This month let's stand up to bullies, and sew ...

Feel free to print and enjoy!!

Americans, at our best, stand up to bullies and 
fight those who seek to demean and degrade others.

Cory Booker

This month's #virginiacreates calendar reflects my renewed interest in embroidery.  During these unnerving times in our country I have felt a strong pull to my needles and thread.  I feel there are many reasons why I feel this need to stitch.  Sewing suggests mending, pulling pieces together that have been torn apart.  I feel that our country is being torn apart.

"The act of sewing is a process of emotional repair. - Louise Bourgeois"

Louise Bourgeois, used sewing in much of her work. She has eloquently explained what sewing meant to her and her work.  Many of her words speak to my current obsession with sewing so  I have sprinkled some of her quotes throughout this post.

“I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. 

The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole.”— Louise Bourgeois

These past months I have found myself embroidering on both fabric and paper.  

I have been embroidering affirmations onto a vintage slip as part of my 'slip' series.  

And while I was on retreat in San Gimignano I created a series of mixed media collages that all contained some sewn/embroidered element.

When I was growing up all the women in my house used needles. I have always had a fascination with the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair the damage. — Louise Bourgeois

And in my current series, a protest to what I feel is censorship by the current administration, I am embroidering on vintage photos words that are being removed and discouraged by the government. 

The initial list that I am working from is from an article reposted by the New York Times, March 7, 2025.

These Words Are Disappearing

 in the New Trump Administration

"As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents."

There are around 196 words on that list.  Unfortunately as I do more researching there seems to be more removed words in different government agencies, so I am not sure how many photos I will be embroidering.  

bringing attention to the everyday to elevate it to the sacred ...

My roommate during my artist's retreat is very eloquent, as well as being a beautiful person inside and out. She described my work saying, “You gave a clear and compassionate vision for bringing attention to the everyday to elevate it to the sacred.”

That statement sums up my creative vision. Bringing attention to the everyday is a constant thread throughout my creative journey, from creating an international business selling jewelry and gift items made out of ‘used’ bottle caps to an 8 foot dress sculpture out of eggshells. 

Thank you Siobhan for such a succinct description of my creative process.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, in San Gimignano I started this series of site-specific mixed media collages. I created around 20 of these pieces, and was reluctant to stop.

Of course I had to bring back some of my found treasures. Needless to say, I was waiting for customs to question my need to bring ‘trash’ back with me. But that’s the point, it is not trash to me.  

Fortunately I wasn't searched or even questioned. So I have a few of my treasure with me, however I feel that an interesting element of this series is that it is site specific so I am applying to the Gallery 263's  2025 Artist in Residence to see what the streets of Cambridge might inspire! Wish me luck & peace.

GO VOTE!! GO VOTE!! GO VOTE!!! VOTE like your rights depend on it!!!

GO VOTE!!

thank you & peace 

better late than .... wishing you a wonderful holiday season!!!

Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, 

you can make anything happen. 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Feel free to download and print out this calendar 

for your personal use this month.

p.s. if you are having problems downloading 

or printing the calendar, 

just leave a comment & email and I will send you a PDF.

thank you and peace

playing a bit of catch-up ... Happy November

When you arise in the morning,

think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive -

to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. 

Marcus Aurelius

Feel free to download and print out this calendar 

for your personal use this month.

p.s. if you are having problems downloading 

or printing the calendar, 

just leave a comment & email and I will send you a PDF.

thank you and peace

#wip wednesday: have indexcard, will travel, will create . . .

more #indexcardart:

this has been such a great project for my life right now ~  

prompt: portrait (pen and ink)

ms. sally lightfoot crab (pen and ink)

'studies in waiting (o'hare) (pen and ink)

'jake's escape . . .' (colored pencil)

prompt: treehouse; ink stamp/collage

'still life on flower box . . .' (pen and ink)

(mixed media)

pen and ink with watercolor crayons

'cocktails with caroline . . .' (pen and ink)

card #16

'eggplant & ginger . . .' prompt10

card #18; prompt 30: telephone

' mom's spirit guide . . .' card#11

#wip wednesday: a woman possessed . . .

Tonight is the opening reception for "Possessions, prized or otherwise"
this year's national juries show at the Attleboro Arts Museum.

I am very happy to announce that my piece, 'pencil cup triptych' is one of the accepted works!!!

the triptych consists of the above three interruptions of my pencil mug.

some of you may remember this series from a few years back . . .  

an acrylic painting of this mug was as 

my contribution to the Fountain Street Fine Art's 8x8 in 2013.

(click here to see the process and the other renditions)

Below is the starting picture of my beloved pencil mug, taken on a cold winter's day, while waiting in my car, for a daughter so I could take her to school.  I remember thinking that the light was really nice and captured the whimsy of the pencils and showed the shape of the mug, so thanks to the always ready iPhone . . . click.  and from there I have interpreted this image in many different media -  graphite, collage, pastel, paints . . .  

