Reverie

New Prints!

2011-11-26T12:52:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I have recently begun making some more prints, specifically linoleum block prints and etchings. You can view and purchase some of the block prints (and other new paintings!) on my Etsy store! In celebration of Small Business Saturday (and Cyber Monday) from today to Monday, take 10% off with the coupon code SMALLBUSINESS! It's the perfect place to finish your holiday shopping from home!

I will be including images of my new etchings and other prints on my website soon as well. I have also begun engraving; a process I have been kind of scared to try for a long time. It's been really exciting and I hope to show some of those with some more information about the engraving process in the coming weeks!

Have a happy holiday season!

Uptown drawing

2011-08-27T14:50:00.001-07:00

I'm drawing and selling work until 4 at Counterbalance Park in Seattle! It's hot and sunny but there's plenty of cool art and crafts to look at and purchase!
The work I'm making is a self portrait in a series of medium scale work that's going to be installed at Park Place Deli in October. Park Place is in the Madison Park neighborhood of Seattle, near the water.
Come by counterbalance and get some super affordable art! Only until 4pm.

Uptown Stroll

2011-08-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, August 27, from 10-4 I will be making artwork (and selling it!) during the annual Uptown Stroll in lower Queen Anne at the Counterbalance Park (corner of Roy and Queen Anne Ave in Seattle). The "festival" will feature artists in all media creating pieces of art during the day at various booths. Come check out my vast array of brand new works, including lots of birds with maps of the Seattle area. All work will be between $20 and $40, so it's the perfect time to grab an early Christmas or birthday gift!

These works (and the one I will be making during the festival) are drawings over collaged pages from a Seattle "Thomas' Guide" (the most awesome gift from my husband!). Whenever I make one of these I feel kind of like I am exploring each part of Puget Sound. I love how almost every map page includes some sort of water, the best part of living in Seattle! The colors of the pieces are meant to capture the various "seasons" in the Seattle area, from foggy Fall to dry, warm Summer, and rich blue-green Spring. Each one is a little gem!

Hope to see you Saturday!

Break time

2011-08-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

"Let yourself make your excuses...then tell yourself to shut up and create anyway. Even [if] the work sucks, it sucks less than a year of producing nothing." (excerpt from Kendall Brown's article for the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition's blog)

I have the luxury of a husband who has always offered me a proverbial kick in the pants when I need it the most. He has many a time told me, more or less, the same advice offered above by Kendall Brown, an artist from Norman, Oklahoma. I feel like I need this advice today. Not only have I lapsed into a blogging slump, but I feel as though my job, family, (insert excuse) is overtaking my life and I just can't find the time to make art like I should. I have been waffling on some career decisions and hesitating despite advice from everyone around me to just do something.

So here is my resolution to put my full effort into doing something each day that propels me toward the career as a professional artist that I have been dreaming about. Break time's over. Excuses, excuses, and now it's time to shut up!

Alki Arts Fair

2011-07-23T15:15:00.001-07:00

I am at the Alki Arts Fair today and tomorrow with Sev Shoon Arts Center. Its my second art fair and I'm proud to say things are already going better. It's nice and hot on the beach, I've done some etching demos to the fascination of passersby, and even just sold a piece! We'll see how the rest of the afternoon goes!
Here is a picture of my demo setup and the print of my dog Dixie that I'm making.

Book club

2011-06-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

I taught an amazing little workshop on Friday night for a great group of women readers! Their book club just finished "City of Thieves" by David Benioff. The book takes place in Leningrad, Russia during the German siege of Leningrad in World War Two. It was a gruesome but very interesting read, and reminded me of all the stories my grandfather told me about living in Latvia during that time.

The project we did at Oil and Water Art Supply entailed creating little "mini-journals" in which we could record our own stories! We started with a Russian newspaper, obtained for free at the Turco Newsstand on Pike and 3rd in Seattle. Using stamps, stencils, and acrylic paint we collaged and decorated the newspaper, layering more and more until we got an image worthy enough for a cover!

After the cover was dry, we folded regular 8.5 x 11" paper twice in half and trimmed the folds, then stapled the whole thing together to create little 1/4 size journals!
I'm going to be teaching some more involved journal design classes at Oil and Water this summer, so visit their website for details, and hope to see you there!

My first art fair

2011-06-18T12:39:00.001-07:00

I am down in Sacramento this weekend visiting my parents for Father's Day, and today my mom is working at an art fair at the Shepherd Garden and Art Center. She squeezed me in too so I am here hawking my wares until 4pm! I have etching prints, blank books, and postcards.

