CEREBRAL ROSE

Spoonflower

2010-07-06T15:29:00.002-06:00

I made a note to check out this website for fabric designs when I was at the Tiptree auction -- author Nalo Hopkinson had donated for auction some of her retro designs. Spoonflower is an online business that lets you design your own prints, upload them, and then print them on any of an assortment of fabrics. It's not just teeshirts anymore. How cool is that???

Daniella Woolf

2010-07-06T15:18:00.000-06:00

Daniella Woolf is an encaustic artist.

Her work is so innovative, personal

with a goodly dose of wit.

I bought her DVD

and absolutely love it.

Daniella has a wonderful sense of humor

and pairs it with her

amazing creativity.

She thoroughly covers many, many encaustic techniques.

I have been experimenting with encaustics a bit,

and now have many more techniques and ideas

to add to my own art.

Next on my wish list is her book.

I just had a birthday....and Christmas is kinda far away.....

dang it ;(

Liz Cohn collages

2010-06-18T19:12:00.002-06:00

Planning to go up north for a bit, and since I'm not going to the international calligraphy conference this summer, this little vacation will have to do some of the same things. While I muddle over how much art kit and which things to take, I know I am going to want to Glue A Lot Of Stuff.

So I am charmed to find these collages and cigar box assemblages, to mull over as well. The collages use a lot of typographic elements, as abstract forms. Yay!

calkinsART

2010-06-12T15:47:00.000-06:00

I thought I was going to find something about an encaustic workshop. Instead I found extremely mixed-media artist Larry Calkins has made his "Notice What You Notice" website out of words, photos, sketchbooks, layers of his various kinds of art stuff, pages and pages, or should I say, screens and screens, which load onto my laptop with tantalizing glimpses of underlayers. His sculptural works include book forms, at www.calkinsart.com.

Betsie Withey, fiber art

2010-06-03T11:52:00.002-06:00

At the WisCon art show last weekend I had the chance to see this dress for real live! the Etsy photos don't do it justice. The same artist had a lot of little scarves made of finely worked fabric leaves that I was sorely tempted by... my own sales were disappointing tho!

Bookbinding Instructions

2010-05-31T20:21:00.003-06:00

This has got to be the most artful online demonstration I have seen of Exposed Tape Binding, that is, how to bind a book on exposed tapes. If you don't know what that is, just look at the pictures! lovely details! All is revealed!

Typecasting

2010-01-11T16:51:00.003-06:00

I've been following this "Strikethru" blog for a while, but now there's a summary video posted there of the year's most brilliant uses of typewriters. Yes, there are a whole bunch of people who on occasion type their blog posts on a typewriter, and then post them as images on the web. Is that cool or what!

And now someone has invented yet another fun thing to do with crayons: use them to make transfer paper (like we do with graphite to transfer drawings in Ye Olde Way) so you can type in color. OMG OMG OMG.

Open Art Studios this weekend

2009-10-14T13:53:00.002-06:00

Hello? hello? is this thing on?

When we used to do art fairs I had a list of the things I should do to get ready, and then about a week before the date I would kind of panic and actually start matting whatever I had on hand. This is only the third, er, fourth, time I've been in the annual Madison Area Open Art Studios and today seems to be the day that I am actually moving the ponderous machinery into place for a little open house, that is open garage studio, this Saturday and Sunday.

This year the continuous slide show is going to work, because I actually ordered new bulbs for the slide projector that conked out last year early Saturday. So it's not all last minute. Some weeks ago I looked at my notes from previous years, and made a list of all the clever things I had thought of to do to promote this little event. Not that I expect a lot of people to come, or a lot of sales, but this year I would like to make sure that everyone in my immediate neighborhood gets the idea that I am here doing this lettering stuff. So, signage. Funny thing, that's a specialty of mine. I'm going to chalk some stuff on the sidewalks too. Roman script style graffitti. Maybe some brush lettering in acrylic, or just paint on my yard sculptures. Paint on people's bodies if they like. Even demonstrate traditional calligraphic craft if anyone's interested.

The people who volunteer to organize this event are real champions. Meetings that last less than an hour! Helpful publicity materials! Timely reminders! I wish I could go to some of the other studios to see what they're up to, but I gotta stay home and Do Art!

Art in Your Pocket

2009-08-15T19:21:00.003-06:00

Quite some time ago Chris posted a couple of links on Artist Trading Cards (ATCs). This page shows a lot of examples, and a huge variety of graphic and craft techniques to apply.

Letter photos

2009-08-15T19:06:00.004-06:00

I remember now, we were going to use this blog to show each other cool things for which there are not enough bookmarks in the world. I have had these photos marked for a couple years now.

Jerry's art supply demonstrations

2009-08-06T12:04:00.003-06:00

OMG! art demos, in an easily-clicked-on reference list! All those Jerry's e-mails and ads on Facebook finally do something good for me.

Envart

2009-07-06T17:10:00.002-06:00

What a cool project! I found a lovely illustration of a dragonfly on the bulletin board at the public library, with these handy tear-off URL dealios.

We haven't been posting much here, but Chris likes dragonflies, and I am kinda green myself.

Susan Richardson

2009-01-21T13:19:00.002-06:00

Hey! I was foodling around on Facebook, seeing how many calligraphers I could find, and found Susan Richardson has a fun website of her own. We were in Judy Melvin's design class in Ohio together a couple years ago.

Andy Goldsworthy

2009-01-06T14:12:00.002-06:00

Andy Goldsworthy is an incredible nature artist. He doesn't paint nature, he uses objects from nature to make gorgeous composition, then photographs it. Stunning work!

