Kat Macleod - Inspiring Artist

The Cocktail by Jane Rocca, Drawings by Kat Macleod

I came across Australian based illustrator Kat Macleod's work when I went to Philly (Philadelphia, PA) this summer for a day trip. My hub and I took the two hour drive out to Philly to attend a craft fair that was happening in the Philadelphia convention center. However, it wasn't at the craft fair, where I did see so many varied (glass, jewelry, wood, fiber) and wonderful artists/crafters that I saw her work. In fact, it was in the most unlikely of places that I saw my first Kat Macleod piece! I was in Reading terminal (One of my fave Philly spots) taking a break and getting some lunch when I walked by a cookbook shop and I saw this book sitting by the register.

Upon closer inspection I was mesmerized instantly at the this illustrator who was fusing the world of fine art and craft majestically in her delicate watercolor illustrations. by Kat Macleod

Her fluid fine line is perfectly accented with a vibrant sense of color and design. Part fashion illustration, part fabric and paper collage, Ms. Macleod's work is fresh, inspiring and a lesson to us all to be open minded about materials. You can even ind some hand-stitching in there.

by Kat Macleod

Since this illustrator is from Melbourne, Australia, she is having a solo show in a gallery there called Lamington Drive. The name of her show is entitled The Tiniest Spark and boy do I wish I had a trip to Australia planned for this month, because the exhibit is up until November 29th (what a great Thanksgiving trip that would be!). So if you're luckier than me and headed to Melbourne Australia this month, you know one art stop you most definitely have to make!

Upon some more research I also discovered that Kat Macleod also does the illustration for a site called Michigirl which is an Australian based online style magazine site. It looks as though we can get another book illustrated by Kat Macleod too - Its written by Michigirl and is entitled Like I Give Frock Fashion Forecasts and Meaningless Misguidance.

Custom Fabric Printing!!! Crafter Alert!

Oh My gosh I am in love! I was reading this months Craft zine and I came across an article on printing custom fabric - with a company called Spoonflower which offers online custom fabric printing! Compared to pre-existing fabric printing companies, Spoonflower offers low fees, fast production, easy-peasy digital accessiblility and best of all low minimum yardage requirements!

The great things is that most companies that would allow artist to do such a thing in the past had large minimum orders, making it nearly impossible for artists to order small swatches or batches.

So I just couldn't wait to try my hand at it! If you have a photo-editing program (I use photoshop), either scan your artwork into the computer or take a high quality photo of your art. Then using your photo-editing program start to think about what I like to call a quadrant (a square that can be repeated to develop a pattern.) Spoonflower offers clear and easy instructions on how to prepare your art for uploading. I used some old collages, most of which my readers may recognize. Here is one of the many images I uploaded. However before you start I must warn you - it is HIGHLY ADDICTIVE! I'm going to place an order and update you all with the results!!! You can follow when I place the order - how long it takes to get to me, and what it looks like as fabric!

Marie Antoinette Fabric Design by marisol diaz

Sandblasting @ Corning Glass Studio Class

Well, I am finally back from the Corning Glass Museum in Corning, NY and able to update my blog again! (I was not able to, due to the limited amount of time that I had to do as much glasswork as I could. I put every possible moment of glasswork I could do as priority - I hope I haven't lost too much readership!) Now I have so much to share! Meet my new friend for the last two weeks:

An Empire sand blaster from the Corning studio cold shop! I've used sandblasters with my glasswork before but this class that I took taught by Denise Leone Stillwagon involved the use of stage sand blasting and vitreous painting - either as combined techniques or as separate ways to manipulate the glass surface.

Here is an early image of my desk as I was beginning a stage blasting assignment. Stage blasting is simply the process of blasting glass in stages so as to create deeper and varied levels of depth in the glass. Though I bropugght great picture references with me I often began every project with a drawing.

Here is a pic of the glass piece IN the sandblaster!

And here is the final piece...mind you it was simply a class assignment- there is no kind of 'heavy content' here since I was just trying to familiarize myself with the equipment.

The Potential of a Brown Paper Bag

This post is a blast from the past...seeing as I didn't have a blog to brag in the past, I'm taking advantage now. Quite a few years ago, I found a phenomenal Hawaii based artist named Moses who was featured as the 'Mad Hatter' in the July 2000 issue of the Smithsonian archives. Moses is a an artist that made an extraordinary series of hats from a simple brown paper bag.

As some of my readers know I teach high-school visual arts at the Englewood School in Englewood NJ. To begin the spring term of the Studio Arts II portfolio development class that focuses on the three-dimensional arts, I presented my class with some inspiration references from both Moses, and the design show Project Runway to see what they could do with lots of 250 brown paper bags that I got from a local dollar store.

