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.  

poodles and play

fluffy poodles.

that's what i have been thinking about.  and beetles, both the car and the crawly variety.

i don't know why this subject matter has come to me.  john and i used to have a "new couple" inside joke about a poodle when we were first dating.  so maybe that is the culprit.  there was a poster by lynda barry out at the time.  i got it for john as a gift, and we thought it was incredibly funny.  

so what is it about us artists that get something in our head that we want to use as a theme in our work? some artists look for meaning and deepness.  others, like me, are just drawn to something for reasons unknown to us or anyone else.  

yesterday i played around with linoleum blocks.  i carved one to get back into practice.  it was really fun, and really nice to play around.  no pressure.  it's been the first time in months that i was able to do something artistic without thinking of the end product.  

i was lucky enough to have my booth next to signe and genna grushovenko at the cherry creek arts festival.  i overheard signe telling a potential customer that their technique (which is drop dead beautiful) happened by accident.  and i guess that's what it's all about.  

get something in your head.  play with it.  get messy.  fail sometimes.  and create something new.

so there it is.  my plan for the next few days, or weeks, or months.  ok, maybe not months.  i may run out of poodle and beetle ideas by then.

thinking

the arts festival this weekend got my brain vibrating with thoughts.  i don't know about you, but for me, putting out your creative flotsam to the world is quite intimidating.  your art is a direct extension of who you are.  and it's pretty scary to let it be displayed out there in the universe and be judged.  people are always telling me that i should just harden myself, and i have done that.  i think the years of putting stuff on the walls have helped me be a little better about being judged. 

so.  the thoughts.  i walked around the festival each day on my break.  and i saw some amazing stuff.  and i started judging myself in the same way as others.  (well not exactly the same, because i do have a pretty personal relationship with my work).  anyway, i was feeling the pressure of being around so many talented artists, and sizing myself up in comparison.  and what i felt was that i needed to find a way to make my art better.  

there is a picture in my mind's eye of what my work should look like.  these images sometimes come to me in dreams.  but for some reason i usually can't make that picture appear on the surface in front of me.  my brain and my hand disconnect.  i want to be looser, edgier, a better draftsman.  but what happens on that page often does not make the cut.  

sometimes that image of what should be appears.  but it is usually few and far between.  so my goal for now is to make art.  make it every day, and hope that the repetition causes the few and far to become the new normal for me.

tomorrow is day one.  i'll start with getting back into my sketchbook, which has sat dormant forever.  we'll see what happens. 

 i do have a good feeling about this.

all packed up

the booth!

we. are. so. tired.

i think it's gonna take us a week to recuperate.  who knew how exhausting it would be to sit in a tent and peddle our wares for 3 full days?

we met a lot of wonderful people at the festival this weekend.  everyone was so nice!  a big thank you to the festival staff, the volunteers, and the attendees!

dry run

well, here it is.  the booth.  in our garage, ready to be outfitted like the real thing, so we can make sure it all works.  then it will all be loaded tomorrow in the truck, and taken to cherry creek north to be assembled in place.  hopefully the monsoon rains we are expecting will cooperate with our set-up.  we are also hoping that the tent company will have our tent ready for us in our space!

wish us luck!  and please stop by and see us!  we are in booth 128, which is located at 2nd ave. between milwaukee and filmore.  we are open:

Friday, July 6       10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, July 7  10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. 


Sunday, July 8    10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.



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!