underwear advertizing

these are some of the ads that i looked at while working on my bra and girdle prints.  for some reason, underwear ads always seem strange but funny to me.  everyone seems so happy and proud to be wearing their undergarment.

at the cherry creek arts festival, my bra and girdle prints brought people into my booth in droves.  they either laughed and shared stories about their connection to the displayed underthings, or said the prints were weird.  usually the people who said they were weird ignored me, and kept their comments to their companions.  one lady told me that she was a buyer for foundations for a department store in her younger days.  part of her job included trying on and modeling the garments!!  

one think i do know.  it takes a certain kind of person to buy a print using this subject matter.  i sold one to another printmaker, she was a silk screen artist.  another was going to be a 60th birthday present, but was exchanged for a bird print at the last moment.  the giver was unsure where the receiver might display the print in her house.  

i have proudly hung one of the prints (the bra and girdle) in my master bath.  i already had a collage in that bathroom by the talented vivienne strauss featuring a woman clad in in bra and girdle.  so i guess i am that certain kind of person.  

one week until kickoff!!

in one week, i will be sitting in my booth at the cherry creek arts festival, hoping that the attendees will stop and have a look at my work.  it's both scary and exciting.  i really can't believe the time has come to make the final preparations!!

(click here for a link to the cherry creek arts festival site)

i finished these two prints early this week.  they are both about 10x18 inches, and will be for sale at the festival.  my goal is to get one more done in the series before the event...but it has to be today and tomorrow so that the print has time to dry before being matted and framed.

in my last post, i talked about the inspiration for the first print, which you can read below.  it has been reworked a bit.  i have added a purplish element, and have drawn into the lace to make it seem "lacier".

the second print is also inspired by a memory from childhood.  i remember being fascinated by anything that had to do with being a mature female.  at an early age, it had not really occurred to me that i would one day have womanly body parts that needed cinching in and holding up.  my mother's underwear drawer was a big mystery to me.  there were all kinds of things in there that made me feel uncomfortable, yet curious.  i would sneak in my parent's bedroom, and go through my mom's carefully folded stash of underthings.  i can smell that drawer as i am typing.  the sweet smell of cotton, the perfume of the paper drawer liner, and the unmistakeable scent of the wood surrounding it all.  

i would take out the contents, one at a time, and study them.  lace, elastic, metal hooks, those rubbery nodules that were attached at the end of her girdle to hold on her hosiery.  i always wanted to try that stuff on, but never dared.  it seemed like something i shouldn't do.  then i would put everything back, trying to make sure that things looked untouched.  if she ever knew, i would be so horrified and embarrassed.

it's strange to me now that underwear evoked such feelings.  lingerie doesn't make me feel uneasy in the slightest bit now.  it's a fact of life, one that is with me every day.  in a way it is liberating to see undergarments as subject matter.  my hope is that i can connect my childhood memory to yours, somehow, or at the least, make you smile!

first try! more to come...

not sure about the black and blue background.  would love your comments!!

working on several more underwear ideas, and will post them as i finish them!

a couple of new characters

i'm still playing around with the colors i saw at the fabric store a few weeks ago.  not my usual grayed-down tones that make me comfortable, but some bright, more pure hues.  ok, so i did go with some olive green and dark gray.  but i couldn't help myself.

this one is about 10x17 inches.

more birds!

memorial day weekend is our traditional "plant the garden" holiday in new mexico.  this year, my husband john couldn't make the trip.  he stayed home getting our son ready for finals.  without them, it was girl's weekend this year.   my sister-in-law, her partner, and i shoveled, hoed, and hauled our way to a fully planted plot of veggies and flowers!  our fruit trees are also brimming with peaches, plums, cherries, apples, and pears!  it is the first year in almost a decade that all of the fruit trees are bearing.  i think taos may not be the fruit capital of the world...we inherited the trees from the former owners, who were from the east coast.  the warm spring was good to us this year.  we are looking forward to this season's yield!!

we also tackled a long overdue project out front.  we finally replaced the old, ugly, and faded address post.  the former indicator of our house number was a simple steel fence post stuck in the ground.  wired to it was a piece of plexiglass bearing digits on mismatched stickers.  not a great sight.  so the ladies went shopping for a replacement.  we ended up with a 4x4 wooden fence post, iron numbers, and a handmade iron crow to mark our space.  we had to drill, dig, and mix/pour concrete for the job.  and we are very proud of our results:

birds are definitely on my mind these days.  so upon my arrival home after a glorious long weekend in sunny NM, i made this print.  it's a variation on my last post.  i think i like it better.

sorry.  a bit out of focus.  it's still wet, so i took the image with my phone.  

CCAF auction donation

Martha 1

this is the piece that i will be donating to the cherry creek arts festival auction.  each year the festival asks participating artists to donate a piece for the purpose of fundraising.  the money from the auction goes to outreach programs promoting art access and art education.  i am extremely happy to contribute to this very important cause.  

Martha 1 is a one-of-a-kind monoprint, and the image measures 9x12 inches.  i will be bringing the piece to the framer in the very near future.  with professional matting and framing, the piece will measure about 16x20 inches.

i will be posting more information about the auction as it becomes available.  

