My Very Own Dog Art

About two weeks ago, I had a sudden crafty urge, brought on no doubt by a whole lot of Pinterest and DIY blog hopping.  The crafty urge happened to coincide with my changing the look of the master bedroom, and I'd been thinking about changing the art on the walls for some new interest.  And look what I made!

You might recognize the subject, our lab-weimaraner mix Gemma.  Then again, you might not.  But trust me, it's her.  I spent a lively hour one afternoon following her around, camera in hand, trying to get just the right profile shot of her.  You know, when you try to get down on a dog's level to take its picture, the dog usually rushes right toward you.  I have the dog nose prints on my camera lens to prove it.  I finally enlisted the help of Miss C, to put Gemma on a leash and walk her around until she stopped in a good profile pose.

(Nope, this isn't the one I used but you get the idea.)

I followed the great instructions I found on Karah's DIY blog "The Space Between," and all I needed was the canvas (I didn't have an old one lying around, as she did).  I've got tons of acrylic paint and it's always nice to do a project that uses what you already have.  So I got to be crafty AND virtuous. 

You'll notice that her dog pictures featured a very flat background.  I wanted a streaky look, which is a good thing because that's what I got.  And now Gemma (so quiet and obedient!) stands watch over the bedroom dresser. 

 

One of these days I'm going to paint that dresser.  But I'll have to wait for a big crafty urge to come along.

An eggplant a day

Some people are spending this week cooking food in preparation for Thanksgiving.  This year, I'm thankful that my brother Gregg and his wife Kitt are worrying about the food -- I get to paint it and bring wine to dinner on Thursday.

My task this week is to paint eggplant.  We are working with purples in the online sketching and painting class I'm doing.  I'm still working on getting the paints to do what I want them to do but each time I do one, I get a bit better.  But I'm having fun and enjoying the process.  We're supposed to spend no more than 45 minutes on each picture, and I figure spending 45 minutes a day on this is pretty doable. 

But fabric is calling, too.  I clearly need a bigger studio.  And more time.  There's a house for sale across the street and last night when I was falling asleep I was fantasizing about buying it and making it my studio -- my fantasy long-arm quilting machine in the living room, a painting room upstairs over looking the back garden, etc. 

But I know I am lucky to have a room, however small, dedicated to my sewing and other pursuits, and I can close the door on the mess and leave it all there.  That is no small thing. 

Carving out some time for fun

On Friday, I went up to Bishop's Ranch for a play day with friends. It was the perfect day to be there -- the sky was a soft gray, rain was falling, and the air was full of the fresh scent of autumn. Our friend (and the ranch's artist in residence) Lisa Thorpe gave us a lesson on reduction stamp carving. So we brought our lunches and settled into the cozy art room to play with rubber and ink and paper.

Here's Lisa, demonstrating her carving technique.  We started by drawing, and then carving a simple shape in both positive and negative.

Then we printed, one on top of the other with different colors.

 It's trickier than you'd think, figuring out which lines should be on which stamp!  We all agreed that the ones that weren't registered had the best, wonky energy.

Then Lisa showed us the reduction carving.  She did a great article on this in the Sept/Oct issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors, by the way.  She calls it stamping back to front, color by color.  So we started with carving little bits away, printing, and then carving more.  We experimented with one simple design, figuring out what to leave and what to cut away with each print.  Here's my final print, which had four layers stamped on it:

By the last layer, you've cut away most of your stamp -- so my remaining stamp looks like this:

Lisa, of course, has a lot of experience and has figured out just how much to leave to get those wonderful woodblock carving lines.  The answer -- as with a lot of art -- is to just keep doing it!

I also did a tiny nest stamp.

I really wish this had the background carved away with the positive egg and line shapes remaining... but that's probably harder to do.  And really, I didn't realize that until I printed what I had carved.

