handmade photo albums

A few weeks ago, my husband mentioned how much he loved our annual handmade photo albums.  He told me how he recently pulled them all out, and admired photo by photo all of our adventures we have had together over the years.  The guilt, however, immediately set it because, well, I was a bit behind in creating them.  Make that 3 years behind.

So I dug through my digital photos, and narrowed down each year into about 40 photos.  Next came out the paper, binder's board, glue, and thread, and before I knew it, I was elbow deep in some coptic stitch binding.

I still have a ways to go, and as I begin to take more daily pics on my phone, I'm eager to see how that will effect my albums.  Thanks to Instagram, maybe my future albums will be square.  (Any recommendations for good ways to get Instagram pics printed??)  Either way, I'm happy to have such a physical and personal way to store and share all these monumental and mundane moments of our life.  Sometimes, digital just doesn't cut it.

~ Bonnie

last minute handmade cards for mothers

I meant to sit down much earlier in the week to create Mother's Day cards, but a handmade treat is better late (hopefully not!) than never.  Having recently discovered the true magic and wonder of art masking fluid, I was delighted to sit down for a minute to design some cards.

If you have never used masking fluid, it is basically paintable rubber.  Once dry, you can paint over it - as I did with some inexpensive watercolors - and once your painting is fully dry, you rub off the masking fluid using your finger or an eraser, leaving behind the design that you "masked."  What a lovely invention!  And it helped to produce some pretty Mother's Day cards if I can say so myself.

A few helpful tips:

~ Don't use your favorite brush!  While you should clean your brush immediately afterwards with soap and water, I have never gotten my brush to clean up to its original state.  So be prepared for a little brush damage.

~ Be sure to let both the masking fluid and the top coat painting fully dry before moving to the following step.

~ Test out your specific paper before doing a big project.  Masking fluid doesn't work as well on soft papers.

Overall, it's a fun and easy technique and if you are a little last minute like me.  I highly recommend giving it a go.

life as a teaching artist + student exhibition

As some people know, my main "day job" is working as a Teaching Artist.  It's a pretty fun yet powerful gig to be able to education and inspire youth through art-making.  Here are some of the fantastic highlights from this year.

1 /  In the fall, my students designed, cut stencils, and installed haiku along the sidewalks on Broad St. using spray chalk.  We were promoting a more peaceful city alongside the Peace is a Haiku Song project with poet Sonia Sanchez. 

2 /  I invited pop-up book artist Colette Fu to teach a workshop to our students.  She introduced the magic and wonder of pop-up to our class (and now, I'm addicted).

3 /  High school students created accordion books that depict the ways they see art in their everyday lives.  The books are absolutely fabulous.

4 /  This is what happens when 10-year-olds are given a bunch of sidewalk chalk on a beautiful spring day and asked to create images that reflect their love for the earth.  In case you are wondering, the arrows are pointing to all the other artwork on the sidewalk.

As the culmination to the end of a succesful art-fill year, I am excited to invite local Philadelphians to the Mural Arts Program Art Education annual exhibition, We Are All.  This show, which highlights student work from over 16 sites around the city, opens this Friday (tomorrow!) at the Asian Arts Initiative in Chinatown.  Stop by if you find yourself out for First Friday, and know that all artwork is for sale, with 100% of proceeds going to the artist.

making art daily

I've been feeling rusty lately, artistically rusty.  I don't doubt my creative powers, but I feel my hand longing for more direct contact on paper.  Like most anything that one wants to be or stay good at, one must continually practice and exercise that skill.  While my hands stay quite busy as a teaching artist or on freelance projects, I fear of losing some of my skill-set unless I incorporate personal daily artmaking back into my routine.

This week marks that start.  Along with my morning coffee or evening tea, I am aiming to draw, paint, sketch, or print my way back into total connection with the thing I love most.

And if you are in the same boat and could use some studio kickstarting, I highly recommended the book, Let's Make Some Great Art by Marion Deuchar.  While it's kid focused, it's completely adult-friendly, giving you refreshing ways to get your creative juices flowing. 

loving a papercut

For the past few months, I've been admiring the papercut artwork of Beatrice Coron.  Her primarily black silhouette art work depicts intricate stories of adventure, history, and community.  The result is graphic and complex, not to mention completely memorizing.  She beautifully discusses her work in a TEDtalk she gave a couple years ago, and inspires anyone to pick up art-making at any age.

Another papercut artist that has me digging in my studio for a box of X-acto blades is artist Rob Ryan.  I feel like I see his work everywhere now, from cards in stationary stores to plates in museum gift shops.  The combination of text with folk-like imagery, makes them comfortable and familiar while his productions on products are great for gift-giving. 

gathering inspiration

This week, I took on the task of giving my current inspiration board in my studio a facelift.  Having a large, visual area of tactile inspiration is really important to me, as it is to most artists.  My current board was too small and not magnetized. 

The shape of my board mimics a large mirror that we have hanging in our loft.  First, I painted 4 layers of magnetic paint.  Next, I painted 2 layers of chalkboard paint.  Finally, using some acrylic laying around my studio, I painted a faux, trompe l'oeil frame around the board.  I'm super happy with the results, and now I have plenty of room to hang, draw, & write.  Now, I just need to buy more magnets . . .  

Before I decided on my design, I found many other inspiring and lovely inspiration/mood boards online, which you can find below after the jump.

a spring of new beginnings

The first post of a new blog is quite intimidating.  But I need a house for my inspiration, a document for my artistic process, and a forum for my daydreaming, so here we go.

1.  I am thirty years old.  A Virgo.  Born in Scotland, raised in Georgia, came to life in Brooklyn, and currently residing in Philadelphia.

2.  Speaking of Philly, I have been living here for almost 3 years.  The first year was spent pining over New York City, our home of 6 years.  The second year was spent discovering the benefits of not living in a city with 8.5 million other people (such as not having to share a closet with my husband, biking all over the city with ease, cheaper beer).  This past year, I have developed a full-blown crush on Philadelphia.  It's getting rather serious.

3.  I share my life with my husband of (gasp!) 8 years.  He is in his first year of med school.  And we live in with our pitbull, Wythe - our best Brooklyn souvenir - along the Northern Liberties / S. Kensington border.  

4.  I work as a teaching artist for The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, and I learn so much from my students about the creative process.

5.  I make things.  I like to use my hands to print things, sew things, bind things, draw things, and cook things.  You can see some of those things here.

6.  And in order to cook things, I must first grow things.  I spend many hours from early spring to late fall working in our community garden.  It makes me feel close to the earth, and most of all, close to my grandfather.

In a nutshell, that's it.  Perfunctory intro blog post . . . check.

        
~ Bonnie