humble canvas

i've been painting up more bags. one rather large grocery bag from brighter day (which i don't really think i like after all), and one small bag from fabrika. i especially like the minty blue sewing machine.

idleness, not really

i've managed to become busy in the last few weeks. making odds and ends art with washi tape, painting my toenails in an amazing green-gold polish, gouache painting another shopping bag, potting a teeny tiny cacti baby i found hidden in amongst larger brethren, sewing a tea cozy, knitting an extension onto my stainless steel scarf, watching the avengers (had to catch up on some of the movies leading up to it as well), sewing a linen shoulder bag, restocking my japanese tea, giving meiko a bath, going to a dayspa/hair convention in orlando...

that now, i feel like doing exactly what nala is doing.

thank the bees, thank the chinese

there is a honey for every tea. i love raw honey, being immensely inspired from reading chalice, and i've loved loose leaf tea since shortly after graduating college. they go good together, like spice and chocolate, butter and baked goods, cheese and fruit (all of which tastes divine with honey). i have savannah to thank for introducing me to these two great things; the tea room on broughton street, and the savannah bee company.

summer solstice + sourwood honey
pomegranate pai mu tan + winter white honey
mirabelle + acacia honey
brin's cup + star thistle honey
golden buddha + sourwood honey
emperor's bride + tupelo honey
french verveine + star thistle honey
green rooibos with lavender + acacia honey

i mostly go for fruity and light, spicy and deep, aromatic and thirst quenching. but, mostly fruity. yum. the flavors of the honey add layers and undertones to the tea. i find it's good to match hues of tea and honey together; light hued tea + light golden honey, amber hued tea + deeper hued honey. this way the subtle flavors of one don't overwhelm the other. but, that doesn't mean you can't experiment, sometimes you get a feeling for which could be good pairings after awhile.

#1 rule, raw honey beats sugar any day, on anything
#2 rule of honey aficionados, never have less than two types of raw honey at hand. never. with all the small sizes it comes in, plus the fact that honey has a shelf life of infinity, shouldn't be a problem.

gouache is definitely not gauche

way back in '00 i took a course about color; as part of the itinerary we had to compile a book from our notes and hand paint samples. scale forward to yesterday, while browsing my bookshelf i happened to open it, found i hadn't quite finished it, and decided to haul out the gouache paints.

there's something very fun about the flat hues gouache gives you; about how it goes down dark and as it dries the intensity lightens. the really neat thing is that it behaves like watercolor, but the opacity can be layered like acrylics. i hadn't painted with them for years, something about an instructor telling me that i needed to stay away from them unless i could learn to relax a bit in my painting style. sad to say, but i put them away after that.

as i already had my gouache paint out, i decided to paint the label of a paper bag. it was just a red stamp, kind of calling out to be painted, really. like the outlines in a coloring book. i think i shall paint more things with my brush and my gouache.

doll's are fun for everyone!

when i saw the monster high c. a. cupid doll, two things struck me; wow, i want those wings, and, she would make an awesome noa. so, after a month of stalking the local walmart, i finally got my chance and picked one up.

even though it's never a good idea to start a project late at night, i went ahead and did it anyway. i removed the face paint, washed and boiled the hair, and then covered it in a stocking so it would lay flat. i also attempted to remove the leg paint so the doll would be completely white, like noa from skydoll. by "attempted", i mean, wasn't really able to completely and that it's still a work in progress.

today, i gave her a haircut, and painted her face from a couple of different inspirations. i decided to keep the really long piece which had made up cupids heart shaped headband, alluding to a tail. still a bit more work to do with removing the leg paint, and then sewing up some clothes. yay!

by now you're probably wondering what the heck a noa is. well, it's the main character in canepa/barbucci's skydoll, a comic from france which i absolutely adore. if your second question is, what's monster high, you probably don't have a daughter under the age of 12. it's a group of dolls based around characters on mattel's webisodes about the children of monsters, and accepting everyone because of their differences. i just think they're awesome, from a doll collector's viewpoint of course. they're so posable and really neat. (but, i have watched all the webisodes since getting my first doll, ghoulia yelps, daughter of zombies.)

