So you may have noticed that while all my art buddies are posting their paint, sweat and tears every day, this chick has been suspiciously absent. Here's why: doing this everyday is hard!

I did work in the studio on Day 17. I tried printing some goldenrod from the mountains through the press, like I did with my hydrangeas. Let's just say, it looked like someone vomited on the paper. Bleeeeck. But, hey, what's a little ink puke to stand in the way of creativity? Suffice to say that I DID work all day to make something of the mess and MAYBE have something worth showing you. But not yet. Sorry. 

What happened next? Family life. College visit. Grocery shopping and cooking dinners. Church, Project Runway, cookouts with friends and wine on the porch. Good stuff. But not art. 

And I'm ok with that. I'm impressed that I made it 17 days straight, since I have never been very good at good habits. It's all fodder and fertilizer for the creative garden.

So here's the prototype...can't let the Queen out of the bag just yet. But hopefully the 8 recipients will be pleased and surprised! 

Shhh! Don't tell anyone but I'm working on a super top secret project in the studio. Think 007 meets Frida Kahlo crossed with Miss America and a dash of First Lady Michelle Obama. Or Jackie O.

Project Runway with the Charlotte skyline. 

Jackson Pollock on a MUCH smaller scale.

Pretty much me. Code name Bartsy. Shhh.

In the process of all this hydrangea printing, I use newsprint to cover the plate and paper, to keep the blankets on the press from getting dirty. As I was printing all the small strips on my large acrylic plate, I noticed the beautiful patterns that were building up as I ran each piece through the printer, using the same piece of newsprint behind them all. 

If you've seen my mixed media paintings and journals, you know I am ALL about the layers! So this time, I used a piece of good paper, 100% cotton Stonehenge printing paper, as my backing, intentionally printing beyond the edges of the smaller plate. NOW we're talking layers!

I'm really tempted to go back into this one with some paint and pencils. I should take my own advice to students who struggle with when to keep pushing a piece...keep this one that you love and make another one that goes further. And before you know it, you have a series!

I plucked more blossoms off my hydrangea bushes today and printed them on green-inked paper. The shapes looked a lot like broccoli before - but now they REALLY do! I've ordered some brown and blue papers to try. I still really like the drama of the black ink, but I might have to do a round in another color. Maybe dark blue ink on the light blue paper? Too Mother's Day?

I'm surprised at how hard it is for me to embrace the "true" tenets of printmaking - white edges, clean marks, well defined carved or etched lines. Instead I find myself layering and turning and adding to my prints in a non-traditional way. I keep saving newsprint scraps with ink on them to use later for collage. I can't resist the urge to add mixed media everywhere!

I suppose I've worked with messy hands and goopy layers for too long. No worries, I'm on a roll here, looking for plants to squish and prints to pull and having fun in the studio!

If one hydrangea looks good on paper, why not a whole garden of them???

Here you can see the 3 prints I can make with just 1 plate inking. Please let me know which one is your favorite!

The top image happens first - a full inking of black on the plate, with fresh flowers laid on top, and paper on top of that goes through the press. The gorgeous sepia shadows are made with the plant's own juices. The heavy cotton paper is dampened first to allow it to give around the stems, leaving a nice embossed texture.

The middle image happens next. I carefully remove the flowers and place a new sheet of damp paper on the plate. I tighten the press so it will absorb the leftover ink and all the fine details of the leaves and petals.

Lastly, with most of the ink off of the plate, I lay the inked flowers back onto the plate, turning them over so that the ink side is up to face the 3rd piece of paper. I like that the "ghost" images of the earlier printing still show behind the dark black of the new arrangement.

I'm really enjoying this long horizontal composition too. Next I have 3 new papers that I background printed with green. Can't wait to see how those look in the new "garden." This 30 in 30 challenge is a great push forward into new territory! 

What a glorious gift to have two days JUST for ART! No cooking or shopping or laundry or carpooling. No meetings or emails. Just me, Lola and Pandora in the studio...bliss!

I continued to work on my mountain landscape monoprints. These are small 4" x 13" studies on leftover scraps of paper from another project. The plan is to find a few I really like and enlarge the composition on a new fabric-type paper called Evolon that I ordered. 

