art show opening at the detroit artists market

I wanted to invite you all to the opening of the Art For The Holidays Show at the Detroit Artists Market. “This DAM annual favorite offers original art from more than 100 local artists in a fun and festive market setting. With hundreds of artworks at every price point, Art For The Holidays helps you shop local, shop smart, and shop with style!” I have some work for sale in this show. The opening is this Friday from 6-9pm. The show runs from November 06, 2009 – December 23, 2009 and is open on Noel Night. The Detroit Artists Market is located at 4719 Woodward Avenue Detroit, MI 482014719 Public Opening – Friday, November 6, 2009, 6-9pm Noel Night – Saturday, December 5, 2009, 5-9:30pm

p.s. these pumpkins are attending, and they are selling themselves

portrait of a lady

recently patrick and i have started helping our neighbors, and friends, eiton and joanna with their chickens.  it is a quite a lovely arrangement.  the chickens live at their house, which is a 2 minute walk across the street, and we take every other week.  we also split the cost and burden of buying feed.  i usually stop and buy feed when i am on my way back from washington, mi checking the bees as there is a grain elevator not far from there.  i really love feeding the girls, even if i am grumpy in the morning i love hearing them cluck and make funny chicken noises when they see us coming.  especially if they are out of their coop, and they see us heading towards the back gate they come running.  i think we have conditioned them to the fact that we often are carrying rotten milk with us, and chickens love some rotten milk!!  at one point patrick decided to create some chicken profiles and took some portraits of the ladies.  this particular ladies name is goldie, and she is a large stately buff orpington.  she is the kind of chicken you want to squeeze because she is so round.  i used patrick’s photo as reference when making this.  this paper cut will be displayed and for sale at the detroit artists market for $125, starting next friday november 6th.

art for the holidays

it is hard to believe that november is right around the corner.  earlier this month patrick and i went on a week long trip to michigan’s upper peninsula.  it was one of the most beautiful places i have been.  we came home and had two days to readjust before jumping back into normal, busy life.  immediately following reentering said life we had a weekend of honey extraction.  we extracted all of our honey in two days with the help of al least 60 or so volunteers, at various times throughout the day.  it was great fun, but quite exhausting.  a few days before honey extraction i received an email from the detroit artists market (a gallery in detroit) inviting me to take part in their art for the holidays show.  the gallery turns into a gift shop for the holidays that sells work made by local artists.  all the work is smaller,  under 24″ in size so prices are reasonable for one of a kind hand made objects.  i accepted and set out to make some creations.  i only had three days to get everything done to be able to drop it off by 6pm on Oct. 22nd.  of course i, a woman of lofty goals, decided to make all new things for this show.  so in the course of 3 days i made 2 stuffed owls, 2 stuffed pigs and 4 paper cuts.  i had to make a new owl pattern as well since i lost the other one i made, either that or i never made a pattern and just made the previous owl.  i still had my faithful pig pattern, that was made last year with my very first stuffed animal, the amazing piggy!!  one of the great things about this is that it opens on november 6th, but runs through december 23rd, which means i can keep making things and dropping them off to sell.  hopefully some will sell. it is also open on noel night in detroit.  for you non detroiters noel night is the first saturday in december , where the detroit institute of arts, and over 30 other museums and galleries and stores have a huge open house.  they are free of charge to the public and usually have choirs or musicians playing inside as well as hot chocolate and goodies.  they close down a large section of woodward avenue (a main thoroughfare in detroit) and have carriage rides and people singing as well as people playing bells.  it is always really fun.  the last 2 years it snowed and was quite beautiful.  we always ride our bikes there as parking is hard to find.  but there is a ton of foot traffic on noel night.   so here are photos of the creatures, i will post the paper cuts soon as well.

big owl

small owl

pink piggy

yellow piggy

chicken

ok so this is the last image i will post until i get back from vacation.  this is an image i made for my friend/neighbor eiton for his partner joanna for her birthday.  they have chickens that we help feed on a rotating weekly basis.  joanna also has a fabulous cover photo for a magazine with her holding a chicken.  those 2 things inspired me to make her a chicken!!  i also really liked only cutting out a small image from the center of a large piece of paper.  thats it!

hands & jars

i was recently asked to take part in a nationwide exhibit/publication.  i was asked to provide an image or story in response to this question:

“In the wake of a crisis it takes considerable effort to resume normal life as best possible.  As our current economic crisis careens around Detroit, is resumption of life as it was before the current conditions the only possibility?  For with every crisis, there is also the opportunity to radically restructure the ways in which we live. As an artist living/working in Detroit in 2009, what are the opportunities you see for re imaging a creative future?”

