Susanna's Sketchbook

June 18, 2008

It's a beautiful morning. There's a cool breeze coming through my window and I'm about to have my morning coffee. Ahhh! I want to thank you for the kind comments over the last couple of days and to thank you for not making me feel embarrassed over my last post. I imagine that there might have been a few readers who thought I was being ridiculous for getting depressed over a death of a baby bird when there are so many other tragedies happening in the world. All I can say is that my childless, maternal heart was unexpectedly stirred over the weekend and yes, over a baby bird.

Anyway, today is a beautiful new morning and I thought I'd show you a few new images I've been working on for a round robin I recently joined. The theme of the round robin is "Royal Confections" with each of the participants choosing a female royal figure from any time period. We each started our own doll form along with a sketchbook and then sent our individual projects to the next person on the list to add a detail to the doll and a page or two to the sketchbook. Once that person is done, she sends it on to the next person on the list. And so on and so on...until our original dolls and sketchbooks have visited every person in the round robin and are returned to us completed.

The first doll and sketchbook I received in the mail was from the lovely eb. Her royal figure is the Green Queen and she perfectly matches her creator's vibrant spirit. I stepped outside my usual paintbox with eb's Green Queen by trying something new - staging collages and then rephotographing them. I like how they turned out and I'm thinking that it could lead to something else. Eb's words "her secret joy" inspired these images:

June 6, 2008

A sneak peak of what I've been working on... Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

PS: Check out the pure magic brewing at these two blogs...

Du Buh Du Design by Christine Alvarado. Her Susie is absolutely adorable! And Kiki is perfect! Just as I imagine Kiki would be. And her latest dolls are straight from a fairytale. Plus, her playlist is terrific. Thank you, Maddie, for the link to Christine's blog.

La Fille du Consul - Oooh la la! Le chocolat est fabuleux!

May 13, 2008

Life has been craaaazy this week! It's all good. I've just been busy in my artroom, juggling projects and ignoring everything else in my apartment. Just don't look in the kitchen.

Recently I joined my first round robin; that is, ten bloggergals, including me, are collaborating on a project. The theme is Royal Confections and each of us have started our own sketchbook along with the beginnings of a doll based on a royal figure. Our round robin includes all of royal society whenever, wherever, from scullery maid to Queen. Once we've started our doll and sketchbook, we mail them to the person who is after us on the list. That person adds something to the doll and creates a page in our sketchbook. Then she mails it on to the next person on the list who does the same. We do this until everyone has contributed something to everyone's sketchbook and doll. In a year's time, I should be getting my original sketchbook back filled with artwork and my little doll should be complete.

My nine round robin companions are talented artists, all with different mediums and styles, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they've created. They are... Holly, Susan, Sandy, Constance, Beth, Monica, Cat, Elizabeth, and Stephanie.

My doll and sketchbook was inspired by Canadian Author Jane Urquhart's poem, The One Before. It's from her book, The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan, published by The Porcupine's Quill, Inc., 1995. The poem was later republished in Urquhart's beautifully-written book, Some Other Garden, published by McClelland & Stewart, 2000.

The One Before by Jane Urquhart

The one before
walked in these rooms
gazed in these mirrors
and searched her thighs for flaws

opening his cupboard
pouring this decanter
her mind set sail for landscapes
where you might stop
to choose a gift for her

a snowdrop pressed inside a book
birds frozen in a cage

the hours filled with
preservation of her flesh
her hair and face and muscle
till laying down her brush
she felt your absence speak

as though you hadn't nodded when
you passed her in the garden
or kept a place
beside you at the table

now I fill these rooms
and search the mirrors
I listen to the sound of strings
caressed by fountains

those imperfections in the glass
her face       thighs
lost in silver

the ghost travels with me
to your chamber

*

I love how visual this poem is...it's like a little film for me. I imagine a young woman entering a king's private chambers and seeing the "ghosts" of the women who came before her in the way objects are arranged on a table. She knows that her being in this room is, like the objects, temporary, that she may be asked to leave at any moment. It all has to do with pleasing that Someone Else so she takes extra care with how she appears in that beautiful room.

On the dress of my doll, I sewed little flat glass beads that remind me of a chandelier's crystal. Underneath are black and white photographs of me during my twenties. The photographs distort under the glass beads. The head of the doll is a black and white photograph of my twin sister (don't read into that. She's been one of my favourite - and willing! - models since I took up photography. Plus it's impossible to take a terrible photo of M. Well, there is that one photograph...She'll be calling me the second she reads that sentence...hee hee!). Anyway, I thought by placing her photograph in a round frame, slightly off-center, it would give the idea that M is looking at us rather than at herself through a mirror. I've left the arms and whatever else up to my fellow round robiners.

The sketchbook has that same portrait of M on the front and on the first page is a grainy black and white photograph of a reception scene I took years ago when I was doing wedding photography. The large painting on the wall and the drapes are the main image with a blurry, ghost-like image of a woman on the far right edge of the photograph. Then there are loose pages for my fellow round robiners to do whatever they'd like to on them. The last page is a black & white closeup of an old tattered couch. That's for the "ones before", the contributors to my book, to sign. 

January 26, 2008

The Inspiration: an old tintype found in a second hand shop for $6.00, the envelopes (gasp!) found here, a picture torn from a magazine years ago and taped into a sketchbook...

 

Also, a black ribbon and a photograph of an abandoned farmhouse I explored with my mother-in-law last summer.

When I was stuck, I walked up these stairs...

...to ponder my thoughts in this place...

...where I picked a bouquet before returning home...

Days later (I'm a slow painter), I created this...

The sides look like they are wrapped in wax paper, as if the painting is a parcel to be delivered to a place with no address. I thought that it would be more interesting to have the address be a distant memory of the place - a house, a field - instead of a written address. Here's a closeup of the front...

