Home Sweet Home

Good sense would tell me to go to bed because I teach in the morning at 8am. But the next few days are going to be very stressful and busy, so goodbye good sense!
First off, I've been photographing my dollhouse before I rehab it. I wanted to get some straightforward before and after shots to highlight the changes. Here is the before:

The house has these little pictures on the walls of the previous owner's grandchildren, their boat, and a dead deer. I feel a little bad taking these off.

I've got a bunch more to edit.
I'm also in the process of repainting a bunch of thriftstore frames for another project.....

On top of those things, I've got some paintings started in the studio. I am hoping to get some images of those up soon as well. So much to do! I think I already need a vacation.

Back to the Grind

I'm grasping on to the last little bits of summer. I've got a few short days to prepare for the semester - classes start this coming Monday and there is a lot to do. There is a lot on my plate this semester, and I hope I can keep up with it all. I am both excited and intimidated by this last year of school.
As far as my studio work goes, I've been off to a productive start. I just finished this painting, part of a series of lace paintings that are framed in formerly gaudy salvaged frames.

These paintings are done from observation: hand drawn from commercially produced vintage lace. They are done in ink, with a brush and an ink pen. I draw the general layout with pencil first, and then fill in the negative areas each by each. They are part of a larger series that is exploring handmade items, and their commercial counterparts.

I am also working on a wall sculpture/installation that deals with some of the same issues, but from a different approach. I've sewn, structured, and stuffed eight little pieces so far, and I am in the midst of seaming them all together, and crocheting doily panels to cover the tops of them.

It has been a really peaceful and cool morning, and I'm hoping to make some progress on these today. I think I'll also be posting later on my garden. It has gone nuts! We've been eating so well these last few weeks!

In the Studio

I've been chugging away with some ideas I've had for a while now. Lets see where this goes.






I've also been getting a lot out of my garden lately. Everything is ripening and maturing all at once.
My favorite (at the moment) is the swiss chard. I feel like I am eating candy because of the colors.

And I've been using herbs every day as well.

Clockwise from the top left: thai basil, italian basil, cilantro, chives, and lemon balm.
My sunflowers are taller than me as well. :)

In the Studio

I've been working on some unresolved work lately, and I think I'm getting more towards where I want to be. The piece above is about 4 x 6" including the frame, it was done from this salvaged frame from the thrift store. I really like how it turned out.
This next school year is going to be the last year of my MFA degree, and I am both nervous and excited for it. I am going to be teaching Life Drawing again, which is going to be great, but at the same time balancing teaching, graduate assistantships, my classes, studio work, my marriage, family, and friends can be exhausting and overwhelming. I am trying to really get a good start on my thesis work (or at least work out all of the big kinks) before this semester starts. Sometimes I've got a tendency to psych myself out about the amount of work I've got ahead of myself, and it can be crippling to my studio work. I really want to avoid that this coming year.

So I'm starting some work ahead of time, and really trying to figure out a general direction for my thesis show. These paintings may or may not be a part of it, but they were something I had to do just to see if they would work.

The second painting is much larger, but still has an oval format. The frame I'm using is this one, which I thrifted a while ago. It is painted in the same color as the frame above.
They are both dealing with issues I am really interested in. Longevity, decoration vs. fine art, absence, presence of the hand vs. machine made items, and so forth.
Hopefully they will take me somewhere new. Also, I am more than open to feedback on these, let me know what you think of them!

MFA Shows and Studio Work

It is MFA thesis show season, and I've had the pleasure of going to quite a few amazing shows, as well as looking forward to a few as well. This piece is from Anna Kenar, and I love it:I have developed a love/hate relationship with charcoal after teaching life drawing this semester, and this piece definitely falls into the 'love' category.
I've been plugging away on my lace painting as well. I had to re-do what I had done the first round of painting because I didn't like how bright I had painted it. So I re-did that section in a more natural tan color. Much better.

New Painting

A sort of dual self portrait. 6x6" Oil on board.


It is my plan to do more of these.

Sweater Project - Continued

I may have gone to the thrift store the other day....
I think I made out like a villain. I got all of these lovely sweaters for about $13. The light colored ones are all cotton, and are destined to become part of future art projects. The darker ones, on the other hand, are very nice merino wool sweaters. They are destined to become knitting projects, or at the very least, lovely skeins of yarn.

There was one sweater in particular that I spotted from yards away:
It was a boxy short sweater made from beautiful self-striping wool yarn. Think Noro but softer and 2-ply. Lovely eh?
I got a pretty good amount. Enough for a sweater or a hat/scarf/mitten set.
Lastly, here my piece from the Ars Nova show!
I've stolen this photo from the gallery's website... On the right of my piece is my good friend Kim Strom's piece. She landed first prize in the show! Congrats Kim!
I also went to two other shows last night, one at Gallery 214, and one at Bad Dog Gallery. More on those later though, I'm off to head home for Easter!

'Invisible, Invincible' - Part of the Sweater Project

This is the finished piece that used the yarn that I've been spinning. It is about 8 feet long!
I brought it in to the university earlier this week to enter into a show. I was tempted to just wear it as a scarf for a little while before bringing it in. It is deceivingly heavy as it is made from super chunky cotton yarn.

The Lace Painting - Continued

I've made a lot of progress on this painting these last few weeks. I now have all six panels drawn out and the underpainting finished. I made some progress yesterday with the detail work on the first panel:I'm working 'wet in wet' for these, you can see in the following picture how I work just the light areas in first, and then fill in the darker areas around them. The tinted canvas makes it a lot easier to see what I am doing. Still have a long way to go - hahah.