A Sharing of Song

2008-12-03T06:37:00.008-06:00

"Come to Jesus"

by Mindy Smith

Oh, my baby, when you're older
Maybe then you'll understand
You have angels to dance around your shoulders
'Cause at time in life you need a helping had

Oh, my baby when you're prayin'
Leave your burden by my door
You have Jesus standing at your bedside
To keep you calm, keep you safe,
Away from harm

Worry not my daughters,
Woory not my sons
Child, when life don't seem worth livin'
Come to Jesus and let Him hold you in His arms

Oh, my baby, when you're cryin'
Never hide your face from me
'cause I have conquered hell and driven out the demons
I have come with a light to set you free

Worry not my daughters,
Worry not my sons
Child, when life don't seem worth livin'
Come to Jesus and let Him hold you in his arm

Oh, oh
Oh, oh
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Oh, my baby, when your're dying
Believe the healing of His hand
Here in heaven we will wait for your arrival
Here in heaven you will finally understand
Here in heaven we will wait for your arrival
Here in heaven y ou will finally understand

Worry not my daughters,
Worry not my sons
Child, when life don't seem worth livin'

Come to Jesus and let Him hold you in His arms

Thank you lk! Please visit lk's blog

A Little More Sharing

2008-12-01T16:41:00.001-06:00

A Little More Sharing
Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought. E.Y. Harburg
A Day of Sharing Song
The idea: Songs can move us to places we haven't been in a long time, places we long for every day, or places we some day hope to be. The combination of music and poetry can transport us across distances, and through the years. While we listen, perhaps we grin wildly, or are moved to tears. We all have songs that are "ours" in our very hearts. We have songs that touch us, move into our hearts and resonate, creating a feeling, taking us some place- past, present, future- perhaps some place we have never been and may never go, but for whatever reasons, the song sings for us.
Meeting new music, musicians, composers, poets, new ways for my soul to sing, is an intruiging concept. Want to go on this adventure with me? It will be easy to travel along.
Many of us already do this sharing; this idea is just to help us find each other and hear the words we have to share.
The Date: Wednesday, December 3.
The Plan: on your blog, post a song that moves inside you, touches you, reaches you. You can do any or all of the folowing:
link to a youtube video (done as you would normally post a link)
link to itunes or amazon for a sample of the song
embed the youtube clip (instructions here)
post just song lyrics
post multiple songs, if you can't choose just one.
Include the composer and/or musician and source (book, album). Perhaps also include the amazon or itunes link if there is one. no explanation required, no other revelation necessary. One last thing- Perhaps add an image. a photo. a video. a painting. a collage., if you would.
Come here to this post.
http://gryphonsfeather.typepad.com/the_poetic_eye/2008/11/a-little-more-sharing.html
Add a comment with your link.
I'll create a typepad page with the links, so others can hear the song, see the image and share in the experience.
The Request:
If you are intrigued enough, post on your blog about this Day of Sharing Song. Link to this post.
http://gryphonsfeather.typepad.com/the_poetic_eye/2008/11/a-little-more-sharing.html
Send an email to encourage your friends to post.
Pass along this info to any groups in which you participate.
Who couldn't use a few new songs in their hearts?

A Day of Sharing Words

2008-12-01T16:30:00.000-06:00

Go here and click on all of the blog links to read some terrific poetry submitted by a number of mixed media artists--some of the poetry is orginal, some the words of others. Enjoy!

http://gryphonsfeather.typepad.com/the_poetic_eye/a-day-of-sharing-words.html

Bridgette Guerzon Mills

2008-10-29T10:12:00.002-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, I took a class with Judy Wise in Cedarburg. Bridgette Guerzon Mills was in the class as well. She brought along her journal, which was entirely made by her. It was so cool, the cover was a beautiful encaustic and the pages filled with color, texture, photos and her thoughts. Her work is fantastic. I love her encaustic paintings, so rich with imagery and texture. I enjoy her journals as well. She is the nicest person you'd ever want to meet.

The Hermitage

2008-10-28T11:00:00.002-06:00

Rima Staines' work is what I would consider contemporay medievel. Her clocks are tremendous! She works not only on paper, but on log slices. Her drawings are wonderful. She works in watercolor and oil. Fabulous illustrator!

Jean's Clay Studio

2008-10-07T14:08:00.002-06:00

Jean Smaglik Wells was also at the Hidden River Art Festival. Her stoneware pottery is wonderfully unique, she works using a technique called slip carving. Her designs are fun, whimsical, nature themed. She makes everything imaginable. Awesome work!

Ken Swanson~~Printmaker

2008-09-30T08:28:00.002-06:00

Ken Swanson was also at the Hidden River Art Festival. One of the things he does that I really liked seeing is he had the carved linoleum block, a black print of it, then, the print colored in.
Very nice work!

Elaine Daily-Birnbaum

2008-09-29T07:28:00.002-06:00

I've seen Elaine Daily Birnbaum's work in art magazines and was tickled to see her art in person at the Hidden River Art Festival. You know how I love abstracts. There is a lot going on in these paintings. Lots of rich texture and detail.....terrific paintings! I enjoy her monochromatic palettes.

Jenni Hopfinger Studio

2008-09-28T16:22:00.002-06:00

Jenni's work was also at the Hidden River Art Festival. The pictures don't do her work justice. In person they are stunning! The colors are vibrant. I love the funky designs she paints on her glassware. Just beautiful!!

