Thursday, April 29, 2010

Music Scenes from 'Pennies and Markets'

Bongo Beat
Limehouse Blues - Swingtime at the Market

Take Five
New woodblocks for the show tomorrow night. I'd love to do more in this series of musicians. They are such a cool group of people to have as subject matter.... something about musicians - they have an undeniable swagger and charisma.
Tonight we'll be making lots of homemade cookies for the opening... if you're in Spokane, stop by the Ruby Slipper tomorrow from 5 - 8pm!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Rocky Beach


Here's how the penny rug/free form landscape turned out. It was hard to know when to stop... I wanted to add beading but resisted because I wanted it to remain simple and not too 'precious' looking. (but I do love beading!). This one has kelp attached to the rocks, sea jellies and a few starfish - plus a few fish hidden in the water.
I printed my woodblock ('pebbles') on a crinoline type of fabric which is sort of like a scrim. I built a little hanging twig 'system' with some extra twigs attached in order for the piece to hang with some space between the wall... this was there is a bit of movement and a cast shadow (my fave part). I'm excited to do some more of these pieces.
Thanks to my mom for helping me engineer a method of affixing thread to twig and fiber in a strong, permanent way!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

From Pennies and Markets...

Here's a new woodcut of an outdoor band at a summer stage. I love the atmosphere of art fairs and farmer's markets that are soon to open. This is where the inspiration came for my show at The Ruby Slipper. There are several market scenes of the fruity and foody variety and more than a few musicians thrown in as well as the penny rugs mixed with woodblock printed embellishments. I'll be sharing more over the next couple of weeks but naturally will keep a few things secret til after the opening on April 30!
I'm really excited to start up some new ideas and projects after all the work gets delivered to the gallery in a few days.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Penny Portrait


Penny Portrait, originally uploaded by Tea and Ink.

This was a little experiment in the 'wool laboratory' . Will try to do another version today a little less 'sewn together' at the face. (less a la Frankenstein, I should say!) Would like to do a whole series of portraits framed in pennies... wishing my upcoming show was in June and not May. Happy Tuesday, all.