I brought my camera with me, and took the opportunity to take some pictures along the way.  I'm getting to know a new lens (Nikkor 50mm/1.8) and I'm determined to just keep it on the camera until I get better with it.  It has a VERY shallow depth of field to which I've not quite adjusted yet, which explains why there are so many out-of-focus parts in the following pictures!  But still, you get a sense of the day.

Here is Ancella, concentrating as she prepares to stamp a first layer.

Pat M was having a good time (sorry for the lack of focus there, Pat!)

Sydne works on her sketch...

I actually love this shot of Pat's hands as she carves, although I wish I'd adjusted things to get more in focus. This is one of "my other" Pats, as Miss C would say. I have two close friends named Pat and often do things with both together.  So in case you need to know, this is Pat D.

And of course, I had to shoot our tools...

 It was a very fun and relaxing day.  Lisa has done some great banners, stamping images on fabric and then stringing the pieces together artfully.  Well, Lisa does everything artfully. 

 It was a lovely way to spend a rainy day.

Hand me that pen...

I'm one of those people who grew up thinking she couldn't draw.  I think it was partly because my sister Laura was a dedicated and talented artist who drew beautifully and I thought I just didn't have her talent.  But over the years I've come to realize that drawing is one of those things that can be learned.  I took some watercolor painting classes years ago and loved them but work and family pulled me in a different direction, and I've not done much actual drawing since.  But recently, I've been working on drawing -- well, a loose sketching, really.  And I'm having SO much fun.

I started participating in the drawing lessons Miss C is doing as part of her curriculum this semester, and we're watching lessons online by an art teacher in New York City.  It's pencil drawing so it's learning about how to shade and shape using value and line. It's a whole different thing than I've ever done, and I'm finding it quite interesting. 

And then, on a whim, I signed up for a short online sketching and watercolor class from Jane LaFazio, whose colorful and breezy sketch style I adore.  During the first week, we drew "every day objects" -- hence the rotary cutter, below...

 

  and this week, we're drawing things from nature -- today, for example, I worked with leaves and seed pods from a maple tree on my street.

I'm sort of surprised at my reaction to this.  I love the peacefulness and meditative sense while really studying something to draw it.  It's an intense concentration but restful at the same time.  But mostly I'm feeling that this is doing wonders for my confidence.  I'm not aiming for anything fancy, mind you, but I feel good at what I'm doing and I'm learning each time I try something new. So each time I finish an assignment, I think to myself with some surprise, "Hey!  I  can draw!"

Yep, I'm still sewing and working on the various projects I have going around here -- but now I can stop for 15-30 minutes and do a small drawing and I feel as refreshed as if I'd taken a nap.  It's amazing. 

Those Same Tricky Questions

In our homeschooled World History course, Miss C is learning about the Renaissance.  I ordered this DVD set, called "DaVinci and the Mysteries of the Renaissance" because it not only addressed the life of Leonardo Da Vinci, but also because it included several other videos on the arts and sciences of the time.  Today, we watched the video titled "The Artists."

And here's what struck me.  Looking at the art of the 14th and 15th centuries raises the same questions artists ask themselves today.  What is art?  How does culture impact art, and art reflect society?  If a patron enables an artist to make new work, what does the artist owe the patron?  To what extent would or should an artist vary his or her vision to please the audience?   It's really rather humbling to recognize that artists like Michelangelo and Da Vinci and Bruneleschi and Titian stumbled over these same issues.

If you can find The Artists video part of this series (check your library!), it's well worth watching.  There are lots of comments by current artists and art historians, talking about how artists of the period help us understand why art is important.  The video doesn't just address art history -- it addresses art's place in our lives regardless of the age in which we live.

And now I wait...

I had an unexpectedly open morning, so I took the opportunity to play a bit with something I've been wanting to do.  I've been laying out masking tape on fabric ...

and I've stencilled in color using Shiva Painstiks.  This has not only been fun and relaxing -- it's also been feasible with minimal input from the left hand, which is still surprisingly sore.