Marvin Hill Blockprints

2008-09-25T10:42:00.002-06:00

Marvin Hill's blockprints are wonderfully crafted. He carved his designs into wood or linoleum and prints them with black ink, then Wendy paints them with watercolors. His work was inspired by his dreams and the books he read. The dimensional pieces are intricate. I enjoy looking at art that is witty and also makes me think. Since Marvin's passing in 2003, his wife Wendy continues carrying on his work. Delightful!

Linda Day Clay

2008-09-23T11:02:00.002-06:00

Another booth Marci and I stopped at was of whimsical ceramicist Linda Day. Her colorful work is bright and funky. It's so much fun to look at. Marci bought a cool bowl that had a dog grilling, underneath it said, "Lick the Chef". Her clocks are wonderful, not to mention mugs, spoon rests and bowls!

Carmel Anderson

2008-09-21T07:51:00.002-06:00

Marci and I went to the Hidden River Art Festival at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts yesterday. Nothing gets me all jazzed than talking to artists and looking at their work. One of the first booths we stopped at was Carmel Anderson. I was immediately draw to her painting because of 1) interesting subject matter 2) the bright beautiful colors 3) texture !!
This is what Carmel says of the Women's Series:
Artist’s Statement for Women’s Series:
Painting the deep, rich and often complex souls of women is paramount to this series. I began reflecting on the subject of women and wisdom as I approached a new phase of life. While pondering the concept of wisdom I observed, studied and reflected upon what it might mean to be “a wise woman”. Birds represent a hope which I feel everyone desires in their life, as eloquently expressed by Emily Dickinson’s poem. I’ve come to see that wise people have chosen to face challenges of life directly, and consequently emerged stronger and wiser. Observing these women as they love, share, learn, forgive, while living contently and fearlessly, this is the power behind this series. My hope is that my art resonates with your soul wherever you may be in life’s journey.

Hope is the Thing
with Feathers
That Perches in the Soul
And Sings the tune
without the Words,
And Never Stops at All......

Emily Dickinson

Jim C. Brown

2008-09-18T10:32:00.002-06:00

Wonderful paintings. Mixed media--paint, plaster, silver leaf and photography. I love the ethereal quality of this art. His palette is very simple and elegant. I enjoy looking at the texture of the plaster and layer upon layer of paint. Fabulous!

Nancy Standlee

2008-08-22T06:39:00.002-06:00

Whilst (love that word) I was googling something, a link for Nancy's blog came up. I love that she's a learner, taking lots of workshops. Her work is vibrant, lively and just plain fabulous! She has slideshows, workshop photos.....it's a fantastic blog!

Got art?

2008-08-20T20:51:00.002-06:00

Maybe I've mentioned before that the Madison Area Open Art Studios is the weekend of October 4-5. I'm making plans for continuous slide show, demonstrations of traditional calligraphy, body painting, monumental lettering, whatever!

Wits' End Studio

2008-06-17T22:39:00.002-06:00

Finally Chris has got her studio remodeled and in celebration has started a personal blog. I think she has plans for an Etsy shop too but that link doesn't go anywhere interesting yet.

Madison Open Art Studios

2008-06-08T09:29:00.003-06:00

Which reminds me, the Madison Area Open Art Studios is happening again next fall, the first weekend of October. I checked the site and there is some kind of meeting next Tuesday, so it is good I checked. It is possible that registration of artists has been extended past the last deadline that I was all hurrying to meet last month, or it could be the website hasn't been updated. You could try it and see.

Photography in the neighborhood gallery

2008-06-08T08:58:00.003-06:00

I was sitting on a bench talking on my cellphone yesterday, next to a sandwich sign advertising a one-day gallery show, when the wind switched around to the south and tornado siren sounded. I sought shelter, as you do, in the gallery where it happened two young fellows, Joe and Eric, were having a terrifically varied photography show, and we talked.

We talked about the other Saturday events happening the neighborhood that I had been surveying. We talked about the gallery space on Lakeside Street, and about art fairs and what is an artist to do these days of modern times here in the future. We talked about their signs which said EXPLOSION (a nine-letter word in three lines) in a square typeface newly designed by Joe (only the caps because he had a hard time making lower-case look square), with a sort of flower-power look, which were hand-stencilled onto the signs. They had big photos for free, or mounted ones for minimal cost. Even the big wall ones mounted on foamcore were only like $150. Joe has a day job and does websites, but his is down. Eric does creative media consulting at BrickHouse (the cool pictures are all on the link) and does wedding photography too and works in a frame shop and was willing to frame anything I was interested in to my desire.

They had both black and white and color pictures. They had abstracts, landscapes, architectural photography, baby pictures, still lifes, long-exposure nighttime photos, and band performances. Film and digital. Have I left anything out?

Need anything for your wall? Thanks, I already have some.

Swan Lake

2008-05-05T05:03:00.002-06:00

I am amazed at what the human body can do. This is a fabulous performance of Swan Lake....graceful, acrobatic....and did I mention amazing? I'd love to see the entire ballet.

How one thing leads to another

2008-04-25T22:03:00.002-06:00

First a friend sent me a link to the latest post of extremely various prints on BibliOdyssey, which is an astonishing nexus of historic imagery right on Blogspot, but then with very little trouble I found this other entry, of pages from an ancient German manuscript which is kind of more my thing.

But then I found some images from the Kohler collection right here in Madison, which I actually got to look at some pieces from, white gloves and all, in a book arts class a few years ago. And that after all is why we are here.

The Last Lecture

2008-04-11T15:08:00.003-06:00

If you haven't seen "The Last Lecture" given by Randy Pausch, please go make some tea and settle down to watch it. It is one most inspiring things I have ever seen. If you don't have an hour and 45, here is a reader's digest version on Oprah. I'm sure you will agree that he is a remarkable person.

