Whoo's Too Cute?

Looking at henna designs for pregnancy on Pinterest must have gotten into my head, because when I sat down to sketch a little owl for a friend's baby shower this is what came out! It would be fun to do a small series of these wistful little animals. What would I do? Bunny, skunk, fawn? I can see them in little oval or square frames in a nursery.

Revenge Idea Exploration Sketchbook

This sketchbook was a huge challenge to me both in terms of how short a time I had to finish it, and the subject. I was hoping, as I've said, to be assigned a lighter topic, but revenge it was. Drawing -when you have practiced it a long time at least- allows you to discover things about your point of view that the left side of your brain won't admit to. That was definitely the case here, because if I talk about revenge and pain I have some nice pat answers. After all, I've read the books, know the points, etc. How I should act and react in this crazy world is more amorphous in practice.

I am distinctly nervous to publish this. I am almost certain it will offend just about everyone I know for wildly conflicting reasons. It is one thing to put your work in a show and another to display it to friends and family. I am disciplining myself to do it, however, because I promised and because the point of this blog is to journal my creative work.

There is a reason for almost every single line, and definitely for every visual choice I made but I would rather let it unfold for you without my voice. So without further ado: Revenge.

Some of the Details Are Sketchy- Revenge Sketchbook

Sometimes when I am happiest I create the saddest things. Maybe it is the only time I feel I can bravely look at some parts of life without getting mired in it. This season I did not set out to draw discomforting things, it just came by assignment through the assigned Sketchbook Project theme revenge. Later I will probably post the whole thing nicely scanned, but for now here are a few of the pages I drew over Christmas. They are in story order. You can click the image for an enlargement on my flickr page.


As I drew this image of the twin towers I was surprised by how moved I still am by the tragedy. When I entered FIT as a freshman I could still smell the smoke. When I left as a senior there were still pictures of the missing posted at the hospital. I just want to pluck the plane out of the sky and stop the further ensuing loss.


Something I love about drawing is that your subconscious has a louder voice through your hands. I learned that in my heart of hearts I don't want the lion to lay down with the lamb, I want lions to be transfigured into lambs. That is inadequate because it does not rectify wrongs. That is why Christ is shown in Revelation as both lion and lamb. He combines perfect innocence and self-sacrifice with perfect strength and justice. Charles Manley Hopkins mentioned a lamb-lion in one of his "Terrible Sonnets." This could maybe just as easily be a deep appeal for the balance of justice and mercy. By the way: Does anyone know why heraldic animals always face to their right, our left? I wanted it the other way for the flow of the book, and it doesn't exist. Had to flip the lions I referenced in my mind.


For the daughter of a heavy equipment salesman I am woefully ignorant of the hind ends of tractors. This is me trying to make my ignorance look artistic!


Here it is clear this family group needs rescuing, but vague as to what from. I can't tell if they are cowering from something inside or outside. The burglar bars give the picture a trapped/enclosed feeling, yet the locks on the door seem flimsy to me, as if the family is jailed but not protected. I couldn't bring myself to fully detail their pain, so there is a lot of shadow inside of their huddle.


I am uncertain whether this is finished yet. Guerrilla warriors, tough guys all. They are always far far too young, it seems to me. It was easy and reassuring to draw the truck-- I am proud of the near-perfect Toyota emblem on the front! It was as easy to draw it as it is to make a clever outline as to the political and cultural reasons for these crusades, but how can we wrap our human minds around the vengeance and destruction? How can we learn that these problems don't have crisp Toyota-outline answers with parts to assemble in order? I don't know that it is possible.

Revenge is Mine

28,787 artists from 94 countries are touring their sketchbooks in 8 cities in the US in 2011 through The Sketchbook Project. The show starts in March, but you can already see many pages here and here.
The project allows you to choose from different themes or have one picked for you at random. My favorite themes: Capture the Flag, Things That Changed Other Things, and And Then There Was None.
I allowed them to pick for me, because I like the surprise. I just about had a heart attack when saw my topic was revenge, because I am morally opposed to revenge. It has been a fun and challenging topic.

The tour hits Austin during South by Southwest, so come check out my whole book!

Be Still

This T design was a refreshing exception to the exasperating rule of designing shirts: Whoever commissions it thinks they haven't got anything particular in mind, so I work out some sketches. They say they can't imagine them as T-shirts, could I work them out in detail? So I spend a long time painting, drawing, collage, photo-shopping all the options, and then they confirm what they secretly thought all along: They want something completely different than any offering!

Thank you, Janette, for being so easy on me!
It is kind of a found poem. The words are from Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.
I find the arabesque pattern meditative to read:

Be still and know Be still Be still Be still and know I am.
Know that I am God. Be still.