The Sweater Project -- Continued

I've made some progress with the yarn I was spinning yesterday and the day before. I have three skeins completed, and I'll probably get about 4-5 more out of those two sweaters.
A finished skein:They are pretty big skeins, cotton yarn is SO heavy, it is almost rope-like when it is this bulky.
Even though it is heavy it is still really soft and drapes well.
I've still got a ways to go. If you look closely at this pic, you'll see Bo, my cat, is trying to get some attention.
Back to work!

Sweater Project - Continued

Sorry I've been neglecting this blog this last week or so! The rest of spring break flew by, and this last week has been spent working a lot in my studio, grading, reading painfully complicated art history articles, and 'catching up' in general. In the beginning of the semester I had been in a bit of a rut art-wise, but recently, things have been going well. I've been working on part of my Sweater Project. This week I've been spending a lot of time spinning together recycled sweaters. Here are two of the sweaters that I've deconstructed into pieces.
I wanted a bulky yarn for this project, so I am combining both sweaters into one yarn, I am taking two strands from the sweater on the left, and one from the sweater on the right. When I'm done spinning the three strands together, I'm going to ply in back on itself to make it really chunky. So far I've spun three spindles today. I'm going to start plying them today. I love the subtle difference between the two colored sweaters in the yarn. Hope you all are having a good Sunday! I'm heading in to the studio for a while today, and hopefully I'll get enough done that I can go to knit night tonight.

The 'Sexy' Show at Pleasant Street Gallery

Last Thursday I went to the opening for the 'Sexy' show put together by Karen Brown. It was at the Pleasant Street Gallery in DeKalb, and will be open to the public next week - March 16th- March 20th. I will get more specific times when I find them out for sure. Anyways, here are some of the pieces from the show:

Cassie Christenson (mine! ) - Absence (the doily paintings) and Crochet Studies 1 & 2
Christine LoFaso - furniture pieces

Cameron MacEachran

Joanna Goss

Nina Rizzo

Steve Hoover

Sunny Sundays

Fresh grapefruit reminds me of spring. I always peel my grapefruit before I eat it. I took this pic as the sun was setting and coming in through my windows.For some reason I was really able to get a lot done today, I think it probably has something to do with the fact that it was sunny outside and nice and quiet around the house. I worked on some paintings, knitting, cleaning, and some stuff for school. Here are two more panels I tinted and then drew on for my painting. I was working on my Francis Revisited sweater as well. I lost my old stitch markers, so I had to make some new ones quickly. I hope you all had a good Sunday as well.

Progress - Tales of Painting and Teaching

I spent all of this last Thursday working on artwork, and here is one of the paintings I'm working on. I had these long canvases that my good friend Tom had given me when he graduated, and they had sat unused in the corner of my studio until now. I have six of these, and I'm working on a piece that I want to run the length of a wall. I was getting a little crazy from too many tiny paintings. Anyways, this is just the start of the first one.
I started to draw the lace just from looking at it, but I ended up having to take a picture of it to see the details for my drawing. I still had a hard time, I kept losing my place while trying to draw. Other than that, I am really having fun with this painting. The lace is the same lace from the last post -- the stuff at the very top center of the photograph.
Teaching has also been going swimmingly this semester. I really love life drawing. There is nothing like drawing from a live model. It is challenging and exciting every day. I loved taking figure drawing in undergrad, it helped SO much with my drawing skills.
Anyways I wanted to share some of my student's drawings with you:
For most of my students, it is their first life drawing class. They are all making great progress, and I'd like to think they are all enjoying themselves - haha.
If you would like to see more of what my class is up to, check out our Class Blog. I'm really loving using a blog for the class instead of handing out a bunch of forms and assignments. It keeps everything very organized and easy to reach. I'm hoping to put together a presentation for CAA next year that focuses on using blogging in the classroom, so the class blog has been a good test run for doing just that.

More Coals on the Fire

I found this little bag of vintage lace at the thrift store last week, and it is for sure going to be integrated into some of what I am doing in my studio. I can't wait. A lot of it is yellowed from the sun, but for me, it just makes it even prettier. I think I am going to tack some on to the top of one of my pairs of boots, or maybe on the pockets of one of my coats. All of this wonderful lace for $1!
I'm also chugging away on my Francis sweater. It helps that it is all plain knit stitch, it is excellent for mindless knitting. I love the color of this yarn too. It is a light mossy green (cascade 220) and it is the same color of a sweater of mine that I had for years. The sweater eventually got shrunk in the dryer, so this is its 'replacement' of sorts. It will have a cowl neck and 3/4 length sleeves when I am finished.
I am looking forward to this weekend. I am thinking of going into the city or going to Milwaukee. Either way, it will be better than sitting on my bum doing schoolwork. I am also in better spirits because I think I have finally kicked this cold I've had for a few weeks. Now I've just got to catch up on my paintings. :)

Handspun Notebook Paper Project

This semester has gotten off to a somewhat slow start for me regarding my studio work, but I am finally getting into my groove. I am starting a new project that involves spinning notebook paper that I've written on into yarn. It is in its infancy as of now, but I am making progress. Each page takes about 40 minutes to write on, cut, and then spin into yarn.

It is kind of tricky to spin at first, but I am getting the hang of it. It is surprisingly sturdy once it is spun up. I'll be posting more about this project as it goes on.
In other news, I've been fighting this cold and I can't shake it. Any suggestions on ways to battle this cold would be greatly appreciated. :)