I was reading today’s post over at Havi’s blog when she mentioned eating imaginary pie. Which reminded me of the pie art I’ve made over the past year or so.
It started so innocently, as an illustration to a grocery list.
Then progressed to a collaged homage to my Mom Mom’s kitchen and her mad cooking skilz.
Then who wouldn’t like a little pie from the sky?
And finally, even the cake is starting to look like the pie :)
Where’s my imaginary fork?
I have been playing with my sketchbook in my copious spare time, which is why there are only a few new images to show you:
I began colorizing the image from a submarine. These are the Derwent Inktense line of colored pencils.
Detail of the coloring. I love how these pencils layer.
A submersible necklace of the imagination.
Detail. Wouldn’t it be cool to really have beads like these?
Then I went a little steampunk, with submarines which resembled fish. The angler fish makes me giggle.
This one was done without a base pencil drawing. I love the looseness of the sketched line.
Today I decided to go with a dirigible for a change. A banana dirigible.
I still managed to work in my happy fish and octopus motif. Hey, even a banana dirigible needs a sponsor!
Some days it’s good to just go upstairs, turn on the A/C and crank the tunes. Today was one of those days. On the turntable: The B52’s, Billy Idol and Aerosmith.
On the art table:
“Flower Girl” 4” x 4”, reclaimed cereal box, color photocopy of family photo, silk flower and shell button. I had painted the canvas last week, today I put the elements together.
While that dried (I attached the pieces using Golden Heavy Gel medium), I took this:
Added this:
And this:
The bird is from ArtChix Studios, while the circles are punched out from copies of my beaded moon piece.
I also played with another reclaimed cardboard house
The basic house shape waiting for embellishment.
The found textile I used to embellish the bottom half of the house.
Auditioning another bird (also from ArtChix Studios).
The bingo piece I chose to put in the gable.
The house is currently drying in the studio, while the cow awaits the decoration on her dress. I haven’t yet decided whether to go with more collage images or to paint or stamp shapes using Lumiere paints. We’ll see what inspiration hits tomorrow.
Several of my friends at Facebook are participating in The Sketchbook Project. I was intrigued, so I checked it out. For $25, you get your choice of Moleskine cahiers in red, natural or black, and you can choose from among several themes, including the option of letting the organizers choose a theme for you. The books are sent back to The Brooklyn Art Library and will be touring the country next year.
I went with the theme “Dirigibles and Submersibles”, which felt like it could inspire some steampunk and fantasy creations. Once the book arrived, I let it sit for a few days while I pondered how to begin.
Finally, I picked up the book and began to draw:
Pilot pen over a pencil drawing.
The paper was thin, so I ended up gluing pages together. This page was collaged with pages from an old AAA guidebook, listing stations from Michigan. After I applied a thin wash of Golden Quinacridone Burnt Orange acrylic, I stamped the spread with a hand carved stamp. Once that all dried, I drew in the submarine and waves with india ink. Details are filled in with gouache and paint pen.
Here you can see some of the detail of the listings.
The third image, so far:
Future ideas include the view from inside a dirigible, and dirigibles and subs made in different shapes. (I’m thinking a banana dirigible would be really cool). Then, who knows? Right now, I’m having fun, and it’s a nice break from my other work. The rules do say that artists can diverge from the theme of their book, but I am enjoying the parameters at the moment and intrigued by possibly doing something similar on my own once this book is full. The possibilities are endless.
Over the past week I’ve managed to put in some good studio time. Some of the work has been for specific shows, while others have been play/spec.
First, the play. I have a set of Liquitex Basics 22ml acrylics, and I’ve been practicing my painting:
Cow Bird in process. This painting is based on my quilt of a similar cow and bird couple. Right now I’m still building the layers of color. I love how the table underneath is its own piece of art with all the layers of old paint on it.
Bunny Pierrot II, one of three rabbit pierrot paintings I’m planning. This one will be on the far right. The full piece will be 8” x 24” when finished.
I also committed to sending a shoe piece to a show at Ten Women Gallery, so I applied some of my painting practice to this piece, still in process:
I drew the shoes using a regular #2 pencil, then began layering in colors. The fish are a silkscreen I made based on a stamp I carved several years ago. This piece is 10” x 10”.
And finally, I mixed the media up in this piece for the Art Quilt Network Fire and Ice show at Galleria Evangelia:
So far it’s untitled. It’s based on the bead drawings I did last month, and I used hand painted paper which has been screened with the fish print. I sewed fabric onto that to fill out the image. It measures approximately 15” x 15”.
Detail of the painted paper and fabrics. I really like how this piece came together and want to play more with the painted paper concept. I would love to be able to get such painterly colors and crisp images on fabric. Maybe Jane Dunnewold’s new book Art Cloth: A Guide to Surface Design for Fabric will have some good ideas. We do have several dry days coming up and there’s nothing like painting in the yard. :)
Tomorrow I will share images from my work for The Sketchbook Project.
Saturday was the last day of the annual “Ohio Brew Week” festivities here in Athens, celebrating home brew and craft brew culture. The culmination of the week is an all-day festival of brews, tunes, and art.
This year we didn’t sample any brews, we grooved to the tunes, and this is the art we took for sale:
Handmade purses, assorted necklaces, magnets and collage paintings.
We didn’t have display for hanging items, so I made do with these old wine crates my mom gave to me. I think they worked pretty well.
One of the framed collages on display in the wine crate.
Collage pins made using old name tags. I love making these collages, they provide the perfect setting for all those odds and ends left over after making bigger pieces.
Izzy got into the show spirit as well:
He has really come a long way from his early polymer creations.
I love how he comes up with scenarios for his creations. The King Crab is multi-media, it’s made using shells and glitter as well as the polymer clay. This year he even has two pieces in the Youth Creative Art exhibit at the Ohio State Fair. It’s a great joy to see the pleasure my children take in expressing their creativity. Boogie oogie oogie!