Show Your Work

I used to hate it when I had to do that in school, because it means math! Having married an engineer I now realize math isn't so bad–- when you have someone else do it!
I am very behind on actually showing my creative work, so I am going to catch you up for the next few posts.




This needlepoint dove was languishing at Goodwill. I thought it a shame no one was loving it, but the fault lay principally with the frame. My plan all along was to turn it into a floor pillow, so I stripped off the frame, removed the glue as best I could, and framed it anew in crazy-quilted denim.

I signed up for Art House Co-ops Sketchbook Project. I asked for a random topic, and got "Revenge." Eighty pages of sketches starting with revenge? To quote Woody in Toy Story,

"This is the perfect time to panic!"

Taking Space/Making Space

Neutral belongings and activities take up space in your life to the exclusion of meaningful things, so Daniel and I put together a great big barn sale this weekend.

The intent was to sell everything we don't like or don't need.

Some things I couldn't help keeping, like our trash can that is an awkward size in which bags don't fit! Some things I couldn't resist saving, like slivers of broken mirror I want to cover something in.

We got rained out a little. Not everything sold, and some things will be going on Craig's list. Absence sometimes makes chaos, like how the absence of dressers are now making our wardrobes chaotic.



When I get everything back in order will I feel relieved? Clean? New? Will I sense the possibilities?

Sketchbook Inspiration

Last week I got a truly fantastic book by Danny Gregory called An Illustrated Life. It is chock full of amazing examples of sketchbooks by all sorts of people. Apparently the first printing is already sold out. What I have been most struck by is the stunning variety of preferences. Each artist answers questions regarding where and when they like to sketch, public or private, what size book and type of paper, what media, whether or not they ever tear out a page, etc. Some of them want the cheapest paper because it is less daunting, some will only use moleskines. Some will only use certain pens filled with certain ink, or a specific brand of watercolor, and some only like to use cheap giveaway pens, and some use whatever is handy. Some carefully plan layouts and some fill in with small sketches, the more mayhem the better. They rarely start on the first page. Some start in the middle and work out. Some have rigid guidelines for what goes in the book, and some include their grocery lists. The beauty of it all is that one page doesn't do anyone's work justice. You need many pages, and that's what this book shows. Bravo! I love this and this and this!

Reading the multitude of answers to questions made me feel better about life somehow– free not to try so hard to be other people or adhere to a strict (yet elusive) schedule of what life is supposed to be like. All of that from a book on sketchbooks!

I enjoy the Oilily catalogue because it has a sketchbook-quality. At the bottom of the page of this particular issue Journal #42 Spring/Summer 2005, there was a running story that was hilarious about tickling the earth, a neighborhood project of painting 97 plaster gnomes and hiding them in the neighborhood, and making new street signs like "right of way for submarines." I think I may try writing a story along the bottom of my sketchbook!This is a recent sketch of my normally tidy dining room shelf invaded by refugees from my kitchen cabinet painting project!

Studio Dreams

Today I am dreaming of a new studio space: note the green and red combo in the sketch!  I also dream of a world in which the arts are as valued for youth as STEM classes. Signups for this semester's round of the art classes I teach are not going so well. Parents feel so much pressure about core classes that it is hard to convince them of the value of the arts!  

How To: Make a Consistent Buttonhole Manually

It has always seemed unfair to me that great projects are so easily ruined at the end with tricky steps. Flights end with landings, fashion drawings end with faces, and cooking ends with seasoning. By far the worst, in my opinion, is that garments end with buttonholes. Knowing I need to make buttonholes has tanked whole weeks for me, in all seriousness!

There are a few solutions for buttonholes: Technology, avoidance, and mastery.

Many of the new sewing machines will make an automatic buttonhole for you. They are almost foolproof. If you are lucky, you live in a city with buttonhole services. You give the nice man your placket and in a few hours you have a parade of industry-grade beauties. Neither of these are an option for me, because I insist on having a reliable machine that does basic functions well every time. This means no tricky computerized gadget I can’t pull apart myself, no functions I will never use, no automatic buttonhole. Also, I don’t work or think far enough in advance to send my plackets away.

Avoidance, though. That I have mastered for years! You would believe what can be closed with zippers, snaps, velcro, ribbons, loops, or hooks and eyes to avoid the vortex of buttonhole despair only because you too, dear reader, have avoided this battle!

Mastery. I have tried the techniques. I have avidly sought wisdom in Threads and come up dry. Because of course those who do couture sewing have machines which are to the seamstress as Alfred is to Batman. Or not.