Here is the statement that I submitted with my triptych, explaining why I chose to submit this object for the possession show, the call for art asked for art that represented 'concepts that explore the things we hold dear – and the things we just plain hold. Consider representations of storage units, moving day, family heirlooms, trophies, travel souvenirs, yard sales, bric-a-brac on the fireplace mantel …'

artist's statement:

I received my ‘pencil mug’ sophomore year in college, so over 30 years ago. My roommate,Kate Kenyon, had found it at a ‘dollar store’ over a school vacation and upon returning to campus presented it to me with much fanfare.  She exclaimed that when she saw it she knew I needed to have it because it was a mug covered with colored pencils.  And she was right,  I did LOVE it and I have cherished it.

For the rest of my college career my ‘pencil mug' came with me everywhere!! I tied it to one of the straps of my knapsack where it would dangle as I would traverse the campus, from academic buildings, down the middle path to my home away from home, my studio.  In my studio I had my trusty, rusty hot pot where I would make either tea or coffee or a cup of oatmeal, all of which were consumed from my beloved ‘pencil mug’.  
Surprisingly and SO fortunately my ‘pencil mug’ survived the years of swaying from my backpack and the occasional collision with random desks, chairs and fellow students, and was carefully packed to join me in my post college life, which included many moves.  As it is my favorite mug, it always came with me.  I remember feeling that I was officially ‘home’ once I unpack my ‘pencil mug’ and placed it in its honored place on a kitchen shelf.  So my ‘pencil mug’ helped me make home in Los Angeles, CA, Iowa City, IA, Chicago, IL , New York City & Brooklyn, NY, Newton, MA and eventually Natick, MA where it has been moved a few times.  
My ‘pencil mug’ has held many a hot beverages (coffee being my favorite) and numerous meals, cereal being one of my favorite go-to meals that can easily be eaten out of a mug.  It is the mug I seek out when I am having a hard day or need some reassurance.  It still travels with me in ways a ceramic mug might not survive, but it does.  In fact the photo that I have used for the ‘pencil mug’ triptych is from a typical cold and rushed morning of multi-carpooling and my faithful mug was there keeping me warm and happy.
The images in the ‘pencil mug’ triptych are three out of a series in which I altered and manipulated one particular photo of my mug.  I had placed the mug on the dashboard of my minivan waiting for the second round of carpooling.  It was a cold winter morning and the light was quite enchanting.  Besides the light, the composition of the photo appealed to me so I made numerous photo transfers of the image and then treated each one with a different medium and/or technique.  The triptych includes a graphite rendering, a collage interpretation and a multimedia version where I placed a grid over the photo transfer and worked each section in different manners.  
With much of my work I use different techniques, materials and media to interpret the same image.  I am interested in how the different materials and approach can alter the overall experience of a piece or imbue it with an alternative meaning.
 
This mug is definitely one of my prized, cherished and loved possessions.

namaste & peace, va

IF: journey

mixed media collage: assignment was night traveling in eastern europe

Illustration Friday (IF): 

 a weekly drawing challenge sponsored by Illustration Age, where every Friday a new topic is posted and illustrators from around the globe have one week to come up with their own unique interpretation and share it on the IF home page.

~ 

Off and on, over the years, I have participated in this creative illustration challenge. I would do it every week if I had 48+ hrs. in the day.  

IF has always been a touchstone for me, it gave me a opportunity to be creative. I would participate when I was in-between projects or generally at ~ sea creatively, which would accurately describe my current state.  

So when the IF email popped up in my inbox this morning, with the topic of JOURNEY; 

it felt like a sign.  

I am on a journey, a journey of self discovery and new direction.  I am taking stock to see which and where I go next, how to proceed, especially in the area of occupation, since I was a stay-at-home mom/artist who now needs to support herself and her girls, this is a tricky topic.

One possible career 'trajectory' that has recently been surfacing again and again 

when I ponder said future is:

illustrator.  

Yes, even as I write it I feel a quickening.  

Now this is not a new desire, I have wanted to be an illustrator since I was a little girl, soaking up the riches of Richard Scarry, Margaret Wise Brown, Maurice Bernard Sendak, Garth Williams, Beatrix Potter and Joan Walsh Anglund (click on her name to go to the world of Joan Walsh Anglund :) to name a few.  

I spent hours racing through the halls and riding the elevators of the Plaza Hotel with Hilary Knight's Eloise, and days accompaning Dare Wright's Lonely Doll, Little Bear and Mr. Bear on their many adventures.

As I got older I realized that illustrations weren't only in books,and  I wanted to follow in the foot steps of Sandra Boyton, Sara Anderson or better yet, Lily Pulitzer, designing bold and colorful fabrics with her name hidden in every pattern - a creative puzzle of sorts.

My love of illustration has never waned, however it was damped by the foreboding reality of how impossible it is to become a financially successful illustrator. I took many an illustration course in New York, only to hear that your success is basically based on the chance that your portfolio lands on the top of the art director's desk the day she/he is looking for your particular style . . . it was grim.  

So I decided to make myself stand out from the sea of submissions by creating a name for myself in other creative fields, which I did, which I have, so . . .   

Now I don't believe that the destiny of being a financially solvent illustrator has changed, however I have changed and I have learned much, so . . .  

For now I am going to let this idea of illustrating percolate more, as I take some much needed time to assess.  But I do believe it was providence that I received this IF prompt today,  as it reminded me of a journey that I wish to take, a path that I long to follow.  

Happy Friday & peace . . . .

progression of a panel ~ a visual journey

'pencil mug 3' painting and collage of cradled 8x8 panel

It is that time of year again - time for the Fountain Street Fine Art's Members’ Group Show.  Each year the gallery gives its members a uniform sizes cradled panel on which to do whatever they want. The gallery then exhibits the panels and offers them at one set price.  This year the panels are 8x8 in size and $150. in price. See below for all details.

The panels were due this weekend and I am happy to say that mine is done and delivered!! However not before a few late nights and many different 'stages' ~ which I thought I'd share here ~

First, I experimented with my recent obsessive drawing, directly on the wood, adding the dress image,

 but I wasn't happy. 

pen on panel

obsessive drawing beats dress

pen on panel

dress image reemerges 

pen and collage on panel

still not happy so I 'play' with the collage; I sanded the piece

pen and collage on panel, sanded

 collage trumps drawing and dress

mixed media on panel

gesso over collage on panel

in comes the photo transfer

photograph of pencil mug

Story of the beloved pencil mug:

 This mug was given to me about 30 years ago by my college roommate.  During one of the breaks she had seen it in a dollar store and thought that I would love it - which I did and do! It survived spending the next 3 years dangling from my backpack as I crisscrossed the Kenyon campus and trudging along middle path to my studio.  It has also survived my nomadic existence.  Being one of my favorite possessions it has moved from Ohio, to Los Angeles, to Iowa, Chicago, New York, finally settling safely in Natick.  And once again it is out and about in the world, as I for some reason, don't like drinking from plastic travel mugs?!?! However this time it isn't hanging from a strap on my bag, it travels safely in a cup holder in my car, as I taxi carpools to school and head to work. 

photo being transferred with matte medium to panel

painting and collage on transfer on panel 

painting on panel (out of focus as it is most likely 2am)

As usual, it was very hard for me to stop, but I finally put the brush down and called this painting, done!! 

However it has inspired a series - but that is for another post  :)

instagram photo of panel

Hope you enjoyed this visual journey of my 8x8 panel.  If you can, make sure you go see the show. I have always been delighted to see how each artist has 'dealt' with their panel, and there are good deals to be had as well. ;)

~ peace.

8x8 All - Members’ Group Show

@ Fountain Street Fine Art

April 11 - May 19 

Each piece is 8" x 8" in size and $150 in price

Closing Reception May 19, 3-5pm

new series: subscription cards

CARD#4

Last week my life took a swift turn as my father had a serious surgery and I ended flying to Phoenix to help. Even though I brought my bag full of tricks - needle and thread, crochet hook, I have turned to another one of my recent obsessions : subscription cards.

CARD#5

CARDS FROM LAST YEAR - WITH SEWING

This series began last year when I was in the throws of my divorce and consequential move. It was a very stressful time and I didn't have any time to go to my studio, so I suddenly  began to obsessively draw on subscription cards, easily found and a convenient  size ~ any doctor's waiting room and fits into my purse.

CARD#6

TRANSFER#3


People questioned my choice of subscription cards - couldn't I just as easily do these drawing on better paper?!? Well when I worked on plain paper it wasn't the same. The  subscription card gives me a structure  to work with.  

CARD#1

Also, I liked the idea of working with an item which annoyed many and that most people just toss. This was the same attraction that brought me to my bottle cap jewelry business, many moons ago. And as happened with the bottle-caps is happening with the cards, as I start collecting subscription cards I notice the vast variety, some with wonderful colors, designs and graphics. When I draw on each card I incorporate these elements in the larger design.  As with so much of my work, I view the card as a puzzle to solve, how do I make the card work as a whole.  However, also allowing an intuitive, organic approach to the drawing. This is the similar theory behind my 'creatures'. 

TRANSFER#1

Since arriving in Phoenix I have been busily and obsessively working on cards?!?! I'm not sure where they are going, but I KNOW I need to do them.  But I wonder - are they pieces on their own, springboards for other pieces or just a way for me to stay sane?!?! My thought is that they are all of the above!!

While here I have also experimented with using the cards to make transfers (thanks to Cheri Clinton's workshop)  and see many a possibility!!!

So here are some of these obsessions - putting them out into the cyber world. If u have thoughts or suggestions I am curious to hear them, if you so desire.  Now back to the current card!! :)

Peace