvas, not watercolor paper which means I can blow up the scale even larger- I could go 7' by 12' if I remember my canvas roll sizes correctly. How cool is that??

 I added gold acrylic paint to my usual paint ingredients, so there a subtle luminosity that happens

The usual tools

 The first few layers

 A few progress shots before I got too covered in paint to safely use my camera

I painted my island two different shades of gold. I'm thinking that they will peak through the tape layers I'll be adding to the frame.

 I cut 72 business cards

 ...but I ran out of drafting tape.

 I purchased a different brand of 300lb water color paper, and I found out that even with the drafting tape the paper layers were separating and tearing after taking the tape off. I wasn't expecting that, so I need to revamp my game plan.

pictures of already mentioned projects

the business card box

 black velvet lining

 with the lid on it looks good, but sticks. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem?

 The new watercolor chart (I actually only have 30+ squares left out of the 225)

 The old watercolor chart, which was inaccurate because I didn't mix my colors strong enough

 The Astronaut couple, part way through carving

 The original sketch. I ended up making the space traveler in the foreground larger, and opting out of the heart shadow for now.

 The inked block, and some of the cards

 my ity-bity print shop

 I get so immersed in printing that I don't always clean off my block as often as I should- this has lead to prints where the shape of the boot kicking up looks like a lunar shadow instead.

  Experimented with different colors and multiple layers of different colored prints- the white ink over black is really quite lovely (lower left corner)

The text on this block measures 1.25 by 1.25 inches. (Yes, I am crazy, and it only took about 7 minutes per character...)

 

I used the leftover ink to color some paper and illustration board I had- the roller made the surface very interesting, so hopefully I might start working some kids from my new photo book into these moody places. 

So, what do you guys think?

absorbing versus production

I am very effected by stimuli. One of the reasons why I don't have my driver's license yet is because I like looking out at the passing world too much, and I worry that I would be a distracted driver. As a bike rider I've learned to focus- but really it's just honing the kind of observation centered on whatever is going on in your personal space bubble. Car doors that fly open a split second after I pass them send shivers down my spine, and I can almost feel which cars will suddenly swerve in front of me for that coveted parking spot. As a viewer and participant in the world I bounce from a type of focus that hums out conversation and is at times mistaken for a fierceness and unintentional intimidation, (a modified biking attitude) and one that wants to notice and capture details that connect to stories, images and smells. In everyday terms it means that I am appear either seriously occupied or spaced out, silently focused or blabbering about every little thing I notice.

I sometimes wish that all of this awareness would lead to a die-hard artist work ethic but that is a nut I have yet to crack. Maybe I am just weak-willed or too good at psyching myself out, but damn do I get distracted while doing things. Originally I meant to publish this post on the the 5th. I was going to talk about how I had found a box in my room and spent all day working to transform it into a beautiful and fitting carrier for my precious business cards, with explained process and photo evidence. I nearly finished it. The gold paint is alluring, the cardboard wallet box transformed and lined with velvet. Two details threw me off though- do I affix a black masking tape label with my website embossed to the box cover or not? The gold paint made the fit of the box very snug and now it sticks- do I keep it as it is and fumble while opening it, or do I figure out a way to make the box easier to open? How do I do that? And with those questions it has sat. I don't quite have the right type of ribbon or even a solid idea of how I want to do it, and this project follows my pattern of working. Things get started, sometimes they almost are finished, but usually I'm missing the last touch.

Today that last touch is uploading the photos I've taken to support all this chattering. I can't get it work and it's frustrating. I find myself skimming text a lot lately, so I imagine that people will notice a lack of pictures and skip this page. I'll just end these chunks of letters with a list and the acceptance that people will skim and the list has the best chance out of everything.

Things that have been eating my non-work time:

(In order of appetite)

netflix instant watch:

21 Jump Street

The X-files

movies from the 80s

movies set in California or with Aaliyah 

playing scrabble (ipod version and in person)

better job hunting:

interviewing:

barista/espresso test

by phone

in person

craigslist

editing resume and writing cover letters

 

Art projects:

 Making a watercolor color chart

( because I am ashamed of the "b" worthy one I made for Randy Chavez's illustration 1 class)

composing little studies with the left over paint from the chart

a valentine's day lino cut with astronauts

business card box

cooking tastier than what I usually eat food:

soups with tomato bases, carrots, cabbage and potatoes plus whatever veggies I have around

curried lentils with collard greens and bacon

sausage, spinach and mushroom sandwiches

Brussels sprouts

peach-ginger black tea or lycee red tea

hanging out with friends and my boyfriend

over-sleeping

the packers playoff game

 

Hopefully I can get my photos uploaded soon, but I can't promise that I will be distraction free.

 

Card batch # 3, paintings and experiments

 The first stage of some experimental tape paintings

One of the things I really love about art is how it isn't really serious until you say it is. I could spend the rest of my life working some random job to pay living expenses as long as I could spend time experimenting with ideas and materials. Studios are laboratories of messes, egos and wonderful mistakes, a safe place to spend time nursing a piece of work to life. And since art is subjective ( like everything else in the world I suppose) you can just let it exist until you decide that yes, this is something you want to show people, this merits attention, criticism and maybe even praise.

Whether I'm ready for it or not, the Compound Gallery Group show is quickly approaching. I have until July 5th to fine tune my work for selection. Since you dear reader are putting in the effort of actually looking at my blog I'll give you a sneak peek, but first card batch # 3!

Super stiff 400lb Arches watercolor paper

It took me a couple of hours to cut and at least 2 exacto blades, but no finger injuries were sustained!

A 3'x4' board served as a base for taping my future paintings and cards. This was an all day affair.

Mmm rectangles

Drying paint

A close-up

Dried paintings, but not quite finished

Close-up of one of the larger pieces (12x15 inches) before I decided it worked better in the other direction.

A few of the finished pieces, arranged in pairs or triptychs

Except for this loner, he works well by himself.

I started to oil paint again. I haven't worked in oils since October of last year, ever since I became enamored with making my own water-based paints. I've had a painting that I started back in October as an experiment. It started as a wood panel prepped with pigmented rabbit skin glue as a size, but then I got into painting with the size, and gluing size paintings onto the panel, and before I knew it I had piece that didn't know where it wanted to go. It has been hanging around, the awkward guest, the well intentioned but never finished project. On a whim I decided to oil paint on top of the paper cutouts and such. I'll show a progression of the painting in a future post, once I've found a photo of the beginning ugly duckling stage.

Here's a clue to the color scheme...

Stage 2 of experimental tape paintings.

Sometime needs to happen, but I'm not quite sure yet. 

More tape layers perhaps?

Stay tuned to find out!

If you live or will be visiting the Bay Area soon come check out the group show!

I promise that it'll be a good time, plus since it's an open studios event you can legitimately peek into the spaces where all the art magic happens...

card batch # 2 unwrapped

Lots of things have been happening that kept me busy and in a little bubble.

I've been sharing a studio space with 2 of my dear friends- it's so good to have a space again! This picture is from when we first moved in- it's a lot more homey now, I'll post a recent photo soon, after I check and make sure it's okay with the art gang.

 The dried paint on the cards.

 A close up of the textures

Carefully taking the tape off

The card revealed!

Yum!

Just  a small amount of the tape I have left over- more than I know what to do with right now!