   

November 2, 2007

It is the Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, in Mexico and now in parts of the United States. I really like this festival. I like the idea that once a year, the deceased can revisit us, to check up on what we are doing. And I like the festival's attitude towards death  - that of remembering and celebrating the life of a deceased loved one.

When my father died suddenly from a heart attack back in 1990, I was devastated with grief and filled with anger at him for dying. It was as if I couldn't forgive him for dying - as if he really had a choice. Grief isn't always logical, is it? I spent many years afterwards avoiding his photographs and only briefly allowed myself to think about him. It was not a healthy way of living nor respectful of the person who was such a great, loving force in my life. I do think, however, that Time can be a great healer. The anger is gone now but Grief and the missing of him is still there, just under the skin, a vulnerable part of my soul. Remembering the smell of mints in his pockets or his laugh can still bring tears to the eyes and a slight headache from keeping them from falling. Thankfully, Time has introduced other blessings, other positive experiences and loving people into my life and they have fed my soul and filled my heart and have allowed me to return to the memories of my father that make me smile.

When I learned of the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico, I was fascinated. That death could be about remembering and celebrating seemed like a much healthier way of dealing with the death of a loved one than what I had experienced. I like the idea of the three deaths... the first being that when someone dies, their body dies; the second is when their spirit leaves for heaven or for whatever is next; the last is when everyone who remembers the deceased has died. That third death re-enforces the idea that noone is really gone when they are still remembered.

Anyway, I am thinking of my father today. I remember the french mints in his pockets, his love for crossword puzzles after dinner, the old 1930's and 1940's movies we would watch on t.v. every Sunday, the broken pieces of dark chocolate he would sometimes leave on his bedside table for my sister and me at night when we were young (Look, M, dad smiles when he's sleeping!)...

October 24, 2007

hesitating behind words.

October 22, 2007

Skeleton Descending, 2001

October 19, 2007

Look what arrived in the mail! Aside from the new little catalogue from Anthropologie that has me sighing for this sweater and this jacket, I found the November/December holiday projects issue of Somerset Studio Magazine sitting on my doorstep. I have a little article on a work-in-progress piece in this issue, something that is still burning on the back burner but within eyesight.

   

There are lots of interesting artists in this issue...Stephanie Lee of Semi Precious Salvage has a how-to article on how to make really cool holiday ornaments (on the front cover). Her examples invoke distant memories and storytelling. My kinda thing. The Expressions section has examples of Christmas decorations made by artists from across the United States. And Raquel Joya has designed vintage-looking Christmas illustrations and tags that can either be cut out directly from the magazine or copied multiple times onto cardstock before being attached to a present or used in an art piece. These have my sister M's name all over them.

I don't mean for this to sound like a plug - it's just that I'm always impressed with the amount of creative artwork and talented artists this magazine has in each issue and the publication itself is printed beautifully. And I'm a holiday nut. The Nov/Dec issue of Somerset Studio should be out on bookstands in a couple weeks...

The Mermaids (and letting go)

Now that summer is almost over (Autumn officially arrives on September 23rd), I finally finished my mermaids encaustic (beeswax, oil paints and damar resin) painting. Just in time for it to be bubble wrapped and stored along with the rest of my summer decor. Sigh... I wish I was a faster painter. I'm in awe of those painters who can complete a painting in a week or a month. And don't get me started on those one-painting-per-day artists...!  Of course, it would help if I treated painting like a regular 8-hour work day with the usual coffee breaks and lunch hour. Ah well, it's a choice and I have other things happening in my life, other projects to focus on, so I won't beat myself up over the slowness of my encaustic painting.

Although my inner critic is always pointing out things that I should change - the shape of a hand, a line of a breast - I am still happy with the finished piece. I like the finely-etched lines of the starfish and the fish in the hair and the blush of colour on the mermaids' cheeks.

It was a valuable learning lesson painting this particular painting. I learned that before starting a painting, it's wise to have a completed thumbnail drawn on paper rather than going with just a vague thought of an image in my head. This is the first time I've etched an entire image into the beeswax and I discovered that I can get very different looks depending on how I etch and when I add paint and wax.  I learned that I can make the image look like a line drawing sitting on top of a watercolour or that by applying paint and wax after etching, I can get the look of a coloured tattoo. I learned that I can either leave the wax unbuffed and therefore flat or I can buff the surface with the palm of my hand til it shines like water on glass (which works well with mermaids). Lots of lessons were learned.

Susannah has a good post about letting go of the inner critic and how to approach art making on her blog this week.

The Cafe Handbag

I am done! Remember that project I told you about before I left on my trip? It involved me taking a pre-existing garment or accessory and embellishing it in any way I wanted - embroidery, painting, rhinestones, you-name-it. I had bought a piece of old lace to get my mind thinking of ideas and it worked. I came up with something I'd like to make later, when I have more time, perhaps during the quiet, hibernating days of winter. In the meantime, while I was on my vacation, I came up with another idea. Here it is...

Take one simple straw bag bought at a thrift shop for $7.00. Use these photographs for inspiration...

Add fabric paint and French provencial fabric and voila! My Cafe Handbag! Also known as the Corey Handbag as I was reminded of Corey's posts on the pleasures of French pastries.

I considered embellishing the handles but they remind me of round coffee stains on napkins and as the other side of the bag features the coffee menu, I decided to let the handles remain as they are. I especially like the little button on the front which is suppose to be a little profiterole (a pastry puff with cream and chocolate).

So it's off in the mail for the photographs of the Cafe/Corey Handbag this morning.  I'll also drop off my rolls of film at the lab and photograph my finished encaustic painting. It looks like this will be a week of show-and-tell, afterall.