Molly Cliff Hilts

2008-03-14T13:49:00.001-06:00

You will find a very nice slideshow of an encaustic painting demo. Very nice indeed! Lovely rich colors!

Bad day.....eh?!

2008-03-12T16:56:00.001-06:00

If you think you're having a bad day, watch this. What a great stress reliever.

It's been a looooong winter.......

2008-03-11T07:41:00.003-06:00

Check this out......these sculptures are soooooo cool! Summer's on the way!!

Origami papers to print

2008-03-06T21:39:00.003-06:00

This is so cool. I have been buying origami paper for decades, and don't even use it for origami any more. When I started using it in collage I was delighted to find the little square packs of highly decorated printed papers, because the big book-artist sheets are awfully expensive, and I always want one of each and every design. But now the nice people at Canon have made it possible for me to print out these papers at home, and have provided explanations of the Japanese pattern names and symbolism too. My printer doesn't make the nice raised gold lines of the real expensive stuff, but you get the general idea.

Some of us have a thing about paper: making it, decorating it, collecting it, which makes some sense if you are a book artist or collage artist, although it can lead to teensy storage and filing problems when you accumulate more than you are using. Although we don't like to admit outright to hoarding. Okay, my name is Jae and I am a paper addict.

This papercraft site has some interesting projects on it too, calendars and cards and whatnot, although my preference is not to work from kits.

Belgian Calligraphy Association

2008-02-05T22:47:00.000-06:00

You might not know that Belgium is a hotbed of modern calligraphic arts, but it is. Stonecutting central, calligraphy teachers and students of international stature, and major curriculum development. They have just opened an English-language portion of their website, which was already available in Dutch and French. Each language has parallel discussion forums, er, fora, so it's even possible to pick up some technical terms in French if that kind of thing interests you. As it does me. How about you, Chris?

Oh, yeah, Chris is still remodeling her house, which during a Milwaukee winter is a pretty major undertaking.

Performance Art

2008-02-04T11:13:00.000-06:00

Click here. Very coolio indeed!

Somerset Studio Jan/Feb 2008

2008-01-24T10:48:00.000-06:00

In this issue 2 of my pieces have been published! The first piece is on a stretched canvas, I used acrylic paint and a peacock feather from a friend's bird. The second is a mosaic type piece combining watercolor, acyrlic, metallic, glass, foil,

and a bit of nature-a gingko leaf.

Somerset Studio Nov/Dec 2007

2008-01-24T10:40:00.000-06:00

Published! One of my pieces has been accepted for publication!

It's a Christmas card that has been put into a picture frame.

The card was made of handmade paper (using Arnold Grummer's PaperMill), calligraphy on vellum and gold gouache.

Paper Arts in Mineral Point

2007-11-25T23:02:00.000-06:00

The Fall Art Tour. Oh yeah! saw a lot of cool stuff, and got to drive around the countryside on a lovely fall day at the height of the color. And collect postcards.

At the Green Lantern Studio in Mineral Point, I met artist Carole Spelic and talked to her about the cast paper vessels she was showing there. Her vases and bowls are very colorful, and startlingly lightweight. She had a demonstration sample that showed the stages of the work as she builds up colored paper pulps around a form, and then sands and polishes the vessel smooth. The black linear characters that decorate the colored vases are based on Gregg shorthand letterforms -- which I learned in high school myself back in the Late Stenographic Era -- set in a textural pulp with something of the look of stone aggregate.

Of course we looked at all the other cool stuff in the gallery, even though we had skipped all the other galleries in town. The other thing I terribly admired was this huge pulp-painting diptych by Roland Poska. Paper pulp cast into a mural, with what lovely color!

Cat video?!

2007-11-06T14:42:00.000-06:00

This makes me laugh out loud.....

Mail Art and Books

2007-10-18T15:08:00.000-06:00

Yeah, we've been letting our blog languish a bit over the last month. We both had a couple shows to deal with, including the citywide Open Studio event. Now I'm digging through hundreds of books and reading some, hundreds of papers and in the pile-up found a mail art piece that I never mailed off. So while I was scanning the piece, I googled the source, and found some others from Moreno Menarin that were posted at The Postman Always Rings Twice by a book artist in Holland. Pretty cool stuff. Lemme see if I can post my Menarin thingy here, while I work out who to send it on to.

How about it, Chris? it's been a while. I've just got myself onto an envelope exchange with calligraphers from the international conference... at least I think that's where the contact came from. This mail art actually came to me from Dale Spiers, a papernet fanzine nexus in Canada. I did the calligraphic blockprint-cut stamping.

Marsha Hammel

2007-09-07T08:32:00.000-06:00

http://www.mhammelstudio.com/ Postmodern (did I get your attention Jae?) figurative paintings. These are wonderful! I love the jazz series. They are so colorful and full of life. One of my co-workers has one of her originals. Can't wait to see it in person.

Victoria Pittman

2007-08-28T21:19:00.000-06:00

One of the other teachers at the international calligraphy conference was Victoria Pittman who just gave us a little heads-up here. She has posted photos of some of the work from her week-long class on "Flowers and Flourishes", using broad-edge brush techniques in watercolor, and incorporating lettering.

Her piece in the faculty show (similar to another she has just posted) was a dramatic assemblage including a calligraphic, gestural sort of... object. Maybe made of acrylic, I'm thinking. We had a fun collage class with her some years ago at the Siena Center in Racine, where she showed us wildly mixed media techniques, building up layers of materials, various metal-leafing and patinas. During our breaks in that class she got us down on the lakefront picking up bits of rusted metal to incorporate into assemblages. There's treasure everywhere!