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.

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?

underwear

i've been printing away.  three new ones complete, another 2 in the trash.  at least i'm keeping more than i am throwing away!!

anyway, one of the new ones:

jar full of...

fireflies

newest monoprint.  6 colors, 12x19 inches.

taken on my iphone, so a tiny bit blurry.

i'll repost a better pic when it dries!

dress, finished!

i couldn't wait.  i had to do the overprint, even though the ink was still tacky.  i just could not let that print sit on the table unfinished.

so here it is.  the dots (from the last post) went by the wayside.  i am not happy with the shadow color on the bow.  i think it's too dark.  but i guess i'm stuck with it.

it's a bit out of focus, as i took it with my iphone.

12x19 inches.

dress

i've been working all day.  good news is the idea is keeping me thinking of nothing else.  bad news is that i am half-way done, and need to let the ink dry to overprint.  two days.  that's how long it's gonna take.  i think i will go nuts in the interim.  the paper is taped on the table, and i can't remove it or it will be out of registration when i go to  make the overprint.  i think i better go make a margarita.

pink man

this is the print i have been working on for the past two days.  i started with a retro background, and then overprinted the male figure with white ink.  what i didn't expect was the white in to turn magenta-tinged wherever i used magenta ink in the background.  i wasn't sure if it looked too girly at first, but now that i've had a day to digest, i'm liking the effect.

what was most satisfying though, was how the arm and back leg worked.  i cut a different stencil for each, and like the dimensionality it created.

this guy is 9x30 inches or so.  oh crap.  i gotta get it custom framed.  

diagram m

flashlight

i worked on this new print all day.  it's about 9x30 inches.  i'm liking everything, except i may put in a bit of white in the light beam.  it seems just a bit too busy.  i'll overprint the white, and the it will take some of the letter jumble away, making it easier on the eyes.  the orange was not the best of color choices, i guess.  unfortunately it was the first color printed, and you really don't know how it's gonna work until the other colors are put in.  i may re-do the whole dang thing in a different color scheme...maybe a red flashlight?

let me know what you think...more white in the light beam, or leave it alone?

i'll post a finished shot once i resolve my dilemma.  for now it remains taped to the table so i won't lose registration if i decide to do something else!!

emerging from the plexiglass

i worked on some prints this week.  for every one that i kept, one went in the trash.  but it's nice to be back in the swing of things.  

here is the one i posted the other day, now finished.  for some reason i can't get it to photograph very well.  the colors are a lot richer and a lot more blue in real life, and the camera can't catch the patina of the ink layers.  anyway, here it is:

it's another image in the diagram series i had started over a year ago.

here is another.  this one photographed pretty well!

the smell of ink is in the air

the brayers are rolling, as are the ideas.

who could this be emerging from the plexiglass?

stay tuned...

trek to pagosa springs

entrance to the show!

denise coffee, marti bledsoe, kathleen isberg, sandy applegate

family photo series

marti bledsoe

gail hershey

we made trek to pagosa springs for the reception to the INK invitational.  it was a great trip.  we saw some terrific art, and met some great people!  great thanks to denise and michael coffee for the wonderful show!!  they worked really hard to put together a fabulous collection of prints.

on the way home, we also got to see some spectacular fall colors, and some awesome colorado scenes.  they are below for your viewing pleasure!

aspens in wolf creek pass

south fork

la veta pass

on the ground as we walked the dog at la veta pass

what a great weekend!! 

 thank you pat and sylvia for accompanying us to the show! 

INK invitational at shy rabbit

here it is!  the announcement for the show at shy rabbit!  

click here  shyrabbit.com

or here  http://www.shyrabbit.com/Exhibits.html

i will have 25 pieces in the show, and will be happily attending!  yay!

akua inks

i was at the studio today, and decided to try out my new akua intaglio inks.  they are a product that substitutes for oil-based inks, and can be cleaned up with soap and water.  i didn't try and get too crazy with my first attempt, so i settled on a quick stripy pattern, then overprinted with white ink.  

i kinda like the ink, but it is going to take some getting used to.  the consistency is a bit thinner, and they are more transparent than inks i am familiar with.  they are nice in that they don't have a strong smell like the oil-based inks, and you can clean them up easily with mostly paper towels.  i need a bit more practice, but i think they might work really well for me.

"clay and paper 4" at shy rabbit

beef

i am thrilled, flattered, excited, and scared.   michael coffee, who taught me a reductive ink process to produce monoprints, was nice enough to include 26 of my works (including the one above) in his annual invitational show.  it's going to be at shy rabbit contemporary arts, in pagosa springs, colorado.  it's a bit of a drive from denver, but it's certainly worth the trip.  michael and his wife denise have carved out a beautiful space there, which shows some amazing art.  michael, an architect, has created a gallery from a former auto garage, that is spectacular.  they show art by nationally recognized contemporary artists, and also teach printmaking, ceramic, and photoshop classes.  

click here for a link to their website, so you can see for yourself

the show opens on october 1st, and will run until november 6th, 2011.  if you happen to be in the pagosa springs area, i would love if you would stop by!!