i was going to do some writing to go with the visuals, but i got mixed up with the due date and didn’t want to run over, so i stuck to imagery as my visuals tend to be stronger than my writing.  then my friend bec (that recently moved to pittsburgh) came into town.  although i am happy for her, as she needed a change, i miss her.  she asked me to post some mason jar art.  she was one of the few people that i had in detroit to talk about art with.  i have a hard time figuring out where i fit, in the art community here.  i am not a hip conceptual artist.  in fact i do not even necessarily consider myself an artist so much as a storyteller.  i have a hard time relating to most people who are solely artists.  i am a dirt person.  i am a gardener, a beekeeper, a cook, a fermentation wizard, a mead maker, a seamstress, a lover of creating things with my hands.  all of these skills are the stories i tell through artwork.  their simplicity and complication and the fact that millions of hands have been doing the same tasks for hundreds of years.  i guess that is really what i would have written about in addition to the paperut.  it seems like when complicated situations become more complicated by our need for progress, prestige, money and power that simplicity becomes our need and escape.  ok, so i am just rambling now, i should probably go and run errands so patrick and i can get out of town on sunday and go camping in the upper peninsula.  i guess as my life becomes more hectic in this wonderful city that is so hopeful and desperate at the same time, i crave the simplicity of fresh air, starry skies, and being unplugged from the rest of the world.

a christmas memory

a couple months ago my friend ian was in detroit and asked me to make a paper cut for his mom for her 60th birthday.  after some email communication he decided that he would like the subject matter to be truman capote’s ‘a christmas memory’, as it is one of his mom’s favorite stories.  i had never read and went on to look for any internet sources of the story, and was in luck.  i was thrilled when i read the story.  it had such visually descriptive language that i had more of a problem narrowing down a scene than finding enough written material to be able to make a drawing.  so i decided on the scene where buddy and his friend, along with queenie the rat terrier go to chop down a christmas tree.  this scan looks a bit flat as i had to scan it in pieces and then piece it together on the computer as it was 12″x18″ and bigger than my scanner bed.  maybe one day when i am making the big bucks i will be able to afford a larger scanner.  although i am not holding my breath on that one.  speaking of the big bucks i am thinking of learning more about silk screening so i can make prints of my papercuts and sell them.  it seems like a fun project!

the magic pumpkin

this is a large piece or art that i created this summer for a show about food that my friend bec was putting together.  it i s a hard piece to take pictures of because it has glass on the front and a light behind it.  so i will go through the technical details and then tell the story behind it.  it is  a 4 panel paper cut.  each panel is about 1 1/2 feet wide by 2 feet long.  all the panels are backed by translucent orange velum.  the front piece is an old storm door from my neighbors house.  the panels were designed to fit within that space.  the entire piece was put together by a friend of mine who has some carpentry skills.  he built the wooden frame around the storm door insert while i did the dishes at his house.  then together we sandwiched the art in between 2 large pieces of plexiglass and mounted the plexi behind the window.  the entire piece is about 2 1/2 feet tall by 6 feet wide.  running all along the inside edge behind the artwork is a set of LED rope lights to shine through the velum.  it looks much better when illuminated by natural sunlight but you work with the space you have.  so now on the story behind the imagery.  the panels are based upon a ukrainian folktale called “the magic pumpkin”.  it was hard to whittle the story down to 4 scenes and resulted in me having to cut out 2 characters.  so i will tell you my version of the story and then attach a link to the full story.  so here goes, there was once a very poor farmer who fell in love with a young woman, and they were married.  this young couple was very poor, and into the early spring of their first year of marriage they realized that they had no seeds to plant.  they felt hopelessness and despair knowing that they would starve that winter.  they at least had shelter, and within that shelter a group of swallows had built nests all along the eaves of the house (panel 1).  one day a strong wind blew through the house knocking down all of the nests in the eaves.  all of the baby swallows came tumbling down to the floor and died.  all except one small one who had merely broken his leg.  the young couple picked up the baby bird and bound his leg, and then nursed him back to health.  once the baby bird had healed and grown large enough to fly they released them and wished him well.  after a few days the bird returned to them and laid three pumpkin seeds upon their doorstep (panel 2).  the couple were filled with joy at this new bit of luck.  they planted the seeds and watched as they flourished  and grew.  never had finer pumpkin vines been seen, they were lush and green, dotted with large yellow pollen laden flowers.  the vine flowered and flowered and eventually produced three fruit.  the couple nurtured the fruit and watched them grow.  and grow they did becoming so large that it took 2 people to even roll them (panel 3).  finally the fruit were ripe and the young couple went out to the garden and together rolled all three fruit inside.  the man took an axe to the first pumpkin and split it straight down the center and all manner of food burst forth from the pumpkin, enough food for their entire village, so no one would starve that winter.  the second pumpkin was also split down the center and clothes burst forth, more than two people could ever wear and these were shared amongst the villagers also.  finally the third pumpkin was placed on the chopping block and once it was split gold poured forth so the young farmers were no longer poor, and neither was anyone whom they knew, as they always remembered being poor and were most generous (panel 3).  ok so that was my version that i adapted to fit, but here is the real story, the magic pumpkin .  this belongs now to patrick as he asked for it for his birthday.

whose pigs? why they’re frank’s pigs

that’s right folks, all three little pigs as well as this big bad wolf belong to my friend frank.  his lovely wholesome wife jodi commissioned it from me for his birthday.  the idea was that she wanted a picture of the three little pigs (which is one of frank’s favorite tales) but the brick house would be their house, which they bought a little over a year ago.  i was going to do a drawing, but frank happens to have a deft hand when it comes to creating sophisticated snow flakes, so i thought the papercut genre was more appropriate.  when frank received this little creation it took him a while to figure out what the story line was.  seeing as he and jodi own a large hairy dog named kilgore, he immediately said “hey look that’s our house and kilgore!”  then he said “oh look there is a little pig on the porch, well we all know stacey loves pigs” another moment of observation brought about “hey there is another pig leaning out the window,  and what is that smug little pig doing hanging off the porch?”.  eventually frank put it altogether, counted pigs, and noticed the gust of air coming from the large hairy animal and realized that this was in fact a picture of the three little pigs with his house as the brick house.  the best part is that the original idea for the image came from frank’s mouth shortly after they moved in.  so the moral of the tale is, always remember that smug little pigs live in big brick houses and so do frank and jodi (although they aren’t really smug).

the saga of the mead labels

here is a mead label that i made for a certain brewery in detroit.  this was my first lesson in “make em fill out a contract dummy or you will get screwed over”.  this brewery asked me to design 9 mead labels for them.  i was quite excited as this was last summer, right after i had quit my job to pursue freelance illustration.  so i set to work.  nine sketches approved turned into 9 drawings, then full color images.  i was working cheap, dirt cheap.  as a friend of mine who is a wonderful illustrator (and someone i turn to for advice) told me i was practically giving my work away.  i was asking $60 per label, half of that was in barter for pizza and beer.  which if you don’t know is a very good deal, as the mark up on both are quite intense.  so i finish all of the work, about 40 hours worth, and bring the labels to the brewery.  the assistant brewer is a dear friend of mine, but i feel is bullied by the head brewer, and was the one who got me the project anyway.  so the head brewer finally saunters over and decides to acknowledge my existence and look at the final product.  he likes it, and calls over the owner. the owner who i generally regard as a dickhead wanders over, gives me a condescending glance and introduces himself and acts as though he has never seen me before and will never acknowledge in the future that he knows my name.  this angers me a bit as i have been frequenting his very small establishment for the past 5 years, on at least a weekly or biweekly basis.  so he likes the work also.  now the negotiations begin, when will i get paid etc.  so the head brewer then asks me for the originals.  and i ,having just read up on my copyright rights, answer no.  not unless i am being paid a lot more.  you are leasing my artwork, you do not own it.  he mentioned wanting to hang the originals in the bar, so i am trying to be accommodating and say that he can make some nice print outs to hang up but i keep originals unless he wants to buy the original artwork off me as well.  now all of this could have been negotiated so both parties are happy, except he starts trying to bully me into giving him the originals.  first going for the old argument of , we are a small business (as if i am walmart; i am a small business too) then when i am not budging he starts in on the tack of ‘it’s just art, everyone else who has done labels for us has just given us the artwork’.  then it progresses to the ‘you are just starting doing this so why should i pay you more, if i wanted to spend a lot of money i would have hired a big art firm’.  at this point he stops and we decide to renegotiate in the next week.  i am honestly surprised that i stuck to my ground through his bullying and manipulation as i was increasingly getting more and more upset and confused.  so i go home and just start crying.  i feel worthless and like i really messed up this job.  after emailing said friend about his opinion of the situation and my rights as an illustrator and did i mess this up royally, i felt better when his response was; ‘no you didn’t mess up, you are giving your art away for that price, don’t do that, that guy is a prick, do you need me to visit him with the lead pipe i keep in my car?’.  i also got some sympathy and a healthy amount of indignation from patrick as well.  so the next week rolls around and i call the brewery, and the head brewer has given me the wrong number.  i am pretty sure it is on purpose, as it has an assanine answering machine message.  so i call my friend, the assistant brewer and she says it is a bad day for me to come in.  so i call the next day and it is the same thing.  at this point, i don’t want her to be in the middle so i say give your boss my number and tell him to call me and we can renegotiate.  that was last october and he still hasn’t called.  i have not been there since either and i am not still waiting for his call.  i have restrained myself from total shit talking, but if anyone asks if i want to meet up there i always say no and give them the reason why i will not go there.  so now i have all these lovely mead labels that have no homes.  so i thought maybe i would just display some here.

new venture

my mom (peg) and my sister (beth) have stated a new business venture.  they are creating and selling purses and bags on etsy!  my mom taught my sister and i how to sew when we were very little.  so she is one of the best seamstresses that i know.  she can master almost any craft she attempts to do.  my sister also happens to be a fabulous seamstress, as she has a background in interior design as well as years of custom sewing projects.  so they have decided to team up from maryland and idaho and start selling their handmade bags on line.  their site is on esty at www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7858252

so check them out and buy something!