Cherryl Moote

2007-08-24T15:20:00.000-06:00

The week of the international calligraphy conference, the last two days I had a class with Cherryl Moote, based on her book Sleight of Binding. We made accordion book models, flexagons, jacob's ladders, and these gallery books -- actually three days' worth of books, that we tried to get into two days. Cherryl has a great website with lots of photos. Her packed instruction books have the clearest line drawings I have seen for actually making these complicated sort of structures, although they don't have the eye-candy appeal of the glossy photo books.

I call this "My World Is Full of a Number of Things" because it includes painting, lettering, origami paper, found papers, paste paper, stamping, and postage.

She also gave one of most inspirational of evening slide lectures, on the subject of finding your own voice. What a great teacher!

Joseph Cornell

2007-08-24T07:04:00.000-06:00

Joseph Cornell's work catches your attention and draws you in to take in the details of the sculptural assemblage boxes he created. They are truly wonderful. He had a wonderful eye for detail and design. A very inspiring artist.

Melissa Manley

2007-08-17T14:58:00.000-06:00

A true labour of love, look what goes into making a copper vessel. Melissa's work is wonderfully innovative. Be sure to look at the "gut" vessel with iron wire. Her site is a treat!

Violette

2007-08-13T09:19:00.000-06:00

Violette has no fear of vibrant color! How fun are these?! Whimsical, colorful folk art!

Illustration Friday

2007-08-10T13:57:00.000-06:00

Feeling a little stuck in making art? Need a jump start? Each week Illustration Friday posts a challenge, make a cup of tea and read on........

Mark Rothko

2007-08-10T13:31:00.000-06:00

Irritated with myself that I missed the piece on PBS about Mark Rothko. I was reading a book by Mary Todd Beam, where she describes seeing an original Rothko in someone's home. I believe she said the room was dark except for a light on the painting. As she walked by she said "it looked like the painting was breathing". Rothko's later works have large blocks of color that almost seem to speak to each other. Color is so powerful. We here in Milwaukee are fortunate to have a Rothko at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Artful Blogging

2007-08-08T08:09:00.000-06:00

This is a "must have" publication. A few of my daily checkins (Nina Bagley, Misty Mawn, Judy Wise) are featured. Fabulous photography of art and inspiring words. I can't put it down, it's a great read. Go get yourself a copy and pour a cup of tea. I promise you'll get totally lost in it!

Self Portrait Challenge

2007-08-07T08:46:00.000-06:00

SPC is definitely something to check out. There is a challenge posted each week. You can find all the details if you're interested in participating. Very creative photos!

Mary Beth Shaw

2007-08-06T11:16:00.000-06:00

So just in case I haven't mentioned it lately, I really love abstracts. Mary Beth's work has wonderful qualities, like lovely earthy colors, texture and layers. It is draws you in and invites you to spend time looking at shapes, movement and patterns. Read her blog too.

Thomas Hoyer

2007-08-04T21:49:00.000-06:00

This is Jae, back from the international calligraphy conference which was held on Vancouver Island this year. The conference is usually divided into two study sessions, with a break in the middle. The participants have the choice of several dozen teachers, and can spend both sessions with one teacher, or divide their week between two different teachers, in a the huge variety of subjects. It was my thirteenth conference, over last fifteen years or so.

Vancouver Island is one of the best places I've ever been to: nearly as beautiful as Skye, but with excellent mild weather. The campus at Shawnigan Lake this year was pretty good -- a posh prep school that was the most handicapped-inaccessible institution I have ever seen, although the landscaping was lovely, the new dorms comfortable, staff enthusiastic hosts, and the food excellent.

This year I first had three days with Thomas Hoyer, studying a Fraktur hand. This is descended from medieval blackletter but has been elaborated into many typefaces, particularly in Germany, where books are traditionally printed in the style. A thick blackletter falls naturally from the broad-edge pen, and was the first thing I tried when I bought my first Speedball nib. I've spent a bit of time over the last mumble-mumble years practicing a primitive version of it, but this was something entirely new. I mean every stroke was different from the alphabets I've learned to write before. You're only fooling yourself to think you can learn a new alphabet in three days, but the first day we got through the entire lower-case, which was grueling. I had no muscle memory for this, and would frequently get lost in the middle of a letter, or even the middle of a stroke. It's not that often I get such a bad case of beginner's mind. Since beginner's mind is a much sought-after state in zen buddhism, this was not entirely a bad thing.

At the end of the third day, I was beginning to feel as though there were expressive details in this family of alphabets that Thomas could see, because he is native to that print culture, that I was entirely blind to, as though it were made of Japanese kanji characters in which I am an illiterate barbarian.

Thomas is an extraordinarily creative young man, as you can see from his website. I found the "callitype objects" in his virtual gallery particularly interesting. He is known in the calligraphic community more for his colorful ruling-pen demonstrations. His two-day class -- not a continuation of the Fraktur, but that ruling-pen technique -- was filled, although our Fraktur class only had half as many, eight people in it. Below, so you can see what I'm talking about, a sample from one of my practice sheets.

Jean Stephany and Bill Hicklin

2007-07-28T05:40:00.000-06:00

Jean and Bill create the most beautiful stained glass and mixed media work. Their work is in many public and private installations. Paul and I had the pleasure of being their "neighbors" at an art fair of few years ago. They are a very fun pair.

Crystal Brooke McCann

2007-07-27T05:41:00.000-06:00

http://www.artbohemian.com/ Handmade paper is wonderful in that you can create textures and imbed bits of nature, wax it and it becomes transluscent. It's earth-friendly because you can recycle it. It's a wonderful medium to work with. Crystal has done some very cool art with handmade paper. I saw her work at Art Fair on the Square in Madison.

