productive

blindfolded

i am on a roll these past two days.  i have to stop now, because there is not really any more room for drying prints.  that is a wonderful feeling.  as an artist, i go through big bursts of creating work.  and then there are the dry spells.  you know, when every idea turns into a dud, or you are just not that in to it.  

i had a lot of worry around moving to my home studio in january.  i thought i would not be able to concentrate at home, and that i might focus on the everyday chores instead of working.  luckily, that has not been the case.  i actually think that i have been more productive here than anywhere else i have worked in my lifetime.  a few things have definitely helped.  one is that i have an amazing space to work in, and a guest bedroom next door for the overflow.  the second is that i am older and calmer than i used to be.  sitting all day in the house making art was not something i could have handled in my 30's or early 40's.  now it is a gift to sit all day and create.  i am so very fortunate!!

eye pop

olive green and red-orange.  this combination makes my eyes hurt!  but i think you'll notice this one from across the room!

it's about 12x19 inches.

cigarette card nirvana

i was looking for a particular series of cigarette cards the other day for one of my projects (see my previous post about collecting cigarette cards), and i happened upon a wonderful resource!  it's the new york public library's digital gallery of these cards, and holds 125,000 individual items!  

click here for the link!

i am so excited that this resource is out there in the world.  here are a couple of my favorites (in no particular order) for you to enjoy!  

does anyone find these as funny as i do??

marie antoinette and her ship hairdo, part 2

this is one of my sketchbook pages from a few years back.   this is the image that got me dreaming about a print with marie antoinette and the ship in her hair.  that particular sketchbook had a library pocket on each page, and there was an interactive part that you had to pull.  as you can see, the hair grew taller, taller, taller, and was topped off with a sailing ship.  i guess a trend was started in 1778 when the french frigate "la belle poule" was victorious, and it started a hair trend with the ladies of the court.  they wore enormous poufs with scaled down ships as the crowning embellishment.  

anyway, i think the print is close to finished.  it came out very 60's looking for some reason. so now i have decided the next one in the series will be similar, but with a huge beehive instead.  funny how 200 years later the styles kind of repeated themselves.  no ship in the 20th century, but still quite the fashion statement.

here she is:

is it me, or am i the only one who keeps remembering that old herb alpert album?

marie antoinette and her ship hairdo

a few years ago i did an altered book with an image of marie antoinette with her infamous ship hairdo.  the other night, i had a dream that i should make a print with that image.  i'm in the process now.  finished the background (french wallpaper design) and two layers of ms. marie.  two more colors coming soon.  i know it's a bit girly, but i just couldn't ignore my dream.  she is about 11x17 inches.

ms. marie, sans ship

the sketch

french wallpaper

background with 2 layers

more to come