This is the view from my front door today.  If you're a great fan of grey and neutral tones you may appreciate this.  I however, need some colour therapy to cope with winter.  I don't really mind the cold so much as the lack of colour.  I'm sure I could learn a lot from the stark shapes and negative spaces of a Canadian winter, but I'd rather look at really bright mittens and scarves.  Thankfully the bus I drive is bright yellow.  Have you noticed how much more colour there is when the sun shines? To combat the weather, I've been hiding in my basement printmaking.  I've reprinted "Everyday Magic" on brown stonehenge paper and a steel blue Japanese Tatami paper.  Which colour combination do you like best?  

I've also finished another new print and I'm just waiting for it to dry before photographing it.  More colour on the way!  


“Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.”
                                                                    ~Wassily Kandinsky

It's true.   Colour is the best medicine....that and getting out for a little exercise once in a while, but colour is much more fun!

After months of reading the pros and cons of various printing inks I finally took the plunge and ordered these Daniel Smith water soluble relief inks and I'm so thrilled with them.  They come in large tubes so you don't have to worry about a film forming on the top.  They dry permanent but wash up with soap and water.  The transparent medium allows me to thin the colours so they layer wonderfully.  These are my first experiments.  They'rere hot off the press and I haven't named them yet.  I've suppose I should think of something more inventive than "Bowls".  But right now I'm going back to the studio because I've finally found my one true ink and I've got that thrill you get from a new relationship!

Here are two more collages.  I must admit that making these is just too much fun.  It kind of like  shopping without the hassle of going to a store.  You pick out some of your favorite colours and patterns and then try and see how they fit together.  When they work together there is an "Ahaa!" moment.  If you were in a store you would buy this outfit, but in collage making, you reach for the glue.   Once it's all glued you have a new outfit for your wall!  These look particularly good wrapped in an Ikea frame.  I hope you like them : )  They are both now in my Etsy shop.

I like to paint from time to time in between making prints because to me it's such a different and almost opposite process.  When I make a print, I'm always thinkingthinkingthinking.  I need to be careful of the registration and the ink has to be the right consistancy,  not applied to thick or too thin and consider how the different colours will look when they overlap etc etc.  When I start to paint, I carry all this thinking with me, but slowly I try to get let it go.  I want to paint like a kindergartner with no worries about realism, only joy in the colours and the feeling of the paint.  It's not as easy as it sounds.  I love painters who appear to be able to let go of their thinking brains like Mindy Lacefield, Michelle Brown and Flora Bowley.  It takes a lot of effort to break the rules and get that effortless look!  My left brain is already dying to get on with the next print, planning happily away.  It's not that there isn't a ton of creativity in printmaking, I just find that acrylic paint is so forgiving.  I can play without that fearful voice saying, "don't do that, you'll wreck it!"  It's good to exercise the right brain and hopefully carry some of that rule breaking into my printmaking.

I've been working on this linocut for a ridiculously long time.  Originally in was twice as big and had so much going on in it.  It was too busy and rather incomprehensible.  There was a flying colander and more little fork head people as well as a giant cake.  My idea for this linocut is hard to pin down.  I can danse all around the idea, but never quite express it precisely.  Maybe this is because the idea has to do with those thoughts that you quickly forget as soon as you wake up, or the things you think you see out of the corner of your eye, but disappear as soon as you turn your head.

The organizing faculities of our left brains want us to see life in a certain way...the proper way.  But what is really there?  Everything we see and know is filtered through our brains and  is our own subjective interpretation.  I would love to see things a little differently and add a little visual metaphor to my life; a little everyday magic to my routine.  Children do this quite easily.  The fork becomes a person and your friend becomes a cat.   Adults should do this too.  It would make life so much more interesting!

Between the Polar Vortex and the Ice Storm and the endless predictions for a  few more centimeters of snow, this has been a tough winter and it's only mid January!  Everyday this week I've seen people slipping on ice.  Thankfully they've all gotten up unharmed.  Those puffy snowsuits that children wear should probably be mandatory in this weather.  They're great padding, although they can make movement difficult.  My cat has stopped going outside and is blaming me for the cold.  He is putting on weight at an alarming rate, but doing nothing but eating, sleeping and yowling at your person will do that.   To combat the cold and difficulty of getting around I like to submerse myself in warm colours like red and brown and think of large plants and gardens.  One day they'll return...won't they?  These are two new collages made with my linocut images.  The backgrounds are done with printers ink, a stencil and a brayer.   Then the cut images are arranged on top.  If my cat could learn to do art, he might not be so bored!  These are in my Etsy store now.  I hope everyone has heat and power!

Every year I make Christmas Cards, but don't feel left out if you don't get one from me.  I only make them for other people to send.  I'm never organized enough to actually send them myself.  Hopefully some year I'll get around to sending them myself and then I might receive some that aren't from politicians or real estate agents.
In the picture on the left are some styrofoam trays, the kind that you find under quick sale veggies.  I cut into them with an exacto knife and printed them onto the cards using speedball printers ink.   I liked the distressed look because the white flecks where the ink didn't print reminds me of snow.  The holes could then be filled in by doodling, collaging or stamping with some eraser stamps.  This was lots of fun, but much more labour intensive than my usual cards.  Each one is slightly different. 
Merry Christmas to everyone in interent land!

Last Sunday the Varley Art Gallery hosted a wonderful artist trading card swap.  There was a great turn out and we had tons of fun trading cards with other artists.  I hope they hold more of these events.  My ACEOs (Art Card Editions and Originals) are linocut prints and so I was able to make several of each type.  These three are just listed in my Etsy store.  I have more of these animal friends  to list, but Christmas is bearing down and I haven't started to make my Christmas cards yet.  The month of December is also a big birthday month in our family, so this will be the last non-Christmas or birthday art posting until the new year.

When I was listing these I was amazed at how my scanner picked up the texture of the printing ink.  I think it picked it up a little too much!  However, being linocuts, there is some texture.  I hope you enjoy them!

I love to add words to my prints.  I'm not sure why, except that their shapes are so pleasing to look at and they add an unexpected element.  Just like pictures, they have meanings which are altered by their context.  When I put them together with a print the perception of both are altered.  I have a collection of words that I've cut out of old books from the recyling depot.  I sift through them often seeing how they fit with various prints.  There are many I am dying to use...like "deepest and most thrilling of all the stories" .  I really hope I create a print that goes with that someday!

A little over a week ago I raced up to the Georgina Art Centre to enter a few of my prints in the "Undefined" Juried exhibition.  I made it just before the deadline and I'm glad I made the trip.  Last Sunday, the reception showcased a beautiful display of art with many talented artists.  I was so pleased and surprised to get a third place for my reduction linocut print, "The Story Begins".  It is really a wonderful show with a great variety of painting, photography, sculpture, pottery and more.  I'm so glad to be a member of the gallery there.

This week I'll be adding more prints to my Etsy store, so if you are in the mood for a new print, stay tuned : )