Sculpted Stone

2007-07-26T08:46:00.002-06:00

Mary and Spencer Watson make the coolest art. Check out these stones. Aren't they fun!?

Well Behaved Women

2007-07-26T08:46:00.001-06:00

Well Behaved Women
Originally uploaded by louisdemise

I did this piece a couple of years ago, it's one of my favorites. The original hangs in the Aurora Women's Cancer Center in Milwaukee. I love what it says, it reminds me that you need to go against the grain to make a difference in this world.

Published!

2007-07-24T17:46:00.000-06:00

So this is pretty darn exciting, 2 of my pieces are published in this issue of Somerset Studio.

This is what I came home to....

2007-07-17T05:07:00.000-06:00

100_0785
Originally uploaded by louisdemise

This is what I came home to.....what a mess! I live in a cape cod style house, the 1/2 story is where my studio is. Happily I can close the door and not deal with ......this until after an art fair.

Art Fair on the Square

2007-07-16T06:59:00.000-06:00

Art Fair on the Square is where Jae and I were this past weekend. Marcia, Marj, Jae and I exhibit as the Wisconsin Calligrapher's Guild. The Guild has participated in this art fair for 23 years. We get 2 booth spaces and if I had presence of mind, I would've taken photos of the booth and posted them....next time. There are hundreds of artists...the booths go all the way around the capital on both sides of the street....lots of food and entertainment....it's a most excellent art fair.

Edith Piaf

2007-07-10T05:07:00.000-06:00

The other day Paul and I went to see "La Vie en Rose" the story of Edith Piaf. She had a very difficult life....abandoned by her mother, father in the service, raised in a brothel, then on to the circus .....all the while singing like a "sparrow". Gérard Depardieu is in it as well (love him). It's an excellent movie. Take a hanky.

Camille Pissarro

2007-07-08T10:14:00.000-06:00

Camille Pissarro currently has an exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Musuem. Pissarro is the father of impressionism. The exhibit included 40 of his paintings, among the oils were 2 watercolors. He painted with Monet, Cézanne and developed with loose style of painting. Wonderful.

Camille Claudel

2007-07-06T07:08:00.000-06:00

Camille Claudel was a talented artist, who abandoned her own art to work with Rodin. She was his muse, his lover......while he had another lover for 20+ years. Claudel became pregnant, Rodin would not leave the other lover, Claudel slipped into madness. She poured herself into her work. I saw her work at the Rodin Museum; this sculpture "The Age of Maturity" is terribly moving. There is a movie about her life that I would like to see, starting Isabelle Adjani and Gérard Depardieu.

Say Chris (this is Jae now), the Wikipedia links also to an extensive French website on her work which has lots of good photos, even if your French is not quite enough to read it all. I find the story (as presented in Wikipedia) about how her family treated her, incarcerating her in an asylum for forty years even against medical advice, more shocking than her relationship with Rodin.

Darlene Coltrain

2007-07-05T10:09:00.000-06:00

Say, I ran into Darlene Coltrain at a local Fourth of July picnic yesterday. It was in its way a fairly star-studded event as she joined my conversation with Joan Vinge about whether the internet is a good place for selling your art. Joan has found her Hobby of Dollmaking (you can follow the links on her homepage to see her earlier work, showing characters from her books) is some help with her recent complex health troubles. Joan's interest in putting art on the internet is just in putting up photos of her artwork, as her main thing is writing, but her daughter has recently embarked on the world of art fairs, which I am just now getting out of after twenty years, thank you very much.

And Darlene has done art fairs and SF conventions for a long time now. That link above if it loaded properly for you shows some of her painted silk scarves and jewelry, that she takes to conventions. She doesn't seem to have this kind of work on her home page, which is devoted to prints of her paintings. But she says the internet has not been all that good to her for sales. Nothing like face to face contact and seeing, touching the actual work. This can be either because of the physical nature of the work, or because of the styles of perception of the persons taking it in.

Anyway, Darlene is having an opening tomorrow at the Bindley Collection gallery at Hilldale, for her wearable art, and she was very pleased with the publicity graphics Colleen Bindley has done for her there. The gallery is the latest version of the Twenty Hands Gallery that Colleen started up as an artists' collective during the last few holiday seasons. Lots of local artists from the art fairs and weekend house sales represented there.

Auguste Rodin

2007-07-05T07:14:00.000-06:00

One of the most amazing museums is the Rodin Museum in Paris. His work is housed in the place he lived and worked. Sculpture is an incredible labour of love. There is a large glassed in cabinet that shows step by step how a bronze sculpture is created. Here is how lost wax casting is done. Rodin's marble sculptures are fascinating, the figures look as though they are struggling to emerge from the marble. The Burghers of Calais is an emotional piece. It it larger that life-size. These leaders of the Calais were ready to sacrifice their lives for their city. The emotion caught on their faces can bring you to tears. The Gates of Hell is an enormous piece of work. I didn't know that The Thinker is part of this piece. After seeing the amount of work that goes into a bronze and how much detail there is in The Gates of Hell, it is most certainly is a passionate work.

Spiders on Drugs--You Tube

2007-07-04T08:11:00.002-06:00

Okay, I again need you to humour me on this one, someone from work sent this to me....it made me laugh out loud.

Donna Balma

2007-07-04T07:59:00.000-06:00

I just found this site while reading a post from a yahoo group. Donna's art is very innovative. I read that she attended an egg painting party and decided to make hers with more of a graphic design quality. I love what she did with the bald heads (Retral Portraiture). She also combines knitting and painting (Modahls). Very cool and thought provoking art.

