Last Saturday I attended a Monoprint wordshop at University Art taught by Tesia Blackburn and it rawked!

According to Wikipedia:

Monoprints are known as the most painterly method among the printmaking techniques, a monoprint is often regarded as a non-editionable kind of print and is essentially a printed painting. The characteristic of this method is that no two prints are alike. The beauty of this medium is also in its spontaneity and its combination of printmaking, painting and drawing media.

Sweet. I absolutely loved the technique! I’ve always been a fan of wordcuts, and have made several linocuts over the years, but this is so versatile and easy to do. A couple pieces of plexiglass, printmaking paper, and Golden Open Acylics and behold~

Tesia Blackburn demonstrating monoprint process.

More of the printingmaking techniques

Working on my second print.

And here are the prints I made:

And right now there is a sheet of 2mil plastic covering my dining room table so that I can make more!

Last weekend I took a class on making photo transfers. very cool stuff. So of course I ran out and bought myself some gel medium, printed some photos, and spread out on the dining room table. Now when I’ve got my art supplies out, Chris will tell Erin not to touch Mommy’s stuff, to leave things alone, “Mommy’s crafting”. Well, every time I hear that – “Mommy’s crafting”, part of my brain wants to object – crafting? I’m not “crafting”, I’m making ART damn it! But the glue fumes leave me a bit apathetic and meh, whatever…

So, for this month’s Vox show (more an that later), Kyle was making a couple mixed media tiles while I worked on some transfers. Suddenly everyone was crafting and Erin was not going to be left out! She wanted to craft too! Believe me, everything with that girl is followed by an exclamation point. And because I’m not always the sharpest tool (I blame all that crafty glue sniffin’), I bought Erin a Crayola Color Wonders paint/marker/Sleeping Beauty set.

Now Erin is “crafting” too. And pretty damn obsessed with those paints. Time for bed? God speed. You’ll have to pry that paint brush from her G.I.Joe kung-fu grip. And lets hope you didn’t value your hearing much, cause you’re ears are now bleeding. That can’t be good. And her first words upon waking in the morning? “I craft?!”  “You help me craft?!” “I’m not hungry! I craft now!!”

So, yeah… she crafts. I’m wicked scared.

and I’m in the mood for… framing some art!

After having the month of January off (just couldn’t pull my piece together in time due to those pesky holidays!), I’m showing again in February’s Second Saturday show at Vox! Me and an intimate group of 35 artists! And you guessed it – the theme is “love”. I have no idea what I’m going to show.

Love…  I’m so sure

Like,  gag me with a spoon!

No, this has nothing to do with the new senator in Massachusetts. I’m talking about my brain! The right hemisphere has taken over and I am creating like a demon!

As I mentioned, I’m not taking a computer programming class this semester. And apparently dropping that Rails class threw a switch in my brain! Not only has the right hemisphere taken back control of my brain, it erected a wall one night while I was sleeping. The left hemisphere has been shut out. And is in black-out conditions. I can’t even think about programming and websites. Which is a shame because I do have some coding work to do. But everytime I think about it, things get kinda of fuzzy and I suddenly have an idea for an art project! Weird huh? I seem to to be functioning  in a very strict either/or mode. Long gone are the days of thinking in if/else statements. Now I ponder whether the highlights on that stamp should be silver or gold. I like it. And since the creative muse if often fleeting, I’m gonna ride this wave as long as it lasts.

(and please note that language is a left-brain trait)

miles and miles and miles of art…

or at least a couple 6×6 inch tiles!

I’ve broken out the Mod Podge, stamps, and tissue paper and have been creating. It feels good to get out from behind the camera for awhile and make something with my hands.   ”I cooking.”

September Show at Vox Sacramento

as promised – information about my upcoming show at Vox Sacramento next month!

This is a group show for members of the Flickr group Sacramento Photographers.  The Artist Reception is Friday, Sept 11th and you should definitely come by – beat the Second Saturday rush!

This will be the first showing of my photographs (besides the 2 hanging at the Lincoln Twelve Bridges library) and I am so excited about it.  And a bit intimidated – the works of 25 other fantistic photographers will also be on display. I can’t wait to see everything! I also can’t wait to finally decide which photos to show. I know, I know, I’ll have it all worked out by the end of the weekend. I hope.