Hummingbird Sign

This week I finished this logo/sign project for my brother-in-law.  They wanted a hummingbird feeding on a trumpet vine and gave me the image below to show what they wanted.  I am always torn between the scientist in me saying, "Is it accurate?", and the designer in me saying, "Simplify, simplify, simplify!".  For example, the leaves of the trumpet vine are compound and toothed. I tried drawing the leaves with teeth but felt it was distracting and there was too much going on.  As you can see I opted for smooth in the end.  (At least it still has the idea of compound leaves.)

I think the designer won that round but I can never silence that scientist in me.  I do appreciate that attention to detail can be incredibly helpful when trying to render something accurately, but sometimes it holds me back and constrains my work. "The head is too round and the body too narrow, a bird only has two wings, there should be a bend there because that's where two bones meet, etc."  I especially think this when I see beautifully simplified, flat work (like this) where it looks like all the bones in the animal's body have been broken and flattened to fit in two dimensions, but still retaining it's identity even if only by a thread.  I feel myself wanting to move in this direction... of wanting to be more free with my shapes and forms.  But everything in life is a balance and to honor that inner scientist I remind myself of this saying from the Dalai Lama, "Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively."

Vintage Frame Sale

Where else can you be invited to a vintage frame sale in an old warehouse jamb packed with handmade wooden frames that have been collecting dust for almost a hundred years?  Nowhere but Cincinnati.  And that is why I love living here!

I went to the sale with the idea that I would only take photos.  But I left the sale with about 15 circular frames of varying sizes because the deals to be had were too dang good!  People were buying huge stacks of frames for $75.  It was really quite a scene.  When we arrived we were offered rubber gloves and we all thought that was extreme...that is until we saw the amount of dust.  The frame in the photo above looks grey, but it is really a white frame covered in dust!  And after about fifteen minutes of frantic frame shoppers grubbing and grabbing frames, the air was filled with dust too. I'm sure we all left with a pound of extra dust not only on our frames but in our hair, coats and lungs...small sacrifice for such fun.  Now, what to do with all these frames?

Frost

Two rare events occurred this morning.  First, I woke up early (which many of you know is not a common occurrence).  And second, when I opened my eyes I discovered the most lovely frost feathers had grown on my window pane overnight.  I hopped out of bed, grabbed the camera and took these photos.  I then shut my eyes just as the sun was rising.  When I awoke again they had disappeared completely.

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset." - Crowfoot

Winter 2014

"The snow is sparkling like a million little suns." ~Lama Willa Miller

"There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow.  It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance."  ~William Sharp

Winter Osage Oranges

I thought I was done posting for the year but when I drove by this tree the other day and saw these beauties laying on the ground I couldn't help myself.  I didn't think it was possible but they are even more beautiful now than they were in the fall.  From a distance they might appear to be slowly rotting fruit but if you take a closer look they are amazingly gorgeous!. 

Walking among these aging fruits at the end of December made me think it's not so bad to enter into the new year.  Although we don't often welcome the signs of age I like to think each year we are all slowly turning a more fabulous shade of amber.   Wishing you a very Happy New Year filled with peace, joy, and beautiful color!

Acorn Linocut - Printmaking

For our final project in printmaking we were free to choose whatever technique we wanted from those we learned in the course, including embossing, collagraph, linocut, woodcut, monotype, and intaglio.  I decided to carve this acorn from a Christmas card drawing I did a few years ago out of safety-cut.  I love this material because it is easy to carve (my friend calls it butter-cut).  The only drawback was I had to hand press it with a spoon because I didn't have good luck running it through the press (the paper shifted unreliably).

I wish I had taken some process photos but I was lucky to just complete the project.  The first thing I did was carve the background and then print the gold color.  This created the background you see here and a solid gold acorn shape.  I then carved the "fingers" where I wanted to reveal the gold, created a stencil in the shape of the acorn to protect the background, and printed the brown.    I then carved where I wanted to reveal the brown and printed the black (again using the stencil so as not to print over the background).  The process is interesting because you have to think backwards.

As you can see below I printed eight copies.  I was trying to use the press at first but was having registration problems so I resorted to hand burnishing with a spoon.  If I became a print-maker full time I think I would have very strong arms.

After I finished printing the color versions I printed four black and white versions.

Below you can see the final safety-cut plate.  You have to carve the reverse of how you want the image to print.  This is very important to consider if you have text in your image. 

I wanted to take the photo with the Speedball linoleum cutter but I turned it in already so I put a pencil in for scale.

This is a close-up of the plate. 

Overall this was my favorite technique we learned this semester.  I like it because it is easy to carve but also because I can do it at home without a press.  Hopefully you will see more of this to come in the new year.  I am not sure if I will be posting more this year so I wish everyone a very Happy Holiday and Happy New Year!!!

If you are interested in purchasing a print visit NessyPress.com.

Bird Boat Woodcut

A while back I came across a poem online entitled, "Tossing the Oars"  by Chuck Surface. The poem talked about different ways of sailing... some sail by using the wind, others use a rudder and map, and others row like madmen.  But the author chose to surrender.

I took down sail, unlatched rudder and oars,
And threw all into the Vastness.

I loved these lines and tucked them away in my memory.  Last month I was doing some doodles for printmaking and when I looked down at the sketch I remembered that poem and realized it had come out of me in visual form. When I finished the piece I think some people thought it was a little depressing or sad but I explained to them that the girl in the boat was quite content.  Perhaps my woodcutting skills are not quite there yet but I wanted the expression on the girl's face to be one of peaceful content.  What more could a girl ask for than to go on an adventure with her cat in her trusty bird boat?

Romanesco

When I first saw this vegetable in our CSA bag I did a double-take.  "What the heck is that?" I asked.  It turns out it is called Romanesco, or Romanesque cauliflower or Romanesco broccoli and its scientific name is Brassica oleracea. But forget about the name...look at its shape!  Its flower buds form a natural fractal and according to Wikipedia the number of spirals on the head is also a Fibonacci number.

I just finished reading The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert and in the book they talk about the old theory that food that looks like a body part will help that body part (i.e. walnuts look like mini-brains and are therefore good for your brain).  The scientist in me is not so sure of this idea, but if it's true imagine what this is going to do for my inner spirals!  If ever there were a magical vegetable surely this is it.

Happy Thanksgiving Gourds

I know I have been overloading you with gourds this month but I won't torture you much longer because the gourds are starting to rot.  I figured Thanksgiving was the last day I could still reasonably post about them so here we are. 

As I am sitting here looking at these photos I was trying to figure out why I love gourds so much.  I think the reason I like the ribbed ones best is it appears that if it weren't for the ribs holding everything in they might very well burst open with joy.  It also occurred to me how lucky I am to have the time to ponder such things and how grateful I am to share this with all of you.  Hoping everyone has a very special day today  - Happy Thanksgiving!