So here is my anxiety-reducing low tech technique for professional-looking buttonholes every time (once you get the hang of them). Really. It won’t win you any speed records, but think about how many times you’ve redone a buttonhole until the fabric is worn and fuzzy, and tell me your way is faster!

1. Measure and mark the length of the opening of your buttonhole carefully and precisely onto your placket.
   
2. Set your machine to a short straight stitch and sew exactly the same number of stitches on each marked buttonhole line. Yes, I do mean count, and walk it if you need to. Hint: It is easy to lose the end of the mark. Make sure you have good natural light, and it might help you to turn the sewing machine light off to reduce glare.
   
3. Use an Exacto knife or razor blade to slit along the right-hand edge of the stitching.
   
4. Set your stitch width to a narrow zigzag and the length to a satin stitch. I like my length comparatively long to avoid rogue bulges and bumps, but this is a matter of preference.
   
5. Position your buttonhole with the needle swung to the right at the center of the slash, just a hair above where it begins. Satin stitch down the left edge of the cut with the needle plunging into the slit on its right extreme. End with needle down in the fabric swinging to the right, a hair above the bottom of the slit.
   
6. Raise the presser foot and turn the fabric. Sew up the second edge of the slit ending with the needle having just completed its left-hand extreme.
   
7. Trim all threads and treat with fray check or a drop of clear nail polish as needed.
   
8. Carefully measure the width of the buttonhole and stitch width for exactly that amount. Bar tack on each end of the buttonhole a count of 4 stitches, or whatever looks right for your project. Leave threads long enough to thread a hand-sewing needle.
   
9. Tie the threads of your bar tack and hide them with a needle.

Coop de' Etat

I don't know who remembers this photo from Vogue maybe 6 years ago. The Duchess of Windsor is feeding her chickens. In evening dress. Fabulous.

Today's design lesson with my high school kids was on prints, and I cooked up a little print with this photo as the theme. I wanted something that clearly shows the inspiration and the repeat. Generally I am not so literal. It looks like something that would be printed on 60/40 cotton poly from Walmart. I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole in the store, and I don't claim it is good, but I think it turned out funny so I thought I'd share it.

Lost: Beloved Nikon Coolpix l4

I look for my camera every day.

We lost it back in the beginning of June, soon after we moved. Perhaps it got sick of taking before pictures, and took a vacation until we are ready for afters. I prefer to think of it as an abduction through no will of its own. The four friends who were over to help with the house that fateful day would never have taken it, but they would have mindlessly put it in a box or drawer out of harm's way.

I find myself asking anxious questions: "Should I have purchased a flourescent camera case? Should I have gotten one of those beeper tags from the home shopping network?" (No, and No.)

I find myself looking in the same old spots I searched the day before, and the day before that as if it will somehow magically appear. Friday, Daniel said we wouldn't leave for the pumpkin patch until we by-golly found the camera. After we searched through every open box in the barn we gave up and left anyway. Every once in a while, like last night, I think of a new ("new") place to search and I am relieved, not because I found it, but because I haven't run out of places to look. Hope springs eternal.

I had been wanting an upgrade, but this isn't the timing I was hoping for. I am saving my birthday and Christmas pennies for a Mac book. That's a lie, actually. No one gives you money for your birthday after a certain age, which I have, in fact, passed. I am saving my own pennies.

In any case, go home. Treasure your shuttered friend. Tell it how much you love it, and how lucky you are to be together. Wipe its little lense tenderly. For me.

Invisible Lace

Photo digitally retouched to add web

I have been watching a spider keep house, expertly cutting away the elm leaves that have blown into her trap, reinforcing the warp, repairing the weft. From where I sat I could only see her in nothingness. I could not see her work at all, only that she was busy at it. Today her web is gone. Perhaps she caught only leaves and moved to a busier location. Maybe she was self conscious under my gaze.

I realized how much that is like what I do- what we all do. The things I labor over with the most care, no one else can really understand or appreciate as I do. My lace is also invisible to most eyes, but does that make it less important?
What priceless, invisible things do you weave?

Sewing Curves In Denim

Many people shudder at the idea of sewing curves or sewing denim, but to do both is crazy right? Actually denim is fairly forgiving for this sort of thing. The important issue is having completely accurate registration marks to match up, narrow seam allowances, and ruthlessly slashing those seam allowances to lie flat. 

This is what I am working on right now, the "Icarus" jacket. The map doesn't show it, but the pieces number 55 just for the shell, not the lining. I have made a good start on the sewing and I hope to bang it out in the next 2 days. 

Might This Be Their Day Job?

This morning I glanced out a store window as these two gentleman drove up in a lawn maintenance rig. The hats, the facial hair, the HUGE earrings were amazing! I think they are either pirates or nightclub personalities. What do you think?