Throwback Thursday

Feeling this today: LOVE MORE.

LOVE MORE, 2014, pulp painting, 22" x 30"

This piece and another twenty pulp paintings are at Towle Theater through mid-June's Hammond Art Tour.

throwback thursday

Today's throwback is a pulp painting from last fall's residency. It's at the Towle Theater as part of Landscape's Language. Opening Tomorrow Night! 

begin again, pulp painting, ~9" x 9"

And since the reception just misses Autism Awareness Month, I'm extending the donation pledge through tomorrow. 25% of sales opening night will be going to the National Autism Association in Northwest Indiana.

in the studio

Oh, these in the studio posts have been absent for the last month because it's been a lot of admin and behind the scenes work. Lots of things are happening but not lots of artmaking.
Although I did manage 40 ATC collages between the end of last week and the beginning of this week. (Here are a few of them.)

So what's been keeping me so busy?

Landscape's Language A large selection of the work I completed at last fall's papermaking residency is heading to the Towle Theater in Hammond for the next couple for months. Seven large pieces at the framers, but I framed the fourteen smaller pieces at home. Still to do this week: make labels. The install is this Friday! The artist reception is May 1st, and there will be an artist talk April 1st at Paul Henry's during the South Lake Artist Co-Op April meeting.

ATC Challenge 39 I've joined Susan Henshaw's ATC Challenge. I previously was part of an ATC trade she organized a few years ago. This round she has upped the challenge a bit. There will be 30 cards to trade with 30 artists, but there will also be 9 additional pieces made which will be matted and offered for sale at Nido Bianco in Three Oaks, Michigan.

And speaking of Nido Bianco, I am very pleased to announce that I have joined Nido Bianco's family of artists! I am delivering work tomorrow and will have eight printmaking/paintings and a dozen monotypes and linocuts available. Nido's is a beautiful, brand new gallery which opens on Friday!

10% for autism April is Autism Awareness Month and for the last couple of years I have been donating 10% of my sales through the month of April to the local chapter of the National Autism Association. This is a charity near and dear to me because my older son is on the spectrum. This year, I will be donating at least 10%. (So, yes, sometimes I will be donating more than 10%)  I'm working out a studio sale to coincide with this, because I would like to clear through some of the overabundance of work I have. Stay tuned for that.

Throwback Thursday

A recent throwback... to last fall's residency at Hook Pottery Paper. This morning I confirmed the installation will happen on the 27th at the Towle Theater. I am so excited to see these pieces framed and hung! I'm still working through titles of work (so surmount, below, might not stick). And for that matter, a title for the show. The phase My Love is a River popped into my head earlier this afternoon, and I think it may need to be used somewhere.

surmount, pulp painting 30" x 22"

in the studio

In the studio this week, I've been still playing around with this piece. Layering, layering, layering.

I've also started gathering feedback on the paper I made during my residency. I included this as part of my grant proposal and I've had two official feedbacks. One at my place and one not. This is not at my house. I do not have this kind of free floor space in my studio.

Out of the studio this week, I had an opening Friday at Thaddeus C Gallery in La Porte. I have ten small paintings in FOOT LONG! a small works show also celebrating the gallery's 10th Anniversary. Next week: I have another feedback scheduled midweek. Saturday is the 2nd Saturday opening at White Ripple. The Small Works Show is still up there. And I think ink and gouache will make a return.

in the studio

This week in the studio, I've been working through how I can take what I learned in the residency last week and apply it to my current body of work. This is definitely a trial and error effort. I've had the paper out once to show some during an interview I did for a local paper - it should be out mid-December. I spent most of this week dabbling with an existing canvas - and taking it a direction I hadn't originally planned.  It started here.

From here, I added in several layers of text using ink pens and then some paper cut out letters followed up with watered down acrylic. I think the acrylic was the most effective. I also think going forward that additional papers (written on) could be layered in underneath. Here is where I finished out the week.

It still needs some more work, and this may not ever get finished.

Today, though! Today was fun. my younger son played studio assistant and we printed our own holiday cards! He was reluctant to start but had a good time once we got going.

Out of the studio this week, I delivered the basketball for the Hoosier Hoop Dreams fundraiser. And delivered work for this week's opening of FOOT LONG! Small Works show at Thaddeus C. Gallery in La Porte. That show opens 5-8pm this Friday (December 5th) I know several other artists exhibiting in this show, and it should be a great show, with lots of gift-giving potential. Next week, I pick up the rest of the paper I made on the last day and will start soliciting input for what will end up in the show. I need to start photographing what I've got on hand already. I'm hoping to "release" one paper each week between now and the show opening.

in the studio: papermaking residency

This week in the studio, I was not in the studio. At least not my studio. I spent the week at Hook Pottery Paper in La Porte completing a residency with papermaker Andrea Peterson. I am not going to show off completed, dried paper in this post. It was an amazing experience and I am still digesting exactly what happened. I do believe this will change how I work, and how I paint and draw. It is going to take some experimentation to accomplish something similar in a different media.

My goal was pulp painting and the inclusion of text. At Andrea's suggestion the mark-making I used was entirely text based. I was not the best at remembering to stop and take photos while I was working, but I did manage to do a fair job of documenting this piece in particular. These photos are unedited.

the beginning

The red is a partial veil done twice,
once in the lower right and once along the left side.

The royal is a poured veil.

This layer is all text.

more text and a light blue wash
(washed top down through the center)

more text

post pressing but not dried

What's next? I still have to pick up the last day's work. From there I need to sort through it and I'll be asking some people locally for some feedback on what should be included in the exhibit in the spring at the Towle Theatre in Hammond.

I will be posting some of the work through social media. Please follow me on facebook, twitter, google+ and ello.

This residency has been paid for with a grant from the Indiana Arts Commission.

Throwback Thursday

I am working today on sorting through a massive amount of paper scrap which will be embedded in handmade paper next week during my residency at Hook Pottery Paper. I am so excited that this is finally happening. It is nearly a year in the making. This week's throwback is from last November when I first took a workshop there.

again, embedded paper, approximately 8" x 10"

papermaking

File this one under better late than never...In November, I went to a workshop at Hook Pottery Paper with a couple of friends. 

         IT. WAS. AWESOME.

If I could type that in a bigger font, I would.

I cannot even begin to say how inspiring it was. I left with so many ideas! I had never considered there were so many possibilities of making art solely from paper: watermarking, embedding, embossing, layering. Here are a few of my pieces and a quick clip of one of my friends making paper.

Before and after: writing with pulp on a wet sheet of paper and the same sheet after pressing and drying.

paper embedded with paper.

pulp writing on different layers

pulp writing, layered paper (small square not quite centered) stenciled pulp. This was just an alphabet stencil from an office supply store. I would need to make some stencils out of mylar to have this be really effective for my own work. I hope you can see the possibilities of this in relation to my more recent Post No Bills work and my previous ink drawings.

And my first attempt at pulp painting. There's a huge learning curve on this.

I cannot wait to go back!