making art on a pancake griddle.

so.  i have been making art on a borrowed pancake griddle on my kitchen counter.  

last fall, i was introduced to a newish technique for making encaustic monotype, and i have fallen hard.

i paint sometimes in an open studio at a local community center.  it's good for me - to have a place to go, to have other people around, to be accountable, to have space to spread out.  most of the time i set up in the corner near a big window and work on my own (i've painted the field - the one you see in the print below - out that window over and over again these past few years).  but last fall, the teacher - an amazing encaustic painter and now a friend - taught a workshop in encaustic monotype and i was first in line.

i had made monoprints before.  but this.  oh my.

you can read more about the technique and equipment here.  or you can trust me when i tell you that the wax melts on the hot plate and it's luscious.  that the rice papers absorb or don't absorb the wax and deppending on the surface, the wax sways and swirls in all sorts of unexpected ways.  that sometimes i like the image on the reverse even better than the than the one on what's supposed to be the front.  and that's all part of the beauty of it.

i've been playing with papers.  playing with the paints.  playing.  

i'm reluctant to write more about the specifics because i'm afraid it might be boring.  and really, there's a lot of figuring it out as i go.  but i'm happy to share if anyone is interested.

i've sent eight tiny prints to the enormous tiny art show 11 at nahcotta gallery.  the show opens february 3, and it's full of all sorts of tiny goodness.  i hope you'll check it out.  

1.25.12 9:29

it's january.  i'm chronicling my month over here.  i'm making art.  and raising a puppy.  more soon.

12.31 11:41

the end and the beginning.

i made a quilt.

i made a quilt.

i was seventeen when i made my frist attempt at a quilt.  i grew up in a family with flannel sheets and lanz nightgowns (later replaced by xtra-large t-shirts and sweatpants) and people (really good, smart, thoughtful people) who would never - i do not think i exaggerate when i say never - have dreamed of making a quilt.  

i went to college early, and through a series of happy accidents i was a seventeen year old college freshman stage manager in the theater department.  it's not a job for a freshman.  or a seventeen year old.  but i tumbled into the opportunity, and it shaped the next few years of my life.

but i digress.

i was seventeen, and a college freshman, and i was stage managing a not-especially-small production of the musical quilters.  the director was into experiential theater, and she had the entire cast and crew stitch together in a quilting circle before each rehearsal.  i made a tiny quilt top that spring.  it was navy blue, with two blocks in white and a pale green.  the batting was synthetic, white and puffy and sticking out of the unfinished quilt sandwich.  and i can't remember the backing but i do remember carting that little unfinished quilt around with me through college to my first apartment, and then my second, and to our first house before finally letting it go.

my second attempt at a quilt was years later.  cotton, for our second wedding anniversary.  i gave dave two or three blocks on that 20th of october, with the promise of a quilt for our king-sized bed.  (ambitious?  uh huh.)  i stitched a few more blocks over the course of a few more months, but eventually i turned the whole thing over to my sister-in-law's mother to assemble and back and tie.  

i have wanted to make a quilt for a long log time, but i don't know if i believed that i ever actually would.  i was fairly confident that i could assemble a quilt top, but the idea of (gasp!) quilting and (gasp! gasp!) binding a quilt was daunting.  i mean, really really daunting.  and then in january, with a bit of new year's confidence, and the encouragement and advice and support of some stellar quilt-making friends, i decided that i would finally do it.  and i could not be more proud.

this quilt was meant to be improvisational, and i had to work hard to keep it so; it was hard for me to cut on angles, and make wonky lines.  but i'm thrilled with the way it turned out in the end.  i love that there are so many beloved fabrics in the colored blocks.  i love that there are colors and patterns from a friend.  i love that the back of the quilt is made from a favorite soft (so soft) old sheet.  i love the way the imperfect and angled horizontal quilting lines echo the imperfect and angled lines of the colored blocks.  i love that it's the perfect size for snuggling up on the sofa.  i love seeing it draped over a chair in the living room.  i love that i did it!  i love my quilt.

(and.  i can't wait to make another.)

incidentally.

a few things i forgot to mention.  and mostly, they're food related.  what else is new?

read this article.  it reminded me why i do what i do in the food department.  read this one too, but be prepared.  most of the time i'm glad i follow marc bittman on twitter (like when he writes this), sometimes i am disturbed - and yet, i'm glad to know.

i am lucky enough to have these two stunning publications in my possession.  but it is impossible for me to hand-stitch the binding of my quilt while i read, so they are waiting.  and i am curled up under my cozy quilt with a needle and thread watching silly tv in the meantime.

there's more, but not tonight.