I was thinking how much fun I'd have machine quilting when all of the color was added, but then I started thinking about how these paintstiks have to cure ... so I looked it up.  And they are supposed to cure for 3 to 5 days! 

Darn.  So much for an instant gratification sort of project.

Sketchbook Challenge #1: Highly Prized

 

Because one of my goals for the coming year is to use my sketchbook more, I signed on to join the 2011 Sketchbook Challenge.  It promises to be inspirational and fun, and I'm hoping it'll prod me to return to the sketchbook a bit more regularly. 

This month's theme is "Highly Prized."  The first thing that popped into my mind was a pair of wooden spoons I have which once belonged to my Auntie Helen.  I know, it's odd.  Maybe it's all of the holiday cooking I've been doing -- using those very spoons, even, but that's what came to mind and so they became the subject for my first entry.

And these spoons do mean a lot to me.  Every time I use one, I think about my great aunt, and all of the meals she cooked using them, and how she stirred with them just as I do.  It's not just a link to my childhood, but a connection to my role in the women in my family -- making food, doing our humble kitchen chores, caring for our families.

My aunt Helen was really my great aunt, my maternal grandmother's sister.  She was a slender woman (I inherited several of her handmade aprons, and they look like they were made for a child's waist) with a quick smile.  She didn't have children, but she was always ready to play cards or do puzzles with us.  She was a lovely presence at many family gatherings, loving and kind and ready to play with any of us kids.  She died over 30 years ago, but I think of her every time I use one of these spoons. I guess it's my memories of my aunt that I so highly prize, and these spoons are just the trigger.

Just because Christmas is over doesn't mean the crafts have to stop...

It happens every year.  A few days before Christmas, I stumble onto some delightful hand-crafted item and I suddenly wish I had a lot more time to enjoy the process of making more gifts and decorations.  Of course, by that time it's far too late to start any new projects (which, at times hasn't stopped me -- just this year I made four gifts after December 21st that I hadn't planned on making but couldn't resist).  And every year I vow that I'll spend some time in January having fun with some new crafty projects.

Here are a few of the things I'd like to try before next Christmas:

This felted ball garland, courtesy of Liz at "Say YES! to Hoboken" (and yes, she shows how to make the felted balls themselves).

 
Felt snowflake pillows, with tutorial by Anna at Noodlehead

 
NOEL Wall art, thanks to Jessica at Craftily Ever After -- perfect for my font/letter/type obsession.

 
Ribbon Christmas trees (to add to my Christmast tree collection), from Jamie at Whipperberry.

This elegant coffee filter wreath, from The Nesting Place.

.

And this paper leaf wreath, courtesy of  FineCraftGuild.com.  Because we all need more than one wreath!

These cupcake paper carnations, for gift wrapping decorations, courtesy of Martha Stewart.

Gosh.  I'd better get busy!

Waxing Nostalgic

Last week I spent a lovely day learning about Encaustic Collage from my friend and amazing artist Lisa Thorpe.  Lisa is the artist in residence out at Bishop's  Ranch, the retreat center where I go for my quilt retreats each year, and during every retreat we ooh and aah over the artwork Lisa has hanging in the retreat center's dining room.  I've loved seeing how Lisa has worked with encaustic collage, so when she offered to to teach a class, a bunch of us jumped on it.

So, 6 of us (including Miss C, my daughter) found ourselves in the ranch's art studio on a cold windy day, surrounded by scraps of paper and old photos and the warm smell of melting wax.  Lisa walked us through the process, and we had a very fun day of creating and exploring a new art process.

Basically, the process involved starting with a plywood base, building a collage with paper elements, painting a wax mixture over the top, then adding texture by pressing objects into the surface and rubbing pigment into the lines to emphasize them.  Sounds easy, but it's clear that it takes some practice to work with the wax so it comes out the way you want it to.  There's also the totally unpredictable effect of the papers blending into each other, so what you see when it's dry is not necessarily what you'll see when the wax is applied.

