This past week, I put my "repurposing" skills to a new use - I repurposed a holiday. My thinking was that lots of people celebrate individualized holidays (like anniversaries), and with February being not my favorite month, I decided March 1st would be a good day to celebrate. According to the internet, March 1st was the old Roman New Year's
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| I tried something new with the tulips. The red striations on white are for special "parrot tulips" that sometimes appear in Dutch still life paintings. I love the idea of a fusion of symbols for flower, bird, and painting, all in cookie form! |
In anticipation, I made cookies (naturally - it wouldn't be a holiday without cookies.) On the actual day, I went to New York to pick up the painting from the NAWA, show. To celebrate, I had a fancy coffee to accompany my smiley cookie, then went to the zoo and the Met with a fellow coffee-cookie-animal-art lover.
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| bonus to celebrating a personalized holiday - flowers were in stock and discounted (2 stems for less than a can of soda - yay!) |
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A friend gave me a "cookie challenge."
That's right - that's a whole row of "Grumpy Cat" cookies
(I'm practicing to bring a batch to a Virginia Grumpy Cat fan).
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| in tiny animals |
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| and repetition |
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| in bright colors |
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| and patterns |
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| and patterns |
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| and last but not least, a hybrid of a musical instrument and figure! |
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| more time with my favorite Blue and Yellow Macaw |
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In the spirit of phase 6 and starting with the known and extending from there, I realized one thing I like about going to the Met is that, because I have a membership through a professional organization, I know I'll be back, and so don't feel rushed. I decided to apply that idea to zoo trips and splurged on a membership. The "repurposing" worked - I looked forward to the "holiday" all week, and it was a really fun day. (Point for Tempus Fugit!)
Apart from the holiday, I spent time in the studio. I finished (haha - famous last word) the panel piece and submitted it to be reviewed for a juried show. I also printed 2 new block prints as material for collages. I think the wings are really funny because they are such a bad idea. Unlike an etching (where the dark part of the image is the drawn on a prepared plate, and the experience is similar to drawing with a pen on paper), for a relief print, the white part is removed with a tool that's like a bent exacto knife. Each line has to be carved out - it is not an expedient technique for something with lots of tiny, curving, details. (Though it may have been faster to redraw the wings, I like the almost brutal sense that I think comes through from physically carving the image out with a knife). I see this technique as relying mostly on patience and hand control (so it's a good piece for phase 6, and I think coloring the faux black velvet poster may have actually helped (!?!)). |
| Encountered this awesome piece in the subway tunnel - a series of sentences highlighting the misery of commuting. To me, it sees like the mass of people in transit becomes part of the piece because the way most people walk by without looking actually reinforces the meaning of the words. I like that the words stay the same, but the environment is always changing, but somehow the message and the setting agree (Good thing I have the alibi of being a tourist so that I can take pictures in public places ;)). |