These days I can no longer find the site, luckily blogger Mr.Paper's Blog did a write up on Moses that showcases Mose's phenomenal paper bag hats. Please click on the link and check it out!!! I was so inspired, I had my students explore principles of design through the designing of their hats and years later I am still blown away by the results. They were allowed to pierce, sew, wrinkle, fold, cut, burn, shred, layer, glue, braid, paper mache and anything else they could think of to their bags. I am so proud of these now alumni students and the job they did honoring Moses and his work, as well as invoking their inner designers.

So this is what they come up:

Don't Forget to post your 'rainbird' comment on the giveaway post (two posts back) to win your print - I am getting some amazing comments and it will surely be difficult to choose! One person suggested the winner should also do a giveaway - that would surely be in the nature of Guerilla Art so I think its a great idea!!!!!

Hair Art! Play With Your Hair!!!

So if you have long hair like I do...or any hair for that matter, consider playing with all that hair that falls out during a shower and make art!!! Take shower art to a whole new level!!!

So here is an image of my hair alone on the shower wall after I pushed the wet hair around to create a semblance of a figure. Using a photo editing program (in my case photoshop) I cut out the (visually noisy) tiled wall background around my hair. Then I simply played with the photo editing program as though the lines of my hair were stained glass or coloring book lines. Check out the results:

This may not your typical ''pretty' art but I love the creative exercise it offered me. You can play too - Try it!!! And if you do - let me see it I would LOVE to check it out!!!

Before you run off to play with your hair, don't forget about the art giveaway comment!!! The deadline is the fourth of July!!! Scroll down to the past post to see the prize and comment!!

Guerilla Art and First GIVEAWAY!!!!

So thanks for waiting so patiently!!! The first monthly giveaway piece is ready to go!!! So here is how and why I am doing this giveaway of art (in this case A SIGNED PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT of a collage art piece that I made for Illustration Friday prompt; Forgotten. The collage you see above entitled 'Rainbirds'.)

Guerilla Art Kit by Keri SmithI'm a big proponent of Guerilla Art (you may have seen the book in my suggested book list). In the way we often think of small random acts of kindness making the world a better place - with Guerilla art Keri Smith shares her vision of small random acts of ART making the world a better place. Often the art is 'anonymous' (which is a beautiful way to do something selflessly) for example: you're scanning a book or magazine in the bookstore and out between the pages falls a drawing left there purposely for you to find, keep or pass on...and you know not by who, such is the nature of Guerilla art.
I think those of us in the blogosphere can adopt this idea even if not anonymous, and I have already seen creative bloggers out there begin to do 'Giveaways' where the payment is not monetary, nor even an object of equal value, but instead the payment is made in an exchange of connection. Such was the case with my wonderful blogger friend BEATRIZ, a fellow artist living in Italy - her blog http://suitcase-contents.blogspot.com/, is listed under my favorite bloggers list and has already completed her first giveaway!!!

So here is how it is going to work. I will pick the receiver/winner of the photographic print on the Fourth of July through those who have left a comment!!! It will be my way of celebrating independence and I will choose the receiver/winner by reading through all the comments left for the print and seeing who left a comment that truly touched the answer to my comment question. So here is your comment question:

In this collage I use the parasol as a symbol of bidding fairwell...though goodbye's can be somber and difficult aspects of our lives - they can also be releasing and un-inhibiting, as well as a form of independence. This is why I entitled the piece Rainbirds...the rain has set her free - flight - birds...so what is your Freedom-Through-Goodbye story??

Leave me a comment and I will choose from among you - but if it becomes too difficult to choose I will use a random number generator to help me choose. You have from now to the fourth of July (which is over two weeks) to comment - please be sure to leave your email address with your comment so that I can contact you! I will announce the winner and their blog on the fourth of July post.

http://sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/

Music and Creativity (part I)

I have been fortunate in these past few months to engage in, experience and be an audience member in yet another form of artistic expression: music.

For those of us 'visual creatives' who have always appreciated the strong bond between creating art and listening to music, this post will surely delight.

As educators, my husband and I have embraced the interdisciplinary potential of music and art in the past. However, lately we have truly begun to push the union of these two art forms in the classroom - particularly due to the fact that for the last three years we have had some amazing visual art students cross our path that are also extraordinary performers (you'll read more about that in the post to follow this one (Music and Creativity II/ Sons of an Illustrious Father))...many of which are residents of Nyack, New York, a town whose businesses have really supported young talent.

Still, even when students/artists are not DUAL in capacity of music and art (I'm certainly not), and don't live in Nyack...(I no longer do) the two genres of music and art feed each other so well that the creative process and studio life can almost not be fully realized without it!

So check out this short (around 4min) video I made recently of a few of this year's graduates, including student musician Josh Walteros, as he volunteered time out of his schedule to perform for one of my husband's senior selective figure drawing classes.