She is such an expert at this fair thing I feel like an apprentice learning the family trade.

Hopefully I can sell enough to buy my dad an awesome present for Father's Day!

Books

2011-06-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

I just got a brand new smartphone and lately it's been taking over my life. I use it instead of a planner book, instead of a notepad, instead of a recipe book, as a scanner, etc. It has been great to stop worrying about losing little scraps of paper with important information on them, but in a way I'm getting a little nostalgic for all the books I used to write in.

The book above was done when I lived in Oklahoma and had just graduated from graduate school. I feel like the artist books and sketchbooks that I've made became my companions in a way. Sometimes I hate reading back through them, but sometimes I really enjoy the entries. I laugh (or cry) at what I've written, and at how I was feeling back then; the little pictures I drew or things I pasted to the pages. Of course I also feel a little guilty for not writing as much anymore and always vow that I will start again.

I'm going to be teaching some book binding and journaling classes this summer for the first time in years and I am extremely excited about it. It seems like forever since I've made a sketchbook for myself or taught someone else how to make their own bound book. The workshops will be at Oil and Water Arts on Bainbridge Island, check out their website for details!

Opening this Thursday 6/9

2011-06-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

"How you wear your scars" - 50 x 45" finished Saturday!

This painting is one of six brand new large works on paper that are part of my solo exhibit at Center on Contemporary Art in Ballard, Seattle. The catered opening reception is this Thursday, June 9, from 6-9pm at 6413 Seaview Ave NW, Seattle 98107 (Shilshole Bay Beach Club - GREAT views!). These works are so new they're not even framed!

I have been slaving away (okay, it was a lot of fun) making new works specifically for this exhibit titled "Digging". It's kind of amazing what comes out of constant drawing and painting. The above piece is one of my favorites in the show, and to me kind of sums up what I have been feeling lately. The trees threaten to overtake the figures, while birds circle close overhead, wildly flying and trying to knock them off balance. But together they are strengthened and comforted by each other's and the birds' presence, ultimately finding calm in the chaos.

I hope to see you at the show and share my hard work!

Digging

2011-06-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

I have a solo exhibit at the Center on Contemporary Art in Ballard (at the Shilshole Bay Beach Club) Thursday, June 9 from 6-9pm. The show is called "Digging" and will feature four brand new works, and a lot of my most recent work as well. Below is a little explanation of the thoughts behind the show title.

The concept of digging is literal and psychological. I dig through soil to plant seeds in the garden; I dig into my household tasks to care for my family, and I constantly dig through my mind to deal with the emotions of day to day life. I am an introverted person. I was always a worrier. I need to think long and hard before I speak or write. Every day I bury past events and emotions in order to grasp onto the future and each task it takes. It is a freeing and comforting feeling.

Art art everywhere!

2011-05-31T16:06:00.000-07:00

Had a studio visit this weekend so I put out as much art as possible! It's pretty incredible to see (almost) all your recent work in one place. Patterns emerge, and images ebb and flow in a great fulfilling way. It's weird to be surrounded by so much work all piled up, they become less individual pieces and more shapes and textures. Literally every inch of wall space was covered with work!

I recently moved my studio area into the living room (the paintings in the middle picture are covering a couch and two chairs that act as a sitting area). It's great since the light is better there and there's much more space to spread out in. I need to get some better lighting for the work walls, I'm thinking of installing track lighting on the ceiling; Home Depot has some pretty cheap customizable tracks.

I moved the TV into our second bedroom (what used to be the studio) which is now the "entertainment room" with the TV, video games, library and computer. It's funny, either because I've been frantically getting ready for a show in June, or because the TV is out of sight, I have hardly been watching it! It's sort of refreshing and makes sitting down to watch a movie or episode of Lost with my husband and doggies a real treat. You should try it!

If I may...

2011-05-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

I just finished this painting called "If I may,". I reminds me of being a kid and playing in mud puddles and dirt with my friends, entertaining ourselves hour after hour. But it also has a kind of foreboding aspect too; the way the right figure is balancing and kind of tipping forward, the root system obviously not strong enough to hold them both. I'm not sure what will happen to them, but for now they are content to work and play together.