I made several small pieces that day, but my favorite is the one above which features an old photograph of my grandmother, grandfather, and my dad as a little boy.  It sits on a page from an old Italian grammar book that I inherited from my grandmother, so there are some lovely memories in here for me.  I realized, after the fact, that I have a heavy hand with the wax and that I applied it too thickly on all of my pieces so part of what I liked about the collage was obscured.  It's too foggy and blurry.  I'll know better for next time.

It was so fun to see what everyone made, and how we approached our collages so differently.  Miss C worked away happily (an art field trip to break up the homeschool week) and produced some amazing collages.  It's good to learn something new with friends.

Lisa's a great teacher, by the way, as well as a talented artist.  If you are in Sonoma County, you can see her artwork currently hanging in Ravenous, a wonderful restaurant in Healdsburg.  (Two reasons to go: great food and great art!)

Self-portrait, with nap

Today was my Practical Design workshop, a monthly workshop that never fails to teach and inspire me.  Today, we showed the work we'd done on our year-long series, and then for the second half, we played with making quick collages.

We were told to do a 15-minute self-portrait -- or really, a portrait of us at the moment somehow -- and this is what resulted.  Go figure.  But it was fun.

On a totally unrelated note, I read this quote recently from Annie Lamott (said when giving a graduation speech): ""On my  last day on earth, I want to have taken a short nap and had dessert.  Since I don't know which day is my last, I can't take any chances."

Put it in the Book

These day, I'm riding a bit of an emotional roller coaster as Miss C continues to experience all-too-frequent migraines, and is dealing with the messy trials and tribulations of 7th grade girlfriend stuff. Some days I long for toddlerhood, I tell you.

So, I'm continuing to find great pleasure and a zen-like calm with my moleskine notebook, colored pencils, and black marker. I am not creating ART but I am entertaining myself with illustrating moments in the simplest of ways.

Here's a page I did when I was thinking about abacuses (abaci?) in preparation for the 12x12 mathematics challenge...

I came across this quotation in a catalog (Have you seen the Bas Bleu catalog? They have some great stuff for book-lovers) and it seemed all too appropriate.

And then just doodling whatever strikes me.

I highly recommend this activity, and if you're feeling in need of serious self-indulgence, then you can do this while watching appropriately non-educational television (you know, Celebrity Rehab, The Housewives of Orange County, Top Chef...) and sipping tea.

There'll be fabric content again one of these days. Meanwhile, back to those colored pencils...

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get ... Coloring

I was one of those kids who could sit for hours with a coloring book and crayons and just color away quite contentedly. (I have fond memories of the Nadine the Ballerina book my grandmother kept at her house just for me. I colored an awful lot of pink tutus.)

A while ago, having one of those wide-awake-in-the-middle-of-the-night episodes, I turned on my Ipod and listened to an episode of Craftsanity, a podcast where host Jennifer Ackerman Haywood interviews various people in the crafty world. The episode that night (I chose blindly in the dark) was an interview with Dawn DeVries Sokol about her book 1,000 Artist Journal Pages: Personal Pages and Inspirations (1000 Series) and her art journaling habit. I wasn't very far into the podcast when I decided I had to hunt down the book, and the next day I found it at my local book store. It's a collection of 1000 art journal pages by different people, showing a huge range of subjects and and media and journaling styles.

That got me thinking of how I miss that simple coloring from childhood, and how while I'm not the best in the drawing department, I do have a good time just doodling. The artful ordinariness of the pages in the 1000 Pages book inspired and encouraged me, too. I realized that it wasn't the artistic merit of the drawings that attracted me -- it was the individuality and personality in the pages that I enjoyed. So I put a little bag together with a journal, watercolor pencils, a paintbrush, and some markers. And I've been sitting at odd moments (in the evening in front of the tv, etc) just doodling and coloring. I'm not aiming for art ... I'm not even aiming for any content that will artistically mark my day. I'm just letting myself doodle and color.

