Golden Girls Print!

Golden Girls for a print exchange... completely unrelated to my current body of work, but I LOVE the Golden Girls, and doggomit I wanted to make a Golden Girls print... in golden metallic ink!

Single Color Screen Print, edition of 24

I plan to print a second edition, but that won't happen until at least the end of the week...

Lilly Pulitzer thrift finds and Moving!

Yesterday I hit the preppy motherload at my neighborhood thrift store. I found THREE Lilly Pulitzer items, for less than $15 total! I got two minis, one I am wearing here in this awful photobooth pic, and a set of stretch poplin capris, new with tags! I put a detail of the cute pink and blue mermaid print below.

Yep, I'm pretty great at thrifting.

In other news, I'm almost definitely moving back to Kansas City in June, after graduation!

My dad is donating an apartment to me (he's a landlord) and I'll be job hunting for arts jobs in late May and the first of June. I'm so excited to be home again!

finals are half done and I'm reading a boring book

Finals are not so fun. At least these are almost the last ones I ever have to take in undergrad.
I've all ready had two critques, which means I have two more and a paper to turn in. I am a busy bee.
I have a book project and some photos to put up once I get them back from my teacher Thursday night.

My schedule is as follows:
Today/Wednesday, 4 pm (thats in about an hour when I finally get to leave work)
- six hour environmental design crit
Today/Wednesday, 10pm
- finish book project for morning
Today/Wednesday, 12am
- finish another owl for commission for my friend Ainsley (all that is left is the embroidery and stuffing)
- bake apple bread for sanity and class in morning
Thursday, 9am
-critique for the book arts class I TA, present my independent project
Thursday, 12pm-7pm
- finish science paper/book report on the most boring book I have read in a very long time. Please reference picture below.
Thursday, 7pm
- turn in said paper
Thursday, 10pm
- going away party for a friend who is a December graduate
Friday, All day
- blissful sleep
Friday, 8pm
- ugly sweater party with colin
Saturday, 7pm
- colin's job's christmas dinner/party at a lebanese restaurant (so excited!)
Sunday, 10:30am
- depart baltimore for newark, nj for my layover
Sunday , 12:30pm
- depart newark for the land of beef brisket and bbq
Sunday, 3pm
- arrive home to do nothing and finally see my parents

owls... i have lots of owls to make

I totally just finished one of my owls for artmarket. Now, to finish the other ten.

So here is my first owl plushie. I fully intend to list these on etsy over winter break, when I actually have time to make something that isn't related to my thesis.

Oh, and sorry I look like a CRAZY face in the picture. This is what making owls does to me?
I can't believe that this semester is really almost over. What am I gong to do with my life after art school?

This week through next week is a mess for me... just all work and no play basically.
My thesis final crit is on Monday. Which means I need to put my nose to the grind stone on some intaglio prints and book projects that are just not quite good enough yet.
Sunday I have to work all day on campus. MICA is hosting a National Portfolio Review day, so there will be 1200+ people on campus, and luck me admissions work study gets to help out. It's not that I don't like these events. I actually really like working our weekend events... It's just that with the thesis deadline breathing down my neck, missing out on most of Sunday as work time is a little stressful. Oh well, at least I get paid.
Then Wednesday of next week is Art Market. That means Wednesday - Saturday are fun filled days of me manically checking in every 4 or 5 hours to see if anything I had sold. I should have friends coming to visit from DC though, at the end of next week. If you are in the DC/Balty area, you should come down to MICA to get some affordable art and gifts. You know, you could even by an original print or owl friend made by me!

PRINTMAKING!

Here is the print exchange print I promised.

Sorry its a crappy photo booth picture... but my camera is dead.

The print is called falling apart in the falling rain... you can't really see the detail, but it is intentionally mis register and over top there are lots of tiny raindrops in the same light blueish color. It was an edition of 23 prints on white Rives BFK. It is a six color screen print.

Also, tonight is a screening of Typeface, the movie on campus!

The film is about the Hamilton Wood type museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. More about that after I see the actual film.

Maybe also soon there will be pictures from NYC!

NYC trip, a new print and fish and chips prospects...

Boyfriend still fails with providing a better costume picture. So thats still on hold.
In other news:
I'm working on a screen print for a printmaking exchange within my department today. The theme for the exchange is 'falling'... so I made a little village with rain falling overhead. I'll show a quick shot of the films below. I want this print to be colorful and lively, as most of my work in mono tone in shades of black to white or navy to light blue. I have plans for yellows, purples and navy and maybe a little minty turquoise too. This is due monday, so I should have this done to show off by the end of the weekend.
Also, tomorrow boyfriend and I are hopping a bus to NYC. The IFPDA (International Fine Print Dealers Association) is having a huge print fair. Well actually, it's happening now, through the weekend, but we are going tomorrow. It's the place to see current print work, make professional connections in the field and network. It also is a venue to sell prints, so you can see tons of prints by old masters and famous print editions for sale. I am excited. Also, this means we get to go back to the chip shop I found in the west village over the summer!
It's called A Salt & Battery and it is SO SO delish. I love fish and chips, and boyfriend is an avowed anglophile (he's 1/4 Brit!) so we will totally be stopping for dinner there tomorrow.
The films, as promised, minus a few that would make this look confusing.