Kinetic Sculpture

2007-06-25T14:19:00.000-06:00

This is the best video I could find on YouTube of Theo Jansen's Strandbeest. He has a webcam on his website too but the studio is quiet and dark just now.

Simon Schama's Power of Art

2007-06-22T09:17:00.000-06:00

We caught the first episode on Van Gogh of Simon Schama's teevee series, The Power of Art, which I find was released on the BBC last fall, but we managed to miss the second, on Picasso's Guernica, due to local broadcast weirdness. Next week, Caravaggio, but I see in Milwaukee they've decided 7 a.m. is the time for that bad boy. When it plays depends on the PBS affiliate in your area, so check your local listings. If the the episode on Rothko happens when I'm out of town, I'm taping it.

Chris Jordan

2007-06-21T15:36:00.000-06:00

A friend of mine sent me to this website for a Seattle artist I'd never heard of, Chris Jordan. These images are trying to illustrate the magnitude of some currently relevant numbers, the sort of thing that would have political implications once we can get past the educational bit of understanding something of the global scale of our mass culture. It's a sort of wow factor, that the artist says is much better live than on this tiny screen -- no doubt.

They are all arranged with a view of the entire work first, which are each mild-mannered abstracts, and then progressive views of the elements of composition and details that are lost inside the big picture. Personally I think if you can wait for all the JPGs to load, it would be better to view these images the other way round, scrolling from the bottom instead of from the top. Either way, pertinent.

Laura Timmins

2007-06-19T04:21:00.000-06:00

A few years ago I was talking to someone while waiting in line. She was wearing a necklace that I admired. She told me she was working for the artist in her booth. When I visited her booth, it was filled with the most beautiful jewelry made from polymer clay. Laura's website is fantastic, wait till you see her work.

What's new?!

2007-06-15T15:14:00.001-06:00

Jae mentioned that I have a new job. It's actually the same job that I've been at for the past 3 months working as a Kelly Temp. They liked me and asked me to stay-so I did. Still working as a receptionist, I'll be getting more duties so it won't be so boring, but I'm not allowed to post on the blog......bummer. At some point I'll be working part-time there (oh, can't wait). Working full-time doesn't leave much time for posting here or doing much of any art work, but it IS teaching me how to manage my time. I'll have time off in July (2 more weeks, but who's counting)~~planning on getting into the studio and getting some work done. I've journaled a lot in the past months and have lots of fodder for art. Oh, did I mention the aging parent issues.....oy-vey! Thank you so much for stopping by to read! Chris

John Schirmer

2007-06-15T15:06:00.000-06:00

A few years ago I met John at an art fair. Our booths were back to back. He creates the most fabulous woodcuts. Look at "Evolution" (it's a few pages in). John has a great sense of humor--you'll see!

Photosynth

2007-06-11T14:18:00.000-06:00

I depend on my Number One Son to keep me up on technology. Here is a video he directed me to that explains Photosynth, I give up on making it link properly, here is the URL:
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/video.html
which if you are not up on the latest and greatest, is a really astonishing thing, er, medium, er, software, er, way to look at things. What really impresses me is the collaborative nature of the sources: basically all the photos of a certain site (Trafalgar Square for instance) that everyone, pro or amateur, puts online (say on Flickr) are overlaid like a big mosaic. Microsoft has a few sites set up experimentally, so that you can tour those places the way Google Earth does, but in more detail.

The artist's studio they used as an example has a close relation to Lewis' Garageography that I mentioned yesterday, or what it might look like in the near future. (Or maybe in the future artists' studios will look more like Lewis' garage, I dunno.)

And then the BBC has started to get the population of Britain to photograph the stately homes and tourist sites and such. You can look at Ely cathedral. The whole island could be virtual in pretty short order.

Garageography

2007-06-08T15:18:00.000-06:00

Here is a link to a virtual installation by a photographer I know, Lewis Koch, his Garageography. The way we met was because our kids were in grade school together years ago, and then we ran into each other last year at a neighborhood gallery opening. I had no idea.

This was an actual installation in his garage, which interests me particularly since I am planning to have Open Studio in my garage in October. (My garden horsies, lincoln logs and barbie art are pretty twee compared to this, so I have to think about that.) Lewis took photos of the installation, of course; and then someone else made this cool website where you can click on the stuff and see the photos. You can even see photos from his previous garage installation (if you find the photo of the garage in the photo of the garage). I particularly like the stuff in the yard.

Don McLean's Van Gogh

2007-06-07T10:15:00.000-06:00

That YouTube animation (morphing of idealized women, very interesting) that Chris posted a few days ago brought me to this and this. Apparently there is an entire little genre of Van Gogh slide shows set to McLean's song about Van Gogh, "Starry Starry Night". Nice song, and more images of paintings by Van Gogh that I have never seen before. And I have been looking at Van Gogh in various places from the time his sunflowers hit Boston at the Museum of Fine Arts when I was six, to the big Van Gogh-Gauguin show in Chicago a few years ago, and how many galleries and prints and photos in between.

Here's another one that pans the paintings, not such good resolution, but yet more paintings I haven't seen, although some of them are iconic Van Gogh. It's a four-minute song, and the pace of each slide show is a painting every two to three seconds. I knew he was prolific, but gee.

OMG! there's one for Gauguin too! YouTube is still mysterious to me. Where do you get permissions to use this kind of stuff? I bet you don't! the information wants to be free! It's digital folk art.