I am still always so amazed at just how much music can emotionally move me and drive me to physically create. In this case the students were left not only to study the figure and its inflections in a motion, but to respond to the music in any way they saw fit, even if just embracing color and lines.

How do you DE-stress with NO time???

So at this moment I'm seven days away from a 'major' solo art exhibit. Not 'major' because of locale or notoriety - (the amazing gallery in San Antonio was less stressful!) but 'major' because of expectations, people and meaning. Despite all the anxiety, leave it to me to exasperate the situation by not being finished with all the work that is to be exhibited. In seven days I need to; find around twenty photo frames of various sizes, finish painting, rent a van to transport the work to the gallery and figure out HOW to hang paintings on heavy wood panels. After a full-time job I have to come home and utilize every free possible second to finish working. I haven't been able to do housework, reading or crafting - let alone keep up with my blogging community. Don't get me wrong - I love to make art --but like most artists- I don't like deadlines (though the vicious circle is that the deadlines produce the most intense work). Needless to say, I am SEVERELY stressed out.

These images are some of the only photos I have ever taken that actually relax me just to look at them! When you don't have anytime that might be all you can do...

SO TELL ME PLEASE!! HOW DO YOU DE-STRESS WITH NO TIME????

Street Art in Berlin, Tacheles & Andras Bartos

Gregg making a rubbing of a manhole in Berlin. You may think why? Well, that rubbing is an excellent image for us to make our OWN silk-screen in order to make our OWN Berlin t-shirts, instead of buying mass produced touristy ones! Once we have our t-shirts made - I'll post them here for you all to see.

Some of the best gummy bears I have ever eaten in my whole life were from Potsdam, Berlin. They actually tasted as though they were made with real fruit juice - not to mention they were mammoth in size.

Berlin's mascot/national-animal is the bear - hence we saw lots of artist renditions of the form. Like these! Since these particular bears were in the lobby of our hotel - they 'embody' paintings of all the popular tourist attractions in the area.

Now for another kind of street art...see that building- that is the Kunsthaus Tacheles. If you look closely you can see the name of the building written on it.
Tacheles is not so simple to describe, although the tourist's books try to do it justice. It is a counter-culture artist space. A former department store, it now looks like an abandoned building that has been taken over by a self-organized collective of artists. There are studio spaces, a cafe, cinema, performance space, workshops and exhibition space. In the evening it is a night club. The grounds, hallways and ever architectural feature has had an artistic mark placed on it. There are stunning sculptures out back, in addition to surrounding buildings used as canvases. I was so enthralled I took so many pics. SAdly, we saw many petitions out while we there and upon returning have learned that the lease runs out this year - it seems that the future of this space is yet to be determined. For the 'creatives' out there that read my blog, this is sure to be a treat.

Here I am out in back of Tacheles in their sculpture garden. I love charging bulls so when I saw this I knew I had to have a pic with it! There were quite a few welded- sculptures out back that were beautiful in their execution. There was also a train, automobile and helicopter covered in graffiti.

Here is Gregg out back in front of the helicopter

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This is Gregg in the Tacheles hallway. Now you see what I mean about every iota of the space having a mark on it.

The surrounding buildings are used like mammoth canvases. This soccer mural below is mind-blowing. Click on the thumbnail to see the soccer image up close.

Gregg and I discovered these small paintings by painter and graphic designer Andras Bartos and we bought one! His paintings are whimsical and also somber takes on humanity. While walking around the neighborhood we also saw his studio.

Well, I have more images but I think is this enough for today. I hope I haven't drowned you all in visual noise!!

Artist Gregg Emery - On Being Centered

My husband is both a professional sketcher and a painter. We work in two completely different ways. He is an extrovert and I am in introvert. That is to say he gathers his energy from external sources and I from interenal. With that said, he can draw in public (and does so frequently) I on the other hand have to be alone in the studio - with no one looking over my shoulder!

So about Gregg Emery, he has over two hundred sketchbooks filled with drawings. These are gesture drawings done with a piece of graphite as pictured here:

There is no eraser, no point, only an edge. Therefore, he never erases. Every line even if done in a not-so proportionate way, remains as part of the overall composition. Much like life, we get no erasers- no do-overs. Instead we have to learn to live with the choices we have made, move-on and resolve them -but we can't really erase them. He draws anywhere - and I mean anywhere, at music performances, at broadway musicals, on the subway, in the cafe, restaurants, really just anywhere. I have even seen him draw while he was walking!

Most of our students know this side of Emery, but what they don't know is the prolific painter he is and his penchant for abstract yet centered art.

Gregg is concerned with discerning an internal balance within and without our human selves. He is concerend with making connections and the deep value involved with human exchange. His paintings and his drawings remind me of Rumi's poetry on being centered.

To see more of Gregg Emery's work click on his name here! His latest Paris/Munich/Berlin sketches will be posted by Sunday!!!