Su Blackwell

I came across Su Blackwell's work yesterday on The Jealous Curator. I was instantly enamored with her book sculptures!

Today, I love Su Blackwell's amazingly beautiful book sculptures!

There are lots more at her website! Go check 'em out!

xoxo

Poster Cabaret

Today I love...
Poster Cabaret!

Gig posters made by true artists. They're all so gorgeous I had a hard time deciding which images to post, but here are a few of my favorites:







See you tomorrow.
xoxo

Kristen's Painting

Today, I love...
the painting Kristen made for me!
I finally got around to matting and framing it this weekend and it looks so good sitting on a shelf above my craft table. Loooove it.
Handmade gifts are ALWAYS the best gifts. (THANKS KRISTEN!)

I think I love more things today, so stay tuned....
xoxo

Needle, Joetta Maue

I've been crocheting alot recently. I tend to do that. I tend to get into one craft and stay in its little bubble for a while. With fall comes the need for cozy crocheted hats and scarves. Summer is a more appropriate time for embroidery. But sometimes, that logic doesn't work and I just need to put a needle in fabric.

Things like the new NEEDLE Magazine make the need even worse. Needle is a new online (and FREE!) magazine entirely focused on embroidery. It's magical to see what people can do with a needle and thread.You should check it out even if you're not in to needlework. The artistry alone is enough.

One of the articles featured an artist named Joetta Maue. Her work is so incredibly inspiring.

It makes me want to go to Hobby Lobby likerightnow and buy more floss and new needles (even though I just bought some) and get to work. I'm actually starting to toy around with the idea of a big-ish embroidery/fiber arts project. We'll just wait and see how that goes... I don't want to give anything away because it would most likely be a gift.

For now, have a pleasant Wednesday night.

PS... Our Wedding Weekend Part II is coming up very sooooon!

Old Favorites

I was going through some old photos I took for photography classes, and thought I'd compile a few of my favorites here.

The infamous "black paint" shoot. This was a series of five (I think). Callie was completely covered in black face paint by the end of it... and our shower had a slight gray tint for several weeks after.

Callie spinning in a field. It was about a thousand and two degrees when we were doing this and I was seriously worried that Callie might pass out from all the spinning.

Callie in the women's bathroom in the old Zach H. Library. This is a little bit of Georgia Southern history, since this bathroom/this part of the library no longer exists. Also, these are just a tiny fraction of all the weird things I had Callie do in the name of photography.

If I'm not mistaken, this is one of Lydia's favorites. The words are from magnetic poetry, and yes.. that is a real blow fish. It's covered in some sort of resin to keep it like that. I still have it somewhere around here.... More memories from the old library. This one also uses the magnetic poetry words. It's a bit hard to read, but I like it all the same. The finished project is a book of 20 of these prints with the words like that. Probably my favorite photo project I've done. They were so fun and random.


I honestly have no clue what the assignment was when I shot this picture of my unmade bed. There is no rational reason why I should like this picture, I just do.

This is outside Dressner's Cafe down at the village on St. Simons at night. I shot several rolls that night at the village. It was completely deserted since it was around midnight and the pictures always remind me of how quiet it was and how I could hear the waves... they also kinda creep me out.

And this is Kristen. This is absolutely one of my favorite pictures in the world. We were in the Marvin House, and I was shooting Kristen in the TV room and she just died laughing at something and in my own laughter, I hit the button. This came from that happy accident.

*Sigh* I miss old-fashioned black and white 35mm shooting. I really miss being in a darkroom.

Drawing Projects

I finally got around to taking pictures of all my drawing projects. Sooo... here they are.

This project was to draw a distorted self portrait in oil pastels. First in black and white, then in color.

This is a slightly better picture of my "She's in a Funk" project. The assignment was to create a "post-modern artwork about a social issue." Mine was about depression... and I embroidered the whole thing by hand (


And below is our final project. I can't take all the credit for this one; it was a group project. We had to create a manifesto, a la the Futurist Manifesto and then create a collage, drawing, or painting that was based on the manifesto.

Ours was about the lack of face-to-face communication now days. All our communication is sent through wires via text messages and the internet. Hence, the plush hearts, sewn by me from the softest red corduroy. If you know a thing or two about computers, you'll notice that the 1's and 0's in the background are actually binary code that translate into Elizabeth Barrett Brownings's poem "How Do I Love Thee?" Also, we spelled out internet-speak ("lol, omg, rofl, wtf, etc...") with wire.
Sorry the pictures are slightly blurry... I took them in a hurry right before we started critiquing the projects. Click on any of them for details.
So, there's my last 3 projects of the semester. I'm glad it's over and will be even gladder(?) to work on some of my own projects for a while. I still have a quilt to finish, you know.....

Soft Hearts

Once again, these are for a group project in my drawing class, and they will be part of a large mixed media collage, but I just finished these and couldn't wait to post them.

I'm so in love with these. That red corduroy just makes me soooo happy. I have a little of the fabric left over, so I might just make one for myself to keep. I'd love to have one of these just hangin' out on the couch.

Pink Plush Heart

Okay... it has recently come to my attention that I am a little obsessed with anatomical hearts. (Remember this?) Well, here we go again.
This is for a group project in my drawing class. I know, I know... there really isn't much drawing in this particular project. It will be a nice, big, texture-filled mixed-media collage. There will be two plush hearts, much like the one pictured above, except they will NOT be in vintage pink fabric with flowers. They'll be in a nice, blood-red corduroy. Very tactile. This is a prototype... just to make sure the pattern works. And it does... mostly. The right side seems to have flattened out a bit, but other than that... it looks quite good. The finished product will have veins and such done with copper wire. I'll be sure to post pictures when it's all complete.