Debra Lee Helwig

2007-06-07T04:41:00.001-06:00

I met Debra Lee at an art fair in Appleton a few years ago, our booths were next to each other. The thing that attracted me to her booth was that she uses lots of vivid color in her work. Love color! Debra has a very fun sense of humor which comes out in her art. One of her prints hangs in my kitchen..."Ham & Eggs". She has a very nice website!

Connie Toebe

2007-06-05T14:23:00.000-06:00

Well, Chris has a new job, and I've been pretty busy. I've been busy cause I had some stuff in the art show at Wiscon, among other things. Another one of the artists there was Connie Toebe who makes cool assemblage boxes of dioramas and gilding and stuff. The two she made for the Tiptree Award winners are right at the top of her Boxes page. We sat at the same table near the front during the awards ceremony after dessert Sunday evening, but you still couldn't see the boxes so well as on her website.

Inspire me thursday

2007-06-03T14:30:00.000-06:00

Each thursday this site posts a new topic and quote geared toward giving an artist a springboard to create something and post it to share with other creatives. If you check out the archives, you'll find past topics and lots of inspirational quotes. Very fun!

Johnny Cash??

2007-06-01T04:37:00.000-06:00

Okay, this really isn't Johnny Cash, it's the pastor of the church Paul and I go to. (Yikes, scary wig) A little fun before a congregational meeting.

Women in Art

2007-05-30T19:22:00.000-06:00

This IS amazing!

Memorial Day

2007-05-27T09:52:00.000-06:00

One of the most moving sites I've ever seen is the American Cemetery in Normandy. Row after row, grave after grave of young men and women. Visiting a few of the beaches where the American soldiers landed, looking up at the bluffs that they needed to climb, seeing the German bunkers of thick concrete. What a horrible site. Remember to thank a vet for his service, and take a moment of silence for the ones who did not return.

Fernando do Szyszlo

2007-05-25T07:06:00.000-06:00

Again with the abstracts... I can't help myself, these are so cool. In some of his paintings he uses a monochromatic palette, in other paintings splashes of bright color. Interesting articles by him and about him.

Gosh darn knit

2007-05-23T07:10:00.000-06:00

Very fun and funky stuff on this blog!

Kathy Taylor

2007-05-22T07:33:00.000-06:00

I really enjoy Kathy Taylor's work. Wonderful organic shapes, rich earthly colours. I particularly like the 3-D art.

Rebecca Crowell

2007-05-21T07:21:00.000-06:00

Very cool abstracts....lots of texture and rich colours. Very nice!!http://www.rebeccacrowell.com/
http://rebeccacrowellart.blogspot.com/

Altoid Tin Travel Palette

2007-05-20T08:31:00.000-06:00

This is the coolio-est thing ever (I know what you're thinking....you always say that) but this is SO clever, here are the directions from Ron Ray, here are Nita Leland's directions, and here are directions from Fawzan Barrage. I have seen the empty half and full pans at Jerry's Artarama and Daniel Smith catalogs. If you have any other ideas for travel palettes feel free to post.

Luann Udell

2007-05-18T08:30:00.000-06:00

Luann writes excellent articles about the business of art, the artist's life and etc. Very inspiring and validating. See her artwork here.

Rosemary Buczek

2007-05-18T07:08:00.000-06:00

Rosemary's work is exquisite. The gilded and illuminated work is SO gorgeous. All I can say is WOW!

CBS Sunday Morning

2007-05-17T07:51:00.000-06:00

CBS Sunday Morning is one of my favorite things to watch. They interview artists, writers, musicians, and actors....these are particularly encouraging to watch being an artist myself. They take you to interesting places....out into the boonies to watch prairie dog colonies, butterfly migrations, swans, flowers.....nature in all her glory. There are music and movie reviews. There's lots of humor and dry wit. Bill Geist (love him;~D) has taken us to Santa school, a brick masons competition in Las Vegas, a Scrabble tournament, out to the desert to launch cremated remains into space (Scottie was on board), to Hollywood and how you can get our own star. Definitely NOT your ordinary news show.

Frozen Dead Guy

2007-05-17T07:14:00.000-06:00

Okay, humor me on this one. You just can't make some of this stuff up. This is NOT creepy, honest. There is a yearly "Frozen Dead Guy" festival, even......frozen dead guy t-shirts and hats! You'll read all about cryonics. I first heard of the frozen dead guy from Bill Geist of CBS Sunday Morning, he has fabulous dead-pan humor. His stories tend to lean toward--well,....slightly off kilter. (hence...frozen dead guy).......This made me laugh out loud. [Note to Jae:......I figured out how to do links....woohoo!]

Jason Fricke

2007-05-16T08:41:00.000-06:00

These screen prints are delightful. The black line drawings are wonderfully contrasted on white paper set off in a gold frame. The drawings are so full of life! http://www.jasonfricke.com/

ATC's / ACEO's

2007-05-16T07:46:00.000-06:00

Everything you EVER wanted to know about ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) and ACEO's (Artist Cards-Editions and Originals). Trade or Sell? hmmmm. Depends on who you ask. There are a number of links on the wikipedia link to check out. Very coolio work out there. Great size to collect, everyone can afford a piece of original art.

http://www.art-cards.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist_trading_cards

Claudine Hellmuth

2007-05-15T07:47:00.000-06:00

Claudine is the author of 2 books on collage techniques as well as a couple of DVD's. The books have easy step by step instuction for many cool techniques. She teaches workshops all over the country. Her whimsical collages are a must see. http://www.collageartist.com/

Books and Music list

2007-05-14T09:14:00.000-06:00

Jae, do you know how to make narrow columns on the sides of the blog. I was thinking about having a book and music list for each of us.....whadaya think? By the way, I like how you edited the last post!