Evolon is a new micro-fiber material that is super strong, but soft. I read about it on another printmaker's blog and was dying to try it. Because it is much like fabric, I think I can sew pieces of it together, to create a print larger than my press's capacity. My press can print up to 17" x 36" but by combining and sewing more than one together (after printing), I can create something BIG!

I've got 10 more still unfinished in the studio for tomorrow - and a test on some Evolon! 

Please let me know if you have a favorite you would like to see as my BIG WOW piece in November!

Today I began to work on a series that I've had on my mind for some time. Back in June, when I was teaching a printmaking workshop at Ciel Gallery, I stumbled into some landscape imagery using cheesecloth as a printing texture. I was monoprinting - rolling ink onto a flat plexiglass plate and using torn paper stencils to mask areas of the plate, then printing layers of different colors onto each piece of paper. 

I love the way the cheesecloth suggests clouds and how the different shapes and colors mimic the Blue Ridge Mountains on the horizon. The prints remind me of the happy week my family spent in Spruce Pine, NC last summer. We stayed in a crazy, funky, round house, perched on the side of a steep mountain. The cabin was minimal but the view out of the curved 180 degree window was amazing. Mt. Mitchell was right there in our living room!

Tomorrow I will add more colors and more mountains. And I will remember the smiles on top of Mt. Mitchell.

So Day 7 was a business day at Ciel Gallery. Lots to do. Always. 

But what an awesome place to spend time?!? Especially with the new INHABIT exhibit with fabulous work by Jean Cauthen and Jonathan Grauel. I feel pretty darn lucky to be involved with all of these talented artists. 

Please come visit, in person or on the web. You are sure to love it as much as I do!
http://www.cielcharlotte.com

Old habits die hard. As much as I'm loving printmaking, I just can't help but throw in some mixed media sometimes. My fingers twitch towards crayons and stencils and glaze and paint pens. I glance at my big scrap box and find a wonderful old advertisement, torn from a vintage knitting magazine - a smiling little girl who might love to taste a summer tomato. 

I found a gessoed panel and worked away, eventually gluing the original tomato print into the composition. Printmaking requires careful neatness; mixed media is all in the paint smudged hands. I can't resist a layered surface, can you?

Farm fresh while they last...summer tomatoes!

What a joy and privilege to travel in the world! I have just returned from a twelve day pilgrimage, on tour with the amazingly talented choir from Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Charlotte. We had plenty to do and see, but I made sure to find some time to sketch.

Since I was really trying to pack light with clothes and equipment, I brought just a tiny watercolor set in an Altoid tin, a small journal, a pencil, black pen and one brush, all in a small zippered pencil case. 

I also skipped the tour bus one day in order to meet Kerry Day, a Bristol printmaker I "met" on Facebook. I visited Kerry's studio passing by loads of wonderful street art on the way. (Did you know that notorious graffiti artist Banksy hails from Bristol and began a whole movement
here?)
Kerry was delightful and very generous in sharing her techniques and tips. She's got me itching to try some reductive relief prints (using one block to print all colors, carving out new areas with each pass through the press.) 

Now I am back on North Carolina soil and inspired to get into the studio! My next big adventure will be leading an art trip to Cortona, Italy - pinch me! 

In January of each year, I choose a word. Instead of a resolution that implies concrete "to do" steps, this word is meant to be a guide. This word lives in the back of my mind and turns up with unexpected frequency throughout the year.

One year I took BLOSSOM to heart. The next year I chose FOCUS. This year is PLENTY.

I wanted to remind myself of my own abundance of blessings. Unlike so many people in the world, I truly have PLENTY of everything. With this word, I wanted to open myself to opportunities and the knowledge that I can have PLENTY of time and resources to accomplish what I put my mind and talent to.

Well, as Julia Cameron writes in "The Artist's Way," the universe is prodigal in its support. 

I find myself in a wonderful world of plenty! I have lots happening at once and since I find myself here in mid-year, I thought I would share some teasers about good things to come.

(curious about the Word of the Year? scroll down for a great link)

$35 each, with $25 of that going to the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry. 

This limited edition gicleé print is ready to fit into a 8" x 10" frame.

Learn more about this project and buy yours online here!

So maybe I'm just a little chicken, getting my own website together. Patience, chickie, patience!