52 Flowers - A Year in Bloom

Thinking about this idea of creating 52 somethings all day yesterday, last night as I was falling asleep and this morning upon waking, I have my idea. It is in keeping with my other goals, will not take up too much time (guess we'll see about that!) and give me direction and focus.

I plan to select a flower each week, draw, photograph and find a quote relating to it. I will post these results each Sunday morning. The first post will appear March 3rd. At the end of this project, I will have gained stronger drawing skills and hopefully will have learned how to take better photographs. The drawings will be available for later artwork. (I can see silkscreen versions of them and possibly notecards.) As a way to bring the project together, I would like to publish the blog posts in a book using Shutterfly or one of the other photo printing websites.

Birds and Blueberries

Of the prints that sold during the CWOS Alternative Space weekend were three containing the same birds drawing and mask used in different ways, and blueberries, printed with two different methods.

 

Birdsong - Mixed Media

Birds Diptych - Monotype

In the Thicket - Monotype

 One woman who bought a blueberry silkscreen print told me that she was buying it as a Christmas gift for her sister, with whom she shares a blueberry bush. Another woman told me that she too was buying it as a Christmas gift for her parents, who live in area of Connecticut surrounded by blueberry farms.

Blueberry Summer, silkscreen

From the drawing for the blueberries silkscreen, I created a drypoint etching in plexiglass and printed it onto some of my handmade paper, using the chine colle method. There are five versions of this, though this is the only one I have a photo of. This particular one is framed and has not sold yet, but is similar to the ones that did.

Muscari botryoides - Grape Hyacinth Silkscreen Print

Muscari botryoides

This past winter while perusing past issues of Victoria Magazine I found a photo of potted Grape Hyacinths. This inspired me to gather other images of Grape Hyacinths I have filed and create a sketch for a silkscreen project. A month or so later I came across an old Cornell University Extension Bulletin #1190, Sequence of Bloom of Perennials, Biennials and Bulbs. The charts would make a perfect back drop for this print! I selected the page that listed Muscari botryoides and had it photocopied onto a transparency sheet. During the silkscreen class at Creative Arts Workshop, I used the photo emulsion method to burn the chart onto the screen. I printed enough of these backgrounds to create a series of three prints.Next I used a combination of photo emulsion and the block out method to create the Grape Hyacinths. I plan to create two additional drawings of plants from this chart and make silkscreen prints of them.

Details

This print is available for sale, double matted in a 16"x20" bamboo frame. Please send me an email if you are interested.

Letting Go - A Monoprint

This print began in 2010 when I was creating backgrounds with papers cut in several shapes and sizes and used as masks. It was completed this past spring while learning to use the photo emulsion silk screen technique. I posted about using the Queen Anne's Lace flowers on April 14, 2012. Looking at the finished print, I could see depth, almost as if the rectangles were falling down a well or being sucked away. Trying to come up with a name for this print was tricky - Falling? no. Deep Space? no. Letting Go seemed appropriate for the piece and for the journey that I am currently on (leaving my office job to pursue art full time). Letting Go of security, of routine, of living the same life day to day. Is it scary? yes. Is there much to learn? yes. Is it exciting? YES. I really am enjoying the ride!

Details

Dyeing and Screen Printing

Almost everything I see gives me an idea for a new art project. I write these ideas down so that I don't forget them. I plan them out, but often times when I am about ready to execute them, something else suddenly appears that I want to try and the ideas fall by the wayside. This is okay; I can still pursue them another time. I recently enrolled in a screen printing class at Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, CT. I have some experience with screen printing but want to learn and practice more. In one class our instructor demonstrated how to create a photo emulsion screen from a transparency. He mentioned that objects such as lace and leaves can be placed on the screen and the image "burned" with this process. When he said this, I immediately thought "Queen Anne's Lace flowers", which I have pressed. I brought them in the next week, and "burned" them onto the screen. It was too late to begin printing that night.

On a separate occasion, I was looking in Joanne Fabrics for screen printing ink. In the fabric painting and dyeing section I came across a new line of dyes called Idye by Jacquard. I was attracted to the chartreuse and olive colors. The directions described dyeing in the washing machine. I have been preparing old cotton sheets to be dyed with plants in a few weeks. This product was so tempting with the color choices and ease of process, that I decided to try it. One package was enough to color 3 lbs of fabric so I decided to also dye some old denim jeans that I have been saving to turn into paper as well. I love the results! But I'm not sure I want to turn the cotton fabric into paper pulp now! Then the idea occurred to me that I could screen the Queen Anne's Lace pattern onto them. I mixed colors that match my bed comforter since there is a hint of chartreuse in it.

Chartreuse

Olive

Last Thursday night at class I printed this design on top of some unfinished prints. In doing so, one is now complete, one very near completion and the rest one step closer to compl etion!




For the remainder of the evening I printed on the chartreuse dyed cotton and love the results!! I think I will add some bead work to this and possibly some embroidery, then make a pillow or two.