June 26, 2011

It is amazing how just a bit of wax...

can totally change a piece.  While I do really like the work that I did on that poor little juvie bird that failed his first flying lesson - there was something just a bit too brash about all the colours.  I don't really love the plastic nature of acrylics, and they did not lend any of the softness to the bird that they needed to.

So, as all good cakes are better with icing, I slathered some encaustic medium over top of the whole shebang.  It is a nice cold wax formula called Dorland's Wax Medium that I picked up at Mona Lisa.  I love encaustic work, but I am not set up to work in a space with lots of solvents and other such things.  So I decided to try encaustic in a more mixed media capacity.  Using cold wax as opposed to hot, means that I am not heating the damar crystals to make it extra toxic stinky.  As it stands, the cold wax formula just smells a little bit like when you walk by the swimming pool.  I am impressed, and I will use it again.  It went on mega smooth and after two coats, I am really happy with the way this piece looks.

Not sure if the photos will really show how the work has changed, but here they are anyways!!

 Back to the silkscreens I go!
xoxo
Jen

June 22, 2011

Just a quicky today

New piece of art?  Already?  Holy moly.

Not sure if it is done yet, I just got some encaustic medium that I think might be gorgeous just slathered over this beauty...but having never used it before, I have my reservations.  What do you think?


Love Always,
Jen

June 20, 2011

I think I have them finished!

Remember that series that I was going nuts with the chalk pastel on?  Well, I think that it is finally done.
This is the last piece.  For this set of works, I was really hoping to play with some ideas that I seem to be teaching to more and more.  The idea of visual storytelling has become a preoccupying thought in my little head.  I wanted to put these three things together to prompt the viewer to make sense of them.  You know they relate - but how?  They are not things that seem easy to read together - so what is the story?  That is for you to tell me.


 Oh!  Before I dash off yet again...guess what I did this weekend??
I was able to spend two full days at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo gettin my Batgirl on and seeing some really incredible artwork.  I was able to meet some talented artists and hopefully made a few friends in the process. 

Woot!  I  had such a great time all dressed up as Barbra Gordon.  I was there to teach a program on Comic Books that sadly had very low attendance.  But I made up for it walking around as Batgirl!  I am already thinking about what I might like to do next year....and I think I might have to bite the bullet and do my favorite heroine - Scarlet Witch.

Good idea?  I think maybe!
xoxo
Jen

June 15, 2011

A new venture!

Hello Friends!

I just wanted to take a few minutes to promote something that I am really quite proud of.  It is a new venture for me, and it shall be an adventure!

My sister is an incredibly talented jewelery designer....did you know this?  Well.  If you didn't before, you certainly will now.  I have partnered up with her to create what will be a new business.  We have been making earrings.  

Remember when I posted that bark that I had found, peeled and gessoed? WELL!  It found its way into things of beauty.  Basically I pull stuff together that I think works, Kim takes it from there and really does all of the technical stuff - plus being super awesome at putting things together already.  So basically, I am really really enjoying doing this work with her.  It is nice to be creative working with colour and texture and movement.  Sometimes I get way too caught up in my own process and I forget how awesome it is to try something else.


The earrings we have made so far will sell at between $34.99 and $39.99 - and will be posted on our new etsy site just as soon as possible!
Guess what the name of our etsy shop is?  You are gonna love it.


 Abigail Gingerale after my lovely pup who goes on the walks with me where I am able to discover such wonderful things as the bark I came across.
 Want to see some teaser photos???



 
Thats all for now, but stay tuned for an update from our new blog, twitter, facebook and etsy accounts very very soon!
Loves and Kisses,
Jen

June 9, 2011

New ideas and inspirations!

Hello Friends!
Well, in the aftermath of finishing those invites, I have spent a little bit of time getting back to some art that has been waiting for some love.  When I made this post I was asking the question, where do I go from here with my bird skull illustration.  Well, after letting the work sit in my studio for a while and really just staring at it...I have just been letting inspiration come to me to tell me where my next steps should be.

I have actually found my inspiration for finishing the work in my teaching practice, though it was completely unintentional. While working for the AGC I have had the wonderful privilege of being able to teach about an artist who creates incredibly complicated and detailed works to talk about his First Nations identity.  I have really found an affinity for his work, and I have been teaching a program called Land Image Story quite a bit the last while that is all about his work.

One day, without thinking of anything, I just picked up some chalk and started working on the rest of this piece.  Thoughts of Alex Janvier had not entered my head at all, but I see how the time that I have spent speaking about his ideas and techniques for telling his own story has affected my own artistic practice. 
I had known that this piece would need some company, that it would not be a work to stand alone.  So I hummed and hawed thinking of what I could possibly draw that might compliment the bird skull without being too didactic.  I think I was able to figure it out.  Arrow fletching seemed to fit the bill.  It has the organic nature of the feathers, the skill of being hand made, and the whimsy of another time. 

Here are the two of them together.  I intend to complete one more work, that is smaller.  The board has already been prepped with gesso and lace, and I am just waiting for that final inspiration to help me decide what the subject matter will be.

All in all, this work is a huge departure for me in what I normally do, so I am curious as to how well it will be received.  I feel relieved to be able to work confidently with such bright punches of colour, but I am still kind of finding my wings in that area. 

I have spent so long working on tonal drawings that I have been very very hesitant to ever include bold colour (ever since I was told that I was bad at it in art school!)  But I think that the colours that I have chosen speak to the colours that I have surrounded myself with and that make me feel the kind of energy that I wanted these works to evoke. 



Any feedback for me friends?
xoxo
Loves and Kisses!

June 4, 2011

I made it!

Well!  I know it has been a while since I have posted, and I do have to apologize.  As it tends to go with me, I have been insanely busy, but some of my projects are starting to wrap up, which is a really good feeling.

Today, I was able to finish and present Melissa and Kyle with their wedding invitations.  I think they really really liked them.  

This is going to be a picture heavy post, because I hurt my index finger/thumb on my writing hand yesterday and I still want to see if I can get some drawing done tonight (who knows, I might have some new stuff to post first thing tomorrow!)

So without further ado, here they are!
 
 


Each of the 65 invites that they ordered were completely cut, scored, hand screened, designed and assembled by me.  I went and counted up just how many layers/screens I had to pull to make it work - and the answer was almost 900 individual prints.  Egads!  I must thank Ryan and Aaron who tolerated me making a mess in the bathrooms and spending my evenings tucked away in my studio.  

All of the writing is courtesy of Kim Dunne, my incredibly talented sister (with the nicest darn handwriting of anyone I have ever met!) I used BFK Reeves Ivory paper and copper and black inks.  The envelopes and outer sleeve for the invites were purchased from Envelopments in Tobacco and Bamboo.

I hope that they will be well received by all of Kyle and Melissa's guests, and give them something wonderful to hang on to for years to come.

Thats all for now, my pencils are calling to me!
Love and Kisses,
Jen