workshop - barbara dill

I meant to post these pictures in December, after Thanksgiving in Virginia with my family, but forgot I had them. This is my friend Barbara's workshop in Richmond. She was a student in my grandfather's woodworking class years ago. They became friends, and have remained close ever since. Barbara has an immense talent for woodwork (her innovative work in multi axis woodturning is amazing). I was getting used to the new phone the weekend that I took these. They're a little scrappy as pictures go, but they're a record of one of my favorite places and I love them.

i got ochre on my converse.

I've been taking a beginner's painting class, and having struggles. Every Monday night, Leslie and I pack up our free-with-class satchels of acrylic paints and brushes, and go eat at a diner. That's not the hard part; I'm really good at diners. Then we spend three hours in a nice big room painting. Our instructor is a wisp-thin peanut-sized woman with a very deep voice and the flattest Plains accent I've ever heard. She says wonderful things like, "I could tell you a story about the 1800's and why that happened," or "I'm telling you for the fourth time: she lacked vision." She gets excited about the seven different kinds of folds, or Sargent's uncanny prowess at painting hands.

Every single thing about this class is too hard for me. I choose terrible places to set up my easel and end up with a hinky perspective. I'm paranoid about my non-existent drawing skills and spend way too long trying to get a shape right before starting to paint, and then end up with a flat texture-less picture. I have no sense of placement or composition. I can't see colors as they actually are, I invent impossible geometry, and I have trouble with spotting highlights. It's like every instinct I have deserts me when I get in there. In spite of all this - actually, probably because of it - I'm really enjoying it. Leslie said it best - it's a three hour problem that's none of my usual problems. It's completely absorbing. There's no time or room to think about anything except what I'm doing. So I'm having a really good time with new words, techniques and ways to think about things. While I'm not going to be any better at painting after the class is over, I'll have learned a lot and enjoyed five weeks of time well spent outside my comfort zone.

Plus, I have paint on my gray Converse slip-ons. Total street cred.

crush month: day 11

Tony Fitzpatrick's mixed media collages.

The word crush isn't really apt to describe how I feel about this work, but these are the rules of December blogging, and I'll abide by them. These pieces are so powerful, so appealing and so exactly the art I want to look at all the time that they make me feel a little wobbly.

i am a failed blogger.

There. I said it. My intentions are righteous, but most of the time I can't maintain the focus to keep this project going. Shana had a good idea a while back to get herself back in the swing of regular blogging. Not only was it fun for her and everyone else, but it worked, so I'm stealing it. Crush Month: one new thing to love every single day. Shana did August, and I hope I can do as well with December.

For my first crush of the month, I bring you a cartoon. It's a detail of a much larger storyboarded get-well card that a group of students made for one of my colleagues. It's hilarious and strangely poignant; I often wish I had this placard to wave around in times of crisis. Or at least a little flag version to stick on top of my inbox.

etsy in action: tiny art

I live in an incredibly small space. I love my studio apartment, and as studios go, it's quite livable (separate kitchen, lots of light, enormous closet space). That being said, trying to maintain a small business and my daily life in the same limited space stretches the laws of physics and poses a decorating challenge. I never want to live without art, so I've learned to populate my home with small but effective art. Small pieces of sculpture cluster on my bookshelf and nestle in plants. Groupings of aceos and small prints hang on windowframes or lean on stacks of supply boxes. Magnets are one of my favorite tiny art forms, and I manage to find small magnetic surfaces all over my home to display a great graphic or a little piece of hilarity. Here are some of my favorite tiny art purchases from Etsy. Shops are listed below, with links.


A. Boleyn aceo on stretched canvas by stilettoheights
B. Good Luck ceramic bird by sproutstudio
C. Red Cross embroidery sampler by miniaturerhino
D. Always magnet by mincingmockingbird
E. Baby Jackelope by skunkboycreatures
F. Moss terrarium by TheOakLeaves
G. Ceramic magnet by CircaCeramics
H. Small wooden house sculpture with recycled tin dress cutout by shixie

*My original plan for this post was to take pictures of these pieces in my home, but it quickly became apparent that if I waited to have time for that, the post would never happen. Therefore, the "in action" part of this post is a little sketchy, but I promise my home really is decorated with all this tiny art!