Now just imagine these one on top of the other, some of those houses filled in with lush colors, the clouds and rain being really transparent and metallic over the top and you can see EXACTLY what I'm printing. If you can't visualize, I should have them documented for my portfolio by Monday, so I'll post the finished print by then. Deadlines Deadlines.

Other stops on tomorrows day trip to the city from balty include, magnolia bakery, also in the village, one of the pinkberries (so mad there aren't any in baltimore!)  and Cooper Union to see a show that boyfriend's bosses have design work in.

Lot's of work to do for now, so I'm off!

Halloween weekend was a blur, and I don't have any good pictures to share yet...

Oh poor poor neglected blog. This Halloween weekend took all of my energy and left no time for me to post my costume. So here it is!
I decided to be the Very Hungry Caterpillar from, well, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
A better picture is coming as soon as I get it off the boyfriends big fancy camera. It's a shot of the whole thing because my mom insisted on being emailed something nice and presentable. The picture below is sadly, not very complete... and it's pretty hard to even see that there are eyes and antenna on the hat at all. Just wait until the joyous moment later today when I have a nice looking picture to share, okay?

The costume was all pretty easy. I bought a cotton dress and leggings online and tie dyed them, attached some felt legs to the dress, and put felt eyes and antenna on the hat. My weekend has been so full of Halloween, that it's a little strange that it's all ready November and I have lots lots lots of work to do for school. I have a print exchange coming up next monday, so pictures of that print are coming soon.

I was sick, and now I'm better, but I didn't get a whole lot done this weekend...

I'm still alive, I'm just always working!
For proof, here is an update on that etching plate I showed you before...

Also, I got some nasty bug from my boyfriend. I made him chicken noodle soup on Wednesday night, had a cough by Thursday and then it all went downhill from there. Friday I tried to stick it out, but by dinner, I was miserable. I spent all of Saturday with several boxes of tissues and my butt firmly planted on the couch feeling gross. Sunday was a little more productive, but i still feel like I lost a lot of valuable work time.

In other news, KCUR is on itunes radio!!!!! Woo! I'm pretty sure they probably have been for a while, but I just discovered this today... So even in Baltimore I can listen to NPR from home in Kansas City. What is also great about KCUR, they don't carry the Diane Rehm show. Not to dump on Miss Rehm, she's a wonderful talk show host, it's just that Baltimore and dc NPR affiliates carry her show for TWO whole hours in the middle of the day. Usually when I am free to listen. So there is no mixing up what you hear every single day... Even though Diane Rehm is out for three weeks for a cruise with NPR listeners or something. See, I listen to her everyday because I have to... because I love NPR.

 So, thanks KCUR! You brightened my day by being on Itunes!

Halloween Costume for this year

I spent most of the day, when I wasn't really busy at work, trying to think of a clever costume idea for Halloween. Last year I waited till the very last minute and my costume was not so hot. So I just purchased everything I need online for something I hope will be cute, nostalgic and clever as my costume for this year. I won't tell you what I'm going to be just yet, so you'll have to wait until the end of the month for pictures. I will tell you that I'm going as a character from one of my favorite books as a child... I feel obligated to have something good. I mean,  I do go to art school, and clever Halloween costumes are like a badge of honor here...

These two ladies are so classy!

Plush House and Pumpkin Patch

Sunday was a busy day for me. I spent most of the early afternoon on a group outing and all of the evening until pretty late last night making my plush house.
I do get a little bit of a break this morning though.
Open studios are today on campus, so I'm catching up on blogging in my studio as it's all clean for visitors and I don't want to muss it with making things. I'm trying to enjoy the quiet and be un-obtrusive to my visitors.

This is my plush model house. The line work is all embroidered on natural muslin with three strands of a really dark navy color embroidery floss. I wanted the house to have a similar line weight and feeling as my prints do. Hopefully I achieved that at least a little. It's about 15 inches long x 8 inches wide x 6 inches tall. I really love it, and I hope I can make more soon. I have plans for different types of plush model houses if I can only find the time to create more!

Also as promised, here are pumpkin patch pictures!

In total, seven of us went. We got pretty medium to small sized pumpkins (We all live in row homes, so where do you put a jack o lantern? On your fire escape?). I'm excited for our carving party this week... I'm also excited for roasting the seeds. Delish!

What a great Sunday.

Robert and Shana ParkHarrison

Almost three years ago, in my very first fall semester of art school, I had the pleasure of hearing a lecture from a really great husband and wife artistic duo. Robert and Shana ParkHarrison make wonderful, etherial photos. Their style is collage like, I remember them saying that each piece was 80+ layers thick with photos, transfers, printmaking processes, drawings, paintings and other things. These are some of my favorite images, from their Architects Brother collection of work. The husband is the figure in all of the work, acting as a solemn and anonymous character. I've seen a few of these in person, and they are gorgeous! I have always admired their collaborative image making process and the beautiful images they make.

I have a tote bag obsession

I love this tote bag!

It's celebrities by state. So clever and cute.

I think I have a problem with having too many totes, but this one will be mine!

find it at melangerienyc

Have to say, I'm planning a few of my own totes for a holiday art sale coming up at MICA.

More news on that soon.

screen printed canvas yardage, made last semester