paper gal!

The actual "making" part is done! Now I have to print em out and test how everything fits. I have a feeling that they're going to be a pain in the butt to cut out...





Yay!

squirrels + magpies + owls

I did these drawings last winter when I was in a certain European country for a couple weeks. They didn't actually use any of what I worked on while I was there, but they seemed pretty happy with it at the time. I did these with marker on this totally bizarre round paper that they had. I could've used photoshop, but they only had old crusty PC's (which I hate) and the keyboards are different in Europe (like the z and c keys are switched I think?? or something?) and all the keyboard short cuts were different too, and photoshop is just no good without shortcuts. So I went for markers and paper. Also, I don't really know how to use markers! Obviously!





Sometimes you do a drawing and look back on it later and think "oh yuck", and I don't quite feel "oh yuck" about these...they're slightly above yuck. I may decide that they are yuck later but I'm strapped for blog content right now. I fear that I will soon be posting pictures of my feet or something.




Anyway, they were fun to do. It was really liberating to just hang out and drink free cappuccinos from the fancy espresso machine in the office (Alpenmilch! Yum!) and mess around with markers, and then go eat a pizza and watch Pippi Longstocking on TV.





I promise not to lame out with only one post like I did last week. I had been doing so good posting twice weekly!

And last post was my 100th! I forgot to mention it at the time, but it kind of fills you with a feeling of accomplishment...even if it took over two years to make it to 100 and most posts are just a bunch of my gobbledy gook writing anyway.

one double wide post this week + ape is coming! + trees

Ok, I was doing really good with two a week, but this week has just been toooooo crazy! So I'm just giving you one large-ish post instead. I've been getting my stuff together for APE and let me tell you something about getting organized: it's HARD, and it takes a LOT of energy. I'm in CalArts-crunchtime mode right now, with a wackadoo sleep schedule and I've been fueled mostly by big cups of tea (with the occasional soy latte for emergencies) and packets of Emergen-C. But enough about me. I know why you come here and it's not for the jibber jabber!

I made a little series of family tree paintings for these crazy, kitschy frames I found.

First, an awesome frame shaped like a house! I can't take credit for the creation of the frame, but I can take credit for filling it with art.




This frame was really, really hard to photograph. It has a shiny finish on it, but the pic makes it look super glossy, which it's not!



The little paintings are digital, and I printed them out, cut them out, and put them inside of this awesome frame. I've never seen one like it...I wish I could find more. I'd do a whole series.


I got some of these "family tree" frames, too. They were really, really horrible looking when I got them. They're made out of some awful fake pewter stuff, and they looked like something your grandma would have on top of her TV, but not like a cool old school grandma. Like a REAL grandma who likes things that are made from pewter and filled with embarrassing photos.

I turned the first one into a librarian tree, complete with Miss Lib herself, and her owl friend, a fox taking in some new fiction.



These frames are double sided, so on the back I filled the frames with pages cut from an antique book (which, in all respect to books everywhere, was an awful book and kind of deserved to be used as decoration).



Here's the actual little paintings, since they're kinda hard to see in the photograph. Taking good photos is HARD!





This tree is smaller, but it's the runaway hit so far.

On the front: a handsome, 1920's-esque family...




...on the back, cut outs from a vintage National Geographic.





And here are the subjects themselves! Sean said that they seemed to be from New England, and that they instantly implied a story to him. He asked me what the story was, but I leave that up to the viewer. I didn't have a really clear idea of who they were when I made them, I just know that I like them a whole lot.




These, along with quite a few other one of a kind framed prints, are going to be on sale at APE this weekend! If you're going to be there then you should stop by, get your button, and check them out in person. I'm really really reeeeaaaally curious to see what kind of reaction they get...they're kinda artsy, but kinda crafty, but quite character design-y. Oh yeah, and there's more pics of them on my flickr!

So, I've still got some printing to do, but I will take LOTS of pictures on my little San Francisco journey and let you all know how it goes.

See ya next week!

Miss Lib + it's almost Halloween!

Here is Miss Librarian. I think I've still got some finishing touches to do, but you get the idear.



ALSO, please watch this cartoon. It's almost Halloween, and nothing gets me in the spirit more than watching a nice seasonal cartoon. I particularly like the part when Donald's feet get hexed and go crazy. Oh YouTube, how you enrich our lives...




Last year I didn't get a chance to dress up on Halloween. BOO to that! This year I think I'll just play it safe with a nice low-key kinda costume, like a bearded lady. That way I can wear a preposterous false beard but also have an excuse to get extra prettied up. This was always the conundrum of Halloween costumes for a little girl: be something pretty, which is fun but not very effective, or be something gross/shocking/gooey, which is VERY effective but not at all pretty. I think my all time favorite costume is still the big yellow bird I made a couple years ago. It was fun to be something so friendly looking and pointless.

Plus I got a few compliments on my legs. I also thought about being a librarian, but that seems a little obvious, doesn't it?

The Glamorous Librarian

Here is an image that seems so obvious for me to have conjured up that I'm surprised I haven't before. There is only one problem: I can't settle on what colors I'm going to paint her up in. I was really smitten with the blue-grey and pink scheme, because a librarian with pink hair was just so charming and cool, but Sean said he liked the green and red better because it just works better for the subject matter, and I think he may be right.

So folks, it comes down to a VOTE!


Make it blue n pink...


Or!


Make it green n red...



Well??