Marmite Shrine

Taking a risk isn't easy when the piece in question seems perfectly fine as is, BUT! drat it! I was compelled to play with it and add colour.

and since I LOVE marmite decided it had to go in the shrine box I made. After the exhibit this will go in my dining room.

Street Art in London

image source: mermaid99

In the Garden of Dreams

I sometimes like to just experiment with layering photos on Adobe and this one is of my favourite model, my daughter, and a photo of an old painting.

Video Montage: 2008 thru 2010



Love/Hate in the Studio

Did I mention I LOVE long poses

I LOVED this angle, this model has superb muscle definition and with natural light in the loft studio it enhances them.  I am rather bad at leaving hands and feet until last because they are the hardest for me to do. Then I run out of time. I have to work on that.

Did I mention I HATE framing.

Okay, it isn't too bad because I'm making these one's myself. I always enjoy getting into the workshop and cutting, sanding wood :) One is for this piece.

Mixed Media Embroidery

 floss, buttons, findings,reverse painted plastic on linen.

Wordless Wednesday: Changes

Ann Arbor MI 2010

Tuesday Talk

Ha ha, this video is fun!



One of my fave flickr photographers, Damien Franco, posted this quote which I wanted to share.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

George Bernard Shaw

He also wrote a blog entry about quitting, which I can certainly understand.

I couldn't just quit either, but I sometimes wonder why the heck I bother.

Meanwhile the jafagirls removed some old knit graffiti. I washed one and redid it, but superfly comics got some new crochet on the bench.

Superfly is liking the blue, matches his cape.

fortuitous street signs and pole dancing dolls

I couldn't stop laughing when my son pointed this wheatpast sign out in Ann Arbor MI. Too late LOL! A new knit graffiti camo doll (gemini)by the jafagirls went up in Graffiti Alley.

Guerilla Arts and Stuff

I'm chuffed as punch that STI(C)MAN is showing up around our town.  Now if only Banksy would show up and do one of my pub alley panels, woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I pwomise I won't rename myself mrs.hogwash and co-opt your work badly and sell it as a mega show for a million bucks. No wait! Can I sort of promise, ahem!

STUFF

It's FAF and after life drawing my gal pal (Mizz Cranky Pants) and I are leaving some art around town. Jafalass, Karen, is going to give us wot for if we ask her silly questions at her opening reception tonight.

This was one of my all time favourite pieces I left and luckily it stayed up for a month before someone took it. By the way we always leave a tag stating "FREE ART".

HURT BOX

wood, porcelain teeth, string, acrylic paint.

It was placed on Corry Street on the wall next to IN A FRAME doorway.

Soothing Sounds in the Studio

This is what I heard last night

Some people get down when it rains, NOT ME!

I love the feeling of being cocooned in the studio, drinking my cups of tea, and working on my art with the gentle sound of rain in the background.

Of course it aint' so fun having to go out and stand at the busstop, or do errands and you start to feel like a drowned rat. BUT that's another story.

"Wee Beastie"

print of sketchbook page on cotton, embellished with embroidery & acrylic paint

Hum! photo looks a little washed out, but you get the idea.  I was stressed having to think about making a frame for it but  lucked out big time when I found this frame in my garage cuboard.  I had made it a few years ago for some other project that never got finished.

It was meant to be, meant to be!

In Between

Does this sound familiar? In between  chores, framing/preparing for my show next month I am taking photographs, doing a bit of my crosstitch tablecloth, doing some new spin art painting, and generally piddling around in the studio doing lots with nothing to show for it lol!

You know you're an artist when:

Oops! You butter your toast with your fingers, just to feel its texture!

You know what shade of green the lichen on the trees is. OF course!

This is one of the coolest buildings in Yellow Springs(I wish I could live in it). It's the ongoing creation of one man with a passion, some of the story here, and is part home (upstairs), studio spaces, shop, arts council gallery.

I suppose eventually all the in betweens catch up and we end up with

something Wonderful

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon-NOT

But how I try!

Somehow I've managed to make my model look like the actor Patrick Stewart.

This is from a 2 1/2 hour pose, conte crayon on toned paper.  I am liking the longer poses much better, and being with other artists, who like me, are there to practice, practice and practice.

If you haven't seen Prud'hon's drawings, oh they are just absolutely amazing!

I am lucky to have the book Language of the Body: Drawings by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon. I say lucky because I didn't pay half as much as what they are asking now (eek).

The delicacy of line, modeling makes me drool and aspire to keep trying.

Shadow Tree

I just have a thing about shadows and these one's called me, "hey, jafabrit, ain't I pretty! huh! huh! come take a piccy."

FRAMING

Did I mention I HATE framing! I really want to get away from doing embroidery that requires framing and work more on incorporating it into mixed media like "shiny pretty things" or "boom bang".  I did manage to stretch Mr. Gobblehead onto a round stretcher and wasn't unhappy with the results.

flippin' typical though,I FORGOT to sign it.

Mindful

"my husband didn't stand for hate"

"What is reprehensible is fomenting and perpetuating the same type of bigotry and hatred that fueled the terrorists to kill my husband."

9/11 Memorial Page

stitch gasp

I decided on the image for my embroidery exhibit postcard. A close up  of "boom bang", and then I stitched the name of my show, stitch gasp, onto the photograph. 

Now I can relax, NOT!

Excuses! Excuses!

wip:mr.gobblehead

mixed media embroidery on stained linen

I did a quick search for why people buy SUV's and came across the above quote.

yea, well, ahem! okay!

YEs, that is an actual glass fish eye at the left. I got it from the local taxidermist.

ps.I shan't offer any excuses to justify my weird embroidery, I just LIKE it, so there.

Pee, See & Buy

I donated some spin art to a local cafe (Underdog Cafe & Emporium) for their restroom and it seems  out of state visitors so enjoyed them they asked where they could buy some. So I did up a new batch the other day and these are my faves.  I guess one should never underestimate the value of placing art in  loos!

SunFlowery Morning

I love seeing the sunflowers in the little park (Bill Duncan Park) near our house.  It is one of those crisp lovely mornings in Yellow Springs Ohio that reminds me of home in (England).  I often stop to explore Beth's Yellow Springs ceramic scultpure sign that's at the corner.

Yellow Springs sign by Beth Holyoke

We don't have this in Yellow Springs though.

Image source: BBC

They call Gordana an eccentric for painting sunflowers on her house. Not sure I see it as eccentric, but oh well lol!

OR THIS

 bit of fab graff!

MAG1C

Image source: Inspire Collective

Originally uploaded by RomanyWG

Dream Maiden

Playing with some ideas for a large painting using photos of my daughter and an old broken skateboard deck I found nailed to a wall.

Mother Brag

For family and friends

WSU Summit from Real Art Design Group on Vimeo.

To see Claire's Artwork visit her website or her blog

Currently exhibiting in The Little Art Theatre

Life Drawing: I long for long poses

30 minute pose

 and it just isn't long enough for me, grrrrrrrrrrrr! I can barely get the proportions, lines and early stages of muscle modeling before I can even begin to refine it. I suppose it's good practice to try, but I would really love 2 hours of the same pose.

I like to remind myself of this

Anything Is Possible

Went to see the Banksy Movie Exit Through the Gift Shop which was very good, but it wasn't what I thought it was but something else altogether.

mister brainwash is a clever invention that took on a life of it's own and that in itself makes a big statement about the art world.

Uh, huh, anything is possible