And it has been the BEST thing. Very relaxing, I tell you. One day last weekend, I was out running errands and stopped to just sit in the sunshine on the square at the center of town and just do a quick sketch for a moment of peace. It was just what I needed.

Today, I had to spend some time hanging around Caroline's school, and I occupied myself by trying quick sketches of kids around the school. (You'll notice I'm not showing them here -- people are my worst, worst things) And even tho they weren't great artistically speaking, I had a great time.

So, here's my therapy thought for the day: Go Color Something. You'll feel better.

Inactive but productive

After going about my usual business for a few days, I realized that my back was not improving and trotted myself off to the doctor...who advised me to give it some serious rest for a few days. That meant NO bending. No bending to empty the lower drawer of the dishwasher. No bending to empty the drier. No bending to pick up little kid socks on the floor. And, as for some reason sitting in front of the computer seems to add to the strain (do I perch, and not lean back?) I have spent almost no time in front of the computer. Amazing the time I've gained.

As a result, I have spent the last two days being ....well, unbending. Fortunately, sitting in front of the tv feels quite comfy. The Project Linus blankie pile has grown as I made my way to the end of season 6 of the Gilmore Girls.

I've planned out a new project in response to my design class, where the assignment was to choose a atypical palette and work with it. Here's my palette. Notice the total lack of pure, bright color. Eek!



And here's a hint of things to come...



I'm a bit more mobile today but still being careful. Have to be in good shape for our trip to see James Taylor in concert in San Francisco tomorrow night!

Cro-shame

So you know how I said I’m having fun crocheting baby blankies for Project Linus? Well, I still am. I finished blankie #1 and am halfway through blankie #2. I’ve got soft washable yarn in various colors to make probably three more, too. And I’m having such fun that I thought I’d hunt around on the internet for other baby blankie patterns. And you know what I discovered?

Most crocheted stuff is ugly.

I could show you examples. Lots of examples. But because what I’m finding are pictures of things that people have actually made and photographed and posted on the Internet with pride, I don’t want to embarrass any tasteless crocheters. Besides, you can google "crochet" and find a lot of it yourself.

(Don’t believe me? Google "crochet pattern" and then look at the results until you find something you find attractive enough to make. Go ahead. I warn you, finding even one passable item may take you all night.)

The baby blankets are cute, especially the plainer ones. But I realized with shame that I’m happy crocheting blankies to give away, but as soon as I thought about making a baby blanket for my pregnant friend Celine, I knew I’d either knit one or make a baby quilt so it’d be nice enough for a friend.

I have Crochet Shame. Cro-shame.

In my search for interesting and attractive crocheted items, I stumbled onto a crochet blog ring and started linking from one blog to the next. And you know what I discovered there?

The crochet ring bloggers are knitting.

I think I understand why.

Knit one, crochet two

Last night, I sat and crocheted my way through "The Apprentice: LA" (which has "jumped the shark" with that ridiculous tent city thing) and "Brothers and Sisters" (which was hard, as I had to keep looking up to take full advantage of the addition of gorgeous Rob Lowe to the cast.) I am having great fun crocheting this baby blanket and, as I am wont to do, couldn't resist stocking up on MORE washable baby blankie yarn the other day for all those future Project Linus blankies I'll be making.

So, I was thinking. I like the LOOK of knitting better, but I like the ACT of crocheting more. Why is that? I used to do lots of knitting, so it's not for lack of familiarity. I went through a long phase (coinciding with my years in cold New Hampshire) where I knit Icelandic sweaters with colorful, patterned yokes. I learned to knit the English way and got really good at knitting the English way and the "Throwing" way at the same time so I could knit with two colors and not have to pick up and drop yarn strands to change colors. I knit cabled things. And I loved the look and feel of it all the way.

Now, I'm just loving the crocheting. It's definitely simpler. Maybe it's that there is only one implement to juggle, not two. And with knitting, there is a whole row of stitches to keep on the needles in exactly the right order.