the second (well, really the first chronological one) doll i created, is a skeletonized pegasus/unicorn girl. i went to work on it before i saw cupids wings, but once i did, i knew they'd be perfect. they're a backbone with the ribcage forming a heart, see, it goes perfect with the skeleton appendages.

dolls are for kids, silly rabbit

lately i've become quite enamored of a group of vinyl fashion dolls, called monster high, and have added 2.5 to my bookshelf. while exiting the wc at my local krogers i came upon a display of strange and whimsical dollboxes. they dolls are really quite creative, and have such fun shoes and outfits! as i'm quite confident of my self esteem, the whole size thing is charming; like little pixies really.

i overcame my fear of zombies by getting a doll named ghoulia yelps, daughter of zombies. i think it was the retro glasses and blue hair that won me over. the second one i collected is lagoona blue, daughter of the sea. she's just pretty, and in my favorite shades of blue and green. i haven't opened her box yet, as she's for under the tree.

now about that .5 doll. apparently there's a create-a-monster kit, and one of the add-on packs is a skeleton doll. she's awesome, the details are crazy! as i said to myself upon examining her limbs, "she really is model thin!". i didn't care for her face-up though, so after removing the paint with acetone, i painted a new sleeping face on. eventually i'll get her a torso and upper limbs, but for now she's content to sleep, a la hamlet on my shelf.

surrounding oneself

the new workplace needed some artwork for the walls. as one who knows a thing about creating art, i figured i could help out. so, as something bigger than what i normally do would fill the space better, i got a 20" x 20" stretched canvas, some balsa wood strips, and painted something in a turquoise and green color scheme (it is a spa, after all). as an aside, i have to say that the new utrecht store in town is crazy awesome for someone on a budget.

four brushes, a couple of hours, a limited palette, some spatula painting, hammering tiny nails, and this is what happened. i wanted something abstract; focusing on colors, a sense of water, calmness, and thinking a bit of mark rothko didn't hurt things either. i think i like painting in this scale. in the purely abstract method only, though. if it had been figurative and detailed, i would have done a triptych or a series to be hung together. me and detailed large scale are not friends (see miniature dollhouse if you don't agree).

mixing it up

i wrote this awhile ago, but hadn't posted it.

i started my trained art life in illustration, using paint and paper. since graduating, i've slowly leaned towards fibers, and have focused on them in the last few years. every now and then i would take out the paints and canvas, work on a piece, and once complete, put the paints away again.

 the other day i had an inclination to do some needle lace, so i grabbed a scrap of linen, and practiced some lace edging. it was a small piece, and i wasn't really sure what to do with it other than find some way of framing it. riffling around under my bed, i came across two canvases i've had forever. ah, inspiration! i took out the paints again, and have completed two canvas's incorporating my fiber work. i like the texture of fiber, the color of paint, the mixture of flat 2-dimensional and the slightly more dimensional fabric.

is this the beginning? who knows, but it is fun.

he-hee

my friend meagan has been after me to create two pinups since forever ago. she's going to use them to grace her ribcage as tattoos. once i get started i go into full swing and stay with it until complete. so, after sweating it out for three days, dusting off my painting skills, and thanking god for the creation of tracing paper, here are the two lovely vixens!

finally finished

from time to time i've had thoughts of this painting i worked on last year; never feeling that it was finished. but i figured something would come to me eventually and when that time came i could hang it knowing it was done.

over the weekend i acquired four new pictures, three of which i decided to hang in my art gallery (a.k.a. bathroom-hey, good lighting and white walls). this required rearranging of the other pieces, and suddenly a space opened up which was in need of some art. so, i hung this octopus painting temporarily as a space filler. then today as i was gazing at it i finally saw what it needed: a funky umbrella.

out came the paper collage drawer and a print was chosen, cut, and glued to the painting. a good coating of satin glazing liquid after all was dry to even out the surface and protect the paper, and i can finally sign it and call it done.

