Painted kleenex box cover

Last night my sweetie and I went on a date to Simply Jane, a place kind of like Color Me Mine or Our Name is Mud. They have blank stuff and paints and materials, and you can buy a blank thing and paint onto it. I chose to paint bugs onto this kleenex box cover. I don’t know that I’d call it art, but it was sure fun. Plus, I haven’t used acrylic paints in a while, and found using them to be a fun change from the two-color process of creating a papercut, or even the wet bleeding process of using watercolors.

Art cards for everyone

Yesterday my art cards arrived. I tried out a new (to me) printing service called Moo. Their cards are printed on nice solid cardstock and the best feature is that you can have one side be printed from a selection of up to 50 different images. So of course, I uploaded 50 images of my artwork for the backs of the cards. They’ll be on the art table on Sunday along with the lasercuts, greeting cards (yet to arrive) and original artwork in frames.

Papercuts Art Show

My papercuts are on display! They are at my local JCC, which features a different artist on the gallery walk 5 or 6 times a year. My papercuts will be up through the end of August. There is also an article about me and my work in the JCC’s newsletter, a writeup/artist statement on the wall of the gallery, and large printouts in a portfolio where you can see detailed representations of some of my sold work.

Also, I’ll be teaching a class on creating Jewish papercuts. It’s a two-part class, meeting on July 11 and July 18 from 10:30am-1pm. All materials will be provided. Contact the JCC to sign up or email me if you have questions.

Helping CAFAC knock it off

The Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center, currently just a little more than a hope and a dream, put a call out for volunteers. They are working on constructing the space out of what looks like an old movie theater. I went there recently to help them hammer the plaster off of the walls to expose the original brickwork underneath. Hard work! I’m very excited about CAFAC because that’s where I’ll be able to do my welding, hopefully. I am so eager to finish the spider and I have other square-based sculptures in mind.

Lake scene

College posters

My cousin, who just started her first year of college 3000 miles away from her home, has put out a general call to friends and family to make art for her walls. I got some large posterboard and created two mosaic-y paper-art things for her. This should cover quite a few square feet!

Nature really gets all the credit for this art

Takings from the garden. Self-portraits!

Art with nature’s help

Months have gone by since I’ve create a legitimate art piece, but I know that’ll change. Adjusting to the move takes a lot of energy, and some of the leftover energy has to be channeled elsewhere. Into the garden, for example. I planted some vegetables and the plants are just starting to look happy. Here’s an eggplant plant.

Toddler in the dirt

I have a general rule to not post photos of my daughter, because that would belong on a parent blog, not an art blog. I’m making an exception for this photo. This is how she entertained herself at rest stops on our long drive to our new home – find a planter with no plants in it, dig around, fling dirt. This photo shows a beautiful gradient in the dirt from left to right.

Doing a big move

This is it. We are moving house, moving state, moving region! I’ll be gone in a couple of days, homeless during the drive, and then a homeowner in a couple of weeks. That’s the plan anyway. In my new home, I will have room to set up an actual art table, maybe even a whole room, and can get some equipment to do welding in the garage. Scary and exciting. Some of the artwork is too big and heavy to pack, like the dog (“Rusty”) and the bear (“the bear”). I gave them tape collars so that the little orange mover stickers would stick.