With crochet, there's just one stitch to hang on to. One little loop. If you make a mistake, you pull one stitch out at a time, without the risk of being unable to retrieve all the knit stitches in the row. (Can you tell that I have some experience with UNknitting?)

Or maybe it's just the novelty right now. I feel like I'm really zipping along with my trusty crochet hook.

Today, I had 30 minutes between my orthodontist appointment and picking Caroline up from school, so I stopped at Starbucks to get a coffee. I popped my earphones on, turned on an Ipod podcast (Alex Anderson's Quilt Connection, today) and did a bit of crocheting. At one point, an elderly women approached me with a big smile to ask what I was making. I told her about Project Linus and my baby blanket project.

"Knitting uses less yarn," she said. I thought of all the yarn piled up at home and wondered whether that was necessarily a good thing. I think I crochet faster than I knit, but who knows.

I searched online for a few other simple baby blanket patterns, and along the way found a zillion things I'd never, ever, ever make. I mean, do you know anyone who'd want this? And NO, I won't be making any of these.

Then again, I find this strangely appealing. And this cracks me up...an amusing office gift, perhaps?

Or maybe the thing to make next is dolls. Coincidentally, today my friend Linda who doesn't know about this recent crochet urge I'm in, sent me this:

A man and woman had been married for many years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $295,000. He asked her about the contents.

"When we were to be married," she said, "my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll." The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.

"Honey," he said, "that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?"

"Oh," she said, "That's the money I made from selling the dolls."

I blame Tommy...

I read Tommy's blog every day to see what fun and extradordinary things she's up to. Whether she's making hors d'oeuvres for 300 to stock her freezer, knocking out pillows for her 100 best friends, documenting the puppyhood of her charming Bella, or showing pictures of what look like the most fun golf outings I can imagine, Tommy's posts always make me want to leap up from the computer and GET MORE DONE. In a good way, that is. Tommy's blog reminds me that life should be fun, and it's all about the attitude.

I don't even know the woman, but she's affected me and is part of my daily life. Just another cool wonder of the blogosphere.

Anyway, recently Tommy posted about finding a flyer for Project Linus and its annual "Make a Blanket Day on Feb. 17, which got me thinking. I make a number of quilts each year which, through my guild's community outreach program, get donated to the Valley of the Moon children's shelter, a wonderful, caring facility that provides a safe place for kids in transition from whatever catastrophic event has befallen them. The VOM shelter lets each child choose a quilt from "the quilt cupboard" when they enter, and they get to take the quilt with them when they leave. In many cases, it's the only personal item they have to bring forward into their new life after the shelter. So, while I knew about Project Linus, I've been happy directing my kid quilts to the Valley of the Moon Children's Shelter.

Meanwhile, on the odd evening when I sit at night to watch tv, I hate sitting there without having something to do with my hands. I've knitted all the scarves I want to knit, and at present I don't want to knit anything fancier. I've tried hand-sewing, but I'm always thinking how much faster (and better) the result would be to do the work by machine.

And then I read Tommy's post, and remembered how I used to like to crochet. It doesn't have the current aren't-I-trendy-ness of knitting (in fact, to me it still conjures up the image of little whitehaired ladies making ugly stuff), but heck, it's fun. And I realized I could sit and crochet baby blankies for Project Linus and solve the "I don't just want to sit like a lump and watch tv" problem. So, off I went to the local craft store to stock up on soft, washable yarn in baby colors. Very satisfying for a pink-lover like me who has no soft pink corners in the house.

Last night, I happily crocheted while watching Wordplay. You know Will Shortz, the "puzzle master" from NPR's sunday morning show and the editor of the NY Times crossword puzzle? This is a recent documentary about the annual crossword puzzle championship and the people who are obsessed with crosswords. It was quite entertaining. (I just ordered a copy for my crossword obsessed sister in law's birthday...shhhh, don't tell. )

So now I can watch tv guilt-free. Oh, and for each blanket I submit to Project Linus, I'll have a ticket submitted to win a Janome sewing machine! Cool, huh?