This painting started out as a smaller piece of paper, you can kind of see the outline of it with the right figure and the bottoms of the trees and tops of the hands. It wasn't really working and felt much too cramped, so I figured why not just paste it onto a bigger piece of paper and finish the composition! This is what it became. I love how the sense of being inside their world is much more apparent now that the trees are taller and the roots longer. The colors inside the bottom patterned area can alternate between water, earth, or a complete void.

This painting will be part of an exhibit of new work at the Center on Contemporary art in Ballard, a neighborhood in Seattle. More details on the opening to be posted on my website soon!

Etching in action

2011-05-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I did a demo in printing a copper plate etching for the Ballard Art Walk at Sev Shoon Art Center. It's one of the best, and only, places to rent studio space with unlimited access to all kinds of printmaking processes. An exhibit of my recent prints is also up at Sev Shoon for the month of May.

Etching is actually what I got my MFA in, and will always be my passion. It's hard to make that the only medium in which I work however partly because of studio access restraints (you need a huge press to do it!) and also because creating the plates is a long process. I never settle with the first "state" of an etching - that is the first drawing on the plate. I believe my best images come from state after state of working the image. It's akin to oil painting- layer after layer of paint is applied in ever increasing thickness and density until you have this beautiful rich image that would never have been there had you not spent hours going over and over it.

So the images take a while to get right. That of course is part of the fun though, seeing all that hard work rewarded in a beautiful rich print. This video shows the funnest part- revealing the finished print after the paper has been rolled through the press over the inked plate. Voila! There is your image like magic!

Framing!

2011-05-04T09:57:00.001-07:00

I worked my buns off this last weekend framing my work for the Land:Marks show at Artisans on Taylor Gallery in Port Townsend. It will be an amazing show, filled with totally new work! I framed all the smaller pieces with ready-made raw wood frames I was lucky to find enough of at Artist and Craftsman in the U-district of Seattle.

The larger pieces would cost a fortune to have custom made at a frame shop, so I make them myself! I get the wood at home depot or the like, usually 8' 1x2s. Then using the table-top compound mitre saw my awesome cabinet-maker grandpa gave me, cut the pieces to the appropriate length. Then I use my table-mounted router to create the frame groove. I have done so much trial and error with that process that by now it only takes me about 20 minutes per frame! Then I put together the corners with a V-nail joiner I got at the art supply store (very low-tech but effective and strong).

After the frame is put together I get either glass or clear acrylic (Plexiglas) and foam board cut to the right size, mount the artwork on the acid-free foam board with archival glue dots, and slap the whole thing together with a framing staple gun. A backing of brown kraft paper goes on, then the wire hanger, and voila! A finished piece in about an hour!

Angle Gallery

2011-04-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

I will have several new large pieces exhibited at Angle Gallery in the Tashiro Kaplan Building in Pioneer Square Seattle on Thursday, May 5th from 6-8pm. This is my first show in the gallery district downtown and I am SUPER excited about it. I may even have a second opening later on in the month! Here is one of the paintings that will be shown at the gallery. Hope to see you there!

Land:marks

2011-04-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

I just finished an awesome new painting. This one took me a while longer to complete than usual. I've been struggling with the large-scale paintings a lot lately for some reason. But I'm really happy with how this one turned out. I often find the hardest paintings to complete become the most meaningful.

These are some pictures of me working on it. It will be in an exhibit in Port Townsend's Artisan's on Taylor Gallery May 7th titled "Land:Marks." The theme of the show is related to maps, places of importance, and important parts of life. My usual work deals with significant moments and their emotional timepieces, and this exhibit has given me a chance to incorporate physical place markers as well. Using maps as a base layer for the work, I draw over the lines, creating new areas of the map and incorporating my own "emotional" or dreamlike parts.

This particular painting features the figure looking down at the roots of a tree that grows up and around her, protecting but also stretching out toward the sea, and its own life and goals.

Exhibit in Ballard

2010-08-09T08:52:00.001-07:00

"It's slipping away too fast" 2010, 11 x 12"

"I don't want this one anymore" 2010, 11 x 12"

I'll be showing work during the Ballard Art Walk at the FORUM Center on 56th and 17th off Market in Ballard (it's a neighborhood in Seattle). Mostly medium and small scale stuff, including these two! Come down and see it during the opening Saturday August 14th, or anytime during the month of August. And if you can't make it, don't worry I have two more shows coming up in the Seattle area this fall, and an etching workshop in October!

Wilson Galleries

2010-08-08T10:08:00.001-07:00

"Just say Goodbye Anyway" 49 x 34"

Here's a better picture of the painting in the previous post. I love it! I love when a painting is finished and I really like it. The background pattern was insane! It's a whole bunch of little ovals in flower patterns. I think my favorite part of making my paintings is the pencil drawing, especially of the figures. I like how a little sketch of a composition will turn into an almost three dimensional picture once it's been drawn in a large scale.

The only thing that bugs me about this painting is that I wish the foreground was more prominent, creating more depth. I like the overlapping figures and how they sort of bleed into each other, as if it was one figure that was turning and moving. Maybe I should have made the middle figure's shirt a little darker. Anyway, next time will be better. That's always how it is. Each following one is better than the last.

Just say goodbye anyway

2010-08-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

This is an almost finished partial view of my newest painting. I have to take other pictures of it now that it's completely finished. There are some red flowers integrated in the white background pattern, and it goes farther off to the left and a little on the right too. But anyway, this is one of the new paintings that will be shown at Wilson Galleries in Anderson, Indiana in October and November. I'm flying out for the closing and doing a lecture and student critiques as well.

I've also been asked to be a resident artist at Blaubak Gallery in Kirkland, Washington. I'll be showing work there in October or November. I have a lot of work to do to fill a big wall with new paintings! Though making the actual work is the easy part. Framing is another story. I've got a pretty decent setup where I use 1 x 2" pieces and route them myself, but it's still kind of a hassle to turn my studio into a woodshop every few months to make my frames. They turn out really nice though. Cool shadow box type frames with the raw wood. And I use plexiglas instead of glass which works out great for weight and shipping needs.

Anyway, I'll post some more once I churn out some more new work and photograph it!

Every Day

2010-04-08T17:59:00.000-07:00

I have a new show at Ritual Coffee Roasters in the Mission District of San Francisco (on Valencia and 21st if you're in the area). It will be up from April 3rd to May 1st. I have also updated my website with a ton of new images, and I'm working on a new website design with a simpler layout.

Too long

2008-02-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a year since I updated this blog!! Yikes. I've been working hard on the Art 365 project, but have still made a few other bodies of work for shows around the country (and one in Vancouver this March!) Here are a few pictures to keep you happy for a week or so...

The wobbly edge

2007-02-11T19:08:00.000-08:00

Just before it's too much
45 x 36"

Sometimes being married feels awesome. Sometimes it feels like complete shit. And usually just before you feel like you're going to snap, things work out and it goes back to normal again. It's hard to balance life and love and what you want to do in the future and what's happening right in front of you. I hate how our personalities clash and I love how he makes me feel like the only person in the world. It's on the edge of things that we usually live.

New Book

2006-12-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

Ooooohhh it's been too long! Sorry for not updating this blog for a while, but I graduated, moved and got a new awesome job that's totally consuming. But I love it! I have a cute house and a dog and I work at this amazing gallery in Oklahoma City.
So anyway, my newest project is this book that's kind of a combination journal and artist book. I think of it as a record of my life for the past five months. I've been working on it since I moved to OKC, doing about five or six pages at a time. The writing and images reflect my feelings and happenings in my life that day or that week. It's been a really refreshing project for me since getting out of the school mode. I can work on the pages whenever I have a free moment or day. And since the pages are a smaller "canvas" I finish the one-page-spread paintings faster and can move on to the next one. Having them all contained in a book lets me see the progression of thoughts and feelings, and I have it all contained in one capsule. I love how the pages can be either simple or complex, and they develop a repetition of color and symbols which follow my mood from week to week. It's almost done, and you can see more pages of it on my main website Reverie Studio.

I've done it

2006-06-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

I've done it! I graduated from SFAI with my MFA. Hooray! Now I can do whatever I want. I'm in sort of this dream-state right now where I'm all caught up in the excitement of my road trip and of moving to another place. A place where things will be less expensive. It's not my first choice of places to live, but as I'm always up for an adventure and refuse to see any landscape as inferior to others, I believe it will be just as interesting and exciting as living in SF or Indiana, or Germany. I can't wait to start carving out my little niche in OKC. I'll miss my sister though, that's why I wanted to post this image.
This etching is part of a series I sort of consider my crowning glory from my time at SFAI. It's a series of five etchings I made about my twin sister and I concerning our relationship and memories. Each image was made on top of the one before it (This is the second in the series). On the metal etching plate, I drew the image, etched it, printed it, then scraped it off and drew another one. It's kind of a long tedious process that entails lots of elbow grease but I love the way the process feeds into the images, the layers that are left underneath and how it kind of mimics the way memories build and layer up in your mind. There are also similarities to the multiplicity of twins; the reprinting of the image, the two colors, the overlap and turning of the images, not to mention what's contained in the images themselves. I'll post more from this series in the future...

Spring is time to write

2006-05-31T20:24:00.000-07:00

What if there was a way? 48 x 48"

I did this painting a few months ago. It's one of my favorite paintings I've ever done. It used to look a lot different, like most of my other paintings. I got really sick of it, nothing was looking right or going well- the colors were off, and the composition was way too simple. It used to have a white bird in the center and there was another figure on the bottom left. Also the typewrite wasn't there and the arms of the figure were different. So I completely overhauled the whole right side. I'm so much happier with it now. It has its memory of the past composition, and because I added more layers, it all fits together like it never could if I hadn't added all the other parts. It always amazes me how that kind of thing works out. But it turned out to be one of my favorites, and at my last big show a married artist couple bought it! You can't ask for anything better than other artists appreciating your work. I look forward to the days when I can buy the artists' work that I admire.
Well, on another note, I just graduated from the Art Institute with my MFA! hooray! Two long years of hard work and it's finished. I'm happy to be moving onward and upward. Here's a little tidbit for you- ArtInfo featured my work in their "new talent" section. Check it out!

Vernissage opening

2006-05-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

I just want to let you know I'll be participating in the Master of Fine arts graduate exhibition of the San Francisco Art Institute on May 19th, from 6-9 pm. It takes place at the Herbst Pavilion of Fort Mason Center in the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco. I'd love it if anyone in the area could come and see some great art! It's been a long road to get here, and I'd love it if you would come and share this accomplishment with me!

up and out

2006-05-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

Be that as it may (48 x 36")

This was a recent painting I made quickly, but also struggled with a bit. I use a lot of layers when I paint, layers of painting over and over in places. Most of the time, though, I don't plan out the various layers. I'll be working on the painting in a way I think will be good for it, then I step back and it isn't hitting me right, so I start to rework it with more line and another layer right on top of the previous painting. The best paintings are usually the ones where I've disliked, and painted over about five or six times. Only then does it have the depth and history of my struggle with it to make it really rich. It works the same with the etchings. Anyway, such is the case with this painting. I like how there became kind of a pinwheel composition with the figures, and the change in scale of the figures (the top one is bigger than the other two) is something else I use a lot to give an unsettling play in the interaction of the figures. Well, this week I'll be getting ready for my final MFA show as graduation is only two weeks away!

pools of life

2006-04-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

Stepping stones out the window (3 x 4')

I just finished this drawing a few days ago. It's based on the themes of identity and trancparency, memories, and the notion of the insider/outsider. The two figures are both me, but it's intentionally ambiguous to the viewer whether they are both me, or me and my twin Dana. I've been using the patterns of forms I find in the tidepools-clumps of mussel shells, water bubbles, coral and kelp- to talk about transparency and multiplicity. I like the way patterns set up contingencies- each mark relies on the ones around it to become the pattern. I think of it the same way people, especially twins, rely on each other for their being. Whether good or bad, that's the way we form ourselves and our personalities-based on the things and people around us. The transparency through a pool of water is so interesting, visually and mentally-there are layers being formed through the pool and up to your eye. The water from the ocean flows in and out, leaving its history behind, it's pools of life that couldn't live there any other way.
The notion of the outsider is present in the looks of the figures, the way the one on the right is looking at the viewer as if they are an intruder, like "what are you doing here." Most of the time in my work the figures' gaze is down or up, very introspective, but this one came out kind of confrontational. It's pretty different as a whole from the dreamy minimal paintings I was doing before this one, but I like it. I worked on it in layers more like my etchings, which is interesting. More next week...

shells and rain

2006-04-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

Playing the mussels as we're going down, through blue pools (6 x 6")

I made this etching based on a photograph that I took while I was at Bean Hollow beach in Pescadero. It's an awesome beach with funny dimpled rocks and great tide pools. I always picture myself being small enough to swim in the little pools with the crabs and mussels and sea urchins. There's something about water, and the smallness of the tide pools that I love.
It's been raining a lot here, but the sun came out today and made me happy. I don't mind the rain but it's nice to feel the sun on your skin and see its brightness. This week I'm working on some pieces for my next exhibition and getting ready for my final MFA review before graduation! Only a few weeks away...