Saturday, January 31, 2009

Beauchemin, Bliss, and Drucker













five drawings from her series, Plastic Animals Confront Death
Last week I posted about two artists whose work concerns the precarious state of our planet and animal extinction. Susan Beauchemin and Lucinda Bliss also both use miniature plastic toy animals in their paintings and photographs. Soon afterwards I received an e-mail from Maine artist Susie Drucker with a link to her work which shares these concerns and also incorporates plastic toy animals. A show of these three artists' work together would be very rich and engaging!

Friday, January 30, 2009

Ruby Red Nude







I've been in New York state since Tuesday night, helping my husband take care of my father-in-law who had eye surgery yesterday. He's doing very well today!

I'll be back in my studio on Monday and I'm looking forward to designing more linocuts to print cards for my etsy shop.

This is a Valentine card that I designed last week. Fun working on such a small scale after my huge linoleum prints from last spring!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Life Lines

Yesterday I looked at my viewer stats and was shocked to see that I had a huge amount of visitors - I couldn't figure out what was going on until I noticed that Amanda Soule posted about my portrait of her yesterday! (Holy Cow, Amanda - you have an astronomical amount of people reading your blog every day! Yikes! Thankyou for the wonderful post!!!)

It's true that I found Amanda's blog when I googled "clotheslines" last summer. Her photos and stories remind me so much of myself when I was young mother in the 70's and 80's. My friends and I didn't have the net back then of course, and we depended on the telephone, playgroups, and our weekly craft group to stay connected with each other. Or, we talked over the fence and out at the clothesline. How sweet that I found Amanda at an on-line clothesline. Clotheslines, telephone lines, on line...how fortunate we are to have all these modes of connecting and sharing inspiration, passions and creativity!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Felt Inspiration















Modigliani's nudes. Gorgeous. I've been looking at these to create some of my fiber figures.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Dumpster Divas

Martha Miller
Dumpster Diva I, 2009
felt, cotton fabric, black stitching, ribbon, ric rac, netting, cedar waxwing feathers, marker,
6" x 9"








Martha Miller
Dumpster Diva II, 2009
felt, cotton fabric, black stitching, ribbon, marker, 9" x 12"







Martha Miller
Dumpster Diva III, 2009
felt, cotton fabric, black stitching, ribbon, netting, marker, 9" x 12"





My latest mixed media collage fiber nudes. (Do click for details!) I had a blast working on these all day yesterday. They are small wall hangings featuring Modigliani inspired nudes in invented interiors made from felt and cotton upholstery fabric from the fabric sample books I rescued from a dumpster last winter. These little sweeties are currently for sale in my Etsy shop!

My Backyard in January















Pull up a chair - we'll have a cup of tea!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Tropical Cat


















One of my favorite Allie's Cats, the exuberant and wildly colorful Tropical Cat. I love doing all those appliques on the skirt with polar fleece. It never ravels, so it can be sewn with a straight stitch and simply trimmed. Lots of fun to do! She is a sort of Carmen Miranda character. Nice to think about during this cold white season!
Tropical Cat is currently for sale in my Etsy shop!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Toying Around: Beauchemin and Bliss

Susan Beauchemin
Schleich Animals, IV, watercolor, 7" x 7", 2009


Lucinda Bliss
Bandaged Deer , graphite pencil and watercolor, 7" x 7", 2008


Susan Beauchemin
Schleich Animals, III, watercolor, 7" x7", 2009



Lucinda Bliss
Bandaged I , graphite pencil, watercolor, and gouache, 23" x 23", 2008


Susan Beauchemin
Schleich Animals II, watercolor, 7" x 7", 2009


Lucinda Bliss
Exodus I , 35 mm prints on Ektacolor paper, 8" x 11", 2008



Susan Beauchemin
Schleich Animals, watercolor, 7" x 7", 2009


Lucinda Bliss
Exodus II , 35 mm prints on Ektacolor paper, 8" x 11", 2008


Susan Beauchemin
Little Dinosaur I, watercolor, 7" x 7", 2009

Lucinda Bliss
Exodus III , 35 mm print on Ektacolor paper, 8" x 11", 2008


Susan Beauchemin
Little Dinosaur II, watercolor, 7" x7", 2009


Lucinda Bliss
Exodus, IV, 35 mm print on Ektacolor paper, 8" x 11", 2008


Two artists from opposite coasts whose work speaks poignantly of an intimate spiritual connection to the animal world. Susan Beauchemin of Morro Bay, California, and Lucinda Bliss of Bath, Maine, are currently, unbeknownst to each other, making powerful work that is dream based, and that employs miniature toy animals. Both artists' work speaks playfully and painfully about, among other things, the dire state of our planet and extinction.

I've had a few pivotal dreams about giraffes. I just skimmed through my old dream journals, but couldn't find the dream I was thinking of. It was a very simple dream where a giraffe and I suddenly saw each other while in my back yard. We stood looking at each other. I knew I was looking at myself through mine and the giraffe's eyes. That was it, but it was a strong dream. What animal do you identify with?

Susan Beauchemin

Immersed in a recent body of work exploring ecological content, I began to conjure injured animals in my sleep. In one of these dreams I was visiting a hospital in which my mother was working as poet-in-residence. Scanning the overflowing waiting room, I began to notice animals waiting alongside humans. Amazed, I looked down at a nearby table to see several kitten-sized, bandaged deer. I was told that the hospital had developed technology for miniaturizing animals, making more space in the waiting room until the animals could be treated. This dream provided a visual starting place for this series of drawings in which I'm interested in reconsidering monumental, wondering whether it might be applied to delicate, representational work and asking how a playful, even beautiful, visual language can speak to grave ecological (and other) matters.

Lucinda Bliss