art opening

i have 3 pieces at highwire gallery for their show "art for the urban collector"
it opens tonight!
:D

Highwire Gallery
2040 Frankford Avenue
Philadelphia, PA

5:00pm-9:00pm

the best birthday ever...and stuff...

hello!
it's been a busy week!
friday was my birthday. i do not even want to think about how old i am...
but!

the husband took the day off and after weeks of telling me not to make plans for that day, i was on my way to the "mystery place".
he didn't tell me where we were going until we got there.

i was delighted to pull up in front of the barnes foundation! :D

if you don't know about the barnes foundation, you should!
it's a fabulous art collection, and a scandalous story!
it's going to be moved to the city soon, and it shouldn't be :(
so i have been wanting to go before it did.
it should be seen where it is, and how it is.
http://www.barnesfoundation.org

there is also a movie about it:

it's really good, actually. but also very sad :(

when we got home, the husband & the son had a present for me.

a new saw!!!

i'm back in bizness, lads!

we also went to my favourite mexican restaurant on the planet :)

it was a great day!
x

"mixed signals"

finally!!! i had to use a regular ol' miter saw and some elbow, but i got it done!
this one is called "mixed signals"



i don't know about these photos, and if you can see or not, but that's a bee in the
middle.

the text is from an old spelling/reader book. one is about how busy and hard working a bee is, and the other one says they are dumb animals. which is it???
i'm going to vote for the busy/hardworking one, cause i happen to like bees.

i was also thinking about things other people might say to us.
some people seem to always point out negative things, others positive.
but when they are both coming at you, it can make you question yourself.

here's a couple more photos from different angles.





cheers!
x

$%#@&%

stupid %$#&@# saw.

technical difficulties.

hello!
i have some things i want to work on, but my saw is wonky :(
hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow.
or i will borrow a friend's.
everything will be a little bit smaller than planned though, since all the wood bits are now weirdly cut :P
i hope i have something new to show you soon :D
i spent all day scanning stuffs!
x

"better half"

just finished this painting.
it is a present for my husband for our anniversary :)
it's mixed media and found objects on wood and it's about 11" square.
i hope he likes it :D

p.s. dear husband, if you are looking at this, you are gonna get a beatin'. now go away before you spoil the surprize.

:D



here is a detail pic

*not* anniversary

today is october 21st!!!
and it is NOT my wedding anniversary.
but for 5 years or so, i thought it was, and i made my husband celebrate it on this
day...even though he insisted it was the wrong day.

i found out later (for sure) that it's not till next week :)

so happy 9th not-anniversary to my hunny :D
xo

handmade division talk about blog

it's october 15th! that means it's the handmade division team's talk about blog.
every month we have a topic that we write about, then post links to the other team members' blogs who wrote too! (so be sure to see what they said in the links below!)

this month's topic is "Tell us about yourself - how did you get to where you are now with your skills?"

this seems like a simple question, but it isn't really easy to answer.
when i was a kid, i LOVED when we'd get a project in school to make a diorama.
i thought they were like little worlds that we could hold in our hands and disappear into.
i used to make little worlds outside too. with stones and moss and little acorns...whatever i could find.

i also really liked comic books.

when i was in art school, i kept leaning towards making collage type stuff. i found out about joseph cornell who made diorama sort of things with found objects. it seemed i had the same disease as him...finding stuff and feeling compelled to take it home and save it "for something".

after school, i realized that i had spent so much time with collage type stuff and i really wanted to focus on paint. so i spent a few years painting...portraits, still life...stuff like that.

i took a good few months off (maybe even a year) from painting, and really questioned what i was doing. it took me ages to finish a painting. i needed to reevaluate the way i was working.

it was then i decided to try to put everything together.
somebody (a teacher?) once said to me "notice what you notice". i always think of that.
why am i drawn to certain objects and things? what is the significance?

i started working in a way that i could put the objects in my work as symbols.
sometimes they aren't even symbols, but are purely decorative.
i started making little separate sections just for certain objects...to tell different parts of a story (like a comic book) and telling the stories in whatever medium felt comfortable or necessary to describe them.

so i have my diorama little worlds, i have a place for my found objects, and i am able to use painting and drawing too! it is much more natural for me to work this way. it makes me happy :)

here's the links to the other team members' posts!
please check them out too!


Andes Cruz
Tess Norberg
Jaime Pickering
Purified
Nancy Dale
Jewelry by Natsuko
Sand Fibers
Alice Istanbul
Thomasin Durgin
Beth Cyr
emily watson
Tosca Teran
Lisa Hopkins
Tamra Gentry
JJ Papke
Alisa Miller
Mary Spencer

"broken"

it's finished! it took me a while, and kept me away from the computer ;)
but it's finished!!!

meet my new painting, "broken"
it's about 24.5" square.
mixed media and found objects on wood.



i've taken some detail shots because they are sort of hard to see in the main photo...







the drawing is raised so that depending on the light, there is a shadow of the image behind it.

thanks for looking! i hope you like it :)

hello!

remember me?
i am still alive. i've just been working on something that is taking me ages.

i had a whole week where nothing at all went right, and i had to re-do a lot of things :(
but that seems to have cleared up and it's moving along.

i'm hoping i will be able to show you soon :)
cheers!!!
sus
x

"consumer"

i was thinking about things.
things we buy that we think we need. they don't last. they aren't made well.
they are cheap, but not inexpensive.
mass produced.
they break, and we have to buy a new one.
things that we eat.
where is it coming from? what is *in* it?
mass produced.
processed.
i just read a BIG GIANT list about preservatives, food colorings and other stuff put in foods that were BANNED in europe but not in america. WHY?
why is it ok for us to eat it?
i also read about someone who was questioning what happened to "recalled" beef.
they found out that "it depends on why it was recalled"
some of it is cooked and sold in canned/frozen ready to eat food.
some of it is put in OUR KID'S school lunches!!!!
it's all about money, i suppose. and greed.
sickening, isn't it?

handmade division talk about blog

it's the 15th of the month. that means it's the handmade division's talk about blog.
this month's topic is "where do you draw your inspirations for creating from?"
please check the links at the bottom to see what the other team members say!

Andes Cruz
Alice Istanbul
Rebekah Meddles (Lunasa Designs Jewelry)
Jewelry by Natsuko
nanotopia
Bella-Bijou Jewellery
Beth Cyr
ArtJewel Designs
Lisa Hopkins Design
Thomasin Durgin
Abhaya Fibers

just peekin my head in.

built some new panels to paint on today....bring on the paint!

feeding the pig

i found this photograph in a big huge old books/paper/posters type place that is way too expensive and i wish they weren't.
anyway.
i love the photo. it is really blurry and sort of just a bad photo in general, but i like it anyway.
on the back it says "they were feeding the pig you can't see the pig very well, but i think Larry looks just like you"
i thought it was so random.
i love random.

anyway...it turned into this painting.

i always feel bad for pigs. i happen to personally like them very much, and i hate to think that they will end up being somebody's dinner.

i painted the sides of this to hang as is, but i'd like a frame instead.
seems i need to go buy some framing wood, as i'm making stuff and have nothing to frame it with :P
i'm talking too much.
ciao!
x

updated: framed it! :D

"pudge"

"pudge" is a tiny painting. it's not quite 4" in diameter.
it's a little portrait of a doll head i have, but...

i was a fat baby when i was born. thankfully, i didn't stay that way, but my grandfather dubbed me "pudge", and "pudge" he called me my whole life (until the end of his, anyway).
when i painted this, it just looked like a "pudge".
:)
x

save the girls

this painting is about 16" square. i still have to build the frame, but i thought it would be easier to photograph without it, since my frames are sort of shadowboxy...and that makes shadows...

i found this old book a while back. i think it's from 1895.
it tells you all sorts of things...
like how to be a good wife, how to properly clean your teeth, or how to get rid of certain strange worms. mostly etiquette stuff...

i was reading the part about girls and how they should be taken care of so as not to turn out to be harlots. there's a few pages about boys too, but it seems the girls are higher maintenance...and if
you don't follow all of the rules, they will most definitely become a harlot. the book says "society forgives man, woman never". you better listen! ;)

that bit is actually titled "save the girls" and there is text from the book in the painting (if you look close...)

i don't know why i'm rambling on about this. i don't normally say much about the painting because i want people to make up their own story.
but that's that.
x
updated: framed!

duh!!!!

i finally figured out that i could put a slide show of my work right there ----->>>>>
and i put my studio video up too, and my facebook page.
took me long enough, eh?
:)

and another new tiny painting....

"seek"
acrylic, gold leaf paint, and tacks on wood.
5" in diameter

two new paintings

"teef"
mixed media and found objects on wood
5" square



"wake up part 2"
mixed media on illustration board
10" square

the plush team has a book!

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• 42 two-page, full color features of our Plush Team members. Each includes photos of the artist's work, and text written by the artist explaining motivation, process, and inspiration.
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• Photos of PT Stitchy, the team mascot, scattered throughout the book in his various incarnations as interpreted by our team members.

The book is full color, professionally printed, and soft cover. It measures 6.75"x6.75" (or 17 centimeters square). This is volume 1 of our Team Annual, featuring the artists from 2009. Our intent is to make this a yearly publication, updating it each year with our newest members and their incredible work.

Visit the Team Shop today for your copy!