Come See the Bearded Lady

 

Here she is in all her glory! This print is hand colored with water color paints. I experimented with printing on watercolor and charcoal papers to find which would give a better print. Surprisingly, the charcoal paper worked beautifully.  It looks like a print done on traditional Japanese paper. Unsurprisingly, the watercolor paper worked best for loading up on the pigment.

Here is an alternate color scheme.  One of the fun things about making prints is the ability to experiment with different colors while keeping the exact same composition. I just have to color three more of these bearded ladies and I'm on to printing some strong men.

Almost Human: The Reckoning

I've decided to go in a new direction for the upcoming show at Ancient Iron.  I recently was tasked with finding old ethnographic and circus sideshow photos for decor for their piercing room and in the process was inspired by some of the old sideshow photos.

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With every new piercing and tattoo I get I get the same question posed in many different ways and it all boils down to "Why?" I can't answer for everyone else but my answer is because it makes me feel pretty. It is a difficult thing to feel pretty when you are a short, fat, hairy, brown woman. Make-up just makes me break out and while I will shave my legs and pluck eyebrows, I don't think I will every wax... anywhere.  My extra decorations make me feel pretty while conversely making me look more "freakish" to others.  

It isn't hard to see why I was drawn to those old photographs. I am currently working on a series of four to five attraction posters. I have finished the printing for the bearded lady, I've started work on the strongman and I will soon begin work on an illustrated woman and dragon man, the final attraction is to be determined. Any ideas? I didn't want to do anything mean. Those old sideshow attractions didn't pull any punches.

More odds and ends

The Frog Prince is probably my favorite fairy tale. I played around with this doodle on an old book of fairy tales, I think it gives it a nice texture.

Pugs are...special.

The Spiritual predecessor of my latest project.  A lithograph of a tattooed strongman.

 

Not sure if I've shared these yet but with Halloween around the corner, it seemed appropriate. They were originally for some valentine cards for people that don't do traditional valentine cards, but they also work for Halloween. May have to do a reworking of the bottom two for next valentines day.

Lino-cuts Rock

Lately I've been getting into printmaking. The graphic style lends itself well to editing in illustrator.  You can edit the image in a quite a few ways.

hmmm. I actually really like this one, it would make a pretty killer t-shirt for any boston terrier fans.

As you can see the illustrator files are very versatile.

These are the black and white files, so full of potential.

 

I edited the Christmas card design that I hand printed earlier this year.

I can also do multiple color prints so that each layer of color has the same organic feel. I am planing on using this print and others in the same vein in an upcoming show.

Here is a hand colored print I did for a book cover. I love that rustic feel, it really is unmatched by any media out there!

Brick Oven Bistro

I used to work at the Brick Oven Bistro while I went to college.  It was the most fun/hard job I've ever had. It was fun because I loved all my co-workers, I enjoyed working with guests, and I love to cook.  It was hard because making 40 pounds of mashed potatoes and mashing them with a gigantic potato masher by hand tends to be pretty physical work!

We never did anything half-way.  Everything that we could do from scratch we did.  Now the Brick Oven, lovingly called the "Beanery" is closed.  It was a fixture of downtown Boise and I am sure that I am not the only one who misses it. But I am lucky because Stephanie, the owner of the Brick Oven Bistro wants me to do some illustrations for the cookbook. I get a chance to tell people just how much the place meant to me.

a taste of things to come. 

Also if any of you want a cookbook you can visit the website at http://www.brickovenbistro.com/ to pre-order a copy or two

Almost Human Part 2

I love reduction prints.  A reduction print is when a printmaker carves a little bit into the plate, prints, carves more and prints on the same piece of paper with a different color. In this way it is possible to get multiple colors using one plate.  Pretty cool. Check it out!

So Pretty! When I get to spend a weekend making art like this it makes me so happy! The only drawback to this process is that in the process of making your prints you destroy the plate.  So you need to have all the prints you want printed at once on the first run through.  Make sure to have a few extra in case of mistakes because mistakes will happen.  All that said I think the results are well worth the effort.

Almost Human Part1

I think for a lot of people out there it seems easier to relate to animals than to our fellow humans.  It's easier to care about your dog than it is to care about some random stranger.  We seem lonelier as a society than ever before.  We look for something to have a connection with and we hope that the animal we love so much loves us back.

I am working on a series of paintings and prints exploring our need to anthropomorphize our pets.

 "Slow and Steady" work in progress

"Fierce" work in progress

Some odds and ends

Here are a few odds and ends that I haven't really discussed elsewhere.

Grief. 

Last summer a friend of mine passed away suddenly.  I looked up to her greatly because she lived life in a way that everyone secretly wishes they did.  She made everyone a better person and was constantly pushing me to paint and giving me leads on people and events I could show work at.  I never followed through.  When she passed away it was impossible for me to express in any other manner.  So I painted. And I promised I would follow through.

Memory

I love to paint goldfish.  They are so beautiful, and at least when I was younger and tried to own them as pets, so short lived.  Yet life goes on, more goldfish are born, and more children will buy these poor doomed fish.  Circle of Life. I guess.

Here is the Christmas card I designed for wild lotus.  I used a combination of lino-cut and acrylic to create this image.  I really love the quality of relief prints.  The contrast and detail that you get is so beautiful.  I love the concept of taking a very serious and realistic image and flipping it around.

Illustrations

Here are a few illustrations I did as portfolio pieces: I wanted to show off what I could do with water color.

 This is my take on Sabriel by Garth Nix.  Sabriel is a young adult book about a young woman who has to go back to the land she was born in and save her father.  Also she just happens to be a necromancer tasked with banishing dead things.  I highly recommend it!  It is one of my favorites because of how well the characters are written.  Through out the book she is often scared and vulnerable but brave and determined to do the right thing.  "Does the walker choose the path or the path the walker?"

The frog prince has always been one of my favorite fairy tales because the princess behaves much the way I suspected all fairy tale princesses would behave.  At least if you read the old versions. She's a spoiled brat and it's only with sheer luck that the frog survives long enough to get a kiss from the princess and transform into a prince.

The Great Updatening

It's that time of year where I once again vow to update more often.  Things have been a bit crazy lately. I joined Wild Lotus Art Consignment in early December, and did a printmaking demo there today.  For the last few weeks everything has been about making art to sell at Wild Lotus.  Now that the demo is done I have a bit more time to post the fruits of my labor and to plan for my next big event.

Here's a few more monsters.  Although I originally started working on them in October I love them too much to just make them one time a year.

Evil Doll: You can tell she's evil because she is smoking. Also she has a butcher's knife and a bad attitude.

Kraken: Yup, it's a Kraken alright.

Abominable Snow Man: Global Warming is doing a number on him.

With Valentine's day on the way I am also making a few hand pressed greeting cards. I plan on doing geese, love birds, and hares.  They will be adorable. Like so...

I am also going to be building a few portfolio pieces based on the Frog Prince Fairy tale so stay tuned!