Anyway, this is what I'm working on tonight.

In a Funk

Here's a really terrible cell phone picture of my last drawing project.

The assignment was to create a "post-modern work dealing with a social issue." Mine is about depression and how there are people who don't think it's a real thing. It's a brain embroidered on cotton twill, displayed in a 12x22" wooden quilting hoop. The text reads "She's in a funk." It's supposed to be ironic, in case you couldn't tell.

I promise I'll post some better pictures soon. My professor has it displayed out in the hall of the art building right now, so the best I could do was this crappy cell phone picture. The colors are quite a bit brighter than they look here, but messing with it in Photoshop just made it worse.

PS... Discovered Ron Sexsmith and his beautiful music today. Give it a listen.

Posters From Days Gone By

Quietly tucked away on the website for the Library of Congress is a collection of 908 beautiful posters created from 1936-1943 for the WPA in order to promote health, art exhibits, musical performances, tourism, etc.

There's a plethora of colors and subjects. These are just a few of the ones I've found that I love.

(Click on them to enlarge)

You can download high resolution scans for most of these boldly colored gems. All they need after that is a little bit of Photoshopping and a little bit of love and you can print them out and frame them for some gorgeous and unique wall art.

Go check them out. You're bound to find one (or more!) that you love.

More Bad Drawing. Lucky You.

Funny story. After my professor looked at my drawing (as it was in the previous post) and gave me some ideas as to how to fix it, I worked on it today in class for around half an hour. It helped. Alot. See? The spoon is more.... round-ish.


Here's the funny part: The object of this project is to take a direct-from-observation drawing and abstract it slowly over 4 drawings. To help us abstract the original, she photocopied some of our drawings, mine included. When she came back from the copier, she said "Okay, guys... now I know this is weird, but some of the photocopies look better than your actual drawing." Oh yeah, she was definitely talking about mine. Here's the photocopy:



I'm baffled. I suppose it has alot to do with contrast, and the way everything is either black or white, not gray like the graphite in my pencils. In any case, I thought it was quite strange.

And here's a sneak peak at the first abstraction drawing, it's just zoomed in on part of the image. And this is in no way finished! I've got whole areas that aren't shaded at all. It needs about another hour and a half or so of work.


Sorry I don't have anything more interesting than drawings to share. Although I did get a nice surprise today when I found out that my financial aid check hit my account this morning... which is a very good thing since I've been rationing shampoo and toothpaste for a few days now. And I haven't seen my refrigerator this empty since I moved in. I think there's one wedge of Wee Brie and a single serving of applesauce. Pretty pathetic. Tomorrow I will go to Wal-Mart and buy lots and lots of groceries.
Happy happy!

My Spoon Isn't Concave

So, here's my really terrible drawing. There are several things wrong with it. First of all, I'm not really good at drawing... so there's that. Second, I never know when to stop; I can't really tell when it's finished. Third, reflections and shiny metallic things are hard. Also, the shadows are wonky and the spoon doesn't really look concave.

I got an A in my first drawing class, but that was mostly for effort. I'm not very good at it, but I work pretty hard.... mostly because it frustrates me that I can sew/crochet/embroider my butt off, but I have trouble doodling stick people. Hope you enjoy viewing the fruit of my labor.

Speaking of crafty things, I've been working on something for the LDQ, but it isn't finished yet. So don't think I've abandoned my crafty pursuits. This is a big one that's taking a while, but I promise to share when I'm finished.

In other news, I have a new digital camera! I just got the huge box 'o' camera goodies my Dad sent me today. I can't wait to read the manual and figure out what aaaaaaaall the buttons do! You can count on pictures-a-plenty in the near future.

One last thing. I saw Seven Pounds today, and it was amazing. I cried.... alot. But since I'll cry over diaper commercials, that may not mean much. In any case it was very good and everybody should see it.

New President, New Memories, New Drawing, New Dilemma, New Music.

New President:
I watched history happen today. How cool is that?


New Memories:
Kristen came to visit me this weekend. We made a platter of tuna salad on
Triscuits and rice krispie treats with homemade (pink!) marshmallows, watched the new episode of The L Word, watched like 6 episodes of Veronica Mars, giggled alot, and had a generally awesome time.


New Drawing:
This is the beginning sketch for my first project for my Drawing II class. I'm not a very good drawer, so I basically just try very hard to get the shapes and proportions right. Then I worry about the rest. This 9x12 sketch took me a few hours. The shape of a spoon is very difficult, apparently...

Sorry it's so light. The scanner had trouble getting it dark enough to see. It's done in a 2H pencil, so it's not very dark in real life, either. I'll post more pictures as it goes along. Hopefully I'll get most of the shading done in class tomorrow.

New Dilemma:
The lady from Epworth (where we're getting married) called Friday and very politely and apologetically told me that the room we wanted for the reception is booked and that we can't have it. Since it was the only room at Epworth that could accommodate our numbers, we have begun the search for other options. That means that we have also begun the search for catering options and a rental company for tables, chairs, and linens......
I am trying very hard not to turn into anything resembling the picture below.


New Music:
Little Joy.
I found these guys through Rachel at Bling on My Sewing Machine a while ago and am really digging them. Especially this song.

Goodnight, all.

Pop-up Cards

The first assignment in one of my classes is to make a pop-up book. As a precursor to that assignment, we had to make several pop-up cards. Here are two of mine: