Mail Yourself

The first weekend in November I taught 2 classes at Gallery Shibui in Raleigh, NC. Cloth Books was on Saturday and Mail Yourself on Sunday. In Mail Yourself we created small accordion books that can be used as cards to send to family and friends. I also taught an origami container structure that can be filled with a small card or accordion book. Each person had time to play around with the different structures and complete several projects. Check your mailbox- you might be the lucky dog that receives one!

Alice Southwick, owner of Gallery Shibui and generous soul, is moving her book, paper and teaching studio to Rebus Works this month. Rebus Works is a wonderful gallery and frame shop in the Boylan Heights neighborhood in Raleigh run by Shonna Greenwell. It's worth a visit if you are in the area.

cards, dogs and smelling roses

Much of my studio time over the last couple of months has been creating 3-d work, but I've also tried to fit in time to paint on paper. I usually let the idea define the media I choose to work in. Over time I have found that there is a natural rhythm to my choice of media. If I've gone a while without working flat, I swing back that way. Sometimes deadlines and commissions make media choices for me, but I try to keep my schedule loose enough for flexibility. One way I satisfy my interest in drawing and painting is to create cards that I mail to friends. It gives me great joy to communicate with people this way- it's the hand in this age of multi-tasking and machines- the same thing as slowing down and smelling the roses for both the sender and receiver. A bonus is that these cards often duplicate what I gain from my daily journal practice- time to draw/paint/collage without filtering and editing. The images that come are often the seeds for later work. The first photo is a Thank You card I made for a friend. This led to 2 paintings of the same dog (Lucy Brinkley) for American Folk Art and Frame.

Sometimes it doesn't come together- Part 2

Back in July I started work on a crown that gave me some trouble. I wrote about my struggles with this crown in a July 22 post. I have had the wire armature sitting on a table in the studio since then. Well, one day last month I walked in the studio and found myself picking up the armature. What made that day different from any other? I don't know, but once it had my attention I was off and running. It's the first crown that incorporates one of my paper mache animals.

The name of this piece is A Bird in the Head is Worth 2 in the Hand. I used book pages, gesso, gouache, graphite, cloth, shellac, and thread. It is on display at the Penland Gallery's current show The Barns :2009.

Sometimes it does come together.

FYI

My friend Terry Taylor has a new book out this month- ECO BOOKS. Here's the low down-

ECO BOOKS:Inventive Projects from the Recycling Bin

Terry Taylor

Here are projects for the “pages”: 40 innovative book-making ideas using recycled and green materials! More than just earth-friendly, they’re also beautiful, clever, and witty, stitched with traditional binding techniques. Egg cartons, wood, beer cans, and cassette tapes morph into covers, while brown bags, coffee filters, and discarded newspapers are transformed into pages. Create a boxed set of cereal box books, an exposed stitch sketchbook out of cardboard and remnants, and even a faux leather journal made from teabags.

In addition to how-to drawings, close-up detail photographs, and simple stitch diagrams, a gallery of eco-books from an international roster of artists provides inspiration.

140 pages

You can purchase it from Lark Books

http://www.larkbooks.com/catalog?isbn=9781600593949

Goodbye Dolph and Jessie

We finished our class with a group shot (photo 1) and a toast to a great week.

photo 2: class show and tell

Finishing

I'm finally getting back to Dolph's class. It was a frenzy of activity the last day and 1/2 of class and I didn't get a chance to make a post. Immediately after my assistant duties ended on Saturday I left for a walk across Scotland- Fort William to Inverness. It was fabulous, but that's another story. I'm eager to show the results from our week with Dolph.

My last installment had Dolph with his cover almost finished. He wanted to add a round piece of poly carbinate to act as a window over the cut out circle. Inside this window he planned to put a red paper airplane. He cut the poly out with scissors and used tiny nails to hold it in place.(photo 1) Next he put wood glue on the back of the wooden front cover (photo 2), placed the paper cover onto the wooden cover and clamped it all together.(photo 3) 30 minutes later the clamps came off and he repeated the gluing process with the back cover. Another 30 minutes and - Voila! (photo 4)

Milk Paint

Milk Paint has a short shelf life so Thurs morning Dolph mixed up 4 colors for us to use the next 2 days. He coated his wooden cover with black milk paint using a dabbing technique instead of "painting". After the black was dry he brushed it lightly with steel wool and then applied a coat of blue using the same dabbing method. ( photo 3 ) Once this was dry he sanded it using 4 x O steel wool. ( photo 2 ) The transformation was magical. The cover went from a sandy, chalky, feel to a smooth, silky finish with a slight shine to the high spots. ( photo 3 )