everything but the commodore

inside joke. i'm actually referring to the commode. anyways. the tub and plumbing are completely movable in case i decide to rearrange the placement. in keeping with the vanity, the tub faucet is encased in cork as well. perhaps i will get a bidet along with the toilet. if and when i can purchase just those two units alone. i don't really care for another set of bathroom appliances.

the mini reveal

i decided to scan the wallpapers before i hang them on the walls. of the three i have to say the first one is my favorite. i like how the rock and planter came out, also the standing bird. i'm not sure how they're all going to look together and set at the angle of the roof. enveloping perhaps.

next step is to adhere the panels to the wall using contact cement. there are two reasons for this choice; one, i can later remove them if i would like, and two, the paper isn't 100% flat so i need an instant bond for it to be smooth. one reason against using contact cement would be the long term archival properties; i'm assuming contact cement isn't good in that department.

just a peek...

...of what i've been up to. i am in the middle of finishing the bathroom in the dollhouse. i was inspired by an armoire to conclude that the bathroom must have chinoiserie wallpaper. and that that wallpaper was to be lavender gray. how i came to this juncture is still somewhat a mystery to me. as you will see tomorrow, the connection from this armoire to the fanciful imaginings of chinoiserie wallpaper is peculiar.
this is a sample of the drawings that will act as guide to the later application of paint.

the briney sea

so this year for christmas i was determined to hand craft all of the gifts i would be giving. my brother had mentioned that he would like a painting for his apartment; just no "girly" colors like the last two paintings i had given him. "girly" of course being robin egg blue, baby pink, and lime green. obviously. i guess he just doesn't realize that pink was a male color, it being derived from red, and blue being a female color as it is generally more delicate, less fearsome. thus i went with yellow and blue. i choose to not see gender in color, as pink goes well with most complexions and should be worn more often. a good example being india. and giving nothing up of myself, as i quite like those two colors together, i painted him this octopus and jellyfish. i prefer to see it as a cloudy sky, the octopus coming into the picture on the diagonal; but is it friend or foe to the little jellyfish?

a painting and an obsession

i've never been one to like mushrooms. oh, they're pretty enough, sure. but eat one? ugh. slimy. but then a weird thing happened. i watched a program devoted to fungi on some educational channel. and suddenly i wanted to eat them. it's very strange, but you know, they're very tasty sauted with butter and garlic.
and then i wanted to paint them, and so i did. they're even better to paint!

at the same time, i came across a picture of a dumbo octopus in national geographic. i really think they're a very adorable and cute creature. the ocean is full of such inhabitants. i've always been drawn to things that are so ugly they're cute.
so, onto researching my new subjects. for images a scroll through flickr would be my best shot. there are surprisingly few photos of the dumbo octopus, also known as Grimpoteuthis. they're a little deep in the ocean, places where we (homo sapien) don't get to a whole lot (which is a good thing, imho). i found around 12 or 13 on the whole. mushrooms are a little easier, there are entire groups devoted to this subject.

oh, and i like to work small (kinda obvious huh?). the above painting is 5" x 7".

ze wall

quite a few people have magazines or books in their bathrooms. i've got a wall of art. they all serve a purpose; something to do when you find yourself unable to get up for a bit of time. so i thought i'd share my art gallery: a painting by jennifer davis, alice in wonderland string puppets, and three collage dresses of my own.

long time no see

strange, but hectic. if asked to describe the month of june those would be choice words. to paraphrase that month using only several quick snapshots of moments would read as follows; a wedding, las vegas, an awesome skirt, hankies, and a modern kitchen redo. more on the kitchen to be posted.

"snack time" by apak

like a moth towards a flame...

some of my favorite artists, both new and old. there is a lot of beautiful skill and talent out there. i love the colors used by all of these artists; it's what drew me. there is a theme running through the works that i like; the female form, each artists view of it, either of themselves or their voices represented visually.

audrey kawasaki:
naisho, 2006

aya takano:
the summer sea, a beach of crying sand 2004

barbara canepa:
skydoll, narae doll artists own

jennifer davis:
upsidedown

kanako sasaki:
wanderlust outcast